LOCAL
NEWS
Jailhouse holiday - Behind bars, Christmas barely
exists
Jason Ahola, 34, will be spending Christmas in
the Norfolk County jail, where he’s doing time for drunken and reckless driving.
(GREG DERR/The Patriot Ledger) |
By LANE LAMBERT
The Patriot Ledger
DEDHAM - In times past, Jason Ahola organized Christmas gatherings for his
family in Quincy. It was one of his favorite parts of the holidays.
But
now the 34-year-old auto body worker is in the Norfolk County jail. He’s been
there since March, on convictions for his third drunken-driving charge and
reckless driving. This isn’t the first holiday he’s spent behind bars, but he
says that won’t make it any easier to get through this one.
‘‘You try to
stay busy,’’ Ahola said. ‘‘It’s like the holidays don’t really exist
here.’’
For inmates like Ahola, Christmas will, in most ways, be just
another day of time served - and that seems to suit them just fine. The pain
they’ve caused others is heavy on their hearts, so the only Christmas they want
to think about is the first one after they’ve been released on parole or
probation.
As with other major holidays for all faiths, there are few
reminders of Christmas at the Norfolk and Plymouth County jails - no festive
decorations, not even a single strand of lights or tinsel garland. Except for
worship services, the only special event will be a roast beef
dinner.
Ahola and most of Norfolk County’s 700-plus inmates are getting
cards, as well as visits from their wives, girlfriends and
parents.
(There will be no visits on Christmas Day, however. The rules
are much the same at the Plymouth County jail.)
Some inmates will attend
chapel services. All will try to keep their thoughts occupied as best they can -
with reading, 12-step meetings, working out, even cleanup duty in the kitchen
and canteen.
‘‘If you don’t, the clock stops,’’ Mark Conley of Norfolk said.
‘‘Give
people their space’’
For Conley and others, Christmas will also be a day
of intense reflection - on why they did what they did to get locked up, and on
everything they can’t do until they’re released.
That puts inmates -
repeat offenders and first-timers alike - more on edge than usual, ‘‘so you give
people their space,’’ said Conley, who is 43 and serving time for his fifth
drunken-driving conviction. ‘‘A lot of stuff is going on in everybody’s head, so
you have to watch out.’’
Jail personnel keep a closer watch, too. More suicide attempts are made in
county, state and federal facilities during the weeks between Thanksgiving and
New Year’s Day, so corrections officers and counselors are on the alert for any
warning signs, such as an inmate who starts giving away personal items to his
buddies.
Ahola has never felt that bleak, though after several holiday
incarcerations since the 1990s, he’s all too familiar with the coiled emotion
that Conley described.
‘‘You have one big feeling all wrapped up
together,’’ Ahola said. ‘‘You’re depressed because you’re here, you’re angry at
yourself, you’re sad for your kids, and you’re happy because you’re still
alive.’’
To help keep those moods in check, ‘‘you try to surround
yourself with your own people,’’ he said. He’ll spend Christmas with his
cellmate, Billy Mulvey of Boston, and a few others.
Conley and Ahola will
attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, as they do every day.
First-time
drug offender Jimmy Pham of Dorchester and 20-year-old Chris Fowler of Roxbury
aren’t sure what they’ll do.
‘‘You accept it for what it is,’’ said
Fowler, who is serving 17 months for gun and drug possession.
‘‘Harder
on them’’
That’s even more of a struggle for fathers like Ahola,
Mulvey and Conley, all of whom have older children who they know are angry to
see them in jail again.
‘‘This is a lot harder on them than it is on
us,’’ Ahola said of his sons, who are 9 and 13. His wife will visit him before
Christmas, but the boys won’t.
Mulvey isn’t sure if he’ll get any family
visits.
‘‘My son wants no part of it,’’ said the Dorchester ironworker,
who’s serving a year for a drinking-related assault-and-battery
conviction.
Last year was doubly upsetting for Conley’s 8-year-old son.
The boy sent Conley a handmade card, but the cutout tree was pasted onto another
piece of paper. That violated mail rules, so the jail returned the card to
Conley’s home address.
The Christmas Day roast beef dinner will offer a
respite from those tight rules, ‘‘so the guys can have a little bit of a
holiday,’’ Norfolk County sheriff’s department spokesman Dave Weber
said.
The Norfolk County jail’s canteen will offer canned smoked oysters,
cooked bacon, pound cake and other food items; inmates can make purchases with
money deposited to their personal accounts by family members or friends. (The
Plymouth County jail’s canteen will stock the usual fare.)
A local
chapter of the Roman Catholic lay group Legion of Mary will distribute small
gift packets to 60 inmates who take part in a devotional program the group runs.
The packets include shampoo, toothpaste, soap and playing cards.
State
prisons also allow community groups to bring in similar gifts. Christmas dinner
at the state prisons will feature turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes,
vegetables and cranberry sauce.
‘‘They’re human
beings’’
Those extras gall some taxpayers, who wonder why men who
have committed crimes should get anything special. Carol Parillo of the Legion
of Mary has heard the complaint for decades. So has the Rev. James Keurulainen,
the Norfolk County jail’s chaplain since the 1970s, and every season he responds
the same way.
‘‘These guys are human beings like you and me,’’ the
chaplain said. ‘‘How would you want to be treated?
Inmates like Ahola and
Conley aren’t looking for pity - just a chance for a new start, as they look
past this Christmas to their release date.
‘‘We have to earn that trust
back,’’ Conley said. ‘‘A lot of people will be waiting and
watching.’’
Ahola said, ‘‘I can’t make up for the years I’ve lost, so I
want to make the next one as good as I can.’’
Christmas dinner menus
for inmates
What’s on the menu for Christmas dinner at several jails
and prisons statewide:
Norfolk County
Roast beef with
gravy
Baked potato
Mixed vegetables
Bread and
butter
Diced pears
Milk
Plymouth County
Roast
beef with gravy
Roll
Baked potato
Salad and
vegetable
Chocolate cream pie
State prisons
Turkey
and stuffing
Mashed potatoes with gravy
Two
vegetables
Cranberry sauce
Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com .
Copyright
2007 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Thursday, December 20, 2007