Joe

On Monday and Tuesday (8/12 and 8/13) we had over-ride in the Dorms, Level 2, and Level 3. The DOs have told our volunteers that the over-ride is due to staffing shortages. This post is just so you’ll be aware, and let you know you might want to call ahead before you go to the jail to check the status. The number to call is 602-876-6001. It’s not a perfect solution. The jail, or your pods, may go on or off over-ride after you call, but it’s most likely that if it’s on over-ride when you call, it will be when you get there.

You may know that priests and brothers from the Crosier Order serve at LBJ. Through a generous grant from the Order Of Malta, the Crosiers are making available to our Spanish speaking inmates a series of books from Catholic Home Study. There are a series of 9 books, and the first has been translated to Spanish, and copies provided to the Chaplain at LBJ, for distribution to men who request it.

UPDATE TO POST: I need to let you know about change since I did this post on June 5th. I saw the Chaplain at our service on Friday, June 9th. He saw that I was using a little speaker with my small speakerless CD player. He informed me that since we last talked he has found out that they won’t allow us to bring in stand-alone speakers anymore. They will be strictly enforcing what’s in the Handbook and only allowing us to bring in CD player with self contained speakers. He said they are sending a memo about this to the staff. So if you want to use music in your service, you will need to use a CD player, or the equipment that’s in the chapel. Of course, you can take a chance, and some DOs may let you through with the speaker, but they may require you to take it back to your car.

You may recall I posted a couple months ago about an event that Kevin Starrs has set up to support a former inmate who has benefited from our Diocesan prison ministry. Juan “Cricket” Alamillo will be sharing his story and displaying his photographs. Kevin traveled to Winslow a few weeks ago to meet with Cricket. Cricket said that he is excited and grateful that people would be interested in him as a person, and that they would even consider attending the show.

This is just a reminder that the Maricopa County Sheriff Office Annual Volunteer Recognition Banquet is coming up! In case you misplaced it, here is the invitation:

I’ve noticed that we’ve had a problem lately where a pod is served multiple times in a week, while other pods go un-served. Sometimes this is unavoidable due to turn-out in the pod. In that case, the pod gets the benefit of two services in a week! More commonly, it is due to lack of communication between the volunteers, where a volunteer will do a service in a pod because they don’t know it was already served that week. The Summary Table is intended to help solve that communication problem.

Have you considered doing Stations of the Cross for Lent at you jail service? One of our LBJ volunteers, Joe C., said that for Lent is doing the Stations of the Cross at his jail service, and it was well received. Then I got an email from Kevin Starrs with prayers for the Stations of the Cross written by an inmate, and given to him by Art C, another LBJ volunteer. The stations by the inmate are hand written, and reflect how the stations relate to the men in jail.

Hi LBJ Volunteers! Kevin Starrs is inviting us all to a gallery presentation of photographs by one of the men who has benefited from the Jail and Prison Ministry. I’ll use this post to send out Kevin’s invitation to you all. Please let Kevin know if you want to attend.

Lent is almost here already! As you know, Ash Wednesday is coming up next week, on March 6. It is an important Holy Day on the liturgical calendar, marking the beginning of the season of Lent. It is not a Holy Day of Obligation, and yet it is one of the most attended Holy Days. A lot of Catholics (and members of other denominations) really value receiving ashes. And, as we may expect, the same is true for some of the men in jail.

Ed Maryniak will start volunteering with the Jail and Prison Ministry at LBJ. Ed has been doing this ministry for a while at other facilities, and has served at LBJ in the past. He has now started again at LBJ. He is teaming up with Pete Klein to serve the Read more…