I Went to Prison

On my way back from vacation yesterday Google Maps decided it would be 3 minutes faster to take us on a route through every single small town in America.

The one thing I noticed about almost every one of these towns was that there were more closed, abandoned buildings than open ones. Not visually stimulating, to say the least.

There was one town in particular that fit this mold perfectly, with one exception; a sprawling development of look alike buildings, each one maintained to near perfection, right on the edge of town.

The development I was looking at was a women’s prison. I looked it up when I got home and it houses over 2,000 minimum to maximum security prisoners, including those on death row.

Each one of these prisoners has a different story, a different reason for how they ended up here. Some have concerned parents, some have kids, some have neither.

Many of these prisoners will be released one day but they’ll continue down the same path and end up coming back. There are a few, however, that’ll make some major changes, turn their lives around, and serve as an example that it’s always possible to change course.

I guess there’s really no moral to this story other than, no matter how bad you think your current situation might be, it’s always up to you to change it.

Have a great week everybody,

Rick