A few months ago I began sponsoring a man whose enthusiasm and personality are contagious! His disease landed him in jail for two months plus a few months of “work release,” and a whole lot of years under restrictions and the watchful eye of state officials.
We are very excited about our upcoming trip to the Southeastern Correctional Facility near Lancaster, Ohio. We purposely scheduled this visit around the SA International Conference in Cleveland on July 9 – 11, as it is our hope some members attending the conference will be able to visit the facility July 9. We will leave the hotel at 10:00 a.m. and return at 10:00 p.m. The facility is about three-and-a-half hours south of Cleveland.
It started about eight years ago when several men who were awaiting sentencing began attending local SA meetings. Although I suspected they were attending the meetings in an attempt to influence the court, I gradually learned this was not the primary motivation of all of them.
We want to thank all members who have helped us to carry the SA message to sexaholics in correctional institutions. Progress is being made, as comparisons of the last two years demonstrate:
More inmates are learning about Sexaholics Anonymous, thanks to the efforts of our members to carry the SA message behind prison walls. Some members are corresponding with and sponsoring inmates. Some are contacting state and local correctional officials to see if they are open to informing inmates about our fellowship. Some are working with SA groups inside prisons and some are contributing to the SACC Literature Fund so that more inmates can read about the solution to sexaholism.
The SA Corrections Committee would like to gratefully acknowledge the many gifts and contributions from individuals, groups, and Intergroups for literature to prisoners. This vital Twelfth Step work to those who still suffer in prison can continue because of your generosity, kindness and support.
This may strike you as an unusual title for an article in the Essay. The reason is that I’m writing to invite you to consider becoming part of SA’s outreach into prisons. As you may know, the prison system often identifies inmates by a number. This didn’t mean all that much to me until I became friends with one of those numbers.
The Oversight Assembly wishes to express its deep and heartfelt gratitude to Marsha F. Her tireless efforts on behalf of the SA Corrections Committee have been successful and worthwhile. Marsha energetically discharged her duties and helped preside over a surge in requests for literature from “the inside.” We thank you for service well done.
My name is Michael D. and I am a sex addict. I have been sexually sober for over 5 months now, praise God. I have just been released from the California Men’s Colony State Prison, where I served a three-year term for sexual battery.
I am a 47-year-old sexaholic, lustaholic, alcoholic inmate, serving a sentence of 18-80 years, for a variety of crimes. The majority of my life has been spent behind the walls of one institution after another. This is the only “home” I know. There was a sex crime involved in each one of my adult convictions (but I began acting out at the age of 13).
