New Thing 308, New Thing Every Day: Try to Visit Someone in Jail

A guy I know in town is in jail; he has been in for over a month and has at least a few weeks to go. We are friendly and see each other from time to time, but we are not really friends. What he is accused of doing is pretty bad and I can't for a second dismiss it. That said, you might think it is weird that I would try to visit him, and it probably was. I struggled over it, but I thought about how I might feel if I was in jail -- deservedly or not -- and I decided that visiting, offering a little human kindness, was the right thing to do.

Well, in the end, all of the thought and soul searching did not really matter. The way it works is that inmates get just one visiting day each week (based on their last name, alphabetized), and they get just one visitor on that day. On top of that, it is very difficult to communicate with inmates and basically impossible to coordinate visitation (or even make sure it is wanted).

Tonight, I went to Boone County Jail to visit, but someone was already there with him. It was not super surprising, and I bet it happens every week (at least I hope it does, for his sake).

Moving forward, I am going to just take it as a sign and let the situation lie.