CLARK COUNTY, Indiana — While inmates at the Clark County jail await trial, there's a new program offering some companionship for people who need it the most. Since it started in April, it's those companions who also learned lessons themselves.
"It's actually taught me that I'm way more patient than I thought I was, and way more caring and loving," Mary Messer said.
She spends some time each day with a woman who kept hurting herself while in jail. The woman requires constant supervision, and jail officers continually check on her.
Clark County Sheriff Scottie Maples, who oversees the jail, credits the Companion Program for stopping her self harm.
"And we're starting to implement that with other inmates that have very severe suicidal ideations," he said.
When Messer provides the much-needed emotional support, she does it with Bible-reading, positive affirmations and shared daydreaming.
"But I think for her," the companion said. "It's more of a mental escape. She can get away from the demons that she fights every day, all day."
Even if the troubled woman is in jail, Sheriff Maples sees her care as his responsibility.
"So there is a criminal element that needs some justice," he said. "But then she's in our facility, and she needs mental help so we have to balance that."
And just because both women are behind bars, it doesn't mean they have to hold their feelings in.
"I think she may have learned to open up a little more instead of holding things in and harming herself," Messer said.
She's in jail because she was involved in a car crash that injured someone.
Although she has no idea when she'll leave those walls, she wants her time there to matter.
"It's just a step in my life and in my story," she said.
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