Helping unseal, inspect, package, reseal, bag and stack more than 23,000 one-gallon Ziploc bags for South Carolina adult prisoners is an intricate and lengthy chore no matter how streamlined the tasks may be.
Sharon Tiano, from New Life Baptist Church in Goose Creek, sports seasonal headwear while assembling prisoner packets Dec. 3 at St. Andrews Baptist Church, Columbia. Tiano stays in touch with the inmates, sending them photos and letters throughout the year.Nonetheless, there are a few prison inmates and volunteers who are just too excited to sit down.
“I can’t sit down, and you see this perma-grin on my face, right?” said Westly*, an inmate at one of the Broad River Road institutions in Columbia and a two-year veteran of the annual prisoner packet assembly held the first Monday in December at St. Andrews Baptist Church, Columbia.
Volunteer Debbie Harrison, from First Baptist Church, Gaston, couldn’t sit down either.
“I did this last year, and it was the most humbling experience ever,” she said. “You’re working right alongside an inmate who will receive a packet, you get to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and it’s just the greatest joy to serve for this one day.”
She leans in and adds, “I’ve already made up my mind I’m going to bring my own toothbrushes and toothpaste next year, in case I see bags with some that aren’t good enough!”
Westly said, “I signed up last year and didn’t know what I was getting into, but this is just so much fun. It’s hard not being able to provide for my family at Christmas – I have two little girls at home – and this compensates just a little.”
Like the chaplains and every inmate at the event, Westly said the packets are more meaningful than a person “on the outside” can imagine.
“A lot of guys don’t have people on the outside who send them money to buy things at the commissary, and the institution will only give you two envelopes a month – if you’re lucky – to write your family, so these envelopes really mean a lot, especially at the holidays,” he said. “We’re not supposed to trade things, but I’ve seen guys trade their whole bag just for somebody’s envelopes.”
Chaplains Lance Neal, from MacDougall Correctional Institution, and David Utley, from Kirkland Correctional, help assemble packets. Utley jokes about being a literal poster child for the project: “I was actually on one of the promotional posters one year! That gave my inmates a laugh.”Crystal*, an inmate who is scheduled to be released at the end of December, echoed Westly’s words and enthusiasm. This marks her second year to be selected as an inmate volunteer for the packet assembly.
“The packets mean so much to inmates, and it also means a lot to be able to be here again,” she said. “It helps make my last month go even faster.”
Each bag contains a pen, toothbrush, toothpaste, bar of soap, writing tablet, five stamp-embossed envelopes and two rolls of candy. The only items South Carolina Baptists may add are a printed version of the Gospel of John and a Christmas card.
South Carolina Baptists gave 24,475 Christmas packets for prisoners this year – one for every adult inmate in a South Carolina Department of Corrections institution. Laurens Association provides a similar packet for each of the 600-plus young people in the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice facilities.
Volunteers came from churches, associations, the state convention and Woman’s Missionary Union staff, a Mennonite community, chaplains, and about 50 inmates and the attendant correctional officers. This marks the 36th year for the project.
“This project involves every level of South Carolina Baptist life,” said Tim Rice, director of missions mobilization for the state convention. “From individuals to churches to associations to state staff, everyone mobilizes for this ministry.” – SCBC
(*Last names of inmates are withheld per Department of Corrections policy.)