Diamond in the Rough

They say that the most beautiful diamonds are found in the deepest, darkest, and dangerous caverns/mines. Prior to being this diamond, the solids are lumps of dirty, dusty, and formless coals, which are found in these mines. They are subject to a lot of time in the earth, and massive amounts of pressure. This pressure is what transforms the impressionable coal into the hardest stones in the world-diamonds. Diamonds absolutely glow and shine with a brilliance unmatched; but this beautiful transformation could not happen without immense pressure. Diamonds must go through this process in order to be displayed later.

Similarly, in prison, there are a lot of potential diamonds. A lot of unpolished, extremely hard individuals with so much to offer society, but they are left untouched and undermined by their environment, leaving them weakened and impaired by the unproductive system. These inmates remain like the coal; lumps of dirty, dusty, and formless solids, which remain "in the world," only to be crushed by its pressures.

Like a diamond, the appropriate amount of pressure must be applied to transform these inmates from being dark and gloomy to polished and refined.
In an environment like this, the pressures are surely enough to weigh you down either mentally, physically or both. In essence, today's prison system is like an unmined cave, leaving the impressionable coals incomplete and unused. You would think that the process begun by the system would want to finish it completely to produce some diamonds. I know that a change has to start within the individual to be transformed, but I also know what I see with my own eyes, and there is no extraction going on that would prompt a change.

I know I'm not going through the process in vain, and I am thankful that I have another pressure/power motivating me. "I will remain confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in me will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. 1:6). Like a diamond, it is by grace that I will go through this process to be displayed later. A transformation is possible either from within or from without, if only the "system" would care to mine for some potential diamonds in this cave we call prison.