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.

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.

Freedom of speech in prison?

I did manage to visit Ted on Sunday despite being sick for a week. He had called on Saturday night to say he had some important things to tell me. It turns out he witnessed one inmate attempting to kill another inmate among other things. More on those in subsequent posts.

Ted did write more blog entries and placed two envelopes on his cell bars for the CO to pick up. The CO came, took one of the envelopes, crumpled it up and threw it at Ted - for no reason whatsoever. So much for freedom of speech in prison. Ted will attempt to send them out again.

At one of the other institutions Ted has been at, he kept a list of things to write about in a book when he gets out – since there’s a lot he’s not supposed to discuss from inside. That list was found by some COs and torn up. So I’m keeping a record of certain events for Ted.

You may remember that Ted met up with another young man who had come to Lancaster from Brevard as well. COs at Brevard took all the pens away from all the inmates for two weeks. As soon as Ted left for Lancaster, those pens were returned to all of the inmates.

Ted was not transferred to the work release camp yet and still remains at Lake Butler. He described his living conditions to me and I’ll relay them in tomorrow’s post.

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.

Mystery shopping

When Ted was 14, he started accompanying me as a companion in a mystery shopping business I co-owned with my fiancé (now husband). We went undercover - posing as customers - to hotels, restaurants and even on cruises. Ted went with me to Alaska, Mexico, the Caribbean, Italy and Greece. We wrote detailed narrative reports on the quality of the food, ambiance, and the employees’ integrity, attitudes, efficiency and service. This was Ted’s first exposure to writing and reporting on conditions – traits that would eventually help him in authoring the Teen in Jail blog.

The company was put aside when we started an international travel magazine (our publisher and financial backer died last February) and so we’re resurrecting the mystery shopping business. Ted plans to again continue as a shopper when he’s released.

Finding a purpose in life

Tonight when I was on the phone with my mom, she told me that there are people all over the world that are reading my posts.

I'm not at all bragging, it's just that when I started writing I just never expected anybody outside of my county to read my blog. I only wanted to help others that grew up in the same place I did.

I never thought that my writing would become so popular. Even here in prison, every CO knows about my writing. I can't believe I've been given such a great opportunity to speak to people all over the world.

I've honestly never stuck with anything my whole life until now. I feel like I finally found a purpose. I never thought I would find what I love to do while I'm incarcerated. It only goes to show that no matter what your situation is, you can always improve it and find something that makes you happy.

When I get to prison

OK, here's the deal.

When I get to prison, I am going to continue to write these blogs, but unfortunately everything I send out is going to be read, so I am going to have to keep everything I say PG-13, so to speak.

Everything that I'm not able to post from prison, I will post when I get out.

I am hoping it doesn't get to the point where the prison doesn't want me to write blogs at all. I don't think it will come to that and even if it does - my mom will take over until I get out [writing entries about my past crimes and incarcerations].

I hope all of you will continue to read my blogs.