Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2015 06:28:17 +0100 From: Rick Masters Subject: Juvenile Detention 9 JUVENILE DETENTION Chapter 9 – The First Day The cell block was virtually empty when Josh and Andy returned to dump Josh's bedding. When they left, the last of the residents in that block, the barred gate closed behind them. Andy quickly reminded Josh that talking in the corridors was not permitted and they walked on in silence, past the dining room and then through an unlocked door into a corridor that Josh had not been in before. They got to the end of the corridor and Andy pressed a bell push beside the door there. At the buzz Andy turned the handle and opened the door, holding it for Josh to pass through and then letting it close behind him. "I will leave you at the office. They will be expecting you and will put you through some tests to see where you need to be placed and then will fill you in on what you need to do. We go straight from classes to lunch, so join our line outside the dining hall when you are dismissed," Andy told Josh as he led him to another door which he was able to open without pressing a bell push. "Catch you later." Andy pointed to an officer behind a service window. Josh walked up to the window and stood straight with his hands at his side. As he came to a stop the officer behind the window looked him up and down and said, "Ah, you must be Tolmers?" "Yes, sir," Josh replied. "Don't call me sir. Call me Officer George. I've just got a couple of papers to sort out here and then we will get you started. Stand over by the door on the left there and wait for me," Officer George told Josh. "Yes, Officer George," Josh answered and moved to the place where he had been told to go. Josh waited for about five minutes before George opened the door from the other side and called him through. "A little tip: if you do not know an Officer's chosen mode of address, call him or her Officer and they will mostly correct you. We are not all tyrants seeking to display our power over you. Most of us want to encourage you to improve so that when you get out you don't come back." "Thank you, Officer George. I should have thought of that myself," Josh replied. "I don't think you need to be so harsh on yourself. You have not been here for a full twenty four hours yet and things are not the same as at home. Let the others help and guide you and you won't go far wrong," Officer George said. "Now we have to give you a bit of a test to make sure we put you where you will cope with the lessons. All the teachers here are qualified teachers first and Academy officers second, so you will get good instruction. Sit at this table. You have one hour to complete the test. Read all the questions carefully and then answer the ones you are sure of first and go back to the others after that. There is no clock so you will have no way of knowing how quickly or slowly the hour is passing. If you have finished all the questions and no one has come to collect your work go back over it. If you need a new pencil or get sick or something push that button on the wall there and I will come to check on you. Remember this is not an exam as such but just to help guide us to place you correctly. It does not matter how well or how badly you do. We will get you properly placed." Josh sat down and picked up the pencil, noting it was one of those with a little eraser on the blunt end. The paper was on the table in front of him but had been turned over so that all he could see was a blank page. "Your hour will start from the time I tell you turn your paper over. Do you have any questions before you begin?" Officer George asked. "Not at the moment, Officer George," Josh answered. "Good." Officer George looked at his watch and then said, "Turn your paper over. You have one hour." Josh turned the paper over and began to read through it. About half way through he turned back to the front to see if there was any indication of who the test was meant for, because he felt he was at least two years ahead of the level it was set at. He could not find anything at the start of the test, so he read on. Near the bottom of the last page was a black figure sixteen on a yellow back ground. Josh presumed that meant the test was for sixteen year olds; he could not understand how they could set a test so behind for his age group. Going back to the front he began to pencil in his answers. As instructed Josh went back and checked his answers once he had completed the paper and felt satisfied he had answered them all correctly. Josh sat for a while longer and then thought that perhaps he should let Officer George know he had finished and pushed the button. "You got a problem?" George asked as he stepped into the room. "No. No problem; I'm finished is all and I thought I should tell you," Josh said. "Have you checked your work also?" George asked. "Yes. I read it through and then answered the questions and then checked it twice," Josh confirmed. "Well that is the fastest I have seen it done. Okay, you will have to wait here for a bit longer while it is assessed and I will then come back to you. Do you want a drink of water while you wait?" Officer George asked. "I'm okay, thank you, Officer George. I had some at breakfast," Josh replied. "Fine. Sit there and wait for my return," George told him and left the room with the paper and the pencil. Josh sat for a bit but then got restless and began to walk around the room. There was not a lot for him to do. The walls were devoid of any pictures or charts, and the only furniture in the room was the table and chair Josh had used when taking the assessment test. Like his cell block it was an internal room, so it had no windows for him to look out of. With no watch Josh had nothing to judge time by, and of course this made his wait seem even longer than the half hour it took for Officer George to return. "Kid, what are you doing here?" George asked. "I thought I was waiting for you," Josh replied, rather confused. "No, not that. I mean why are you in this place? You are much too bright to have done the usual sort of thing that gets you placed with us. And if it was not that then you would have been sent elsewhere. So why are you here?" "Would it make any difference if I told you it was a mistake that no one wants to look into or even listen to?" "I'm listening. Tell me, because you have already got my curiosity