My jail Experience

This is all about my trip to jail, somewhere i never want to go again. I hope it is interesting.

I was completely scared for my life, my whole body trembling with fear. I've never imagined being in a place like this. How did this happen? How long am I going to have to stay in here? I thought to myself. I had so many unanswered questions running through my mind it was driving me insane. As I walked through the hall towards my destination I could hear shouting so eerie that I felt as if I were in hell. I walked into the room, the door automatically closing behind me thinking, "This is it, and this is the only place I was going to be for a while". I grabbed my cot and drug it to my bed; it was three in the morning so everyone around me was already asleep. I had this very irritating armband around my wrist that reminded me of the kind you get when you’re in the Hospital, only I wasn't in the Hospital. As I lay on my bed I thought about so many things. I thought about my family, my friends, and for the most part, if I was ever going to be able to see any of them again. I couldn’t believe that I was in jail.

Hours passed and it was finally morning. Of course I was still awake because there is no way you could sleep after what I had been through that day. It was now breakfast time, if you want to call what they gave us "breakfast", it was more like food I would feed to my dog. Minutes later, my name was called along with all the others who showed up around the same time as me the night before. It was time for first appearance court, which is when the judge tells you what your bond is and names all of the charges against you. They shackled us all up one by one taking their time of course. I had shackles on my hands and feet so tight that it felt as if it was cutting off my circulation and I had to step inch by inch all the way to the court room. There were so many people going to court that morning, so I had to wait in this very small disgusting room that reminded me of the room off of the first “Saw” movie. Since every one of us had to cram in this small room together for a couple of hours waiting for our turn, almost everyone ended up sitting on the floor in this nasty room. I didn’t talk to anyone at all and no one talked to me the whole time, but I listened a lot to what other people were talking about because there’s nothing else to do. I remember one guy talking across this disgusting room to someone else saying how he wished he was at home in his room, and I remember wishing the same thing. I also remember this specific young white man, who looked around the same age as me, asking another man, “Don’t they need things like DNA to convict me of my crime.” And at that point I just had this weird feeling that he had done something really bad but I didn’t know what at the time. Finally it was time to go into the court room so everyone that was packed into this little room all filed into the court room still shackled up. As I was sitting on the bench they started calling everyone’s name one by one and we each approached the stand to hear our charges and bond amounts. Before they got to me I remember the young man approaching the bench… “Murder in the first degree, NO BOND”, I heard the judge shout. My heart dropped and chills ran down my spine, I couldn’t believe I was being put in the same room as murderers! A couple more people went by and it was finally my turn, as I approached the stand I could feel my legs about to give but I had no idea what the judge had in store for me. The judge announced my charges and I couldn’t believe it because they were a lot worst than I was told I was getting arrested for, and he set my bond at $350,000. At this point I knew I wasn’t getting bonded out anytime soon.

A few days passed and of course I was still in there. By this time I had already gotten to know most of the people in my pod and luckily I got along with everyone. At this time I was only on the second floor anyways which I was told wasn’t bad at all, the sixth floor was the one I should be worried about. While I was sitting in there the whole time on the outside my parents were doing everything they could to get me out. They had already got the best lawyer money can buy in Jacksonville and he had come to visit me a few times assuring me that he was going to get me out as soon as possible. He told me he had scheduled a bond reduction hearing, to maybe bring the bond amount down to a more reasonable price, but I just had to stick it out for the time being until my hearing which was in a couple more weeks. So this is what I had to hope and pray about for the next few weeks the most because I just had to get out of this horrible place.

After only a few more days my name was called as I was taking a nap during the day and I was told to grab all of my belongings because I was being moved, once again my heart dropped and I became scared, I had already got use to where I was at and felt I could get by in the pod I was in and now I had no idea where they were moving me to. I bid everyone in my pod farewell and most of them told me to keep my head up and that I will make it just fine, for some reason it seemed like the only thing I got from other inmates while I was “locked up” was a bunch of useful advice, especially from the older guys who knew this was no life to live. Next, the officers told me I was being moved to the dreaded sixth floor. I was scared for my life at this point as I made it to my pod on the sixth floor and walked in, everyone was staring at me. I kept my head straight forward and walked directly to my cell. I put the things down and sat on my bed scared about my surroundings but not really showing it. I soon met my two cell mates of whom I got along with really well. One was an older black man with gray hair who gave me a lot of advice, It seemed as if he had been in there a while the way he was talking so I figured he had done something terribly bad but I never asked. It was him who told me what my other cell mate, which was a young black guy the same age as me, had done to get in there, which was two counts of first degree murder. I thought to myself, “I ‘m going to be sharing a cell with an actually murderer”? I soon met the young man not moments after and unlike the young white man I went to court at the same time with, I didn’t see a murderer in this young black man. He turned out to be a pretty cool guy. It wasn’t fifteen minutes I was on the sixth floor and a fight breaks out between two other guys in the pod and one pulls a shank, trying to stab the other. The officers rushed in and took them both away and I never saw either one again.

So the next few days passed and I would write and sleep as much as I could to pass the time. I would also play cards and dominos with my cell mates only because I mostly kept to myself while I was in there and stayed in my cell which turned out to be a very smart thing to do obviously. I’d hear all kinds of stories about all different types of other guys in there, and stories about what some had done to get in there from all types of murders to robberies and drug charges. I mostly slept during the day and stayed up all night thinking, and because everyone else was asleep at night, it was actually the only time I had to myself to just think about everything. I also did a lot of praying of course and it seems like the whole time I was in there God answered every prayer. I remember a few instances, which happened over these couple weeks I had to wait until my bond reduction hearing that I can describe as if they happened today they were so miraculous but I will only name one. While you are in here, the officers treat everyone really bad, almost like we are animals or something. They wouldn’t help anyone with anything and no one expected it. I had been in there for a while now and by this time I had ran out of my personal soap and used up all of my towels for a few days now. My cellmates told me, “Don’t even bother asking the officers to help you out because they aren’t going to”. Of course, me being the kind of person I am, I asked anyways. The officer then refused to give me clean towels and some new bars of soap while laughing and turning his head away. Now most people would probably feel so much hate towards this man and say terrible things back at him as he did to me, but I didn’t do that. All I did was walk back to my cell and pray to God to forgive him. Now hours have passed and by this time my hope for him to change his mind had gone down a little. It was already time for “lights out” and all the cells were being locked for the night. As I lay in my bed about an hour after “lights out”, I hear the loud crackling noise of my cell open up, “Armstrong”, they called over the intercom. I jumped up and walked toward them, sure enough the same man who laughed and made rude comments to me was standing there with fresh towels and a few new bars of soap. I was so shocked he had done this and he also allotted me thirty minutes to go and take a shower while everyone else is locked in their cells asleep, something that I hadn’t ever seen happen.

                Finally, my time in there had come to an end; my bond reduction hearing went well. My bond got reduced to a fair amount so that my parents could afford to get me out. After I was out of jail my lawyers took care of a lot for me, I got two years probation which was way better than fifteen years in prison which is what was trying to be done to me. You can never imagine what it feels like to be in the situation I was in until you have lived it. There is no explaining it and there is no way of knowing how I felt unless you have lived it yourself. It just took a lot of praying and in the end it all turned out to be a huge learning experience for me. I know I will never put myself in the that position ever again for the rest of my life.

Author's Note

Please let me know what you think, this story is completely true, i lived it.

Reviews

[Naomi Montana Walsh]

Of course it is person but like the other review we want to know what you did anyhow, what matters is you learned not to do it again.

[R J Askew]

But what did you do? The reader cries out to know! Glad you got off lightly though.