CIW

In two days time, we will step through the Gates of California Institute for Women in Chino, where Annika Östberg spent 28 years of her life. We are not allowed to wear denim, anything blue or orange. I feel excited and frightened at the prospect of laying eyes on the place I´ve read so much about, thought so much about, but in all honesty know very little about. Prison, especially the kinds that they have over here, remains a very abstract concept to me; perhaps in the same way that the outside world to someone for a long time on the inside remains just as otherworldly, intriguing and scary at the same time. I know not how I will react. Later today, we drive to Anaheim to meet Robin, a friend of Annikas who is now much engaged in the work of AKA Angels, an woman's civic group supporting women newly released from incarceration. It´s her birthday and we plan to take her to dinner.