"Imprisoned by stereotypes"

Inside Out, the online magazine of the Prison Fellowship, has this interesting cover story with the same title as the title of this post.  Here is how it gets started:

When the average person conjures an image of a prisoner, what is pictured?  Does the mind’s eye see a lone shadow with defiance and anger on his face and evil and ill-intent in his heart, prowling for trouble and poised to wreak violence?  And who or what provides this image?  Movies?  The news media?  Fear?

When three people from Texas look into the faces of prisoners, they see an opportunity for repentance, a prospect for a second chance, a vessel of potential. Their perception of prisoners is not based on sensationalized images from any screen, or on what they think it means to be a prisoner. Among them, they have more than three decades of experience in prison ministry. And while they, too, acknowledge that there are prisoners who live up to society’s stereotypes, there are also those who reduce such notions into myth.