This Christmas Eve will be the twenty third year my family and friends have gathered to sing carols outside of the women's prison in Cranston, Rhode Island (USA). Please consider this an open invitation to join us at seven o'clock PM for approximately an hour. We meet regardless of weather unless it is DANGEROUS.
The women really appreciate the singing and join us by coming to their windows or out onto the barred in porch areas. We are not over rehearsed and we mix the traditional carols with the popular ones. No one understands the misfit Rudolph of red nosed fame more than the prodigal sister or brother and nothing gets a bigger laugh than "he sees you when you're sleeping - he knows when you're awake - he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake."
And the very best version I have ever heard of "Silent Night" was one sub-freezing Christmas Eve when a woman sang to us through the window bars of her solitary cell. It was pure gospel through razor wire.