L.I.N.C. (Long-term Inmates Now in the Community) Society
33270 14th Avenue V2V 4Z7 Mission, BC, Canada

HELP NEEDED AT EMMA'S ACRES Row building bee at Emma's Acres 34890 Cemetery Avenue Mission BC starting April 12th 2021 9am We are looking for volunteers at Emma's Acres to help us build the rows in the fields beginning next Monday. There is easily a couple of weeks worth of work to do.... The rows need to be created in the fields in order for us to plant. Our usual volunteer workforce made of L.I.N.C. members from inside has not been able to come out from prison as passes have been canceled due to COVID19. We are really grateful for the support we have been receiving from the community during this time. So we could use the help. There is lots of room for social distancing. Thanks Sherry

We have 3 plots in the Mission Soapbox Community Garden up by the Seniors Activity Centre available for rent. Thirty dollars a year. PM me if interested.We have 3 plots in the Mission Soapbox Community Garden up by the Seniors Activity Centre available for rent. Thirty dollars a year. PM me if interested.

Emma's Acres produce for sale. All non gmo, non-spray ...an early treat. Mixed greens, spinach, arugula, turnips and radishes plus our free range eggs are curre...ntly available! If you are a friend or family member of someone who was murdered, whatever you want from Emma's Acres is free. 34890 Cemetery Avenue Mission BC Open 9am to 3:30pm Monday through Friday See more

My fundraiser for my 63rd birthday on March 25th

We don’t have to publicize every move we make for love and justice. May the work I’ve done speak for me.

About 48 minutes 47 seconds into the video, Mayor Pam Alexis presents Glen's District of Mission Community Service Award to Zach Thomas, one of Emma’s Acres farm managers and Victoria's partner.

We have the following available at Emma's Acres: purple potatoes, yellow potatoes, shallots, onions, delicata, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, honey, mixed greens, arugula, spinach, kale and swiss chard. You can pay by etransfer or cash.

Dean Atwal recently returned to Emma's Acres Mission Bc to see how this local farm is doing in the time of Covid-19 #EmmasAcres #LocalFarm #LocalPlaces #Covid19

Keep watching Joytv BC for Dean Atwal's story on Emma's Acres Mission Bc...Coming Soon #localfarms #MissionBC #localbusiness #farms #Flowers

Wish You Were Here - Now on Sale: https://tinyurl.com/yycnp2lk

To my Social Media Family! It’s finally here. The long awaited film created by @producertommy. Many hours of blood, sweat and tears and it’s finally done. Now, ...I need you to Listen up! I need my sm family to understand that the most important words on this poster is He will never be free until his family comes home. Truer words have never been spoken. I need you all to help me reenergize the movement for the last remaining member of my Family, @mumiaabujamalofficial. Mumia had been in prison since 1981. He spent more time in prison than Nelson Mandela. He’s survived 7 US Presidents. When he was taken to prison his children were actually children and now they are grandparents. We need to free this innocent man and I need you to help me do it. I’m taking suggestions for actions and strategies. Let’s get on the MOVE to free the #voiceofthevoiceless #onthemove #freemumia #freethemall See more

Glen Flett is getting a special recognition award at the District of Mission community service awards. This is the lovely bio written up by Christine B. of the... District for the awards. John Glendon (Glen) Flett Special Recognition Award John Glendon Flett, known to his friends as Glen, was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1950 and his path to Mission was an unusual one. In trouble with the law from the time he was young, Glen spent 23 years in prison. It was while behind bars for murder at the Kent Institution in 1982 that he surrendered his life to the Lord and became a Christian - a decision that would ultimately impact not only his life but the lives of countless others and our entire community. In 1992, the year he made full parole from Mission Minimum Institution (formerly known as Ferndale), Glen and his beloved wife, Sherry Edmunds Flett, co-founded L.I.N.C. which stands for Long-term Inmates Now in the Community. A registered non-profit charity, L.I.N.C.’s mission is to promote equality and justice for all by advancing the basic principles of restorative justice through positive intervention in the lives of people sentenced to lengthy terms of incarceration and in the lives of their families. Through his work with L.I.N.C., Glen created and maintained Emma’s Acres, organized volunteers for the Mission Folk Festival and the Mission Soapbox Derby, put on Clean and Sober Christmas Dinners, facilitated countless support groups, promoted the cause of restorative justice and gave a voice to the voiceless. For those of you who do not know, Emma’s Acres is an agricultural social enterprise business that employs survivors/victims, ex-offenders, and offenders. The farm is on a 3.2 hectare property leased to L.I.N.C. by the District of Mission and the vegetables, herbs, and fruit produced there are sold in the community with a portion donated to local non-profit groups, including the food banks and the community kitchen. The proceeds of the social enterprise business fund the work of the L.I.N.C. Society in the community as well as its work with survivors of serious crime. Over the course of his life, Glen was recognized for his charitable work in many ways. In 1996, he was awarded the University College of the Fraser Valley’s Volunteer of the Year award for another program he developed called Partners in Learning which pairs tutors from a Minimum Security Institution with at-risk youth in alternative schools in Mission and Abbotsford. He was nominated twice for the Ron Wiebe Restorative Justice Award and is being honored posthumously with the Commissioner’s Commendation Award from the Correctional Service of Canada. Glen was also the subject of several deeply moving CBC radio pieces on his life and his work. That is Glen’s story. Glen, the man, was quiet and humble and profoundly grateful to God for his life, his family, and the opportunity to serve others. From taking a second job watering Mission's downtown plants in the early morning hours in order to be able to maintain his career altruism, to volunteering his spare time each year wrapping and transporting Christmas trees for a local church program that decorates and donates Christmas trees to families that could otherwise not afford them, Glen spent every moment of his life helping his community and people affected by crime. Glen's phone was always on. He strove to serve in the true spirit Christ, offering "hope for the hopeless" as he put it. Prisoners who had long been forgotten inside, prisoners who had lost their will to live, and prisoners who could not see a way out of the system found someone who cared in Glen. The same can be said for survivors and victims of crime. It was important to Glen that they be listened to, prioritized and deeply respected. In his later years, Glen also joined the local Rotary Club which gave him yet another avenue to give back to this community that he was proud to call home. With his passing in October of 2019, Mission lost a truly remarkable citizen. While we are saddened by his passing, we are deeply grateful to Glen for his dedication to serving others and for his many contributions to the community. It is with much appreciation and on behalf of the District of Mission, that Mayor Alexis will now present Glen’s family with his 2020 Special Recognition Award.

