Hollister - For 130 inmates, Christmas does not include decking the halls or roasting chestnuts. It's just another day inside the San Benito County Jail.
This Christmas will be like ever other day except inmates will get to watch some holiday movies and play some board games recently purchased by corrections officers, Sgt. Anthony Barnes said Friday.
And like the inmates, guards also have to spend their holidays in jail. But they do get to go home at night.
"I've been here for the last five years so it's pretty much routine," Barnes said. "I don't think about the holidays when I'm at work."
Barnes won't have to work Christmas day this year, but he will be working Christmas Eve.
"We're here a good part of the year," he said. "It's kind of like being with our jail family."
Family is important in and out of the jail, and is weighing heavy on 18-year-old inmate Israel Mendoza's mind. The only thing Mendoza wants for Christmas is to be with his girlfriend.
"I'd like to be with her - to spend the holidays with her," he said. "She came to visit, but it does get hard sometimes. When she leaves, I feel like leaving with her."
Mendoza, who is incarcerated for a probation violation, wants to be out for Christmas, but he knows that won't happen and isn't expecting anything special.
"I don't really expect nothing," he said. "I'm in here for a reason."
Mendoza and the other inmates won't get a special dinner on Christmas like they do for Thanksgiving, but they will get a few gifts.
"The chaplain will bring some gifts and hold a Bible study," Barnes said. "And they will probably watch 'Miracle on 34th Street.'"
Gifts are likely to include chips, candy, socks and stationary, Barnes said.
"I don't know if it helps," he said. "But it may feel like someone cares enough to give them a little piece of Christmas."
This will be 35-year-old inmate Michael Bautista's second Christmas behind bars and hopefully his last, he said. Although in jail for a probation violation stemming from methamphetamine abuse, Bautista did get a $100 from his mom this year and is hoping for some Christmas cards.
"It kind of gets depressing, you miss your family and your kids," he said. "You're in jail, it's not supposed to be a pleasant experience, but all in all, I guess it could be worse."
But next year will be different, Bautista said.
"No more Christmases in jail," he said. "I will be with my family next Christmas."
And while Christmas day may be a somber one inside the jail's confines, Barnes anticipates a quiet Sunday outside, as well.
"Nobody wants to get high or drunk in front of their grandma," he said. "There are very few arrests on Christmas day."
And while Barnes predicts a light booking schedule, he and the other guards are always prepared, he said.
"Anything can happen at anytime," he said. "We don't have the security of knowing we're going home at night."
Brett Rowland Brett Rowland is city editor for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 332 or browland@freelancenews.com
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