Sixtieth Visit To Taft

Wow. My sixtieth visit to Taft took place on Friday, and I probably have 18 more (or less) visits to go. We spent a long time talking about the future. Our talks always seem to come back to what our lives will be like when we're together again. Some men talk in prison about getting out and getting back to their old lives. Ron thinks, and I agree, that things will never be as there were. How can they? Men and women, after spending time behind bars, are changed. Things will surely be different, but we think they'll be better.

Ron often talks about how difficult everything is in prison. I'm going to try to relay a story he told me today that shows that very thing, and if I tell it well, you won't believe.

Every other month or so, Taft takes a group of men to the DMV. These are men that are soon to be released. They must get a driving report from the DMV to take with them to Halfway House, otherwise they cannot drive. Even though they've been incarcerated and haven't driven for a long time, they still need to get the driving record to show to the halfway house. Go figure. So last week one of Ron's friends, who is leaving next week, went with 5 others in a van to the DMV, about 12 miles away. Each man had to pay $5 for the driving report, plus $5.96 for gas. The money for the report was taken from each man's commissary account (the prison made out a check for each man for the DMV). The money for gas also came out of their account. So all the men gathered, ready to go to the DMV. First, a check for one of the men was missing. They had to call over to another building, have someone look for the check, and bring it to the area where the men and van were waiting. They all got in the van, and one of the supervisors asked the driver if he had the paperwork for the men. No, he didn't have it. The paperwork had been left back at another building, and again they waited while someone went to get the paperwork. Finally, hours after the trip had begun, they were off to the DMV, paperwork, checks and gas money in hand. Something that should have taken 2 hours took the better part of the day.

Paperwork. There's a lot of it at all prisons, and none of the employees like it. I don't blame them for not liking it, but because they don't like it, many things don't get done or are very slow to get done. When Ron's friend asked his supervisor several weeks ago if arrangements had been made for him to go to the DMV, the answer was, "I'm working on it."

We had a laugh today about all this. It's a perfect example of what we all say about bureaucracy, and how difficult they make even the smallest thing. Ron will be out soon (July 27 or sooner), and then he can start dealing with all the other bureaucracies he has missed in the past 18 months, like Blue Cross, Medicare, Visa, and insurance companies. You get the picture.