A Visit to Sing Sing

What does it mean to be a good man? If you're in prison for life, are you still able to be a good father, a good son, a good man? Tom Matlack, cofounder of The Good Men Project, visits Sing Sing maximum security prison in New York to find out.

http://www.goodmenproject.org/

"This is the first stop on The Good Men Project book tour. I'm not going to Barnes & Nobles. I'm not going to Harvard. I'm not going to some coffee shop to read poetry out loud. My book is about manhood and redemption. I have in my mind the image of Johnny Cash going into Fulsom Prison. Like his music, my book is about manhood, raw and unvarnished. So I need to find guys who understand what that is about. It's also about the possibility of redemption, about making mistakes, and about picking yourself up. I have no idea what I am going to say to these guys but I am going to try."

The Good Men Project is a book, a documentary film, a charitable organization, an idea. It's men telling their stories in a language guys can understand, raw, unvarnished truths. Julio Medina, a former Sing Sing inmate, is one of thirty-one contributers to the book. He tells his story: "In Sing Sing, my cell was so small that I could stand in the middle of it and touch both walls. Those walls were metal, so in the summer it got really hot in the cells. Most days it was 120 degrees. When the guards walked by, that was my air-conditioning--that little breeze they made. They sold little fans for the cells, but I refused to buy one. I wanted to feel every fucking day of that prison sentence. I wanted to remember every time how, after my family came to visit me, I was strip searched, how I was dehumanized. After leaving my mother, I'd have to stand totally naked while a guard ran his fingers through my mouth and then my hair. He'd lift my nut sack, make sure there was nothing underneath, and then put my hands behind my ears, turn me around, and say, 'Bottom of the left foot, bottom of the right foot. Uh oh, I didn't see that left foot. Now move your toes around.' I would have to stand on one fucking leg, trying to balance, until this asshole decided to tell me to put my leg down."

The book is on sale at Amazon: http://bit.ly/BuyGoodMenBook

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-matlack/are-there-good-men-in-sin_b_332549....

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• book
• Huffington
• strip search
• redemption
• mistakes
• men
• manhood

[jo05dk]

My mother died in april this year. Eventhough we tried we didn't get to the hospital until after she had died. I can't imagine having to visit my mother chained up like that, not even being able to hug her. When you told that story it brought tears to my eyes.

LOVE what you're doing. It's high time the men of the world have a voice too. Don't know if i will be able to get the book here in Denmark, but i will be looking out for a possibility.

Best of luck with the project. A very worthy cause.

[GoodMenProject]

Thanks so much. You can buy our book and video on Amazon. Just search for The Good Men Project and they will ship to you there.

[520badazz]

Why were you so scared?

[GoodMenProject]

Just going into a 100 year old prison with 1,800 long term inmates isn't something I normally do. I had misconceptions about what they would be like. I actually found myself really liking the men that I spent time with. Still the atmosphere is extremely intimidating! Tom

[Norikokun7]

seeing someone really looking for deep answers is awesome

[GoodMenProject]

Thanks mucho!

Tom

[FlattusMaximusD]

no.some people are just simply peices of shit..rapists,ect ect..an i typed in world war 2 the pacific an got this?? whatever.

besides this seems to just give an excuse for some bag of shit to say hes still a good man after murdering or raping countless people..ruining the lives of other people..sorry mate.

[randypcole]

WOW...You just emanate insecurity.

[whatfay357]

mike tyson @ 1 58

[salsawhiz]

People should be given a second chance.

[jo05dk]

Thanks for the reply. I had allready checked amazon though:) The problem is that amazon uk doesn't have it, and if i order it from amazon com, it'll be taxed when it enters Denmark.

I'll have a look at how big the damage will be, and make a choice. Hopefully i wil be able to get the book and dvd somehow:)

[stillmakinitinlife93]

i had to take a jail tour in january or november i think, idk it was sometime last year, im turning 16 years old soon, i admit i was scared, but not as scared as this guy lol

i went to southwest detention center, its where triple x murderers and rapists go, i talked to a nazi, i was in a group of people, and when he said "hey you, what are you in here for?" and i was honestly about to shit my pants.

[JosiahM1970]

I think you are on a good path, pleasure to watch this. Don't even know how I came accross it. I'm an edgy person who delves in infidelity and recreational drinking, but I can relate in your search. I've always wanted to be a better man.

[eugenegold]

you have to understand that these people that commited crime often times were raised in areas and families were they knew nothing else.they grew up in a society that were they had to kill in order to survive. And now some of you are sittong in your warm cozy houses talking about how these people in prison are worse then your s***i do not have any respect for some of the acts that these people have commited but i do not think we should diss every individual in prison every person has a good side