L'aura del Campo

The cost of incarceration

Winter: 14 Mulk (February 20)

2006-02-20
afternoon, 42 degrees. 30 in Tahlequah, OK.

The Land of Tah is 4 hours south of here. And ten degrees colder! Here it is sunny. This always helps the melancholia.

There was an article in the paper today that in this county it costs $90/day to house someone at the county jail. That's $2,700 for 30 days. Wonder why no one is eager to kept folks there? Including sheriffs and judges? An electronic bracelet is $20/day = $600/month. I say: use bracelets, find an apt. for $500/month (doable), pay it and use the extra money to house 3 homeless people! Yep, reducing the jail by one person is enough for housing for 4 in this town.

A minimum paying job of $6/hour = <$1,000/month and there are a lot of those in this town, including the university. With stiff fines for stupid things, a poor person is better off going to jail and costing the county pleenty. On the otherhand, the students think nothing of charging $5 for their keggers to cover the $1,500 fines. Students DO NOT go to jail.

Police were slow in responding to a recent murder, still unsolved. Word is all the cars were at their DUI checkpoints. Sad, isn't it when collecting fines is more important than making the downtown drinking district safe!

This town pays with all the bad publicity. It is no longer "the place to be" on many people's lists.

A new raw sketch from this morning (yikes!):

Ode to barrenness

O barrenness that never brings forth mirth,
just blood and tears from Lifetime's birth,
just pain in empty hours of the morn
when time, no longer pregnant, lies stillborn
while friends with children, nephews, nieces,
sleep in rest, not drowned in thoughts.

Be still. Be calm. Be full

of what this Life has wrought
of what this Spirit's learned and gained,
compassion cooling passion's pain,
this fear of loss. This knowledge
of cold emptiness. This gift you give
to us, O barrenness, O barren bane. [162.764]

2006-02-20
before vespers, 44 degrees. 24 in Tonawanda, NY.

Found a John E Hessel (died 1930-05-24 at age 87 in Tonawanda). Could be my grandmother's father. Place and dates are good. Would've been around 40 when he came from Sweden. Still have family in the Tonawanda area.

It was 36 in Sioux City, Iowa/South Dakota, a mere 700 miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas, where it was 33. Go figure!