Free as a bird

Upon returning to Twin Oaks Cameron asked me "How as jail?" i quipped
"i'd rather be in jail than in a bad community meeting." Which is true but beside the point.

i got lucky. For what ever reason they decided to place me in the trusterdy cell block (which is block K at the Central Virgina Regional Jail). This means most of the people in the cell are working in the jail - laundry, cooking, cleaning the building. They are doing this to reduce their time. If you are sentenced to a year on a misdemeanor charge, you only serve 6 months. If you work while you are there you can cut it in half again. These inmates have a vested interest in not screwing up their jail time with petty nonsense with the likes of me. This made the entire experience pretty comfortable.

The food was horrible (as in - skip meals for variety), my blanket was too small, the TV was on more than half of the day (even after lights our which i found weird, the matrass gave me a sore back, there were 60 guys in my cell. And the overall experience was great.

My jail experience was like being in an unintentional community where the cottage industry is killing time. I got wiped out in chess, had a number of good conversations with inmates (including a very spooky one where an inmate guessed i was from Twin Oaks right after guessing i was from Louisa), i had no trouble sleeping a lot (noise does not bother me much and i intentionally arrived exhausted), and i dont fear going back for a longer time if that is what is needed at some point.

For me, going to jail is like hitchhiking. Before i go i am worried about it, about the bad things that could happen. Then i do it and remember why i went, the kinds of connections you dont find elsewhere, what it means to trust people you dont know who could be slightly dangerous. And in the end feeling better about humanity than before i went.