Incarcerated Again

​I learned that T had visited a phone store with his brothers, and on the way out was approached by an undercover police officer with his weapon drawn. T got in the car and took off. He’d fled the police before and this time they weren’t happy about it. Cook County Jail is where he ended up healing from his surgery.

I went to the jail to visit him. I wanted answers. You don’t just go from making changes in your life to being back in jail. When I got there I was surprised to see that he was still in pretty good spirits. Something he told me during the visit has stuck with me. He said that God was looking out for him, and that was why he was in jail. Remember I said the streets are a drug too? He had been back in his old neighborhood and had a feeling that he wanted to cause trouble that night. Before he could do anything the officer approached him. He didn’t know what he might have ended up doing, but if he had not gotten caught when he did, he might be locked up for a worse crime.

The odds of T getting bail were slim but I went to court with him in hopes that the judge would recognize he was not all bad. Maybe they would take mercy on him and let him out. He did get bail, but it was steep. It was going to be a challenge to come up with all $7000. I went to see him again while we were waiting to get it all together, but now Covid hit and things at the Cook County Jail were getting scary. It took some time but I helped T’s family collect the money. Once they had it all together I went with his mom to pay the bail and finally get him out again. This time T had to have learned his lesson. But now he was on house arrest and that brings a whole new set of issues. In order for T to work he had to get approval from the judge and this wasn’t so easy. Not only did he have to get approval to work, he had to get it every month, which was a struggle. Most of the time he only got movement about one week each month. The sheriff’s office makes it very difficult for inmates on house arrest to get movement and work. Not to mention, things at home were making it harder and harder for T to keep working. He was letting things get in the way of what was most important. Slowly, I felt he was slipping away and wasn’t sure that things were ever going to change for this kid.