Prisoner 81976

AJ found himself back in the court room early the very next day. When he looked to his right, there she was. Dressed in a pastel sun dress. What the hell? He didn’t know her well at all, but he knew that she wasn’t the pastel sun dress type.

“They dressed her up that way to make her look younger, more innocent.” Kent told AJ, noticing him looking at her, baffled. AJ was sickened by that. He knew she was no innocent child. He just prayed the jury would see that too.

The judge entered and they all stood in her honor. Then they sat after she took her seat. She looked over the court. And then at the jury.

“Has the jury reached a verdict?” She asked. The jury’s foreman stood up and nodded yes.

“Yes we have, your honor.” From behind, AJ felt Reneé’s hand rub his shoulder. It was a great comfort. She had every reason to hate him for getting into this mess. But she still supported him, and comforted him.

Still, his fear was overwhelming. They might very well say that he’s guilty of everything. They might say that he did rape Carrie, when he didn’t. She could strip him of his dignity. She could strip him of everything for that matter. 25 years was the minimum punishment for rape. He was sure it was more for statutory.

Then anger kicked in. This wasn’t fair! It just wasn’t! All he wanted to do was marry Reneé and settle down. Have a family and be happy. That’s all he ever wanted. Why the hell did she have to screw things up? Why did she have to be so vindictive and spiteful? It just wasn’t right!

The juror held up a piece of paper and read from it. AJ swallowed hard. Reneé's hand tightened on his shoulder. She was just as tense and on edge as he was. She could feel his pain.

“We the jury find the defendant, Alexander James McLean.... guilty.....” Reneé pulled away and then all he heard were her cries. Then his mother’s cries. Kent’s sighs. He could hear his friends and bandmates protesting. “What the fuck? Are you guys insane?” He heard them say. But he couldn’t bring himself to react.

“Order! Order in this courtroom!” Judge Nelson shouted. AJ slowly turned to his right. She was already staring him down. Her evil eyes stabbing him in the chest.

“Do you love me now?” She mouthed to him, in what seemed like slow motion. Her right eyebrow raised and she smirked. She would have laughed if she wasn’t playing the innocent victim role.

The guards led AJ out of the courtroom. As he walked out with them, he looked back at his grieving fiancé.

“This isn’t over AJ. We’re getting you the fuck out of there, I swear!” Brian said in anger. And he was serious. Everyone could tell. Because he never cursed without having a reason. Howie and Denise had to help Reneé calm down. She was taking this harder than anyone. And it killed a piece of AJ every time he heard her call out his name. No one could ease her pain but him, and yet he wasn’t even allowed to touch or hold her.

~*~*~*~*~*~


AJ sat silently on the bus to prison. He hadn’t seen his family or friends in 2 days. And it had been 2 days since the trial. Now here he was, on the way to thirty years in prison. Thirty years. Such a long time. He’d be 54 years old before he’d be free again.

He looked at the people around him. A large man, covered with tattoos, 3 times as many as he had. He had a long beard and smelled bad. In front of him was a small white guy, head shaved, racial slurs and swastikas tattooed all over his arms. Even some on his neck. Across from him was a young black man. He couldn’t have been over 20. He stared the white guy down and scoffed. Behind the black guy was an older white man. He must have been in his fifties. He looked scared and nervous.

AJ turned away and looked up at the sky through the dirty window of the bus. He silently prayed to God.

“I know that I should have known better than to get mixed up with a child. I was wrong in that. And I am sorry. God, please, help me get out of this. I am not supposed to be here. I’m not a criminal. I didn’t do anything wrong. And I don’t know if I can survive in jail.” He stopped when the bus came to a halt. And he saw the prison. They were at the gates. The entire perimeter was a high brick wall. And on top of the brick walls, barbed wire.

He kept hoping this was all a dream. And that any minute, any second he’d wake up in his own bed with his love in his arms.

The bus door opened and all of the men were told to stand and get off in a single, file line. They did so and were taken inside the building. It was then that they were unshackled from each other.

AJ was patted down as well as the others. And he felt extremely uncomfortable with a man’s hands on his body. When he was cleared he was told to strip and shower. After watching so many prison movies and being a fan of the HBO show Oz, he knew this was coming.

He undressed and took his shower. Then he was given a towel to wrap around his waist. The CO told him to open his mouth. He did so and it was checked. All clear. The CO then told him to turn and bend. As well as the others. He just couldn’t believe this was happening!!!

They more than invaded his privacy with this procedure. And of course, he was clear. As was everyone else. They gave him clothes to put on in a clear plastic bag.

“Your number’s 81976, McLean. If you can’t remember it, it’s on all your clothes.” A female CO told him. Then she sent him on his way.

But his way wasn’t far. It was just to another corridor where they were all told to dress. AJ took the clothes out of his bag and slipped on the boxers first. Then he put on the sweat pants, the wife-beater, and he kept the rest of the clothes in the bag. Once everyone was dressed, they were allowed to go on. Each taken to a different cell block.

Just his luck, AJ had to share a room with the Neo Nazi from the bus. Great. This would make for an interesting first night.

