In 2015, William White, Boyd Pickard, and I co-authored a blog post about The Hole in the Wall Group of Narcotics Anonymous. This blog post brought voices from members of this group from behind the walls of the Oregon State Penitentiary to the broader public.
Founded in 1988, the Hole in the Wall Group is the longest-running registered NA meeting held inside a prison. Uniquely, it operates as a home group rather than a Hospitals and Institutions (H&I) meeting. Another distinguishing feature is its quarterly newsletter, which is distributed beyond the prison walls. (Note: 28 issues of this newsletter are archived in the Preserving the Message document library.)
Image courtesy of Chris Budnick
Recently, Mason and Francis published an episode of The Living Clean Podcast that featured the outside GSR, the outside contact, and citizens who returned home after finding recovery inside the walls.
With the support of the outside contact, we are once again sharing the voices of current inside home group members. Their input is presented below, edited only for anonymity; otherwise, it appears exactly as submitted.
- My name is Reuben W., and I’m an addict. I’m 15 years into a life sentence, and I’ve been here at OSP since 2012. I was clean for 6 years on the street, thanks to N.A., and then I relapsed and turned a drug-deal into a murder in 2010.
The first year and a half of my sentence I was at another Oregon institution where there was no N.A., and I used there, which is what I do when I’m not plugged into the N.A. program. Luckily for me I was transferred to OSP in June of 2012, and I got clean again. There are more 12-step meetings here in two weeks than there are at any other Oregon prison in two years, and I’ve been clean now since June 17, 2012. I owe my recovery, my clean-time and likely my life to the Narcotics Anonymous program, specifically the “Hole-in-the-Wall Group” of N.A., and to my “not religious” Higher Power.
Today I am the Chairperson for the group here, I edit our group’s newsletter (which goes out to prisoners and addicts on the street all over the country), I sponsor a few guys, and I try to stay in the middle of this thing. It’s worked so far, and I’m nothing but grateful; to NA, to the Hole-In-The-Wall Group (and the men that were here before me that started and have fed this group for so long), to my sponsor and sponsees, and to the Universe for my tremendous good fortune.
The Hole-In-The-Wall group is a stand-alone group of NA like any other, and we’re grateful. I believe we’re also the oldest in-prison Group of N.A. in the world, and many, many still recovering addicts have gotten their start (or re-start) here at OSP, which does the world out there a lot of good.
Gratefully, Reuben W.
- I’m Louie L. Clean since 7-11-17.
The Wednesday night book study was my favorite meeting. Recovery behind the walls is more independent than on the street. I do more writing and reading, although I do share the message as much as I can. I set up the coffee and chairs for another 12 step program. We get a lot of outside guests on Saturdays. I try to give them the microphone first. I sponsor 3 guys, but only one seems really serious. I work as a recovery mentor and try to steer my clients to meetings. There is a lot of cell time here and I primarily pray or read one of the big books to keep my mind right.
- My name is Lee H. and I am currently serving a life sentence at the Oregon State Penitentiary. I am fifteen years into this sentence this month. I came to OSP in 2022, and at that point I had never attempted to address my drug addiction and I had been a user since the age of 11. Upon coming to OSP I noticed a real recovery movement here behind the walls, like nowhere else in prison I had been locked up. Yet I was still in the “that shit is for quitters mentality” and refused to go to a meeting or even admit that I had a drug problem. My homeboy that was heavily involved in NA always invited and encouraged me to check out a meeting, but I respectfully declined, as I wasn’t ready to change or admit I was an addict.
Then in 2024 my little sister Kiana passed away in a fatal car accident on February 6th and I lost myself deeply into my depression and drug addiction that ultimately led me to try and take my life n June 8th of 2025 with drugs. By the grace of my higher power, I wasn’t successful. Upon getting out of the hole, I hit up my NA homeboy and said, “I need to try something different and I am ready to check out a meeting”. He signed me up for an NA meeting and I have been going ever since. I lost my grandmother on September 8th roughly two months after I started going to NA and relapsed.
Sitting in my cell, I realized I was going down that dark road again. Not wanting to go down that road again, I flushed the rest of the drugs I had down the toilet. This was September 11th, 2025. That is the last time I used drugs. As I type this I have almost nine months clean (which is the longest I’ve had clean since I started using drugs at a young age). Recovery inside OSP is amazing. We have a meeting everyday of the week except Sundays; seven a week to be exact. We have regular NA meetings and step study meeting as well as 1-on-1 appointments for those who have a sponsor and are working the steps. The most unique thing about recovery at OSP to me is the fact that the typical prison politics disappear when it comes to people working in their recovery. Which is amazing. I actively participate in my recovery by going to meetings and drug treatment related classes six days a week, making the conscious decision to stay clean and most of all asking for help when I need it. I also chair an occasional NA meeting when needed and every Saturday morning a couple others and myself take a service position to make sure we have coffee, snacks, and that our participants are taken care of.
The outside support we receive here at OSP is one of a kind. There are people who have previously been incarcerated and got clean that come in weekly, sometimes more, to show us that its possible to continue this way of life once we are released and that we are not forgotten about in here.
I never thought I could, or would, get clean let alone of all places in a maximum-security penitentiary. Yet here I am today, clean, and daily encouraging others to join this recovery movement occurring here at OSP and that there is a better way of life.
- Discarded Lives
In prison I have met society’s discarded lives – men who made choices for which a cage was built and a wall so high that the outside world won’t have to see them or even be reminded of their existence. Forgotten except to be hated, these men have been relegated to be nothing more than the receptors of society’s aspersions. Men whose past is used to justify their exclusion from all but life itself.
I witness their survival, their self-sufficiency, and their improbable restoration. I see their recovery and the increasing quality of their lives, as they get clean and stay clean. I see them love and comfort each other, lift and carry one another through the seeming tragedy that their lives have become. Brothers in life’s chains, they truly live out the meaning of compassion – suffering together.
And I love them too, this “unlovable” lot. Although the distance varies in proportion to how deeply stuck one may be in their defects, the love is a constant. It isn’t something I go out of my way to do, some willful act that goes against my better judgment. I love them because they are lovable at their core, each and everyone (myself included). It’s an unconditional loving bond that is available to us all, and I found it in Narcotics Anonymous.
Jim P., OSP
For more information about The Hole in the Wall Group:
- To sign up for the Hole in the Wall Group Newsletter (free to all NA members inside and outside the walls).
Send your request to:
NA Newsletter C/O Activities
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310 - If you have questions or wish to support the group, contact Keddy H. at 503-983-0517 or kedwardhaines@yahoo.com.