CDOC Meal Walks — Molly Ott

Week 4. Friday, breakfast. (1137 calories)

Week 2. Friday, lunch. (712 calories)

Week 3. Friday, breakfast. (965 calories)

During traditional mealtimes, 8:30 am or noon, I eat from the menu that twenty one correctional facilities in Colorado depend on. I total the calories of the food and then walk from my home until all of the calories are used. Walking is my way to process my ideas of and relationships with the American Department of Corrections. Walking also activates my body’s deep knowledge: I am not entirely dependent on my intellect or emotions but have new access to intuitive, inherited, flexible, and ritualistic knowing. I trust that my body holds wisdom for the future that my brain is still catching up to.

In this space, I think about what a world without mass incarceration could be like.

Week 1. Sunday, breakfast. (1258 calories)

Week 4. Friday, lunch. (1245 calories)

Week 3. Wednesday, breakfast. (1137 calories)

Week 2. Wednesday, breakfast. (1249 calories)

Week 3. Monday, breakfast. (1032 calories)

Week 1. Tuesday, lunch. (1030 calories)

Week 4. Sunday, breakfast. (1149 calories)

Week 1. Wednesday, breakfast. (1067 calories)

Week 1. Tuesday, breakfast. (987 calories)

Week 3. Sunday, breakfast. (1138 calories)

Week 1. Wednesday, breakfast. (1012 calories)

Week 2. Wednesday, lunch. (1060 calories)

White napkins embroidered with the word “I” are used to record the residue of the meal and are carried during the walk. This repeated “I” represents the names of incarcerated people I know as well as the names of those I don’t. It is an acknowledgment that we are all connected by our humanity. When the walk ends, I turn the napkin into a flag to mark my final steps.