It was a tour like no other.  When I searched for “Things to do in Jefferson City, Missouri, this prison tour of the now closed Missouri State Penitentiary was at the top of the list.  My pilot friend and I were flying in the next day and they just so happened to have 6 slots still available.  So we signed up.

I took the above photo as we were exiting Housing Unit 4, the oldest of the buildings at the prison.  The table “In Remembrance of Me” seemed so out of place at the time.  I realize that it was obviously taken from the prison chapel which was used during communion services.

I need to remind myself that Jesus did eat with sinners and publicans.  Obviously He was here at the Missouri State Penitentiary.  Maybe some prisoners found Jesus here.  Maybe some past criminals were turned good through remembrance.

Remembrance is an interesting word.  Many of these inmates were purposely forgotten by their families.  After they died their bodies were never claimed.  They were sub-sequentially buried in unmarked graves, later to be paved over for a parking lot used by state workers.

We need to remember the past.  We need to remember the harsh conditions these inmates faced.  It wasn’t so much as for rehabilitation.  Rather is was for pure punishment….to make it as harsh and rough as possible.  It didn’t work.  Inmates learned how to be rougher so by the time they got out (if they got out) they were much more likely to commit more crimes.

And so we find ourselves in a thought of retrospective.  Not only are we to remember our Lord and Savior’s dying for humanity’s sins, but we should also remember the past, our history.