Prison grief takes no holiday

Mail to the HFP office doesn't let up during the holidays. It might even pick up tempo just a bit.

A prisoner wants us to get his story out to all state legislators, because he can't make it happen. A prisoner wants us to help him find a location to parole to, because he was an only child, has burned a few bridges, and now has no family and no friends, should he ever obtain a release. A prisoner needs help filing a commutation application, but thinks we should do most of the work. A prisoner needs copies of the application form. (That's easy...we can honor that request.) The mother of a prisoner needs help getting medical care for her son. He was on medication for migraine headaches. As we often hear, the state stopped the medicine. He's not able to function anymore. He was supposed to have followup care following a CT-scan 2 years ago and that never happened. Can we help?

And, if you can believe it...all requests in the above paragraph came in TODAY. Not this week. Today!

We'll start making our contacts, start doing what we can, gently explain what we can't do, and place everything before God in prayer.

I so very much appreciated the comment from Thad a few days ago, a wrongly convicted exoneree, who encouraged us to "Keep up the important and impressive work that you do. I know that they appreciate your love and support, as I did when I needed it."

And I say that to all of you in our corner. Thank you for your love and support, as we try to offer the same to "the least of these."

Enjoy your holiday season. It's not nice in prison this week.

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