October update on Ted Braden (Teen in Jail)

Ted was released from the Largo Residential Reentry Center on August 13, 2010.

Since that time, he has been doing quite well. He went to get a one-time shot to stop smoking on August 26, 2010. (For further information, visit www.stopsmokingamerica.com. It is located in Tampa.) The one-time shot and follow up one-week anti-anxiety medication cost $462, but it was well worth it. According to the iPhone app “Quit It,” he has been smoke-free for one month and 26 days. He’s saved $342.47 by NOT smoking 1,142 cigarettes in that time (at one pack a day).

He also had oral surgery on his wisdom tooth at a discount dental center run by the University of Florida in St. Petersburg. Ted could have had this done for free in prison, but he would have had to leave the work release center to go back to a “real” prison to have the dental work done and it might’ve taken weeks for him to get back to the Center - if at all. The tooth was cut out by a dentist for $342. It would have cost upwards of $750 or more with an oral surgeon. His face was swollen for days.

Ted did go on a trip with me for six days during the Labor Day holiday. One day, he and I just decided to get in the car and drive! We traveled through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Lousiana and back to Florida. (More on that trip later.)

Ted was paid $300 by his former job at Discount Energy as a settlement. He was owed upward of $750. Ted wrote a blog entry about his dealings with Discount Energy which I will be posting soon.

One person left a comment that Ted had been re-arrested for possession of marijuana and probation violation. This is not the case.

First of all, Ted was not put on probation after his prison sentence. Secondly, Ted has studiously avoided contact with all of his former “friends,” all of whom have no clue where he is living. Ted is living with another family (out of the old neighborhood) and babysits a two-year girl for eight hours a day, five days a week. He is surprisingly very good with children. He is not taking drugs of any kind and not smoking.

Ted does not currently have a computer where he is living. We are working to remedy that. One blog reader was looking into getting him a laptop. Ted is also not sure what to write on the Teen in Jail blog now. He says it was a blog about jail and prison, and since he is no longer in either, is not sure where to take it from here. We’ve discussed starting some other type of web site, but haven’t hit upon the perfect idea yet. Any suggestions of a new site would be welcomed. You can still send emails to teeninjail@yahoo.com.

Photo: Ted smiling (finally!) at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans on September 4, 2010.