This article about Emma’s Acres came out in the Mission City Record today.

***PART2 JOIN US THIS THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 3RD AT 7:00PM We have an extremely powerful panel discussion coming up about the experience of black individuals in ...the correctional system ! This will be an online panel discussion that will stream live from Facebook and Youtube! OUR HOST WILL BE : JACQUELINE DIXON! Jacqueline Dixon is one of Abc's (Accomplished Black Canadian Women) top 100 women, CEO New Era Communication, Certified Sales Professional and Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Coach and Entrepreneur SEPTEMBER 3RD 2020 at 7:00pm

Please share: Canada's Indigo Books has included WISH YOU WERE HERE in their preview campaign for major fall titles. Running through Sept 6 the book is discount...ed 25% if you pre-order from Indigo: https://bit.ly/32CkKUG If you pre-order (or already pre-ordered) DM me a mailing address and I'll send you a special thank you souvenir.

I don’t have to respond whenever provoked. No one does. Steward your energy well. We have justice work to do. And strategy to outline. And self-care to prioritize. It’s okay to let provocateurs leave empty handed.

Here for pictures with the Warden and the Chair of the Mountain Lifers Organization. Over 4800 dollars was raised for the Agassiz Food Bank in Glen's name by t...he population with this fundraising drive by the Lifers group. Truly humbled when you think that the most they make inside is 6.90 a day. El Jones John Edmunds Erin Crawley Cari Turi Nick Purdon Maureen Sinclair Pam Alexis Randie Scott Marjean Fichtenberg Kate Collins John Allore Judy Campbell #communityengagement #glenflett See more

Fresh Local Ginger from Emma’s Acres in Mission has arrived at the market! Local ginger has less of a bite to it compared to imported ginger, while still retaining all the flavour and benefits. This ginger also freezes well, so you can enjoy local ginger all year-round.

On Prison Justice Day, I post my pictures of Glen and Roni in Millhaven (circa 1980) Chico with his fish at Williamhead (circa 1988) and Glen with his PJD t-sh...irt on Prison Justice Day at Emma's Acres (circa 2018.) Both Roni and Glen have passed on (1991 and 2019) Chico is still inside. Chico would like to remember his good friend Claire Culhane on this day. El Jones James Stevens See more

