Carmen, an inmate’s grandmother, recently spoke about the hardships of having someone inside who you care about.

“Putting money on commissary is so hard for me. I don’t have much money because I’m not able to work, but he needs more food, because the food is so bad. I need to put money on for him to buy more. It is ridiculous that people can’t bring supplies for the inmates here, that we have to buy them. You have to buy their stuff: shampoo, soap, underwear, and it all costs more than it does on the outside. I mean, not everybody works, or is able to, and it’s expensive to put money on the commissary.

It is so FRUSTRATING. Only being able to come here two days in the week, the two days they decide. It doesn’t matter if you can’t come those days. And then, you can only visit for 20 minutes. It’s so short.

I used to come and not realize that you can park on the side of the jail, or in other spots. Nobody tells you. I used to pay to park. They don’t tell you where you can park when you come to visit. And then I pay–I paid more than sixteen dollars, probably more, before someone, another inmate’s mother, said ‘Why don’t you park on the side street where it’s free?'”