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Health & Fitness

I Could Go To Jail for This?

I work in the Baltimore County Public Schools, and I have loved many teenagers. Most of them do things that could put them in jail. Why is it that I love them?

When I was a teenager, my father and mother knew where I was all of the time.  Heck, they knew what I was doing, too! I was convinced that if I disobeyed a family rule, my father would actually see me doing it, and correct me on the spot.  God forbid I should say I was going to see Star Wars, but really stayed upstairs in Mike's attic with just him and the family lab to make out — my dad would have surely found out that I hadn't seen the movie. What would I say when he or my mom asked about the movie? I hadn't seen it, nor did I want to really.  But I did, and I loved it, and it was all because I didn't want my dad to catch me making out with Mike in his attic bedroom while his parents were out.

Today's teenagers don't have such fears. The kids I work with might smoke marijuana, drink alcohol, live in a house without supervision by their parents, have sex — unprotected sex, no less — and sometimes they steal. 

"Guys, these are not good things,"  I tell them. "What you are thinking about could cause you to go to jail,"  I say. "Skipping classes are one thing, going over to so-and-so's house to smoke weed can give you jail time."

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They're not scared of that. Many of them have such incredibly messed up home lives that, to them, going to jail might be ugly, but it might just beat what they have at home! Until they get caught doing something that puts them in the slammer, with no money for bail. What follows is the story of a young lady who was playing at getting a cell phone. She wasn't scared. Until she got scared. Very scared. 

She was taken to the Towson Detention Center and stripped of her personal belongings, clothing, and jewelry. Her cell phone went into a plastic baggie to accompany her clothes. Her life changed immediately, and fear became her partner. 

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She thought that it would be better if her friends found out she was in jail, and would want to come visit her. Visiting hours are limted, though, and each prison guest only gets a certain number of visitors per day depending on his or her age, and the crime that has been alleged to have been comitted. Lawyers come first, and often they come during visiting hours. Even if a friend can come visit, there are limits on visitors. Those visitors under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. 

There is a lot of time to sit and think in jail. Lots of time to listen to what is going on around you in the cells nearby. If you're being held as an adult even though you aren't even 17 yet, you don't sit in a common area with your peers, you sit in your cell unless it's exercise time or you have a visitor, or you are going to GED classes.  Your cell-mate might have practice being in jail, and that's scary. You hear a lot of stories about what happened to this person or that person. Maybe the aunt of a friend of yours is on the same cell block as you are, and you think that makes you safe, until you realize that your cell-mate thinks she's a bitch, and wants to figure out how to hurt her. You hear from women who tell the guards what happened for real in the bathroom, and then get bloodied and sent to the infirmary. You realize that the chick who was the leader in that beating is in the cell two cells down from you, and she hates your friend's aunt too.

If you are lucky, some adult, other than your parent comes to visit you. Maybe someone from your school. You go up to see a visitor, expecting maybe it's your mom, but find this teacher person. She's brought you a book, and some cash. The cash she has put into the cash drop for prisoners, but the book she has to take back to the store, because books have to be sent to prisoners directly from the publisher. You and she talk about class, about your friends at school, and how they are all rooting for you, but you wonder. Do they really care? 

It snows outside. More than you can remember it ever doing in your whole life.  But here you are. Locked up inside the jail, and have no way to see the snow.  They say there is 27 inches of that white stuff outside, but all you have is their word, and your sister tells you she's collected a bunch of it and put it in Tupperware in the freezer for you. Maybe you'll get out soon, and can see it. Your teacher comes back to see you on a snow day. Took a couple busses, because the roads were bad. She actually came on a snow day. You and she talk about what you've learned while in jail so far. Maybe you'll convert to a different religion.  Supposedly the women of that religion don't get as much flack by the others. The teacher suggests that you stay out of trouble by keeping your mouth shut, and reading whatever you can. So you do. 

You borrow books from the library. But you finish one before you can get another one, and it's getting boring. The books your teacher sent from the publisher arrive, but you are only allowed to keep one of the three. The prison officials say that the other two deal with banned topics, so they have to go back to the publisher.

The topics? Teenage anger, and overcoming it. Learning to channel anger into action. Not allowed. No official reason was given, ever, but you got at least one more book.

Finally, six months after coming into prison, you go to trial. Your lawyer brings you clothes that don't fit you that well anymore, and you get escorted into the courtroom. There's your dad and mom out there, and they brought your godmother and over there, beside your dad is your teacher.  She came to see you in court and keep your parents company. She smiles at you and waves, at the same time that your mom does. You give them both the American Sign Language symbol for "I love you" because you do. 

Hours later, you are free.

"What do you want to do first?" asks your mom. 

"Go home. Go home and sit on the steps of my house, and then go into my bedroom, and lay on my bed. Then I'm going to sit on the steps of my house until the sun goes down. I'm going to walk in the yard, watch my little sister play on the swings, and I'm going to sit on the porch. I haven't seen the outside since six months ago, and I want to sit outside and breath the air out there. Is that OK, mom?"

What did she do that landed her in jail for six months? She ran into some friends of her boyfriend who wanted this kid's phone. So she helped two or three other boys steal a phone from a kid. Because she held the kid's hands while someone took the phone from the kid's pocket, she was sent to jail for six months. It was supposed to be a lark. Just for kicks, her boyfriend said. Just to mix things up a bit.  It'll be fun. We ain't got nothin' else to do. Only one of the 'friends' held a knife to the kid's head, and someone saw it happening and called the police. 

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