Notes from the San Diego County Jail

NOTES FROM THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY JAIL

Well, actually it is Saturday as I write. They don't let you have computers in jail!

So, on Thursday morning I got awakened at around 3:30 a.m. by my wife saying somebody was here to see me. I staggered out to the living room to find two police oficers there. They questioned me and then arrested me. They were polite, but it's not too fun! I wonder what the neighbors thought of it. Anyway, they took me to the city police station, read me my rights and then asked me more questions which I answered as best I could as I couldn't remember many details. I joked that I had seen on TV that I probably shouldn't be talking to them without a lawyer. haha. We shall have to see if that was true!

One officer then drove me all the way downtown to the county jail. It was sprinkling a little. It was interesting to note the plastic seats in the car have a recess for handcuffed hands. He had a little trouble parking the car in the jail garage as it was a very tight fit and I joked he probably didn't want to hit the police car next to him. He agreed. After parking he helped me out of the car as I couldn't lever myself out because of the handcuffs and the prostate surgery I had a month ago. He took me in to get my mugshot and start the processing. Evetually he said goodbye and left. There are a few differents stations in the processing process, as it were. I got fingerprinted on a big digital fingerprinting machine, then ink-printed also. Eventually they stuck me a holding cell. This was actually the second holding cell I was in, the first one I was only in for a minute so I didn't have a chance to use the phone in that cell. So I used the phone in the second cell. The phone numbers for bail bondsmen was about ten feet from the phone and I had trouble remembering the phone number going from the list to the phone. Pathetic! Finally I got ahold of a bail bondsmen and then tried to call my wife but there was a bad connection and I didn't get through. In the meantime more and more prisoners were brought in until there seven or so. I dicided to call my daughter. Grandma answered the phone (it was about 5:30 a.m. by then. She asked how I was doing, I replied "Not so well". The guys in the cell were laughing at that, so I said "Come on, guys, quit laughing at me!". We was having a good ol' time! My daugher agreed to call my son and to see to bail. So there was nothing to do but wait!

We moved from cell to cell, changing into jail outfits (Blue), instructed on how to behave (Keep your entire hands in your waistbands, the deputy will only tell you once!), got health checked (They checked my glucose level twice). I was in about seven differents cell, I think.

I met some interesting people. In the second cell with the seven guys there was one guy was kinda drunk and thought he was in a jail (Arlington County) in Virginia half the time. He was very talkative, rapping and jiving around. One smelly old guy was stuck in the cell and this guy told him to go sit at the other side of the room and the smelly old guy (acutally, about my age, not THAT old!) took umbrage at that and they got in a little verbal scuffle, and the old guy said "F*** this" and then rang the call button and told them he was thinking about killing himself and requested a suicide watch. I guess that's how you get out of a cell! Everyone else in the cell seemed pretty bummed out and were quiet. Some were sleeping, even on the floor. I just sat there. They had offered us a sack lunch for breakfast but I declined as I had a snack bar at the police station and my blood sugar was 147.

After the medical interview (the second one, there was a quickie before the police office left me at the jail) I was in a room with one other guy. He had a recently broken foot. He said he had just got out of the cast. He had decided to go clubing and was one block from home when he got stopped for speeding. He said the officer said if he had made a turn he wouldn't have stopped him. When they ran him it turned out there was a misdemenor warrant out for not completing DUI classes, so into jail he goes. He couldn't remember any phone numbers to call, so he was stuck till Monday.

After a while I got to see the clerk who told me that my bail had been paid and I would be getting out in a couple hours. The bail was ten thousand dollers. I knew we had to put up a thousand to get it, but I never realized that the bondsmen fee was a thousand dollers! Welcome to the real world! So much for Summer savings...

After a while the deputy took me to a room where I eventually got my clothes back and changed out of the jail garb. There were some guys in the outprocessing room who had a couple ofINS or Border Patrol escorting them. I guess they were getting a free ride to the border. After a while three other guys came and got their clothes and we all changed. One of them recognized me from work! He was a former student in on a DUI. He suggested I ought to keep the jail t-shirt as a souvenir (no one was checking the clothes, just toss them in a big hamper), but I didn't. There was another guy who had spent some time in prison recently. He had an excellently manicured beard. The fourth guy had been at his girlfriend's house when the police came to talk to her. When they check on him it turned out there was a felony fugitive warrant from another state out on him. He knew it was just a paperwork problem, and that it would get cleared up. It took a week in jail, though! He said it was a good rest...

When you get your personal stuff it is in a sealed plastic bag. A big sign on the door says not to open it until you are out in the public area. After you go through the two electronic doors there are about two hundred plastic bags on the floor. Somebody should clean those up! I didn't open my bag till I got down the stairs and my pants were falling down. They are my "80 pounds ago" shorts. I kept my bag though, as it had my name and birthdate on it. Why would I want that floating around a jail?

When I got out to the street I had to find the bail bondsman office to sign some papers. The note said it was one block west, but after circling the jail building it turned out it was two blocks west. Anyway, I finally got there, signed the papers, then called my daughter who came and picked me up and took me home. I got home around noon, so I was in jail about eight hours.

I was lucky to get bailed out so I didn't actually go into the jail population, just a series of holding cells.

Everyone was treated well as far as I could see, considering it was a jail.

There is no smoking in jail, at least in the holding cells. There were a lot of cranky guys! I started smoking again as soon as I got home!

It sort of reminded me of being in the hospital, for some reason. Trapped?

The benches have no padding, so one of my sitting bones was sore for two days.

Hardly anyone flushes the toilets. There wasn't any paper in most of the cells. People seem to use the paper as a pillow. It wasn't too filthy, considering it's a jail and the clients are not at their best. I would like to know how often they disinfect the benches and floors, though!!

I would like to know what the different color wrist bands mean. Purple ones seemed to be well thought of.

Court is in April.

Oh, what was the charge, you say? I don't want to talk about it just yet. Sorry.

March 5, 2005. EDITED July 2009

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