AJ was surprised to see that they too has plexiglass cells. Just like the show. He was pissed that his tax money was going to better living arrangements for prisoners. He threw his things on the bottom bunk and sat down. His cell mate looked at him strangely.

“Hey, who says you get bottom bunk?” He asked with a mug on his face. AJ rolled his eyes and looked up at him.

“If I recall correctly, no one said or claimed anything. But I’m sitting here. My stuff is here. And I’m not movin’.” AJ replied, defensively. The other guy got quiet. There wasn’t much he could do anyway.

“McLean is it? I’m Michael Stephens. But I go by Mike.” AJ looked at him again and nodded, like he really cared.

“Can I ask you something... Mike.” Mike nodded and AJ continued. “Why the hell do you hate people?” Mike didn’t catch the question at first. Then he remembered his opinions were written all over his skin.

“I don’t hate all people. I just hate coloreds and Jews. They don’t belong here. They don’t deserve to live, man.” He explained, as if AJ would understand and agree.

“Would ‘coloreds’ include Hispanics?” AJ asked, Mike nodded.

“Well, that’s most of who I am. And up until now you thought I was completely white. In fact, if I hadn’t have told you, you’d have gone on preaching your white supremacy bull shit to me in hopes that I’d agree with you and back you up. Now let me ask you this. You now know what I am, do you hate me? And if you do, give me one good reason why?” Mike was silent. He felt tricked. Deceived. AJ didn’t look Hispanic. Now he was on the spot and felt stupid.

“That’s what I thought. You can hate whoever the hell you want, ok? But for the time being, you share this cell with me. And until that changes, I don’t wanna hear any of your ‘hooray, I’m white!’ shit, got it? All you are is some sad kid who lacked acceptance and has been brainwashed into thinking you’re better than those of a different race. But you’re not. You’re on the same level as every other guy in this shithole. And you’ll be lucky if us so-called ‘coloreds’ don’t kick your ass for thinking otherwise.” AJ said. Then he laid back on the bed and closed his eyes.

Mike was in complete shock. He looked outside the glass and saw that there were a lot of different races of inmates. And most of them a lot bigger than him. Way bigger than him. And here he was, without his “white brothers”. They were all on the outside. And he was alone, on the inside. He quickly went to his bag and pulled out a long-john shirt. It covered the tattoos on his arms. But it still left the swastika on his neck exposed. He hoped no one would notice.

AJ saw this and laughed inside. He knew he would get picked on simply for his appearance. His goat-t and colored hair. But Mike? Mike would get eaten alive. A CO came by their cell and banged his fist on the wall.

“Lunch.” AJ got up and went outside the cell. He looked down over the rails and saw inmates on the ground floor all going toward one exit. That must be the dining hall. He followed them and Mike followed him. AJ just hoped no one would mistake him for being one of Mike’s kind.

AJ got his meal and then stared over all of the filled tables looking for a seat. Suddenly someone motioned for him to come over. He thought sitting with someone who didn’t mind him there was better than sitting alone.

He went to where he saw the hand summon him. It was a group of guys, both white and black, sitting together and talking while they ate.

“Sit down, dog. We ain’t gonna stab you.” One guy said, between chews. AJ did as he was told and looked around the table.

“What’s ya name?” Another guy asked.

“McLean.” He had overheard all the inmates calling each other by their last names or nick names, so he just gave his last.

“I’m Case. That there is Johns. That’s Sharpe. That’s Kimbro. That’s Greene. Down there is Woods, Fields, and Armstrong.” Case went down the line and back.

Case looked about 25 or so. He had a bandana on his head. A white one. He was big, maybe 276 lbs. And he resembled Ray Lewis from the Ravens, only a few shades darker.

Johns was maybe the same age, a little older. He had long hair for a guy, shoulder length. And it was in a pony tail. He looked tall and muscular. And he looked a lot like the guy who played Angel on the WB. AJ couldn’t think of the guys name, but they looked alike. Except Johns was intimidating. Whereas the Angel guy was not.

Sharpe looked like he was in his mid-thirties. He had a small body and a small build. AJ couldn’t think of anyone he looked like. He was just that odd.

Kimbro was young. Very young. Probably just turned 18. AJ figured that whatever he did must have been serious for them to put him in this place at his age. He was quiet and withdrawn.

Greene seemed like maybe he didn’t belong in prison. In normal clothes, you could mistake him for a college student or something with a genius IQ. And even when he spoke, you could tell he was intelligent. He was maybe 21 or 22. To AJ, he looked like Chris Tucker, except calmer.

Woods was writing a letter at the time. AJ would later learn that he had a wife and 3 children at home. Because of this, he was always on his best behavior. In hopes that his sentence might be shortened and he could get back to his family.

Fields could have been Adam Sandler’s brother. They even sounded alike. He tended to joke around a lot with Armstrong. Armstrong was about the same size as Fields, but he was a dirty blonde and had a cast on his wrist.

AJ figured that these men seemed like a mild-mannered group. And maybe sticking with them would be the safest way to go.

“You’re new, McLean. And there are crazy fools in here who are gonna wanna fuck with your mind. You got a lot to learn, dog. A whole lot to learn.” Case said, forking around in his mashed potatoes and gravy. AJ merely sighed.


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