Doing the right thing

What a day in the laundry room taught me about the importance of integrity 

I was in the laundry room in building 507 one day waiting for my dryer to stop spinning when I heard a strange clinking sound. 

I opened the dryer and on the ledge of the door was a gold band with diamonds. I did not recognize the ring at all. It definitely did not belong to me, so I slipped it onto my finger and continued the dryer cycle. 

Seconds later I heard more distinctive clinking coming from the dryer. 

I opened the door again and took out all of the clothes one single piece at a time. In the drum of the dryer, I discovered a pair of earrings. I put them into my pocket and started the dryer. 

I knew the jewelry did not belong to me, so as a friend of mine came into the laundry room, I presented the jewelry and asked if she knew who it belonged to. She said she knew the potential owner and would hold onto it so the owner could later retrieve it. 

As a new resident to this general population building, I felt this was the best route to go to discover the rightful owner of the missing jewelry. 

Finders keepers, losers weepers is not only a childhood rhyme, it is also a fact of life. Especially here at CCWF: sometimes we misplace our items and they disappear forever only to reappear in someone else’s possession. 

The following day, I locked eyes with an associate of mine and she very seriously asked, “Are you the one that helped me?” I said, “Yeah, that was me. I wasn’t sure who the jewelry belonged to but I wanted to make sure it got back to the right person.” 

She fell into my arms and wept. Crying, “Thank you so much! This kind of thing doesn’t happen in prison.” 

Her emotional reaction surprised me. She had been used to people doing the wrong thing and behaving selfishly that the thought someone would act with integrity was beyond her expectations. 

I told her, “You shouldn’t have expected anything different.” 

Ghandi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Today, there are a lot of people that choose to live a life of integrity.