I'm going to reluctantly dip my toe in this thread. About 6 months ago I began to visit a death row inmate. It's a long story but it was set up through my church. I do not go to try to convert him or save him, I visit him just to talk about what ever he would like to discuss. They call it the ministry of presence. It was something I felt was the right thing to do. It's about an hour away. I try to go once a month. I am not against the death penalty and agree with an early post that time is too long while waiting. Going into the prison has been eye opening to say the least. The conditions aren't anywhere near as good as I've heard described. The inmates do get medical care and food. They do have to pay for any medical care they get including medicine. The food is certainly nothing to write home about. Everything else they have to pay for….food, toiletries, books…anything. It is 17 cents per email for me to email him(there is a community computer in the recreation area (they visit once a week). Please don't take this that I believe this is unfair, I'm just pointing out some of the misconceptions I had prior to visiting. I'm not sharing this in an attempt to gain sympathy for death row inmates. There are certainly very bad men on death row. I can tell you sitting across the table from the man I visit I have not once felt uncomfortable or concerned in any way for my safety. I can say unequivocally he is a different man than the man that went on death row. I will say I'd have him live in my home without reservation. However what's done is done and we (nor he) can undo the past. He chose his path, I just find it much more difficult to judge when it is so personal.
I will let this end at this point, I'm finding this much more difficult to describe now that I'm actually putting pen to paper. I'll leave it that this has been very difficult but something glad I got involved in.
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