"You know, this jail just isn't as nice as some of the other jails I've been to," proclaims the first guy I ever picked up from jail and set up on EAM.
"The showers there weren't as nice as the ones in Prairie County."
Clearly, this guy, who is approximately 22, has been to jail more than a handful of times, and has taken note of the many differences amongst the multiple jails he's "visited." Being incarcerated as many times as he has, he still has clearly not learned his lesson, nor does he seem to mind the idea of being in jail, which sadly seems to be a trend in many of my clients who talk about jail as though it were an expected and inevitable part of life.
On top of being a connoisseur of jail conditions, his general attitude towards me is one of camaraderie, as though we were fighting "the man" because I was getting him out of jail. Don't laud the messenger before you realize what the message actually is. However, I don't think he truly comprehends (as many of my clients don't because the county covers pre-trial costs which must be paid by the defendant after he's sentenced) that he's paying fourteen dollars a day to not be in the jail, and I'm simply an intermediary tool transporting him from the jail to his home to set him up on a monitor.
Approximately a month passes and he starts to miss calls. I call him to see why he started to miss calls, but to no avail. His phone line has been disconnected. I sent out a notice to the courts about his violation and a warrant is released for his arrest. Once it was discovered that he was picked up by the police and back in jail, I ventured over to his place to take the machine out of his apartment. Now, he lived alone and this was the first time someone had violated since I started working and the first time I had to go all repo man on someone's ass. I don't know how actual repo men take things that don't technically belong to them without feeling extremely awkward and invasive. I mean, I was going to go grab something that belongs to the company I work for, and I still had this haunting feeling that I was going to get busted by the police for breaking and entering. And then all of those feelings went away when it was actually his neighbor who was home and was holding the machine for him. Awkward imaginary crisis avoided.
That still isn't the end of my time with this guy though. After getting picked up by the police he had a court hearing about violating his probation. When someone has a court appearance after they have violated either my boss or I might have to appear in court to testify against the defendant proving that he had violated and that he didn't miss his calls because of fault on our end. I dressed myself up that day since I might have to appear in court. This was a drastic change from my shorts and a graphic tee that I usually wear to work since I don't want to get my nice clothes reeking of cigarette smoke since most of my clients smoke and I have to go into their houses which just reeks of it. Anyway, I digress. I went to the court house, sat in the court room which was initially a divorce case or civil dispute case, I'm not exactly sure, and eventually #001 come in in handcuffs and oranges and pleads guilty rendering me unnecessary, which I was not upset about.
After that double "o" 1 was sentenced to some jail time and that has been the last that I've heard from him. And like all of my other clients, hopefully I never hear from him again.
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