{"id":2555,"date":"2022-12-23T12:50:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T12:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/?p=2555"},"modified":"2023-02-13T19:05:16","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T19:05:16","slug":"gangaji-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/gangaji-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"Should We Punish People Who Make Mistakes?<br>Answered by Gangaji"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Watch our full interview with Gangaji below!<\/h2>\n\n\n        \n        <div class=\"embedpress-gutenberg-wrapper source-provider-Facebook aligncenter ep-clear   ep-content-protection-disabled inline\" id=\"\" data-embed-type=\"Facebook \">\n            <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper \">\n                <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content\">\n                    <div >\n                        <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper preset-default insta-grid ep-google-photos-carousel\"\n                            style=\"max-width:600px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\"                                                                                                                >\n\n                            <div class=\"ose- ose-uid-ac27f41f467792152ee03e8bbcb8dd8f ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; max-width:100%; height: 100%; display:inline-block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" class=\"embera-facebook-iframe-ac27f embedpress-facebook--iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Ffacebook.com%2Fthemeditationmagazine%2Fvideos%2F504978854992595&width=600&height=450&show_text=true\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"Should We Punish People Who Make Mistakes?<br>Answered by Gangaji\"><\/iframe><\/div>                        <\/div>\n\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MM:<\/strong> One of the articles in The Love Issue is written by someone who is incarcerated for a mistake that he made in the heat of a moment. He didn\u2019t harm anyone, but he did break the law. What should we do with people who make mistakes? Should we put them in prison? Or should we be doing something different?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Gangaji: <\/strong>I definitely think we should be doing something different. There\u2019s a whole movement for the abolition of prisons. But I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m an abolitionist of prisons in general. There are heinous crimes, and there are beings that are harmful to society. But our prisons are overloaded with people who committed burglary, drug use, car theft \u2013 mistakes! They need to be taught that they are mistakes. That\u2019s essential \u2013 to learn what it means to be a responsible human being in a group of other human beings. This can only happen when we recognize \u2013 as individuals, and as a society \u2013 that we are playing the role of the \u201cpunishing parent\u201d or \u201cpunishing God.\u201d We must be willing to forgive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MM<\/strong>:  Do you feel internally or externally, within ourselves or within society, that punishment is ever an appropriate response? Or should it always be replaced with things like education and meditation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Gangaji:<\/strong> Maybe punishment is appropriate in certain cases\u2026 but it should never be only punishment. Punishment should always be accompanied by education, by love, by some attempt at generating understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the United States, our prison system is the worstin the world in terms of the numbers of prisoners, and the racial implications that go along with that. That\u2019s not based on love and understanding. That\u2019s based on hate and disposal. If we can recognize that within ourselves, and stop that, and recognize the horror of that, then we\u2019re more available to support the people<br>who are caught in the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m so happy to hear that this prisoner\u2019s part in this issue of Meditation Magazine. We have a prison program at the Gangaji Foundation, that is, to me, in many ways, the heart of the Foundation. Because it\u2019sa recognition that there is no final difference between\u201cthem\u201d and \u201cus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To read more about the full interview and get this issue (and also get 4 more issues in your first year), don\u2019t forget to subscribe! <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/product\/digital-subscription\">Digital mag<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/subscribe\">print magazine<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch our full interview with Gangaji below! MM: One of the articles in The Love Issue is written by someone who is incarcerated for a mistake that he made in the heat of a moment. He didn\u2019t harm anyone, but he did break the law. What should we do with people who make mistakes? Should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Should We Punish People Who Make Mistakes?Answered by Gangaji - Meditation Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Interview with Gangaji : Thoughts About Punishment\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/gangaji-prisons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should We Punish People Who Make Mistakes?Answered by Gangaji - Meditation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Interview with Gangaji : Thoughts About Punishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/gangaji-prisons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Meditation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Meditation-Magazine-565383236930078\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kevin.ellerton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-23T12:50:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-13T19:05:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/jSJASASHJHSJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"635\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"436\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin Ellerton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin Ellerton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/gangaji-prisons\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/gangaji-prisons\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin Ellerton\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.meditationmag.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1116a060c43d0d9dbf2c522ea4f9f2f9\"},\"headline\":\"Should We Punish People Who Make Mistakes? 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