On September 15th 1998. I met one of the inmates in Riker’s. He didn’t deserve to be in Riker’s. What he had done was petty theft. He had stolen a pair of Nike’s from Macy’s in The Bronx . His defense was that he had given him to the homeless man who lived on the street. Later it came out in court that he had tried to buy them for the man but the lady behind the checkout counter had called security on him as soon as he gave her his credit card. He then ran out of the store and delivered the shoes to the homeless man. They had countless witnesses in this man’s favor to corroborate his story, but as it goes jury selection is often not representative of the suspect in question.

His name is De’andre Montgomery but the prison guards call him 5483.

“Alright! 5483 get back in your cell.”

“Alright man I’m going. I still say I’m innocent!”

“There’s a man here to see you. He says he’s a lawyer. I think he’s your boyfriend.” The guard speculated slimily.

“Man shut up. I called him. I got a girlfriend Tenisha just waiting for me back at home.”

“Depends how long you’re in here for.”

De’andre Montgomery trudged up the long staircase leading to his tiny cell.

“Hey man you made it.” De’andre Montgomery slapped me five.

“I came as soon as you called. Deandre I think you’re a heck of a guy and I think you were just trying to do the right thing.”

“I was man, I was just trying to give my fellow man on the streets some shoes. There’s glass and shit on the street in the Bronx man. Broken glass every where people pissing in the streets you know they just don’t care.”Deandre Montgomery could have had a successful career in rap if the guards in Riker’s were at all merciful. I had met him seven other times and he had rapped while we were talking about what his defense was going to be.

Back to the main point of my story because all of what he could’ve been was trivial.

The fact was he was in Riker’s and he was going to be until I could get him acquitted. The year was 2001. He had been in prison for 3 years.

“George, I seen some shit since I been in here. I overheard the guards talking about Y2K a few years back. They said they didn’t know how the computers were gonna update when the year turned 2000. They said the world was gonna end George. I was freaking out.”

“That sounds very traumatic. We only have five minutes left. So I would like to over our defense on what happened and your motives behind stealing the shoes.”

I noticed the guards were pointing to their watches holding up 5 fingers. In prison speak this was code.

“I told you man. I’m comfortable serving my sentence for stealing the Nike’s.”