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My Experiences Teaching the Baha’i Faith to Prisoners

December 9, 2016, in Articles > Baha'i Life, by

Sharing the Baha’i Faith with prisoners is difficult at times, and talking about it presents its own problems, but several friends asked me to write about my experiences working with inmates who found the Baha’i Faith while in prison.

When an interested soul in prison reaches out to the Baha’i community, usually in the form of a letter written to a Spiritual Assembly, that person’s correspondence is their only live contact with the Baha’i world.

The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Dallas, Texas, appointed me as its “chief correspondent” with prisoners who contacted it. Without any guidelines on how to interact with prisoners, at first I simply wrote to the prisoners asking how I could be of service. The initial reply was a request for books, which was easy to fulfill, since our Baha’i Center’s lending library is stacked with many duplicates of key titles.

Then questions came in regarding finer points of the Kitab-i-Iqan. I knew better than to pretend I was knowledgable on the subject, so I sent a study guide. The inmate answered all of the guide’s questions, which I then forwarded to a Baha’i friend who checked the answers and gave a grade so the prisoner could monitor his progress.

A representative from the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States asked me to visit the inmate, find out the nature his crimes, ascertain his commitment, and continue building the relationship. The reason we are charged with discovering details of the crimes is to determine whether or not he might be a threat to the safety of the community upon his release.

The National and Local Spiritual Assemblies can and do place restrictions on released prisoners when warranted. This first inmate, who I will call Fred, posed no threat, his sincerity to the Faith was beyond reproach, the visits continued and later included me bringing his aging mother and young children to visit, since they were without means to make the two hour drive to the remote Texas prison.

One of the things I did for Fred was write the prison chaplain regarding the annual fast. The Baha’i Faith wasn’t specifically recognized as a religion that warranted specially delivered meals before sunrise and after sunset. Strict rules govern food, so Fred couldn’t take his meals from the cafeteria back into his cell and hold it until dinner, for instance. Fred was compelled to eat from his personal stash of snack foods for nineteen days, and that’s food he had to pay for himself, from what little money he had in his commissary account.

In a one-page letter written around October, I explained to the chaplain who I was, that I was speaking on behalf of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Dallas, and I gave simple instructions on how the Nineteen-Day Fast should be conducted. I never heard back from the chaplain, and being a busy human being, promptly forgot about it, and failed to ask Fred about the state of the Baha’i Fast in prison.

Fred wrote to me in a letter at the end of February; it started with one of those, “you’re never going to believe this” statements. He said that the chaplain posted flyers all around the cell blocks asking that if any inmates are participating in the Baha’i Fast, and saying they need to register with the chaplain to ensure delivery of their meals to their cells.

Then there was more.

Three other inmates, whom Fred had taught the Faith, upon seeing that the State of Texas recognizes the Baha’i Faith as a bona fide religion, declared their Faith in Baha’u’llah and participated in the Fast that year. Fred couldn’t thank me enough and told me that this sudden interest in the Faith was the culmination of years of steady dedication to teaching the cause and being of service to the other inmates. I told him all I did was write a letter.

After serving a sentence of nine years, Fred was paroled in February of 2013 and began a new life in Dallas. I am happy to say he owns a small business, hosts Feasts, and is otherwise a regular contributor to the Dallas Baha’i community.

An inmate who I will call Felipe—one of the prisoners who declared before the Fast—told me he was looking forward to celebrating Naw-Ruz with his friends by inviting them to a jailhouse banquet consisting of foods Felipe procured. These plans were being made around the time of Fred’s release and it was Fred who informed me that these foods were procured by “hustling.” In prison, you are either lucky enough to have family who sends you money to your account so you can purchase conveniences and necessities or you have a hustle where you do odd jobs and favors in exchange for commissary goods.

If it sounds like a gray area, you should know that at least in Texas, the system does not provide you with even toothpaste. So if you are impoverished and have no family, you could literally die from poor dental hygiene if you do not have a hustle. I won’t dig deeper into the misgivings I have about the Texas prison system, because this article is not about the prison system; it’s about those who are Baha’i and are trying to survive it.

Fred continued to tell me about Felipe’s herculean task of celebrating Naw-Ruz within the context of a prison system that barely recognizes the Baha’i Faith. Through Felipe’s hustle, he was able to sponsor quite a spread to share with the other Baha’is and their friends, but a toss up of his cell revealed his food store. Since Felipe is indigent, the guards knew that his procurement of the foods were ipso facto against the rules and they confiscated his goods.

