Prison Break -Jack

Three years, one hundred and eighty-five more days to go in this place. I am in Celix prison in Arizona. The only thing that I see is the dust, the sand, and occasionally another prisoner being brought in. This prison is only a prison for the worst of the worst. I would say that there is only about maybe 45 prisoners’ in this place tops. Luckily I get one of the 30 cells to myself. I’ve only been in here for just about 7 years (which to some people in this place is a really short time.) I have been ready to get out since the first day. I miss my dad so much we would always hangout together. The one thing that my dad, liked about me was my personality. He really liked how I acted in high school. Which reminds me let me tell you a little bit about my self.

My name is Charlie, I am 24 but I am in prison though because I robbed a Doughnut Store, (Jake's Jelly’s), got chased by the officers, then I messed up and shot an officer and injured him. I used to live in Cincinnati, Ohio, Over the Rhine. If you wanted to pick a place to live in Cincinnati that would probably be your last resort. Let’s just say that if someone goes to jail, it’s just a daily happening. Say if one your friend goes to jail you would probably say oh well there goes Bobby I hope I see him in a year or two. I used to have some great hobbies back in the day. I would go to the park about everyday with my dog, Milo. Now I know that since I live in Cincinnati you would think that I would have a big dog. But, no Milo is just a little Basset Hound. He can still play fetch and just run around if he has a good day and doesn’t trip over his ears. But some days I wouldn’t take Milo, I would just go to the park and try to meet some buddies of mine and we would play some basketball (usually just three on three, my two buddies, and three other random guys), we would hit a baseball or softball around (whatever one that they brought), on a rare occasion we would try to play a little game of football. Now one of the good things that I like about home is hanging out with my dad. My dad is my idol. He has been there for me the whole way. My mom left when I was 13 so that was really hard for me. I think that it would have been a little easier if she left when I was young, but instead she left us when I was in my teenage years, which was hard.

My dad was a great man. He would always have a positive comment even if I didn’t do so well. I remember in the 8th grade I got in a fight but that same day I got an A on a paper. Of course my dad kind of forgot about the fight but congratulated on the paper. My dad was the only person in his family to go to college. He was in college for business and right now his business is not doing so well. It is a store called Toilets Unite, he sells toilet seats, yea I know it might be a little weird but it gets us by.

Prison life is pretty hard, I am going to try to explain it as well as I can, brace yourself. First you wake up at 6:00 AM and you have a breakfast, which let me tell you are not the greatest in the world. Our usual breakfast (which is everyday besides Saturday) is oatmeal. On Saturday they treat us to a bowl of cereal. After breakfast it is chores. During chores the usual thing is cleaning your cell. So I know what you’re thinking, just keep your cell clean. That isn’t the case. If your cell is clean before 7:30 you have to clean the officers and guards bathrooms. Which let me tell you is not pretty. I personally would just, almost try to get my cell dirty so then you only have to clean just your area and your toilet, not your area and someone else’s dirty toilet. 7:30 to 11:15 is free time. Most people around here just sleep to get their rest. But people around here think I’m the crazy one. I, of course, actually go outside and play basketball. The first couple weeks I started to play, and then one by one more of the prisoners would come out and shoot around. Then after free time, which is around 11:30 we have lunch. For lunch we usually get just a plain old sandwich usually turkey or ham. After lunch was flat on bunk, this means that you have to be in your bunk not going outside or anything. Steve, one of our security guards is the one that patrols my area. Everyday after lunch, Steve has to go around and make sure that everyone is in his or her bunk or cot. But usually he spends a little more time at my cell. I have always tried to have a conversation with Steve since the first time I met him. He usually just asks about my day and then I usually tell him “Oh its good I guess” then I tell him how many days I have remaining. Steve is a great guy; I will try to explain him as best as possible.

Steve is of course as I told you, my cellblock’s security guard. Steve is a big hefty guy. I would say that he is about six foot seven and maybe two hundred ninety pound, so he is a pretty big guy. Steve actually went to this prison when he was about 19. He served his time, which was about 10 years then just could not find a job. Then the prison gave him a call. It turned out that he was offered a job to be one of the security guards in the building. They would offer him a room, and 21 meals a week, so all he had to do was patrol the halls and once in a while he would have to break up a fight, the job was not only his, he had one or two other people to help out with it.

After Steve would come I would just sleep until the buzzer sounded which meant that it was time for the next task. At about 3:00 we would go down to assembly line. Here we would make metal hangers. About once a month you got the fun job of stamping the heated metal to actually make the hanger. We would work at this assembly line for about 3 hours. That was the worst part of everyone’s day. After that we would have our dinner, which was just a random hot food. Our late night job was going out and cleaning up the litter on the highway, then stuffing it into trash bags. All of these days went by so slow and were all the same except for this one.

October 18, 2004 is the day that it all changed. During highway pickup usually all of the semi truck and cars honk at you just to make you look. But one car came by, to me and a couple other cell mates, (Big Blue and Tex), then he said quick, jump in, so what do you think we did, of course we jumped in. Now this driver knew how to make it so we didn’t get caught. All he did was just drive the normal speed and we were off. He just started dropping us off at different places, and for some reason he saved me for last. Now I never really got a good look at his face but I didn’t want to say something because I was just in shock. My drop off place was a little different than anyone else’s place; he dropped me off at the airport. He turned around handed me a ticket and said you’re closer to home than you think. Then he turned on the light and it was my Dad. He told me that he just missed me so much that he couldn’t wait till I got home, so he told himself, I need to go get him. Then dad threw me some cloths and pulled over to a public restroom. Then before you know it, I just looked like just a regular person and not a prisoner. The plane left at about 10:15 and we got back at around 4:00 AM. I was finally home.

