I’m on my way to prison this morning.
I’m headed for the Allred Unit outside of Wichita Falls.
Really.
A producer from California is making a documentary about gays in prison for Logo and I’m riding along. And yes, I’m a little nervous.
The last job my father had before he retired was working at Sing Sing, the notorious maximum security prison north of New York City. He taught prisoners machine shop skills during their last year behind bars before their release. I asked him once if it bothered him working with these guys after he found out what they did. He said that although he’d spend several hours with each one every day, he never asked them what they had done. That way, he said, he could just deal with them as people.
This morning, after a background check and sending off a list of what I’d be bringing with me, I’m on my way to Allred and we’re just going to talk to someone. Just like any interview I’ve ever done. But we’ll talk about what he did. I’ll let you know how that worked out later.