We need a fire hose!

As we begin a new year, prison issues seem overwhelming! 

Re the Michigan prison mental health system, Chris says: It's a place where, if you go to try and talk about your problems, they put you in a camera-cell naked with a blanket 24 to 72 hours. All you wanted was someone to talk to. 

Re the Michigan prison culinary program, Doug describes the 2024 Christmas dinner: The meal was a mushy gray meat, an apple pie missing the apples and a crust so hard my spork bent in half, and what was supposed to be cheesy potatoes. I plucked a palm sized, uncooked, potato out of the soup, which had never seen cheese because it had been stolen and sold back in the units. 

Re the inability to get either the attention of healthcare or the Parole Board, Larry, age 71, says: One of my legs has been surgically removed, I’m struggling to get treatment for lung cancer, and I have heart disease. I have served over 40 years for a parolable offense, yet I cannot seem to attract suitable action by healthcare or the attention of the Parole Board. 

General William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union Army leader during the Civil War, is quoted as saying “War is hell.” This many years later you may quote Doug Tjapkes, who contends that “Prison is hell!” 

I founded an organization called HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS 23 years ago, and our amazing and compassionate staff members and volunteers do their very best every day to help Michigan prisoners with their personal needs and problems when they don’t know where to turn. But, we cannot expand our services. We can’t take on additional concerns in fields like mental health, food service and Parole Board reform. We are not big enough, we don’t have the resources, and we certainly don’t have the money! 

Fortunately, there are fine agencies in Michigan focusing on many other issues. But, I just wish we had a magic wand. I lament the fact that HFP is only one drop, when, what we really need is a firehose! 

The writer of an AI quote insists: “Just one drop can indeed make a difference, because even a small, seemingly insignificant action can contribute to a larger positive change over time, much like a single drop of water eventually adds up to a significant body of water like an ocean.” 

For now, though, we’ll just have to accept this advice from Mother Teresa: “If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.” 

“Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God." ---Bob Pierce

 

 

 

 

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