kittens in prison

I know last post I promised to do a "what's in your bag post", I was even getting ready to sort out all my junk. Unfortunately I could not get the memory of visiting the Indian Springs prison out of my head. My visit was on Thursday and I didn't realize how hand picked our group was until I got there and found out that there was only going to be ten of us, including the instructor. Of course we started out with the usual, number of prisoners, age of the facility, then the tour commenced. It was amazing, the girls and maybe even one guy in the group were barked at by passing inmates. I kept my composure and tried not to giggle like a dumb girl out of high school. We then toured the workshops of the inmates who are allowed to have jobs. I think the poor guy working in the shop alone didn't count on us walking in on him. Imagine our surprise when one of the girls in the group spotted a kitten behind a box in the corner. At this point everything seemed meaningless and our attention was immediately focused on this little, incredibly cute, ball of fluff. My heart sank when the Lt. immediately looked at the inmate and said "can you explain this?!" As we walked out one of the girls asked if the inmate was in trouble, the Lt. said, "yes, he might even lose his job over this, inmates are not allowed to have pets". It made my heart hurt a little to see this inmate's kitten being taken away from him. I didn't even know what he was in prison for, nor did I care! Just the experience of being a witness to this still makes me sad.

(picture courtesy of saboegel on flickr)