Incarceration

At the police station they pulled the car through a garage door - interlock system. Everything gets locked up behind you before they open another door, and there were several very heavy doors with large locks on each before we got to the in-processing station. Once there I sat on a metal bench, still handcuffed, while they entered my life into computers to make sure my life would be miserable for years to come. I was quiet and compliant to all of their questions. At one point I asked if the cuffs are just standard protocol as I was obviously not a threat, they said yes, as I figured. I could imagine if someone was much more drunk than me, or on something else, they could really freak out at this point. They did 2 more breathalyser tests on a much larger machine, both times I blew a consistent .10. The machine printed out a ticket with all my info, calibration records, times, BAC and the officer signed it as this was Evidence Ticket used to incarcerate me and finalize the misdemeanor charge of OWI.

The finger printing process is all digital, basically using a black and white fax scanner. It took a lot of scans, each finger, whole hand and even the pinky side of my hand at which I joked "is this one in case I karate chop something?", they laughed. They used a chart to calculate how long it would take for my BAC to be at a safe limit to be released on my own, which was about 2 and 1/2 hours. They then bagged up everything I had except for pants, shirt and socks and since I didn't have the $100 bond on me they gave me my cell phone so I could arrange for someone to pick me up and post the bond after the waiting period. Then we went through a couple more heavy doors, they handed me a thick cotton blanket and locked me in a holding cell. I was the only one in there and it was a very large room with wood laminate flooring, a stainless toilet and sink in one corner, 20 foot white walls, 4 windows embedded with metal mesh on the entry side, lit like a racquetball court and a single camera up in one corner. I just laid down, head swirling with all that had just happened.

About 4 hours later an officer opened up the door and led me out. I was a little groggy but still with it. Back in the in-processing station there was a young lady that they had brought in sitting on the bench and as soon as we walked in she flopped down on the floor and started crawling around wildly. The officer and I just walked around her but I noticed that she wasn't cuffed and wondered why nobody was restraining her. She was obviously out of her mind on something and who knows she could have crawled over and bit me or something. I got a bag of all my stuff, signed a release and went out to where my ride had been patiently waiting for over an hour and 1/2. We paid the bond of $100 but there was another $20 fee that needed to be paid at the police station in order to release my car, except it was too early and nobody was available to take that payment yet. So we went home, crashed a few hours and then drove back to the police station so we could pay the $20 fee so that we could go find the towing company and pay their $85 fee to actually get my car back.

Costs:

Bond	$100
Vehical Release	$20
Towing	$85
Total	$205