I visited Los Angeles’ federal jail three times this month, to meet with an inmate seeking my representation. It’s been a few years since I’ve visited an American jail or prison, and I’d forgotten about the minor but infuriating nastiness visited not only upon the inmates, but even their law-abiding visitors.
Each time most of the staff made clear their seething hatred for all of us – mothers, girlfriends, clergy, lawyers — by seemingly making up and then changing rules midstream. For example, after securing my electronic devices in a waiting room locker, twice I was allowed to bring my purse into the visiting area. Good thing, as I need my reading glasses, pens and other items it contains. The third time? No. The guard angrily told me to get rid of my handbag, as if I’d brought in a grenade, requiring an extra half hour of going back through security to lock it up.
The route to get into the attorney-client meeting rooms could only have been designed to irritate visitors. To get to the restroom, for example, one must first wait in line for security, take off shoes, sweater, watch, jewelry. After using the restroom, one must again go back and wait in line and disrobe once again. What contraband could I have loaded up with in the bathroom? One-ply toilet paper? Why not put the bathrooms in the pre security waiting room? Many mothers with little kids wait there, only to be told rudely there is no restroom for them or their toddlers. At all.
On one visit I was told inmates have lunch daily at 10am and thus I’d need to wait an extra hour. On another visit, I was told I needed to wait an hour at 1pm, as that was lunchtime every day.
In any operation in which the entire staff scowls and is unfamiliar with words like “please” or “thank you,” the problem starts at the top.
My suspicion that whoever runs the place not only didn’t care about garden variety customer service but probably wanted to inflict random acts of meanness on everyone was confirmed once I finally battled my way in to the inmate visiting room.
Like everyone else, I sat in the waiting room and waited. And waited. I watched a beautiful young black woman with twin toddlers go through the bureaucratic nonsense without so much as rolling her eyes, and without either child crying or even whining. She waited too. And waited.
I watched another mama, Russian I think, bring in her little boy and when her inmate came, she did not embrace him — just handed over the kid and looked away while he cooed and spoke to the child. Guess they’re not an item, but she is kind enough to bring the boy in to visit his dad, who made the most of that short time with him.
When the twins’ dad was finally brought out, he whooped and kissed his babies so long I thought their cheeks would rub off.
I’m told that at this jail, inmates get 90 minutes per week social visits with anyone other than counsel. I waited longer than that to see my client. Two hours into my wait, to pass the time, I surveyed the little inspirational posters someone had put up in the room.
“Being there for your kids means more than just being home,” said one, with a photo of a man who seems to have gotten that message, playing with some kids.
“Give your children something they can really depend on … your time,” said another.
I snuck around and surveyed all the signs in all the waiting rooms, and each was a variation on this theme, exhorting parents to be present and spend time with Junior.
Telling incarcerated people to take more time with their children. Wow. What kind of sadistic procurement officer green-lighted this callousness?
Did someone sit in a back room and think, “In addition to making up and changing the rules constantly for the inmates, their loved ones and lawyers, in addition to lying to them and making them wait obscene amounts of time, let’s make them feel really awful about themselves. I’ve got it! How about signs reminding them that by virtue of being incarcerated they are horrible parents?”
U.S. society’s decision to be the land of mass incarceration, where we currently imprison more of our own people than any other nation on earth or in human history, means that we are forcibly separating more parents from their children than ever before.
More than half of federal prison inmates are in for drug crimes, mostly nonviolent offenses. The largest single category of federal drug offenses is marijuana crimes, mainly possession offenses.
Sixty-three percent of federal inmates are parents. The man I visited, for example, has a new daughter. Everything in the story he told me was pegged to his baby’s arrival: “three days after she was born … when she was just a month old …” All he wanted was to get the hell out of the detention center and get back to his infant.
Yes, if he did the crime, he’ll have to do the time, and most of us accept that. (Except why on earth are we still incarcerating Americans for marijuana possession? Anyone? Anyone?) And yes, inmates endure far worse abuses than mean-spirited visiting room posters. One in ten state inmates, for example, are sexually abused.
But someone had to purchase, approve and post those “spend time with your kids” posters. This had to come from management. With a smirk.
When their dad was told visiting time was up, the twins cried for the first time that afternoon, stretching their tiny hands into the empty air as he was led away.
If we really wanted to give children back their fathers, we’d end our sick cult of mass incarceration and focus on crime prevention, substance abuse centers, job training and all the programs that work well in other developed countries to keep their prison population at a tiny fraction of ours.
As it’s well-known that keeping inmates connected with their families is key to their reintegration after they’re released, we would train staff to treat their weary visitors with basic respect to keep them coming back. At a minimum, we wouldn’t allow petty cruelties to be standard operating procedure anywhere in our justice system.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Avvo.
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6 comments
Ron
The corrections officers make up rules as they go. Let an officer have a bad day at home before their shift,and watch them come in and take it out on the inmates. Most of those in the profession need to be in jail themselves for the crimes that they commit on the helpless inmates. I've seen it happen,beaten for noreason,or tazed. Two officers beat a man to death recently at a Kentucky jail because he had an extra blanket,which those guards have been charged by the state for murder and falsifying documents,and then the feds picked it up. What will happen to the guards that done this?? Usually nothing,but this is just more proof of the types working in our jail systems. Criminals guarding the accused but not convicted. Its a sad state of affairs with no easy fix.
luke
The inmates are the one's that put themselves there. Therefore, no empathy. They knew what they were doing was wrong and against the law, but they went right ahead and did it anyway. It's pretty simple, obey the law and commit no crimes. Don't mess with any type of drugs, don't rob or steal, don't kill, don't rape or attack anyone. Be a decent law abiding person and prison won't be an issue for you. Get it ?
Cathy Spradling
I am currently working on my Masters in Criminal Justice and have worked as a detention officer for both juveniles and adults in Texas. While it may seem wrong to have to go through security to use the restroom there is a reason for it. I have seen lawyers bring in cell phones, money, and cards to inmates. We had a restroom in the waiting area and the visitors were doing drugs and leaving needles in there.
I have seen many male and female inmates act like a perfect inmate and family man during visitation only to get back to the pod and talk bad about the family. These are the same inmates who throw urine and feces on officers but you do not see this side of the inmate. You see what they want you to see.
These are the same men and women who expect the family members, who can barely feed their families, to put money on their books and when they don't they cuss out the family member on the phone. These are the men and women who find religion in prison only to forget it the minute they walk out the door.
Inmates have more rights than the detention officers. They can verbally abuse the officer and face few repercussions because the county or state is so worried about being sued. Detention officers get paid little money and are often forced to work overtime. These are long shifts that take away time from their own families. The turnover rate is high. They work hard and the rules are constantly changing on them. If you would take the time to get to know the detention officers your opinion of what you saw and what you went through might change.
Mary
This was a really great article. Those who end up on the "wrong side" of the US criminal justice system are completely powerless - especially if they don't have enough money to protect themselves from it. It's so sad, but from what I've seen it really seems as though there are no real rules or even concept of right and wrong. Instead, everything completely depends on the mood of the person in power.
Tanya petrovna
Crazy and mean. Thanks for the article, a real eye opener.
Seth Price
Great article Lisa. The circus and random rules are no better in DC