Thank You for Taking Your Role as Mama Seriously
An occasional sight on the main highway running through Jackson County are women in T-shirts and orange and white striped pants picking up debris along the roadway. Parked very nearby is a white corrections van with a watching attendant. Several years ago, we used to pass a similar scene with men rather than women. I felt a bit anxious as we drove past them.
In these historical photos, other incarcerated people perform tasks for the general public.
Prisoners work on a state road in North Carolina, 1936,
photo by Carl Mydans,
courtesy of the Library of Congress
Prisoners build roads in New Jersey, c. 1912,
courtesy of the Library of Congress
Prisoners at the Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia
pick potato bugs in the prison garden
to help the war effort (World War I), c. 1918,
courtesy of the Library of Congress
These inmates are attending the funeral of their warden who died in a car accident.
Prisoners in Green County, Georgia,
photo by Jack Delano,
courtesy of Library of Congress
During a recent community event, Ray and I browsed tables which were manned by various agencies and organizations, such as the health department. Representatives at one table were there to explain the program that oversees the inmates who gather debris along Tennessee highways. I mentioned my feelings of anxiety. The lady behind the table told me that we are in no danger.
She explained that the women in this program in Jackson County have earned the opportunity to do this. They have almost completed their sentences and are near the time when they will be released. The program benefits them by teaching them life skills, such as responsibility and getting up in time to do a job. Picking up debris is preparing these women for a better future than they have known before. The lady explaining this program was thrilled that she had a role in making this happen. You could see that she believed strongly in the benefits of what she was doing.
The last time we passed the ladies in striped pants I looked at the face of the lady on my side of the road. I saw her working quickly and diligently. I witnessed her being successful.
I have long believed that many people arrive at adulthood severely handicapped by a lack of parental training. They make terrible choices because they simply do not know what they should be doing because no one has ever taught them. I wonder if a program could exist in which adults who make horrible choices could have a second chance of being parented, of learning all those “little” things that responsible moms and dads teach their children. I am thankful for this program that works to train inmates to be responsible adults when they are released. I am even more thankful that your children have a real, live, honest-to-goodness Mama who takes her role seriously.
It is for discipline that you endure;
God deals with you as with sons;
for what son is there
whom his father does not discipline?
Hebrews 12:7