CORRECTIONS
How To Get Involved
You can reach the corrections chair at corrections@aavictoria.ca
There are opportunities to be of service for individuals willing to go in to the facility and carry the message, as well as those interested in helping with our work outside the facility.
Current VIRCC Meetings
Saturdays @ 11:00-12:00, 12:45-1:45, 2:00-3:00
Five Districts Corrections
Purpose: To facilitate coordination between AA members and Groups in the ‘Five Districts’ (Greater Victoria and the Southern Gulf Islands) to carry our message of recovery into Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre (VIRCC) and to support ongoing corrections work at William Head Institution (WHI) and throughout Area 79.
Our work includes holding several weekly meetings at the VIRCC, writing letters to the fellowship behind walls, helping newly released individuals find a meeting, sponsor and fellowship in their community, keeping the fellowship informed on our ongoing efforts and working with other corrections committees around the Area and North America in an effort to fulfill our primary purpose and help the still suffering alcoholic.
Security clearance is required to go in to the VIRCC, however getting clearance is often quite simple and there are many ways to help without getting your clearance.
The Chair and Alternate Chair, elected by the GSR’s and DCM’s within Five Districts act as the direct link to the VIRCC, facilitate security clearance for members who wish to volunteer and ensure those volunteers understand and comply with the policies and procedures of the centre.
Pre-Release / Bridging the Gap
- Ensures we have adequate resources to distribute within the VIRCC in order to help those being released make contact with AA in their respective communities
- Co-ordinates pre-release letters and direct correspondence with inmates through Area 79 and the GSO’s corrections correspondence and penpal programs
- Maintains a list of local and Area 79 contacts willing to ‘bridge-the-gap’
Literature & Secretary
- Keeps the VIRCC and our meetings stocked with AA and Grapevine literature
- Ensures meetings have the necessary supplies and resources
Member-at-large / WHI & A79 Liaison
- Provides district support to WHI when requested
- Carries the FDC’s voice to Area 79 Quarterlies & Assemblies as well as corrections meetings
- Attends local AA meetings to help make the fellowship aware of the important work being done in corrections and specifically at the VIRCC
Corrections DCC’s from the Greater Victoria Area, and any members of the fellowship interested in corrections work are encouraged to contact us.
Why A.A.s Carry the Message Behind the Walls
Many A.A. members are unaware of the important work being carried out by corrections committees. To those involved, however, corrections work is an opportunity to carry the A.A. message to the confined alcoholic who wants to live sober, one day at a time. Through a corrections committee working with corrections personnel, alcoholics are reached who might never otherwise find the A.A. program. An active corrections committee is a vital link to prisons and jails, providing professionals and other workers in correctional facilities with information about A.A., literature, and guidelines for setting up A.A. groups on the inside. (Corrections Workbook m45i pg 4)
“Every A.A. has been, in a sense, a prisoner. Each of us has walled himself out of society; each has known social stigma. The lot of you folks has been even more difficult: In your case, society has also built a wall around you. But there isn’t any real essential difference, a fact that practically all A.A.s now know. Therefore, when you members come into the world of A.A. on the outside, you can be sure that no one will care a fig that you have done time. What you are trying to be—not what you were—is all that counts with us.” -a letter that our cofounder Bill W. wrote to a prison group in 1949. (Corrections Workbook m45i, pg 7)