PAROLE ELIGIBLE!

Yes!  It's official...Jason is finally parole eligible!  I'm praying that they will grant him parole soon.  In the meantime, I am headed to Atlanta this Friday for the Georgia Department of Corrections' Family Day where we can speak with the warden and other GDOC representatives.  To my knowledge, this only happens one day out of the year, so I'm on it!  I've been waiting a long time.  You can NEVER get in touch with the warden.  I believe it is set up that way on purpose:  He has no voice mail, no email, and you cannot leave a message to have him call you back, and of course he is never available when you call.  I have faxed him and send him snail mail letters without response, as well.  So, this will be a very important meeting for us.  There are four things that Jason has specifically asked me to address:

1.  Ask for information on programs for life sentences.

2.  How are we supposed to order books?  A little background on this...there is very little that prisoners are allowed to receive, and it must always come through a third party source.  They used to allow books to be sent in to prisoners through Amazon, but they have now put a stop to that, for God only knows what reason.  They expect inmates to now purchase books using the money they have on their accounts (provided by their family) which we cannot figure out, since this isn't the 70s when you could place book orders from a catalog.  I truly don't think such a book store exists.

3.  Discuss the many visitation issues/problems with the warden.

4.  Safety concerns, particularly about gang violence getting out of control.  Jason is not in a gang, but non-gang members suffer, too.  Sometimes they get caught in the cross-fire, or they are punished for things that gang members do to each other (like last week's 7-day lock-down).

I was at visitation on Sunday, and in line for almost an hour.  The visitors typically end up discussing prison topics during this time, and I was enlightened about rumors such as families will soon be required to supply toilet paper--really?  I thought it was ridiculous when Jason told me that the inmates were required to bring their own spoons to "chow," as the prison did not supply them.  I said "Plastic spoons?"  Yep--plastic spoons.  I already know that he has to pay for his medicine and doctor visits, when they allow him to be seen.

If I hear one more person talking about how good inmates have it...