Yesterday, I received a text message in some unholy combination of txtspk, street slang, and frank illiteracy. After parsing it myself, and getting my 15-year-old son to confirm my interpretation, I giggled a bit, then handed it off to my husband. You see, it appears that “Tay” wanted a big favor: he wanted a friend or business associate to bring him some marijuana. To the jail or prison yard. We couldn’t narrow down which jail or prison, so Tony (deputy/former CO) alerted a federal drug investigator (since he would be able to get warrants for the phone the text came from and work from there.) I am amused.
(Don’t get me wrong: personally, I think recreational marijuana use is pretty harmless. But a network that can arrange for cell phones and drugs in a jail or prison is far less harmless.)
Moral of the story: double check the number before you send that text!
My local courthouse has BIG SIGNS posted at the door warning that bags, purses, briefcases, etc WILL BE SEARCHED by the UNIFORMED DEPUTIES clearly visible just inside the entrance. Yet every time the grand jury releases a list of indictments and we have what is called an arraignment day (meaning about 50-100 accused felons must appear to be formally advised of the charges against them, and their friends/family members usually come to lend moral support), at least a half a dozen girls will hand over their purses to be searched by the deputies, and then get themselves arrested on the spot when their drugs are found.
Heh. We are acquaintances with a very determined political protestor of dubious personal judgment. One time he was determined to get arrested at a protest to make a point (and to win the admiration of the young, impressionable women in the movement, I suspect). Although the protest had nothing to do with drugs or legalization, when he was finally cuffed and brought in, he had drugs on his person. He had gone out specifically intending to get arrested for a political cause with drugs in his pocket.
“We never should have done this. What were we thinking? You know what I can’t figure out? How is it that all these stupid, Neanderthal, mafia guys can be so good at crime and smart guys like us can suck so badly at it?” - Michael Bolton
Ten or twelve years ago, we had an incident in which a woman approach the deputies guarding the courthouse entrance because her friend was refusing to either pay her or return the property she had just agreed to buy – said property being a couple of rocks of crack cocaine. She demanded the arrest of her erstwhile friend.
I didn’t realize they let prisoners just toddle down to Best Buy and pick those things up. Our prison must REALLY be hardasses–they won’t even let inmates have CD players any more.
Having observed this phenomenon myself, I think it just comes from losing perspective after being a drug user for so long. It is just a normal everyday thing, they forget it is illegal.
I used to work in a prison that had a big twelve-step program. The prisoners in the program would undergo this intensive six month long program for the substance abuse problems. And when they completed the prison portion of the program they would be paroled to a half-way house for ongoing support and treatment.
Part of the program was that in their final month, they would be released on a five day furlough so they could go and get set up at their halfway house. Keep in mind these are guys that are literally in the final days of their imprisonment - they’ve already got a release date that’s only two or three weeks in the future.
Guess how many of them didn’t come back from the furlough? And by not coming back were charged with felony absconding - which meant a minimum of another year in prison when they got caught (and they always got caught eventually).
And of the ones who do come back, guess how many failed the drug test? Which we always did, one hundred percent of the time, and told them about before they left the prison. And like the group above, they get charged with drug use and at a minimum get kicked out of the program and have to spend another year in prison.
Okay, you’re a drug user and that’s your choice in the end. Nobody else can stop you from taking drugs if you don’t want to stop. But even if you’re a drug use, do you have to be a stupid drug user? You’ve completed five and a half months of a six month program. Stick with the rules for two more weeks and we’re going to let you go. You’ll be out on the streets legally and you can do all the drugs you want with a lot less chance of getting caught.
I guess my perspective is just different, being married to a LEO. Cell phones aren’t allowed in jails or prisons around here because they can present a danger to prisoners and COs. Marijuana today, weapons tomorrow? By legal mail or otherwise…