The two things that I wanted to see the most was my dog Milo and my brother Stan. Milo was just his same old self, lazy but could perk up any time but he was very excited to see me. Stan had grown a lot. He was about 5’ 7’’ now, and in the 8th grade. I spent the next couple of weeks just trying to catch up with my family and meet some of my friends. The story I had to tell everyone is that the sentence for my crime was only 6 years and that they marked it wrong. Everyone didn’t question it so I just stuck with that. Since I escaped from prison my name that I used for everyday things would now become Chuck. For some reason the guy who was running the Drivers License place just didn’t really care. I just told him my name, he got my birthday, took my picture and we were done. I really didn’t want it to be far from my name so people just thought that I like Chuck better than Charlie.

After a couple of weeks at home I told my self that I was going to apply to Cincinnati Community college to major in education but only a 2 year program. I qualified for low tuition so I only pay $2,000 a year, which may seem low to you but for our family is pretty expensive. During college they didn’t make you live on campus if you had a house, or family in the area. So therefore I didn’t have to pay room and board. The bigger issue here though was books. After looking for books online I found a program called Ohio Link. This is a place were you can rent books, just like a library for a semester or for how ever long you need it, from different colleges in Ohio. The best part is that it is all free. During my college years it was a hectic time. There were many hard choices to make. There were parties that I was invited to and there were just some bad things that you just have to make the right choice about. But in the end it was a very good experience. After college came the hard part, finding a job.

Now most of my buddies in college found jobs as soon as they got out. They mostly had Junior High and High School jobs, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted to be an elementary teacher. It just seams that there aren’t any job openings in that area. I felt really bad because my dad was still paying for me to eat and I couldn’t do anything. After that I started to work at our local restaurant Jimmy’s Dogs. They claim to have the best hotdogs in Cincinnati, but let me tell you they certainly don’t have the best pay. But, hey, it’s better than just sitting at home hoping for a job to come knocking on my door. After working at Jimmy’s for about 3 months I saw something on the news. It said that Cincinnati is building new schools in the Clifton, an Elementary and a Junior and Senior High School. They were looking for all new teachers because they aren’t tearing down an old school this is a brand new district! The ad stated to call the School Board and ask for a requested time to set up an interview. So I ran to the phone and started dialing. They told me that I could interview with them tomorrow at 9:00 AM and that they would give me an application and they would interview me. The first thing that I did was go to tell my dad. He was so proud of me already and I didn’t even know if I got the job. That night after dinner I went upstairs to find my nicest clothes in my closet. I found a nice long sleeve collared shirt and some nice khaki dress pants, then I went into my dad’s closet and got his nicest tie and I was set for the job interview.

That next day was a beautiful, January morning, with a clear sky, and wasn’t to cold, about 73 degrees. From “Over the Rhine” to “Clifton” is about a half and hour drive, so I left at about 8:15. The boards’ office was just a little one story building out of the city. I walked in and waited in the waiting room for just a little while, and then my name was called. “Chuck Stevenson” Mrs. Harlem will be seeing you now. I walked into a little office with two chairs and a desk. They first handed me an application and she said, “I will come back in a little while to see if you’re done yet.” The application just had questions like your name, date of birth, and just some other personal questions. So Mrs. Harlem came back in about 10 minutes. Now came the interview. This is where she just wanted to see my personal life and my listening skills. I think that I handled it pretty well. I think that she did too. At the end she said that you were the type that we were looking for and what elementary grade would you prefer. I thought a little bit and decided that I would like to be a 2nd grade teacher. She shook my hand and said, “Congratulations, Welcome to Clifton Schools.”

I did it; I got a job, not at a Hot Dog place but a real job, what I went to college for. Wow that sounds so good, to finally say that. I just couldn’t stop thinking of what my room was going to look like or if my students were going to be good students or not, I was just so excited. The moment I got home I ran into our house, just so excited. My dad wasn’t really used to this so he just turned around laughing, but right when he turned around I embraced him with a huge hug. He forgot that I had my interview and said “What made you this happy?” So I told him I got the job at Clifton, and let me tell you we celebrated like we never had before! We went out to eat to our favorite restaurant, Skyline. Then went to Graters Ice cream after that. That may seem just like a regular Friday to you but that was the best time that I have ever had, with my family.

Clifton schools started very early for schools, the teachers first day was July 17th. Then the kids started on the 20th. Starting at the first of July I would go in to my room at school and start to decorate it and just give it a final cleaning. My room had just that elementary teacher look. Except for the fact that I had a Nerf Basketball hoop above my door. This was to show the kids my favorite sport and so that they could have a little fun on Fridays. I am going to make it that every Friday at the end of the day we would have a Math shootout. First you would have to answer a math problem and if you got it right you would stay in, and then you would get to shoot for a piece of candy. The math problems and the length of the shot got harder as the game went on.

Today is the day, July 20th, the first day that I have kids. After looking at my group it seemed that we had a good group of kids. Well at least no one got in trouble the first day. We started on a Wednesday, so the rest of the week was explaining the school rules and my rules. But as you know we have Shootout Friday, on Friday. I was surprised we had some really smart kids when it came to math. We got all the way up to 7+3. Everyone in class got a piece of candy. In the first couple of weeks no one was sent to the principal’s office or was sent to “time out” except for me. The secretary came into the room and said the Mrs. Reynolds the principal wanted me, she said that she would watch over the class while I was gone. While I was walking I just thought that there was a new student or something that I needed to know about. But when I got there, there were two officers standing in the corner. The principal said that they finally caught the two people who escaped from prison about 3 years ago and now they are looking for the last one. I am sorry but you need to go with these men, they already found out that your father helped he is in the police car waiting.

So there it all ended, now I am back in prison, but this time I am not so lucky, I am serving 15 years plus the three years I missed. But this at least time I will have a roommate, my father.