B54) Big Joe

Big Joe went home weeks ago. He was one of the lucky ones. Big Joe had a girlfriend that was self employed and willing to give him a job. Big Joe's dad was self employed and willing to give him a job. He could live at either place. This would be considered a great support system, an enviable support system.

Big Joe and I played scrabble daily. He was one of the best friends I had in prison. I have his scrabble dictionary on my desk to this day.

It was six in the morning. Someone began kicking my bunk. I don't have a job and I don't need to be anywhere so:

"What are you waking me up for"?

I demanded to know as I sat up.  It was a guard.

Oops.

He said, "Big Joe is on the tv"

"What"?

The guard walked off.

I hopped up and turned my tv on. TV coverage was from the local news. There were probably a dozen police cars in the background. The SWAT team was there. Joe's mom and niece were there.

When Big Joe went home on parole he didn't have that much time left on his sentence. He didn't make early parole. Joe had a drug problem. He was always turning up with positive UA's. Heroin. As a result of Joe's drug problem he never made it out parole. With so many dirty UA's he ended up spending twice as much time in prison had he not done drugs.

Joe was paroled to his girlfriends house but that only worked for awhile. He needed his own place. Against orders Joe got his own apartment (parole violation). And he was doing a lot of drugs.

Joe went to see his parole officer. While in the office Joe was told he failed another UA and he was going back to prison. The upside to this is he only had a couple months on his sentence. When you max out your sentence they have to let you go, unless you are a sex offender. They can keep sex offenders for life unless they are catholic priests. Then they are paroled immediately.

Joe was told he was going back to prison. Apparently that didn't go over too well. Joe got up and forced his way out of the parole office. 

The parole officer put an APB put out on Joe. The cops went looking for him. He was not at the house he was paroled too. The cops found out Joe had an apartment so they went there. They knocked on Joe's door. Joe told them

"I have a hostage. If you come in here I'll kill her"

That's not good. Right? Out comes more cops. Lots more. Hostage negotiator. SWAT team. The street was cordoned off. Holy fucking shit. This is not good.

They try through the night to get Joe to come out. They brought his mom out and his niece out. Family tried to talk him out. Joe kept telling everyone he could not go back to prison. He had problems there. This was absolutely not true.

Around six thirty in the morning the swat team did their thing.,a front entry assault. When they got in Joe was dead. He cut himself. Giant lacerations up under his arm pits. Most gruesome discover of all, it was reported he castrated himself. Joe bleeds to death.

This was all beyond belief. We had a guy on the yard that was related to Joe through marriage, not blood. He had a family member to call in an effort to obtain more facts. The family had nothing to say contradicting the story.

It would be revealed during the autopsy that Joe did not castrate himself. He put two deep lacerations into his inner upper groin area.  At a glance it looked like castration at the scene. Still he was dead.

Joe was strung out on heroin and speed.

Joe told me a story about him getting out of the county jail on bond once. He had been in the jail on a drug charge. After bonding out joe headed directly to his herion supplier and scored some dope. On the drive home after getting the heroin joe decided to shoot up in the car at a red light while he was waiting.

Coindcidentally enough it was a friend that was in a car directly behind joe.

Joe nodded off in the car at the red light. When the light turned green Joe was asleep with the neddle still hanging out of his arm.

In the car behind Joe's car was someone that knew Joe. He got out of his vehicle to see why Joe was not moving. He walk over to joe's cars in an effort to find out what the problem was.

There he was. Asleep at the wheel with a spent syringe of heroin hanging out of his arm. 

If Joe would have gotten some professional help with the transition from prison to free society it might of helped.

I cannot look at a scabble board without thinking about big joe.