Jail Visit
Early this afternoon, I had my visit to the county jail. At this point, I have not made any conclusions about the day. I am feeling pretty numb about the visit. There are many thoughts and impressions swirling around my head and I will need a few days to organize them. So I will just write about various thoughts and impressions. Maybe by the end of my writing, I will have some conclusions.
This morning as I was preparing for the visit, I realized that I had no idea what to expect. That is pretty rare for me. Almost anything else that I do these days I have a pretty good idea what to expect. If I go for a bike ride, or go to Little League, or watch a movie, or read a book, I can pretty well guess what will happen. But this morning, I was completely in the dark. So I drove to the jail with a mixture of nervousness and excitement.
Actually this was not my first visit to the jail. All visitors to the county jail need to have background checks performed on them. I visited the jail Chaplain last week to get my clearance. They made a copy of my driver's license and I filled out a simple questionnaire of general information. For the last several years, Santa Cruz Little League has required the same type of background check for all of it's volunteers. So I was familiar with the process and I was not worried about the results. The chaplain assured me that the paperwork would be ready by today.
Dave (the Minister from the First Congregational Church) asked me to arrive about 10 minutes early, so that he could give me an introduction and guidelines for the visit. I was looking forward to hearing about the format of the visit and the do's and don'ts of the visit. When you first arrive at the jail, you are asked to check in. During the check-in process, they check your clearance papers. Unfortunately, they could not find my clearance papers and the chaplain was home ill today. The lady doing the check-in made a flurry of calls and ended up doing a mini-background check on me. Finally, she decided to let me in. For awhile it looked like I might have to come back another time, however she was very kind and helpful. She took my driver's license and my keys and gave me a temporary badge. On the other hand, I got clearance just before we needed to go into the jail, so I did not get any introduction. Oh well!
Our time to go in was at 1:30PM. At that time, a guard came out and called for us. There were three of us. My companions were Dave and a guy (I have forgotten his name already) who was bringing in a portable keyboard,. He was going to provide the music for the visit. The guard led us through a medal detector. The metal detector seemed much less sensitive than the ones used in airports. Generally, my ring, my belt buckle, my shoes and my watch will all set it off. The only thing that set off the detector was the portable keyboard. A large metal keyboard.
The guard led us through a large heavy-duty sliding door. After we passed through the door, it closed with a load clang. At this point there was no going back, we were locked into the jail and only a guard could let us out. It is kind of an unsettling feeling. But there is no turning back now. She led us through another heavy-duty sliding door and down a hallway to the meeting room.
Well folks, it after 11pm and I need to go to bed. I will continue the story tomorrow.
This morning as I was preparing for the visit, I realized that I had no idea what to expect. That is pretty rare for me. Almost anything else that I do these days I have a pretty good idea what to expect. If I go for a bike ride, or go to Little League, or watch a movie, or read a book, I can pretty well guess what will happen. But this morning, I was completely in the dark. So I drove to the jail with a mixture of nervousness and excitement.
Actually this was not my first visit to the jail. All visitors to the county jail need to have background checks performed on them. I visited the jail Chaplain last week to get my clearance. They made a copy of my driver's license and I filled out a simple questionnaire of general information. For the last several years, Santa Cruz Little League has required the same type of background check for all of it's volunteers. So I was familiar with the process and I was not worried about the results. The chaplain assured me that the paperwork would be ready by today.
Dave (the Minister from the First Congregational Church) asked me to arrive about 10 minutes early, so that he could give me an introduction and guidelines for the visit. I was looking forward to hearing about the format of the visit and the do's and don'ts of the visit. When you first arrive at the jail, you are asked to check in. During the check-in process, they check your clearance papers. Unfortunately, they could not find my clearance papers and the chaplain was home ill today. The lady doing the check-in made a flurry of calls and ended up doing a mini-background check on me. Finally, she decided to let me in. For awhile it looked like I might have to come back another time, however she was very kind and helpful. She took my driver's license and my keys and gave me a temporary badge. On the other hand, I got clearance just before we needed to go into the jail, so I did not get any introduction. Oh well!
Our time to go in was at 1:30PM. At that time, a guard came out and called for us. There were three of us. My companions were Dave and a guy (I have forgotten his name already) who was bringing in a portable keyboard,. He was going to provide the music for the visit. The guard led us through a medal detector. The metal detector seemed much less sensitive than the ones used in airports. Generally, my ring, my belt buckle, my shoes and my watch will all set it off. The only thing that set off the detector was the portable keyboard. A large metal keyboard.
The guard led us through a large heavy-duty sliding door. After we passed through the door, it closed with a load clang. At this point there was no going back, we were locked into the jail and only a guard could let us out. It is kind of an unsettling feeling. But there is no turning back now. She led us through another heavy-duty sliding door and down a hallway to the meeting room.
Well folks, it after 11pm and I need to go to bed. I will continue the story tomorrow.
posted by Steve @ 10:24 PM
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