George has been in jail near Birmingham, Alabama since 1985. He’s serving Life Without Parole for a drug-related shooting defended by a Legal Aid attorney. His full name and address should have been scrubbed, but weren’t, from the Good Friday prayer card that came to my attention in 1995 at Marble Collegiate Church. I’ve corresponded with him since then, visited many times in the past when business would take me through Atlanta, which is only two hours by car from Birmingham. - RM

This November I will have 30 years done. I feel that I have paid for my sins. My health is down to a point where I am on oxygen 24 hours a day in the prison infirmary. My heart is bad. I have Hep C and other ailments. But the State wants to keep me locked up as [it does with] many others as old or older than me, costing the taxpayers millions of dollars. A whole lot of us old sick inmates who would not be a threat to society could be let out to die in peace. For most it is just a long boring death in here…

Here’s a typical day in the prison infirmary for Alabama Inmate 144586…

1:00am           Pill call.

2:00am           Breakfast.

9:30am           Pill call and Lunch.

2:00pm          Supper. TV is turned on.

5:00pm          Pill call.

10:30pm        Lights out. TV turned off.