Finding Hope in the Holidays, Even in Prison

I'm a bit of a scrooge when it comes to Christmas. I mean, I don't hate Christmas or anything, but since coming to prison I've found it difficult to feel very festive. I've also developed an aversion to the excessive materialism found at Christmastime. Nevertheless, I recognize that much of how I feel at this time of year is directly tied to my inability to be present with my family, to share in the little (and big) joys of the season. Perhaps if I was not in prison, I would feel differently. 

But as I recently thought about my Grinchy-ness, I was reminded that Christmas is about others. It's about celebrating the birth of our Savior, and it's about giving to others. Despite all the misery and lack of connection or joy I feel because of being in prison, I know others are suffering much more than I am. I am in prison because of terrible choices I made, but my family suffers every year when I am absent, through no fault of their own. Yet, some of them put on a brave face and try to make Christmas special for me, even though I cannot be there with them. 

I also think about the fact that I still have some family in my life (for which I am deeply grateful!). Some of the other men around me in prison have no family or friends left in their lives. They suffer far more than I do, and they often do so in silence. I think about the families who lost their incarcerated loved one this year to the Coronavirus, or of the prisoners who lost a loved one outside of prison to the same. Often, these losses were sudden and unexpected, and they had no opportunity to say goodbye. I'm deeply grateful for the gift of family and friends who make my life richer, despite the hardship of razor wire fences separating us. 

Yes, being separated from loved ones during the holidays is incredibly difficult, but I still have so many incredible gifts for which to be thankful. I won't be able to sit around the fireplace drinking hot cider or cocoa, or decorate a tree, shop for last minute gifts in a frenzy, or drive around and enjoy the light displays with my family, but I am still richly blessed. On Christmas morning, I intend to wake up (probably at my usual time) and unwrap the gift of gratefulness. I plan to name, out loud, the incredible gifts God has blessed me with this year, above and beyond the daily gift of His presence in my life. 

So much of life is about perspective, and that goes for in prison too. Yes, the holidays are hard for many of us, but we can choose to be grateful anyway. We realize how rich we are when we stop staring intently at what we wished was and instead look with wonder at what already is. 

To all you loved ones suffering separation from someone you love due to incarceration, may you experience the joy and peace of Christ this season, and may you experience the gift of hope for something beautifully new and surprising this coming new year. 

Merry Christmas! 

What is the Real Cost of Saving 20% on Prison Medical Care?

 I fully support responsible cost-cutting, saving money, reducing costs. In a nation obsessed with consuming, it's a good idea every once in a while to trim the fat, so to speak. But when any government entity begins talking about cutting costs, I get highly skeptical. 

Take for instance the Michigan Department of Correction's recent signing of a new contract for prisoner medical care. They like to tout the aim of cost cutting (up to 20% savings!) all while continuing insanely wasteful spending in other areas. Before coming to prison, I had never witnessed such grotesquely wasteful spending. 

Now that the department has signed a new medical care contract, let me tell you just two of the recent examples of "care" provided by medical staff in prison. One prisoner in my housing unit can barely walk. He has a problem with his foot or his leg in some way, I don't know. He's elderly, and he clearly needs some sort of assistance to get around. But medical staff here have said they want him using that leg to develop more mobility. That makes sense, actually, for certain injuries. However, when a man can only shuffle forward six inches at a time, and he looks like he can barely stand the whole time, common sense says he needs some sort of assistance. Will they give him a cane or walker? No. Will they allow someone to push him to chow in a wheelchair? No. Meanwhile, the entire housing unit has finished eating, and he's still shuffling to chow, six inches at a time. That is not even close to a reasonable standard of care. 

Another prisoner in my housing unit has a herniated or slipped disc in his back. But supposedly because we are on Covid outbreak status, only "emergency" medical issues are being seen. This prisoner can barely walk or function because of the pain, but medical staff refuse to help him. Today, he "fell out" in the hallway because of the pain. Only then did medical staff see him and give him a temporary injection for his pain. He's serving life in prison, so it's not like he can grin and bear it until he can get some real healthcare. 

So, while the department is purportedly saving 20% on medical costs, by denying essential care to prisoners, it is paying exorbitant amounts of overtime pay to corrections officers and administrators. Because the department cannot hire and retain enough officers and staff, the severe shortage means mandated overtime. This mandated overtime requires overtime pay. It also causes burnout and leads to more staff members quitting. 

