"You Don't Want to Live in My House..."

That was the title of this inmate-produced video we watched the first day of the clinic this summer... another scared-straight program that won't work from the guys at Green Bay Correctional. But goddamned, if there's one thing I've picked up so far this summer, it's that I really, really don't want to go to prison. This also plays into my secretish fears of the inevitability of being a) diagnosed with a terrible, incurable disease and b) being falsely accused of a crime.
To visit it's actually not bad at all, Oxford is institutional in the way all institutions are the same... kind of like a middle school or something. It feels very safe, the inmates have all been really nice and when we spend the whole day there, we eat in this dining facility where they're getting their Associate's degree in something like restaurant management and they make elaborate lunches. And it costs $1.75. Today I had a turkey sandwich, tuna salad with ritz crackers, veggies with dressing and chocolate chip cheesecake. Again, for $1.75. Even so, I don't want to go to prison.
I spent the morning reading some client files in the legal assistant's office in the prison. Their stories are amazing, sad and absurd. There is a document called the Presentence Investigation that a parole board officer writes, thats basically a detailed background of the person, their criminal history, their family and the crime. It's a little insane, because it's so personal. And feels very voyeuristic... but also fascinating in a voyeuristic way. You see them going through a revolving door of prisons, you read about all their kids with all the kids' moms, their prior arrests.
Anyway, it continues to be really interesting. And exhausting.