A Long Mixed Up Worry

Written on March 7, 2011,

   Today when the swamper came around after breakfast reminding everyone of their passes for the day, he told me I had a court call at 1:15PM again. Only this time he said the sheet told him it will be followed by a call from Waukesha County as well. I'm like, “What the fuck? I've never even been to Waukesha County!” He said he didn't know anything about it, he was just reading what the sheet said. So all morning long, during and after Rec we kept coming up with ideas of what it could be. I heard everything from new charges from something I did there (which I knew it wasn't, because, like I said, I've never gone there), to someone suing me, to some girl requesting a paternity test! But none of these made sense, so I spent the majority of the day worrying. When it came time to go, I still didn't have the faintest idea what it was about. When I got to the A & E Office, I asked the Sgt. in charge about it. She said she didn't know anything more than what the sheet told her, and that it said someone from Waukesha County Courts wanted to speak to me. She told me to sit at this bank of phones with another inmate and answer any of the phones if they rang. She didn't know who's call would come on which phone. We sat there reading magazines for almost an hour when the phone in front of me rang. When I answered it, it was for the other guy sitting there. So I handed him the phone, switched seats with him, and went back to my magazine. A few minutes later the other inmate left so I was back to answering them all on my own. At about 2:25PM the phone rang again and I answered it. Once again, it wasn't for me, so I asked the woman to hold while I called the Sgt. over. The Sgt. spoke to the woman on the phone for a short while, took down another inmate's name, and forwarded her to someone else's extension. Then she went back to her desk to track down the missing inmate. While she was doing this another guy from my county came in to be staffed. He had Erin Monroe as a staffing agent just like me, so we talked about what he was hoping to get for staffing and whatnot. He was trying to get work-release just like I was, and ended up getting stuck with AODA Earned Release Program just like me. Doesn't sound like anyone gets work-release anymore... Anyway, they told him to wait by the Sgt.'s desk where I was sitting while they got his bed date set. When they came out, they told him July 18^th ; that means he'll go home next January 18^th! Inside I was freaking out because Erin told me there were beds available almost immediately, but it would take a day or two to establish one. July 18^th is far enough away that I won't even complete the program if I am released under Act 28 guidelines. Having a Class H felony that is non-violent falls under 1 day of “good-time” for every 2 days served. This means I would serve 12 months for my 18 month sentence and be released on November 6^th of this year. None of it made any sense as to why they would want me to start a program I won't finish, but I guess we'll see when I get that bed date. Anyhow, while this was all going on, another guy came and sat at the phones with me. I explained that I had answered two calls for other people so far, so the next call was all on him. He asked me who was supposed to call me and I told him they said Waukesha County, but I'd never been there before. Then he said he was from Waukesha County, so it all started making sense. Somehow they got me confused with him for the call. How? I'll never know... We had nothing in common whatsoever. Name, DOC #, age, where we were from...Nothing! About 10 minutes went by, and another woman came out and said there had been a mix-up. She didn't know how, but I had been mistakenly registered to receive the other guy's call and I could now go back to my unit. So, all the worry was over nothing! I got back to my unit and put in my canteen order for the week. After that it was a typical night. Read my book and talked with my cellmate until after 10:00PM when I went to sleep.

Until tomorrow...

~J. Doe