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I’d never visited a woman in jail before, although I’ve visited a couple in women’s prison facilities (jail being where they keep you until they’ve decided how long they’ll put you in prison). That probably wouldn’t be the case if I were still working for the Public Defender. The rate of incarcerated women has been growing at almost twice the rate of incarcerated men since the 1980s, so the numbers would have eventually caught up with me.
I pared down to my ID, rental car key, and a file folder with notes and a pen for the usual security dance. After signing in, the wait to weave my way through the gated labyrinth was shorter than I’d expected, perhaps because no one bothers to visit women in jail. The usual throng of young women with babies coming to visit daddy was conspicuously abse
