Prisons Foundation: Dennis Sobin's "Letter From Jail #1"

Dennis Sobin's "Letter from Jail #1" November 2008 Dear Friends, Well, here I am back in jail. Again put here by my adult lawyer son and sister in an effort to silence me. The discord between us began in 2001 when my mother died. She was to leave a substantial part of her large fortune to the Prisons Foundation, a non-profit arts advocacy group which I had recently co-founded. The arraignment was to be handled by my attorney son with my sister's involvement and cooperation. A substantial share was also to go to each of them.In the end they got greedy and wanted it all; so they cut me and Prisons Foundation out. Over the years I have tried to find answers as to how such a thing could happen. My mother and I were close. She, a retired union organizer and former public school principal, was very supportive of the then infant Prisons Foundation. My son and sister reacted to my inquiries about the inheritance by getting repeated stay-away orders against me. This is the third time I've been charged with violating them. Previous stays in jail for such violations ranged from ten days to three months. This time the sentence has been harsher due to the influence and contacts my son and sister have. Due to their money and ambition, they have both risen to positions of power over the years. My sister Judy Sobin is a regional director of the United Way in Salt Lake City. My son Dennis Sobin is a D.C. assistant Attorney General working at City Hall here in Washington. The previous violation that my son had me prosecuted and jailed for was my attempt to resolve our differences by talking to his attorney. My sister put me in the slammer when I sent her an email on her birthday; sincerely wishing her happy returns and expressing hope that we could settle our "misunderstandings." I had forgotten that in Utah a stay-away order last three years, not one year as in Washington D.C. Meanwhile, my son has his stay-away order against me renewed year after year. This year he really lowered the boom when he learned that I was to testify at City Hall on behalf of the Prisons Foundation. He charged me with three violations for going or attempting to go to City Hall to give such testimony. That's why I am in jail now. The judge agreed with my son that the stay-away order called for me to keep away from his "place of work," and that City Hall was just that. My fine lawyer James Butler's impassioned argument that Darrin's "place of work" was in fact an office in City Hall that I had scrupulously avoided, that I came and left without incident, and that I never saw my son or attempted to see him, fell on unresponsive ears. The verdict of guilty on two counts hit me so badly both as a father and as a citizen that I collapsed, falling onto the defense table, and then taken to jail in an ambulance with a stop along the way at an area hospital that tested me and diagnosed me as having an anxiety attack. When I told my doctor and my nurses what had happened, they nearly fainted too. Now I'm sitting on a bunk in my jail cell, wearing my orange jumpsuit and writing several "Sobin's Letter's from the Jail" communiqués. I was sentenced to six months in jail, a half year. Given my son and sister's influence, coupled with their strong motivation to bury me even before my death, I expected it to be more severe. I will use my time to read and write books and work on my music. Of the two books I intend to write, one will be called Mentoring to Artists in Prison. It will be used in workshops to train mentors for imprisoned artists conducted by the Prisons Foundation (a program supported by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanity). If you care to help me I can use some blank paper. Please send me some loose sheets (up to 50) and I'll share any excess with other inmates (my roommate Michael is 18 and likes to write too). Also, I would appreciate a book or two. Any books sent to this institution must be paperback and sent directly by a bookseller (like Amazon.com). My favorite reading is American history, novelized or not, and music; particularly biographies of composers and songwriters, sheet music and song collections. I also ask that you support the Prison Art Gallery located at 1600 K Street NW, Suite 501, Washington, D.C. 20006. Telephone: 202-393-1511. It's currently being most ably run by Donovan Berry, Kevin Horrocks, Anita Winston and Jahi Foster-Bey. Except for Anita, the entire staff has all been to prison, and Anita is on her way there (to visit her son). Thank you deeply for your support. Yours for Justice, Dennis Sobin #206757 Central Detention Facility 1901 D Street S.E. Washington, D.C. 20003 *Note the views in this letter are those of the author alone. Please send your comments directly to him.