Raymond loved being in prison. Whenever he walked on the yard, he attracted attentive admirers whose interest definitely exceeded the desire for a platonic friendship. He knew it, and his frequent strolls on the compound seemed to tease the other inmates who were perplexed by a beautiful man flirting with them.

Darryl was one of these attentive admirers.

Darryl was everything that Raymond was not. He was taller than average and heavily muscled with short hair and a stubby, short beard on an acne-scarred face. He had a speech impediment which interfered with his speaking and made it difficult for him to express himself. Darryl preferred to let you know his feelings with his gestures and actions rather than his words, and Darryl was not good looking. Next to Raymond, you might say he was a little homely, and Darryl looked dangerous. You would not want to encourage Darryl to express his emotions with you using his fists. That would be most unwise. Darryl never had to fight with anyone. One look at Darryl, and people let him have his way.

Darryl fell hard for Raymond. It was actually a rather touching love story.

At first, Darryl was just one of the inmates on the prison yard that Raymond attracted, but before very long, the other inmates seemed to melt away, and Raymond and Darryl looked more and more like a couple. It was actually endearing to watch. They were falling in love with each other right in front of us, and it was hard not to wish them well as they did so, but we were still in a prison, and we did have rules against sexual activity between inmates, so we kept a close watch on Raymond and Darryl.

One day, I learned that Darryl was also keeping watch on us.

Darryl watched out for Raymond when they were apart, and anything that disturbed Raymond would be sure to attract Darryl’s attention. One early winter day, that involved me.

Raymond had been tripped up by a room search which I had conducted. We regularly searched inmate rooms looking for contraband: drugs, weapons, stolen property, cell phones, and a host of other forbidden items. Finding contraband could land an inmate in serious trouble depending upon what we found. The day I searched Raymond’s room and removed forbidden items was also the day that a raw egg exploded against the wall near my head.

I had just finished the room search, and I was standing in the pantry area where inmates who lived in our Unit ate their meals. I was just outside the office, which was located in the middle of the pantry, and a raw egg flew past my shoulder, just above my head, and exploded against the wall. A shudder went through my body when it happened. When I looked in the direction from which the egg had come, there was nothing to see.

We would not be finding out who threw this egg, but only one person cared whether or not Raymond got into trouble, and that was Darryl, and I was the only person who needed to be warned not to make trouble for Raymond, at least that day.

There was one major obstacle that could interfere with the budding romance between Raymond and Darryl: getting out of prison. Raymond loved being in prison, and he was fortunate to have a long sentence, so he wouldn’t have to leave any time soon.

Darryl did not have a long sentence. Soon, too soon, he would have to leave prison and leave Raymond. He did not want to leave Raymond.

Wanting to stay in prison is not unusual. If you were to examine the records of inmates who try to escape from prison, you would find a surprising number of them did so shortly before we were going to let them out anyway. You’ll also notice that many inmates who have escaped have just walked away from a job in the community while on work release. There was nothing to prevent them from leaving. When they are caught, they are returned to the prison, and once they are back, they will face an additional felony charge of escape, so they’ll have more time to serve. It’s just one more perplexing fact about prison and prisoners that most people don’t know.

Darryl was a prime candidate for finding a way to stay in prison, and as his first Tentative Release Date (TRD) approached when we would be forced to release him, to no one’s surprise, Darryl got into a fight that cost him some good time and set back his TRD.

We had a problem.

As his next TRD approached, we knew Darryl would act, and all of the options from which he had to choose were choices we didn’t want him to make. Someone was going to get hurt, and it might be one of us, so we made a plan.

As soon as Darryl was eligible, Darryl’s caseworker applied to have good time restored to his sentence to move up his TRD, but he never told Darryl that he had filed this request. The request was granted, and on the day Darryl was to leave, we broke the news to him and gave him no chance to spoil it.

We called him to the Lieutenant’s Office, and while he was there, staff packed up his belongings and brought them into the office. Just as we gave him the surprising news that he would be leaving, we gave him his property, dressed him in street clothes, and gave him a bus ticket to his hometown in California and a check for a hundred dollars. Next, we drove him to the bank to cash his gate check and then on to the bus station. Throughout the process, he remained in handcuffs, and an officer sat with him until his bus was about to leave. At the last moment, the officer unshackled Darryl and loaded him onto the bus with startled and alarmed fellow passengers looking on. We said goodbye to Darryl at the bus station, and we never saw him again.

Raymond seemed undisturbed by Darryl’s leaving. I think he was expecting the day to eventually come, and he probably looked forward to the next young prisoner who would become his special friend - a friendship with benefits. Perhaps this new fellow would be better looking.

There were days when I wanted to ask Raymond about Darryl. I wondered if he ever wrote, but I never asked, so I never learned anything more about him.

Discussion

1. Darryl’s caseworker tricked Darryl leading to his release. Was he wrong to do this?

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