Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, life in the United States has changed a lot…
And the prison system has changed too.
One would ordinarily think that men and women, who are incarcerated in correctional facilities in New York State, would not be affected by world events as far away as Iraq. Wrong. We are very much affected.
Now, because of the war in Iraq and the possibility of more terrorism in America, the entire nation has been placed on a "Code Orange" alert status by the Homeland Defense Ministry. This heightened level of alertness certainly seems logical and justified at this time. However, it has impacted my life as well as the lives of the other inmates.
Effective Tuesday morning, March 18th, all civilian volunteers were once again banned from entering on to facility grounds (see my Journal entry for February 11, 2003).
Because of this new Code Orange alert, all the Christian ministers and Bible teachers are not permitted to come into the prison. So all of our civilian run services and Bible studies have had to be cancelled. Fortunately, we had our Monday evening worship service. The Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening Bible classes were cancelled, however.
I do not know how much longer this higher level of nationwide security will go on--probably not until the war in Iraq is over. But God is watching over us in here. We Christians have been meeting and praying in our respective cellblocks. All is well at this time.
D.B.
One would ordinarily think that men and women, who are incarcerated in correctional facilities in New York State, would not be affected by world events as far away as Iraq. Wrong. We are very much affected.
Now, because of the war in Iraq and the possibility of more terrorism in America, the entire nation has been placed on a "Code Orange" alert status by the Homeland Defense Ministry. This heightened level of alertness certainly seems logical and justified at this time. However, it has impacted my life as well as the lives of the other inmates.
Effective Tuesday morning, March 18th, all civilian volunteers were once again banned from entering on to facility grounds (see my Journal entry for February 11, 2003).
Because of this new Code Orange alert, all the Christian ministers and Bible teachers are not permitted to come into the prison. So all of our civilian run services and Bible studies have had to be cancelled. Fortunately, we had our Monday evening worship service. The Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening Bible classes were cancelled, however.
I do not know how much longer this higher level of nationwide security will go on--probably not until the war in Iraq is over. But God is watching over us in here. We Christians have been meeting and praying in our respective cellblocks. All is well at this time.
D.B.
