The State Way of Thinking

Just an example of what I deal with every day:

Our prison has a wonderful program which permits certified volunteers to take inmates who have earned the privilege from the prison to church in the community. It's really a great way to prepare the inmate for release and help him to get acclimated in a church body out in society.

The other day one of the staff members at the prison called me with a problem. "These volunteers won't answer their phones when they have these inmates out to church on Sunday."
My response was, "Huh?"
He proceeded to explain to me that "we need to be able to monitor the inmates while they are away from the facility. To do that, we're trying to call the volunteers on their cell phones to be sure they are where they are supposed to be with the inmate. But your volunteers won't answer their phones during church services."
Me again. "Huh?"

It took me a few moments to gather my thoughts. Then I suggested we think this through.
First, who answers a cell phone in the middle of a church service? Not gonna happen. That's just a ridiculous expectation.
Then I brought up the more obvious issue. If you're calling a cell phone, they could be anywhere. How would you know? They could be three states away and say they're in church and you would never know it, would you?

Then it was his turn. "Huh? I guess we never thought of that."