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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