Well, I used to agree with “everyone” who said, “Prisoners deserve every discomfort they get! That’s what they get for doing something bad and being put in prison! It’s not supposed to be a walk in the park!”

Now I teach in a prison. My students average about 25 years of age—the same age as my children. I see them as human beings. Some of their stories break my heart. For so many of them, winding up in prison was almost fore-ordained. The other day a student asked me to get on THE KASPERS website…where we looked up his father, his brother and half brother, a cousin, AND his mother.
I love these guys almost like my own kids. I want to DO things to make their lives a little easier. And now I want to kick people who say, “Oh, they don’t deserve ice water with their meals! That’s what they get for being in prison!”

It’s frustrating because people who say that, including me when I used to feel that way, don’t realize that there, but for the grace of God, go all of us.