HOLIDAY ATMOSPHERE GOOD FOR ALL AT JAILS

The county jail is a bad enough place to be over the holidays without having to miss Mom's pumpkin pie, too.

In an effort to make jail a little more tolerable during Christmas and Thanksgiving, the Scott County and Cape Girardeau County jails treat their prisoners to ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, rolls and pies for dinner.

"Not everybody in jail is a bad person. No matter who they are there's somebody somewhere at some time or the other that cares about them," Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell said. "We started doing this so they'd have some feeling of being home, some feeling of the holidays."

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Morgan, who supervises the Cape Girardeau County Jail, said the meals also help maintain some order.

"This is our biggest time of the year for disturbances," Morgan said. "A lot of people get depressed, and more people try to kill themselves.

"We're undermanned here and that adds a tremendous work load on our guys."

If guards aren't spending all their time breaking up fights and dealing with potential suicides then their holidays aren't as bad either, Morgan said. And with the jail population rising nearly 75 percent since 1993, Christmas can be bad.

"It's not easy being here for the holidays," he said. "It's stressful for us, too."

And while the Cape Girardeau County Jail works on a reward system in most regards, the holiday meals are for everyone -- naughty and nice.

Ferrell also has been sponsoring a program that might help him feed fewer prisoners over time. As he has since 1977, the sheriff has purchased bumper stickers with the slogan "Have You Hugged Your Kid Today?" and gives them away to anyone who asks.

He said he hopes they might influence a parent or a loved one to head off the problems some children might get into.

"Just to show your kid, or your nephew, that you care isn't that difficult," he said. "If just someone in their family, some adult, cares about them it seems to make a big difference."

Ferrell said the message is not only for curbing juvenile crime but attempting to modify adult crimes in the home.

"Of course all the juveniles and children we deal with are not criminals," he said. "We're talking about some of the homes we have to go into for domestic disturbances and take someone out of the home, and a lot of these homes have children.

"We see some very sad sights. I think every time someone sees one of these bumper stickers for the first time it might make them think about their kids -- and it's got a pretty good thought behind it," he said.