Prison Woes

“Locked inside Texas prisons and jails,  offenders are forever casting their version of a message in a bottle. “To whoever reads this, Please, maybe you think my story is nothing. But I am in a jail for something I didn’t do. I start to lose my head and I’m talking to myself. I don’t sleep no more. Help me … ” [Alex Branch, S-T writer]

The reality is – some of them didn’t do it. It is also true that most did. But the issue for Believers is not guilt or innocence, but compassion and concern. Jesus said, “I was in prison and you visited me.” [Matthew 25:36b] Men are created to live in freedom, and the worst thing about prison is not the poor food, crowded conditions, abusive guards, expensive commissary, or even hard work, (all of which are realities) but a lack of freedom, freedom that is basic to the human condition.

Some men and women need to be incarcerated. And we can argue the incongruities of the justice system where one individual is serving ten (10) years in a violent environment for writing a few hundred dollars worth of hot checks, while a person who murdered another individual via drunk driving is serving two (two) years in State Jail, and a person who possessed a few ounces of marijuana is serving the same sentence as the man who imported several tons of heroin for sale on our streets.

I am not pleading any one’s case, I am simply hoping to help someone understand why prisoners have difficulty coping with the reality of their situation. It is not unusual for their families to abandon them, their “friends” to forget them, and for our society to proclaim – “they deserve it.” What prisoners need most of all is someone who cares about them. I often think that only an individual who lloves someone who is incarcerated understands how difficult the circumstances are. I don’t mean the kind of love which says, “of course I love him, he is my son, but I have chosen to cut my ties with him.”I am talking about llove that is genuine, reaching out to someone who may not deserve it, has done nothing to earn it, and has hurt others in myriad ways. It’s the kind of llove the Father God has for all His children.

Some prisons are awful places full of violence and bitterness. Some are relatively quiet, clean, and work fairly well (as we might understand prison are designed to do). But everyone. . .everyone in prison has lost his/her freedom, and that works negatively on their mind, even to the extent that some become “institutionalized.” (hint: think about a exqusite Cheetah or a magnificent elephant locked in a cage for most of it’s life)

Here’s my final word on the matter. If you can help, do!