Many Layers of Responsibility: A Day At S.C.I. Coal Township
This article is featured in the Fall 2025 Daughters Magazine published by Let’s Get Free and edited by Sarita Miller and etta cetera.
October 7th, 2025 was the second anniversary of Al Aqsa Flood, the HAMAS led, Palestinian attack on Israel aimed at freeing Palestinian political prisoners and winning their struggle for national liberation from Israel’s U.S. sponsored, illegal and murderous occupation of Palestine. October 7th was also the day, after passing a security clearance, receiving an advance set of rules, providing identification, passing at least three checkpoints and going by rolls and rolls of what looked like razorsharp barbed wire, I attended the “Day of Responsibility” (DOR) held at S.C.I. Cole Township presented by the Lifeline Association. DOR provided space for dialogue with and among 60-80 incarcerated, mainly Black/New Afrikan, men and guests for the task of taking personal responsibility for the actions and thinking that led to them being incarcerated
Shamar Alexander, President of the Association, opened the day warmly and welcomed everyone and remained an inviting host of ceremonies for the day. Mr. Alexander was followed by Shelby Zablotney who offered a powerful presentation on the qualities of the acronym T.R.A.N.S.F.O.R.M.A.T.I.O.N. Dr. Shaneva McReynolds, President of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), then shared how she lost her late husband to homicide and found love with the man she is married to today, the formerly incarcerated. Jeffrey McReynolds. Mr. McReynolds followed Dr. McReynolds’ presentation by sharing his story of pouring over the details of his case, finding holes, and winning his release. Shawn Harris offered a very thoughtful discussion of spiritual development and a critique of trying to build loyalty through fear. The morning closed with Kenneth Crawford sharing the work he has done to accept that, when he was 15 years old, he was responsible for the deaths of two people, but also what it has meant to experience forgiveness from the family of the victims. Formerly incarcerated Michael Price and Muhammad Abdul-Hakim also shared important insights.
After lunch, the Association provided facilitators for small group conversations that included reflecting on how they had gotten to prison, how to apologize not as a transaction, but as an element of healing, how to think about the ripple effects of our actions, and how they could contribute to the community even from inside. One of the memories that stands out to me was when a facilitator asked how many people were incarcerated because of snitches. Several people answered that's why they were incarcerated. The facilitator responded by making clear that while he did not support snitching or cooperating with the State, he wanted everyone to consider that had they not been there that day no one could snitch on them in the first place. There were other difficult moments of fathers sharing the pain of not being able to be there to offer love and protection for their children, but I also spoke to man who explained being a granddad and offering guidance to his grandchildren on running a business and serving the community. Still others seemed to be going back to the day of the event and frustrated that life’s circumstances had not played out differently such that they weren’t even in town on the day of the event.
While many individual men showed a lot of courage in taking responsibility for the devastating harm to which they had contributed, representatives of the State did not take responsibility for its history of the U.S. ruling classes in conducting its own war against working and non-working class Black/New Afrikan people. It did not apologize for the history detailed by Gary Webb in his book “The Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.” There was not an ask for forgiveness for its oppression for more than a century of Black organizers and freedom fighters that led to the F.B.I.’s Counter Intelligence Program (Co-Intelpro) designed to destroy movements like the Black Panther Party, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Revolutionary Action Movement, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and so many others. These organizations were trying to change the conditions of the Black internal colony and liberate it, such that we could cultivate a culture that did not rely on fear and intimidation, as the U.S. does and was critiqued in the morning session.
The state of active conflict in my having to submit my security clearance, go through the checkpoints, see the uniformed guards and prisoners all the while U.S. bombs and bullets are causing a genocide in Palestine and Black/New Afrikan political prisoners like Kamau Sadiki, Imam Jamil Al-Amin and Josh Williams remain incarcerated says there is much to do to create the conditions of a more advanced culture. However, the repression says we have the capacity to do it or they would not go to these lengths. What became clear is that this prison, with its vast projection for the capacity to commit violence, was also a structure to prevent the actual taking of responsibility in totality, but the Lifers Association did a wonderful job of doing their part and provided examples for me to enact in my own life.
The featured image is the front cover of the Fall 2025 Edition of Daughters and was done by Cyd Berger who is incarcerated at S.C.I. Muncy. It is titled the “Lotus in the Murk” and is a cross stitch featured in the 2023 “This Is Me” Lets Get Free art show. You can read Cyd’s letter to lawmakers on p 29 of this issue.
