Goodbye Saturday

I drove several hours today to the town of Gatesville to visit my second cousin who is in prison there. My car was searched, and all I could bring inside was my driver's license and some quarters to buy her a soda in the visitation room. A guard checked my license to see if I was indeed the same person that she has on her visitation list.

Unfortunately, we moved in June, and I haven’t updated my driver’s license. I’m pretty bad about getting that sort of thing taken care of. Generally something awful has to happen to me before I make time for it.

In this case the address in their computer did not match the one on my license. The officer was very matter-of-fact in her reply. “I’m going to have to deny this visit.” The last time I visited she was in a private prison, and they didn’t notice the discrepancy or didn't care. Now she’s in a state prison. They run a tighter ship, I guess.

There was nothing to do but drive back home. I left this morning at 9am, and I got back home at 5pm.

It’s not the wasted day that bothers me. Well, yeah that bothers me, but what REALLY bothers me is knowing that my cousin gets one visit a week and she lives for this visit. As far as she knows, I just didn’t show up. I’ll write her a letter, but she won’t get it for a few days.

It’s funny, I’m not angry at the officer in charge of visitation. There are so many layers of rules and regulations in a prison that you really can’t expect these people to make exceptions. They deal with people who lie and try to con them all the time. I understand why they stick to their rules.

On the other hand, I had already been searched for weapons. I am obviously the man in the picture on the license. The visit was to be supervised, and no contact is allowed with the inmates. What was I going to do, whisper my new address in her ear? In this specific case, the rule isn't protecting anyone and really doesn't make sense.

My cousin tells me that prison life is like this. Many rules do not make sense at all. Arguing your point is only going to make matters worse. There are never any exceptions made, and the people who work there are so tired and discouraged and disgusted that they just don't care.

There's no one to be mad at. It's just a damn shame when someone with good intentions cannot do a nice thing because of some very small rule he didn't even know about. Very frustrating. 

I’ll try to get back to see her soon. Maybe next weekend or the weekend after. We’ll see. In the meantime, I better get my license updated before something else happens.

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