Not quite the State Prison

Not quite the State Prison
The Lady Lawyer

fiction
edward w pritchard

Any woman looks good to the inmates of Lucas correctional and the pretty lady lawyer in her navy blue dress suit, high heels and short blond hair; having trouble walking on the slick floors of the entrance hall would attract more than a few catcalls.

The lawyer was scrambling because first afternoon visitation was ending in less than an hour , before final meal, and at a medium security facility in our State the rules were elaborate, even for Counsel. The lawyer was late because she had stopped to buy her client a book. Just on a whim, in part because it had been a long day, first her children and driving some of them to school, then five or six in office appointments and 20 or more long phone calls and now at 5:00 an hour meeting with her new client and then an hour drive home. Thank goodness Orlando, her client wasn't in maximum security over at the State Prison, which is a two hour drive each was.

Good for her client too, not to be at State, at least for now because there was something gentle about her client which is what lead to her buying him the book.

It was an appointment. The Judge on the case had been a woman and it wasn't that long after the Judge a pioneer woman lawyer in this part of the State had balanced family, job, husband herself and gave the new alpha woman lawyer [ 10 years in solo practice] a relatively simple way to make a few thousand dollars representing her client on a murder appeal. The fees were set to $5,000 but maybe a little more could be approved by the Judge who gave you the appointment, and it was after a visit or two depending on the Lawyer, just a writing assignment and all good lawyers any more are all good writers. This lawyer named Kathleen enjoyed research and writing and would put more time into the case than normal which is why tomorrow she had 6 appointments and 20 phone calls jockeying for a few minutes of her time.

Her client would be upset that the other inmates and some of the guards were disrespectful of his lawyer coming into the facility. He always called her Mrs. Ekerlock and had a way of lowering his eyes as he talked that reminded her of her three year old son. The client to her didn't seem much older than a boy. Today she had to definitively tell him that there were no issues of law, and unless a miracle happened he would be in here for 20 to 30 years if things went right. If he did not accrue more time for fighting, or any of 20 other offenses committed in prison that could add time to a sentence of an 18 year old serving 30 years for murder. This visit would have been skipped by most of her male colleagues, rightly so; because there was really nothing good to report, the information gathering was done and her time should be spent on research and writing. Although the cases paid a minimum hourly rate it would take 30 or 40 hours to complete the writing assignment, which is what an appeal on an open and shut murder case was. She didn't really mind because she always worked the case as it needed, fees came later, and they just kept rolling in somehow,

Her client stood up as she entered the holding cell and was maybe a foot taller than her and looked like he had lost a little weight. The first thing she told him, talking like her grandmother, was Orlando you have to eat. The voice was like an actress but she was sincere and her client knew it and it relaxed him and let them get to business at hand. She had outlined notes in her planner what she would say but she liked this young man and with her memory didn't need them and she knew the case well.

The client didn't interrupt and took the news almost with out comment. After she finished, and she had asked him to please ask her some questions, he shyly said so I will be here for at least 25 years. She just said yes.

She took out the trigonometry book she had bought him and they spent the rest of the time working on a few problems. She was very rusty, although she had once thought about being an engineer like her Father. Orlando had been working on problems since their last visit and had three of four sheets of note book paper very neatly covered with problems. They worked for over an hour and eventually the guard who was also like her client a black man nicely shooed out the lawyer. The only thing remarkable about the rest of the meeting was he broke his pencil when he was doing sums and the Attorney broke up her pen and pencil set her sister sent her last Christmas and gave him the expensive mechanical pencil and the guard had years later referred a couple of cases to that white lady lawyer.