(Unsplash/Caleb Sharpe)
Lisbon, Ohio — While the difficulties associated with COVID-19 are omnipresent, the hardships are even greater for those of us in prison. Matthew's Gospel notes the work of mercy: "I was in prison and you visited me." The problem for the thousands of men and women in prison is many of us are on "lockdown." That's a penal term for essentially keeping prisoners confined to small areas such as cellblocks or individual cells. During lockdown no visitation is permitted.
This can be done for disciplinary reasons or preemptively, as was the case in many prisons that locked down without cause the week of Joe Biden's inauguration.