Nothing can prepare you for your first visit to your child in jail. In the waiting area there are two guards behind a window (probably bullet proof) and you have to fill out a form with prisoner's name and booking number, and your name and relation and if you have ever committed a felony. You also put how long you want to visit - 1/2 hour, one hour, or one hour and a half. (Inmates were allowed three thirty minute visits each seven days.) I had learned from the information line that visiting days are Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Fortunately I had a late afternoon flight leaving Phoenix that Saturday.
Then you hand the form back with your driver's license, which they keep and give you a number to retrieve your license after the visit. I was able to put money on Courtney's account so she could buy toiletries at the canteen. Prisoners are only provided with a toothbrush and toothpaste and soap. Chris and I had to take off all our jewelry (some of his piercings did not come out). The guard even made a little old lady using a walker take out the comb that was holding up her long gray hair in a bun. We signed up for an hour visit.
When we went into the visiting room we first went through a locked door that the guard opened into a small space with another locked door that did not open until the other door had locked behind you. We had to take our number to the guard sitting at a desk in the corner of the room and she led us to table number 14. There were about 20 tables that reminded me of the tables in McDonald's except there was a five inch high partition running down the center lengthwise. We were not allowed to reach over that partition. We were not allowed to even lean over it. We were not allowed to hug Courtney when she came in or touch her at all. When we sat down I noticed on the other side were handcuffs attached to the table. I started to cry.
Courtney was brought in in shackles attached to two other women behind her. She was smiling and looked good despite it all. Actually she looked kind of cute in the light grey striped jumpsuit with pink thermals underneath. Courtney told us it seemed so weird to see me sitting there with her boyfriend. We told her what we had been doing and how we went out on Thursday night and had a good time. I found out that Courtney had not been getting her psych medication. She takes Celexa for depression and Clonidine (which is for high blood pressure but it is given to depressed people to help them sleep.) When she was first put in stripes she was given a form to fill out that would go to the clinic where she would get her medication. Saturday morning just before our visit she was taken to the clinic for a physical. The doctor informed her that she had been given the wrong form for her medication and the one she filled out was to get an appointment with the psychiatrist. The doctor also informed Courtney that she was impressed with her teeth because she had all of them and they were in real good shape and that was very rare at tent city.
Courtney also told us about working in the laundry, standing all the time folding uniforms and underwear and she had no lunch break. Her heels hurt so bad it was hard to take. After work everyone had to be stripped searched and when she showered it was with all the other girls. There are no doors on the shower and there were some small openings to the outside which made it very cold and there was not much hot water. The upside of working in the laundry, however, was that she got clean clothes and underwear everyday. If you don't work in the laundry you get clean clothes once a week.
Smoking is not allowed when you are in stripes. However, a few girls managed to have some cigarettes smuggled in. Apparently friends on the outside will wrap cigarettes or dope up in a ball and throw it over the fence. I had just assumed the guards sold stuff like that to supplement their income. Sleeping all through the night is difficult because random announcements are made over the speaker. A couple of times their tent was searched and once was in the middle of the night. The guards come in full swat gear with their dogs and long mirrors and look all through the beds and tents. They never found anything.
Courtney had been calling us daily (collect) while she was in work release but the day after she was in stripes she called home and during her conversation with her father a recording kept coming on to "deposit more money." After that call she was unable to place any more collect phone calls. She finally learned that the reason could be that since she had run up a high bill and it had not been paid yet she was cut off. That was fine with us. Collect calls from jails are obscenely expensive.
All in all out visit had been upbeat until we had to leave. You are shooed out of there quickly which is really for the best because the look on Courtney's face as we were leaving was hard to take. Chris was happy because he saw that Courtney was all right after all and that helped keep me from weeping. During our car ride home we discussed how we were going to manage Courtney when she was released. When we arrived back at his duplex I discovered that we had left our driver's license at tent city so I turned around and drove right back. I would have missed my flight if I did not have my license. As soon as we walked back in the guard handed our licenses to us. I wonder if many people walk off and leave their licenses like we did.
Finally dropped Chris off then drove around looking for someplace for lunch and settled on the Applebee's where I had taken him to dinner my first night in town. It was an easy drive to the airport and turning my rental in took only a few minutes. My flight was on time for which I was grateful since every other time we took this later flight it was delayed for one reason or another. But it is worth it for a direct flight.
