AVP's Beginnings at Green Haven by Easy Eddie Ellis

AVP’s Beginnings at Green Haven

By Eddie Ellis

In September, 1971, several incarcerated men at Attica Prison led an uprising to protest inhumane treatment and overcrowding.  After four days of negotiation state troopers were called in and the Attica Prison rebellion ended with nine hostages and twenty-eight incarcerated men dead.  The insurrection changed the entire dynamic within prisons and initiated a national discussion about prison policy and practices. 

New York State prisons had very few programs at that time.  Friends (Quaker) worship groups were among the very few. There were no educational programs or counseling so the worship groups attracted those seeking opportunities for in-depth discussion.

The men involved in the rebellion at Attica were transferred to prisons around the state.  Many arrived at Green Haven.  New programs were initiated with the idea that if we can keep the men busy, they will not want to rebel again. Carl Berry, a progressive administrator, was appointed Deputy Superintendent for Programs at Green Haven.  Among the innovations he instituted was a first of its kind survey of the population asking the men themselves to make recommendations and design programs that would meet their needs.  College-level educational programs and the ability to call families were high on the list.

During this period, Green Haven was poorly supervised and dangerous.  Loan-sharking, open drug markets and gambling were common.  These resulted in violent attacks almost daily.  To avoid attack from behind, men were forced to stand in the yard with their backs against the wall.  Most there were concerned about their physical safety in such an environment.  Many were just beginning long sentences of 25 years to life or more and wondered how they might make the prison safer.

Around 1968, a small group of men at Green Haven formed a Think Tank. Under the guidance of Rev. Ed Muller, senior chaplain, they studied to make sense of their incarceration and to prepare for their eventual return to the community.  Their task was to develop programs and services of significance to themselves and, equally important, to the communities to which they would return.  Larry White was one of the founders and its leader.  I arrived at Green Haven in 1972.

Key among the discussions was the question of violence both in the prison and in the community. The Think Tank reached out to Larry Apsey and the Quaker Worship Group for assistance, as Quakers had a long history of non-violent resistance, pacifism and civil disobedience.  Quakers recommended consulting Bernard Lafayette, an aid to Dr. Martin Luther King.  Lafayette had led non-violent training workshops for those planning to participate in civil rights demonstrations and non-violent civil disobedience.  He synthesized the training into three days and in the fall of 1975 brought it to Green Haven.  I was skeptical about the non-violent movement and Dr. King’s approach.  Being born and raised in Harlem New York, I had been greatly influenced by the teaching of Malcolm X, but I decided to participate anyway. It was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. 

The workshop was about alternatives to violence, rather than “non-violence” and featured methods for reaching consensus and compromise, for resolving conflicts rather than simply reacting and it provided the tools needed to deescalate potentially violent and dangerous confrontations.  Most of the men who participated, including me, went on to take an advanced workshop and training for facilitators with Lafayette. 

Larry Apsey, a magnet and a ball of energy, was the driving force that made it all happen.  In discussions with the prison administration about how the workshop would run, the power of his ideas and his thinking were difficult to refute.  Deputy Superintendent Berry agreed to allow him to operate this workshop all day, 9:00 am until 9:00 pm, three consecutive days, to permit men to be counted outside their cells and to serve meals in the workshop area, all unheard of measures at the time.  The Green Haven AVP Project established the model for all future workshops.

AVP set the tone for the rest of my time at Green Haven.  I took a basic workshop and with other Think Tank members helped design the advanced and training for facilitators workshops.  Larry Apsey took our ideas and suggestions and together with other Quakers, shaped the curriculum and a developed a training manual.

To change our thinking, we must first change the language we use as language dictates our thoughts and actions.  It is through language we communicate our ideas which govern our behavior.  As such, we began to discuss ways to humanize ourselves, to redefine who we are from inmates, convicts and offenders to simply people who had made terrible mistakes and poor life choices which resulted in our imprisonment.  In this context we reasoned that we would no longer accept being called “inmates” or other terms devoid of humanness, but rather refer to ourselves as people in prison or people on parole, with the emphasis on our humanity. 

We believe we have the right to be called by a name we choose, rather than one someone else decides to use.  We think that by insisting on being called “people” we reaffirm our right to be recognized as human beings, not animals, inmates, prisoners or offenders.  We also firmly believe that if we cannot persuade you to refer to us, and think of us, as people, then all our other efforts at reform and change are seriously compromised.  Accordingly, please talk with your friends and colleagues about this initiative.  If you agree with our approach encourage others to join us.  Use positive language in your writing, speeches, publications, web sites and literature.  Let’s agree to no longer use the terms  “inmate,” “convict,” “offender,” or other negative terms when describing people currently or formerly in prison.

The Think Tank, started at Green Haven Prison in the late 1960’s and the AVP it spawned, evolved into a social service organization: the Community Justice Center in Harlem in the early 1990’s, which later became the NuLeadership Policy Group, a legislative and public policy research group.  This policy group developed into the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions at Medgar Evers College in the City University of New York, the first and only academic center in any major university whose entire staff is composed of formerly incarcerated professional men and women. 

Eddie Ellis a.k.a Easy Eddie is the host and executive producer of  “On The Count”  broadcast over radio station WBAI in New York (www.wbai.org).  He is currently an adjunct instructor and executive director of the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions at Medgar Evers College, CUNY.