The etiquette of shackles
by CarolineMy office is next door to the county jail, so I walk by it several times a day. What is the polite thing to do when passing two sheriff’s deputies and a guy in handcuffs chained to leg irons? Smile? Ignore them? Look away? Jane Gressang, Iowa City
When I sang for the inmates at Folsom Prison — no, hang on, that was Johnny Cash, wasn’t it?
If you don’t already read Social Q’s I recommend it in general, as it makes me laugh almost every time.
This question made me “hmm” though, because it took me way back to my carefree childhood and adolescence in Oregon, Illinois, where our equally sprawling, lovely, and decrepit old home was one block from the Ogle County Courthouse.
There, the inmates who displayed good behavior were allowed to do government chores like mowing the lawns, and as the County bought property closer and closer to our house, the government lawns did too.
I don’t know, this might be different because most of the guys held in the county clink were small potatoes, waiting out short DUI sentences or other relatively petty atonement. But I saw these guys in their jumpsuits very frequently, especially in the summertime, and never really gave it a second thought. If I’d seen someone I’d known among them, that may have been a different story.
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