This morning, Earl’s bunkie, Scott, was gone. Vamoose, se ya later, adios. He just wasn’t in his bunk at morning wake up. Poof!
Since alarms weren’t ringing, we knew Scott had not escaped. (One doesn’t bother escaping from Chino, in any event, because if you are here, you likely have less than a year or two left on your sentence or parole violation. If you try to escape you will probably fail, and if you succeed at first, you will almost certainly be caught; and in both cases it would result in a much longer stay in a much worse facility than if you were just patient.)
Scott is a drug addict, and owed considerable amounts of cash ($800, rumor has it.) to those who obtain for one such reality-relief, mostly the Mexicans. He is set to parole, or so he told us, in November. Scott had to pay up, and soon, or he was going to get hurt, pure and simple. He didn’t have the money, (despite his job at the laundry) so he rolled himself up, stealing away in the wee hours to the guard booth for a pre-arranged whisking away, to spend his remaining time in Protective Custody (probably in Birch Hall, where I was directly before this.)
It amazes me that dealers here allow a debt to arise in the first place, given the fact that this is not a Yard where, like some others, Whites as a group are required to honor the debt of individuals in their race (a policy which guarantees intra-race enforcement of a pay-as-you-go policy.) Under our you’re-on-your-own rules, those owed risk those owing getting away without paying. So why do they let the debts mount?
Because the dealers know that the potential debtor knows his risks are even greater. They include getting stabbed by “soldiers” on a “mission” planted in Protective Custody, or tracked down on the outside upon release, by confederates of the dealers inside. Moreover, the dealers know most debtors will be back here, and their histories will come with them. If they escape retribution in protective custody, and back on the streets, they will not likely escape it when they return to prison. Which doesn’t mean the dealers will get their money back, but the immediate loss is less important than others knowing there are consequences to stiffing them, as this serves as an example to ensure that other outstanding debts gets paid in full. Sort of the cost of doing business.
So Scott is either very foolhardy, very confident, or both. No matter what, he’ll have to be very lucky.
I’m rooting for him, but even more for his long-suffering mother. She probably doesn’t know about his drug addiction, or would have paid the debt for him. I pray that means that when he gets out, he’ll do something about it.
MCO 2004
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