Pastors uplift inmates during Holy Week visit

In honor of Holy Week, local pastors visited the Putnam County Jail Tuesday to provide comfort and reassurance to inmates.

Programs within the jail have decreased because of coronavirus, and Putnam County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Allison Waters-Merritt said the visitation was a way to provide normality to the inmates. 

“All they have access to is national media, regional media,” Waters-Merritt said. “If they happen to see or hear some things on TV, that’s not necessarily going to be about Putnam County, (and) that can increase stress and anxiety.

“If we have inmates that feel stress, anxiety (and) frustration because they’re isolated from the real world, that can cause behavior issues within the jail and we don’t want that.” 

All necessary precautions, such as social distancing, checking temperatures, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention screenings and properly sanitizing hands, were taken when the group of four visited the inmates. 

“Ultimately, the jail is essentially a small community,” Waters-Merritt said. “We use every precaution imaginable.”

The Rev. Karl Flagg, the pastor of Mt. Tabor First Baptist Church, said he and ministers with him wanted to send a message of hope. 

“Our intent was to calm fears and reduce anxieties for the inmates and their families, as well as the professional men and women in the corrections division of the sheriff’s office,” Flagg said in an email. 

Waters-Merritt said the sheriff’s office is slowly trying to bring back programs for the inmates while taking all necessary measures to keep everyone healthy.

“Having the ministers being able to come in shows that the world is still going, people are still OK and things are still moving forward,” she said.