The transition from being a defendant in a courtroom to becoming incarcerated in the McPherson County jail was undramatic. It wasn’t like the movies, where there is screaming or crying; the sheriff simply put the handcuffs on Padre’s wrists and led him to the jail. The problem was that there had been a spate of criminal activity and McPherson County was not prepared for the influx of prisoners. The jail was overcrowded at 140 percent capacity and all of the beds were taken. When Fr. Early was shown to his cell the guard merely pointed to the mattress on the floor. The only concession that the county gave him for his own personal comfort was a pillow and a blanket. To make matters worse, the heating and air conditioning barely worked and the inmates liked to tell stories about how they put a glass of water near the ceiling during the winter and the water froze. Still, the citizens of McPherson County were genuinely unsympathetic towards the inmates of their jail and the complaints from prisoners were largely ignored.
The ordeal of the trial was over and now Fr. Early had to settle into his new reality. At first he slept a lot. Laying on his mattress on the floor with his blanket pulled over his head was better than having to look at the inside of his cell. The only people that he would talk to were the guards and even then it was only when necessary. Fr. Early resented the guards for their arbitrary enforcement of the rules and for making a tough situation even harder by having a forced lock down. If someone in one cell does something wrong then the whole cell block goes on lockdown. It didn’t make any sense and was patently unfair but the jail was understaffed and a forced lock down was an easy way to solve a difficult situation.
The guards mostly left Fr. Early alone but the old priest got a lot of unwanted attention from his fellow inmates. There were some truly bad men in jail and they would like nothing better than to take out their anger and misery on a pedophile priest. Fr. Early became an easy target and he was beaten up several times for something as simple as refusing to give up his lunch money. Once again, the guards could have intervened on Fr. Early’s behalf but they were overburdened as it was so they found it easier to look the other way. And besides, no one on the outside was going to care that an inmate had a black eye or some bruises, especially a priest who had been convicted of pedophilia.
Fr. Early still had his religion but little else. He had the time in jail to take stock of his current situation. Banshee had died years ago so Padre didn’t have to worry about anyone having to take care of his dog. If he ever got out then he swore that he would buy another one. He had lost teaching job, his part time work at the parish, and Camp Van Dorn had closed down. So Fr. Early clung to his religion and found comfort in “The Book of Job” where God had tested a man’s faith by making him penniless and taking away his family and all material comforts. There were a lot of parallels.
Fr. Early has to wait for months at the McPherson County jail before being transferred to prison because they had to find a bed for him. The closest facility was Riverbend in Nashville but it is one of the toughest prisons in the system so Fr. Early petitioned to go to the federal correctional institute in Memphis. The problem with taking the safe path was that Memphis was too far away for people to visit so Padre rarely saw people from the outside. However, once he was transferred to prison, life became a lot better for Fr. Early. He had a permanent cell with a permanent cell mate and he had his own bed which was not on the floor. When he was in jail he was in constant fear of being beaten up and having his personal items stolen from him. That rarely happened in prison because the inmates knew that they were going to spend years, if not decades, with the other men and they did not want to soil the nest. There were some nuisances, like each man was only allowed one potato per meal because the guards were afraid that the prisoners would make vodka out of it, but that was a minor inconvenience compared with what Fr. Early had to put up with in jail.
Meanwhile, another former camper had come forward to accuse Fr. Early of sexual abuse. Instead of enduring another trail, the priest agreed to an Alford plea where he accepted an additional sentence of five years rather than risk a trial where he could face a maximum sentence of twenty years. With the Alford plea, Fr. Early could maintain his innocence but it also guaranteed that he would spend the rest of his life in prison. That was fine with the old priest because, even if he were free. he had absolutely nothing in Knoxville waiting for him.
Considering the circumstances, it would be understandable for the priest to give up on religion. In fact, not only did Fr. Early not turn his back on his religion, he used his time in prison to deepen his faith. Just like when he was a teacher and the camp director, Fr. Early started his day in prayer. He volunteered to work in the chapel and would eventually take over when the former leader died. Old Jube was his nickname in prison. No one seemed to know his real name and no one called him Father Early or even Padre. He was just Old Jube. And like “The Book of Job,” Fr. Early had his faith tested and was proud of the fact that his relationship with his Lord and Savior had become even stronger. In quiet moments when he had time to think, Fr. Early liked to recite 2 Timothy 4: 7-8. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept my faith. Henceforth there is laid upon me a crown of righteousness…”
As the years went by the old priest became even more humble. He had been shorn of all authority. It was as though he had never been a teacher or the camp director; those days had passed and he preferred not to think about them at all. His whole past had evaporated and even the infrequent visits by the church ladies ended. To a casual observer, his personality seemed to have bleached out to the point where there was nothing left. Actually, Fr. Early was working on inner peace by, in addition to reading the Bible, studying Buddhism and Taoism. To live like the Buddha was to live a life without desire. Taoism encouraged Fr. Early to give up on his ego and to live in the present. Fr. Early believed that by studying other religions he could add some depth to his faith. He had become a wraith, living somewhere between before and after death; forgotten but still alive. In retrospect, Fr. Early had spent his whole life trying to obtain this moment in time, this feeling of peace, and now that he had it only the grave would make him let it go
