17 March 2008

The Prison Director's Story


This is the story told by the Director of the San Miguel Prison. He has invited the group to lunch after we visited the prison.

He tells us of the need for the prisoners to be treated as human beings, not as animals. He tells us of the classes in family dynamics, domestic violence, and anger management that the prison provides. He tells us of the work programs, and the release provisions for prisoners who have proven their reliability. He tells us of compassion, and the need to be firm when discipline is required. He tells us of the horrible pestilence of gang violence that rips at the fabric of life in El Salvador. He tells us of the overcrowding, and the need for things that would seem so simple here in the U.S., like the need for $18,000 to replace the torn black plastic that covers the open compound in the women's side of the prison so that they would have an open air area to work and socialize during the rainy season (so if you know of someone with $18,000 for that project, I can get you in touch with Elvira to arrange for it).

At the beginning of the lunch, he says that honestly, he did not know what to expect when we arrived. He though we would be "just some church group".... but he was relying on the reputation that Elvira had established through her work in the prison. When he met us...observed our actions...and saw the 25 mattresses we had brought for the prisoners he realized, he said, that we meant business.


And so he had allowed us into the men's side of the prison, which earlier groups had not been allowed to enter. He introduced us to the prisoners, and allowed us to talk with them and pray.
He led us on a tour of the shops, like the woodworking shop, where prisoners make items that they can sell in booths outside the prison entrance in order to support their families at home.
After our visit, he came to our hotel in the prison van and drove us to a chinese restaurant for lunch. He introduced us to the owner of the restaurant, who owns 3 other chinese restaurants in El Salvador. This man provides bones from the chickens and cattle he slaughters for his restaurants to the prisoners for making soup. He buys the chairs in his restaurants from the prison workshop. He employees former prisoners in his restaurants. He serves good chinese food.

So....if you are even in San Miguel, eat at Restaurante Shanghai. He has a restaurant in Usulatan and two other cities as well. El es un hombre muy amable.