Went down to see how Chris was doing today.
I was denied access because I was wearing a sweatshirt without a t-shirt underneath.
I had to go down to Ross and buy myself a T-shirt which I wore over my sweatshirt, completely ridiculous.
Sitting in the main room looking at the different people all of whom are waiting to see somebody they know in custody is a very strange experience.
Behind the glass sit the deputies, one mans the window were you bring the bail, the other where you request a visit.
They are not particularly nice, they seem to have plenty of inside jokes between themselves as they do their jobs.
A third deputy comes in sometimes and shoots the breeze with the other two.
That third deputy takes you to the elevator where he turns his key which activates the elevator and takes you to the floor they want you to go to.
They give you a little plastic “card” that has 3 letters on it.
Mine said 8v3, which stands for floor 8 room three; I suppose the “v” stands for visitor.
You go up the elevator out the door to your left and find the appropriate room number.
You wait in the room for the inmate to show up.
The room is about 10 feet by 5 feet, and you are staring at a similar room on the other side of a very thick pane of glass.
Both rooms have a phone which is attached to the wall.
It takes quite awhile for the inmate to show up on the other side of that pane of glass, about 10 minutes or so.
When Chris showed up finally we couldn’t get that phone to work.
The inmate has to dial a code and the visitor waits for something to light up on the phone.
For some reason Chris couldn’t get a dial tone on his side so we ended up yelling at each other through the plate glass window.
After 5 minutes of yelling Chris tried the phone again and this time it worked!
Anyway Chris spends his day looking out his window, (he has a view of the river) playing solitaire (in solitary as he says), and for 2 hours every day he gets to go into the main area and play games, read a book, or watch TV.
He says he got to watch the dragon boat races from his window!
And he actually got to see the fireworks!
But he watched the fireworks as they reflected off a building.
He said it looked like the fireworks were going on in the building.
Chris has asked me to get a grievance form and send it to him.
He gave 28 years to Trimet, had perfect attendance for 25 years, and 25 years of superior performance awards.
He made one mistake and Trimet management throws him away like a used tire.
See at Trimet, operators are viewed as a piece of equipment, and when the equipment doesn't work the way the management wants it to, they just throw you away.
To contact Chris:
Chris Parker, inmate # 755287, Multhomah County Jail, 1120 SW 3rd, PDX, OR 97206
2 comments:
Note: The "victim" in this case has no interest in Chris being in Jail. She wants him released right now! Being a "minor" (15) means she has no rights and no say in how this case moves forward.
That was very nice of you to go down and give him some comfort.
Post a Comment