The Third Door

I will always remember the first time I went to prison. I wasn't nervous because I felt  prepared and knew what to expect. My nerves were also calmed as I was confident that I was innocent. Without any legitimate charges or convictions there was no way that they could keep me very long. I wasn't happy with the clothes I had to wear on the inside. What did they think would happen if I decided to wear blue jeans and a t-shirt? Heading into the warden's office I felt like I held all of the cards and that simple formalities needed to be accomplished before I was out in the free air again.

If you have never been to jail or prison let me paint you a little picture. Some people grow up in homes where they lock the door every time they come in or go out. Not in my house. With so many children coming and going I never remember a time that our house was locked until after the kids had grown. For an inmate, prison becomes their residence, for some even their home. But the difference between a prison and a home is you normally only have to open one door.

When you arrive at prison they take your identification and your personal belongings and place them in a box. You walk through a first door and it closes behind you. The guards verify that you are smuggling nothing inside. They give you a tag that marks the destination cell where you are heading.  At that point it still doesn't seem so bad. Then you walk through the next door. When it closes behind you the confidence that freedom is not far away begins to shake. The first door isn't much, if any at all, but that second door closing behind you sends shivers from the small of your back all the way up your neck.

But the third door causes your sense of freedom to completely escape. When that third metallic door clanks behind you, you know where you are, you're in prison. You are completely confined and find yourself subject to the good graces of those who are keeping you. You want to feel safe and secure but you are just one of hundreds of inmates. In that very moment your imagination runs wild with the possibility of horrors that await you.

As you proceed to your destination you keep an eye in front of you without losing awareness of what is going on behind and to the left and the right. Your senses become finely tuned and you are at a heightened state of alert to respond to any threat that may arise. No one is going to get close to you, never close enough to knock you unconscious and switch clothes with you.

Without ID, they'll never believe your story that you were attacked by another inmate who switched clothes with you and you're really a law student advising the inmates.

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