Ten Plus Six in Book Two: The Fifteenth Year of the Third Millennium of the Common Era

Another 16 hour day. w00t?

Training the new guy in Law Library this morning from 8-1200
Court from Noon - 1400
7 More “Immediate Priority” Interviews for 3 hours of labor
And 7 hours of “trying desperately to get caught up with Paperwork and Mods”.

So.... 4+2+3+7
A 16 Hour day. Aren’t you glad we get to share the last 5 hours of it together? lol.

(1) Parents, Friends, Random Strangers… be very selective about whom you call friends. As a rule, I believe less than 20% of what people tell me in this Law Library. This is a jail, most people in here believe that they have every right to do as they please. Yes, I’ve had a man tell me that there is no reason beating the shit out of his wife should be a crime. So, no, I don’t actively listen to most of these assholes. However, getting back to the point: Be very selective about whom you call friends.
Let us pretend that I do believe 100% of the stories shared in this Law Library.
(a) A young, attractive girl.... her boyfriend beats her up, but it is okay because he is expressing his rage against racism out on her. See, he’s black and she’s white so she’s doing a good thing for him by letting him (from the case file) punch her in the head while she’s driving… punch her in the head to the point where he cracked her eye socket.
(b) A young woman who rented a hotel room for her boyfriend and his friends. They filled the room with illegal guns, drugs, and their “stable” (hookers) so she has a Federal Indictment in connection with all of that.
(c) A young man who was “just in the car with his friend” when a road rage incident broke out and his friend beat the hell out of a 55 year old man. Both the young man and his friend have been charged with assault.
(d) A young man driving with his friends, innocently enough, when they were pulled over by a police officer because they ran a stop sign. Upon investigation; every single person in the car (except the driver) was a felon in possession of a firearm. All of them, including the driver, are being charged with Felon In Possession; Possession of Stolen Firearms; and Defaced Firearms.

So… yeah. Don’t associate with criminals… maybe a “harsh statement” but… seriously… you protect you… and if you can’t trust your friends to not break the law around you, you will be arrested in association if you are present while they are breaking the law.

Looking through some of the legal matters around the Law Library a bizarre thought struck me. At least in this jurisdiction (and Federal) “Life” is still an acceptable sentence. To sentence someone to remain imprisoned for Life (a nicer way of saying, sentenced to live out the remaining years in prison to be released only upon death.) Here’s the thing though.... as Medical Science evolves and improves… as lifespans increase… I’m wondering if there is a PRESENT day objection that can be filed with that in mind for the FUTURE. Some kind of sentence hearing request. Like… the defendant is sentenced to “Life without parole”… is there any avenue upon which the attorney can object and request a specific term of years citing potential medical advances?

The weird things I think about when I want to stop thinking about these inmate/clients. Because… their legal problems?
Inmate: Why is it tampering with a witness if I tell her to talk to her attorney.
Me: Because you are, in a legal sense, interfering with her case. She is a co-defendant; you cannot tell her what to say, who to talk to, or direct her actions.
Inmate: Yeah, but she don’t know shit. She gotta ask me what to do all the time.
Me: In this instant, you aren’t allowed to tell her what to do.
Inmate: Well, that’s against the law! Prosecution can’t break the fucking law to keep me from taking care of my woman. That’s shit!

Exasperated sigh. I don’t give even the tiniest of baby bat shits about any of these guys. I’m not being paid to be their attorney. I’m not even being paid an appropriate wage to be their babysitter. And yet… when I’ve got some asshole in my face trying to tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about… it still bothers me. I’m professional enough not to lose my cool… but after the fact… it bothers me. And it bothers me for a snobby reason. I was bred to interact with all walks of life. As we say, “The CEO and Custodian should both be treated the same… with respect and appreciation for a job well done.” However, I grew up more around CEOs than Custodians. And I attended College, studying in a field where logical text-based debate was considered the most appropriate form of communication. And I attended Law School, where literacy and information and expanding your knowledge were the height of importance.

Only to spend my days wallowing in this academically defunct, intelligence-killing pit where the least informed but loudest yelling are convinced they are geniuses. My mind cries out for better.

