My 90-Day Friend in Prison

By Grace

We all have friends from different phases of our life. The most memorable are the ones who get to know you the most through your best, or even your worse. The best moments are when all of your friends from every season gather together as one, even if just for a day. But, what if one person could remind you of all of those seasons? What if a dreary season in isolation led into a season of sunny summer days? While summer social hours do not exist in prison, this was my twenty-something version of it. Mia reminded me of touching down in Miami, but she also reminded me of LA. We talked South Beach dreams of dazzling at Art Basel, while catching our mouths watering over spicy tuna at Nobu. We dreamed of getting out of prison then heading straight to pilates, but we acknowledged the strike of anxiety living in us at the same time. She brought me back to a lively piece of home, while reminding me of who I am today. A part of me I lost, but also the lives I took away. Meeting friends in prison is far from easy however, it's not always as foreign and far off as you'd think. Sometimes, you meet people you sleep next to for a long time then wish you never met them at all. Other times, you meet people for a day and wish you had more days. Mia was the latter. After getting to know my new friend Mia, I learned her name wasn't even Mia. I always wanted to have a prison name, but I never quite came off hard enough to go by "G." Mia was fitting. So for prison, and a less complicated name on a Starbucks, it worked. Malakeh in prison was Mia. The first day we met, she was onstage as the winner of the prison poetry contest. I stopped her for her poem to publish in the prison newsletter. After weeks of harboring her for the award-winning piece, we became friends. As a an offender of DUI crime, I learned she was here for the same reasons: a college student arrested for DUI homicide. I knew what it was like. To be young and drive drunk...to be in prison.