Make that 3 middle-aged white women, LOL!
I am driving up to Richmond in a few weeks. I'll make them wait in the car while we conduct our independent investigation. They won't mind. And if they do? So what?
LOL
What is the proper "attire" for places like this, not that I think either of you would know. :-)
(I can't do it the week of November 9th, 10th, or 11th; going to Atlanta for a wedding!)
In jail, they crave the wave
Loved ones happy to encourage the incarcerated
Matt Dees, Staff Writer, N&O, Published: Oct 28, 2006 12:30 AM
Orange-clad prisoners clustered together and banged on the narrow windows, getting the attention of Jennifer Humphries who stood below.
Humphries, 29, had just been released from jail and was waiting for a ride in the cold October evening.
She waved at the men, one of whom held two signs showing his release date, "11" and "21."
"Look how happy those people are that I just waved at them," Humphries said.
"Some people just want outside contact from someone, anyone, who's not an inmate."
It's a common sight outside the Durham County jail downtown -- prisoners beating on windows and holding signs, people below responding in kind, often boisterously.
Family members of prisoners can be seen at all hours of the day, jumping and waving, even cheering, for their incarcerated loved ones.
Humphries and others said if the scene seems a little upbeat for jail, it's only because the people below are trying to encourage the people in the guarded tower.
"It could be they want somebody to encourage 'em," said Col. George Naylor of the Durham County Sheriff's Office, who's run the jail for decades.
He can remember prisoners in the 1970s hanging their heads out the bars of their cells above the old courthouse, hooting and hollering at anyone passing by.
Naylor said the scene's different now since the free-standing jail was built downtown.
Thick concrete and glass forces people to communicate mostly through gestures.
He said prison officials have tried to discourage prisoners from putting signs in the windows, but he said it's difficult to enforce.
Some of the signs at the Durham jail make references to the Blood and Crips gangs.
Humphries said some flash gang signs and try to pass information to non-jailed gang members below.
Naylor said jailers have confiscated signs, only to see them go right back up.
"If it's a young'un down there waving at a daddy, that's one thing," Naylor said.
"But if it's communicating something else, that might be a problem. I don't know what they're doing or saying."
Then there are the rumors that some people, ahem, are flashing more than gang signs to the prisoners above.
Derrick Lee, 21, who also had been recently released, just laughed when asked if he ever saw someone show some skin.
"I've heard people flash they money," he said while gesturing at some of the friends he made while in the jail.
Naylor said he's never witnessed any nudity.
"Our society being what it is, I guess it wouldn't surprise me," he said.
Charlene Douglas, 38, said the vast majority of visitors mean well and show support without being obscene.
She wanted to give one last wave-and-honk as she drove away in her car on Tuesday night.
She was there to visit a relative, though she didn't want to say who.
"I think it really helps them out to know someone loves them and cares about them," Douglas said of the waves and gestures.
"And it's very therapeutic for the other end, too, to know they're OK. It's very hard when you have a loved one locked up."
http://www.thedurhamnews.com/101/story/7187.html
* Nifong's people.