A High School Friend Is Being Charged With Attempted Murder And, As A Medium, I’m Going To Use My Gifts To Help Her (Part Six)

Flickr, Gerry Dincher
Flickr, Gerry Dincher

For the next part in this series, I will admit…I have gone back and forth about what to write. Should I delve more into Alicia and Matthew’s relationship? The evidence? It didn’t hit me until after a conversation I had with Alicia yesterday… just what to write about.

Many readers of this series have been asking me how I have “helped” Alicia as far as my gifts of clairvoyance are concerned. I can’t get into that until after the trial. I will be helping throughout, until the very end. My last and final post of the series will explain this part in full.

For now, I am going to talk about the system. The system that Alicia has been thrown into…as well as countless others over time. I am going to talk about text messages and conversations between Alicia and I…and I am going to allow you, the reader, to hear about this system from someone who never thought she would be a part of it.

What got this whole conversation started was the fact that Alicia is finding out when her trial date is this week. I asked her if the morning of her hearing…she would know right away. She explained to me that it is like a cattle call. There are literally over 100 people in the room waiting to be called and well, you get called when you get called.

Alicia gets to dress normal, as she does in real life…not in a prison jumpsuit…and so, she passes through the metal detectors in her normal dress and is greeted and treated nicely by the same exact bailiffs that walked her from one cell to the other when she was arrested and awaiting bail. Funny how they are courteous and kind to a woman dressed up…whom they don’t recognize as the same woman they were horrible to(and that is Alicia’s exact words) while Alicia was in jail. Since she is dressed like she is going to a job interview she gets all smiles and kindness. Then she gets to the fourth floor, where she awaits the Superior Court Bailiff and once it is recognized that she is there as a defendant, they go back to being nasty because “clearly anyone who is in that courtroom deserves to be there.”

Alicia has a story of questioning a bailiff once about the process of what was happening in that moment only to have him reply for her to “sit down and do what I tell you. That’s the whole reason you are finding yourself here anyway.” So there is no rights. Asking questions. Finding out what is going on. If you ask a question concerning your rights, you are obviously rebelling.

If you remember, Alicia was arrested in a different state…getting off a plane for a layover. That state uses the private jail system. The state gets 38,000.00 per year, per inmate.

The women do not get a gym, even though the men do. The food is disgusting. The women’s recreation area is a 20×30 basketball hoop. You can’t see the sky from that. Much less the sun.

With the prison being private, there is emphasis on cutting costs. Therefore, there are no female guards. So women are watched by males. That means going to the bathroom. Giving out sanitary supplies and even watching them in the shower. Although, it is against the law…they just get emergency waivers and that allows this to happen.

When Alicia was arrested she had $300.00 in cash in her wallet. They took it from her, without permission and put it on what they call the “books”. The “books” allows purchase of shampoo and soap…etc. When Alicia was arrested, they took her bra and panties from her since you are only allowed to wear white and hers were a pale pink. She was arrested at 7am on a Friday morning…which meant that if she placed and order, it would be processed in a week. Alicia was in there from Friday to the following Tuesday. She would have received nothing. They eventually mailed her a check giving her the money back.

When Alicia got to the jail of her state…her lawyer immediately put $20.00 on the kiosk in case of phone calls or needs. It was not processed until the next day. Which meant she missed the deadline for commissary purchases. She went 9 days without washing her hair or a comb. She was also not given sanitary napkins and started her period. She begged for a shower and a new uniform and was denied seeing a nurse. Alicia thought that seeing the nurse in her state would maybe cause someone to give her tampon or pad. That was not the case.

The state Alicia was arrested in charges about $5.00 for a 15 minute phone call. In Alicia’s home state, where she faces trial, that cost is $10.00 for 15 minutes. There is also only a two hour window every day that you are allowed to call anyone. You are only allowed one phone call in that two hour window. Imagine if you are trying to call your lawyer and only had about 15 minutes to accomplish that in a day?

It is said that if you get bond, you have a much better chance of getting an acquittal because they know that legally you can prepare yourself. More than 15 minutes a day.

Also, if Alicia wanted to call her lawyer, the two hour window changed every single day so sometimes she was in a 10pm night rotation. In a given day, how many meetings and other court hearings does a lawyer have? What are the chances that this small window in which all other prisoners are also trying to call people…will be the exact time your lawyer is available?

Think about if you have a public defender…they are overloaded in work…10-12 hour days. How do you get a defense that way?

I have already briefly touched on the experience that Alicia had when she was arrested and waiting in jail to find out the charges and be transported. It was a private van that transported her and males are not allowed to sit next to females. Alicia sat next to a very heavy-set woman and her “stripper friend”. They told Alicia that the stripper was dating the heavy-set woman’s sister. When I say heavy-set, Alicia explained the woman was at least 300 pounds.

They stopped and got a meal on the road. It was the first real food Alicia had in days. She was traveling and eating airport and plane food prior. She ate a whole pizza on the stop.

Alicia explains that everything you see in the movies about cement cell blocks is true. No mattresses. No sheets. No pillows. They placed on three of the women in once cell. Five across by twelve long. That is Alicia, the 300 pound woman, and the stripper. Alicia did not use the bathroom that night, but the two other women both felt they had to have bowel movements. Can you imagine that?

The large woman started having a conversation with Alicia. About 30 words spoken. Evidently, this was taken as flirting by the stripper and Alicia soon realized that these were not “friends” at all. They had only said that so they could be put in the cell together. The stripper started having a tantrum at Alicia and the other woman speaking. To “make up” the larger woman and the stripper lay on the cement floor in front of the toilet and started making out. Alicia was feet away on the bench. They went from making out to going all the way and all Alicia could do was tuck her head inside her t-shirt. She heard every single part of it.

Jails are cold. They are about 60-65 degrees and since it is cement, it is even colder. No pillows. No blankets. Your body becomes extremely sore from sitting on cold concrete for hours.

Alicia was given sour milk on more than one occasion. She only ate breakfast, since it was milk and cereal and fruit. Since portions were tiny and she wasn’t eating anyway, many times other prisoners would scurry to get the extra food from her tray. The food was usually something unrecognizable, but if you had been there long enough, you were hungry enough to eat it.

Inmates pay $3.00 a day out of their commissary account to the state while in jail. If they need supplies, their family had to give $60.00 a week just to survive. If they didn’t have $3.00 a day…the state somehow gets the money every time. It is money making…the business of imprisoning people.

Alicia says there were people in jail who had been there at least 18 months without even having a preliminary hearing yet! One woman, three years! Preliminary hearing is where the state presents their case to the judge and the judge then decides whether or not there is enough to go to trial. The state can file as many waivers as they want to prolong this hearing. The defense has no recourse. It states you must have a hearing within 120 days of arrest…but not if the state files waiver after waiver.

Did you know that prison stocks are traded on the market? Did you know the top two CEO’s of the largest prisons made over $300,000.00 last year?

Yep…prison is big business. Nasdaq kind of business.

We find out this week when Alicia goes to trial. I will be there for the trial. I will be there till the end. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Part Seven Coming Soon.

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