State of Utah – The Near Future

When the incident happened, Sally had been loaded into the back of a cop car and taken to a police station where she had been charged, fingerprinted and photographed. She was then given the option of having a full trial which would have meant being booked into County Jail until she could see a judge. The alternative was one of the new “Administrative Punishments” which the state had introduced to deal with the backlog of cases. With all that alcohol just beginning to fade from her system, Sally just wanted to go home so she signed the papers and was escorted from the premises clutching an armful of documents listing her charges and recording her consent to an Admin Punishment.

Charges:

Driving Under the Influence

Reckless Driving Occasioning Injury

Driving without insurance

Driving While Suspended

Taking a Car without Consent

Administrative Penalty:

You are being released on your own Recognition which means that your case will be decided by a judge in your absence. You have waived your right to a trial. You will be notified of the verdict and any sentence and you will be given a date and time to present yourself at a Privatized Penal Centre where sentence will be carried out. If you fail to report to the Penal Centre on time a warrant will be issued for your arrest and you will face extra charges.

The next month was almost unbearable as Sally could not keep from thinking of the sword hanging over her head. What would they do to her? Should she have taken the Trial option?

You saw stories in the media about what happened in the private penal establishments which were outside of the state system and some people said that they were not over fussy about how they treated people. Having chosen that option Sally now had no right to change her mind and, if the penal center reported that she had failed to comply with any of their demands, she would automatically face jailtime.

The small brown envelope dropped into her mailbox on a Tuesday morning and she almost did not open it because she dreaded what it might say. She had been found guilty on all counts and she had been sentenced to 40 strokes of the cane which would be carried out over a 48-hour period. She was required to report for punishment at 9am in three days’ time. There followed a whole page of requirements and scary lists of the consequences of any failure to comply. Twenty-Four hours before her check in time, Sally had to go online and complete a very detailed medical questionnaire including details of when her next period was due.

Sally did not know how she got through that three days and she barely slept so she was terrified that she would be late for her 9am slot. She knew that a few minutes late would immediately trigger an arrest warrant and inevitable jail time.

In was a modern, glass fronted building and inside the glass doors the reception area was divided into two channels like Customs at an airport. Sally took the female channel which led to a counter with two staff. One staff member was booking in a teenager who had straggly, lank hair and many tattoos. The teen was being very aggressive and the clerk had a bored, expressionless monotone voice as she explained that the process would be carried out and that lack of co-operation would make things a whole lot worse for the young lady.

Sally approached the second clerk who sat behind her glass screen and took Sally’s details then indicated that Sally should go through a door and take a seat. There was a buzz and Sally pushed open the heavy steel door into a small, bare waiting room with a line of chairs which were fixed to the floor. A large, plate glass window enabled staff inside the facility to see anyone who was in the waiting area.

It was only a few minutes before two guards in brown uniform came into the room and ushered Sally through another steel door into quite a small cubicle where she was ordered to stand in the box which was painted on the floor. Her photograph was taken and there was a whine as she was scanned by a body scanner which would reveal anything concealed in her clothing or her body. She was then told to press her hands, thumbs and fingers in turn onto the glass panel on the wall to her front. A printer chattered as it printed out two white plastic strips which a guard snapped around each wrist. The bracelets bore a bar code and a long number which she was informed was a prison number which would be recorded permanently on the Department of Corrections database.

Another door buzzed open and she was taken into a larger cubicle where a nurse in a white coat sat at a desk and took her pulse and blood pressure. The nurse asked a few questions about her online questionnaire and one of her two guards said that they would get her showered and changed.

Sally was beginning to feel like a piece of meat and she protested that she was only here for her caning and was not being booked into jail.

“Your sentence is more strokes than most people could take in one session so you will be with us overnight, as it says in your paperwork, and take your second caning tomorrow.”

Now she was in a tiled shower room and the male guard stepped back out of sight while the female held the plastic curtain but made sure that her prisoner was never out of her sight.

“You need to take everything off including all jewelry and hair clips and hand it to me.