Who
wants to have a new experience in Alcoholics Anonymous?
Carrying the AA Message into a Correctional Facility can provide just
that!
Excerpt from a letter that our co-founder Bill W.
wrote to a prison group in 1949:
Every A.A. has been, in a sense, a prisoner.
Each of us has walled himself out of society; each has known social stigma. The
lot of you folks has been even more difficult: In your case, society has also
built a wall around you. But there isn’t any real essential difference, a fact
that practically all A.A.s now know. Therefore, when you members come into the
world of A.A. on the outside, you can be sure that no one will care a fig that
you have done time. What you are trying to be—not what you were—is all that
counts with us. Reprinted
from (Corrections Workbook p.7) with permission of AA World Services Inc.
How
fortunate we are to have AA meetings to attend around the clock. These days it is so simple to go to meetings
in person or online. Think of the
convenience of attending online meetings, modem to modem in the comfort of our
own home.
Just
go to AA
Meetings up next hit join meeting and you’re in.
This is not the case for alcoholics who suffer from alcoholism who are
currently incarcerated in a Correctional Facility in NSW or the ACT.
When
I was drunk my behaviour was often disgustingly and dangerously anti-social.
I
could have easily ended up incarcerated, but I did not, I found my way into AA
via a Treatment Facility not a Correctional Facility.
Recovery
in AA has awakened my spirit, many opportunities to serve have come my
way. Carrying the AA message into a
Correctional Facility can provide a unique experience and the possibilities for
spiritual growth abound.
Recently
while taking an AA Meeting into the South Coast Correctional Facility in Nowra
via an online platform provided such an experience for another dedicated member
and myself. AA Meetings restarted in the
facility (after lots of interruptions due to COVID) online for the inmates
there in March 2022. For several weeks
no inmates showed up. Undeterred we
persisted and a trickle of alcoholics began to attend. Over a period of many months the little
meeting grew. We are now regularly
getting about 10 alcoholics attending each Friday with two AA members joining
the meeting online. We currently have a roster of only four AA members. Lots of
AA literature has been provided, Big Books, 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, Daily
Reflections and specific AA literature for prison inmates.
In
our meetings we have been reading short passages from the Big Book and also
referencing the 12 Traditions and the various liberties and freedoms they
provide for our great Fellowship.
Recently
at the end of a meeting the inmates announced they have started their own
meeting on a Monday with the help of Corrective Services staff. As we closed
with the Serenity Prayer at the end of that meeting and the dedicated inmates
folded up their meeting banners and waved farewell until next Friday, one of
the inmates held up his copy of the big book Alcoholics Anonymous to the camera
in their meeting room, and with a broad smile announced his freedom. What
started off as a small meeting on Friday has now become an AA Group. The inmates held their own Group Conscience
and have decided to call their group the jAAil Group of Alcoholics Anonymous.
I
realised in that moment that patience achieves all things and that indeed God
always shows up when we carry the AA message from the heart, and here was his
love flowing out from the broad smile of a grateful alcoholic who had just
found freedom. I could feel the tears welling up from deep down within.
When
carrying the AA message into a Correctional Facility we share experience,
strength and hope with other alcoholics as we do at any A.A. meeting on the
“outside.” Having prison experience is not a prerequisite – sobriety in A.A.
is. Inmates are more interested in learning how we got and stayed sober through
A.A.’s Twelve Steps, rather than hearing about time we may have spent in
prison. Reprinted
from (Corrections Workbook p.7) with permission of AA World Services Inc.
If
you are looking for a new experience in AA, and are willing to make a
commitment to this work, maybe carrying the AA message into a Correctional
Facility may provide just that! You can discuss your suitability with your Area
Correctional Facility Coordinator.
Area
Correctional Facility Coordinators in Eastern Region (NSW and ACT) currently
attend monthly online meetings of the Eastern Region Corrections Committee
(ERCC). In 2023 ERCC Online Meetings will be held at 8.00pm on the first
Tuesday of each month. All interested AA members are welcome. The ERCC provides
access to a raft of AA resources specific to Corrections work and supports
Areas and individual AA Members to navigate through the Corrective Services authorisation
process in NSW and the ACT so AA members can be granted clearance to visit
Correctional Centres across Eastern Region. Many AA Corrections resources,
information, current clearance paperwork and relevant AA Conference approved
literature can be found on our web page: https://members.aa.org.au/eastern-regional-nsw-corrections-kit/
You will need to have an account and be
logged in to view the resources.
There
are also several Community Corrections Offices found across Eastern Region
which provide other possibilities to carry the AA message through AA
information sessions for alcoholics on probation or parole, AA presentations to
Corrective Services Staff or providing AA literature, contact information and
local meetings lists.
Let’s
Be Friendly with Our Friends in Corrective Services.
Any
questions please contact:
Mark
S ERCC Secretary