What Thanksgiving in Prison Really Looks Like

Tracy Lee Kendall shares that Thanksgiving in prison is shaped far more by the inner lives of incarcerated people than by any holiday menu or celebration the public imagines.

While special, public relations-oriented prison programs and units with nice celebrations for inmates exist, they are the exceptions, not the rule, about Thanksgiving in Texas prisons. Thanksgiving in most Texas prisons is defined by the direction of prisoners’ hearts, which varies. The meal, however, varies little from year to year. The main course is usually ham or a pork chop, processed turkey, and maybe a slice of brisket. Sides may include green beans, black-eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, coleslaw, greens, pickles, black olives, jalapeños, celery, etc. Desserts are often various cakes, cookies, cranberry sauce, pear crisp, or whatever the kitchen can make available.

Communal Meals and Thanksgiving Spreads

Often, prisoners will come together and combine items from these meals and condiments purchased from commissary to make larger communal meals called spreads. On holidays, spreads often become the center of celebrations. Aside from these spreads, the context of Thanksgiving in prison mirrors the level of compassion and sincerity of the prisoners involved. Personally, Thanksgiving in prison is just another day to me. This has to do with the nature of my job (similar to a social worker), where people often open up to me about each other and things. Thus, I learn a lot that takes a toll on me. Among other effects, and combined with the various tolls incarceration has taken on me, it makes it difficult to feel the same about holidays in here as I did out in the free world.

Searching for Joy Inside

Like any type of joy in here, I have to struggle to find it. Pain and loss, which prison culture often generates, can easily obstruct joy. However, resilience is a potential of the human condition, regardless of circumstances. Some of us grasp at the fragments of light dropping into rare moments. Within these moments can be found joy.

Within my present moments, loss and pain are tormenting me for reasons I fail to grasp, making it challenging to derive joy from anything. So I look mostly to others in here. I surveyed prisoners and guards until I found 23 people with a different answer and initial alphabet letter (except X, Y, and Z, which I didn’t find) in their name. The question I asked was, “What are you most thankful for?” To keep their identities confidential, I used only the initial letter of their names.

What Prisoners and Guards Are Thankful For

A: My job and being trusted.

B: Good choices I’ve made.

C: My health. I’m a cancer survivor.

D: I was forgiven by my people.

E: My family.

F: Reconnecting with my children.

G: Recovery. Drugs were all I had to look forward to before.

H: That God loves me.

I: For the chance to start over.

J: My life.

K: Having met the only one I can see.

L: That I woke up this morning.

M: Salvation.

N: Getting a college degree, which no one in my family has ever done.

O: I’m not alone.

P: The Cowboys!

Q: Meals I get. Lots of folks go hungry.

R: Going to seg. I found myself.

S: Being able to walk, which I couldn’t do a few years ago.

T: The pain I’ve been through. It allows me to be there for people.

U: That my wife never left me.

V: Today, I’m going home!

W: That I have things in life to look forward to.

Shared Humanity at Thanksgiving

Is anything above similar to things that you’re thankful for? More than likely, there are similarities, and those similarities exist because of the humanity in what the each person is thankful for. That humanity is so powerful, it even blurs the line between guard and prisoner, for the most part.

When giving thanks, shared humanity is our connection and potential to enrich each others lives—all the way to our dreams. Combined with the diverse history of the Thanksgiving table—bad and good—we find lessons about facing and deepening humanity. This increases the potential to make each other thankful, which the current world (in and out of here), vitally needs.

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The post What Thanksgiving in Prison Really Looks Like first appeared on Prison Writers.