Chaplain

I spoke to the (volunteer) chaplain yesterday. He was sitting in the waiting hall outside the visiting area eating probably his dinner. I'm not really sure why I started talking to him, but he seemed like the more open person to ask about this question I've had in my head for a couple months now.

I've wanted to know about parents visiting, that I hardly ever see anyone. He said that about 50% of the kids have support from home and that of the other 50% many are unsure if they will be able to return home. He focuses on that group. But because he's a volunteer he doesn't get to see each one of them as much as he would like, too.

In my head I'm wondering how many of them are foster kids. I know there are other situations. But the numbers of foster kids who end up in prison is outrageous. I read a report a couple weeks ago that if kids stay with their parents, even in bad situations, they are more likely to NOT go to jail in their lifetime. I don't think that would have been the case for my son. His birth mother had been arrested multiple times for assault and was no longer accepted at many of the local shelters because of it. I suspect he would have been in jail at least once by the time he was 10.

Apparently the kids are divvied up by the seriousness of their crimes into living pods. I would understand people wanting to protect their children from my son. In the same instance I want to protect him from others who did even more violent actions than he did. The criminal brain feeding the criminal brain new bad habits. I don't know what the answer is. I certainly wouldn't want him solitary confinement. That's just torture.