Prison Mentality

My friend Samuel has a ministry that feeds the Homeless in Forsythe Park here in Savannah every Sunday at 1pm.  Food is donated and brought in, The Word of God is preached and then folks eat and receive clothing, blankets, bread etc.  It is one of the noblest un-organizations here in Savannah and there is a real drive amongst the volunteers to ask for nothing and give abundantly. I chip in and help praying with and talking to individuals that are hurting and struggling with their circumstances.  And it is one of the most rewarding experiences that I can think of to spend a couple of hours doing.

Of course one of Samuel's favorite expressions is; "We feed the needy and the greedy."  Even in this environment, where folks are breaking bread sitting on the ground - like when Jesus fed the 5,000 (our numbers are slightly smaller than that; usually 150 - 300 folks), there are those who try to get over on you.

Sadly, many of you have run into the Homeless person who is only interested in running game on you.  Ask for a dollar that somehow morphs into $5 - $10 whatever they can get out of you.  There is no privilege in Homelessness, but if there were these characters would be abusing it.

This brings me to today’s topic, necessarily in the Homeless Shelter you are going to run into people who have had a long history of incarceration behind them.  Many of these folks have a difficult time trying to adjust to this life outside (even the "outside" that the Shelter provides) the penal system, so many of them try to bend the shelter to their will (mentality).  It never works, at least not here at Grace House, because there are systems in place to check that mentality.  Yet it invariably causes no end of problems here.

There are gentlemen here today who try to drive division between the R.A.s, subtly (and sometimes not too subtly) threaten the other residents, form cliques and try to charm the pants off of Case Management.  These men are hardened by the system, yet they have amazing qualities about them.  They are generally charming and charismatic, natural born leaders in a sort of conniving and dangerous way.  Divide and conquer is their rule of law and I have been burnt several times by trying to trust and even help these individuals. 

But as I said earlier Grace House is not set up to be bent to the will of a few or one.  The architect behind this institution must have known the type of men that we would be dealing with and put safeguards in place to protect those who are in need...both the other residents and those who have that prison mentality.

One of the things that I am most proud of about this place is that everyone is given and can take the opportunity to change.  Most of these individuals with this mentality CAN change, if they first give themselves a chance to.  The sad thing is, is often, they will implode in here.  You see the signs and symptoms; those they used to hang around with  are pushed away, they become less stable- the lines blur - who should I be schmoozing, who should I take down, who are my allies and can I even trust them, and the anger becomes unchecked.  This is the most critical time in the process, standing on the precipice of your own destruction...what will you do? Will you jump, as you have done so often...or will you finally lay all that internal junk aside and decide that for once, let's take the road I never traveled - the road these people have been trying to get me to walk on for a minute-and see what happens? 

Most, sadly, don't change and end up in the wind...and Savannah is a deadly place to be a hustler...because there is always someone younger, angrier and hungrier than you just around the corner. But I am proud to say that I have also seen many success stories come and go from Grace House, a young man who battled back to get his GED and is studying to pass the college boards, another brother who is working a job and taking classes at Savannah State to become a construction contractor and there are more.  They are adapting and living and THRIVING!  These few, these ...these WINNERS make the burns from others worth while.