In 2012, when
the United States International Men’s Day Team discovered that Incarcerated Men
and Boys were not participating in the global grassroots movement inaugurated by Gender Issues Thought Leader, faculty member in the History Department at University of West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, and prolific author Jerome Teelucksingh, Ph.D., we worked to
move Incarcerated Men and Boys into the “International Men’s Day” equation. How?
We created the International Men’s Day “Healing And Repatriation”
Initiative and placed incarcerated souls in leadership positions. These souls plan and facilitate observances
of International Men’s Day “behind the wall”.. Over the past eight (8) years, incarcerated
males have observed International Men’s Day at a number of American correctional
facilities that include, Clinton Correctional Facility, Ulster Correctional
Facility, Green Haven Correctional Facility, Bare Hill Correctional Facility,
Adirondack Correctional Facility, and State Correctional Institutional Greene. Under
the leadership of Mr. Carry Greaves,
who serves as the National Chair
for the United States International Men’s
Day “Healing And Repatriation” Initiative, observances of International Men’s Day in American
correctional facilities take the form of mentoring sessions, atonement
programs, and workshops and group discussions on the causative factors and
solutions for Fatherlessness, recidivism, the “school-to-prison” pipeline, gun
violence, and lack of access to legitimate real-life career and employment
opportunities. Mr. Trevor Mattis, has
donned the mantle of Pennsylvania
Chair, International Men’s Day “Healing And Repatriation” Initiative.
Messrs. Greaves and Mattis have respectively
prepared a statement in observance of International Men’s Day which is being
presented –unedited —below. The United States International Men’s Day Team
thanks Messrs. Greaves
and Mattis for their
leadership.
Mr. Carry
Greaves
National Chair,
International Men’s Day “Healing And Repatriation” Initiative
First and foremost, to all of the International Men’s Day Coordinators
and participants, thank you for all you
are doing in making our communities and the world a better place.
It is days like these that we recognize just how much you matter. You are an essential element of this day that
will live on forever in spite of life’s adversities.
Your dedication, love, and commitment are creating a path in winning
this “war” for this and the next generation.
Again, we thank you for the invaluable work that you are doing. Forever, we are in gratitude to you
As a community, family, and as a nation, we are going through some very
troubling times of mounting political, educational, financial, and health
issues. And as we go through these
issues we have to find the emotional and mental strength to go forward in these
depressing, dark, violent, and sad days
What we are witnessing today is the dissatisfied speaking to the world
hoping someone is listening. But our
dissatisfaction should never lead to violence of any sort. It should bring together the great minds of
our communities where we exchange our ideas, which could give rise to the
solutions that the world desperately needs.
This does not mean that we have to compromise ourselves to appease
someone else. We need to bring to the
table our ideas, our creativity so that we can add to that which can create a
healthy and nonviolent world. In doing
such we can begin to bond over shared interests and values.
This is why forums such as International Men’s Day are very important
and sorely needed in every community, home, and school.
We have to keep in mind that International Men’s Day is not a moment –
here today, gone tomorrow – but a movement in the true sense of making our
world a better place to live in, which is not the goal, but a way of life for
all of us to live.
So today, let’s take a deep breath, pray, meditate, and focus on the
things that will add meaning to our lives.
Let’s continue to love and respect each other.
We have so much work to do, but let’s not give up. Continue to move forward and we will see the
light – the light of love and peace.
Thank you so much to all for allowing me this opportunity. Each and every one of you inspire me to
continue in bringing truth to the light.
Mr. Trevor Mattis
Pennsylvania Chair, International Men’s Day “Healing And
Repatriation” Initiative
Good Morning.
My name is Anton Forde also known as Trevor Mattis, Pennsylvania's Chair
of the International Men's Day “Healing and Repatriation” Initiative. Thanks
for the invitation. My personal experience, 31 years continuous incarceration,
has been largely devoid of environments that promote emotional, psychological,
and emotional healing. In fact, in my opinion, all most everything in Pennsylvania's
Department of Corrections is designed to destroy an inmate's emotional,
psychological, and spiritual healing. This is evidenced by the culture of
physical and psychological abuse inherent among the, mostly white, Correctional
Officers. The negative impacts of this carceral state is accepted as a
collateral consequence of being incarcerated.
The typical inmate is largely left to overcome
the negative impact of incarceration on their own. The result is widespread
silent suffering from a sickness virtually invisible to the naked eye. This
sickness is papered over by social conditioning that mandates that men must be
men, captured in the cliche “Grown men don't cry”. The
visible manifestations of this prevalent disease is seen in the 60% rate of
recidivism, substance abuse, and violence.
The solution to this psychological and spiritual
endemic will require a radical reimagining of penology. I suggest that the
focus of penology should be on the humanity of the inmate and not on their
offense, punishment, or incapacitation. Such an approach would promote
emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing by default. Unfortunately, I
believe that retributive mass incarceration is such a corporate and commercial
feature of Pennsylvania, with its associated sociopolitical interests, that the
radical change required to end this endemic will never be seriously
entertained.
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