Prison visits

I have been a volunteer visiting an inmate in the NSW prison systen for about five years now. It has been an interesting education, both for the inmate and myself.
The experience started when I answered an advertisement in the AJN for volunteers who were interested in assisting the Prison Outreach programme. I took up the challenge, and after an initial interview, an orientation course and police clearance, I was allocated an inmate.
He was, in a sense, a "special needs" inmate, as he was of advancing years, isolated from family and friends, and had asked shown some interest in having a visitor from Jewish Welfare.
The prison he has been housed in is a number of hours out of Sydney, high security, and suffers very cold weather conditions.

I try to visit about once every five weeks, and, despite being aware of his history, and being careful not to be too familiar with each other, we have nonetheless formed a bond over the last four years.
He is also visited once or twice a year, by the rep from the Welfare society and the Chaplain, but in the main, I am his only face to face link with the outside world.
His family have in the main abandoned him, and the only link he has to them is an ex son-in-law who occassionaly speaks to him via the phone, and conveys messages to his family for him.
He is of course suffering the normal age related illnesses that anyone would expect as they get older, and on a number of ocassions he has related to me that he has "blacked out.
Last week when I visited him, I was ushered into the High Security visiting area.He had had a pacemaker fitted during the previous week and was not well enough to be frisked.He was wearing his standard prison garb, unable to change into his "visitors" overalls ashe was in too much pain. His shirt was undone to the waist so that the pressure of the shirt would not hurt him,but he had no jumper or warm jacket as all of his personal property had been stolen during his visit to the hospital. I was told that his family had not yet been informed of his hospitalisation due to the security risk. Today,he is sitting in his cold cell, without proper clothing or decent food.I wish him luck recovering.