Odiesmom
02-13-2003, 04:27 PM
December 30, 2002
Parents of inmate make any sacrifice in order to visit son
By LORI DUNN
Texarkana Gazette
Carla Thornberg opens the most recent letter from her son Odie-quickly scans it for bad news-and breathes a little easier when she learns he is doing about as well as can be expected.
Communicating with her son is something she does not take for granted anymore. 25-year-old Odie is an inmate in the Texas prison system but his relationship with his mother is better than it has ever been.
"His spirits are better than mine. I just got a letter from him today and he was positive. He's making the most of it," she said.
Odie may be behind bars, but at least he is free of the drugs that were holding him prisoner long before the criminal justice system was.
"He got on meth and he had gotten to the point where he was not hiding it. He was emaciated. He's 6 foot 2 and he weighed maybe 132 pounds. His hair was gray. My son was killing himself," said Carla Thornberg, of the DeKalb, Texas, area.
"If he wasn't in jail now, I would have buried him ... there's no two ways about it," she said.
According to his mother, Odie began "dabbling in drugs and guns" when he was 17.
Carla Thornberg and her husband, Tom, Odie's stepfather, tried reasoning with the teen and it didn't work. They tried laying down the law about what they would tolerate but that didn't work either.
Odie was eventually arrested on a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
The charge was filed by his mother and stepfather to get him off the streets.
He is now serving two consecutive sentences-two years for the Bowie County crime and five years for a burglary charge out of Red River County.
That's not too bad considering at first there was talk of Odie getting a sentence that would run anywhere from 40 to 99 years. "I just fell to pieces. I was in shock" Carla Thornberg said.
Odie entered the prison system in November 2001 and ever since then, no matter where he was being held, Carla Thornberg has traveled to see her son as often as possible.
Odie is currently housed at the Dawson State Jail in Dallas.
He will more than likely be transferred twice more before he is released.
Carla Thornberg has never even considered not visiting, even though she describes herself as "worn out" from the frequent trips. The cost of making the trips has also started to add up. Besides buying gasoline, there are things Odie needs from the commissary.
"They charge you for aspirin in prison," Tom Thornberg said.
Money is tight since Tom Thornberg is on disability and Carla is a full-time homemaker.
But neither money or miles will keep Odie's mother from visiting him as often as she can.
"You have to keep his spirits up. We try to go twice a month because we're the only ones who visit him. ..a lot of relatives have turned their backs on him," she said.
"Even if they move him,I'll go see him until the day I get to go pick him up," she said.
Since his incarceration, Odie has joined a volunteer substance abuse program at the prison and has sworn off drugs, his mother said.
"He's pretty well got himself straightened out," his mother said.
However, Odie has told his parents there are all types of drugs in the prison system and that scares him.
"He smells marijuana and he covers his head up. He doesn't want to smell it," Thornberg said.
Odie is interested in continuing his education when he gets out of prison and his mother sends him books.
"He needs to learn something besides meth formulas," Tom Thornberg said.
Odie graduated from high school and made good grades while he was there, his mother said. "He's intelligent, he just did some stupid things," she said.
Odie has no relationship with his biological father and has practically no contact with any other relatives outside of his mother, stepfather and sisters.
As a result of her son's incarceration, Carla Thornberg is also estranged from most of her family except for her husband and the six adult children they have between them.
She said even though she has relatives living right down the road, she and her husband live a quiet life and mainly stay to themselves.
Carla Thornberg spends a lot of time on the website prisontalk.com. She finds answers there for the many questions she has about the Texas prison system and she also finds support from others who have loved ones in prison.
However, she credits her husband for providing the most emotional support for her while Odie is in prison.
She said the first few weeks he was in was the hardest time for her.
"I was pretty much devastated when he went in but then it seemed he was able to handle it. He gets along with everybody and he's been able to hold his own," she said. "He's resigned himself. He said he deserves the time he got. In fact he thinks the judge was lenient. But he worries about the violence (in prison). You can get yourself killed by looking at somebody wrong."
Their visits take place in a recreation room. Visitors are searched when they enter and there is a strict dress code. During summer months, women cannot wear shorts, sleeveless blouses or V-necks. Gifts for the inmate cannot be taken in but family members can order items and have them sent to the inmate.
Physical contact is limited but family members can give the inmate one hug per visit.
"We can hug when I first get there but other than that we can just hold hands," Carla Thornberg said.
Each visit is two hours long.
"(Visitation) works real smoothly for me but I would like the visits to be longer. Two hours goes real fast when it takes three hours to get there," she said.
However, she knows that with all the overcrowding in the prison system, changes in the length of visits may be a long time coming.
Overall, Carla Thornberg believes Odie's time in prison has brought them closer together. The distance between them was when he was strung out on drugs.
Now when she visits, they spend those much-anticipated two hours communicating. They talk about their week and Odie's plans for the future.
"He'll ask about the family, he talks about his schooling," she said. "He says "I know I won't be in here forever."
