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Maine State Prison pilots program to give Muslim inmates a faith-based path to rehabilitation

The Maine State Prison in Warren, pictured here on August 7, 2024. This summer, the prison piloted a new program from the U.K. aimed at giving Muslim prison residents a faith-based path toward rehabilitation.
Ari Snider
/
Maine Public
The Maine State Prison in Warren, pictured here on August 7, 2024. This summer, the prison piloted a new program from the U.K. aimed at giving Muslim prison residents a faith-based path toward rehabilitation.

On a summer afternoon at the Maine State Prison in Warren, a few dozen residents were seated in a community room, discussing a core tenet of Islam: Always telling the truth.

In theory, everyone was onboard. But one man — who said he grew up in an interfaith family — pointed out that adults lie all the time to their kids about certain popular myths.

"Santa Claus is real, Easter Bunny is real, all this stuff is real. So that's lying to your kid," said the man, whose name we're withholding in accordance with the prison's media policy.

"That's institutionalized lying. That's like cultural lying," replied instructor Matthew Wilkinson.

"But why lie at all though, if Muslims are not supposed to lie?" the resident asked.  

The discussion session was part of a new program called Prison-based Interventions for Muslim Offenders, or PRIMO, for short. Developed in the U.K., it aims to reduce conflict and help Muslim inmates develop a healthy and productive relationship with faith.

Researchers brought PRIMO to the U.S. for the first time this summer, offering instruction for staff, chaplains, and residents at the Maine State Prison.

The question about lying to kids didn't settle on an easy answer. But the man who asked said these debates and conversations have offered him new tools to manage his emotions and defuse conflict.

"It gives me the chance to help understand others. If someone says something foul to me, I can stop and be like, 'Why did you say it?'" he said. "It's not just always aggression anymore. Now it's like, if you understand that person, y'all will never have an issue."

At its core, the premise of PRIMO is simple.

"How to understand what Islam is, what Islam isn't, and how the values and practices of Islam can feed into helping incarcerated individuals make a productive sentence," said Matthew Wilkinson, a professor of religion in public life at Cardiff University, in Wales, who spearheads the program.

He said the curriculum for prison residents centers around the idea of the Muslim steward. Based on religious teachings and Wilkinson’s own research, it offers a layered approach to reshaping personal interactions.

"The innermost core of stewardship is reflecting on life, being able to take a step back, reflecting on one's core values, reflecting on what one's done right and what one's done wrong," Wilkinson said.

The outer layers involve worshipping god, building healthy relationships, and caring for the Earth. Wilkinson said the practice of building and sustaining relationships is especially important in learning to manage one’s sentence, and preparing to reenter life outside of prison.

"Society often doesn't make space for returning citizens, so they have to be skillful in that," Wilkinson said.

The population of incarcerated Muslims in Maine is relatively small, about 140 people across eight facilities, according to Department of Corrections Commissioner Randy Liberty.

But Liberty said he wants staff to be familiar with Islam, and the role it plays in the lives of those residents.

"So they have a good understanding of how important these practices are to individuals, and there'll be no misunderstanding or disrespect of their practices," Liberty said.

Liberty said PRIMO fits with the department’s years-long goal of creating what’s known as a “normative” environment. Based on the Nordic model for prisons, he said the goal is to create supportive, non-adversarial conditions.

In 2017, when the push toward normalization began, Liberty said the prison registered 87 assaults on staff. Last year, he said, there were only seven.

"So not only does it benefit the residents to have a more normal environment, where it's therapeutic, and they can heal and redeem, but it also provides a better work environment for the staff that are working in these situations," Liberty said.

Liberty said the PRIMO pilot was a success, and his department is now looking at how to expand the program to other facilities.

Abdi Awad is one of two residents serving as mentors through PRIMO.

He’s also the unofficial prison imam, a role he describes as a personal responsibility, at a time when Muslim faith leaders are in short supply in prisons across the country.

"[A] responsibility for me, responsibility for my religion and responsibility for my community. So it's almost like, if I don't do it, who will?" Awad said.

Awad said he’s reconnected with faith during his sentence, while also pursuing higher education, including, most recently, a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine.

And he said he hopes PRIMO participants can take the model of the Muslim steward, with its attentiveness, responsibility, and reflection, to heart.

"That will help you not to return to prison or even change your behavior while you're incarcerated," he said.

Awad said that had his younger self followed the principles of faith to which he now subscribes, he likely wouldn’t have ended up in prison in the first place.