Compassion starts at the prison gate

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from this very first sentence

you might be able to pick up that we

actually aren’t from texas

we’re not from anywhere near texas and

we never dreamed or imagined that our

lives would take such a radical turn

after we landed in america from ireland

literally fresh off the boat moving to

the united states having never lived

here before and not

understanding the way of life here very

well we were thrown

into a pretty crazy situation

so while volunteering with a charity

that serves the homeless community

in houston we came across a baby who is

in dire need

mom was also in dire need lack of

resources and basic child care knowledge

had led him to be very sickly

he was underweight he was covered in

scabies he had mold growing all over his

body

he had critical neck injuries he was

just

in a really bad way and obviously his

mother was not able to care for him

she knew that and she asked us to help

her with him and subsequently asked us

to adopt him

that baby is now our 15 year old healthy

incredible amazing son and his life and

that

moment changed our lives forever

in ways that are really hard to express

and in caring for him we were also

involved with helping his mother

and her community and trying to help her

get on her own feet

and our eyes were suddenly wide open to

the very difficult

cycles of poverty they live in and the

trajectories that these young people

growing up in underserved communities

seem to be on and can be stuck in

and there’s always so much interest in

our work with the homeless and

rightly so and all of us have a broken

heart for these babies

and children without resources when we

hear those stories

our heart is saddened but what about

when those babies begin to grow up

when they become teenagers when they

become men

and women still without resources

and life tools maybe our empathy begins

to grow

a little bit thin maybe we don’t have

the same compassion and we don’t want to

reach out and help

quite as quickly another thing when we

were fresh off that boat when we arrived

here something we didn’t know

is that there’s a large segment of

society who aren’t allowed to vote

they find it almost impossible to rent a

place to live in very difficult

and even though they can be very

qualified and very willing

ready they’re rarely able to find

employment

and we are able to feel instant

compassion for those babies who need

help who need our help

who are helpless and they have needs

that we can meet but what about when

those babies

when they grow up and they we they’re

without tools without education

or the support needed to for success in

life

what about when those babies that we

care about they become prisoners

or what about citizens with records or

felonies do we still care do we have

that compassion and empathy

or can we simply dismiss them and forget

about them because we feel

they got what they deserved we could

give you a list of statistics

we could talk at length about the 70 000

who go into prison

70 000 coming out big numbers of

recivitism

up to 50 000 tax dollars per

inmate these inmates have been referred

to

by a number for enough time they’re not

names they’re numbers

and we don’t want to talk about numbers

we want to talk about people

we want to give them value we want to

say who they are

so we want to introduce you to some

people i want to introduce you

to some people who are being released

from prison and they get out of prison

holding a red bag like this

they’re wearing their prison clothes

they have their prison

shoes on those prison shoes often have

offender written on the bottom so

they’re literally

walking in an identity of being an

offender

everything they own is in this bag there

are hustlers

outside the bus station waiting for them

to take the fifty dollars that has been

given to them

to start their new life those hustlers

want to draw them back

into the life that they had before

imagine starting your new life with

only fifty dollars and everything you

own in this bag

and the stigma of a felony record and a

hustler is offering you come back into

that life

come with me what would you do we want

to introduce you to four

chain bags that we see every day one

that we see is

is full sometimes two stuffed chain bags

it’s got everything from

uh prison ramen noodles it’s got a a

prison fan

it’s got even toilet paper stuffed in it

everything

uh that represents what we may need

tomorrow they they’re so riddled with

fear they don’t know what tomorrow holds

and they have everything

that they own and possess in two chain

bags

then we see someone with a stack of

books they spend

years learning they’ve bettered

themselves maybe they’ve gotten a degree

or a diploma

nobody cares what people care about is

you’ve got a felony

but they’ve learned they’ve grown

they’ve changed but what people see is

you’ve got a felony a chain bag that we

see every day

is often uh one that’s empty all it has

in it is maybe some parole

parole papers a few a few documents and

and that often represents a story of

someone

who wants to leave everything behind and

start all over again

but imagine starting over with with

nothing except a record

and what about the mom going home to her

babies who’ve maybe been taken by child

protective services

and all she has in here is just a few

little bits that she made in prison

maybe a picture she drew for her

daughter and she’s going back to try to

fight for her children

because she loves them and she wants to

be a parent

everything she owns is in this bag and

no one cares they just care that she has

a felony

so what can be done what’s the what’s

the solution well

seven more’s part to play in it is that

we meet these men and women being

released we

immediately exchange these red flags

these chain bags for backpacks and

we give them hygiene and clothes and

food and and help them maybe in a

practical way

to get on this new trajectory but but

far more important than that

is we want several wants them to know

that they’re seen

that they have dignity that they have

hope and that they have a chance on this

new journey

what can you do what can we all do

to intercept these cycles at every

corner of our community let’s think

about

our lives and what we have to offer

maybe you’re an apartment manager

and you could give a chance to somebody

who has a felony

maybe you’re an educator and you could

go the extra mile maybe you’re an

employer and you could look

past their past how can we look at these

people and not see their record

but see maybe a baby that was never

rescued never given tools for stepping

forward

in life can we see past the felony and

see a dad who wants to start a new cycle

can we see a dad or a mom trying to

start a new family tradition that

doesn’t include prison

maybe they have want to have family

members now who go to

college instead of prison can we see

these men and women as those babies

that it was so easy for us to care for

that it was so easy for us to feel

sad and sorry and give our resources too

can we see them can we hear them

we need to see what they have to offer

to society and to us

and how we all benefit when they thrive

we all benefit when they take positive

steps

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