DIARY OF A JAIL KID

A New Brother

Wednesday, July 10 (morning in a jail cell)

During the night, I dreamed that I was swimming in our pool. When I woke up, I wasn't swimming. Instead, I was in jail. I was a prisoner behind bars. Waking up in a jail cell is a sad way to start the day.

I looked at Caleb. He was still sleeping. His arm was across my body. He was still protecting me. I really like him. He saved my life.

I really needed to pee, but I didn't want to wake up Caleb. I peed in my diaper. It felt nice and warm. I hope my friends don't find out that I wet my diaper. They'll tease me.

A bell rang at 7:00 AM and Caleb woke up. He wet his diaper during the night, too. He didn't want to wake me up.

A guard handed us breakfast trays through the cell door slot. We have to eat all our meals in our cell. The jail doesn't have a cafeteria like in my school.

We each got cereal, bread, milk and orange juice. It tasted good. I could have eaten more, but prisoners don't get seconds.

After we ate, we gave our trays and wet diapers to the guard. He gave us clean underpants. He teased us, too. He called us babies in a little playpen. I hate that guard.

We washed our butts and wieners. Then we stayed naked and did exercises. We're not supposed to be naked in our cell, but I didn't care. Jail doesn't scare me anymore. It makes me angry.

Wednesday, July 10 (a brother in a jail cell)

After our naked exercises, we put on our underpants. Then Caleb shocked me. He said we only get out of our cell for three hours a day. That means 21 hours a day in this cell with nothing to do.

Caleb was alone in his cell for eight days. He's brave to survive that long by himself. I wanted to do something nice for him, but I didn't know what to do. I needed to talk with mom and dad.

I grabbed the bars, shook them and said lots of bad swear words. I was angry because I couldn't get out of the cell.

Then Caleb imitated me. He grabbed the bars, shook them and started swearing. He knows more swear words than I do. If I used those kind of words at home, dad would spank my bare butt.

Watching Caleb made me laugh. He laughed, too. Then I picked him up and hugged him. I wished he could be my brother.

Then it hit me. I'll ask Caleb to be my brother. I'll make sure he stays out of trouble and doesn't come back to jail.

When I asked Caleb, he put his arms around my neck and started crying. I couldn't believe it. He was crying because he was happy. He wanted to be my brother.

It was the best moment of my life. I have a brother now.

Wednesday, July 10 (in the recreation room)

At 9:00 AM, a guard unlocked all the cell doors. After we put on our orange jail clothes, we went to the rec room with the other boys. It felt great to get out of our horrible little cage.

The rec room looked like a school classroom, but it had bars on the windows. We're criminals and they don't want us to escape.

Caleb and I got a table for ourselves. When I looked around, I counted nine other boys. They were all bigger than us. A guard stayed in the room, so we were safe from the bigger boys.

We played checkers for an hour. It was fun and I made funny faces. Caleb laughed and couldn't concentrate, so I won all three games.

When the bell rang, we got to choose a book and a magazine to take back to our cell. Caleb chose a Tom Sawyer  book because it had lots of pictures in it. He doesn't read very well.

I chose a Boys' Life  magazine because it has easy stories to read. I also took a paper tablet and a pen.

Wednesday, July 10 (school in a jail cell)

The guard locked us in our cell at 10:00 AM. We took off our orange jail clothes and wore only our underpants again. It seemed normal to wear underpants in our cell. It seemed normal to be locked up, too. That's kind of sad.

Caleb read one paragraph from Boys' Life.  Small words were easy for him. Long words gave him problems. I don't know how he passed the 4th grade. He's a bad reader.

I took a sheet of tablet paper and tore it into pieces. I wrote a long word on each piece like a flashcard.

I had Caleb read each flashcard. It took him awhile, but he finally recognized the long words. Then he read the paragraph in Boys' Life  without any problems. He's smart. He just needs reading practice.

I also read out loud some of the chapters from the Tom Sawyer  book. Caleb loves the book. He wants to be free like Huck Finn. He's tired of being locked up in a jail cell. So am I. 

Wednesday, July 10 (TV in a jail cell)

At noon, we got our lunch trays. We got cold turkey sandwiches. We don't get hot food in jail. We get cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for the other meals.

At 12:30, they turned on the TV's. The TV's are outside the cells along the cell block wall. Everybody had to watch CNN through jail bars.

At 1:30, they turned off the TV's. That was sad. Watching TV made us forget about being in jail. We stood behind our cell door for awhile, staring through the bars at the blank TV screen.

We only get TV for one hour a day. We're criminals and they don't want us to have fun in jail. They want jail to scare us so we don't commit crimes again.