A message for the judge

Like I said a few blogs ago when I went to court on September 8th, I thought I was going home, but instead the judge told me I was going to prison for 24 months – NO LESS!

At first I just thought she was being mean, but now I realize it’s for the best.

Even though I REALLY DON”T WANT TO GO TO PRISON, it’ll be a new experience and hopefully by me going there and writing about it, other youths will realize what prison is really like and hopefully make better decisions so that they don’t end up like me.

But back to what I really want to say…I don’t know if my sentencing judge reads my blogs or not, but I just want to say to her that even though she sentenced me to 24 months in prison, I know that you only want to see youths such as myself make a better future for ourselves. I truly believe that.

You told me yourself that you wanted to see me turn my life around and I’m trying very much to do so.

Tuesday, September 8th

Last week, my attorney came to see me and she told me that I was going to get my charge dropped from trafficking to a sales & possession charge – which is a lesser charge – and that most likely I would get time served.

But yesterday – Tuesday, September 8th - I went to court and the judge told me they would drop my charge to sales & possession, but they wanted me to serve 24 months DOC (Department of Corrections), which is prison – in case you don’t know.

Most of my time in jail I expected it, but after my attorney came and got my hopes up, I was shocked.

I was so shocked, I asked for a week to think about it – and after only a day – I’m ready to take it.

I was so angry I felt like if anybody would even look at me wrong, I was going to hit them. I was sick to my stomach. I didn’t know what to do.

It’s only been a day since then and I don’t feel much different. I’m just trying to accept the fact that I have to go to prison. I guess I’m as ready as I’m going to be.

Right now I’m trying to keep to myself and not start any fights. I’m really trying to put violence in my past.

Hopefully with good behavior, I’ll be out in 10 more months.

And the verdict is...

I went to court today and entered a plea to accept the state’s offer of a 2-year prison sentence. I’ll get credit for the 11 months of time I spent at the Pinellas County jail, so I’ll be in prison for 13 months. I also can get 94 days deducted from that for good behavior.

I asked the judge for a 24-hour furlough before I went to prison, but she said no.

The judge's last words to me were "Mr. Braden, I do hope you've learned from all of this and after you've served your time that you won't be involved with the criminal justice system again."

I found out today that it might take a week or two for me to get to the Central Florida Reception Center. (I won't be leaving right away like I thought I would.) I could spend up to eight weeks at the reception center waiting to get assigned to a prison. They do extensive psychological and physical tests there to see if prisoners have any medical issues or educational needs. That determines what prison inmates go to. Next, they see if those particular prisons have open beds.

I could be sent to any prison from the Florida panhandle down to the southern end of the state.

If I’m at the reception center for longer than eight weeks, I’ll end up staying there to serve my sentence. They have different building there (Main, East and West) that house permanent residents. There’s two types of housing: Open Pop (open population) or CM (Closed Management). Open Pop is made up of a dorms of bunks. CM is made up of 1- or 2-man cells. There are different levels of Closed Management: CM I, CM II, and CM III (Maximum, Medium and Minimum security). All types of inmates wait there for assignments to the different Florida prisons.

My mom read on Prison Talk that they put you through a million and one things during that process. They’ll tell you to roll up your bed and move you to another location or to medical and in the morning will move you right back to where you were – with no explanation. According to the PT forum, there’s a mental process of owing the inmates nothing and making them be grateful for what they do have.

Prison Talk also said that the reception center was disgusting – mildew and rust on everything, so much so that some inmates are afraid to touch anything.

The food is supposed to be better than in county jail. I sure hope it is.

Prison Talk also says that it might take 10 to 20 days for me to get a letter. Other inmates say they received letters right away. Inmates are allowed to receive 10 sheets of paper, 10 envelopes and a book of stamps in the mail. Some parents didn’t receive their kids' letters for weeks and weeks.

After three weeks at the reception center, I’ll be able to make phone calls (to landlines only - no cell phones). I won’t be allowed visitations at the reception center unless I find out I’ll be staying there permanently. If they send me to another prison, I may not be able to get my first visit until four to six months, but it could be sooner. I hope I get sent somewhere close to home.

I can receive money in my commissary account as soon as I get a DC #. It won’t be the same inmate number I had at the Pinellas County jail. The DC # will be posted on the Florida Department of Corrections web site. They use a site called jpay (www.jpay.com), which is similar to PayPal.

There is a library in prison so I can read. There also may be work programs and education opportunities depending on where I’m sent. I can also receive books in the mail either sent from Amazon.com or directly from the publisher, but they must be paperback books with no spiral wires – any metal can be used as a weapon.

It makes it a little easier to know what I’m facing instead of just a big unknown. Once I find out what prison I’ll be sent to, I’ll be able to find out more info on that facility too.

I’m not happy about being sent away, but I won’t be on probation when I get out. I’ll also have to pay $2,034 in restitution for going with some friends to damage another kid’s car. (Told ya the gang got me into a lot of trouble.) I’ll also owe about $500 per charge for court costs and there’s three charges. I’ll be able to set up a payment plan once I get out to pay it back on a monthly basis.

The visitation process has changed again at the Pinellas County jail. The visitation reservation line (727-464-6842) now opens at 8 a.m. and you can make appointments for visitations for a week at a time now. (You need to have your driver’s license number available when you make a reservation.)

Inmates are only allowed one visit per day. My visitation days are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. There were no visits open for Tuesday - so someone is coming to visit me - I just don’t know who. My mom and dad will visit me on Wednesday and Brittany and my mom will come this Friday.

I should still be at the Pinellas County jail for at least another week.

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.