Back in September 2009, a 20-year-old named Martin emailed about the Teen in Jail blog.Martin was on the run.
Martin was a successful kid – a four-year varsity football player and wrestler on his way to a scholarship to college – when he got involved with the wrong kid who talked him into driving him to do some burglaries.
In March 2008, two weeks after a state wrestling tournament, he got a call that the police were at his house. He was taken to jail. Eventually he was placed on felony probation for six years.
Martin felt like his life was over and that his future was ruined. He walked out on a drug test and a month later, turned himself in when someone promised he would be released the next day. Instead, he was returned to jail for two months with no bond. He was released with two years house arrest and four years probation.
After three months of house arrest, Martin said his probation officer accused him of not looking for a job and told him to bring his stuff in on Monday. Martin told me he always felt he was meant for something and how could he do that if he was in prison? So he took off for South Carolina and had been on the run ever since. Martin wouldn’t tell me where he was.
Martin wrote that he was scared of prison. He wasn’t a big kid, even though he practiced Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). He felt the police would eventually catch up to him. So he researched all the Florida prisons. He found out which ones were horrible (Brevard) and which ones were supposed to be better (Lake City C.I. and Lancaster C.I. – where Ted ended up). He knew almost everything about the Florida prison system – and answered many of my questions at a time when I had no contact with Ted for weeks. We encouraged each other.
Martin was a successful kid – a four-year varsity football player and wrestler on his way to a scholarship to college – when he got involved with the wrong kid who talked him into driving him to do some burglaries.
In March 2008, two weeks after a state wrestling tournament, he got a call that the police were at his house. He was taken to jail. Eventually he was placed on felony probation for six years.
Martin felt like his life was over and that his future was ruined. He walked out on a drug test and a month later, turned himself in when someone promised he would be released the next day. Instead, he was returned to jail for two months with no bond. He was released with two years house arrest and four years probation.
After three months of house arrest, Martin said his probation officer accused him of not looking for a job and told him to bring his stuff in on Monday. Martin told me he always felt he was meant for something and how could he do that if he was in prison? So he took off for South Carolina and had been on the run ever since. Martin wouldn’t tell me where he was.
Martin wrote that he was scared of prison. He wasn’t a big kid, even though he practiced Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). He felt the police would eventually catch up to him. So he researched all the Florida prisons. He found out which ones were horrible (Brevard) and which ones were supposed to be better (Lake City C.I. and Lancaster C.I. – where Ted ended up). He knew almost everything about the Florida prison system – and answered many of my questions at a time when I had no contact with Ted for weeks. We encouraged each other.
On November 18, 2009, Martin was arrested and returned to jail. He’s since been sentenced to 36 months of prison time (with six months off for time served).
Martin asked me back in September if I would start a blog for him if he ended up in prison and I agreed. His blog is called “Notes from Prison” and can be found at http://www.notesfromprison.blogspot.com./
I always felt that Martin and Ted would be friends if they met. It’s possible that they will meet inside prison.
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