Staff Add the Holiday Touches
Jail, “so far, has been pretty much what I make it,” said Jon, a Nacogdoches County jail inmate, who is among the many who will be spending Christmas this year behind bars. News from the Daily Sentinel.
“I try to keep a good attitude,” he said of his confinement, but added that it’s been hard to accept the realization that he’s going to be there for Christmas. “I saw my mom the other day, and she is going to celebrate Christmas without me. But, she said she’ll keep the tree up for me when I get back. So, that’s good. Hopefully, I’ll keep the positive attitude through (Christmas).”
Scott, another inmate who has previously spent Christmas behind bars but anticipates getting out in time for the holiday this year, recalled his past experiences of the day as a time of “self-resolution” and “change.”
“It’s hard to be away from your family and friends, especially when there ain’t nothing to surround you but iron and steel,” he said. “But, if you have to be here, you’re hopefully in a place like this, where you’re not treated bad.”
While the jail is limited in how it lends itself to the holiday spirit, jail administrator Molly Brown said there are two areas that the jail staff can decorate.
The first is the booking room, which greets staff and inmates with strands of colorful lights and a miniature Christmas tree. The room is used to process inmates and is the location where bonds are made. The other festive area of the county jail is the control room, where the secured doors of the jail are opened and closed. Similar to the booking area, the room is filled with colorful lights and also has a small holiday arrangement on one side as a visible reminder of the approaching holiday.
Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss said in addition to the holiday decor — which is only in places where jail standards will allow it — inmates at the county jail this year will also be able to enjoy a special holiday meal.
Busy at work on the Thursday afternoon lunch, several of the female inmates who will be making this year’s holiday meal said they’ve already begun the prep work.
April Powers, a female inmate who has spent several Christmases in jail, said the jail has been saving and freezing extra corn bread for the past few weeks that will be used for Christmas Day dressing. She said Brown ordered all of the food, and she and the other cooks will start to make the holiday meal for an estimated 180 individuals early Christmas morning. She said she anticipates Brown will help in the kitchen that day, as she did on Thanksgiving.
The Christmas Day menu, which must be approved by the state for nutritional purposes, will include turkey, ham, green beans, corn bread stuffing, yams and gravy.
Powers, whose visiting days are Saturday and Monday, said she will not be able to see her family this Christmas, but she feels like the other women in the kitchen are her family, too, and she’ll be able to spend the day with them.
She said after the meal is prepared and served, she’ll likely go back to her dormitory and play some cards, watch a little TV and participate in a prayer session before she turns in for the night.
“Despite where we are, we’re still blessed,” she said.
Powers and Gwen Wade, another female inmate who works in the kitchen, said a typical day for them starts at 3 a.m. They said they work in the kitchen from 3 a.m. until after lunch and then get to bed by 5:30 or 6 p.m.
Powers said some of the inmates, like herself, are working toward obtaining their GED, but school is out for now, until January.
Kerss said on Christmas Day the TVs stay on a bit longer than usual and there are often a number of local church groups who bring special treats for the inmates, but that is about the extent of anything special the jail is able to do for the inmates.
“A lot of times it may be cookies and thing of that nature that we can distribute to inmates that is a little out of the ordinary from what they experience day to day,” he said. “Other than that, there’s not a whole lot more in the jail setting that you can do.”
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