There’s a commissary system, and a fund system, and a phone-time system, and every one of them is designed to be confusing, and every one of them takes money from people who can least afford to lose it.
I learned them all in four months.
By the end of the first year, half the unit was bringing me their statements.
“Cooper, why’d they charge me twice?”
“Cooper, where’d my daughter’s deposit go?”
“Cooper, how much is this call actually costing me?”
I’d sit on my bunk with a pencil and show them.
Officer Benning knew.
She let it go.
“You’re doing more good with that pencil than half the programs in this building,” she told me once.
I thought about that a lot after the hearing.
In October, Samuel called.
“Rachel. I’m sixty-one. My wife would like me to work less. I’d like a partner.”
“I have a felony conviction, Samuel.”
