The Holidays behind bars, how do they look?

The Holidays are something that most of us love and look forward to because they mean being together with family and friends and sharing that holiday cheer. It’s all about being together with each other and celebrating our traditions, and most of all, it’s about hoping for a better time than the rest of the year. What would happen if you were away from your family and could not interact with them in a meaningful way, surrounded by cold concrete walls?

 Now this sounds like a nightmare, but it isn’t, as this is the reality for 1.25 million Americans who are currently in federal prison. While for many of us who have never been to prison, it’s easy to dismiss these people and have the thought process that this is what they deserve, and while for a few that might be true, but of the people there are humans who have made a mistake in their life that landed them in prison. 

Then comes the question of whether they really deserve being alone during the holidays for the mistakes they made years prior. Now, of course, the way that the people in prison celebrate the holidays is different from us, and even then, there are differences between each prison.

Some prisons are relaxed, and they allow many things to happen, but then you have more strict prisons in which not a lot happens. Let’s start with the less strict prisons, as they have more activities, and they allow things to happen. One of the biggest parts of the holidays for many people is not only the gifts but the religion and celebrating it by worship or however they choose to celebrate, and that still holds in prison. Some prisons are willing to bring a religious leader to their prison or sometimes another prisoner to hold religious worship. It’s something small, but sometimes even that small thing is enough and brings out the same hope they would have if they were back home.  There is still more that more relaxed prisons do for their prisoners, and one of the most important things for any person is being able to see their family, especially in a place like prison. 

So during the holidays, they tend to give family members a lot more visits, and also they give them more time to interact with each other. One of the hardest things to do is to be a parent while being in prison, not being able to see your child grow up That’s why there are programs in place to help that. Gift giving is a very central part of the holiday season, so parents who are in prison are able to select gifts for their children through the Angel Tree program, allowing them to be able to give their children a gift even in prison. 

Food is something that most of us take for granted, but for the people who are in prison, it’s the reality that they have to eat below-average food with poor nutritional value, and good food can bring comfort for them. That is why, during the holiday season, more relaxed prisons tend to give prisoners a larger portion of food, and also give them better food, often with snacks and candy on the side. Also, once they are very near Christmas, they start to play music and movies for the prisoners, and they usually accompany this with games of bingo or chess. 

Now, as for the higher security prisons, most of this will happen for the prisoners as the security concerns are too great, and often, the prisoners in these prisons will not celebrate the holidays. While a few still try to do something for their prison, it’s nothing like the more relaxed prisons, and for the people inside, it’s often just a cold December in which they remember the holidays, but they don’t have the opportunity to celebrate them while inside these harsher prisons. 

The same thing holds for both types of prisons, that while they still might celebrate the holidays in some way, it’s not the same as being with their family and friends at their house, enjoying their time. It’s important to know that they are people just like me and me, and they have committed mistakes, some more than others, but does that mean that they don’t deserve to be with their family and partake in the holiday joy? I believe that everyone should be allowed to celebrate the holidays because for us it’s to dismiss them. After all, they committed a mistake or did something wrong, but they are still human. And humans, regardless of what they have done in their life, deserve to have a bit of joy because the holidays is all about community and forgiveness, and there are a few people in their lives that might not be in a position to ask for forgiveness. It’s part of the joy in the holidays to try. If you want to leave with anything from my article, it’s to know that there are still people trying to be better than their past selves and that they are just trying to celebrate the holidays while being away from their families.