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June 18, 2004/Sivan 29 5764, Vol. 56, No.39
Rabbi released from jail
MICHAEL MIKLOFSKY
Staff Writer
After more than three decades under lock-and-key, Rabbi Ernie Michel's doctor is ordering his release from duty in Maricopa County's jails.
But Michel is not an inmate.
He spends about 20 hours per week visiting as many as 30 inmates, acting as a counselor, religious adviser and friend who is "on the outside."
A few days a week, Michel wakes up at 6 a.m., gets in his car and travels from the retirement home that he has lived in for the past two months to south Phoenix where three county jails now stand - Durango, Estrella and Towers - and another two are being built.
He parks his car in an oversized handicapped parking space on the first floor of a parking garage on Lower Buckeye Road, takes his cane out of his car and begins his daily journey.
Michel walks from the garage across the narrow two-lane street and into a back entrance mostly used by food workers.
He's a regular.
He passes by holding cells and greets security with a warm smile.
Michel, 84, goes in and out of housing buildings in 100-plus degree heat, surrounded by barbed wire, high fences and men dressed in black, white and pink.
Once he arrives at the chaplain's office, he reviews the list of requests from inmates. Some ask for kosher or no-pork meals or a prayer book, while other simply want a visit from a familiar face.
Michel received his master's degree in chaplaincy from the International Conference of Police Chaplains and rotates between Durango, Estrella, Madison and Towers weekly, sometimes visiting jail hospital wards, working with local law enforcement to notify families of a death, or visiting other Maricopa County jails in need of a chaplain. At other times, he is on call and may receive phone calls in the middle of the night from jail personnel asking about the diets of prisoners.
On his way from the chaplain's office to visit an inmate, Michel sees a man more than 6 feet tall with short ragged hair, tattoos on his arms and dressed in the regular uniform: a black-and-white striped shirt and pants, pink socks and felt slip-on shoes. Most of the men wear pink plastic sandals.
The man is sweeping a large cement patio with a tall broom. Michel smiles at the man, steps on the end of the broom and says, "stop moving." The man smiles back and laughs.
When Michel finally makes it into one of the housing units, he passes through security again, which arranges a meeting between him and one of the inmates on his list.
The man tells Michel that he has been in jail for two months and hopes to be out by the end of the month. He tells Michel that he is on leave from a position as a bank manager and that while in jail, he is trying to find out more about Jewish culture since his wife is Jewish. Michel gives him a copy of the Jewish News that he carries around in a large see-through plastic bag.
The man says, "I think it's just great that we can put in a request ... you miss your family, you have things you need to get done."
The man meets with Michel to learn more about Jewish culture. "I wanted to be more coherent with the things she does," he says.
After a short meeting, Michel makes his way to a housing unit on the other side of the jail.
Again, a security guard arranges a meeting with an inmate and Michel and the man sit down at a square wooden picnic table.
This man has been at Durango for the past eight months. His case doesn't go to trial until August.
The man asks Michel if he was able to get in touch with the man's family. Michel said that he called the man's family, but the family obviously did not answer.
"They evidently thought you were a bad boy," Michel explains in simple terms. "They want you to straighten up and fly right and when you straighten up and fly right, then they will talk to you."
The man asks Michel, "Can you call them again? Tell them he's made a mistake, but they shouldn't turn their back in his time of trouble."
Michel leaves and the man returns to a communal cell.
"If I get one person and I can sit him down and get him to be good, then I know I have done the biblical thing, 'Save one life and you save the world,'" he says.
In January, Michel had his third heart attack since 1972. He also has arthritis, two bad hips and bad knees, the three arteries leading to his heart are all clogged and his doctor tells him that he is not a good candidate for surgery.
Now, Michel is looking for someone to take his place as a chaplain, to fulfill dietary and religious requests and visit with inmates.
"You have to have faith," Michel says. "I always say what the general said: 'damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.' I'm going to keep on going as long as I can."
For more information on the chaplain position, contact Rabbi Ernie Michel at 480-481-5078 or Chaplain Greg Millard at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office at 602-896-5347.
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