I Have No Idea

July 4th, 2026

We haven’t heard from her in four days. She has been a “resident” at the Community Reintegration Center (the county jail) for over three months. The young woman has been waiting to get transferred to a women’s prison called Taycheedah. She was sentenced to two years in prison at a hearing three weeks ago and has been anxiously waiting to be moved (the jail is not as nice as the prison, which is a truly depressing fact). The Department of Corrections (DOC) does not give an inmate any prior notice before a transfer. Actually, from what I have heard, the DOC seldom gives a prisoner a heads up for any changes. Why does the DOC do that? Because it can. In any case, the young woman had told us during a phone call that the DOC generally moves people from the county jail to Taycheedah on a Tuesday. The woman has been calling our house to speak with her son once a day, every day, for weeks. On Tuesday she stopped calling here.

My wife and I had hoped to hear from her during the last four days. Keep in mind that is nearly impossible for anybody on the outside to call or use the internet to contact an incarcerated individual. It is also difficult for an inmate to call out. Communication between a prisoner and the rest of the world is often limited to snail mail. Yesterday, I tried to go online to determine where the young woman was. My efforts came to naught. The website at the jail did not show her as being at that location and the Taycheedah site showed nothing at all concerning her.

I made two phone calls. The guard at the county jail confirmed to me that the woman was no longer there. He had no other information to give me. When I called Taycheedah, the officer there asked me for her DOC inmate number. I didn’t have that. He politely told me that without the number he could not find her whereabouts online. No shit. I had tried the same thing on my computer before I called the prison. If she is not currently in the DOC data base, apparently, she does not exist.

So, now what? I have no idea. Where is she? Same answer.

The odds are good that this young woman is presently in custody at Taycheedah, but I don’t know that, and that bothers me and my wife. We don’t know what her status is, and we have no idea what to tell her son, should he ask us. Mercifully, he has not thought to do that yet.

Kafka would be proud.

Happy 4th of July.