TARA JO

The main reason we came to Butte was to be able to spend a little bit of time with my great niece. For those of you who haven’t been followers for very long, Tara (who is 23) is in a halfway house trying to get her life back on track after being arrested.

Trying to get to see her is a lot like trying to see the gold at Fort Knox. We didn’t realize that her keepers need seven days to do a background check on us and they said no, we could not come visit her at the “place” she lives. So now what.

Tara talked to her case manager about us and got permission from her to be able to join us for dinner. However, it had to be within walking distance of the “place” because we aren’t approved drivers. There was a restaurant only two blocks away that she really wanted to go to so it worked out great.

I truly don’t understand all their rules. Most of them really don’t make a lot of sense to me but not being in that environment I’m in no position to make any judgment calls. Everybody lost computer and library privileges because someone had gone to a porn site. So even though they know who it was, everyone suffers. Lots of learning experiences.

Tara is doing very well. She’s willing to obey the rules, she treats the “powers” with respect, and does everything she is supposed to do. She wants out of there as soon as possible. Tara is extremely intelligent and is an anomaly in this world. Of the 50 women at the “place”, she is the only one who does not have a child. She is one of the very few that is not an intravenous drug user. She graduated from high school. She cares about her appearance.  I could go on and on, but she stands a much better chance than many of these women of staying out of prison when she gets her freedom.

She has a job – works at a Town Pump not too far from the “place”. The problem for me is that this part of town is really a sleazy area. This includes the “place”. In fact, I walked her back home after dinner because I was nervous for her. Too far for Jim to walk so he followed us in the truck. She works at Town Pump from 4:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Scary hours. The good news is that they give her a ride to and from work even though it’s only about five blocks away.

She has bad days and when she goes to her AA meetings she has to walk by a bar and she told me how tough it is. But overall, she’s really positive about the whole experience and made the statement that for the first time in her life, she feels good about herself without having to use anything. Definitely progress.

I sure do love this girl. Tomorrow we’ll go see her at work. Yes, we can do that without getting her in trouble.