Jail Ministry Programs
Christmas Visits for the Children
Christmas was be a bit brighter for some children of the community who have a parent incarcerated at the jail after they were allowed a special Christmas visit with their parent as part of the AA&WC’s prison ministry. Through the work of the Center, children of the inmates at the Carter County Jail were allowed a brief visit with their parent and were also given a special present which had been collected through donations to the Center.
Local churches and a day care center from Newland, N.C. (Munchkin-Land CDC and Pre-School), helped with the collection of the gifts and the students at Hampton High School donated their time to wrap the presents. Inmates who have children under the age of 18 were allowed a 15 minute visit with their children. The Christmas visits are the only time of the year that anyone under the age of 18 is allowed to visit an inmate at the Carter County Jail.
In addition to the volunteers from Abortion Alternatives, some Carter County Constables donated their time on Wednesday to assist with supervising the visits as did members of the Citizen’s Police Academy Alumni Association. Also, Jack Tester, owner of Best Portraits, donated his time and services by taking a picture of the inmate with their children and printing a copy of the picture for the children as well as one for the inmate. All of the visits were supervised by a civilian as well as Sheriff’s Office personnel.
The special visits were conducted as an all-volunteer operation and the day-to-day operations of the jail were not affected by the special visitation. Abortion Alternatives along with help of a local business donated food to feed the employees of the Sheriff’s Department and also provided dinner for the inmates, which helped save the county the cost of preparing a meal. Many of the volunteers who worked the special visitation stated that it was touching to get to witness the special moments between a child and their parent. Many of them described how the children’s eyes and faces would light up when they saw their parent. One volunteer talked about getting to witness an inmate getting to see and hold his infant daughter for the first time ever. Another spoke about an inmate getting to see her child walk for the first time because her daughter had been an infant when she was incarcerated. One volunteer talked about witnessing an emotional moment between a father and a teenage son. The son did not know when he would get to see his father again because his father was about to be sent to prison. Another volunteer spoke about a young girl who had to visit both parents in jail this year. One volunteer discussed watching an inmate interact with his young daughter.
“Seeing the pain that the father had that his little girl had to see him there. If that pain will cause that father to think that he doesn’t want to be back in (jail) so that beautiful little girl won’t have to see him there again then it is all worth it,” said the volunteer.
