Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 22:00:35 -0700
From: "Arel Lucas" 
Subject: Today

to my "bcc list"

This is a hard day to report.  I have neither progress nor tragedy,
with little hope for the former and desperate hope that the latter
will not happen.

Have a dog.  Up at 5:30, feed dog, do hygiene routine, leave at 6:30
am for visiting hours at the jail.  Get there just before 6:45, but
despite the fact that visiting hours for Keith are supposed to be
6:45-10:15, because he is in "special housing" (a euphemism for he's
regarded as a "fugitive" and is not allowed to mingle with other
prisoners in the visiting room), I cannot see him until the first
prisoner has been brought out and finished his interview with the
woman who got there before me.  I am told I can see him at 7:30.  I
ask if I can go out to the car and eat a little breakfast.  I'm told
to be back at 7:15 at the latest.  I go back down the flights of
stairs and eat a couple of small cold sausages and a few bites of a
cold dry waffle.  It's all I can stomach.  I take a few sips of water,
then get out the camera and take a couple of pix of the "detention
center" he's in.  (Isn't that a lovely phrase?)  Once I empty the
camera, I'll get the pix developed and scan those in for interested
parties.

Back somewhere between 7:05 and 7:10.  The early couple finish early,
and they bring Keith in in that lovely orange suit that I've grown so
very fond of.  (Not!)  He doesn't look so hot, but a little better
than yesterday.  He explains that he's unable to get the meds he needs
because we missed the long-acting version of his pills when I gave a
spate of them to the sheriff deputy yesterday.  So they tried to tried
to triple up on the short-acting ones.  He managed to convince them to
only let him have 2, but these left him dizzy.  He said if they'd
tripled the dose he wouldn't be able to sit up for the sudden fall in
blood pressure.  I make a note to call the doctor.  (When I do, they
say they've faxed something to the jail in response to a call.  After
talking to him tonight I know that he still doesn't have what he
needs.  So I'll call again in the morning and try to explain more
slowly and distinctly.)  When they take Keith away I ask the person at
the desk if I may see the nurse.  She promises to check Keith but will
not accept the 2 long-acting pills in a prescription bottle I found.

We get maybe half an hour, although I gather we should be getting 45
minutes.  There's another couple waiting, so they hustle Keith out.  I
make some phone calls.  The hearing is supposed to be at 9 a.m.  I am
on the phone to the phone people when I see Keith's attorney arrive at
the courthouse down the street (and I do mean "down"--it's a long
uphill to the jail).  When I say the phone people I mean that jails
are now outsourcing their inmate telephone system.  At least one
national company is slowly taking over the prison population's phone
calls, making sure that no teleconferencing goes on, and no call
forwarding.  It took 3 calls, but I finally managed to reach and
register with this company so that Keith is allowed to make phone
calls to the house.  This evening I promised his attorney I would set
up his phone number as well, and my cell phone, and my work phone.
Those are $30 deposits each, and the company only refunds unused
deposits after 4-6 weeks.  This is the equivalent of a loan shark, I
think, only you give them the money in front, so they can keep it and
make interest on it till they deign to return it.

Speaking of money, although Keith is now in custody my bail will be
months in the return.  Another way counties make money off their
jails--not that $2 a day might really pay for the food, although
Keith's opinion after the last 4 days in jail in February is that it
might be overpriced at that.

The judge tries to dispose of Keith's case via video monitor, as he is
able to do with most of the cases this morning.  Keith's lawyer tells
him that the justice court magistrate in charge yesterday promised
that Keith could appear in court in person.  Despite the fact that he
is forced to shuffle in in leg chains and manacles, I'm glad to see
him.  When he sits down at the desk with his attorney, right in front
of me, I ask the deputy if I may touch him.  The deputy says no, but
Keith doesn't hear this, probably conferring with his attorney.  As he
is taken out, he passes me and tries to embrace me.  The deputy pulls
him away as if he were a naughty dog.  Keith asks, "I can't touch
her?"  The deputy says no and bodily escorts Keith out of the
courtroom.

