If you have ever been to a prison waiting room you will relate to the woman in this video, preparing hours ahead for her visit to prison. This powerful short video shows this brave woman’s quest to keep her daughter connected to her father and to sacrifice so much to allow them time together. Her little checklist; making sure there is no metal on her undergarments, putting her daughter’s needs in a see-through bag, it all rings true.
Children are expected to behave like adults in a prison waiting room not like children. Visitors are not supposed to interact with other visitors and even smiling a child, which comes naturally to most, is frowned upon. Most prisons have limited coloring books and toys for children, some are purchased by the guards because there is no budget.
What is wrong with our country that we will allow any connections between parents and children in the visiting rooms to be so strained and so damaging to children? We need prison reforms in so many areas this is just one. Many families cannot afford to make the trip to visit loved ones in prison they are so far away, and others are not granted permission to visit.
90% of people who are imprisoned in America will get out and become your neighbors. We need to be sure they are treated as though they are someone’s son or daughter, someone’s brother or sister, or someone’s dad or mom.
This is too important for the relationships of children who are damaged by parental absences.
The Curious Autodidact 
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