The Jail Experience

When I was first brought to the station, I was put in a holding cell. I didn’t know what would happen next. Since that day was hot, I only had jeans and a t-shirt on and was so cold in that little box. All my belongings were taken from me. I wasn’t sure how long I was in there, but I’m guessing an hour or so later, an officer came in and handed me my cell phone along with a pen and paper. He gave me strict instructions that I was not to call or text anyone. I could only use the phone to get two numbers. I also caught the time, it was around 11:30pm.

I had my one sister’s number memorized and the other one I wrote down was my cousin in Chicago. I have two sisters, but one of them worries a lot and I was afraid she’d be on the next flight over.

So I called my sister, who lives in California. No answer. Ugh. Then I called my cousin, no answer. WTF. I tried my sister again, she answered. Thank goodness. I guess the operator tells the person on the other end where this call is from. The first thing I told her is that I’m fine and everything is ok. But I was in jail. I told her I’d be calling her tomorrow hopefully with bail instructions. I was only given a couple of minutes so we hung up.

Then I was taken to the bathroom and asked to strip down to everything  but my underwear, while a female office watched. Weirdly I wasn’t even embarrassed at the time. Guess all the shame had already been in the open. I put on my black and ivory colored jailor outfit. I had to pee so I just sat on the toilet and did my business while she continued to watch. Great.

Then I was escorted downstairs and given a plastic foldable mattress and a blanket that looked like an old used rug. Now they put me in another room which had 4 private jail cells inside it. All of those were empty. I had a roommate this time. She was awake and laying on her thin ass vinyl mattress. It was around 12:30am at this time.

There was a steel toilet at the end of this little room and a small tv mounted on the wall. It was cold and depressing in there. I tried to sleep but couldn’t. Time moved so slowly. And I had no way of knowing what time it was.

I would get up, pace the room, then lay back down. The other girl didn’t get up much, except to use the toilet once. I was flipping the channels on the TV. It was just low enough for me to reach the manual buttons. They don’t leave a remote or anything that could be used as a weapon.

I found the guide channel and holy moly. It had the time on it. It was 1:35am. That’s it?? I watched a little tv with barely any volume, trying to be respectful of my new roommate. She said she didn’t mind it. The next few hours just repeated. Lay down, get up, check the time, pace the room, rinse, repeat. At some point an officer came in with 2 black coffees and what looked like breakfast. It was a gross looking honeybun which I avoided like the plague. I had a sip of the coffee, which was lukewarm. No thanks.

Soon the other girl was released and I was by myself for about an hour. That hour, I would do jumping jacks, get my steps in, stretch, watch tv, anything to kill time. There were camera in the cell, who knows if anyone was watching. I didn’t care.

Then the door opened and another girl was brought in. She was my new roommate for the rest of the day. She had panic attacks and was freaking out. This was her third DWI. And she had already spent time in jail before. No wonder she was going nuts.

Around 1pm, I was take to see the judge, who was behind a window. He read me my charges and told me I would have a Class B misdemeanor. At the time, I just said ok, not having a clue what that meant. My bond was set at $1000. Ok. Then back to the room.

About an hour later, we were allowed a phone call to arrange bond. I called my sister and she didn’t have a clue on what to do. I told her figure it out, google it and get our other sister involved if needed. She’s good at getting shit done. And I only had one friend in Dallas who I could call, but I wasn’t sure if she was in town.

Luckily my sister had her number and I told her to call her, call the bondsman, do whatever it takes. Get me out of here. To my surprise, my friend was not out of town and had been spending several hours running around from the city jail to the county office, to the bank, etc., to get me out of jail.

An officer had me sign a form at some point that’s how’s I knew. I thought ok, any time now, I’m going to be out. It wasn’t until almost 7pm, after several agonizing hours, I was finally free. I changed back into my clothes, got my stuff, went outside where my friend, my lifesaver, was waiting to pick me up. She drove me to the impound lot, since my car had been towed.

Finally, even though it was just the beginning, it was over.  I felt liberated, free, alive and pissed at the whole situation. Not at anyone in particular, but just the events of the last 24 hours.