Prison Dharma Network
11 South Angell St., #303Providence, RI 02906
Telephone: (401) 941-0791
Website: www.prisondharmanetwork.org
Attn: Fleet Maull
The Foundation made a grant for the work of Fleet Maull's Prison Dharma Network in an amount up to $225,000 between 2008 and 2012, of which $150,000 has been disbursed. The Prison Dharma Network was founded in 1989 by Fleet Maull, a Buddhist then serving a 14.5 year mandatory minimum sentence in federal prison for drug trafficking. Through Buddhist meditation practices and spiritual teachings of various Buddhist teachings, Mr. Maull rehabilitated himself and dedicated his organization to provide meditation-based and/or contemplative prison ministry programs and outreach projects through a network which has over 70 organizational members and over 700 individual members. The purpose is to assure that every prisoner who is inclined toward employing meditation, contemplative spirituality and other transformative practices has access to the teachings and resources they need to realize their aspirations. The Prison Dharma Network works directly with prison chaplains and other corrections staff to assist them in understanding and providing for healing, educational and spiritual needs of the prisoners of their institutions in the context of a restorative and transformative approach to corrections. Prison Dharma Network supports prisoners in the practice of contemplative disciplines, with an emphasis on sitting meditation practice and the practice and study of Buddhist teachings and other wisdom traditions. It promotes these paths of wakefulness and nonaggression as ideal vehicles for self-rehabilitation and personal transformation.
In order to realize the full benefits of the grant, Prison Dharma Network was required to raise in new matching funds the sum of $150,000, and was successful in doing so.
