2 Days in a Sentence

I went to prison for this first time today... it was a long day, lots of warnings about getting duped by prisoners, getting toured and drug tested and vetted in whatever other ways. One more reason to start the friendfirm-- T, A & E, LLP (T is negotiable, depending on whether he is being a bitchy baby at the time...) is to be able to talk about cases freely with my friends... since lord knows I like to talk.
I had to write a reflective piece yesterday on what I expected-- it was mostly about the Wire. And how they always say you only serve two days of a sentence-- the day you go in and the day you go out. And how, like most things on tv, I doubted that was entirely accurate. Weak, I know.
Anyway, prison was intense and both what I expected and very different. The statistics on the population there were also interesting, not surprising but still shocking the percentage of drug and firearm possessions doing 10 yrs+ there. In some ways, it's not "that bad." It really isn't. There are some objectionable things but overall, yes, it's probably true that many inmates there are enjoying a more stable and higher quality of life (in some respects-- education, healthcare...) This caused a speaker on Tuesday, a man the WI Innocence Project exonerated after he served 8 yrs for a sexual assault he didn't commit-- to describe his time in prison as "a blessing." A blessing in the sense that everyone he used to run with is either dead or in prison for crimes they DID commit, and he would be too if he hadn't been wrongly locked up at 19... it's kind of strange logic but you also can't really argue with it. Of course, the stability in education and healthcare in prison comes because the population is there for SO long. And yes, the greater problem (the elimination of which might prevent all kinds of criminal and anti-social behaviors) is the lack of education and healthcare on the outside.
So I had the opportunity to speak with a lot of corrections workers-- from officers (guards) to physicians to factory foremen, which was really interesting-- where these people came from and what drew them to working in corrections. Anyway, I am vaguely rambling. Tomorrow we go back and I'll interview my first couple of potential clients.