To make matters worse, while the department pays its staff ridiculous amounts of overtime pay, it has refused to raise wages for prisoners, for decades! Prisoner wages have remained stagnant so long that I don't know a single prisoner who has experienced a pay raise while in prison. In fact, prisoners used to make bonus money in some jobs, and that was taken away. The Constitution of the United States allows slavery for those convicted of felonies, and the State of Michigan has capitalized on that fact for many, many years. The highest wage a prisoner can make in a day can barely purchase a stick of deodorant or tube of toothpaste. He may have to work at least two days, or eleven days at the lowest rate, just to buy either item. 

Inflation is hurting many American families, and it is devastating prisoners' purchasing power too. Without a single pay raise in decades, but commissary prices rising all the time, a dollar just doesn't go very far these days. Since the amount and quality of food served to prisoners has also declined in recent decades, commissary food is often necessary to supplement a lackluster diet. 

The sad reality is that the State of Michigan has it within it's power to reduce the prison population by joining the other 49 states and offering prisoners incentives to reduce their prison sentences. It can further reduce the prison population by eliminating mandatory minimums, passing second look sentencing reforms, and making several other important sentencing reforms. 

But these reforms take guts, they take courage. And rather than tackle tough issues and save real money, legislators and prison administrators make decisions that sound good to the public (reducing medical costs by 20%!). These mirages of public responsibility comfort the public while mismanagement and wasteful spending continue unabated.

Until the State of Michigan makes tough decisions, like significantly cutting its prison population, staff shortages and the resulting overtime paid out will continue to wipe out (and then some) any supposed savings gained through new contracts. And Michigan prisoners will continue to suffer from desperately substandard or completely absent medical care.

We Mourn with You, Oxford, Michigan Students and Families

 Most, if not all, of you have undoubtedly heard of the recent tragic school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, where four teens were killed and many others wounded (including a teacher). It is yet another tragedy that leaves devastated families, numerous unanswered questions, and embroiled passions in its wake. People are angry, and rightly so, that these tragedies keep occurring. When will it stop? How many more children must die? 

Sadly, these tragedies lead to much vitriolic debate on both sides of the political aisle about how to solve these crises. Would strict gun control stop the violence? Probably not, since another recent tragedy that took the lives of a number of people occurred when someone plowed a car into a crowd. Would metal detectors and a strong police presence in school stop these tragedies? Probably not, since guns can now be made with plastic. 

All the finger pointing, blame shifting, and political wrangling does nothing to solve the terrible angst of four families who lost their children, and the many others whose children are recovering from gunshot wounds or dealing with their exposure to the horror from that day. We need to address this persistent problem, gun violence in American schools, but it's a problem that requires tact and proper timing. 

The families of the four teens who died, and those who survived, deserve time to process their pain. They deserve the unified support of their community, politicians from both sides of the aisle, and the nation as a whole. They deserve to know that we feel their pain, we mourn with them in their losses, and we honor their children who died tragically and senselessly. 

And when they have privacy again, to fully grieve their losses, that will be the time for the politicians, the community leaders, and the parents of school children to confront the difficult challenges of stopping the violence. Solutions to this problem will not be easy. They will require sacrifice, selflessness, and sober earnestness. These solutions will require out of the box thinking. 

As a nation, we have to be willing to tighten our gun laws, but those would not have stopped this tragedy. We have to be willing to address, head on, the mental health crisis in our country. But that would not have stopped this tragedy either. We have to teach parents to better recognize the signs of mental illness or mental break in their children, but that might not have stopped this tragedy either. 

We have to do something to address the problem, but we also have to recognize that we live in a world where tragedy cannot be stopped. People hurt each other senselessly, and sometimes there is no easy or discernable cause. Maybe this shooter was bullied, but so are tens of thousands of children. Let's try to stop bullying, but also recognize that we cannot stop it all. Let's start by trying to stop it in our local school.

It's easy to believe that we could have stopped a tragedy, because as humans we want to think we are powerful enough to control human behavior. Human behavior is messy, though, and it is often senseless. Sadly, it leaves devastated lives in its wake. So, let's try to solve the problems, yes, but let's also remember that compassion and unity go a long way when tragedy leaves a trail of tears.