Does this biblical story remind you in any way of your
family? Bridges To Life participants are often involved in similarly
confusing situations. Richard’s case is a good example. He is a
twenty-seven year-old at the Le Blanc prison in Beaumont. He is
five feet eight inches tall, a little chubby, broad in the beam, with a
round, open, freckled face, big, saucer eyes, and an easy smile. His
father, an alcoholic and drug addict, abused his mother, both
emotionally and physically. Richard was a slow learner and did
poorly in school. When he didn’t meet his father’s expectations, his
father usually beat him severely with a razor strap or an especially
designed paddle and locked him in his room for hours. His mother
stood by, afraid to intervene. At an early age, Richard began to skip
school, then run away from home for extensive periods of time. He
dropped out of school during tenth grade, served a term in a
juvenile detention facility, and then held a series of dead-end jobs,
none of which would support his alcohol and drug habit. He began
selling drugs and shoplifting to support himself and then moved on
to burglary. He badly abused his live-in girlfriend, with whom he
had one child, until she escaped. He is now serving his third prison
term.