An empty chair at the memorial service
Michelle’s
teen-aged son will be buried today. The
boy’s father and grandparents will be there.
His mother will be absent.
I cannot
begin to describe my emotions:
heartbreak, anger, disgust. And I
don’t even know Michelle!
Here’s the
story in a nutshell.
Our office
received a message last week from the mother of a prisoner at the Women’s Huron
Valley facility in Ypsilanti. Her friend
Michelle, age 44, learned that her 18-year-old son Josh had died unexpectedly
at home due to an asthma attack. A death
in the family is a serious problem for prisoners…something, we believe, that
must be improved in the future.
We followed
the situation day by day, here’s the way it developed.
On the 7th, the day after the young
man died, she was informed that she could be transported to the funeral home in
the thumb area, accompanied by two officers, but she and her family would have
to pay the tab: $1,000 each way.
On the 10th, we received a message
that Michelle had found two off-duty officers willing to make the trip with
her.
Then, later that same day, came this
message: The officers who were going to
help Michelle have been mandated by the prison to work their regular shifts at
the prison on Monday. She wo't be able to go. Her friends in the prison are
showering her with love and sympathy.
I have difficulty
accepting defeat, so I got up early this morning, summarized all of these
messages, and fired off an email to one of our friends in the front office of the
MDOC to ask if there was any way this grieving mother could still say farewell
to her son at the 3 PM memorial service today.
And here is the response, verbatim:
I worked on this case most of Friday and
unfortunately, we won’t be able to transport her today. These funeral
visits are based on the approval of the warden (which was received) and the
availability of two trained staff members on voluntary overtime. While
one volunteer was located, the other volunteers could not be cleared for this
assignment because they are on mandated overtime at the facility today.
As I’m sure you’ve heard, the facility is utilizing a significant amount of overtime
right now because of our ongoing CO vacancies and as a result, it is difficult
to find staff that are both eligible and willing to take voluntary overtime.
While we ultimately had 3 staff people volunteer for the assignment, 2 could
not be assigned because they were called in for mandated overtime today.
We simply don’t have the staff available to complete the funeral visit today,
despite the best efforts of the family and the facility.
The name of
our organization is HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS.
Giving our agency the name is one thing, but actually achieving humanity
for prisoners is still another. It’s
easy to issue statements and cite policy.
It’s still another to hold the hand of a grieving mom.
I’m
frustrated. I'm angry. I’m a parent and a grandparent. I’m hurting for Michelle. I don’t know the answers,
but I’m ashamed that my state couldn’t do better than this. I find this completely unacceptable.
Thank God
for the dear friends of Michelle behind bars who remain at her side.
May our Heavenly Father grant her peace in this difficult time, and enfold her in his everlasting arms.
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