Sixty Fourth Visit to Taft

Spring is here. The weather in Taft today was about 80 degrees, warm enough for us to sit outside on the patio without sweating. A few more weeks of perfect weather and we'll be back in the air conditioned visitors room. We had a great visit on Friday. Brian arrived first. He and Ron always have stuff to discuss, so I give them an hour to talk alone. I came next, around 9am, and David showed up at 9:30. David got his braces off a few days ago, so we admired his beautiful smile and were happy to see him for the first time in 18 months without hardware in his mouth. He had braces when he was a child, never wore the retainers, and 25 years later decided to go through orthodonture again. This time he swears he'll wear the retainers.

By 10:45am Brian and David were both gone, and Ron and I had several hours to talk. I found Ron distracted and mentioned that to him, but he said no he was not, he was just thinking about coming home. He seems to have things on his mind, much of it related to life and business when he returns, and spends much of his time thinking. That's a good thing, but there's only so much consideration you can give to these issues. Other than his preoccupation with the future, he looks great (lost 7 pounds since he's been walking more and umpiring) and always has a smile on his face. Everyone I meet at Taft comments on his great sense of humor, how his jokes keep them all in stitches, and how he seems to have an opinion on everything. I think about the first few times I went to see Ron at Taft. He was quiet, almost withdrawn, and certainly not telling any jokes. It took him quite a while to relax and realize what was appropriate and what was not. He's been a great joke teller all his life, but he wasn't sure whether his brand of humor was acceptable at Taft. Evidently it is.

Ron introduced me to a friend of his from San Diego. I knew this man understood Ron well by the way he talked about him. They are great friends. In fact, the guy enjoys Ron's company and the company of the rest of the Jewish community at Taft so much that he attends the daily Torah readings. He also attends the Friday night services and the Monday night Jewish movies. I guess you could say he's become an honorary Jew. I think that's great. He's actually a practicing Mormon.

Here's a perfect example of how things work at Taft. A few months ago they got new flat screen televisions for all the TV rooms. There were 5 televisions to put in 3 rooms, so they put 2 in one room, 2 in another and 1 in the third. The people who watch TV in the room that only got 1 new TV were mad, wrote letters to the authorities, and as a result all the TV's were removed. That's how they solved the problem. Go figure.

I asked Ron if he had seen a program that I like, Harry's Law, on TV. He said, no, Swamp People is on at the same time, and he's not in charge of what they watch. The men at Taft want to watch Swamp People, so Harry's Law will have to wait until this summer when he can watch it at home in reruns.

Ron is one step closer to coming home, as he starts a six week class called "Pre release." Here they will teach him how to make a bank deposit, budget money, write a check,etc. Remember, many of these men have less than a high school education and many have been incarcerated for years, and in some cases decades. Our friend Michael was in his early 20's when he was incarcerated, and when he is released it will have been 24+ years of institutional living. He has never had a computer, a fax, a cell phone and never gone to Costo. I can't imagine how difficult his adjustment will be. I'll talk about that another time, but I just mentioned the pre release class, because that's a concrete stepping stone to actual release.

Still no change in Ron's coming home date. I am just figuring on July 27 and will be pleasantly surprised if he comes home early. As Ron always says, "Hope for the best but expect the worst."