Senior Class - Week 28. Behind Bars

Constance Boldini, 77, entered the prison system on May 14, 2009, and is eligible for parole March 14, 2013. She is the oldest female inmate currently in the state. Until then, her new home is made of cinderblock, metal and concrete.

In addition to her name, she is known by the ID number 82868. The surroundings are considerably different from her laid-back country lifestyle in Hancock, where she used to garden and raise chickens.

Boldini was convicted of criminal solicitation for second-degree murder. Her sentence was 4½ to 15 years behind bars. Boldini claims the courts have listed the charge incorrectly. She said she is guilty of the lesser crime of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and she is appealing her conviction. The only bits of information Boldini cared to talk about was that her grandson was in danger from his mother and so she and her son tried to “put her away.” Her son is also serving time in Concord for the same crime.

“Both me and my son and I are not troublesome people,” Boldini said, adding later, “I think I would have been better off going to trial than doing a plea bargain.”

She lived a “pretty regular life,” she was a red hatter, received an associate’s degree in business, is a mother of four, grandmother and great-grandmother. She went to church and worked part time. But things turned to the point of breakdown, and that breakdown brought her to her new life, a regimented one that begins at 6 a.m. each day. To pass the time, she’s helped acclimate kittens to new homes, plays cards, helps with daily prison chores, walks in the yard when her knee isn’t bothering her and keeps in touch with family.

“The hardest part is being separated from family, friends and home,” Boldini said. “(When I get out) I just want to be a regular grandmother.”

Boldini admits she’s learned a great lesson.

“I thought I had learned,” Boldini said. “But of course, every time you think you’ve learned something, something happens to show you that you haven’t learned the half of it. And I think that’s this thing called patience, it’s like that. I’ve often thought through life that I have learned patience so good that I would never lose it, yet here I am learning it again and working with it.”