299 Days: The Visitors

Chapter 154 Fine Wine at the TDF (June 6)

Nancy Ringman was having a great morning. Things were falling into place. She was back on top. She was running things, and that was what she loved to do.

This was the second day of her new job, thanks to her friends at the Governor’s office. She was the administrator of the Clover Park Temporary Detention Facility, or “TDF,” as they were being called.

A TDF was a medium security, short-term jail for teabaggers. It wasn’t a full prison, as those were filled to capacity with hardened criminals and actual terrorists. The state, and especially the feds, ran out of prison space long ago. The government needed thousands of additional beds to house lower level offenders, which were mostly teabagger sympathizers. These were the people who ran internet sites thwarting the Recovery, people spray painting teabagger graffiti, POIs who couldn’t be proven to have directly done anything wrong, and people referred by law enforcement for whatever reason. Nancy hated to admit it, but the reason for a law enforcement referral was sometimes as simple as someone pissing off a politician or owing them money or whatever. Nancy took all prisoners, or “detainees,” as they were called. They must have done something wrong to get there, so she’d keep them locked up for a while, until all this was over, since it was just temporary, of course. It was necessary just to keep order until things got back to normal, which she knew would be soon.

It was expected that people would only spend a few weeks or months at a TDF. Nancy had been told detainees were rounded up and sent there simply to deter others from joining the so-called “Patriots.”

Patriots? Not at all, Nancy thought. These are macho, religious whackos that are thwarting the Recovery efforts. What is “patriotic” about getting in the way of the government’s efforts to help people?

There was no way to actually imprison all the so-called Patriots, so putting a few in a TDF had to do. It scared many of them, and that was enough. Once word got out among the rednecks that one of them was in jail, it would calm them down and then they’d do their part for the Recovery. Nancy felt good knowing that for every detainee, they had probably convinced ten people to buckle down and do their part. She was very proud of that.

Clover Park TDF was in south Tacoma, a few miles north of Olympia. It was a high school that had closed during the budget crisis, had plenty of rooms and was easily secured, with a big fence around it and all the rooms could be locked down. It was perfect for a TDF.

The detainees slept on the floors in the classrooms. Nancy found it wonderfully ironic that the teabaggers, who always complained about the cost of public education, now had to sleep on the floors of a public school. They deserved it.

The detainees ate in the high school cafeteria. Again the irony: These teabaggers always wanted to cut back on school lunch programs and now had to eat there. Ha!

Actually, they didn’t eat very much there. The TDF was allotted just enough food to feed the detainees, but Nancy had an understanding with the company supplying the food: only deliver half of it. The company could keep the other half and sell it. In return, they took very good care of Nancy and her bosses. The company made sure Nancy had the medicine she needed to prevent an episode like the one she had back in Olympia. Most of all, Nancy loved fine wines. The company always made sure she had plenty. Besides, those fat rednecks could stand to lose a few pounds.

Medical care was another irony: Who was it that opposed universal medical care? The teabaggers. So, who wasn’t getting any medical care at the TDF? Nancy chuckled to herself. Sometimes you get what you wish for, you stupid hillbillies. She loved it.

The TDF was staffed by the Freedom Corps. Nancy gave them a pretty free hand in disciplining the detainees. Guards were allowed to use force with detainees. Nothing too extreme; no killings. She didn’t want to deal with the paperwork on that. Yesterday, on her first day on the job, one detainee was beaten into unconsciousness. He died when he wasn’t treated. What a pile of paperwork that caused. She learned her lesson. Don’t kill the detainees if you can avoid it.

Nancy had a morning full of meetings. She loved meetings. She got to be in charge and everyone had to ask her for permission to do whatever it was they talked about in the meeting. This morning, she was helping staff develop their policies and protocols, as they still didn’t have any formal procedures for running a temporary jail.

Temporary? Nancy sighed. Yes, this would only be temporary. That was what the Governor said. Too bad. She wished this could go on permanently.