If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I served just short of 9 years in prison. If you are new to My Gospel Project, you may wish to look over some of my blog archives on the left of the screen. Just like life on the outside, life in prison is a mixture of positive and negative experiences - at least for me, it was. And some of the things I write about in this blog are taken from a diary I kept for the entire time I was locked up (just short of 9 years).
Today I want to briefly share with you what it was like to sign my release papers. This is something you do a couple of days before you are official released from prison. It was a very cold day when I saw my name on the call out to go down to records to sign my release papers. I think it was about 15 degrees out.
I did not know exactly where to go to sign my release papers, so I asked a guard - excuse me, a corrections officer (they don't like being called gaurds!). He told me to go back to my unit and reread the call out sheet. So I did. The building I needed to go to was about 30 feet away from where the corrections officer was standing. Instead of treating me like a human being, and saying "The builing you're looking for is right over there," he chose to have me walk back to my unit - in 15 degree weather - to reread the call out sheet.
When I got to the place to sign my release papers, I had to wait, along with a couple of other inmates, outside in the cold while they took us into the office - one at a time - to sign our release papers. I was second in line, and there was one more man behind me. We had our state issued coats on but it was still extremely cold out.
When my turn finally came to go into the office to sign my release papers, one of the female staff said to her coworker, "Boy, it is really cold in here!" When she said that, I turned and looked at the other inmate standing out in the 15 degree weather and I just shook my head. We were not human beings to these people. We were not even cattle. We were like the Jews in World War II, and these people were the Gestapo.
