Reflection:

1. The galley slaves in Paris, before taking them to the galleys of Marseilles, were chained in a dungeon full of wooden beams, distant one meter from one another. In the beams iron chains of half a meter were nailed with a metal collar that was put on the neck of the galley slave and closed by hammering on an anvil. On each beam there were twenty men who could not stand and were always obliged to sit with their heads bowed.
2. When feeding them, the Daughters passed between the benches listening to rude words and the threat of touching by men who did not even care about death anymore. The vigilance of corrupt guardians was not enough, so that a Lady of Charity (AIC) had to be present during meals so that her social category detained prisoners and guardians.
3. None of this can be applied today to the prisons of ordinary prisoners. International laws and regulations prohibit it and Amnesty International and many other organizations monitor compliance. But there are modern prisons without the human contact of people. The prisoner feels alone and isolated. From an enclosure, the guards control everything on television and direct the prisoners by megaphone with no human presence other than the prisoner.
4. Some prisoners also suffer the pain of relatives who mourn their situation, more if they have small children; others feel the absence of relatives and friends who reject them, ignore them or are indifferent to them.
5. The Vincentian Family cannot ignore the situation of these unhappy people. We have already seen the stance of Saint Louise, like that of Saint Vincent and Blessed Ozanam. They tell us that they are poor in modern society and that many have been somehow made by a society that now rejects them.