17 Division In Durham And Prison Overpopulation

Posted by Innocent Man as Our Story

I have to admit that while I was heading towards the police station I began to get a little worried but I was still holding out hope that this would all be cleared up quickly. The ignorance of innocence. I still had absolutely no idea why I was being charged with assault, and neither officer asked me any questions about what had happened that evening, which seemed fairly odd to me. Once I got to Station 17 I was taken to an officer behind a desk who asked me a few questions and just before I was led away by still another officer and into a little room, he told me that I should not attempt any communication with my wife. I assumed that meant they were still talking to her. Wrong again. Eventually I was photographed and my prints were taken and the entire time, I was treated like a criminal. It is not innocent until proven guilty in Durham region. In fact from my point of view they don’t even investigate a crime…they invent them.

As a side note for those that are interested, the machine they use to take fingerprints is much different than they show on television or in the movies. It is a fairly large device about the size of a pop machine, with a LCD display screen and a digital reader that they roll your palm and fingers on, and it immediately captures and stores them. No fuss no muss as they say. I’m somewhat of a computer geek having worked with them most of my life, so as worried as I was that things did not seem to be getting any better, I was still facinated by it…probably an escape mechanism from the reality of what was happening.

After I was finally processed another officer led me to the holding cell area. I will be able to visually describe the cell, but that is not what I remember the most about it. I was wearing only a light short sleeved shirt which was normally comfortable because our apartment doesn’t have air conditioning and it was fairly hot outside. The opposite was true in this place, the cell was about 8 feet long by about 5 feet wide, made entirely of concrete other than the combined metal toilet and sink (devoid of toilet paper) and the temperature was better than cold.

I’m not totally sure of how much time passed but eventually an officer returned and I was again hopeful that things were now cleared up. I was instead told that the Duty Council that I had requested when I was charged and arrested was on the phone and they led me to another room that was smaller than the cell but at least warm. What I learned next sent a shiver down my spine and gave me goosebumps that the holding cell had not given me up to this point. I was asked by Duty Council whether or not there was anyone local that he could call to bail me out. There was and wasn’t.

Something to take stern note of in this age of technology, memorize phone numbers and don’t just enter them into your cell phone address book. Because I had neither my cell phone or knew the number of anyone except my own home phone number, I had not a thing to give him. I told Duty Council this but told him that my wife had my cell phone and if he called her she could provide him with the numbers of people to call. Unfortunately because of the nature of the charge he told me he couldn’t do that. From his limited knowledge she had been the one that had charged me and he wouldn’t be allowed to communicate with her either. I asked him what the next step was and he told me that I would have to make a video appearance before a Judge later on, but that a proper bail hearing would have to wait until Tuesday because it was a holiday. He also told me that without anyone to bail me out, I might have to remain indefinetely in jail. Right about now was when mild panic set in.

The officer led me back to the holding cell and the sound of the closing door was to me like a life sentence. I knew I was innocent and if someone had spoken to my wife she would have told them the same thing, so why was I still here? I thought back to the last time I saw her. I had told her that everything was going to be okay, but she had that panicked look on her face and she was crying uncontrollably. She had also mixed her medication with alcohol and was visibly intoxicated. Could it be that she had done something to herself in a state of depression and that is why no one knew the truth? I didn’t know. I was worried for myself, but now I was equally worried about her and our son, and there was absolutely no way that I could find out.

The next few hours was like being in a living hell, only a lot colder. I paced the cell thinking about what might be wrong and when I wasn’t pacing, I was lying down on the concrete shelf trying to sleep. It never happened. This went on seemingly forever during which new people were being brought in and placed in other cells. One poor soul that was placed next to me coughed, choked and threw up throughout his stay, along with periodic moans and short but loud screams. Eventually one of the officers came by and threw a wrapped breakfast meal into the cell which gave me some indication of the time…morning.

When I say meal I may be slightly exaggerating. What it consisted of was two pieces of a stale type of bread that I couldn’t identify and what I think was some sort of baloney and mushy melted cheese. It was accompanied with a small styrofoam cup of either skim or soy milk which I drank down right away. When attempting the sandwich portion I wretched and almost threw it up. It was a good thing I had easy access to a toilet.

Time continued to move at an almost non existent pace but eventually it was time for my video appearance before a Judge. An officer unlocked the cell and brought me to yet another small room and a Judge of some sort appeared on a monitor in the room as well as who I assumed was the Crown and my Duty Council. Although I couldn’t hear everything that was going on very well, what I was able to make out was that I was charged with Assault and that bail would be set at $2,000. A proper bail hearing was set for the next day, but at this point I didn’t have much hope that anybody would be there because I still had no information on what was happening behind the scenes, if anything at all.

I was taken back to the holding cell and another unedible meal was served which I skipped completely. Approximately 4 hours later what I thought might be salvation was the news that I was about to be transferred to a penitentiary until my bail hearing because of a prison overpopulation problem. I had an idea or two about why they might be suffering from a prison overpopulation problem…they had at least one innocent man in custody.