GFCJC Art Contest event held at Springfield Library
On April 14, 2026, GFCJC held an event to celebrate the artists who submitted work to our Art Contest on “Liberty and Justice for All” at theSpringfield Town Library, and to discuss their art submissions.
The community Grand Prize Winner was Sam Taylor, an 8th grader from Bellows Falls Middle School BFMS with this submission:
We received a number of art submissions from men in Southern State Correctional Facility, including the following:
submitted by A.R.
submitted by S.B.
Several men in our SSCF Poetry Group, led by Mike Flemming, submitted their poems. Here are some Excerpts:
I'm always Free. My mind takes me anywhere I want to go.
I have a pen, four walls, one and a door to my cell. So I can Write what ever I want.
I can be there in my Mind anytime I want to come or go…
But you said I was in a jail cell.
Oh well, free to tell it my way and not just today but every day.
Freedom to write. I don't even have to be Polite. Free to choose the words I USE. Freedom is mine for I have Free Will! Freedom just doing time. My time or their time.
I have freedom of my mind. Freedom at any time!
by JWH
Records play, records spin, they go round and round to play again.
A scratch, a skip, a crack, a chip are things across a record skin.
Moments held and minutes traced, I wish this record would erase or break.
Am I this piece of paper that holds all my mistakes?
A collection of misfortune's all in one place?
Why isn't there one that holds all my successes?
My trials, my tribulations, my losses, and lessons…
Records play, records spin, they go round and round to play again.
This is one record I won't allow to start over, or resurface.
I'm not a man with a record but one with a purpose.
by NJF
The Convict’s Cry (to the Irish sea shanty tune of The Wellerman
Sample verse (shout “ho!” after the last line of the verse)
Surrounded by concrete and steel
An eternal debt for the reaper’s deal
In pain in blood were signed and sealed
Until our ship rolls in (ho!)
Chorus:
Hear hear the convict’s cry
The spirit that will never die
Of freedom that no gold can buy
The dream we can't let go
by QG
Finally, the men in the Quilting Group led by Marie Py of Interaction, who co-leads our Restorative Reentry Education Programs, just finished this remarkable piece:
