Prison visit: The gift that keeps on giving!

Bob got some bad news this week. His family won’t be coming to visit him in prison. Family members are in Texas, and they claimed that some snow prevented their travel. The visit will have to be by phone for this Christmas.

He’s taking it in stride. It’s a way of life for prisoners.

Some years ago the Minnesota Department of Corrections conducted a major study on the impact of visitation. Said the experts: Based on both statistic and anecdotal evidence, visitation can be the difference between continuing a cycle of reoffending or finding hope to start a new life, according to experts and research.

And yet they don’t get visits---

-Retired Warden Mary Berghuis contends that only 12% of Michigan prisoners get visits!
-HFP Prison Doctor Bob Bulten recently called on a long-time inmate. It marked the first time he had ever had a visit!
-My friend Jimmy has been in prison 18 years. He’s never had a visit!

A dear friend of ours, wife of a wrongly-convicted lifer, recently put out an appeal to friends and relatives of Michigan inmates: Make a prison visit! She told how bad weather forced cancellation of just one of her regular visits with her husband, and how much they both missed it.

Looking at from a selfish perspective, it can, indeed, be an annoyance. For one thing, it’ll probably involve a long drive. Then there’ll be the long time spent in the waiting room. You may have an unpleasant experience with a Corrections Officer.

But you couldn’t make a better investment of time! Even though you can’t bring in food, you can’t bring in gifts, you CAN bring in yourself. Plan to buy him or her some food from the vending machines, take advantage of the photo op. Allow time. And don’t think you have to do all the talking. These people have no one with whom they can just sit and share thoughts and experiences. They just want someone to listen.

I apologized to an inmate, once, because in a prison speaking engagement I didn’t answer all of their questions very adequately. “Heck,” he said, “most of the guys already knew the answers. They just wanted to be with you!” It was the visit that was important.

It’s probably too late to do it before Christmas, but it’s never too late.

Make it a part of your Advent/Christmas/holiday/New Year commitment.

I was in prison and you visited me!  Jesus knew then, and knows now, the importance of the prison visit.

In this season of Advent, I long for his return.

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