My friend in prison

[Kyle]

So I have this friend who's serving 25 years in prison. He's just finished his first year. He's middle aged (46?) and a total nerd, but he's made himself valuable in prison because: (1) he's a maker, and can pretty much produce anything out of anything; and (2) I sent him a bunch of Pathfinder core rulebooks and now he's the only one who can be a DM in prison. So he's sort of secured his position as untouchable because he's too valuable to fuck with.

The maker thing is funny. He was like this before he went to prison, but now that he's inside it's way more important. You can't have dice in prison, so he made spinners that interchange out for all the different dice. He's making "money" (usually kit kat bars and other prison valuables) right now because Cinco De Mayo is coming up and he's got a back order of piñatas to create.

Apparently D&D is pretty popular in prison because you're not allowed to gamble, but you are allowed to pretend to be warrior with vicious weapons that kill things. And boredom is one of the biggest problems in prison. A lot of fights, violence and problems occur, according to him, because people have nothing else to do and are effectively going crazy from boredom. So they play A LOT of D&D.

However, his whole group got shipped out or put in isolation for various different reasons, so he doesn't have a group right now. So to tide him over, I bought a bunch of Choose Your Own Adventure books to play through with him via email while he waits to reform a group. Apparently you have to be careful about who you choose to let into the party when you're in prison. Anyways, he's loving the Choose Your Own Adventure.

Just a reminder that, even if you think prisoners are scum that don't deserve anything from society, remember that they're also still human beings. My life has been greatly reshaped over the last several years through our interactions with the homeless community and with my friend who is in prison. These are people that are effectively forgotten by society as a whole and it's a shame. They're people. They're real people. And even though they may have done horrible things (like many prisoners) or have mental disease and act in unacceptable ways (like many in the homeless community), they still deserve to be treated like human beings. It's not okay to discard anyone. Everyone deserves a baseline level of respect and integrity as a human being.

[Mando]

Kudos for being a friend. The value of what you are planting in peoples' lives is incalculable. Feeling seen and cared about is a basic human need.
Well done, Friend Kyle!

[Kyle]

Thanks man! I appreciate that! I'm still writing back and forth with him a couple of times a week. He's doing well- he got transferred to a Christian dorm, which is much safer than GenPop, so he's feeling a lot better about his situation. I really just want to encourage people to be more compassionate to everyone- even people you might not like.