Article & Pictures: Mom’s Captive Friend

Jeanne has been part of a program called “Friend 2 Friend” for the past year or so. It matches a volunteer with a person in prison that due to circumstances has no one in their life to visit or help them in any way. Steve Messner runs the Cleveland program and asked Mom if she could help . Mom was matched with Renae and has been visiting her every Friday. Renae was released to go to a half-way house in Akron on Dec. 23, 2008 and Mom picked her up from the downtown jail to take her…her note about the experience is below.

“Here are pictures of release day. Quite an emotional one. The first is outside the prison. There she is with her worldly goods, and very happy. The next one is at Bob Evans. She was very hungry so we stopped for breakfast. All she could say over and over was “This is delicious”. The next one was at the Family Dollar Store. She decided to go there because she knew where it was and she knew they would have what she needed. The last one is a picture of the halfway house where she’ll live for the next 3 months. It used to be the county jail a long time ago. She will be homebound for 7 days and then allowed out to look for work, etc. She’ll be searched and tested for alcohol every time she returns. I don’t know what happens for this first week but I will find out when I next see her. Or before when she writes to me.” Jeanne Henry