The hearing is the usual railroad.  The gates go down and the express
goes through.  Due process?  Huh?  Nah.  The judge does say one
interesting thing:  that there might be civil rights issues.
Interesting statement.  But I can't get the transcript for a couple of
weeks, since the court reporter is backed up on appeals.  The local
newspaper reporter taped the proceedings.  Perhaps someone can get the
exact quote from the woman at the Prescott Daily Courier.  She has my
contact information, but I haven't heard from her.

I talk briefly with the lawyer, missing finding out who the other
people in the courtroom were.  Were they there for Keith or for
someone on the monitor?  In particular, there is a gray-haired woman
behind me who listens intently to what the judge says about Keith's
case.

I put money in for Keith at the "jail window"--another delightful
phrase representing a tiny room that could accommodate 4 people if
they kept their elbows in, with a bouquet of fat pipes and a meter
taking up one whole corner, a long shelf, and a glassed-in counter
opposite the door.  I still need to call and find out when the next
"visiting hours" are.

I meet Keith's attorney after his talk with the County Attorney, up in
the delightfully appointed lobby of the jail, where prisoners are
brought out for visits, released, allowed out for work furlough, and
taken back in for their strip and cavity search each day following a
day's work.  This town jail is mainly for short-termers and work
furloughed inmates.  Long-term prisoners who do not work in town are
taken to the "facility" (another lovely word) in Chino Valley north of
here, which is overcrowded.  The first time Keith's attorney went to
see Keith and I was there he took me in with him, explaining that he
needed me to discuss fees--which is true.  He met little resistance.
This time, some woman told him over a loudspeaker that I couldn't go
in with him.  He appealed yet again, and she said she would send a
deputy out.   We took that as a possible sign of approval, and Keith's
attorney motioned me in with him.  In this room it is not just all
glass.  There are the usual telephone handsets with which to
communicate, but there is a little slot through which papers may be
passed from attorney to client.  Perhaps this is why they are so
protective and will not allow me into this space again.  The deputy
briefly opens the outside door, then disappears.  I think my presence
has been approved, but in another moment, he is at the inmate door,
strong-arming Keith out of the booth.  He says he's had his visit.
(Yeah, truncated due to the "special housing" rules.)  "I'll go," I
say (twice), and leave hurriedly, hoping they will allow Keith to
finish his interview with his attorney without me.

I'm grateful to be with Keith even separated by glass, even with him
in that dreadful orange suit.

So the habeas corpus motion to question extradition must be filed by
Monday at noon or they will ship Keith off to Riverside that
afternoon.  It will be.  In that case there is a hearing on May 18,
Friday.  We do not expect success, but it is more recording of
grievances at the very least.

The County Attorney's office, it seems--despite what seemed like a
successful effort to "educate" them--has had the Arizona Governor's
warrant (which means the California Governor's Warrant must have been
there first) since whenever it arrived after the date of April 10 on
the warrant.  Neither Keith nor his attorney, who checked the docket
frequently, were given access to these papers until the hearing
yesterday, depriving Keith's attorney of adequate time to answer both
the County Attorney's motion and request a habeas corpus hearing to
present issues concerning the extradition warrants.  Keith's attorney
is authenticating the warrants, although he does not believe they are
forgeries.  I never trust the $ciclos.  How do you know a $ciclo is
lying?  He/she is speaking, or he/she has written something.

Worse yet, a third way is that the $cientologist may have produced
something purporting to be something else.  3 frauds before breakfast,
especially on Thursdays.

Long day, got to work around 11:30 after checking on the dog and
giving him lunch.  Dog's bedtime.  Mine too, actually, since it's up
at 5:30 in the morning again.  Gotta feed the dog, get ready, be at
work by 7.  Want to try to set up 3 more phone accounts before I leave
for work if possible.

Arel