Our Justice Today

Ok. Gonna rant for a minute. Or more.

Many of you don't think twice about the people that get locked away behind bars. I know I rarely, if ever, did before the unthinkable happened to my family. I always thought, "Well, they must have done SOMETHING to be put in there."

 How naive of me. How little did I know that it really doesn't take much when you don't know much. Being ignorant of the law because you, or people you surround yourself with, do not or have not been involved with the criminal justice system can eventually become a big problem in your life.

 When you're facing the fact that someone you love has been ripped away and you don't know what to do to help, you know they don't know anything about how the cops, investigators, prosecutors, and others work, and you have absolutely no way to talk to your loved one, you scramble to find a lawyer and pray that he will be the kind of person to fight with everything he can to help get your loved one out. You pay as much as possible because you believe this lawyer will do everything in his power to work for you.

 Then, when the air finally clears, you find out that the prosecutors are charging your loved one with ridiculous charges that you know are not right but your loved one has already signed the plea bargain because his lawyer told him that you can never win against the Feds and your loved one is pushing just to get all of this over with, you just decide - ok, we will get through this. We will survive this.

 Then you find out that these ridiculous charges also come with a ridiculous amount of time because, even though you know your loved one never harmed anyone and never "attempted" to harm anyone, those "attempted" charges come with the exact same mandatory minimum as the full blown actual crime. All because, during those old "tough on crime" days, our legislature allowed the Bureau of Prisons to recommend sentences for crimes, and made those sentencing guidelines part of the Federal regulations that must be followed, with no leeway given to judges or juries to adjust that sentence based on the individual case.

So now, your loved one is facing an extraordinarily long time behind bars with very little or no chance for an appeal or parole. Ok, we will face this. We will continue to pray for some type of criminal justice reform that will allow people to have their case heard over, or looked at again, or have those minimum mandatory sentences repealed and retroactively applied.

 So.....now we find that, while in jail or prison, the food is horrid and inedible in many places, there are some jails and prisons that are run more by the prison gangs than the Corrections Officers, and there are some places so full of mold, bugs, and other contaminants that your loved one has the potential to get sick. And then, he may or may not get the medical attention he needs. It just depends on the way that particular jail or prison is run.

 So.....now we figure out that we can put money on the "books" so our loved one can buy commissary items to increase his daily caloric intake, keep his basic daily hygiene routine, wear shoes and clothing that don't fall apart, and continue to stay in touch. All of these basic items, food, soap, shampoo, socks, shoes, underwear, toothpaste, stationary, envelopes, stamps, books, magazines, HAVE to be purchased through the prison canteen. Phone cards also have to be purchased through a prison approved corporate business.

These items are not priced like your local Walmart. A single block of Ramen noodles is almost a dollar. It's not unreasonable to pay up to, or over, 25 cents per minute for a phone call. And if you have a problem with a product or phone call? Good luck getting restitution.

According to the BOP, all people in prison should be placed within 500 miles, if possible, from their families because regular visits reduce recidivism rates. Great! So why, in all the Federal government wisdom, do they continually place people far enough away from their loved ones to make it hard to have regular visitation? It usually takes a good bit of money when you have to travel. Gas, food, lodging, airfare.

Then you have the restrictive visitation regulations once you do get a chance to visit. Many people get turned away because they happen to be wearing something that the visitation guards deem "inappropriate". You cannot take anything in with you except for money for the vending machines and it's a limited amount. The visitation rooms are generally uncomfortable and crowded.

I'm sorry this was so long but my point is: Don't think it will never happen to you.

Learn about the criminal justice system in your country. Vote for those legislators that want to reform this system into a more humane approach to rehabilitation over punishment.

The Glorified Toilet

Ok, so. This is me telling my brother about me, my son, and my son's fiance's experience at a nail salon one random Friday afternoon. 


Yeh, I love the massage chair.
But, the bathroom at this place was the best. The toilet was equipped with a control pad on the side of the seat. You had heat, bidet front, bidet back, dry, massage, and I think that was it.
I went in there and saw it when we arrived. I LOVED the heated seat. Then I tried the bidet. It wasn't a torrential stream and it didn't hit the exact target but it cleaned. I kept thinking it was going to stop automatically so I sat there for a while before noticing the "stop" button. I then hit the "dry" button and felt a few little poofs of air. I used paper to get an actual dry. LOL.
I thought about the massage but decided I had wasted enough time and didn't want everyone thinking I was pinching a loaf. 😂
When I got back to my pedicure seat, I told Zech and Kaleiah that they HAD to use the bathroom before we left.
Zoom to after their toenails were dry and we were getting ready to leave. I remind them to go check out the bathroom.
Kaleiah goes in. When she comes out, we discuss having the same lengthy wait on the bidet thinking it would auto stop, and how it didn't exactly stream in the right direction. She did mention it had different strength levels you could set and how the heater had different temp settings too. She said she tried the massage button but it didn't do anything.
Ok, by this time, Zech had gone in and come out and we were heading out the door.
Zech said he didn't poop but tried the bidet. He said that stream of water hit him EXACTLY on the booty hole with hurricane force. He said it cleaned back to last week. 🤣🤣
I asked him if he tried the dryer. He said, "No, way."
I asked him if, after the bidet experience, he was afraid the dryer would blow strong enough to make his nuts flap around and bang together like wind chimes. 🤣🤣🤣
I was crying laughing so hard that it took me awhile to start the truck.

