Prison Tour...

I took a Prison Tour today and this experience has opened my eyes to how lucky I am. We got to see inmates and I am so glad of the choices I have made in my life. When you first get in there they make you give everything up for 2 hours. No phone, no ipod, no money not even a license. They make you turn in your license take your keys and give you a visitor pass so they can keep track of you. Then they lecture you on what to do and not what to do. Millions of things were going through my head freaking out. Although I know I will obey everything they said you still get scared by swat teams with dogs...trust me. They took us to this place where they keep all the sex offenders, they only earn .40 cents a day, for this money they save it up for; education, tv, radio, chips, soda, ect. Then they took us to this room and showed us posters of all the gang members they have there and the bad things about gangs. These boys will take a toothbrush and a razor and put them together to create a tattoo tool or slash others that they can not stand. In this area they told us they have 3 generations all in Prison. Just cause they were all in the same gang. Then they took us to the work shop where they make license plates. Didn't know that License Plates were made in Prisons, along with signs for the state. They took us to another area where there were lots of cells and lots of people in them. One of the guys that took us on the tour told us that the boys act rude because they just don't know how to act. One of the Prisoners yelled "warning, don't feed the inmates" Which made every one laugh. Then some of the Prisoners start singing. They told us that is because they have nothing to do with being locked up for 23 hours. When we finished our tour we turned in our visitor pass for our license and then headed out. I thought it was so funny when they check you out at the gate. We had to show our license to them then they searched the car to make sure no prisoners were going home with us. I am so greatful for my family and there great choices.