BETWEEN THE LINES: PRISON VISIT LEAVES STARK MEMORY, MIXED FEELINGS

Last week I went to prison.

Although my visit was brief and work related, I still didn't like the feeling it gave me.

The place was exactly as I'd imagined it, complete with coiled wires sitting atop gigantic chain link fences. Even in the dead of night, the prison was brightly lit but far from charming.

I went to Potosi Correctional Center as a member of the media covering the state's third execution of the year. A local campus organization affiliated with the Catholic Church was going to be part of a protest against the death penalty. I was covering the story from a religious angle.

But entering the prison for a media briefing was eerie. Just getting into the parking lot required the photographer and I to show two forms of photo ID. Then we had to go through the world's most sensitive metal detector. The standard airport metal detectors wouldn't come close to finding what this equipment did. I had to take off my boots and send them through the scanner because the metal clasps were enough to set off the machine.

Once inside the building you could feel its sterile nature. There were no posters on the walls, only a sign listing the times for visiting hours. A podium and several rows of chairs had been set up for a press conference, which began after the execution was complete shortly after midnight.

I quickly decided that it would be better to go back outside to let the protesters tell their stories.

Huddled together in small groups to break the fiercely cold wind, the crowd spoke with conviction as they told why they opposed executions. Most spoke about how their faith called for forgiveness of sins and a chance to fix past mistakes.

Nearly a week after the event, I can't shake the feeling of the prison or the protest. The questions raised about the irony of killing a person to show killing is wrong seem valid.

But at the same time, I can see the need for some sort of punishment for the people who do kill. We can't just let them go free, either.

At first, the issue was one of religious significance because Catholics in Missouri and around the United States have been more outspoken against the death penalty after Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis in January.

The death penalty became a political issue when the governor commuted a man's death sentence after a personal appeal from the pope.

And with all the attention surrounding the cases recently, the political pull of such an issue will come up again and again as we near the 2000 elections.

But it suddenly struck me that you can't put the issue into a single box -- whether it be religious or political. It's too big for only one category.

Besides, it's not how most people live their lives. Jobs and marriages and families and religions all collide to make us into the people we are.

Faith is the juncture where all those worlds collide. How you handle that collision makes all the difference -- sometimes it's even the difference between life and death.

~Laura Johnston is a copy editor for the Southeast Missourian.