My brother said it was the longest poop story he had ever heard.

Me:
Ren French you know you loved it. 😂
Plus, I think Kaleiah might have, unintentionally, set Zech up when she, possibly, messed with the bidet stream controls and, unknowingly, set it to "super blast" level. 🤣

Visitation Day

You could feel the abundance of emotions in the air as we all glanced at each other with a quiet, "Good morning" expelled before looking away to find the clipboard with forms to fill out. Happiness, anguish, nervousness, anxiety, with an undercurrent of deepest melancholy. We all knew why we were there on this frosty Saturday morning. We were ready to brave the fear of visiting a Federal Prison just to spend a few hours with someone we loved.

Surprisingly, the form was basic and the guard was helpful and in a good mood. We handed over our keys and identification, placed our clear baggie (with no more than $20 in change) and our jackets in the tub to go through the scanner, walked through the metal detector, had our hands stamped, and went into the next waiting area.

Here, I had the chance to talk to a couple of the women who were waiting. An older woman was visiting her son. She had to get her niece to drive her from Kansas City because her other son was busy with work. She had been to this prison on visitation day a few other times in the past so already knew what to expect.
Another lady was there to visit her son also. She came with her daughter-in-law, a niece, and, I think, a daughter. They all had flown in from Detroit. It was her first time to visit her son in over a year. It was also her first time visiting at this prison.

After some small talk, which NEVER includes what our loved ones were charged with, we had our handstamps checked by another guard and we were led into the visitation room.

As you walk in though a short hallway, the first thing you notice is the restroom on your right marked "inmate restroom". Then you notice the room has cinder block walls. Most were painted an off white color. The wall on your left had murals of an eagle and flag, a pinkish heart filled area, and a purple butterly filled area, and the visitor restrooms. The far wall had murals of an outdoor cabin with a lake at sunset, and the mascots of the Vikings and Packers divided by green and purple lightening. The right wall was blank but had the desk where the guards sat watching during visitation.  The wall behind us as we walked in was where you found the vending machines.

It's a good thing Toby came with me so we could bring a whole $40 in for food and drink. A regular sized Minute Maid orange juice, that you would pay around $1.50 for at a convenience store, was $2.50. A small bag of chips, $1.50. A nasty microwave cheesebuger, $5.75.
I bought my son as much junk food as he wanted. LOL. Toby and I did not eat. Toby did, however, get coffee that cost $2.50 per cup.
Robbery. And they think the people in jail are the bad guys. Pfft.

The seating arrangement for visitation was much like going to a bus station or airport. Five seats connected together in a row. There were a couple of the areas with the seats facing each other so you could grab a short plastic "table" to set your food and drinks, or play cards.
The cards they have available are a conglomeration of different decks where you have to sort them out to make sure you have a full deck of 52 cards. They also have Uno and Phase 10 card games and dominos
Once the visitation room starts filling up with people, it starts to get loud which makes it harder to hear.
There is a childrens area for the kiddos to go play. They must have only had one childrens movie, Shark Tale, or something like that, because it seemed to be on a continual loop for the two days I was there to visit.

Seeing my son and being able to hug him for the first time in 10 months caused me to shed some tears. I apologized to my son because I really didn't want him to see me like that. LOL
The first thing I did was look into his eyes because I wanted to see if that sparkle had been stolen from him.
It was muted, but it was still there, thank you Jesus!
I was able to finally ask him all of the questions I had bottled up inside for so long. Most of the answers were, pretty much, exactly as I suspected all along.
The rest of the visit was filled with conversations about friends and family, what he will be doing while incarcerated, and playing cards. All this with one interruption for count and the hourly call out for inmate bathroom break.

I never thought I would ever end up visiting someone I loved in prison. I never believed circumstances, misunderstandings, and the powerful fear of the Federal prosecution would end up making a plea bargain, with a mandatory minimum sentence stealing a huge chunk of a young mans life, a very real possibilty in my life.

I, like many others in this country, miss my loved one. Not a day goes by that I don't think about how much he is going to miss in his life. Not a day goes by that I don't think about how, with a few questions and by blocking a person on the phone, all of this could have been avoided.
You stole my son from me because you thought he was something he was not. You ruined a life while you continue to live yours. I hope you find peace in what you've done.
He will survive this. He will grow strong. He has already learned that you can't trust talking to people on the internet that you don't know.
So, thank you for that.

Until the day he gets to come home, I will treasure every opportunity I have to get that hug, to see his face, and to hold my little boy just for those few moments on visitation day.