Tomorrow, I will go to the official Texas Prison Museum, and I have no idea what’s in store for me. I’ve never been there and have never read anything online about it. But, I’m going.
I’ve driven past the museum many times on the way to or from a prison in the area (and boy, do they have a lot of them in that area!). I’ve always found it curious that there is a museum that celebrates the prisons. Don’t get me wrong, prisons have their rightful place in any free, fair, and developed society. But I’m just not so sure about building museums to honor all of the misery.
Ok, maybe I’m crazy. Maybe the misery part will be hidden from the visitors to the museum, but I truly hope not. The misery will likely just take a back seat to the state funded need to pay some kind of homage to all of the tough Texans who did their part over the years to inflict misery. Who knows, maybe it’ll be yet another opportunity to remind myself that I live in a state where they kill people who’ve killed people. Some would say we need to do a whole lot more state sponsored killing, but that’s a topic for another day…
Luckily, I just so happen to have a couple of hours to kill in between appointments tomorrow, so I am definitely going to have to see if visiting the museum does anything to change my instinctual feelings.
Of course, I plan to take some pictures and I will upload them to the blog. Also, I will do my best to give a little synopsis of what I see at this place. Even though I’ve probably been in at least 50 of the 120+ prisons that are part of the massive TDCJ prison system, I guess I really am curious to learn as much as I can about the history and life of penal institutions in the great state of Texas. I hope that the historical facts are presented in a fair and neutral manner. I won’t hold my breath.
To Be Continued…
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