When Julie Andrews sang “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” in Mary Poppins, she wasn’t referring to communication within prison.
Ms. Poppins may have been an unconventional nanny. But her usage of the word “”kite” was firmly within the dictionary definition: “a lightweight framework of wood and paper designed to fly in a steady breeze.”
In prison, the meaning is rather different. In prison, a kite is a formal means of communicating with the institutional authorities. How the word came to be used for this, I do not yet know.
Prison Congregation of America, on whose board I serve, has adopted the kite as one of the key symbols of the organization. When I wear a kite pin, it is to remember those in prison (Hebrews 13:3).
This blog was primarily written by Eric Sponheim, an attorney and analyst who worked on sentencing and corrections issues in state government. It sought to explore justice issues in the age of mass incarceration.
Above: Frontispiece of Beccaria's "Crime and Punishment" (1764)
"The most challenging problems of social policy in the modern world are never merely technical. In order properly to decide how we should govern ourselves, we must take up questions of social ethics and human values. What manner of people are we Americans? What vision would we affirm, and what example would we set, before the rest of the world?"
- Glenn Loury, March 11, 2009
- Glenn Loury, March 11, 2009
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