Where I Went Wrong
Below are writings from inmates at JDC.
I've Been Clean for 16 Days
I’m 16 years old and I’ve been clean for 16 days as of today. I’ve been
using drugs and alcohol since I was 12 years old. I’m currently in a detention
center for possession of Meth with intent to distribute, and probation
violation. I was supposed to graduate an outpatient drug program the day after I
got busted for possession of meth.
My counselor always told me that the reason I had a drug problem is because I
grew up around drugs my whole life. First
it was my stepdad then it was my uncles. All
I’ve ever really known is how to do drugs and how to sell drugs It’s pretty
sad but it’s the honest to god truth. I first started doing drugs with my
uncle when I was 12. Then I got
involved with a gang when I lived in Phoenix, Arizona.
When I came back from there I started
selling weed for my uncle. I got
busted for possession of marijuana 3 times.
The 3rd time I got put on corrections for a year. After being
on corrections for about 6 months I started stealing car stereos.
I did that with my oldest brother for about 3 months then we got caught,
and we both had to spend 4 months in the detention center.
Out of that deal I got 2 more years of corrections.
After I got out of the detention center I moved into my mom’s house. I started hanging out with my next-door neighbor, and that’s when I started using and selling meth. I’d been selling meth for a little over a year by now, and I thought it was goin good to, I had plenty of money, a nice car, and pretty much everything I wanted, and then I got caught. Right now I’m sitting in the detention center waiting to go back to court so I can get out and go to impatient treatment, hopefully when I get in to the treatment program it will really help me with my drug problem.
--Age 16
Note: This inmate went to drug treatment and is now in a correctional facility.
Where I Went Wrong In Life
When I moved here and started hanging out with the other kids that where getting in to trouble. They started talking me into getting into trouble. Then it became a part of my every day life.
Then I got arrested and it scared my but crime was a every day thing for me at that point in my life. Everyone told me to stay out of trouble but I did not listen to them. I got arrested one more time after that.
I got arrested one more time and that time I came to the detention center. I got out on pretrial. I got into trouble one more tine and here I am today.
--Age 12
Note: Inmate is now in a correctional facility.
I Started to Hang Out With the Wrong Crowd
Where I went wrong was when I turned fourteen and I started to hang out with the
wrong crowd and I got into the mix of drugs, gangs, and alcohol. It got me in to
all kinds of trouble ranging from: theft, burglary, disorderly conduct,
obstruction of justice, criminal damage to property, breaking and entering, and
trespassing.
I could have stopped it if I would have not got into all the bad stuff like gangs and drugs. I had a turn for the worse when I first got sent away to a foster home. I was pretty scared, but then it got better and I wasn’t in the mix of drugs and alcohol anymore. Then when I got out of the foster home, I got back into the mix of all the bad stuff that I had quit the first time.
I should have changed when I turned fifteen but then I got into the mix with all of the hallucinogenics like: shrooms, acid, and LSD. And I was also in the mix of cocaine which is the worst thing that ever happened to me because I almost died the first time I tried it.
My advice to you is not to get into the mix of drugs, gangs, and or alcohol, because it does nothing but ruin your life and you should change it before it gets too late like it did with me. Because with all of the drugs and the bad friends that I had, things got worse and worse until I had my body almost ready to shut down on me.
Then
I decided to change my life around and I dropped all of the drugs and the
alcohol, but I still had my troublemaking friends that I thought were cool to
hang out with. But it turned out to be nothing except for me taking the rap for
everyone's troubles that they had with the law.
I
wish that I would have changed my life before it got too late but it was already
too late for me to go back and take a different path other than the bad one that
I took and just dug myself a hole until I was trapped and I couldn’t get
myself out of it. Then I got back into the mix of drugs and my life started to
go to heck.
This time it wasn’t all the drugs. It was only marijuana and I didn’t think that it would hurt me, but it did worse than I thought it would. I then got into the mix of gangs and alcohol and I started stealing stuff from stores to please friends but it got me nothing but a one-way ticket to the Juvenile Detention Center.
So
my advice to you is to take the right path before you take the wrong turn, and
it could lead to nowhere but prison. And if you do get on the wrong path,
turn around and go back before it is too late. By the time I tried to turn
around and go back it was too late and I landed myself in the Juvenile Detention
Center and I will tell you it is not the place that you want to be. Change
your life around before you land yourself in prison.
--From an inmate at the
Juvenile Detention Center, Age 17.
FOR JUVENILES
I was put in JDC for 2 weeks; then I got let out on the EMD. The EMD is a monitor that tells your correction officer where you are at all times, and it also lets her know if you left with it on. I messed up on the EMD. I stepped out of the boundaries, and now I am sitting in JDC for 1 month and 7 days. The whole time I am in here I am hurting my family and myself. I need to get a job and go back to school. This is not a good place for anyone to be.
--Age 17
Where I Went Wrong--DRUGS
. . .These are some items I thought you might want to know about me. I do enjoy school. I was an A-B student--that is till I started to skip school and do drugs with friends, but I ‘m trying to quit doing drugs. I have been off drugs for almost 1 week. So far it seems to working. Of course, part of that time, I have been in JDC.
So since the last time I’ve been in school, I’ve been struggling because the drugs affected my brain so bad that I can barely even remember what the teacher taught the day before. That is pretty bad if you can’t remember what they talked about yesterday you must have been using a lot of drugs that day!
--Age 17