What is wrong with People? Jails and babies…:(

What is up with people today? Just the other day (I swear to god it was just the other day) (Let’s see who gets that musical line 🙂 I was at the Henderson county jail, just visiting, not behind bars mind you. I was in the bail bond area waiting on my dumbass brother to be released which is a whole other story in its self. So when I get to the jail (backing up here some) I buzz the door and they let me in and I make my way over to a one-sided mirror and a microphone and I state my purpose there. “I am here to pick up David Gee” I said. I step back and wait for him. Before long the loud annoying door buzzer rings and the door opens up and in walks a young girl, probably no older than 20 years old with one kid beside her and a baby in a baby carrier. She is also carrying a plastic bag with what appears to be tennis shoes in it. She takes her place at a bench in this small room after she also has stepped up to the one-sided mirror and stated her purpose over the microphone to the invisible person on the other side of that mirror. She is sitting there as her older son (probably six or seven) is playing about the small room and looking through a small window on a metal door at the inmates he could see. Once again, the annoying buzzer goes off and in walks another woman with two kids also. She then steps up to the plate so to speak and states her cause for being there. I step back into the corner of the room and try to be as small as I can be. First off, I don’t like these places and well I am not much of a people person so I try to take up as little space as I can but this room is no more than eight by six foot maybe? No where to really go.

  So these two young women strike up a conversation with each other and I couldn’t help but hear it. The first young girl introduces herself to the other girl and she points to the young boy and says “His baby daddy is “so and so”. I met him in jail here. She then points to the baby carrier and says. My little girl here, her baby daddy’s name is “so and so” and “he’s a Mexican”. “He is in here now”. So now we got two kids by the same mommy with different dads that are or were in jail (if I can use the word “dads” any boy can have a baby). The second lady starts with her family. It’s the same… His baby daddy is “so and so”. “I am no longer with him”, “I am with’ “so and so” and he got picked up and is getting out on the 17^th”.. “He just did 2 years. He got 6 flat but it got reduced to 2 years”. The little boy is looking through the glass saying look mommy, I can see “daddy”. She jumps up and runs over to the door. It is a standard door but made out of cold metal, locked up tight and has a small 4 or 5 inch window in it. She is looking through it to see her “man”.” Oh look, I can see him” she says and smiling like he just gave her a diamond ring. “He looks so sad” she says. She starts to blow him kisses through the glass. The little boy said “mom, they got him in holding”. Now can you imagine a little kid knowing of “holding areas” in jails and all that like its as normal as knowing his ABC’s???? These two girls talk like it’s a church social meeting. Smiling and carrying on like its no big deal and this is normal everyday life. One of the girls made a comment saying “I was in here once but I didn’t stay.” “I made someone bail me out… They had better bail me out if it happens again because I am not spending one night in jail or they are going to pay”. She was so cocky. It was a sad experience to see these small kids having to deal with this and thinking its normal that their “daddy’s” are in jail and their mommy’s bragging they have been in jail.

It is a tragedy that when people mess up and go to jail the kids get caught in the crossfire. Here we all were, one day in a typical life of someone that is in jail. Their families are on “hold” too. They also do the “time” with them. These two girls and their children were still waiting on their “baby’s daddies” when my brother finally got his permission to leave. It was apparent from my brother’s action he didn’t give a damn that I had just stood there for 45 minutes waiting on him for something he did wrong and continues to do wrong. He doesn’t get it and like most people in jail, they don’t get it or don’t care. The first thing out of his mouth wasn’t thanks for picking him up and I have picked him up several times before. It was you going to buy me some cigarettes. It wasn’t a request. It was a demand and of course I didn’t meet his demand.  I have never been to jail and have no plans on going there. But I can give you a one time forgiveness if you screw up when you are young and wind up there. Maybe it would teach you a lesson but it almost teaches no one a lesson. My neighbor has a son who is now serving his third five year sentence, which means, he has been sentenced 3 times to five years each. Apparently he doesn’t get it either. His family suffers. His kids suffer. His Parents suffer. The tax payers are suffering to feed and house him since it’s not free. But he gets a roof over his head, 3 meals a day and no responsibility.

So inclosing if I could say something to the young moms’ out there giving birth to “baby daddies” and you sit and wait for them to get out of jail just to go back.. Get the HELL AWAY from them. They are no good to you are your family. Make something of yourself. Get on your feet, get off welfare and get some self esteem in you. I know you can do better and teach the kids to be wiser than that. Protect them and nurture them and let’s try to teach them jail is not a way of life for them.

Your comments pro or con are welcome and encouraged..

Chuck