I’ve been procrastinating certain things and only recently discovered others. Tomorrow I have to return a phone call to set up an interview; send my resume packet out for a County Attorney position that just opened up; and send some more documents to the Federal Judges of Iowa for an employment opportunity. Plus fill out a form to renew my Iowa Bar Membership and get credit for the hours I spent at the CLE in the summer. Try to schedule an eye appointment to fix my current glasses, get a new pair, and (maybe, finally, hopefully) get a pair of sunglasses. If that was my entire tomorrow… no big deal. But already I’m dreading coming back to the law library tomorrow night. What horrifies me about that is not that there is anything particularly wrong with tomorrow night… I don’t anticipate any greater of a work load, I don’t anticipate any glaring problems… I just… don’t want to come back and deal with the Law Library. It is most certainly a bad sign when you’re dreading the NEXT work shift before you’re even finished with your CURRENT work shift… and so much worse when the dread comes not from apprehension but tedium and irritation.

Maybe that just “comes with the territory” of doing week after week after week after week of 40 hours in 4 days and always getting further and further behind?

A few random statements:
(1) our RAP interviews are supposed to average about 5 per week. Since I’ve taken over at the Law Library; my boss has been giving me 8 per week. Today… he’s given me 14. Not cool, bro. Not cool.

(2) 4 Max Mods, 6 Medium Security Mods.... to get caught up with last week! Exhausting and terrible. Perhaps at my absolute best, without all of these added interviews, I could probably get through 80 to 90% of those Mods tonight. As it is? I have no idea how many I can get through. And that is just to get finished with last week. That doesn’t begin to cover the paperwork for this week OR the Mods. Again… exhausting and terrible.

(3) I posted something on Facebook and one of my more recent ex-girlfriends responded with “Oh dear God I am so excited about this! Thanks for sharing!” Last week, she put on her Facebook profile “Who wants to take me to see Newsies at the Civic Center?” And… I’ll admit… it reminded me that… in a lot of ways she and I were great together. In ways Wife and I aren’t. But… ex g/f (Thompson)… was… very emotionally scattered. And I? I had not been diagnosed yet so I was an emotional nightmare. Two people at the wrong place at the wrong time. But… I do wonder..... and I’ll confess, crass though it may be...... I do still find her physically attractive. That line isn’t crass but I wrote it instead of “I’d still fuck her” because… I’ve really never been that guy. I’ll pretend for affect; but no. I was, in some form or another, very physically attracted to all of the women I dated… but really genuinely wanting to have sex with? Maybe only 3… outside chance of 4. And Thompson was one of them.

(4) Fuckin’ COs and fuckin’ inmates. Even though I’m up to my eyeballs in Mods to call; I’m also up to my eyeballs in Paperwork. Since I was getting so frustrated with the inmates, figured I’d do Paperwork. Except… yeah. One inmate? 5 full page requests for everything from asking us to print off ENTIRE BOOKS to giving him detailed instruction on how to file a civil lawsuit. Another inmate 12 kites… ranging from “Can you send me all the laws dealing with violence?” to “Write my motions for me!” No. No. No. No. And whichever CO is allowing you and/or telling you to do this? Send him to me. He must be corrected.

(5) Also… just my own little rant… it is “cute” that so many inmates think Law Library means “Free of Charge General Practice Law Firm.” No… I won’t file trademark papers for your poem. No… I won’t go to trial for your divorce. No… I am not going to write up your civil lawsuits. If you want to take care of legal business… hire an attorney… like everybody else. You don’t get to have free access to everything just because you are in jail..... you should be thankful that Room, Board, Medical, Dental, Haircuts, Electricity, Heat, Television, and Gym costs are covered for you. Shit… there are a lot of law abiding citizens that have to go without some of that because of the expenses!

(6) Well… that’s me for the day. I got through Court, got caught up in paperwork; did the immense extra interviews; and finished calling in half of the remaining Last Week Mods. So… tomorrow’s double shift, and (allegedly) assistance on Friday and Saturday.... if that materializes… we MIGHT get caught up… or at the very least, get caught up on Monday. I suppose we shall see but… we’ve been getting screwed too hard and too often for me to feel any optimism.

(7)
To try to leave off with… something… better. Here’s me being a dork. These are the RPG Di I’m getting:
And here’s my nerdy side!!! I wanted to get two sets, rofl. One for Good characters; One for evil. Yes I’m a nerd.

Weird sense of deja vu there. Toodles!