Relief in a phone call

My cell phone rang Monday morning and I immediately learned it was Corey calling from the message “You have a call from a federal inmate. If you wish to receive this call press 5”, yada, yada. Even after almost ten years of prison phone calls I still feel an immediate pang of anxiety when I hear that message. Because we email every day, a phone call can mean something is wrong or not so great has happened. But it can also mean something good has happened and he wants to tell us immediately. I hold my breath those initial minutes waiting to see which is the case.

My apprehension evaporated as Corey informed me he’d just come from a staffer’s office where he was told he had been assigned to the Spokane RRC (Halfway House) and was given his timetable of events…what his bus schedule was and when he would arrive in Spokane and be expected to arrive at the RRC itself. As is procedure he was also fingerprinted at this time.

Finally! The confirmation we’ve all been waiting on now for the past months! As simple as certain procedures should be, they rarely are in the prison netherworld. Even as we have known his release date for years, and learned a few months ago his Case Manager had sent off his designation papers to the Spokane RRC, he’s never been given that ‘all important’ confirmation of his acceptance there. Usually the men, a month, sometimes several months, prior to actual release, receive a packet from the RRC itself to confirm their designation there. This packet contains not just their ‘reservation’ there, but the facility rules and a list of what items the inmate may and may not bring into the house upon arrival. Several men Corey knows had already received their confirmation packets from the RRC they were going to be sent to, or had at least had their designation to the house verified by their Case Managers. And several of these men were being released weeks and months AFTER Coreys release date. So you can understand why we were all starting to get a little concerned.

Despite assuring ourselves all would be just fine, my husband and I started making calls to the Spokane RRC, as well as the BOP Western Regional office in Dublin, to see if we could get some, any, information regarding our sons status. I should explain that it didn’t help that his Case Manager had called Corey to his office over a month ago to inform him in filling out the documents and sending to the Spokane RRC, the CM himself had made some errors and twice the documents had been returned. But that in this, his third attempt, all should be good. Uh huh. Mmm hmmm….

We didn’t have much luck with our calls, the first time around neither place showed any updated Status re Coreys RRC status. No record of his being submitted to the Spokane RRC. This was prior to his learning of his CM’s errors. After learning of the errors and the CM’s assurance he’d sent of the corrected docs, we waited a few weeks and made our calls again. This time no one was forthcoming, not even to inform us there was no change in status. Neither facility would give us any information. I must tell you, it always, ALWAYS, depend on luck of the draw, who you happen to talk to at any given time. First time around we got someone helpful and understanding, the next time not so much. Persistence is key. Had we not learned this week of the good news, I’d be calling the RRC again this week in hopes of getting the first young man I’d talked to, who was kind, helpful and offered suggestions.

AND SO the next four weeks passed without any packet from the RRC arriving, and with no mention either way of Coreys RRC status from the CM himself, whose job it is to keep Corey updated. Though still fairly sure all was fine, I couldn’t shake the feelings that something would skew the works. Worried that on his release day he’d learn, at the last minute, his paperwork had never reached the RRC or more errors had happened and not been corrected, and they currently had no room for Corey, and he’d have to go elsewhere, perhaps to an RRC in the Seattle area. See what I mean? This isn’t an easy life. What is too easy is to start imagining all the ‘what ifs’. With years of dealing with prison beaurocracy, staffers, errors and ommissions, and the fact few give a damn, the one thing we always could count on was Murphy’s Law. If something CAN go wrong, it WILL go wrong”. And so, this being in limbo re the RRC status wasn’t helping us relax especially and I must say, was keeping us from celebrating this final count down to release. Well, almost. Nothing could suppress those giddy feelings.

BUT, as I started out this post with, we now finally can relax, we have the confirmation we needed. But still I will not exhale until I see my son for our first visit at the Spokane RRC. Old habits die hard.

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once." ~Jennifer Yane