Bryan Stevenson, the prominent racial justice advocate and founder of Equal Justice Initiative, says that a path to solving social problems is to “find ways to get proximate to the poor and vulnerable…. you don’t run from challenges because that’s more comfortable and convenient.” Inspired by his words we decided to engage with the Partakers organization when the opportunity for this Tikkun Olam initiative was introduced to TBE. Partakers is a prison mentoring program in Massachusetts in which teams of individuals from faith-based or secular communities come together to visit with and mentor inmates who are enrolled in College Behind Bars programs in various state prisons. Statistics show that the rate of recidivism is significantly lowered for inmates who are educated behind bars. Relationships formed through Partakers mentoring have proven to contribute to the success of the individual upon returning to the community.

In a new initiative, TBE has just formed three Partakers teams this year, each with 4 members, each assigned one inmate student mentee. In pairs, our team goes to MCI Concord where we visit monthly with Randy, a 30 year old man who has been incarcerated for the past 11 years. Our relationship with him began with an exchange of letters as we worked through the slow bureaucratic process of gaining approval to visit him. Randy is an engaging young man who has been consistently open to sharing his life experiences and aspirations with us. He acknowledges that he is not the hot-headed 19 year old he was when he entered prison but sees his own personal growth resulting from his taking advantage of every opportunity afforded to him in prison, including working diligently toward a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts. He is a bright, introspective and empathic man who sent us a thoughtful note of condolence following the Pittsburgh incident. He has also expressed his appreciation for our taking time out of our lives by saying, “I feel blessed to be your mentee. I want all of you to know that I see you as an example of what good people look like.” He is a joy to sit with during the hours that we spend with him. Our relationship with Randy reminds us of Stevenson’s words, “Each of us is more than the worst thing we have ever done.” While we believe that we are having a positive impact on Randy’s life, we too are positively affected as we are enriched and educated by the experience thus far.