Random Collect Calls from the County Jail
I know its the cool thing to talk about Thanksgiving and all the shopping being undertaken today and spend, spend, spend because its now officially the Christmas rush and all the good stuff will be sold out by noon.

Instead, I think that I will blog about a random call I got the other day. A curious one as it was a collect call from the Santa Cruz County Jail. The first call we ignored because, really, do I feel like going and bailing out someone? No. No, I didn't. But I was interested enough so that I did pick up when the second call came in an hour or so later.

The voice announced a collect call from an inmate and said his name was John. Which made me think it was an old friend of mine from Cabrillo College years ago. The last time I saw him, some three years ago now, he had just been released from a short stint in the pokey (do you really need to ask why its called the pokey? no, I didn't think so). But it wasn't the John I was thinking of and it certainly wasn't the call I was thinking of.

Instead it was a call from a guy who used to hang out with us in the neighborhood a couple of years ago. He had been locked up pending trial for more than ten months and was facing a very, very uncool prospect of 25 to life. No wait, let's say that again, 25 years to life in prison. And who did he kill? What crime did he mastermind? What country did he extort? Well, its a combination of poor foresight and already having two strikes against him already and for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (and also for not scarpering away for the hills when he had the chance but we'll get there).

First, some more background on my relationship with him. He's a likeable guy at first meeting, personable, funny and engaging. But, a few minutes of exposure and you realize that he's also all about John, he's more than mildly self focused. Not in an incredibly off putting way, just in mild way and not enough to cast him off for good. He's got several good qualities and can be alot of fun to pal around with. He's a good storyteller (complete with embellishments for dramatic effect and to reduce his own poor behaviors). And a decent volleyplayer, he said that he had once been a nationally ranked tennis player but I always took that as one his embellishments. It might have been true or might have been more smoke he was blowing.

Anyway, he was an acquaintance but not a close friend. I also learned what he had actually been in prison for the first time and it wasn't anything as gentle or innocent as he'd first explained it. Now, I didn't get access to his police record but I did hear it from a good authority with no reason to lie to me and more, a desire to let me know really what the kind of person he was and is. So I believed my friend and made a conscious effort to distance myself from John. I had plenty of drama in my life at the time and didn't really need to complicate things further.

One time he stopped by to visit and it stands out in my mind very clearly. I was working on the computer, writing I think. And he came over looking for one of my other housemates. Since they weren't around, he tried to hang out with me. And by hang out, I mean he waxed on and on about how popular he was and was dealing with his cells phone book being completely full so he'd had to delete someone to add this new hot chick he'd just met. After that failed to draw me into a conversation, he started poking through my closet and remarked that he'd organized his closet by color so it was like a rainbow and he had lots of clothes with the tags still on them, as if that meant the slightest damn thing to me. Basically, he tried to toot his own horn in front of me and I, more or less, ignored him and tried to write as best I could.

I don't think he's a bad guy, I think he's just a little wrapped around himself and it taints his ability to emphathize with others. And as such, I can't really spend time with him because I cannot stand self absorbed people. Their world may revolve around them but mine most certainly does not and its just grating to attempt to deal with people like that.

So let's get to his present situation and give him some external attention that he'll never know about but would warm the cold recesses of his heart to know.

Two strikes in, one for a crime he definitely committed and deserved a pretty stiff sentence. One strike that he didn't deserve, another wrong place at the wrong time and doing the wrong thing. He didn't commit the robbery and actually, the guy who did it has admitted it but won't admit it to John's lawyer even though the statute of limitations has run out. Whatever, people don't want to go on the record for being thieves, I can understand that.

So we get to strike number three. He shouldn't have been hanging out afterhours at the restaurant with his pals, he shouldn't have stayed late, he shouldn't have been drinking (parole violation) and shouldn't have had any dope in his car. But he did. And with that stage set night after night it was really only a matter of time before something happened that would jeopardize his freedom. One night, a waitress's tips went missing and, after the cops were called, he was taken into custody because he was a parolee and shouldn't have been there in the first place. Regardless of whether he stole the money or not (my tendency is to think that he didn't steal it). A simple search of his person would have proven his innocence or guilt but I guess they didn't think to do that or something (here's where the fuzziness sets in as he omits various details that might shade his own involvement and my ability to believe becomes taxed to the limit).

I don't ask for much, truth is one, and not blowing smoke up my butt is another (though they're just different sides of the same coin). You want my support, come clean and tell it all, without omitting the parts that make you look like a scumbag because if I learn about those aspects from another party then you have just burned any goodwill with me. I understand that circumstances arise that make people do extraordinarily stupid things or craven desperate acts of self preservation at the expense of someone else's well being or belongings or whatever. Coming clean about it is a way of owning up to your mistakes, lying to cover them up is just another signal that you're not ready for my help or sympathy or whatever.

So he was in the wrong place and now faces 25 years to life. All of this I learned in a half hour conversation that consisted of me saying "Damn, that sucks" and "Wow, you got fucked, man."

And then the sell, the main reason for the call and the explosion of news. He has a trial hearing coming up in a week or two and needs to pack the court with character witnesses and well wishers, people that are basically there to support him and say that he really shouldn't spend the rest of his life in prison because of this bull of him stealing some girl's tip money (nothwithstanding the first rule of restaurant life that you never, NOT EVER, let your tip money out of your sight no matter what). I don't think he does deserve to go to jail for it but, on the same token, I think he should known alot better than to allow himself to get into that position to begin with. He knew the terms of his parole, he violated them routinely. He knew the consequences of his actions, especially with having two strikes against him, and yet he still tempted fate by not keeping his shit in order and himself out of the bars.

Does that mean he should forfeit his freedom forever? No, I don't think so. Does it mean that I should take on a risk to try and help him out? I don't know yet. Would he help me out if I were in his shoes? Maybe, if he wasn't busy. It makes for some interesting internal dialogues and, while I feel bad for the guy getting a bum rap, I don't know if I will end up extending myself to try and preserve his life that he so easily cast to the winds by not following the terms of his parole.

I'm open to opinions and arguments for and against. What do you people think?

[Update: The lawyer's assistant has now left two very long, very rambling messages about the hearing next week. I've also heard a bit of the insider news about his arrests and his second strike and let's just say that there's something that's not quite right with the two sides of the story. And, the fact that the lawyer people are hounding me now is contrary to how I would deal with this thing. They don't know it but hassling me is the fastest way to get me to not take part in any of it and let the winds of chance blow him into a six by eight foot cell.

Its also not helped by the fact that P has her first ultrasound that day and, if its a choice then its no choice, I go with her to the doctor. Our family and her health far, far outweigh any interest I have in helping to free an acquaintance.]