PRISON: Hell on children

It’s tough to hear about the kids separated from their parents, day after day.

I can only imagine a young child not understanding why his or her mom and dad aren’t with them. Friends or family members caring for them, or worst case, total strangers taking them by the hand or carrying them off, away from those they know and love, placing them in strange beds, with strange bed partners, no comfort blankets, or teddies. You can hear the crying and sobbing, what you can’t see is the mental damage being done; only later in life when they become young adults.

So yes, I feel badly for the 2.7 million children in America, (1 in 28) who currently have a parent behind bars. Parents who broke the law, were tried, convicted and sentenced to a prison term. About 300,000 are in foster care, and most of those cared for by friends and family, live in poverty.

I feel the same for the 2,000 immigrants’ children who suffer under these conditions, the only difference; the American parents didn’t risk their children’s lives getting here.

Why no protests for the thousands of American kids? The children did nothing wrong, but suffer the same. Facts from Prison Fellowship: https://bit.ly/2uIiaeV

PHIL COLOZZI

Post Falls