Dealing with local jails

Well, for the sake of continuity, I feel obliged to update the status of 'P', one of our sisters before going on to report on my personal dealings with a local jail.

'P' is now heading for almost 90 days clean. In the interim, she was hospitalised due to a staff infection that she gets rather regularly now. She was also diagnosed with Hepatitis C. These are the consequences of her earlier behaviour (intravenous drug use and risky sexual activity). These are things no government can take away, things no amount of therapy can correct. She has them, and now must live with them. What she realised she did not have to live with, was a job that did not offer her medical insurance or ample time for sick days. To her benefit, she successfully sought out alternative employment, and now enjoys a job for which she was trained following one of her rehabs. She has an office.

An old family friend, 'J', I mentioned in my last post. He is also in recovery and on probation for an incident that happened when his marriage fell apart (he attacked a man that was in his house, having sex with his wife). He is divorced and, paying child support for 2 young children and alimony. A few weeks ago, J went in to probation to pay his child support. Apparently, if you are on probation, you pay probation the money and they track where it goes (into an account they have set up for the payees). He went in on a Friday. What happened next I would not have believed had I not been an eye-witness to the court proceedings the following Monday.

J was arrested; they told him that there was a warrant for his arrest for non-payment. This did not make sense to J, but given his experiences with the CJ system, he had learned to be a 'good little boy' and just do what he was told. He was not given a lawyer. His case manager was on vacation (confirmed in court on Monday).

On Monday, after four days now incarcerated and under state control, and out of work (J works construction and had jobs throughout the weekend), J finally saw a Judge. Now, this is interesting as well. I called the jail and found out when he would be seeing a Judge. So, I was present in the courtroom. However, J was not. Instead, the 'prisoners' were seen by the Judge via live video feed from the jail which is a few blocks away from the courthouse. So, when his name was called and he appeared on screen to the courtroom, J was not told who was in the 'audience'.

I have been told since then that this is 'public', thus, there is no requirement to inform prisoners of who is present in the court. I think this is bullshit. It seems a violation of basic rights to me. If he were actually present in court, he would know who was there, bearing witness. This way, he and none of the other men (and one woman) on trial are aware of who is watching them. If it made me uncomfortable ( I felt salacious and sneaky watching these people without their consent), it certainly seems it should make them uncomfortable. And, let's not forget, these are people who have not been found guilty of anything yet!

So, J's name is called and instantly, the Judge and 2 prosecutors there realise that they have the wrong person. That's right ladies and gentleman, they simply had not bothered to check the birthdays or social security numbers, it was just Js plain dumb luck that he had the same name as someone who had failed to make his payments.

And, what is worse is that even after that miscarriage of justice, he was simply dismissed --- AFTER SIX more hours of processing in the jail. Not only that, but when we went to pick him up at the jail release spot, WE were treated with disrespect.

So, in sum, this man was locked up for four days, for doing nothing, made to wait an additional six hours even after they realised it was THE PROBATION department's mistake - and, as far as I can tell by the resounding silence on the issue now, weeks later - made to feel that this type of treatment is first of all legal (which it is NOT) and normal. In essence, the message is, 'You're a piece of garbage and therefore have no rights becauise of things you did in the past' which violates just about every constitutional and human right I know of.

I wrote the jail to report the abuses I suffered (When I went to collect this man, a correctional guard told me - after waiting at the jail for 3 hours longer than I was told - that he would 'get out when he gets out'. I said 'when is that?' to which I was told, 'When I finish this cigarette and run the warrants'. Wow. So, you have to consider here that if you make any trouble, another 'mistake' could happen and that unless you have the money to hire a lawyer, you have to accept it. However, since reading also this series in the Boston Globe and listening to President Jimmy Carter a few weeks ago, I think I am not going to let this go despite the obvious obstacles of time and money. When my own schedule calms down, I will go to the local papers. I did receive a reply from the jail; they told me who to contact (a Captain). I called him and left a voicemail. he never called me back. I wrote the jail again. We'll see what happens.

This probably doesn't make much sense now, when I have a chance I will come back and revise.

til then...