from death to resurrection

Today was filled with a wide variety of things. Last week we were at Metro every day, but starting this week we’ll be spending every Thursday morning at the Care and Counseling Center of Georgia (also known as CCCG). It was nice to be with my CPE group in a setting that wasn’t the prison for once, and I think I’ll come to enjoy Thursday mornings, although I did have to leave a little earlier to drive the extra distance.

We met with the chaplain at Metro who is in charge of the re-entry process for the women. Re-entry is meant in the sense of re-entering society after prison and not re-entering prison. One of our jobs this summer is to help with this process. The idea is to get the women in the mindset of leaving prison and entering a healthy, safe life. This means breaking off connections with friends and family who have been bad influences in the past, an idea that can be hard to convince the women to carry out. Also, a safe, affordable place to live, as well as a solid job, are required. These two can be really hard to accomplish. For one thing, most women have little or no money upon being released from prison, making it nearly impossible to find acceptable housing in a safe place. Most places require a deposit, and this is what causes many women to have to stay in prison longer than necessary. Those places that don’t have a deposit requirement are almost always full with a long waiting list.

As far as jobs are concerned, many companies simply will not hire an offender. This makes it very hard for the women to find jobs, and yet they have to have both a job and safe housing set up before they are able to leave the prison. That’s where the chaplaincy re-entry program comes in. We will be helping women to get through these steps and try and accomplish them all so they’ll be able to leave on time. The re-entry chaplain gave us each a list of names of women in our buildings who are scheduled to leave in early to mid-August, and we’re supposed to pick two of them to work with. Since our CPE goes until early August, we will be able to work through nearly the whole process with the women. It sounds like very rewarding work, though there are many steps involved, and we’re not promised to be successful. But I’m willing to work as hard as I can with the women I’ll be assigned to.

After that, our group had our first weekly IPR, which means interpersonal relationship. Basically, we each had a chance to check in and talk about joys and frustrations we’re having, either with certain inmates or staff, our supervisor, and each other. It was very good to talk so openly and honestly with each other, and our conversation was meaningful. When that was done, those of us who were able went out to eat together at a Greek pizza place. It was nice to hang out with group members outside of our CPE setting.

When I got back to the prison for the afternoon, I was introduced to a woman from my building. She had received a letter in the mail from her mother a couple days prior and was informed of the sudden death of her aunt. She had been very close to her aunt, and she was really sad to hear of her death. This has been my first experience dealing with an inmate’s death, and although I wasn’t the one who had to deliver the information, it was still a hard job to see her grieving so much. I let her call her family so she could talk to her mother, then I talked to her mother and found out the funeral arrangements hadn’t yet been made. After she was done talking, I asked the woman what she wanted to do. She said she’s like to sit in silence for a while, and I was very willing to do so. I felt helpless, because there was nothing I could do to comfort her, but she seemed to be a little better after she had sat there for a while. I let her know she could come to me whenever she wanted, to talk or call her family or just have a quiet place to sit and cry.

I decided to make a trip to D Building to make my daily visit to the ladies over there. There’s this sweet little old lady who lives there, but my goodness, does she just talk and talk and TALK! I’ve heard the same story several times already, possibly in the same conversation. But it’s all right, the poor thing probably has no one else to talk to, so I listen. Anyway, she’s convinced God sends her messages, and today she announced to me that while she doesn’t know the exact year, she’s certain the second coming of Christ will be in the springtime on a Thursday. Very insightful.

Like I said, today was one of variety. It’s certainly never boring, going to work. I’m usually pretty wiped out by the end of the day, but I’m always ready to go back again. We’ll see what excitement tomorrow brings.