Jana Interview_Followup:

I was certainly correct, in my assumption that it would be a good interview. The room itself was frocked with logistical problems, as it was a primary thruway for officers transporting offenders to visits with attorneys and such. They were all gracious and did their best to keep the disturbance to a minimum. I am hoping that it will have added to the overall affect of the piece – like the lines and scratches on a piece of fine leather.

Jana arrived about 30 minutes late, which gave me time to double check things and settle a bit more into the role of interviewer. The room lights were turned off, except for a smattering of several, fluorescent lighted rectangles in the ceiling, that remained on 24/7 like a generator light. A bit of natural light spilled in through the three large windows, to my left, but the primary light was from a softbox that I had positioned just a few feet from Jana and directly beside me. The quality of light set a mood that was calming and soothing – and odd sensation, and stark contrast, to all that was going on in the rooms and pods around us.

We began the interview with the question of why she was incarcerated…. this time and allowed it to evolve from there. Early on, in the interview, Jana began referring to, then reading, several of th poems and stories that she has written while riding out this sentence.

“I just started writing about a month ago”, she told me. “I never thought that I could, or that I would be any good at it.”

Her written words have already had a positive affect on some of the inmates in her pod – “O” pod – the working pod. “I want to help people learn from my mistakes, and that’s why I write”, she added.

The interview lasted almost an hour, but the conversation continued on for another hour after the camera had been shut off. Then Jana was off to tutor down in Program Hall – something she does a lot of. According to the guards Jana is a model offender, never causing problems and keeping a good head. “I’m done this time”, she told me. “I’m not coning back here again.” This is something that nearly every offender says, but most fail. “I’m hard headed”, she continued, “but when I finally learn something, I really learn it – and I have finally learned this one.”

Jana comes up for parole, next Tuesday morning. She isn’t overly confident that the Board will grant it, “because of my history”, she says, but she remains hopeful. “If they don’t…. then I will ride out my sentence and then I will be completely done – no probation, no halfway house.” But that concerns her because, as she put it: “I think I need the structure when I first get out.”

If I am able to be at her parole hearing, I will be, depending on the birth of my first granddaughter. Either way, I will follow her journey.

Until next time….