August 10th has been a notable day throughout my entire correctional career as it is Prisoners’ Justice Day (PJD). For anyone not having worked in the prison sy...stem or having rubbed up against the prison system through either personal, familial or friendship reasons -one may not give August 10th any extra notice different from any other summer day. However, anyone who has worked in the correctional field federally, provincially or territorially likely has their own take on PJD as likely every worker has been exposed one way or the other to what PJD is. Certainly, if anyone has been incarcerated or has had family or friends who are or have been imprisoned, it can take on some level of importance. My introduction to PJD was when I first began working for what at the time was known as the Canadian Penitentiary Service. PJD was talked about long before the date arrived- what kind of protests might be anticipated outside the prison, prisoner work stoppages, a daylong hunger strike and potentially other forms of ‘acting out’. PJD was typically marked with offenders being confined to their cells for the day and a refusal of food. My conversations with individual inmates that had ‘a lot of years in’ and/or ‘had been through the system’ usually turned towards the ‘plight’ of those who had died (for whatever reasons) in custody or may have been believed to have been treated unfairly by the ‘system’. Many inmates did not really know much about PJD other than what the ‘population inmates’ expectations were’ about respecting the day as a day of remembrance. I learned that on August 10, 1974 inmate Eddie Nalon bled to death in the Segregation area of Millhaven Max Institution in Bath, Ontario. He was doing life and was quite institutionalized and aware of life inside the wire. He had been in and out of segregation like it had a revolving door. He was expecting to be released from segregation and when he felt the system had failed him he slashed his left arm’s veins and arteries. The first PJD was in 1975, the year after Nalon’s death and it was marked with a one-day hunger strike and a protest. A year after that one more inmate died in the segregation unit in Millhaven- Robert Landers when he was trying to summons medical help that never came. He was found dead in his cell the next morning. Over the years, in my conversations with a great many inmates and ex-inmates most were able to relate stories of encountering some of the most negative experiences the system could generate. ‘Jailhouse lawyers’ - I have known many and dealt with them as a correctional officer, a supervisor, middle manager and a senior manager. I have to comment that there were a lot of complaints which lacked substance and were very likely a deflection of attention from their own personal ‘mistakes and adventures in terrible decision making’ but I also know many of the claims were trueand often based in truth and perhaps embellished for emphasis. Given corrections was my chosen career, I treated it seriously and took complaints and negative reports from offenders to heart. I always did my best to be fair, even-handed and treat individuals with the respect I would wish to have if our roles were reversed. All in all, I have seen some of the worst and the best of humanity while working in ‘the system’. Much changed over the course of my career through major investigations, Parliamentary Sub-Committee Reviews, Coroner’s Inquests, the Canadian Charter, a replacement of the former Penitentiary Act /Regulations (I became embroiled in a pivotal event which served to demand its change- that is another story), major revisions of policies and procedures, introduction of the Correctional Investigator and many other catalysts of correctional change. I do not want to generate a debate here. Many changes have occurred and more will come as society, laws and various components of the criminal justice system are modified through the courts, politics and the court of public opinion. I am not trying to stir up controversy with this post- rather I am intending to help folks consider a perspective that may be foreign to many. Many who have worked or may continue to work within the ‘system’ often do a thankless and at times a dangerous job that society seldom thinks of except in the most negative of terms. To work as a professional in the field of corrections is demanding, often times unpredictable, usually unforgiving and poorly understood by those on the outside looking in. Being a prisoner within Canada’s criminal justice system is likewise poorly understood. Yes, ‘they did the crime so they must do the time’. Being cynical and jaded is always easy. Many times I hear a cry from folks who easily condemn all inmates of any type: ‘Lock them up and throw away the key’. Negativism easily abounds. Indeed, there are many inmates who have committed the most heinous of crimes and should never again be allowed into free society. The reality is that the majority of inmates have determinate sentences and at some point will be subject to release in our communities. I, for one, would like to see them as prepared as possible to get out, make it in the real world, reintegrate and become contributing citizens. While sounding very lofty, the wording of the Federal Law as found within the Corrections & Conditional Release Act (section 3) states that ‘The purpose of the federal correctional system, as defined in law, is to contribute to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe society by carrying out sentences imposed by courts through the safe and humane custody and supervision of offenders, and by assisting the rehabilitation of offenders and their safe reintegration into the community as law-abiding citizens through the provision of programs in penitentiaries and in the community. Without sounding like I have rose-colored glassesfrom my perspective my experiences and personal interactions were mostly positive. I believe I made positive impacts on the lives of many. Indeed, having been one of the ‘keepers’ I have many friends made up from those who have been ‘kept’. To borrow a terms often used by one of my most important correctional mentors (Ron Wiebe) I believe I promoted ‘good corrections’ and committed myself to its application in ‘doing the right thing’. My retirement activities sound almost contradictory but I view it as entirely complimentary. While I have continued to do projects and other jobs for Corrections Canada from time to time I also volunteer my time helping a not-for-profit organization called LINC. It is a society that works direction with people impacted by Canada’s criminal justice system victims and offenders. I believe that a personal sense of value can be restored to victims and offenders by giving offenders the opportunity to pay back to society and victims for the harm caused. In order for offenders to change their behavior they must be accountable for what they have done to their victims, their families and the community. I have spent time with victims and while retribution is often times sought initially, it has been an embracing of restorative justice that has given them the freedom they need. I have heard and seen first hand many victims of serious crimes attest to this truth. Prison Justice Day is viewed differently by a great many people. These are some of the things I think about each PJD. This is a link to the LINC Society I volunteer with: http://lincsociety.bc.ca/ The Visionary Legacy of Ron Wiebe An Unfinished Conversation is available in digital format in its entirety. It came to life through the work of two friends of mine George Garrett and John Konrad. Ron shared his vision for corrections as he wrestled with terminal cancer. I learned a great deal from this giant of Canadian corrections and was able apply much of it in my career. http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/restorative-/003005-3100-eng.shtml

Take a tour of Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years for his role in the struggle against apartheid. You can take a virtual tour of the prison, including the cell where he was held. https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/mQIim-e6wopSJw