Current Events > I got booked today. It was a humbling, sobering experience.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I drove myself to the prison, which is a massive, decaying fortress of brutalist architecture. I met with a secretary that my lawyer told me to specifically ask for at the prison administration office, a pretty older woman named Sabrina. I sat and waited on a very low couch for the arresting officer to come and process me, while Sabrina and a barrel-chested police captain talked about how I would not need to go through conventional arrest processing. Apparently, my lawyer had spoken to the captain, and I was to be released on my own recognizance without paying a bond.

Two young officers, who could not be more than four years older than me, came to pick me up, and I walked between them to the prison facility itself. A bleary-eyed woman in orange scrubs looked at me from behind her hands through a holding cell window while I waited for the arresting officer to get the paperwork prepared. I don't know exactly what my lawyer arranged with the captain, but I skipped most of the processing, as in, no pat-down, no strip-search, nothing. Not even taking off my shoes. When they took my wallet, keys, and phone, they didn't even check them in, he just put them in a plastic bag.

I kept calling the arresting officer "sir" and eventually he said, "I'm only four years older than you, you don't have to call me 'sir'." He was professional and polite while I got my picture and fingerprints taken. He even talked to me about my job while he was processing my fingerprints. I think he could tell that I was incredibly nervous. And I was; I was absolutely fucking terrified.

The worst part was right before I left. I was waiting to get my things back, and I saw two men being led in handcuffs to an old, worn door labeled "Men's Shower". And these two men, one white and one black, about in their late 30's or early 40's, were very neatly groomed, like they had just walked in the jail from outside and put on orange scrubs as some kind of costume. They were two completely normal, regular dudes. The entire experience to this point had been eye-opening, but when I saw those two men, I realized that they could be anyone. They could even be me.

When I was leaving, the guard, an old black man, said with a smile, "now get on out of here and I hope I don't see you here no more."

I have been so fucking lucky so far. I could have hurt someone. I could have killed someone. I never, ever want to see the inside of a prison in real life ever again, and I will never again be so foolish as to risk my own life or the lives of others. I'm not even upset about my picture getting taken and inevitably winding up in the Jail Report (which is very popular around here). If anyone gives me a hard time for it, I will simply reply, "that's none of your business", because it really isn't. This is my struggle and mine alone.

I was far more brave today than I ever thought I could be.
---

What did you do
---

EpicMickeyDrew posted...

What did you do

I would say DUI going by what he says at the end.
---

DUI, but i was totally cool to drive
---

So do you write, or...?
---

Philoktetes posted...

DUI, but i was totally cool to drive

Philoktetes posted...

I have been so f***ing lucky so far. I could have hurt someone. I could have killed someone. I never, ever want to see the inside of a prison in real life ever again, and I will never again be so foolish as to risk my own life or the lives of others.

---

No you weren't "totally cool to drive" Drink driving is so fucking stupid and is one of the things that pisses me off the most along with using your phone while driving.
---