For many, the experience of incarceration is not only isolating, but alienating. To maintain a human connection with loved ones while behind prison walls, extra effort is required. What was once an easy-to-make cell phone call is replaced by bought time over a prison phone. And while it may have once been easy to get in the car and drive to see a loved one, prison visits are tightly controlled.
For many families, visits also mean traveling long distances, making arrangements well in advance, and taking on additional costs. Those barriers can often make face-to-face time rare, leaving many incarcerated people with only occasional opportunities to see the people they love.
But some inmates incarcerated in Michigan are nurturing relationships with the people they care about through greeting cards they make by hand and send through the mail…