Fred told me that when other inmates heard about his hard luck, they donated a good portion of what was lost back into Felipe’s hands, but unfortunately a prisoner who didn’t like Felipe told the guards about the plan and they took away his food once again. I asked Fred if I wired money to Felipe, would the guards be able to take away anything he bought with it? Once Fred assured me that it was completely acceptable to do this, I sent Felipe about thirty dollars and a note that said something like, “hey, I heard you were having trouble getting a celebration going for Naw-Ruz. Hope this helps.”

Maybe a day or two later, I got a letter from Felipe who was so elated by my small act of generosity he could not contain himself. I had a friend for life.

I want to convey to you that I am no one special in the Baha’i Faith and I don’t consider what I do to be too difficult or sacrificial. In fact, it’s been a blessing to help these prisoners because it reminds me that the smallest of gestures can lead to results that you never fathomed. For me, it was just a single-page letter to a chaplain, but for them it was just the push that helped four men catch the spark of faith.

Posted by

Todd Steinberg

Todd Steinberg and his family live in Dallas, United States. He owns a small toy business, writes children's books and is always looking for ways to be creative and to serve others.
Todd Steinberg

Discussion 28 Comments

Should see if Douglas McAdam can chime in. He works on teaching prisoners too.

Steven

Steven (December 12, 2016 at 11:27 AM)

I’ll be happy to talk with him.

Todd Steinberg

Todd Steinberg (December 12, 2016 at 12:34 PM)

Apparently his project is at http://successfulselfdirection.org

Steven

Steven (December 12, 2016 at 7:47 PM)

Wow. this is such a unique and inspiring experience. Thank you for sharing it.

SalumeKh

SalumeKh (December 12, 2016 at 11:39 AM)

Thanks for writing!

Todd Steinberg

Todd Steinberg (December 12, 2016 at 12:35 PM)

Very inspiring story indeed! thank you for sharing.

Nastaran Habibi

Nastaran Habibi (December 12, 2016 at 11:59 AM)

Thanks Nastaran.

Todd Steinberg

Todd Steinberg (December 12, 2016 at 12:35 PM)

What a terrific story! Thank you for writing this article, Todd. Love the picture.

Martha

Martha (December 12, 2016 at 6:05 PM)

Very interesting insights. Thanks for your service to these men, and for writing about it.

Jeanine H

Jeanine H (December 12, 2016 at 7:26 PM)

This story really touches my heart. Where there is a desire to serve, Baha’u’llah opens the door. I will share it at the feast tonight.

Debby Hastings

Debby Hastings (December 12, 2016 at 10:16 PM)

Thank you so much for sharing your story, I really hope you will continue to share more of your stories and experiences, they are truly uplifting and inspiring.

Happy Gomez

Happy Gomez (December 12, 2016 at 11:12 PM)

Beautiful

Safa Gulshani

Safa Gulshani (December 12, 2016 at 1:01 AM)

What a beautiful story! Thank you so much for sharing!!

Farida

Farida (December 12, 2016 at 11:15 AM)

Very inspiring! Please share more stories as you continue to serve.

Shideh

Shideh (December 12, 2016 at 8:22 PM)

All I can say is great stuff. I am not a Bahai but I believe in Baha’u’llah. I have spent some time in jail and this is exactly what is required the pure word. Good stuff.

Bob

Bob (December 12, 2016 at 8:25 AM)

Thank you Bob for believing in Baha’u’llah it is making me Happy!

Warm Regards, Cherida Creebsburg from the Caribbean.

Cherida Creebsburg

Cherida Creebsburg (February 2, 2017 at 3:24 PM)

Great Service.

Criselda R. Figuerres

Criselda R. Figuerres (December 12, 2016 at 12:20 PM)

Wow, it was a really heart touching experience! We look forward to hear more about this experience and the story of how it lead to the taking a picture with a population like this in the picture of this article. I`ll pray for you.

Pharan

Pharan (December 12, 2016 at 7:35 PM)

This is so great, that you could help change few peoples lives for good. I admire your humbleness but I really believe you did something big there. Shoghi Effendi said that we should also teach in prisons, but I think it’s likely that many people are just so scared of the unknown that they don’t take the step (me included). :/ But he was clear, that EVERY human soul deserves to learn and hear about it. <3 🙂

Sara Ósk Halldórsdóttir

Sara Ósk Halldórsdóttir (December 12, 2016 at 11:25 AM)

About 18 months ago a prisoner in a nearby jail was going through a crisis and searched for spiritual Light and found the Baha’i teachings and wanted to be a Baha’i. The chaplaincy manager had never heard of the Faith and through the Sikh chaplain, who knew me, asked for Baha’i input. The rest is history and my wife and I trained and are now Baha’i chaplains in two prisons and have found the work very rewarding! Well done Todd your story is inspirational and we feel accompanied through it.

