It’s a good 400 paces, maybe 450, heading north from the Visitor’s parking lot to the Gatehouse at Menard Correctional Center. Once inside, you retrace almost every one of those steps, heading south along Front Street, in order to reach the Chapel.
No big deal on a nice day. But when nasty weather rears, the walk can be brutal.
Continue readingIt wasn’t a “driving” rain exactly. More like “steady,” the winds mercifully silent as we made our wet way along Front Street for the four-minute walk from the prison’s entry house to the chapel deep inside the grounds yesterday.
Continue readingTough it was, nearly a physical burden, to answer the bell on Saturday morning.
Continue readingI tried hard not to be jealous when a friend told me about his plans to spend this weekend skiing in Colorado. Then he sent a photo of the view he’s enjoying in Telluride.
There’s nothing quite like doing a short stretch in prison…to sharpen one’s desire to give thanks.
First-time team members typically find the request shocking: We ask everyone who serves on team to round up 40 dozen homemade cookies, all to be shared with residents and staffers during our Kairos Prison Ministry weekend retreat.
Daniel desires with all his heart to be free of the cell in which he is today imprisoned. He’s done hard time, more than a decade behind bars. He’s learned his lesson.
Or maybe it’s “lessons.”
I could hear the piston engines – their menacing murmur – long before I actually saw the planes the other evening.
With Us Still 