When we first arrived, the building seemed smaller than I had imagined. It was surrounded by a shiny, barbed wire fence. I started to get a little nervous and at one point thought, "Gee, I could be playing for a murderer." The waiting room looked like one you might find at a doctor's office. You could see the visitors' section through a glass window. It looked like one you might find in a movie with chairs separated by glass and a telephone mounted on the wall. Deputy Warden Jackie Motter met me there a few minutes later and used an identification key to get my parents and me through two sets of bars that led into the jail.
We walked through a curved hallway and I could see men working out and playing basketball in a gym through large windows. They clustered curiously near it when I walked by. It made me feel a little uncomfortable. Ms. Motter let us into the jail library and began setting up chairs. I got my violin out and began playing for an audience of about nine or ten people. The women didn't talk when I played and asked lots of questions. They were a great audience! I felt very comfortable around them. You would've never realized they were prisoners from the way they looked or talked. They were responsive and made jokes. When I played "Don't Stop Believing" one of the women said she was singing along with me in her head and another swayed to the music. Many of them hummed while I played "Viva La Vida." Ms. Motter said she had never heard such beautiful music in the prison in the twenty years she worked there. I felt honored. I didn't know what to expect behind those bars, but my experience was an amazing one!
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