FRIDAY WITH COREY

Although the day outside was warm and sunny, and several vacant picnic table beckoned to me, knowing it would not only be most agreeable to sit in the sun, and would be quieter out on the small enclosed patio, we sat inside at our table instead, amidst the rising volume of voices and often noisy children. Corey prefers to not to sit outside, even on the best of days, weather-wise, as he feels that area, slightly more private (for those living in a place where privacy is nonexistent) is left available for those inmates who have wives or girlfriends visiting. A “sanctuary” (if such a thing can be said to exist in a federal prison) where there is a slightly more modicum of privacy, absent the tables filled with families and noisy children or babies, a slight respite where they can have the “illusion” of intimacy.

Not that any hanky panky goes on out there on the patio, the area is wide open to the scrutiny of the ever-watchful guards, & by the placement of large mirrors in all corners of the small concrete patio, as well as the large floor to ceiling windows that separate the small outside space from the inside visiting area. No, no hanky panky (god forbid!) for these couples who, despite the odds, seem determined to sustain their relationship amidst all the hardships that come with years of separation and extremely limited communication opportunities.

Unlike the U.S. State prison system, no conjugal visits are EVER permitted within the Federal prisons. Add to this extreme limitations in any form of communications available to these men and the women they love, time served inside a federal prison is all the more punishing. Inmates at Taft (and most all Federal prisons) are allowed only 300 minutes of phone use per month (equal to one 10 minute call per day), and visitation is limited to 20 “points” per month, which basically works out to a maximum of 4 visits each month, but only if you are able to visit on a Friday. If you are only able to visit on a weekend day, the points only allow for 2 or at most 3 visits per month. Although email has been a welcome addition in recent years, it has not yet been rolled out to all Federal facilities. Though a Federal facility, Taft is a privately run prison (MTC holds the current contract) and only recently adopted a “e-messaging” system. The main difference in this system and your usual email through an ISP, is that this one costs not only the inmate but the recipient/respondent “outside“ the walls to use, making it even more profitable to the Corporation providing the service (and MTC as well). In Taft's case, that company is JPay.com. I don’t agree with the concept, as it once again gouges those least able to afford it, but who wish to increase ties to loved ones inside, however was thrilled beyond measure at having one more avenue (though inmates are “limited” to its use) of communicating with our son.

Corey remains steadfast in not sending out “invitations” to other family or friends to write him using the e-messaging service, he is hesitant to ask or expect anyone to have to set up an acct with Jpay, putting their credit card on file with this company, to have to pay to write him. Although the cost is minimal, only 40 cents per e-message page, less than a stamp, and the messages arrive within hours, or a day at most, vs. several days for a letter to reach him in the mail, he remains resolute in not expecting others to contribute to the profits made by our bloated, prison industrial complex, or to expect anyone to put their credit card information in the hands of not-well-known companies like Jpay. Most of us are used to purchasing items over the internet and feel confident enough in its security measures, that this isn’t a concern, but more than anything I understand it’s more a matter of “principle” for Corey. I also believe he feels if one can’t, or won’t, take the time it takes to write/print out/mail a letter on their computer, or message him on his Facebook or Myspace sites, OR to actually hand-write, a letter to him, he’s not about to send out ‘reminders” to those folks that he’s still in prison and would like to hear from them!

I understand his feelings but will continue to try to encourage him to send out “invitations” as it seems in todays fast paced, more self-involved society, letter writing has become a lost art. The internet has replaced that more personal, more intimate link in communication, with email, twitter, social networking sites like Facebook, My Space, Classmates, and blogs. Sadly, for many with “good intentions“, once out of sight, out of mind may be their only “excuse”.


And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
~W.H. Auden