Visitation

I spent this past Saturday visiting with my mom and her boyfriend. The day was pretty good. We spent the day catching  up on everything on the home front and talking about the New Year that is upon us. When we hugged at the end of our 8 hour day together, I couldn’t help but to look around. I saw the same group of inmates and the oh so dedicated families, spouses and what not. Realistically, I would say there is only 1% of us that have that support in our lives. The fact of the matter is that most are completely alone here. Even though I don’t care for the majority of the inmate population, I can’t help but to wonder if they would change, be better in some way, if they just had somebody there to support them.  

In the 11 years I have been in prison, I have had somewhere around 500 visits. I sometimes take them for granted and there are times when I am not even up to it. When I look around, I feel differently though. I mean, when I get out of here, I know I will not be taking anything for granted anymore. So why wouldn’t I be doing that in here as well? I don’t know… it was a reality check for me.

The time and money spent to visit with me for 8 hours is crazy when I think about it. In all, it’s around $100. To fill up the gas tank, and they bring $50. in quarters so we can eat & drink from the vending machines all day. It’s a 3 hour drive to the prison which means they are up at 4:00 AM to be here by 8:00 AM. They leave at 4:00 PM only to spend another $100.00 to fill the tank for the 3 hour drive back to civilization. It is a 16 hour day by the time it’s all over. It’s an awful lot to take for granted.