Inmates experience Christmas in jail Some have visitors, others ignore holiday

BANGOR – Mopping the floors of Penobscot County Jail was not how LaBrone Gordon had hoped to spend Christmas this year.

“This is the first time [I’ve been in jail on Christmas], and I’m gonna make it my last,” Gordon, 31, said Tuesday between his work shifts on the first floor of the Hammond Street jail.

Christmas Day brings both delight and dread to the Penobscot County Jail. Some inmates appreciate the efforts of staff and volunteers to liven the facility with festive music and food, while some prefer to go about their usual routine, pretending the holiday does not exist.

Robert McCarthy, a cook employed by the jail, spent Christmas Day supervising six inmate workers who prepared dinner in the kitchen. McCarthy said he had considered wearing a Santa Claus hat and playing Christmas music Tuesday, but some inmates asked him to leave those things at home.

“There are guys with families and children who would rather not be reminded it’s Christmas,” McCarthy said. He arrived at 4 a.m. to prepare a breakfast of eggs and sausage instead of the usual oatmeal and cereal. By 12:30 p.m., he and the crew had pulled together most of the ingredients for a dinner of glazed ham, carrots, mashed potatoes and banana split cake.

The 133 male and female inmates at Penobscot County Jail are either serving sentences of less than a year or awaiting trial for arrests for crimes ranging from misdemeanors to murder.

Aside from special meals, Christmas at the jail offers few of the comforts of home. For Gordon, it is a particularly difficult time of year to be behind bars. Gordon was arrested in October and later convicted of criminal mischief, assault and terrorizing. He said that in the past two months he has often reflected on holidays spent with his father and late mother in Boston, and with his five children in Maine and Florida. He said he has begun reading the Bible, and after he has been released he hopes to make attending church a new family tradition.

On Tuesday, the blue and white concrete block hallways of the jail bore no Christmas decorations, and just a few windows offered slim glimpses of the festive lights and storefronts of downtown Bangor. In the afternoon, small crowds appeared for each of the three one-hour visitation periods.

Donna Back, 48, of Bangor spent an hour chatting with her fiance, George Moody, 48, and was allowed briefly to hug and kiss him goodbye. Moody has been in jail for three weeks for driving-related convictions and hopes to be released shortly. Back said she visits him twice a week.

Beside Back in the large visiting room, children sat across from their mothers and fathers at long tables and described in detail the presents they had received that morning. Their parents listened, nodded and smiled through the glass. A few blinked back tears.

Gordon received no visitors on Tuesday. His wife, who lives in Bangor with two of his children, did not come because it upsets the children too much, Gordon said. He hopes to be released Sunday and to enjoy a traditional turkey dinner then.

Also without visitors, Amanda Berry, 23, of Bangor spent most of the day in her cell on the third floor, near the 19 other female inmates at the jail. Berry’s brother and uncle are also in the jail, but the relatives are allowed no contact. Even more difficult than eating Christmas dinner alone in her cell was spending the holiday apart from her 5-year-old daughter, Alyssa, Berry said.

“I’ve been crying all day,” Berry said. She said she had been looking forward to giving Alyssa a necklace for Christmas.

This is Berry’s fifth stay in jail, this time for unpaid fines. But this is the only Christmas spent behind bars, she said.

“I’m never in here long. But this time has been more emotional. I just want to go home,” Berry said.

Part-time jail employee Bob Mowdy of Bradford said he plans to volunteer some time Wednesday to organize a Bible study and Christmas carol singalong with inmates. Last Wednesday, Mowdy spent hours singing carols with about 40 male and 20 female inmates.

“It was a satisfying evening for me because everyone got a new perspective on how God feels about how they’ve been acting,” Mowdy said.

Cpl. Bill Sinnott said he and his fellow corrections officers are careful to watch for depression during the holiday season, and said he believes every inmate deserves an opportunity to celebrate Christmas.

“Even if everything is as perfect as it can be here, it’s still a miserable existence,” Sinnott said. “Having any kind of normalcy given back to you is huge.”