What I heard about my sentence

Tonight my parents came to visit me at the jail.

It was incredibly hard to find out yesterday that I would be doing at least two years in prison.

My mom talked to my attorney on the phone today. The attorney said that it would be two years minus the time served (24 months - 11 months = 13 months). She also said that if I keep out of trouble (no arguments, fights or escape attempts), I could maybe get some time off for good behavior as well.

The attorney will ask the judge to recommend that I be sent someplace close to home. The judge can't determine where I'll be sent. Only the intake center can say where I'll go. But the judge can possibly recommend one prison to the intake center.

There is a work release camp near the Pinellas County jail, where prisoners can go to in order to serve the last year of their sentence. I may be eligible to go there.

There's also a prison/work camp in Largo. The penitentiaries nearest my home in Clearwater would be in Zephyrhills, Hillsborough and Polk counties. There is also an adult prison at Avon Park next door to where I spent 9 months at the juvenile facility. You can click on the hyperlinks and click on Browse Current Population to view photos and profiles of the inmates in the prisons.

When I enter a plea on Monday morning, I will then be eligible to go right away to the Orlando reception center, which is an intake facility for people going to prison. I will stay there two weeks and they will evaluate me to determine what prison I go to. It could be a minimum, moderate or maximum security facility.

I won't be kept with only younger inmates, as I wasn't tried as a youthful offender. (One of my podmates was involved with armed robbery, but was tried as a youthful offender.) So I'll be in with inmates of all ages.

As long as I keep out of any fights, I won't be housed with the violent offenders like murderers.

I hear from other guys here that they have college classes or trades you can go to in prison and I'd like to go to them.

I'm trying to keep positive and look at it as another experience to write about. My mom told me that a lot of famous authors have been in prison - such as Jack London and O'Henry.

My attorney told me before court that she thought I had a 90% chance of getting a sentence of time served and that I might get out of jail sometime after court on Tuesday. So it hit me doubly hard when I found out that wouldn't be the case and that I'd be doing [what I thought at the time] would be at least two more years.

I'll ask the judge on Monday if the sentence will for sure be 24 months minus any timed served.

But whatever she says, I'll definitely accept the deal. I don't want to face 30 years in prison.

Photo: Video visitation room at the Pinellas County jail.

More famous writers that have spent time in prison: Boethius, Cervantes, Campanella, Daniel Defoe, Thomas More, Walter Raleigh, Leigh Hunt, Oscar Wilde, Maxim Gorky, Chernyeshevsky, Dostoyevsky, Solzhenitsyn, Francois Villon, Voltaire, Diderot, The Marquis de Sade, Jean Genet, Saint Paul, Malcolm X.

Court update

Today Ted went to court.

Both the judge and the state attorney had already read the article in the St. Pete Times about the Teen in Jail blog (that appeared in the Sunday, September 6th issue) by the time he appeared in the courtroom.

Ted's trafficking charge has been changed to a lesser charge of sales and possession because the pills that he was arranging to be sold didn't contain enough MDMA (Ecstasy) to constitute trafficking, according to the forensic analysis.

Ted's attorney asked the judge if Ted's sentence could be reduced to 12 months with time served.

The state attorney reiterated that Ted had been getting into trouble for seven years - including burglary, grand theft, and numerous drug charges. In fact, he said, Ted had appeared in court and had just been put on probation when he was arrested three days later for his current charge. The court doesn't take violation of probation lightly.

The state offered Ted a deal of two years in prison.

Ted's attorney tried three times to get the sentence reduced, including asking that he be sent to Solid Rock, a drug rehab in St. Petersburg. Finally she asked for only 18 months prison time.

The judge said that while she could appreciate what Ted was trying to do with his writing, she had to go by his past record, not by his promises to do better.

Actions speak louder than words.

She recommended that he take the state's deal, as it was extremely generous. Ted has accumulated enough points to go to at least 3½ years in prison. If he decided to go to a jury trial, his charges carried a maximum sentence of 30 years prison time.

A jury might not be so lenient.

Since Ted didn't have an immediate answer and wanted to think about it, the judge set a new court date for Monday, September 14th at 8:30 a.m. He will have to tell her if he will take the two years in prison or take his chances at a trial.

Map of local correctional facilities

More info about local correctional facilities

Court tomorrow

Tomorrow I have a court hearing at 8:30 a.m.

I get to get up at 4:30 a.m. and it'll be seven or eight hours before I return to my pod at the jail.

