Part of an ongoing series of posts about my 24-hour stay in jail, which help inspire Unlawful Contact, the next book in my I-Team series.
“Put your toes on the line and look up at the camera.”
Panels flash bright, fluorescent light, then fade.
I’ve already been handcuffed, searched and fingerprinted, and now I follow the guard. The floor is cold on my stocking feet. My shoes have been taken away. In fact, everything I arrived with, except for the clothes I’m wearing, has been taken from me and placed in a black plastic bag with my name on it—earrings, bracelet, lip balm, wallet, pager.
The guard directs me to a small cement-block room called a safety cell, which is equipped with a stainless-steel toilet, sink and shower, as well as a small bench. In the guard’s arms is a stack of jail clothing.
“You’re coming in as a felony arrest, you know,” she says.
I nod. It was my choice — felony or misdemeanor. I have chosen felony, hoping that the additional indignities will help in some small way to make up for the psychological benefit of knowing that I will be leaving in 24 hours. Most inmates have no idea when they’ll be going home again.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” the guard says.
At the moment, neither can I.
Then she switches to a voice that means business. She knows she’s supposed to treat me as she would any other inmate.
“Take off your clothes, turn them inside out, and shake them.”
I do as she says, handing my clothes to her one item at a time until I stand naked on the cold, cement floor.
“Lift your arms. Turn around. OK, face the wall. Now lift your hair and shake it. Let me see behind our ears. Now I need you to squat on the floor facing away from me and cough.”
Cringing, I comply.
“OK, you can get dressed now.” She leaves, locking the door behind her.
I turn and find the small stack of clothes on the bench—white underwear, socks, black tennis shoes, a white T-shirt, loose blue pants and a matching smock. All of the items are numbered, and labeled BCSD JAIL. It’s cold so I dress quickly and am ready by the time the guard unlocks the door again.
“This is your bedding and personal items,” she says, handing me a stack of blankets, a change of underwear, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste and a plastic “spork” — a utensil that looks like a cross between a fork and a spoon.
She leads me through a labyrinth of hallways — you’d have to know where you were going to find your way out, I realize, imagining inmates thinking of escape — to a heavy red door inset with thick, Plexiglas windows. From behind the door, I hear a cacophony of women’s voices.
My stomach does a flip. Earlier this morning, I signed a waiver drawn up by the county attorney in which I agreed not to sue should I be injured or even killed during my stay. I don’t anticipate conflict, but then I’ve never been in jail before. I have no idea what to expect.
“If someone jumps on you, we won’t be there to pull them off right away,” one of the lieutenants warned me earlier.
Though guards monitor the women’s unit from the control station outside, there is not usually a guard in the unit. And because of the overcrowding problem, guards assigned to the women’s module are often called down the hallway to help with male inmates.
The guard unlocks the door. The key is about six inches long, the lock sunk fist-deep into the concrete wall. She opens the door and motions me inside.
“You’re in 17,” she says pointing to my cell — or “room,” as they call them. Room? Who are they kidding? This isn’t the Hilton or some kind of youth hostel. It’s a jail.
But I’m not thinking about that so much as I am the fact that I’m about to spend the next 24 hours locked in the women’s unit with complete strangers, most of them repeat offenders, many of them waiting to be transferred to state prison. My heart is pounding. There’s no spit in my mouth.
I am scared out of my mind.
To be continued…
For an excerpt of my April release, Unlawful Contact, go to my website.
Man… I’m scared just reading it.
You’ve got guts!
I am glad to merely be reading about the experience and not having to go through it.
Gwen, you are magic! Thanks for finding a dayroom. Someone on my blog just asked me about it. I’ll tell her to come look here.
As you can all see, the cells line a larger space called the dayroom where inmates who aren’t on lockdown (being locked in their cells 23 hours out of every 24 as a punishment) can watch TV, argue with each other and generally be really bored. More about what goes on in the dayroom in my next few posts…
Thanks, Alicia. People ask my what it takes to do something like this, and I’m not sure it’s courage so much as it is the belief that you can make a difference in the world if you do it. That’s the delusion I operate under, at any rate — if I try, I can make a difference by exposing things that need to be exposed. The better I understand the issue, the more I can do. When I hire new reporters, I tell them that the mission of a newspaper is to “save the world.” I know it sounds corny, but that’s what the Founders intended. Not that I can truly save the world; I’m not that delusional. At best, I can only do my tiny little bit. But I try at least to be that drop in the bucket.
Little Lamb Lost, I’m glad you’re not going through it, too. I think more people than we realize have been in jail. Right now in Colorado, there are more than 100,000 people in jail, prison, on probation or parole or in community corrections.
Holy crap, Pamela! You are one brave woman. Fascinating reading.
And I can’t wait to read your book!
My stomach is in knots, and I can’t decide whether I think you are brave as all get out, or crazier than shit. Hmmm….
