Bryan said on March 31, 2006  

That experience sounds familiar. I spent 4.5 hours on Wednesday and 4 Thursday hours driving to visit prisons for meetings with clients that took about an hour. I have had probation officers get the prisons to set up phone calls, but the prisons will not set up or allow attorney-client phone coversations. I'm not sure that phone calls are practical but the road time is costly to the state.

 Anonymous said on March 31, 2006  

Wow, that's tough. When I was a law student in connecticut working in clinics we could set up attorney-client phone calls (question #1 - has your counselor left the room?). In addition, with a bar card (or rather, a supervising attorney with a bar card) we were allowed to meet with clients during non-regular visiting hours. I know some students who were prepping for trial met with their client pretty late at night.

 James E. Martin said on March 31, 2006  

Great Story, BTW: you are one hell of a writer, your story and more importantly your frustration came through very well:)

 ACS said on April 01, 2006  

Good luck with your trial!

Man, how lame, though. I'm so glad that I have don't have to travel much now. I do remember how frustrated I'd be when I'd get to jail and find out that somebody was stabbed to death or shot inside the prison and the place was on lock down.

Driving to some prisons and finding them closed is bad, but the worst was during law school when I had little time, I'd pedal my bike to jail. I'd do it late so I could be in and out quick. My clients didn't care about the hours, they were happy to see me. The jail was only 15 minutes away from school and 30 minutes or so away from home (even less when I usually biked in the middle of the night). Especially in winter, I'd be really sad if I couldn't visit my clients because somebody just got shot or if they were locked down for some other reason. I'd have to bike my arse back home in the rainy cold, cursing my miserable existence!