Although there have been a lot of postponements, I think tomorrow I may find out whether or not I'll be sentenced to prison, be sent to a drug rehab, or get house arrest.

It could be postponed again though.

I won't get much sleep tonight...

Not knowing

On September 8th, I have a [yet another] pre-trial court date. By then I will have been in jail 15 months (with a short three days in there 11 months ago when I was let out).

What kills me the most is not the time I'm facing - it's the fact that I don't know what will happen.

I hate not knowing.

I watch people come in here - and within a few months at the most - they get some kind of offer, whether it's prison or probation. But in my case, I haven't got an offer yet.

Every time I go to court, my court dates just get pushed back for one reason or another.

I know I put myself in this position, but I don't even know if they are willing to give me a deal or slam me on the head.

I just want to know.

I don't think I'm in a position to complain about anything, but if I had a lawyer that was competent and did her job, I would be much happier.

Please pray for me on September 8, 2009. Thank you!

*Note: Ted faces 3½ years of prison time. He hopes to either get probation, house arrest, or a sentence for a drug rehab program in St. Pete called Solid Rock - see link on right.

Going to court from jail

Going to court from jail is one of the worst things I've ever had to do.

At 4 a.m., the deputy comes and wakes everybody up that has court and tells them to be ready by 4:30 a.m. During that half hour, you can eat breakfast, shave and brush your teeth.

Then at 4:30 a.m., another deputy will come get you and walk you across the jail through a maze of hallways to a little cell that they try to fit 50 or so people into. It's very uncomfortable. They make you sit in this cell from around 4:45 a.m. until about 6:15 a.m.

Then some more deputies will come get you and walk you up and down stairs and through long hallways until you come to a slightly bigger cell where they fit 50 to 100 people. Now you're in this cell with a bunch of sick, smelly, disgusting people from about 6:20 a.m. 'til around 8:30 a.m.

If you're unlucky enough that the judge doesn't need you, you can sit in this cell until 10 a.m.

Most people do get to go in front of the judge and when they come to get you for court from this second holding cell, they put you on an elevator which ends up putting you right behind the courtroom in yet another holding cell. This cell is made for about probably five people and I've rarely seen more than that [number].

This third holding cell is where your attorney comes to talk to you about your case. Sometimes you'll make it all the way to this holding cell just to find out that you won't be going to court.

After you're done with court, you go back to the second holding cell that you were in before and it normally takes 30 minutes to be brought there in the maximum security part of the jail. Here, they put you in a cell with other people that are housed in the same division you are in.

Sometimes, you can sit in this cell (which is the dirtiest cell of all) for 1 to 1½ hours.

For some reason (even though we walked to court), after we leave that cell, they shuttle us back to our housing area in a van. Don't ask me why they do this 'cause I have no idea.

After all this, you probably get back to your pod around 11 a.m. or 12 noon. For start to finish on average, it takes seven hours to go to court with an 8:30 a.m. court hearing.

Photo: The Pinellas County Courthouse is right next to the Pinellas County Jail on 49th Street in Clearwater, FL.

My attorney

When I first got my trafficking charge, I was appointed a PD (public defender) to represent me because I could not afford a private attorney. Normally a PD doesn't try too hard and won't always speak for you, but my PD was pretty good.

Unfortunately, after I had him for two months, he was taken off my case because of a conflict of interest (he was also the attorney for a co-defendant), and I was appointed another pro bono attorney out of a different office.

My new attorney (whose name I won't mention) works out of an office called Regional Counsel.

I have to admit she is very nice, but that doesn't help me with my legal probelms.

All the things my PD was trying to do for me, my new attorney said she could do. The only difference is, it took her 3 - 4 months just to get started.

Once she did get started, she took her sweet time to do anything. Every court date I went to, she would arrive 45 minutes late - just to postpone it for another month.

Also, being in jail, I am only allowed to call her office Wednesday between 2 - 3 p.m. and Friday between 2 - 3 p.m. Every time I call (which is every Wednesday and Friday), she is either out for the day or unavailable.

It gets aggravating not being able to talk to my attorney about my case. She doesn't seem to be trying at all. I've had her almost 9 months and she has done next to nothing.

Last time I went to court, she told me that we were going to push my court date back 2 weeks, but it turned out to be scheduled for 6 weeks. My hearing is on September 8th. Hopefully I'll find out then what will happen. I could get sentenced to 3½ years in prison, be sent to a drug program, or get house arrest.