Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything that enjoyable, and that had such a strong impact on me!

I’m talking about my visit on the “inside” at PHOENIX’s April 16th relational gathering at CRCI. Although people on the inside said over and over how much they appreciated people from the community coming in to spend the evening with them, I’m the one who really gained.

As I listened to the stories, I couldn’t help but be struck by how interconnected they were—broken families, drugs, gang affiliation—there’s a pattern here, and that pattern leads down a road of crime and violence. We live in a throwaway society where the prison system seems designed not to rehabilitate people who’ve broken the law, but to throw them away—a society that hinders their chance to succeed even after release. We’ve got to change that, to give people an opportunity to make it, and the hope of a better way!

I, like many of you, have too many things on my plate. So I put off making the commitment to go “inside.” Thanks to all the members of PHOENIX, ‘inside’ and ‘out,’ for not giving up on me! I will go back, and I would strongly encourage others to make time for this. You won’t be sorry!

Cherry Harris, Organizer
IUOE #701