Savannah Chrisley says she spent a bittersweet Father's Day with her dad Todd Chrisley, who is currently serving a prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion.
In the latest episode of her "Unlocked" podcast, Savannah Chrisley recapped her two-day visit, calling the experience "awesome" overall.
“I love my one-on-one time, but also, we get to have really intentional conversations,” she said. “I find myself just kind of reflecting on a lot of things in life, and just things as a kid, and we just get to have conversations that I feel like we’ve needed to have for a really long time,."
Of course, visiting a parent in prison also comes with its own set of challenges. That's something Savannah Chrisley has discovered since her father and mother, Julie Chrisley — who is serving her sentence in a separate facility — reported to prison in January 2023.
“I used to say I think it would get easier as time goes on, but I really think that’s a lie,” she explained. “I think I was lying to myself to make myself feel better because it does get harder. It gets harder each time you leave, and you know you’re leaving them behind.”
When Savannah Chrisley saw her mother on Juneteenth, she said she had a "really tough" time watching other families navigate the dynamics of visiting a loved one in prison.
“It truly does just break a lot of families,” she said. "And a lot of families don't have the resources to maybe get the help that they so desperately need or that they're searching for or they may not have the guidance."
Over the past several months, Savannah Chrisley has been discussing the challenging conditions in both of her parents' prisons. She explained how her mother was excited to visit her because the visitation room has air conditioning but the rest of the facility does not.
"The heat index was 105/110 and that's what mom's living in, in conditions like that with absolutely no air. And it can be 100 degrees inside the building," she said.
Explaining how her mother recently got "physically sick" from the heat, Savannah Chrisley went on to describe how other inmates are suffering from "heat exhaustion" and "passing out."
"It is so beyond inhumane," she said.
The reality star said the prison system as a whole "sucks" and her parents are "struggling."
"But they're pushing through because if it means that we can create lasting change for everyone, then guess what? That's what we're gonna do," she said.
