Life Behind The Wall. 3-17-02 
Lionel Whitehead

Life behind the wall is straight up hell
especially if one sits daily in a cell
so many fathers and mothers sat behind the wall
memorizing how they came to be within
these walls of misery now wishing they was free.

behind the wall many of parent sat many will never leave
and many will go and come right back
so many thrown here after the courts given 
them a certain amount of slack 
they choose to come back
this is the penalty they must pay for their fall
when they fail to heed their spiritual and earthly call

parents fill prison cells by the grove
who have done wrong and gone wrong
leaving their young ones to carry on.
yet there are many here who have been done
wrong and deserves to be at home.
but as fate would have it, they will never return home.

Fathers in prison miss their children and family
just as any other father would. knowing apart of them 
will never be free, knowing they left their families in misery
.
the suicide of prisoners serving time 
is very high. Not being able to adjust to prison life
many of the fathers and mothers cut themselves off 
and choose to die.

late at night you can hear them cry Lord why don't you just let me die
especial ones that hooked and can't get high their lives fly before their eyes.

Imprisoning parents 
not only affects the inmates themselves, 
but also has profound effects on their families 
with their being in jail as well. 

separation from a father is difficult for children 
in any circumstance, coming out alive is a great chance
children who fathers are inmates often feel a range of extreme sadness, 
a sort of madness a great loss, at their own cost, 
promises themselves no one will ever be their boss. the anger rides, 
it grows and grows until it exposes. Rejection frustration
rises into a sensation of revenge against other human being
against God and humanity, bewilderment and fear is always near. 
Children of prisoners seldom allow anyone near. 
They dare to trust or hold anyone dear for to them no one is sincere.

These innocent children with fathers behind the wall
experience raised levels of depression to the excess
disrespect their lives making of it a mess,
the anxiety, low self-esteem, and lack of concentration
steps in, lowered academic performance takes place they
have got no win. 
Education becomes a thing of the pass
increased truanting because they are mad, but the educators
labor them as bad, running away from home, too late many find is wrong. 
daddy locked up and mama's gone, poor little children left all alone.
juvenile delinquency, at a daily increased 
are likelihood to later become incarcerated among 
the institutionalized beast. when a father goes to prison. 
Family's forced to move out of their home 
many of these children relocate to new schools 
but are left to fen for themselves alone. 
bullies bounce on them because of the news ..when they get there its all over the school. 
Children can be bullied, and families can 
face terrible social isolation from the stigma involved, all of this laying heavy on the Children heart.
sometimes siblings are separated because relatives
doesn't feel obligated to take them in. 
It's no wonder so many children end their lives. 
all they know is pain, death, loneliness, dope, lying, cheating and sin.
something must be done, and it must be done quick
all of this dying and killing has made society sick.
all of this incarceration is of the devil tricks. 
There is only one answer to healing this sick situation. 
Invite King Jesus into their lives even behind the wall 
God is yet alive His ears are open, He searches the heart
He's already forgiven them for the crimes in which they have been charge. 
So many broken hearts, so many contrite spirits, so many angry souls, 
so many lost children of God, crying to come home.
behind the walls the innocent sat with the guilty where no respect of persons truly lives.
Pain, abuse, and misery daily cry out to me. 
Up in here. Accepting Jesus is the only way to be free. 


Author's Comments:
"1 John 1:9 This is one of my first attempts to express myself when I came behind the wall. 
I realize that there is much improvement needed but decided to post it just as I felt it. 
Prison is Hell on Earth."