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My Son in Prison- It's Been a Bad Month [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-08-26  

I’m going to give this one a warning. if abuse in prison triggers you I suggest you skip this story.

I wrote a diary already about my son, who is in prison in another country (not Ghana) in a situation that makes it very difficult to rescue him or even to keep in contact with him. He only knows the name of the prison he is being held in because he saw it on a document there. He is far from any center of civilization and of course even he weren’t he is cut off from any outside communication.

Our only fragile link to him is an old cell phone that a friend smuggled in to him. One good thing, the level of corruption there is high enough that the guards can be bribed to break rules. Of course the down side is that everything there requires money, including things that should be provided automatically, He has to pay to be able to sleep in a bed in a cell instead of just being out in the hall, for example. Not to mention food.

Earlier this month we managed to get enough money to him for him to rent a bed in a cell (sadly, the cell is safer than being in the halls sleeping leaning against a wall.)

This led to problems. A few weeks ago the guards did a search of the cell while he wasn’t there. Fortunately they didn’t find his phone but they threw his things out into the hallway. The phone was badly damaged, the screen shattered and the buttons on the side broken.

My son managed to bribe his way in to the office of one of the staff to send me an email and we managed to keep in touch that way, emailing back and forth until the shift was changed and he had to leave.

One of the guards, a woman, agreed to take the phone in to be repaired. It cost two hundred dollars, which we did not have but I managed to raise it. It took several days for that and when the woman was returning it to my son she dropped it and the screen shattered again.

Surprisingly she agreed to pay for it but after several days of hemming and hawing she admitted (or said) she didn’t have the money to do it. So another hundred went into fixing the phone a second time.

Well it was all done and I can talk with my son much more safely again.

The problem is that the man my son bribed is making trouble. My son had to pay him with something other than money (I will not say more) and the guard wants him to keep doing it. So he is stalking him in the hallways and trying to take the phone away.

We managed to get him back into the cell where he is safe (well safer) but now the issue is how to keep him fed thru the rest of the month. It is only six days but six days without food is no picnic.

I do not intend to continue to post stories about my son. His position is difficult and I do not want too much known about it for many reasons. I guess writing this is just a way of relieving stress.

Any prayers or positive thoughts for my son would be much appreciated. He is certainly in a difficult situation.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/26/2189781/-My-Son-in-Prison-It-s-Been-a-Bad-Month

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