Malcolm Craig

Malcolm Craig (December 12, 2016 at 10:29 PM)

I am a chaplain in a Correctional Centre in Australia and I was very interested to see the response of the chaplain. We are there for the spiritual needs of all, and it is always rewarding to see broken lives mended.

Rodney Schutze

Rodney Schutze (February 2, 2017 at 8:41 AM)

Hi Todd,
I live in South Africa. I declared just over a year ago. A few months back, I asked a member of the Faith, what teaching or service the Baháí’s offered to offenders. The reply I got was that she did not know, but supposed that everyone deserved to learn about Bahá’u’lláh,if they wanted to know.

I was rather taken aback. I did not pursue the matter further, however it bothered me. I felt that nobody on earth is without sin. We cannot make judgement about others, so why has the Faith not established a rehabilitation programme for offenders globally? I thought about this again tonight, and decided to investigate what Bahá’í’s in other countries were doing in this regard. Your story of ‘Fred and Filipe’ is a great example of the simple things we can do to make a difference in the lives of offenders, who perhaps just need a faithful servant of God to show them love and respect. Sometimes that’s all it takes to turn someone away from their old ways. I am going to endeavour to contact Chaplin’s throughout South Africa, to ask to present at their next conference. I believe that I will be successful in using the Ruhi Institute programme in prisons. I feel that we cannot miss the opportunity to rehabilitate offenders through the writings of Baha’u’llah, the Manifestation of God for today, to perhaps change the lives of offenders forever, to have them teach other’s, and possibly, in fact I know it would, lower the rate of repeat offenders. I’m not afraid of teaching anyone, so I believe that I must endeavour to share the writings, as it was shared with me. Thanks again Todd, and all who have had the courage to enter correctional centre’s and become Chaplin’s. Alláh’u’Abhá. Happy Naw Rúz!

Imogen

Imogen (March 3, 2018 at 8:39 PM)

Todd, I was just sent this article by a Baha’i Friend near Houston. It is a great article. Thank you so much for writing it. Have you heard from Randy yet about book distribution?

Jan Thorsted Sterling

Jan Thorsted Sterling (August 8, 2018 at 7:01 PM)

Wow! Just stumbled onto this site while doing research into Baha’i Faith in Prisons. It’s a beautiful story that I have seen repeated here in Kentucky several times. We had one Bhah’i here, and then 2. Then time was secured by an inmate in the prison chapel and devotions started. The first believer tells how he used to just sit in the room and read—until he got a friend to join him. Then another. Now a couple of years in, we have 5 declared Baha’i inmates, 5 regular attendees at devotionals and occasional visitors. We have two volunteers who visit every week and two who attend when they can. All of us look forward to our prison day and we have now started visiting a second area prison. Kentucky has not recognized the Baha’i Faith until this year and it was difficult for these men to practice the Faith, but they are nothing if not resourceful and find ways. Recently we have gotten praise from chaplains here, and they have said things like “your guys are different. I never have to worry about them. What you’re doing here is exemplary. I see the changes in these men.” Most of them have been reaching out to family members and encouraging them to explore the Faith, also.
I tell them “our Faith has a basis in prisons. Abdu’l-Baha said that [Prison is a gift we are given, that allows us to stop and examine our lives and decide on how to move forward.] It is their theme now. I truly love these souls and the weekly visit is the high point of my week. They study the writings deeply and draw on their past religions to confirm what they find with quotes form the Bible and the Qur’an. As they ready for “Serving Out” or for Parole, they all ask “will I be able to attend Feasts and Holy Days? WIll I be able to address the LSA, I have to tell them how important their support has been?” One young man told me “I’m glad I got sent to prison. If I hadn’t, I might not have ever found the Faith!”

Paul

Paul (November 11, 2018 at 5:47 AM)

Wow! Thank you so much Paul for sharing your own personal experiences. Please send our love from the Baha’i Blog team to the friends!

Naysan Naraqi

Naysan Naraqi (November 11, 2018 at 1:55 PM)

Truly this report was inspirational. Thanks for sharing. Everyone can find a path to service, and everyone can find a path leading to his Lord.

Patricia A Alston

Patricia A Alston (January 1, 2021 at 12:35 PM)

This article made my day. I am happy when I see people helping prisoners not only in material things but also in spiritual health. Thank you for sharing this article. Great post!

JailAid

JailAid (January 1, 2023 at 10:37 PM)

I am glad to reread this. I hope many people in prison will find themselves and change for the better through the help of God.

JailAid

JailAid (November 11, 2023 at 1:28 AM)

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