Sent to Women's Prison

Kwan waited nervously in the court house holding cell. He was relieved by being lucky enough to be put in a small room by himself. The rough looking men in the overcrowded general cell had scared the hell out of him. The place was chaotic as it seemed someone had over-scheduled the docket for the day. The judges and lawyers were doing their best to clear people out so everyone could get home to their families, for tomorrow was Christmas.

Kwan sat nervously wringing his hands. He was alone, completely alone. There was no family for him to go home to. They were all back in Korea and even if they weren't they wouldn't want to hear from him. Kwan had permanently burned those bridges. He wasn't sure what was happening to him right now. He had had his time in court but it went by in a blur. Everyone had been talking so fast he wasn't able to keep up. Before he knew it the gavel was brought down and he was whisked away to this small holding cell. He hadn't done anything too terrible, but his record was already starting to pile up. Before being lead away he had heard something about "two weeks" and "minimum security".

The barred door suddenly clanks unlocked, causing him to startle. In walk two females in uniform. One of them holds a clipboard while the other carries a set of handcuffs and looks ready to use them. They both seem distracted by a good joke or something they just heard. The one with the clipboard glances down then briefly up at Kwan.

"Kim Quan?" She asks.

He nods. "I am Kwan." He says in his soft voice. He notes it as odd for an American to use his family name first like back in Korea.

She motions him to stand. "Alright, lets get going." As he stands the other woman claps the cuffs over his wrists. The face of the woman looking over the papers twists in disgust. "Jesus...you did all this shit? Well, you'll be right at home where you're going."

Not even ten feet away, in the next cell over, the gangster Kimberly Quan sat in stunned silence as it was explained to her that she was free to leave due to a technicality that was missed during the trial. It doesn't take her long to realize they were referring to an entirely different trial. She then realizes they thought she was someone else, she remains quiet.

Kwan and Kim pass each other in the hall. Each being lead to a different exit.

Kwan is taken out the prisoner entrance, handed off to a different set of guards, and then lead onto a blue prison bus. The new guards head back outside to talk with the other ones for a short time, they wish the others a Merry Christmas and discuss a few things about the prisoner, before returning to take their seats at the front. Had Kwan been more aware he might have questioned why all of the guards handling him had been female, but he was far too caught up in wondering what prison life would be like to really pay attention. It might only be minimum security and only for two weeks but he was terrified.

The driver asks. "Just one?"

The one guard nods. "Yep, let's get moving."

Before long the bus was on the road. A nervous Kwan sits and watches as the familiar buildings of the city make way to open farmland. It is about a half hour drive, first on the highway and then on a much smaller side road, until the bus is pulling up to the maximum security facility. A sign out front said "Green Valley Correctional Prison for W..." The last word was covered by a dense thicket of bushes.

The pulls through two sets of heavy metal gates and enters the compound. As Kwan looks around at the fenced concrete yards and old brick buildings and iron barred windows and heavy security doors and high walls and guard towers and the visible armed guards he can't help but think...this is minimum security!?

It was getting on late evening by this point and the weather was cool. There were no prisoners anywhere to be seen. Sitting looking at this stark surrounding Kwan begins to imagine all of the rough individuals housed within this old prison. He thinks of the stories he had heard about prison life. A little guy like him...oh no! As the bus comes to a stop in front of a squat brick building with the sign "Processing" on it Kwan's nerves finally get the better of him.

He blurts out in his soft girlish voice. "No please! I'll be good! Please don't put me here!"

The guards look at him a moment before laughing. "Ha ha ha! Are you shitting me? Ha ha ha!" One of them guffaws.

The other shakes her head as she unlocks the cage door into the prisoner section of the bus. "Shut up you dumb bitch." He bristles at the insult but was too afraid to respond. She comes back and grabs him by the arm. "Come on Kim, let's hurry this up. It's Christmas Eve and I've got family waiting."

Kwan is whisked from the bus into the intake office. The bus guards hand him over to the prison guards and they stand and talk for a time. The bus guards assure the prison ones that he had been thoroughly searched at the court house. Kwan gets the impression that it is highly unusual but he is given a pass on the strip search. He is handed an orange jumpsuit, uncuffed, and pointed toward a room to get changed as paperwork is completed. It is only once he is in the change room, switching from one jumpsuit to another, that it occurs to him that everyone he has seen thus far have been women. Perhaps they saved the male guards for inside the prison proper? He slips the jumpsuit on and zips it up. It fit pretty well, if a little roomy in the hips.

He takes this moment of quiet to settle his nerves. Just two weeks, he just had to survive a couple of weeks. Maybe he'd get out early if he behaved. Taking a deep breath he steps back out among the chatting guards. He is cuffed once more. There are wishes of Merry Christmas as the transport guards leave the building. All of them talk as if he wasn't even there. He was simply a part of their work.

The three prison guards look toward the caged off desk where another woman was processing the paperwork. "Good to go?"

The woman waves them on. "Yeah, yeah. I got it. You can take her."

One guard leads the way while the other two fall behind. With a rough shove one of the guards push him to get him moving. "Come on Kim, move it."

He stumbles and whimpers but is able to catch himself before he falls. He obediently follows, not that he had a choice.