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Prison Witness

Called to Bold Action for Peace

by Judith Kelly

In April 2003, a few days before I reported to Alderson Federal Prison in West Virginia, I got a surprise phone call from a woman I hadn’t seen in decades, inviting me to our 40th high school class reunion. Before I could respond to the invitation, my classmate added, “When I spoke with your mom, she didn’t think you’d be able to attend because . . .” she paused, and her voice rose, “you’re going to prison?” I laughed, knowing that neither of us expected that the girl elected Most Likely to Succeed would end up serving time.

My “crime” of trespassing at Fort Benning, Georgia, meant three months of incarceration. Would prison be a step on my ladder of success?

SOA
The School of the Americas is a United States Army combat training institute at Fort Benning, Georgia. It has trained more than 61,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are teachers, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred or forced into refugee status by graduates of the School of Assassins.* Years of pressure by activists resulted in the 1996 release of a torture manual that had been used at the school. In 2000, the institute was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in an effort to mollify criticism by thousands who lobby, demonstrate and go to prison to call attention to this symbol of United States foreign policy.
* Source: SOA Watch Web site (www.soaw.org)

Judith Kelly of Arlington, Virginia, facilitates trainings with the Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service (www.paceebene.org), and supports the School of the Americas Watch (www.soaw.org) movement. She is a member of Pax Christi and St. Aloysius Parish in Washington, D.C.

How did Judith discern her way was to go to prison? How has the experience changed her and her faith? Find out in the November/December 2004 issue of Horizons.
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