Logistics Intermesh Failures: Powers of Attorney, Prison Edition

Well, folks. Today, I grind my gears on the insane difficulty level in getting paperwork done behind the fences.

With the love and support of my circle sphere of care, I am just managing to survive prison whilst my remaining real world assets sit, falling apart because of a piece of logistics paper needed.

It's called a Durable Power of Attorney.

When I arrived in prison at the end of '22, I poked my network of those who care about and for me, telling them what led to my situation. They mounted up and rode with me, letting me know I have support, for which I am thankful.

Because this situation and its needs were very new to me, one person suggested I have a Durable Power of Attorney written, enabling members of my sphere to conduct actions as my proxy when actions are needed, such as contacting my financial institutions, my mobile services provider, or the Oregon DMV.

In Florida Prison...

When I arrived in Hell at the Reception Center in Orlando, I had to learn the ways of Cloud Cuckoo Land+. To access almost anything in prison, you must write and send a DC6-236, Inmate Request, wait for the approving or denying reply, then go when and where you are told to go if approved and the compound or your dorm are not on lockdown. Failure to appear can result in a Disciplinary Report ('DR'), if no technical reason for the failure is provided.

I wrote a request to access what we call the Law Library, got approved several days later to come days beyond that, and after they managed to clear a daytime count, went there.

Law Library?

Yes, we have to request between the General Library, which typically has a petite, poorly maintained selection of books (often donated by inmates themselves, by choice or by "You have too many books in your locker." force), or the Law Library, where if you need (dubious) Legal Information, or access to (poorly photocopied) Inmate Request or Administrative Remedy (grievance) forms, inmate assistants are tasked with helping.

I learned a thing:

"Oh, no, we don't print anything for you," I learned. "Why didn't you bring paper or pen? Here." I had to hand write a power of attorney in the Law Library in the limited window of time I had.

Yes, hand write a legal document from a template last updated in the early 1990s. So special and nice!

Anachronism Alert!

Hey, reader. At the time of this post, it's the year 2024.
I have this tablet; the world has computers. Surely, someone, somewhere out there has made a program that collects some of the most commonly needed documents a person may need to have written in their life, and made it as easy as tapping on an icon or three, filling in blanks, and requesting a print job.

Instead, friends and readers, I was treated to a book from the early 1990s, from which I handwrote several pages of content. I took my writing back to the dorm, found my paper, and proceeded to rewrite the whole thing as neatly as I could manage.

Legibility?

For the longest time, I just let the computer handle my legibility needs; that's what the various fonts were for. My handwriting is lousy at best, in my eyes. Prison forces people to write a lot by hand, which is kind of a fading art, I will admit.
However at the same time, our standards in the free world have moved forward: we expect legal documents to be typeset, printed from a computer, with no errors in the document that have been crossed out, and so on.

More difficulties abound.

Remember that quip about dubious legal information from earlier?
Yes, it is just that.
I did all that handwriting of a POA, was told I could get it notarized at Legal Mail, one of the few places we can go without a callout (to avoid allegations of the facility hindering access to the courts, I surmise), and mail it there.

I do all of this, mailing the POA out west to a member of my sphere.
That member was able to sell my old car with it (though the state of Florida sure made things hard by intentionally bungling the handling of another legal document), but when they tried to contact my financial institution, that went south:
Apparently for the credit union to honor my Power of Attorney, it must have two witness signatures.

At the Legal Mail window in Central Florida, and in the Law Library, where I initially asked for help, no-one bothered to mention this. The POA I copied all my text from neglects this, perhaps because it isn't up to date on legal changes.

This month's headache:

So now that I'm at (Blessington), I now get to redo the request for assistance with a Power of Attorney, possibly have to hand write a whole new one, invalidate the previous one at the same time, and find a way to get witnesses for the signature as well.

What I Wish For

Hahaha, there are many things on the wishlist. I'll keep it short, though:

Paralegal training is one -- the more educated we are, the better we can understand the quagmire that is the Florida rework of the legal system.
It also would further the capabilities of Law Library inmates if they were wanting to actually be helpful and useful in their role.

Access to legal documents and options to print them as necessary would be great -- not everyone has writing that looks like a computer with professionally designed fonts.

That's a wrap!

At this point, all I can do is wait for mail to return, hope for a callout, and limber up my writing hand.

Let's gooooooo!
- J!