A Visit With An Old Friend

The friendships that develop in prison usually end when prisoners are released and return to a "normal" life.  There are many reason why a man you shared everything with for many months or years is no longer someone you want to see.  The relationship between inmates, and what happens to the friendship after release, would be interesting to explore at another time.

For now, I will tell you that Ron had a reunion with his friend Richard last week and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Ron met Richard, a CEO of a large electronics firm, when he was at Taft federal prison for 19 months.  It had been 7 years since they had seen each other.  They had only talked a few times, due to probation restrictions.  We met at the Katella Deli, and spent two hours reminiscing about old times.  I had only met Richard once, when I was there for visitation, but had heard stories about him and others over the years.  During their time at Taft, they explored the possibility of businesses they might pursue, but of course these are only dreams and a way to pass the time.  Ron has reestablished himself as a CPA, and has built himself a nice practice.  He loves what he does.  Richard is still looking for his next big deal.  He is scraping out a living in the meantime, but always has the thought in the back of his mind that he will hit on a business one day and get back on his feet.  As Ron says, "Richard is trying to hit a home run, while I'm just trying for singles and doubles."

Ron was never interested in keeping friendships with most of the men he met at Taft, although it was a fascinating group of people:  two mayors, many doctors (medicare fraud in most cases), a mortgage broker, several lawyers, a stock broker, another CEO of a large publicly traded company, a movie producer and many more colorful characters.   Ron stuck mainly with this group of white collar men.  Most of the rest of the population were there for drugs.  Ron's bunk mate was a guy from Pasadena who had been incarcerated for over 10 years, on drug charges.  The son of two college professors had made some bad choices.  His bunk mate was a big guy, maybe 275 pounds, and  was very protective of Ron.  It's always good to have a big guy on your side in a place like Taft.

But I digress.  I wanted to write about how quickly Ron and Richard picked up their friendship and conversation after a seven year hiatus.  Richard, who stays in touch with many of the Jewish population from Taft, told Ron how everyone was doing.  All the men Ron knew at Taft are now home, and seemingly making a good adjustment to life after incarceration.  I'm happy Ron and Richard had a chance to get together again.  I'm sure they will do so again, but the friendship they had at Taft could never be repeated in the outside world.  It's different, and perhaps I will explore that at another time.