ABC Action News Report about Teen in Jail

In addition to the Pinellas County Jail, Ted also spent part of the last two years in four Florida prisons, a prison work release camp, and a prison work release center.

Teen blogs about his time in jail

By: Jeff Butera
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Ted Braden has a story to tell. It's a story he wants to tell.

His story begins when Ted was 13 years old. It was the first time he was arrested, busted by Clearwater Police for breaking into another house.

The story continued through Ted's teenage years. Those years included drugs and gangs. They ended with Ted being arrested for trafficking MDMA. He was sentennced to two years behind bars.

Ted can tell you the rest of the story. He can tell it because he's already written. While behind bars, Ted blogged about his experience.

His blog, ' Teen in Jail ,' found at www.teeninjail.com , has earned more than 75,000 visitors.

In his blog -- which his mother, Kelly, suggested he write -- Ted talks about how the horror of living behind bars. He calls it "Hell on Earth."

More so, though, he focuses his writing on the slow realization that his bad decisions during his teenage years led him to this horrible place.

He writes about his regret of joining a gang. He talks about the pain of seeing his family watch him go to prison. He tries to understand why he did what he did, and resigns himself to the fact that all he can say is he did what he did "because he could."

But perhaps the most powerful blog post comes when Ted thinks about life outside of jail, with a felony conviction attached to his name.

“Is my life over before it starts? Am I still a U.S. citizen? Where will I work? How can I ever get married and support a family? These are the things I think about every day. There’s plenty of time to think about them,” he writes.

Ted was released from jail earlier this month. He is now working and does not associate with the friends that influenced him into a life of crime.

He has vowed to never go back to jail, and hopes that his blog helps other teenagers do that as well.

Click on video below to see the report.

Teen in Jail on ABC News Now

Teen in Jail ran on ABC News Now, the network's 24-hour cable channel, today. There's a good chance it will also run on World News Now, the early morning news on ABC (runs 2 a.m. - 4 a.m. in most markets).

The link online can be found at:
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9618674

The clip also was aired on ABC World News a few days later.