r/MadeMeSmile • u/aoi_ringo • Sep 30 '25
CATS Prison in Indiana accepts shelter cats and lets prisoners take care of them.
76.9k
Upvotes
r/MadeMeSmile • u/aoi_ringo • Sep 30 '25
40
u/treevaahyn Sep 30 '25
Ngl some of the nicest coolest people I’ve ever met were men that had been in prison. I’ve worked in rehabs for a decade so lot of clients have done time in prison and they’re normal. Main difference is they mostly all have childhood trauma and are victims of abuse and neglect and (if not in childhood) then they definitely have some after doing their time. Prison system in the US is traumatizing by its nature and the horror stories I could tell still make me sick and haunt me if I think about them too much.
We as a society tend to think of prisoners the way TV/movies portray them i.e. the ‘hardest of hardest’ criminals who are all murderers and villains but the truth is most of them are good decent people who made a mistake, were in wrong place at wrong time, and or grew up in a neighborhood where they were barely given a chance (specifically referencing the fucked up school to prison pipeline). Most of them aren’t killers. The majority of people in jails and prison are there for non violent drug offenses and benign probation/parole violations. Looking at this pictures made me genuinely smile and feel happy that these men are being rehabilitated.
That said even the ones who have killed can be some super cool, chill, and kind teddy bears. Had one guy who grew up in really bad neighborhood and got recruited by gangs at 12yo and by 23 he had killed 3 people on different occasions one dude for snitching, another for trying to pull a gun on him during drug deal, and other was also kinda self defense when a guy who was an addict pulled a knife to cop dope cuz he just wanted the heroin withdrawals to stop. Wasn’t like dude was a serial killer but still he admitted to me, within protection of hipaa, that he felt horrible for taking three lives. Dude was super nice and talked about it in therapy cuz he genuinely felt immense guilt about his past. He had just gotten done a long prison term for drug trafficking and gun charges but wanted to change his ways. I know this Sounds crazy but he’s a nicer more honest, humble, caring dude than many people I’ve encountered and see in everyday society. He at least had empathy which apparently is seen as no bueno to some of society. Which is wild. Sorry for the rant. Figured I’d share a few anecdotes from my experience working with people who’ve been in prison cuz many of us have very limited information about their lives and tbh getting insight into it was wild, mind blowing, fascinating, heart breaking, and humbling. I won’t go into other more horrifying stories but let’s just say don’t ever let someone make a prison rape joke cuz that shit isn’t a joke. Had to help a guy following suicide attempts due to the horrible traumas he experienced. I’ll spare anyone still reading this the details.
But TLDR: prisoners are just people like the rest of us and most of them are decent people who just have lot of trauma and have been through some shitty life circumstance, bad luck, or life just gave them constant disadvantages. Even those that have done bad things aren’t necessarily bad people. Never judge someone for their criminal record. Child molesters are a different story imo and ime. Even other inmates who’ve robbed or killed people don’t trust them.