Friends in Jail, Locked Up - Thinking and Praying for You

    Most of us never get locked up. Most of us do not commit those crimes requisite to fit those sentences. Sometimes innocent people are imprisoned in jail and prison. I am pretty sure that Martin Luther King did not deserve his jail time. Did Joseph Smith in the 1800s? That is where he was killed, his second significant time in jail. Nelson Mandela, anyone? Behind bars for almost 31 years or so? Jesus was jailed before suffering his death on the cross.

    I have written about living and dead people, both those that I have known, and also about those that I never met. Famous and not so famous. 

    How about the imprisoned? I know a few. I will not write their real names. The older that I get, the more that I know.

    One guy imprisoned I know from Indiana, who had lived a few other places, but as far as I know he is locked up for a long time in my home state. I think that he was sentenced for child pornography. My dad knows more about the case than me. He knows the family of the person serving, as do I, but I think that he would see them more, more recently. My dad has strong opinions about his Church status, this prisoner of the state, which is a matter pertaining to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint stake (Bloomington is the administrative center for such matters and decisions regarding removing names of those on the rolls of the membership, formerly known as excommunication). He may still be listed on the records of the faith. His soul is with God; from what I know his body is existing in an Indiana penitentiary. 

    I know a couple guys locked up in Virginia. Dealing with drugs, or violent assaults, or weaponry in the homes. Multiple felonies and misdemeanors. Both locked up for a long time.

    Who else? There was a guy in Florida that a friend and I tried writing to. That fizzled, it may not have been a real attempt at communication.

    While living in Utah I knew some juveniles who were locked up. I worked a temporary job with a guy who had served time, not too far away from where we labored. His buddy had broken the law and had not done hard time. Yet. I think that they tried to hurt me on the job. Not malicious, maybe, just spitefully indifferent.

    Yep. I saw juveniles in California paying their time, standing in lines, silent, reforming.

    We hope and pray that all of you may reform, may change, may work and live honestly. And please, stop poisoning your brain with marijuana and other ridiculous drugs. Stop it. Stop the insanity. Choose real life.

    We pray for your minds, bodies, and souls.