And this makes the world a better place how?

Most of you know my friend Darren plead guilty to charges of eco-sabotage recently. His sentencing is for 37 months, which much has been served already as he was arrested in December of 2005 and has been in the jail system ever since. After his sentencing he was sent back to the Multnomah County Inverness Jail where I have visited him weekly since shortly after his arrest.

The Friday before last I went to the jail for a visit as was normal routine only to find that Darren was no longer there. All the guard could tell me was that the U.S. Marshals had taken him the day before. He didn't know exactly where he was taken, but figured it was to the federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon. (This was later confirmed through an "inmate locator" on the Bureau of Prisoners website). Now we figured that he would be taken there eventually but of course had no warning whatsoever. No goodbyes, just gone. It is a strange and abrupt end to a friendship that was rekindled after ten years of separation. I left the jail with a sense of loss and worry. At least seeing Darren on a weekly basis I had some sort of indication that he was okay...I knew where he was, I could visibly see that he was physically okay, I could get some insight into whether or not he was holding up.

Now Darren is gone into the federal prison system. He seemingly has no contact with the outside world until he is "classified" and given access to a phone and/or visitors, which may take weeks. This is a tense time. Just the last time I visited Darren he told me that the guards at MCIJ had chosen to place in general population the obviously mentally ill man who had allowed his mother to lay on the living room floor for weeks in her own waste. They placed him with a group of inmates the night the man's story was running on the news. Needless to say, the man did not have a good nights sleep. By morning he was transferred out of general population with a gash in his forward and numerous other injuries. You can therefore understand why I am nervous for Darren's safety as he is now being housed in a federal prison.

It helps that Darren is quite streetwise (after years of living on the run underground and a few years in jail previously) and has some survival skills for living in the "inside." It also helps that when the inmates ask him what he is in prison for he can tell them that it is for conspiracy and releasing wild horses that the government had captured to put up for sale so that federal lands could be leased to farmers at a loss so that farmers can graze their cattle. Darren can also hand them a several page story from The Rolling Stone that inmates can read about his case. Darren's crime garners him a bit more respect in jail but of course none of them are completely safe. If nothing else, even if the inmates don't abuse him you can be sure that the guards aren't above taking action against him.

Therefore you can understand the eery feelilng I got when I came home last night to a box on my porch that held nothing other than the clothes Darren was arrested in...tennis shoes, jeans, a few long sleeve shirts and a jacket. No note, no explanation, just the clothes that have been sitting at the jail since December of 2005 and that he wore while being transferred to Sheridan. It is an uncomfortable feeling to have my friend taken away with no contact only to receive a box of his clothes in the mail. Shortly I will be asked to pick up Darren's personal items that the FBI confiscated from his apartment after they arrested him (laptops, phones, cds, video tapes, etc) that they no longer need for the prosecution. My friend is gone and in his place I have bags and bags of letters and mail he received while in jail, books he read (prisoners can only keep so many personal items with them), pictures he released to me so that I can mail them to him later once he has reached permanent residence somewhere and his clothes.

Meanwhile I am studying the twenty page guide of visiting prisoners in federal prison...you can embrace only twice and only for a brief moment, once when you first arrive, once as you leave. You can't wear shorts or skirts or revealing clothing of any kind. You have to agree to take random drug tests. You had to have contact with the prisoner prior to his incarceration and you have to have some sort of influence on his life once he is released.

The prison system is supposedly to protect the public from criminals and to help them learn to live within our system. I am witnessing first hand that all they do is expose the inmates to all sorts of ugly elements, place them in fear for their saftey and serve as a place to alienate people from the outside world, the people that most need to not be alienated. Jails and prisons are not making the world a better place.