Our boss, Donald, came past and spotted Lucy away from her cubicle. “Doing the rounds again, Lucy? You’ve been on lunch break for over an hour and a half. Time to get back to work.”
“Yes, Donald dearest.” She rolled her eyes at him as he walked back to his office. I laughed into my hand.
“Lucy, I have to go. I don’t want to be late.”
She gave me a curious look. “What case did you get?”
I slung my bag over my shoulder. “Colt Winters and his daughter Bella. The mother overdosed, and now Bella is staying with Colt’s mother and father.”
Lucy licked her lips and leaned closer to me, so only I could hear her. “Some of those prison boys are really good looking. I hope you at least get a hot criminal to look at.”
I gave Lucy a light slap on the shoulder. “Lucy! I’m on a case. Shame on you.”
She turned to walk away and looked back over her shoulder. “No, shame on you, honey, if you’re not looking.”
All you could do with Lucy was laugh sometimes. She was a wild one. I made my way to the glass doors and proceeded to my vehicle.
USP Atwater Penitentiary’s conditions were diabolical. The prison needed a major overhaul. Many prisoners were committing suicide in their jail cells, and the death rates were steadily climbing.
“Our hands are tied. We can’t do much about it. We’re externally funded, and they won’t give us the money to upgrade.” That’s what Warden Smith had told me on my last prison visit. I had wanted my brother, Hector, out of there as soon as possible.
My mind flashed back to my brother and when I’d last spoken to him on the prison phone. I’d said, “I’m going to get you out of here. You don’t deserve to be in here. Those charges were bogus that you copped.”
Hector, with his shaved head, put his hand to the glass, sliding his fingers down it. “Sister. I appreciate it, but we already appealed the other one, and it didn’t go through.”
One guard stood at the back of the room as I watched the clock. I had five minutes of talk time left that day. I splayed my fingers on the glass where his fingers were. “Little bro, this is what I do. Prison reform. You can’t stay here. You’re not safe. They just stabbed the prison teacher in here last year. The common room is too small. You’re all bunched together. There are over a thousand inmates crammed in this place. There’s bound to be a breakout of violence.” My eyes bugged out of my head with fear and worry for my brother. I didn’t dare tell Mom or Dad, or they would flip out. It was hard to conceal your brother’s whereabouts for a whole year, though.
Hector looked back at me with hopelessness in his bright blue eyes. “Give up for a while. I’m just going to ride it out. I know what happened. My homeboy let me know what happened. It wasn’t in my section.”
I closed my eyes and grasped the steering wheel a little tighter as I thought back to the moment. It pained me greatly to see my brother like that. The lost look in his eyes hurt me. I vowed to do everything I could to reduce his sentence and protest about the conditions at USP.
As I contemplated my brother’s case, I cleared my head to think about the reason for my current visit. Charlie “Colt” Winters and his baby girl, Bella. As far as I knew, Charlie was in a cell with one other man. I wondered how it was going for him. I guessed I was about to find out.
USP Atwater was right at the back of Merced in the middle of nowhere, a fifteen-minute drive and close to Castle Airport. I had plenty of time to gather my thoughts about the questions I had for Charlie as I drove there. I turned in where the sign said USP Atwater Penitentiary and found a spot to park. The parking lot was a little empty, and the main building was nothing to write home about. A single tier, sandy-colored building greeted me as I got out of the car. Dry, barren land surrounded the jail. I checked my purse for my official badge as I walked in the front door.
“Amber. Hey, how are you doing?” the warden welcomed me.
I smiled widely because it was important to stay in the good books with Warden Smith, so I got the visits I wanted and the access to achieve the prison outcomes I saw for the future of USP.
“Hey, Warden Smith. You’re looking good today. How’s your sweet wife doing?”
Warden Smith was an average looking man of normal height and a penchant for power. He ran a tight ship but, from all I knew, was a just and fair man. He smirked a little, but he couldn’t hide the blush that came over his face. “You’re just saying that. C’mon, who are you here to see?”
“I’m here to see Charlie Winters. It’s about his daughter.”
“Ah. Charlie. Mr. Outlaw. He’s been behaving, and he’s just about served his time. Six months to go on his sentence. He’s a good inmate and an example for the others in here.”
I nodded my head. That gave me some insight into the guy. “That’s good to hear.”
“So you know the drill. You have one hour with the inmate. I’ll just do the standard check of your bag.”
I opened my bag as I approached the backside of the jail. The warden scanned it and me. The scanning paddle that he had made a weird noise and then stopped.
“Okay, you’re clear. He’s waiting for you in the standard meeting room.”
“Okay, thank you. I will see you on the way out.”
“Indeed, you will.” Warden Smith grinned.
