“It seems to me they’re trying to do a whole lot more.”

Michael Peacock has been a resident at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville, MS, for a long time. He’s been impressed with the efforts made by the administration of the facility.

“They have done things, and asked me, and helped me in ways that I never would have dreamed an administrative staff would do for an inmate,” he says.

Michael’s mother has a hard time getting to visit him. Due to financial and logistical challenges, the administration of the facility decided it had been long enough. With the approval of Warden Darrel Vannoy, a staff member drove the several hundred-mile round trip to pick Michael’s mother up and bring her to the facility to visit him.

“Well, you know, I kind of put myself in his position,” says Warden Vannoy. “If I hadn’t seen my mother in a year and I had a chance, I would really appreciate someone getting her here to see me.”

“If he’s better, I’m better,” states Jo Ann Peacock, Michael’s mother. “He’s all I’ve got. We’re it. So, we’re standing behind each other. If he’s happy, I’m happy.

Michael is a hard worker on the maintenance crew of the facility where he’s able to learn and grow, developing new skills. He’s very grateful to the facility leaders for the opportunities.

“If there’s something that I can do to help them,” explains Michael, “I will go out of my way to help them. No problem whatsoever. And that is the honest truth. They are good people, and they actually care about the people here.”

“It’s our job to give them tools to help them better themself, to be better people, to be better citizens,” says Warden Vannoy. “So, that’s what we’re here for. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”

“They’re just special men,” Jo Ann remarks. “They care. That’s the key – they care.”