Metro
February 2, 2006
Breakfast is served at 5 am. It usually consists of a piece of baloney and cheese with two slices of bread, or a hot dog. He doesn’t eat on hot dog days. After breakfast, he is sent back to bed until 8 am.
He is allowed to shave once a week.
He is provided with nothing beside a shirt, slippers, and a pair of pants. He must buy everything else at the prison store. He has not yet been allowed to go, so he has no underwear, no toothbrush, and no socks.
He wore the same pants without washing for two weeks. When laundry was serviced, he had to turn over the only clothes he had, so he sat naked in his cell until his clothes were returned. He laid under a sheet to stay warm. Later, a fellow inmate loaned him a sweat shirt.
When his clothes were returned, they were still wet, but he put them on because they were warmer than the outside air.
He wasn’t allowed to bring his medicine in with him, so his blood pressure skyrocketed until he was allowed to see the nurse.
He has lost 24 pounds.
His suffering brings me no joy. It heals no wounds. It makes no amends. It keeps no one safe. It makes no one happy. It helps no one. It solves nothing.
This is what happens before you’re found guilty.
For a minute there I thought you were in prison, yet somehow still blogging…!
Last year my father-in-law spent 8 months in holding in Florida because he was homeless and cold and laid down in the back of a car. They couldn’t get Maryland to send his records, so they let him rot in lockup. When they finally decided to try him he was charged and released.
I sort of wish they’d stop calling it the “justice system” and start calling it the “punishment system” if that’s what they’re going to focus on.
I wouldn’t be so sure that it isn’t keeping someone safe, but I certainly can’t rejoice in someone else’s suffering, especially not the man I’ve called “uncle” for my whole life. It’s the kind of thing you wish you could get across to those nutties who say inmates get too many luxuries and that “life without parole” isn’t enough of a punishment.
The “punishment system” is about the most honest way to put it, I think. Honestly, there’s just too many circumstances in which justice isn’t a possibility. Like this one. There is no justice, really. I don’t disagree that he’s guilty of serious crimes. But that said, this is a case, if there ever was one, for rehabilitation.
I’m not saying I want him out of jail and back at home again. Maybe it’s a pipe dream, but I wish he had a chance at getting help and being happy again some day.
As for keeping anyone safe—I guess you’re right. It’s probably keeping him safe, at the least. That is, if the people charged with taking care of him don’t manage to kill him themselves.
Ok, so his suffering does not heal nor cure. However, think about this: his position is a natural consequence of his behavior, and his confinement does guanantee that, for the time being, other people are safe. I don’t revel in his discomfort either, but it’s one of those “you should have thought of that” things. Does that help your feelings? I hope so…..
Hugs,
Aunt Margaret
Sure. I don’t doubt that. It’s not hard for me to understand that he got himself into this mess. It doesn’t make it any easier to know how much he’s suffering, though.