I Have To Report To Jail On Saturday

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[quote name='Mark of the Cross' timestamp='1344551188' post='2465205']
Is he allowed to bring his teddy bear or security blanket?
[/quote]

If it stays in the locker.

I dunno, I've been in two jails, two prisons, and one penitentiary and the only time I ever felt ill at ease was the lattermost. Things tend to run very regimented by nature in a correctional institution, so the odds of something happening to a volunteer are pretty overblown. Not saying impossible though, but overall unlikely.

Now the one time I did feel uneasy, I was at a federal penitentiary for class where they spend over half the year usually under lockdown due to stabbings and there was an incident at the gate during a part of our tour where they sat us down with some of the female offenders. The guard left and locked us in; we didn't know what was going on outside, but our class was locked in with some not so impressive offenders and some murderers. It was what might be going on by the gate that was concerning though, the inmates were content to just keep sharing their stories. I think it was my first real eye opening experience about correctional facilities though. We had just had one woman tell us about killing two people in a gang altercation and the next person to stand up is in her 60s. She kept cashing her late husband's social security checks after he died and did some other minor financial crime, but she did it in D.C. which is federalized, so when you go to prison from D.C., you go into the federal system. It was like "whoa...so you can have someone in here who looks like any other senior citizen AND gang members under one roof?" As for the gate incident, it was actually impressive looking when they let us out later; someone had managed to break some concrete loose and hurled it a few times against the window of a guard booth.

I should point out though, it would take the Holy Spirit to ever make me go into a private jail or prison. (I'm assuming it's not one J!) Understaffed, undertrained, veteran inmates, higher rates of escapes and violence, etc.