You may or may not have heard the term "inmate phone". An inmate phone is a pay phone that prisoners can use to make calls to people who wish they wouldn't. The calls can only be made collect, assuming someone will accept the charges. The government may behave stupidly much of the time, but not stupidly enough to pay for inmate phone calls. Inmates and unfettered phone access is a recipe for trouble with a capital T.
I was watching a documentary program the other day and a young woman who was being profiled had run up a hefty phone bill by accepting collect calls from her inmate boyfriend. Unfortunately, it was her mother's phone and phone bill.
The reason that I bring this up is that I have become very familiar with the inmate phone system these past few days, because Cletus Sneed, our youngest son and failed adoption experiment, is in the slammer. It seems the knucklehead was riding his bike on the sidewalk and the police stopped him because in our fair city riding on the sidewalk is illegal. He might have gotten away with a warning had he not been in possession of pot and other drug paraphernalia.
His problems really began to mount when the police ran his identification and discovered that he has several outstanding warrants for his arrest for failing to appear at scheduled court dates for his many run ins with the law.
Since his first brush with the law in March of 1999 he has been cited for the following violations, mostly relating to driving illegally, but with some criminal activity sprinkled in.
Driving with no insurance - 7 times
Driving with no registration - 7 times
Failure to appear in court to answer charges - 7 times
Speeding - 6 times
Drug violations - 4 times
Driving on a suspended license - 3 times
Driving an unregistered vehicle - 2 times
Mandatory seatbelt violation - 2 times
Unsafe Lane change - 1 time
Driving in two lanes - 1 time
Stop sign violation - 1 time
Shoplifting - 1 time
Weapons violation - 1 time
That's 43 charges of one sort or another. I think 43 items on the old rap sheet should land a guy in jail for a while, but it never seems to. He's in and out in no time because the jail is full to the brim with criminal types of a more accomplished nature.
So, back to the inmate phone. The dumb SOB has been calling here at $2.40 a pop from jail. I have only accepted 2 calls thus far, although he has made at least ten.
He called the other night when he was arrested, to ask me to go to a convenience store not far from here to pick up his bike before it was stolen. I reluctantly went and got it.
This morning he called at about 8 and I declined to accept the charges. He called right back again and I accepted his call, which was a mistake of course. He said that his bond had been set at $75 dollars and wanted me to go down to the jail and pay it. Just until he got back to his flophouse you understand. It seems he has a stash of cash there and he promised he would repay me right away. If any of this were true, it would mark the first time in his life that he has repaid anything. That is the absolute truth.
I told him no and that set him off about how he couldn't miss work, blah, blah, blah, I suck as a father, he is much better than he used to be, trying his best and on and on. I finally just hung up.
It turns out that his bond is $750, not $75. The $75 is what has to be paid to secure the $750 bond. Of course, I would have to sign a promissory note for the whole $750, and should he fail to appear as he has on seven previous occasions, I would have to pony up the remainder or risk Dog the Bounty Hunter busting down my door. That is trouble I don't need, especially if he brings Beth and her giant boobs. Someone could be maimed or worse. As we used to say when I worked in an employment office, "The past is the best predictor of the future." I am heeding that wisdom.
He has called several other times today, evidently trying to plead his case. We didn't answer, but I'm sure I haven't heard the last of this.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
Tag: Daily Life
Personal Finance
Humor
4 comments:
I think you need to stop dealing with C, and take a nice vacation. Seriously.
I guess you have to fail to appear in court eight times or more before it is a problem.
Holy cow! That's a lot of run-ins with Johnny Law. He reminds me of my aunt's failed adoption experiment. He also calls her collect from jail where's he's been sitting for two years now with no trial. His court appointed lawyer never has actually submitted the paper work that says if he doesn't receive a speedy trial, he walks free. Anyway, he calls her constantly and makes her pay for it while he yells at her about what a loser of a mom she was. Good times. She felt guilty about not doing anything to help him legally, but not so guilty that she didn't remodel her master bath or cut back on the vacations.
my friend always told me she had two brothers, then once I got to know her better, she told me of her parent's "failed adoption experiment." When she was a teen, her parents adopted a 7 year old girl. What followed was a bumpy 7 years to an all out parents-as-hostage situation. The girl was into drugs and lived with the parents until she finally wandered off at age 35.
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