OUTSIDE IN

DURING the past several years of my sobriety, I have included correctional correspondence in my service work. In 2007 I was paired in writing with an inmate named Derek in New York state. In his first letters to me, he mentioned his desire to attend an AA meeting but that there was currently no meeting in the facility where he was housed. He told me that he had asked about a meeting and was told that a sober AA member from outside would need to be there to run a meeting, and this had not worked out after previous attempts. But Derek felt bewildered with no "outside" AA contacts. I wrote to him and told him that I would try a few things.