Ocasionally we come across a memoir that describes an experience that is just riveting... something that few people go through, but somehow inspires empathy. (Check out these shows for some of my favorites.) We've got another one in this hour: it's Bridget Kinsella's story, Visiting Life: Women Doing Time On The Outside. She's a middle class, attractive, professional woman (works at Publishers Weekly), who began a relationship with a man serving a life sentence for murder. Bridget is a charming woman, and really good at telling her story. If you've had a similar experience, we'd love to hear from you -- I think that often people have preconceived ideas about women that have these kinds of experiences. Share yours with us.
Blog of the Nation
Pelican Bay is the toughest of the tough prisons in California. Your friend must have done something beyond a simple murder to get to Pelican Bay. I'm wondering if he had other crimes that resulted in his placement there.
My brother in law is a correctional officer at Folsom Prison.
Your program was very timely for me. I have a sister, a doctor in her mid-forties, who is dating an inmate who is about to be released after serving 17 years. She met him through a distant relative and is now engaged to marry him. My sister is attractive, smart, and has turned down many suitors prior to choosing a prisoner. Her mother and brothers & sisters are really afraid for her.
I worked on a local commercial radio station in my hometown of Cincinnati Ohio. I started this segment called the 'lockdown line' and at a certain time I'd let inmates call collect and I'd edit all the calls together and play them back. One of the most touching and tearful segments was on mother's day when so many inmates lined up and passed the phone to one another just to be able to reach out to their loved ones. I was honored to be a part of what I thought was a wonderful thing, although over time the collect calls seemed to add up (according to the powers that be - even though I volunteered to pay for them) and someone mentioned that the inmates were not part of our 'target audience' the segment got shut down. I don't know if those inmates of the Kenton County Correctional Facility (nicknames of a few: The Pink Panther, Humpty Hump, and The Biggest) are still incarcerated
or even still alive, but I know and they know that we made a difference. Just like NPR makes a difference. Keep up the good work.
In 1985 I embarked on a life journey that let me to my best friend who later became my husband. He was an inmate at Kansas State Penitentiary. Being a social service supervisor, supervising investigatiors with the children's hotline, I had encountered many persons and situations that perpetrated horrendous crimes against children. Persons who never spent one day in prison. This was a thought that struck me when I met Tim. Here was a man who had spent over half his live in prison for robbing parking meters, and a drug store and other crimes against things rather than persons. I had difficulty understanding the justice. Visiting someone in prison was never something I ever thought I would do let alone marry someone who was in prison. Would I reccomend a prison relationwhip? Never. Do I feel that they can work? I would say seldom. However I met a person who did not blame the system, who owned up to his responsibility for his life of crime and made positive changes and consequently became my life partner.
I am what you would call a golden child, Im in college to be a nurse with excellent marks, I play a varsity sport for my college I am very involved in the community and I have two great jobs, one in a management position. I am currently dating someone in prison, and although I didn't know what to think at first, a really great friend put it in perspective for me, he told me that I was getting the hard part out of the way, because we are only able to talk, you really get to know someone just having in depth conversations with them, people need to stop focusing on what happened in the past and look to the future, change is always possible. Honestly, no one has ever been so proud of me to be a student-athlete, and no one has ever told me how much they loved me for just being me, for just the words that come out of my mouth. It absolutely amazing, I see all these people in these shallow pathetic one night stand relationships and I'm happy and lucky that I found someone to think I was so beautiful both inside and out.
this all dating prisoner is very dangerous
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