List of Terrible Things

[Jenny A]

Solitary confinement. I did just under 3 of my 9 years in one of these (very similar to this one)... my first 21 months, straight, followed by a transfer and another solitary cell, with them making it clear I'd stay in one until I "broke", confessed, and named names. I did none of those things.

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Edit to Add: Fun fact. That "window" in the back of the cell is not really a window; it is a translucent panel that lets you know if it's night or day outside. While I was in the second facility, they put me in the crazy ward (though I had not seen a psychologist and am not diagnosed with any mental conditions)  with the poop-smearers and the guys who (literally) scream 22-23 hours per day. Of six cells in that unit, we had four suicide attempts (two successful) while I was there, done by looping bedsheets through the bars in that "window". As a result, they screwed a thick sheet of semi-translucent lexan to the frame of the window... it took about six minutes for one of the mental patients to discover he could punch the center and make the whole (concrete-and-steel) wing reverberate like the inside of a kettle drum. Good times.

I'd really like to know how you got there and how you got out.  Sounds awful, and you don't sound insane.  What happened?

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Man I'm sorry you had to endure that.  That's horrible.  You are so interesting the more I learn about you.  Not sure if you have shared your story anywhere on here but I'm truly glad you are here dude.

With all due respect, I'd prefer to be less interesting.

You must have missed my intro thread.

[brewer]

Disease.
That other disease.
Fraud
The next disease
My ex wife (#2, #1 was OK)
A non Vorlon infused thread?

[TheRocketSurgeon]

I'd really like to know how you got there and how you got out.  Sounds awful, and you don't sound insane.  What happened?

I can't give too many details, because my lawyer who is suing them has advised me not to talk about it, but I'll try to be as specific as I feel is safe.

I got there from the testimony of an ex-GF who had previously been a police informant, and knew that an accusation was often enough to land a person in jail. I doubt she intended for me to do that much time, but once you get the ball rolling, it's out of everyone's hands but the prosecutor's.

I was an advocate of medical Marijuana (back in the early 2000s, when only California was on the map for that subject), and they were able to twist her "testimony" about me being a drug dealer, along with mis-applied stuff from my articles and blog entries, to suggest to the jury that I was a major player. Lots of police officers (Drug Task Force people) testified that, "in [their] professional opinion" and "based on [their] training", my writings "indicated" that I was involved in such a trade, though none had any direct evidence of such. However, in American courtrooms, testimony is considered evidence.

When they failed to demonstrate that I had actual posession of large amounts and/or show anyone who could say they had bought from me, the judge simply removed the "with the intent to" element from the law's description handed to the jury, so the basis of conviction changed. He also forbade me from having access to her computer, which allowed them to enter into evidence printed copies of conversations I supposedly had with her that "admitted" to doing so, without me being able to cross-examine it on any serious basis other than asking her "did he really send you that" and me getting on the stand to say "nuh-uh!" The higher courts found this inadmissible, of course, and said I should have had access to the original records and not printed copies of the records, but the actual overturn came from the fact that the State simply did not prove the case or present any evidence necessary for the element that had been omitted.

My first Public Defender, whom I fired, waived my right to a speedy trial (they can do this without your permission, in Missouri), and so I was kept in isolation for about 2 1/2 years as a way to "break me" psychologically, so I would confess and save them the trouble of a trial by taking a plea bargain, which is how 95% of cases are resolved. They also believed I was a weed kingpin, so they wanted me to name names, like a scene out of a movie about the McCarthyist Red Scare, but of course there were no names to give them.

I lived with the ex for nearly 5 years, only to find out she had been cheating on me while I was out crawling around in river systems and sleeping in distant hotels across the state for my job, 3 days and 2 nights out of every week. I found photos of her literally having group sex with most of the college basketball team, one day, when she left hurriedly for work and missed clicking the "log off" button on her email account, on the computer that we shared in the living room of our house (used mainly as a router/server for our laptops). I threw her out, and when her mother, who loved me, called me to ask why oh why did I throw their daughter out, in a moment of bitterness, I emailed her mom the photos. What I didn't know is that the parents were racists who had told her that if she ever dated a black guy again, she'd be disowned... apparently a whole team was also off-limits, and they did. She spent quite a bit of time trying to convince me that I was the one at fault, because I knew she believed in polyamory but I didn't allow her to practice it (true) in our relationship, and how dare I claim to be a "freethinker" and a feminist, yet demand patriarchal submission/monogamy of a woman.

For a while, I tried to wrap my head around this concept, and we talked about the possibility of getting back together. However, I attended a speech by E. O. Wilson, a famous biologist, and in the hourlong line to get his book signed, I met a senior in biology at the university who turned out to be the most amazing woman I know, who is now my Beloved, fiancee, and the mother of my son. (We'd have been married long ago, but didn't want to do it wrong, since prison isn't a good place to get married, and she wants the whole kit-n-kaboodle ceremony.) She, and her constant love and faithfulness as well, are the reason I made it out of there with my sanity intact, despite the best attempts of the State to break me down.

[Salacious B. Crumb]

Seeing a snake in the wild usually sends me in the other direction quickly.

I've come close, a few times, of walking into something big like this (not this big). I know I wouldn't have been too enthused by that.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Edit to Add: I mention my Beloved because meeting her, and thus telling the ex I was no longer interested in even possibly pursuing the old relationship, seems to be what triggered her to go to police.

Further Addendum: Even with 30 years, I was only "required" to serve ~7 1/2 years of it (25% of sentence) as a minimum, but the Parole Board felt that my refusal to admit guilt indicated a, quote, "Failure to take responsibility for my actions", so they recommended/ordered that I serve 66%, or 20 out of the 30.