Rabbi Yochanan Friedman, left, heads into the central facility at the Correctional Training Facility at Soledad to lead a weekly Choices For Life class.

Choices for Life brings serious reflection to Leroy Greenwood, who is incarcerated at Soledad.

Rabbi Yochanan Friedman, who directs Chabad by the Sea in Santa Cruz, leads a session of Choices for Life at the chapel at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Correctional Training Facility in Soledad (formerly known as Soledad State Prison). Friedman created the Choices for Life program with his father, Rabbi Manis Friedman, to “help incarcerated inmates understand the critical distinction between merely existing and truly living, emphasizing that conscious choices are key to creating a life of purpose, meaning, and happiness.” Through eight weekly sessions, students learn that despite past wrong turns, and notwithstanding present circumstance, by choosing to focus on where they can be of service, they too can live meaningfully. The Choices for Life course overview states that a human being can “choose to be needed instead of needy.” As students at a recent graduation of the program accepted their certificates many of them were too overcome by emotion to read the written remarks they had prepared. Some spoke of how the course had given them a purpose and helped them overcome thoughts of suicide in the bleakness and hopelessness of prison life. “For the first time, I am excited to leave here. I want to help everyone realize their life has purpose,” said one incarcerated individual who is preparing for his release after a 23-year sentence.

Richard Romero, a man incarcerated at Soledad, leads the homework portion of a Choices for Life lesson as Rabbi Yochanan Friedman looks on at right.

Men incarcerated at the Correctional Training Facility at Soledad come to Choices for Life voluntarily and without receiving any credits toward their release. The men are required to do homework between sessions.