Teen in Jail: arrest

Showing posts with label arrest. Show all posts

Friday, July 30, 2010

Best of Teen in Jail

Friday, July 23, 2010

When I look back on the last two years, I can’t believe so much has happened.

Since before I got arrested, I knew I was headed toward a brick wall. I just didn’t care.

Now two years later, I’d like to think this whole experience made me a little wiser. Now I see the potential in my life. I know how to use my past to better my future.

Sure it’s not going to be easy now that I’m a convicted felon. Plus when I get out of this place, I’ll have to start all over again. As long as I stay focused for the first few months of getting out of prison, I should have some money saved up so I can get my license back. After that, it’ll get a little easier.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Teen in Jail - one year later

Ted began writing the Teen in Jail blog on July 14, 2009 while he was incarcerated in the Pinellas County Jail in Clearwater, Florida. He had been arrested for drug trafficking on October 30, 2008.

Ted was subsequently convicted of drug sales of MDMA (Ecstasy). Ted had gone ahead to see if the coast was clear for a drug dealer when he was apprehended by waiting police. In exchange for him casing the scene, he was to be paid $150. The 50 pills the drug dealer was selling did not contain pure Ecstasy – some were “dummies,” otherwise Ted probably would have received more time – even though he did not have any of the pills in his own possession.

Three prior charges from previous arrests were incorporated into Ted’s sentencing – possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana and criminal mischief. He was facing 25 – 30 years of prison, so he chose to plead guilty in return for a 2-year prison term.

Two months later on December 19, 2008, the drug dealer (that Ted had cased the scene for) was also arrested for the same MDMA trafficking incident on October 30th and posted bail. The dealer was again arrested on October 5, 2009 for multiple charges of possession and sales of Oxycodone and Diazepam. Almost a month later, the dealer was again arrested for trafficking MDMA and is now serving time at RMC Work Camp. The dealer is due to be released on May 30, 2013. He received a 3 years, 9 months sentence for 12 charges, including possession and sales of Methamphetamine, marijuana and other various controlled substances.

The Teen in Jail blog chronicles Ted’s two-year incarceration in jail and various Florida prisons, a work camp and a prison reentry center – Pinellas County Jail in Clearwater, the Reception and Medical Center (RMC) in Lake Butler, the Central Florida Reception Center (CFRC) in Orlando, Brevard Correctional Institution in Cocoa, Lancaster Correctional Institution and Lancaster Work Camp in Trenton, and the Largo Residential Reentry Center in Clearwater. Ted’s current release date is August 13, 2010 – less than a month from now. This release date reflects gain time for good behavior.

Ted started the Teen in Jail blog to let people know what it’s like behind bars and to keep other kids from making the same mistakes.

Ted was not allowed to write about many incidents and people (correctional officers and other inmates) during his two-year incarceration, so he plans on finding a literary agent to possibly publish his full story in a book.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Martin

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.

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.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Why I got into trouble

For some reason, my mom is convinced that she is somehow responsible for my behavior and bad choices I’ve made in the past.

Sure, maybe she spoiled me too much, but that’s not the reason I joined a gang or started using drugs. My mom did everything she could to keep me out of trouble and provided everything I needed to succeed, but it was my decisions that led me to where I am today.

So then what caused you to make poor decisions, join a gang and do drugs, you might ask? Well, I’ve though a lot about it and I’ve come to this conclusion: Every kid at a certain age goes through a stage where he/she doesn’t want to listen to his parents. Kids are in too much of a rush to grow up. Depending on the group of friends they have and what type of atmosphere they’re exposed to will play a big part in who they become.

Also it’s a very good idea for them to have hobbies or some kind of activity that they enjoy to help fill up their free time. That was one thing I never had. I didn’t play many sports, play an instrument, go paintballing or anything else. I had way too much free time and freedom. I was in such a rush to grow up that I wanted to do what I saw all the older kids doing. They drank, smoked cigarettes and weed, and did pretty much whatever they wanted to do without their parents telling them what to do. Eventually I started doing what they did and it made me feel more adult-like. After awhile, I stopped going to school and missed any and all opportunities that came with it. I wasn’t playing sports, I wasn’t doing chores, I really didn’t do anything. I wasn’t doing anything I was supposed to.

All I wanted to do was get high and hang out with my friends. Nothing else mattered. Well today I’m paying for all that. If I could go back and change things I would, but since I can’t, I’m trying to make the best of it.

My advice to any parents who are willing to listen is simply this – and you’ve probably heard it all before, but it couldn’t be more true. Don’t let your children get to the point where you can’t control them. Set firm rules and you can’t under any circumstances let them break those rules without punishing them. It’s up to you how you punish them, but don’t go easy, but don’t be too cruel either. Let them know you mean business. For those parents whose kids are already getting out of control, all I can tell you is make sure they get what they deserve. Let their punishment fit the crime and hopefully they’ll realize it’s not worth the trouble. If that means they have to spend a few weeks in the JDC (Juvenile Department of Corrections), then so be it. Some people just have to learn the hard way. Look at me.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Car search

This entry was written back in August when Ted was still in the Pinellas County Jail.

One night as I was driving to work, I was pulled over for having a headlight out.

Anyway, the cop ran my license and everything checked out okay. When he gave me back my license, he asked me if I had anything illegal in the car. I told him no – even though I did.

He asked me if he could search my car and again I told him no.

Then he told me to step out of the car because he was going to search my car anyway. Those were his exact words.

Even though he had no right to search my car, I was still wrong ‘cause I shouldn’t have had weed in my car.

Naturally, I was arrested and taken to jail.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Just my luck

When I was 15 years old, I was waiting outside a gas station for a friend to pick me up. The neighborhood that I was in was a known drug area and I was the only white person around.

On this particular night, I had nothing illegal on me and I wasn’t doing anything wrong.

While I was waiting, I saw a man come out of the gas station with a brand new pack of cigarettes. I walked up to the man and asked him for a cigarette. He reached into his pocket and pulled a pack out with two cigarettes left in it and gave them to me. (The guy looked like he smoked crack.)

I went back to the curb I was sitting on and smoked a cigarette. Right about the time I finished it, a cop pulled up to me and asked how I was doing, and I told him I was fine. He asked me what I was doing standing there and I told him I was waiting to be picked up by a friend. Then he asked me if I had anything illegal on me, and I told him that the only things in my pockets were a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

He asked to search me and because I didn’t have anything on me, I said sure. He patted me down and pulled out the pack of cigarettes out of my pocket and reached in it and pulled out of it a small bag of cocaine.

He asked me about it and I told him that the man standing on the other side of the street gave me the pack and he must have left it in there. So the cop went and asked the man if he gave me the cigarettes and the man admitted to the cop that he did give them to me not even 5 – 10 minutes ago. Even with the man saying he gave me the pack, I still went to jail. That other guy got to go home and probably smoke crack.

Even though I’m pretty sure the cocaine belonged to the guy that gave me the cigarettes, I can’t help but wonder if the cop planted it on me.