Wednesday in Jasper County

I spent the morning in jail and the afternoon in court. That's more like it! Judge McCall was sitting in for Judge Mott today and court was held in the big, north courtroom which meant that there was confusion in the halls of the third floor of the courthouse. A sign was posted but very little attention was paid to it since most of the folk attending court have been there before either for themselves, family members,friends, or fiancees. This brings me to the word "fiancee". All, 100%, of my clients not married have fiancees--not girl friends, but fiancees. I occasionally ask a client when he plans to wed which draws a blank stare at best since the word "fiancee" is no longer associated with the words "wedding", "engagement", "engagement ring" or any other word or idea associated with marriage. Back to today, I saw a number of clients at the Jasper County Jail. They are usually happy to see me although they do have lapses in judgment. This was not one of those days though and we discussed family, alcohol, drugs, absconding, bond: the usual sort of things. Not much was accomplished. My repeat public intox violator believes he needs treatment and wants to ask the court for treatment. I did suggest to him that the court would inquire as to why he hasn't gone to treatment if he desires it so badly. I think the answer had something to do with time; he just never had the time to go to treatment. Another defendant had his bond revoked when he bailed out of treatment and picked up a new felony charge. He wasn't sure what his bond was, but he wanted it reduced so he could return to his family. A third defendant is charged with providing a controlled, prescription drug to a young lady in return for some sexual activity unspecified. His defense appears to be that since he is unable to perform any sexual activity, the charges should fail accordingly. And lastly my client who simply doesn't think he should be in jail. He has way too many responsibilities on the outside to be sitting in jail. A very impatient lad if I do say so myself. Impetuous too which is the major cause of his current incarceration. This ends my jail experience for the day and haven't time to discuss afternoon courtroom drama.