Either way, I’m glad you are out now!
A (probably inane) question: your record is clean since it was voluntary, even if it was supposedly for a felony, correct?
I just finished Unlawful Contact and it is FANTASTIC and very gripping. I’ll have a review up before long.
and can I say that Google Image is magic? It’s amazing what you can find on it.
Hi, Jaci,
Thanks so much! You know, I didn’t even think it was that big of a deal until I started talking to people about it in relation to this book. In journalism circles it doesn’t raise many eyebrows. LOL!
Hi, Azteclady,
That’s not an inane question at all. The system they have is designed to upload fingerprints and the entire arrest record with mugshot to the local law enforcement database. We had some discussion before I went in about how to make sure that my records didn’t mistakenly become a criminal record. The last thing I wanted was to create some future legal hassle.
Basically, they did the fingerprinting and mugshot and all of that — and then they deleted it rather than uploading it. It wasn’t that complicated, but it was something we thought about beforehand. That would just suck, wouldn’t it?
Hi, Gwen,
Just Google Image, huh? Terrific! And I’m delighted to know you enjoyed the book so much. I’m behind on all my other deadlines because Unlawful Contact, which was supposed to take six months to write, took a full year. I hope we get a chance to talk about it, you and me and Sybil.
I can’t even imagine how frightening that would be, even knowing that you’ll be out in 24 hours…what will be on the other side of the door…really curious to see what will happen next.
I’m curious to know what happens next too. Unbelievable and fascinating stuff. I could never do it and you’re right, even good people have had to go to jail [not confessing anything just sayin]. Can’t wait to read the rest and I’ll have to grab a copy of your book. May I ask if your books will be available in ebook? Thanks!
Hi Pamela,
(I just saw your comment on the previous post…) – do they treat people differently coming in with felonies or misdemeanors? I know what scares a lot of people is the preliminary hearing and call day. And a lot of inmates have problems communicating with their attorneys. (Of course some also expect unreasonable things.)
Did you get any advice while in jail? (Some jails are “nicer” than others – some mostly filled with misdemeanants, while others have many more felons – and that’s where they trade “legal advice” and tips, it seems.)
I’m glad the inmates knew/felt I was “on their side” while there – and I spend most of my time in a classroom, not out in the open with everyone. I can’t wait to read your next post.
Hi, Limecello,
Yes, they do treat misdemeanors differently than felonies. Misdemeanor arrests get to leave their underwear on. Felony arrests have to strip entirely, squat and cough.
One thing that readers might not know is that the police have to have a search warrant in order to perform a body-cavity search (unless it’s obvious you have contraband in your, um, orifice). So while they strip-search felony arrests, they’re not going to do a body-cavity search unless they’ve got a warrant.
I didn’t get legal advice from inmates. I did get some very solid advice on how not to get my butt kicked. I found it very relevant and helpful. I also got some inside information on the way things are behind bars, which I’ll share in future posts.
It’s great that you could go there and help out. I think most people feel so alone and isolated when behind bars that contact with the outside world is pretty much the ony way they have of feeling normal.
I’m scared just reading this. I can’t imagine how you felt. Even knowing you were getting out in 24 hours, you were still going to be in jail for 24 hours!!
Pamela,
Interesting. One of my professors was… some sort of monitor at a county jail – and he always talked about cavity searches – and the unfortunate deputies that had to perform them.
“Legal advice” from inmates isn’t really recommended, I’d imagine. As to how to not get beat up – definitely a good thing to know. We had to turn away some people [well one] – because we don’t deal with immigration issues, and he and his crew stood outside and glared at me/us for the next 30 minutes. I sat there thinking “please don’t remember my face if/when you get out!”
I’m looking forward to your next posts. Definitely interesting to see it “from the other side.”
Maybe I need to ask this question again:[g]
To Ms. Clare
Will your new release be available in ebook? Hopefully, sometime in the future, will your backlist will be available in ebook format? Thanks.
Hi, Keishon,
Sorry! I’ve been slammed at the paper (I’m still there…). I didn’t mean to miss your question when I posted last. I don’t know if it will be out in e-book or not. I know that the first book in the I-Team series was recently made available through Amazon’s Kindle. But Penguin, the publisher, hasn’t made the series available. They certainly haven’t mentioned putting the books in e-book format to me, though they own the rights to do so if they choose. And thanks!
And Devon, you’re right. Even knowing I was getting out, I was pretty intimidated, as Tracy puts it so well.
Yes, Tracy, exactly. Even though I was getting out, at that moment, I was just going in. LOL!
Limecello, yes, I can’t imagine having that be part of my job. ICK! That puts a new twist on, “What did you do at work today, honey?” Ew! And I’ll share with you all exactly the sorts of things they sometimes find in a strip search. You won’t believe it…