Until then, she waits, knowing that they are both doing about as well as can be expected.
Parents of inmate make any sacrifice in order to visit son
By LORI DUNN
Texarkana Gazette
Carla Thornberg opens the most recent letter from her son Odie-quickly scans it for bad news-and breathes a little easier when she learns he is doing about as well as can be expected.
Communicating with her son is something she does not take for granted anymore. 25-year-old Odie is an inmate in the Texas prison system but his relationship with his mother is better than it has ever been.
"His spirits are better than mine. I just got a letter from him today and he was positive. He's making the most of it," she said.
Odie may be behind bars, but at least he is free of the drugs that were holding him prisoner long before the criminal justice system was.
"He got on meth and he had gotten to the point where he was not hiding it. He was emaciated. He's 6 foot 2 and he weighed maybe 132 pounds. His hair was gray. My son was killing himself," said Carla Thornberg, of the DeKalb, Texas, area.
"If he wasn't in jail now, I would have buried him ... there's no two ways about it," she said.
According to his mother, Odie began "dabbling in drugs and guns" when he was 17.
Carla Thornberg and her husband, Tom, Odie's stepfather, tried reasoning with the teen and it didn't work. They tried laying down the law about what they would tolerate but that didn't work either.
Odie was eventually arrested on a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
The charge was filed by his mother and stepfather to get him off the streets.
He is now serving two consecutive sentences-two years for the Bowie County crime and five years for a burglary charge out of Red River County.
That's not too bad considering at first there was talk of Odie getting a sentence that would run anywhere from 40 to 99 years. "I just fell to pieces. I was in shock" Carla Thornberg said.
Odie entered the prison system in November 2001 and ever since then, no matter where he was being held, Carla Thornberg has traveled to see her son as often as possible.
Odie is currently housed at the Dawson State Jail in Dallas.
He will more than likely be transferred twice more before he is released.
Carla Thornberg has never even considered not visiting, even though she describes herself as "worn out" from the frequent trips. The cost of making the trips has also started to add up. Besides buying gasoline, there are things Odie needs from the commissary.
"They charge you for aspirin in prison," Tom Thornberg said.
Money is tight since Tom Thornberg is on disability and Carla is a full-time homemaker.
But neither money or miles will keep Odie's mother from visiting him as often as she can.
"You have to keep his spirits up. We try to go twice a month because we're the only ones who visit him. ..a lot of relatives have turned their backs on him," she said.
"Even if they move him,I'll go see him until the day I get to go pick him up," she said.
Since his incarceration, Odie has joined a volunteer substance abuse program at the prison and has sworn off drugs, his mother said.
"He's pretty well got himself straightened out," his mother said.
However, Odie has told his parents there are all types of drugs in the prison system and that scares him.
"He smells marijuana and he covers his head up. He doesn't want to smell it," Thornberg said.
Odie is interested in continuing his education when he gets out of prison and his mother sends him books.
"He needs to learn something besides meth formulas," Tom Thornberg said.
Odie graduated from high school and made good grades while he was there, his mother said. "He's intelligent, he just did some stupid things," she said.
Odie has no relationship with his biological father and has practically no contact with any other relatives outside of his mother, stepfather and sisters.
As a result of her son's incarceration, Carla Thornberg is also estranged from most of her family except for her husband and the six adult children they have between them.
She said even though she has relatives living right down the road, she and her husband live a quiet life and mainly stay to themselves.
Carla Thornberg spends a lot of time on the website prisontalk.com. She finds answers there for the many questions she has about the Texas prison system and she also finds support from others who have loved ones in prison.
However, she credits her husband for providing the most emotional support for her while Odie is in prison.
She said the first few weeks he was in was the hardest time for her.
"I was pretty much devastated when he went in but then it seemed he was able to handle it. He gets along with everybody and he's been able to hold his own," she said. "He's resigned himself. He said he deserves the time he got. In fact he thinks the judge was lenient. But he worries about the violence (in prison). You can get yourself killed by looking at somebody wrong."
Their visits take place in a recreation room. Visitors are searched when they enter and there is a strict dress code. During summer months, women cannot wear shorts, sleeveless blouses or V-necks. Gifts for the inmate cannot be taken in but family members can order items and have them sent to the inmate.
Physical contact is limited but family members can give the inmate one hug per visit.
"We can hug when I first get there but other than that we can just hold hands," Carla Thornberg said.
Each visit is two hours long.
"(Visitation) works real smoothly for me but I would like the visits to be longer. Two hours goes real fast when it takes three hours to get there," she said.
However, she knows that with all the overcrowding in the prison system, changes in the length of visits may be a long time coming.
Overall, Carla Thornberg believes Odie's time in prison has brought them closer together. The distance between them was when he was strung out on drugs.
Now when she visits, they spend those much-anticipated two hours communicating. They talk about their week and Odie's plans for the future.
"He'll ask about the family, he talks about his schooling," she said. "He says "I know I won't be in here forever."
Until then, she waits, knowing that they are both doing about as well as can be expected.