Another Friday brought visiting day, something that Demi usually dreaded, but with Trey taking her mind off of work every day, she entered the jail in an optimistic state. They still had yet to hear from the judge about a mistrial but Demi felt like they were going to get one. How could they not? This case was the textbook definition of self defense yet that wasn't what the defense had argued.
"Demetria Lovato," Demi said as she signed into the log then flashed the warden her ID. "I'm here to see Kayla Ruffin."
"She can't have visitors right now," the warden huffed, causing Demi to drop the pen that she was holding and narrow her eyes at him.
"Why not?"
"She's in the infirmary," he answered, as if he didn't care at all, which he probably didn't.
"How did she get in the infirmary? You know what? I have had it with you people. That little girl is 13 years old. Now unless you want me to call the DA who is my very close friend who just happens to be friends with the man who owns this damn prison, you are going to let me see her now," Demi demanded.
She could be ruthless when she wanted to but she tried to save that for the courtroom. However, she was fed up with this entire system. Did they not realize that they were holding the life of a 13 year old girl in their hands? Obviously not because they were being incredibly reckless with it. And the problem was, they didn't see any of these prisoners as people. They didn't see them as humans. They saw them as locked up animals that they could treat however they pleased. And Demi was so over it.
After a lengthy phone call, he guided her through the metal detector then personally led her to the infirmary. She was pretty sure he didn't give her the usual pat down because of the way that she had been glaring at him.
The infirmary didn't even look like an infirmary. Hospitals were supposed to be clean and neat but this one definitely didn't pass any protocol to even qualify as a place to treat the ill. But this was a jail so of course it didn't matter.
The beds were separated by hanging sheets, and Kayla was all the way at the end. Demi shot the warden one more look before he left the two of them alone.
Once again, Kayla was all bruised up. Her hair had been pulled out of her head in displaced clumps and her lips were so swollen it looked like she had experienced some kind of allergic reaction. One of her eyes were swelled shut and the other just had painful looking bruising around it. Demi sucked in a deep breath as she sat at the edge of Kayla's bed and placed her warm hand over her freezing cold one. It wasn't like she had an IV or anything. She was just laying there, covered in bruises.
"Kayla, what happened?" Correction officers often forged paperwork when they didn't want to file the proper police work after an inmate had been injured. Demi was going to ask for the paperwork before she left but she wanted to hear what had happened out of Kayla's mouth, not some corrupt officer.
"We were in the day room waiting for lunch time. All I did was sit down but I guess I made them mad because one of the girls yanked me off of the table and then they all just started beating me. And I know one of the officers saw because they had been standing there right before it happened. Then they put me in solitary but-"
Throughout her entire story, Kayla hadn't shed a tear. But her voice broke as her bottom lip started to tremble and Demi knew exactly what had happened. She wasn't putting up with this anymore. She was going to contact a judge today and they were going to take the case whether they liked it or not. Demi had seen this happen too many times, and she wasn't about to let it happen again. The "justice system" wasn't about to destroy Kayla.
"Okay. You know I normally say that it's okay, but it's not. I'm going to fix this for you, okay? Do you need anything?" Demi questioned as she rubbed Kayla's arm.
