The First Eleven Days

(Image by Mathew Kendall)

It’s been 11 days since Coreys release. He arrived at the Spokane RRC (Residential Reentry Center, aka Halfway House) with his small bag that he left the prison with, a small 24” X 12” white mesh bag that held the entirety of his personal belongings. Those items he had not left behind, given away to other men who could make good use of them. When I think of all the possessions, we, most of us, collect in our lives, to see his reduced to just this small bag, I was humbled.

The joy at seeing my son free from the confines of a federal prison is indescribable, the open, wide grin on his face made me laugh out loud with joy, the embrace we shared was one unlike any in the past almost ten years, I felt him shaking as he wrapped his arms around me in a huge bear hug, overwhelmed by the realization he had finally come home.

For the past few years we’ve heard so many different stories from friends he’d made who had been released to various halfway houses across the country, per their requested destination. Not one report allowed us to relax at what would come with halfway house confinement. Unfriendly, difficult- to-work-with staffers, stiff rules and regulations, unclean, crowded accommodations and poor food quality. The complaints were many. Too many were forced to deal with Case Managers who saw them all as irredeemable felons, who would never amount to much, and who would direct them to low paying, menial jobs, take pleasure in reducing them in stature at every opportunity. Case managers who put more hurdles in their path to moving forward than they did to helping the men get back on their feet and make a successful transition. The system is rife with beaurocracy and paper pushers, unqualified staffers, far too many more concerned with completing the myriad and many forms than the lives of men seeking a chance at a new and better life.

I am relieved and happy to report the Spokane RRC is unlike any of the ones we have heard about. And I welcome hearing from anyone with comments on any RRC’s they’ve dealt with. SO many men sit in prisons, awaiting their release, anxious about the RRC they will be required to spend time at, as it is difficult to get much information about these places, except through the prison ‘grapevine’and on a few online sites I often visited such as PrisonTalk. In the years leading up to Coreys release neither he, nor we, came across anyone who had been to this particular RRC, or knew anyone who had. So there was a great deal of anxiety, of wondering just how difficult this next step to freedom was going to be. As in the prison journey itself, Corey needed to have no expectations of decent treatment, be prepared for the worst, the status quo … prison staffers with large egos, power trips, & control issues, and unrelenting, idiotic rules and regulations that, rather than offer ‘assistance’ in moving forward, as these ‘halfway houses’ were originally intended to do, but would instead place only hurdles in the way to successfully moving forward.

Deep sigh…..again, I find myself relaxing and releasing held breath as the days unfold. At first site this halfway house is bleak and unwelcoming. It is an old gray warehouse or perhaps was even a gas station at one time, and is situated in an ‘industrial’, run down part of the city. However, and happily, looks are decieving. For behind the walls work staffers with the best attitudes we’ve come into contact with in a long, long while. Every staffer we, and Corey, have met and had to work with, has been friendly, respectful, and yes, even (gasp!) helpful. Mind you we are still ‘early’ into this next leg of the journey, but we are being given reason to ‘hope’ that this might not be the next worst-case experience!

Corey has been “assessed” by his assigned Case Manager, a woman who, from his description is open, friendly, and appears actually interested in who he is, his experiences, what his hopes and plans are for his future. After hours spent with him now, she feels he is incredibly well adjusted for someone finishing ten years in prison, believes he requires little in the way of ‘treatments’, those programs/classes offered to help in adjusting to the anxieties and pressures of facing a fast paced, often stressful world after years away from it, and yes, even any anger at what has been lost along the way. Corey credits the RDAP program for helping him recognize and deal with many of the issues and sources of behavior that led him to his prison experience, his accepting fully the responsibility of his own choices and actions, the learned skills to deal with pressures and stresses that come his way, and the support and presence of his family for limiting the ‘institutionalization’ that is endemic of a long sentence, the separation from the real world, the rules, controlled environment, and subtreatment one must live under with every day in the prison netherworld.

In the past 11 days Corey has been given ‘passes’ almost every day to get out and about, mostly just for 2 or 4 hrs at a time, to take care of things he will need to progress more successfully in these next weeks and months of his freedom. Walking out those doors, filled with anticipation, greeting the busy city streets head on with eyes wide open, the fast paced reality of life, looking around at the brilliant fall colors and inhaling the fresh crisp autumn air, he welcomes every experience! Corey has had shopping excursions, made visits to the Federal Bldg for his I.D. Packet that allowed him to apply for a new drivers license, on another day taken and passed both the written and driving tests (at a separate location), and gone back, on another day, to the Fed Bldg for the I.D. packet they’d misplaced the first time. Obviously, and as expected (lol) there were a few glitches that made some things take a little longer than one would like but Corey was happy just to be out and about, it was “all good” !!

Visitation is convenient, Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays from 8 till 10, 1 till 4 and 7 till 10 at nite. Saturday and Sundays there are morning visits, a break for serving the lunch, and then afternoon visiting. All meals are catered in, and they are very good by Coreys appraisal. Mostly he has had his dinner meal delivered from favorite restaurents around the city, foods he has missed so much in these many years, and is enjoying even just the simple pleasure of using his own cellphone to order in!! Re the cellphone, he was allowed one the day he entered the house, but no internet. We’d bought him a phone at Walmart, a basic phone with no contract and great monthly rates. He can call or text, send pictures. He is LOVING it!! The IPhone will come later when he is allowed INet, but that will not be until he’s completed the 6 months HWH stint, most of which, by the sounds of it, WILL NOT actually, and happily, be in the house itself. From what he’s been told “Home Confinement” approval to live in his own apartment, could be just weeks away. Exciting, heady stuff, I tell you!

He has a large locker, three times the size he’s used to, and keeps it so organized several staffers have come by just to admire it! LOL. Mostly they have to get on the men to keep their lockers more tidy. Residents are actually allowed quite a lot of items, 6 pr pants and shirts, several sets of underwear, jackets, several prs shoes and boots…I’ve taken him down some of his things from storage, his favorite peacoat, jeans, shirts, athletic wear and shoes for example and he’s purchased a few others.

The Holiday ‘pass’ schedule has just been posted and it seems he should be allowed to spend all day Thanksgiving with us here at our home. I had expected just a few hours, but from 9 am to 9 pm will be utterly amazing!!! I will cook my sox off and we’ll have THE best Thanksgiving day this family has every had! Christmas they are allowing 2 full days leave and for NY’s another 12 hr pass. Let the good times roll!

I believe many and more good things appear set to come his way, our way. I am beyond grateful at all the new privileges and experiences we are now enjoying. Seeing my son free at last (well ‘almost’), “ free-er” I should say, but the more relaxed set of Corey’s shoulders, his constant smile, his easy laugh, are all such welcome gifts and never have I felt such gratitude for every day.

One bit of irony I must report, right directly across the street from the halfway house is a Medical Marijuana dispensary! Legalization of marijuana this year in Washington State has resulted in several new dispensaries and the sale of 'weed' in liquor stores I understand. Corey says he shook his head upon walking out the door of the 'house' and seeing the dispensary right in front of him, mere feet away, marijuana legally being sold for ailments, and nearby, around the city, for the sheer enjoyment of its purposed calming, de-stressing qualities, that 'high' SO many, clearly, seek in todays crazy world, and for which he was sent to prison for selling as a businessman just ten years ago.


“Do not take anything for granted — not one smile or one person or one rainbow or one breath, or one night in your cozy bed.” ~ Terri Guillemets