Warning: This is a fictional story that deals with non-con themes as a young man comes to terms with - and ultimately enjoys - his new life in prison.
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Chapter 1: Turned Out
The strangeness of being told you face life in prison is winding. In my case it knocked me so hard that a loud ringing sounded out in my ears and the rest of what the officer was telling me faded into the background hum of the hospital ward - the beeping and buzzing of machines, the chattering and wailing coming from down the hall; I couldn't focus on anything. The same thought ran around and around my mind as I focused in and then dazed out again of a dream-like state, holding back tears and an overwhelming urge to cry out.
'Do you understand?' The police officer's stern voice brought me harshly back to reality. 'You are being charged with DUI - your third strike.'
There it was again, more words that felt like a punch to the gut, leaving me winded. I couldn't say anything; it was like I couldn't put my brain into gear and coordinate it to engage my voice. I nodded sheepishly, trying to digest the information that I was being told.
I was lying in a hospital bed recovering from a knee surgery after having been in a car accident. I had only a vague recollection, but I knew the accident had been my fault. I was out drinking - celebrating a friend's 21st birthday - and instead of taking a cab home made the utterly reckless decision to drive. I didn't recall the accident, but here I was still alive - relatively unscathed - to take responsibility. The winded feeling in my stomach suddenly became overpowering, I leaned over the side of the bed and vomited onto the ground. I felt scared and alone.
The next two and a half months were mentally and physically exhausting for me. Due to complications from my surgery, I was kept in hospital for the duration of my trial - as the gravity of my situation crystallised before me. Faced with a possible life sentence, my family managed to scrape together enough money for a lawyer - a stout man named Clive - who never failed to remind me each time we met how lucky I was to spend my pre-trial detention here rather than in jail. He did nothing to reassure me and whatever way you looked at it, the cards were stacked against me. I won't lie; as the days and weeks ticked by, I was petrified about going to prison and I begged Clive to do everything possible to get me off the hook.
I knew what people said about prison; how someone like me would have to fight for my life and even just the thought of it exhausted me. I had slowly been discovering my sexuality, but had yet to act on my feelings in any way. Now those years - that important formative period of my life - would be stolen away from me and I was afraid about what the replacement was going to look like.
As the case came to trial, the judge told me he had no choice, it was my third time in the dock - he had no choice but to impose a hefty maximum sentence. I couldn't believe it. I was a good person, but my drinking had gotten out of hand and now I was facing the prospect of losing the next decade - at least - of my life behind bars.
***
The outcome of the trial was devastating. I had been living in a kind of bubble at the hospital - encouraged by the support of nurses and physios to get me back on my feet and a feeling that I was achieving something and moving forward. The sentence came in; 20 years. I felt winded again. I hadn't contested the charge and held out hope somewhere in the back of my mind of leniency.
'The judge doesn't take well to DUI cases,' Clive informed me by way of explanation, 'but we can appeal.' That did nothing to assuage my disappointment at all. I knew my parents didn't have the means to appeal - maybe there would be other ways to do it, but at that moment I didn't care.
Twenty years!
It ran over and over in my head. The shock of that night; of being led into custody was immense. Up until that point - as long as I hadn't been in custody - the situation wasn't quite real. Here I now was though, being led away in chains and taken to prison; the first night I would spend locked up in my whole life.
Much of the experience of prison is more tedious than you could imagine. I felt exhausted by the process of registration alone. I had forms to sign, rules were explained to me and the process of what would happen the following day; all I managed to retain was that I was going to a holding cell for the time-being. I later learned that this place is known as the fishbowl, due to the fact that new arrivals are known as fish and everything that happens in the holding cells is visible to most of the other convicts from their own confinement. This is where I would spend the next two weeks while my papers were processed and I would be assigned a job and a cell. The fishbowl was like a regular cell in most respects, only much larger, to accommodate the new arrivals that would come in almost weekly. After registration, I was led up to the door of the big cell with my bedroll in my arms; I stood anxiously, with eyes darting around trying to get a look at what I was walking into, acutely aware I didn't want to catch anyone's attention.
'CARLSON! - you're in bunk 4, back wall; lower bunk,' the guard yelled.
Carlson; that was me. Brett Carlson, white, 21 years' young, reasonably built - or so I had thought - and with a lonely night ahead of me.
I inched slowly into the cell and made a bee-line for my bunk; sensing the eyes of my new cell mates follow me. The door quickly clanked shut behind, I threw my bedroll down and I sat on the bottom bunk, looking down between my legs. My arms were trembling, I didn't even dare look up. I stayed like this for the next hour, terrified to look around me; wishing I could be anywhere but here. Eventually, as the time ticked by I slowly built up the courage to look around. The cell had room for 8 men, but at that moment there were only 6 of us. My bed was tucked in at the back corner up against the wall. Then there was another bunk beside mine running perpendicular and two in the middle of the cell pushed up against the opposite wall.
Carefully - without catching anyone's eyes - I surveyed my cellmates. I instantly felt a wave of disappointment; there was no one there that looked like me. It was the first thing Clive had said to me after the hearing. Find the guys that look like you and go talk to them - they've been there and will be friendlier than you think. I was the only young person among the group of six, otherwise there were three black guys and two Hispanics. Lying on his bed opposite me one of the Hispanics briefly caught my glance and I quickly looked back down at my feet.
'Carlson huh? I'm Ricki,' he said by way of introduction.