Families of Prisoners Support Group
This community is dedicated to families that have been disrupted by prison. Having a loved one incarcerated or having been incarcerated comes with its own unique challenges that require support and understanding. Join the group to find others who know what you're going through, and to seek advice or share your experience.
Hi everyone. I want to introduce myself to the group. I am the wife of a retired wildlife conservation officer whose life was changed after writing to a young man sentenced to life without parole for a crime he was involved in at the age of 15.
Prior to our introduction to this young man we held the usual stereotypes folks like me do about the incarcerated and their families. I won't go into them here because you are no doubt aware and have put up with enough of them.
I did not send a letter to this young man because I cared or had any change of heart. I thought inmates were the "dregs of society." But his art was beautiful and I had an art store that could sell his work. The result of that first letter and our eventual correspondence is just astonishing. '
It took years to evolve but our entire family, including my sons, eventually grew to love and yes, admire, this young man we would once have despised. Eventually, as he had no family, WE became his family and he now calls my husband and I his mom and dad. We love him as much as our own sons.
I am reaching out to you because our story, Letters to a Lifer, has just been published and is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I have become a passionate advocate for ending life without parole for juveniles and wrote the book not only to bring attention to that but to show inmates in a more human way, without all the judgment.
Please check it out and tell others about it. I am the former judgmental person who wrote it and have been changed dramatically through this precious young man. All of my royalties from the book will be donated to a charity in Philadelphia, PA run by ex-offenders which mentors at-risk children.
A preview of the book can be seen on youtube: Letters to a Lifer, the book.
Thank you and God bless you all!
Prior to our introduction to this young man we held the usual stereotypes folks like me do about the incarcerated and their families. I won't go into them here because you are no doubt aware and have put up with enough of them.
I did not send a letter to this young man because I cared or had any change of heart. I thought inmates were the "dregs of society." But his art was beautiful and I had an art store that could sell his work. The result of that first letter and our eventual correspondence is just astonishing. '
It took years to evolve but our entire family, including my sons, eventually grew to love and yes, admire, this young man we would once have despised. Eventually, as he had no family, WE became his family and he now calls my husband and I his mom and dad. We love him as much as our own sons.
I am reaching out to you because our story, Letters to a Lifer, has just been published and is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I have become a passionate advocate for ending life without parole for juveniles and wrote the book not only to bring attention to that but to show inmates in a more human way, without all the judgment.
Please check it out and tell others about it. I am the former judgmental person who wrote it and have been changed dramatically through this precious young man. All of my royalties from the book will be donated to a charity in Philadelphia, PA run by ex-offenders which mentors at-risk children.
A preview of the book can be seen on youtube: Letters to a Lifer, the book.
Thank you and God bless you all!
It was about four or five months later that I learned, this funny, good humored person whose letters I looked forward to receiving is not only a lifer, but on death row! This just couldn't be. People on death row are evil!
I've since had to rethink what it means to be "made in the image of God". Just as a statue of George Washington may be a good image of the man, it also has traits that aren't like him (rigid, lifeless, heavy, un-talkative, cold, impersonal, chipped, etc.) So it is with all of us. Nobody is pure evil as I once thought. Some place on the inside everyone has some good.
I hope your book brings others to this realization as well.
Best of luck to you.
George
www.leafministry.org