By Breon
It was hard waking up and sitting in a cell with nothing to do but look at the walls. I was with the wrong people at the wrong time when I was first arrested. I was walking home and it was dark and I saw my friend roll by in his car and he asked me if I wanted a ride and I said yea so then I got in the car. There were already two other people in there but I still got in. Five blocks later the police had pulled up and stopped the car and I found out that it was reported stolen for 3 days.
Everyone that was in the car was arrested and taken to juvenile hall. We were charged with grand theft of an automobile and I had to stay there for a month.
When you are in juvenile hall you can’t just act on your thoughts because if you do you could get in a lot of trouble. You can’t run away or curse or fight. People there will agitate you, kids and guards. You have to learn how to think twice. You might be angry in your head but you can’t act on it. I learned to walk away or ask to go to your room.
One time when I was eating my food and another kid ask if I wanted my tray I said yea he got mad and threw his milk at me. I had to have self-control because if I didn’t, I could have been pepper sprayed or I could have got room, which means you have to stay in your room for 24 hours.
This experience taught me that jail is not a place that I want to be. Because waking up in the same place and doing nothing is boring. You have no control over your life, you follow their rules, and you barely see your family. I think about the consequences before I do stuff. My life feels different. When I see young people driving cars I always think about what happens to me and I wonder if they know if that car is stolen.