# The magistrate who spent weeks in jail

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-magistrate-who-went-to-jail
- Themes: experience, empathy, justice, prison
- Life situations: judging others, working in justice, learning from hardship

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

As someone told Ajahn Brahm (details half-remembered), an Australian magistrate spent three or four weeks in jail — possibly innocent — and said it was the best thing for her work: having felt the cell doors close, she knew what she was doing whenever she sentenced someone.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

there was one magistrate in Australia who went to jail for only for about 3 or 4 weeks. I forget what the crime was. I think she was innocent, but you know, she went to jail anyway. And she said that was the best thing that ever happened to her in her role as a magistrate because once she had experience firsthand of going in those cells with those iron doors closing and being in prison to actually feel it and experience it as a real person in prison, then that totally changed her attitude to her sentencing cuz she knew what she was doing when she sent someone into prison. whether it was for know 4 months or 40 years she knew what it was like

## Teaching point

Direct experience removes misunderstanding — as remembering many deaths would remove our fear of dying.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

As Ajahn Brahm heard it, a magistrate spent weeks in jail and said it transformed her work: now she knew what a sentence really meant. Imagine if every judge did that. Experience removes misunderstanding. If we truly knew what death was, he adds, it wouldn't shock us so. Understanding grows from living, not theory.

## Source

- [One Life, Many Lives | by Ajahn Brahm | 13-01-2012](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeKFsGSEi94) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 4:37 to 5:22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeKFsGSEi94&t=277s