up. I mean, usually the guys who do this test take the full hour and still don't complete, and half of what they do get done is wrong. But here we are, there is still five minutes left of your hour and not only have you completed the test, but it has been marked and you got one hundred percent. I have been with this place since it opened and I have never seen anything close to this, so you have got my attention. Talk." Once more Josh found himself telling his story, only this time he ended it with: "This is now at least the fifth time I have told someone my story, but it seems that those who can or should be able to do something aren't interested or don't believe me, and the ones who do believe me can't do anything about it." "Well I can't promise anything, but I will certainly see if I can get some action going on trying to prove the truth in your story, because I believe you. Who else have you told your story to?" Officer George asked. "Thank you for believing me. That is more than my own parents did. In fact my father did not even want to hear my side of the story," Josh said and then had to pause while he got some control over his emotions again. "I told my lawyer, but he did nothing about it. I told the police when I got arrested, but they did not believe me. The judge didn't even ask me to say anything, so he did not get told. I told the two officers who brought me here and they said they would try and do something, but I don't know what they can do any more than you or Officer Stuart, but at least you guys believe me. And I have told some of the inmates here. They believe me too, but clearly they can't do anything," Josh told George. "And do you think that Officer Stuart believed you?" "I am not totally sure, but I think he did, and he seems to be an understanding person. At least he listened to me like you just did. Even if there is nothing that can be done until I get out of here, I have been encouraged that there are people who will listen to me." "That's right. But until we do see you leave us, we need to place you in a class where you will be kept up to stream with your education, because you will still need that when you get out, whenever that is. Come along with me and I will introduce you to your tutor." Officer George led Josh out of the bare room and back out of the administration office. He took him down a corridor and opened a door. Stepping through the door, he led Josh up to the teacher's desk and spoke quietly to the teacher. Josh was quite conscious of his nakedness again as he saw the class was a mixed group, and while there were some guys from his cell block, the majority of the class were made up from other cell blocks. The teacher then gave Josh a good looking over and pointed to an empty seat in the middle of the room next to a rather good looking blond haired boy in the favourite choice of dress for the day – orange overalls. Josh made a mental note to investigate why so many penal institutions around the world chose orange overalls for the inmate's attire. The tutor, Officer Edward, watched in silence as Josh made his way to the seat he had been directed to and sat down. "Right, class. We have a new student with us today. Mr. Tolmers has seen fit to delight us with his company. I expect the rest of you to help him if he needs it, although I have been led to believe that he might not need it. Mr. Tolmers, although I am to be addressed as Officer Edward, I am first and foremost a fully qualified and experienced teacher. Do not think that you can bluff your way through my classes. At our next break you will come with me and we will kit you out with your books and whatever else you might need." Officer Edward paused again and then took up the lesson from where he left off. The blond boy he was sitting next to did not say anything to him, but wrote on a piece of paper, "Hi, I'm Nathan. We do not speak in the class unless we are called upon to do so by the teacher so keep quiet." He slid the paper over the desk top to Josh along with the pen he had used to write the note. Josh read the note and then when the teacher was turned towards the white board at the front of the class he quickly replied, "Hi, I'm Josh. Thanks for the warning," and slid the paper back to Nathan. Nathan read his reply and turning towards Josh he smiled and then returned his attention to the teacher and the lesson. It took Josh only a few minutes to work out that they were having a physics lesson, although initially he had thought that it might be a maths lesson with algebra. Five minutes into the lesson, Josh was feeling quite confident that he would cope with the class, because he knew what they were studying and had actually been studying the same material the term before he got arrested. At least this meant that they were up to date and were even using the same text book he had sitting on his desk back at his parents' house. As Josh thought of it as his `parents' house' he did a mental double take. He realised that he had not thought of it as his home but his parents' almost as if he was no longer living there. Over the coming weeks he would revisit that idea many times, realising that he already considered himself to be separated from his family. At the end of the physics lesson Officer Edward told the class they could have a ten minute break to use the toilet and get a drink while he sorted Josh out with his books. It was a good job that Josh had declined the drink offered by Officer George earlier, because he was not given the opportunity to go the toilet or to get a drink himself. Instead he had to accompany Officer Edward to the store room, where his text books and stationery were registered out to him as each item had a number in or on it. He was also given a case in which to carry and store his stuff along with a pack of five exercise books. Edward explained to Josh that at the end of the lessons for the day his case would be checked back in and all its contents needed to be there. "Not that you have any place to hide anything on you at present," Edward said, smiling at his little joke at Josh's expense. "What little gem of information did your companion give you when you exchanged your little notes earlier?" Officer Edward asked, surprising Josh as he thought he had been discreet enough not to have been caught. "He just told me his name and not to talk unless you told us to," Josh replied. "And what was your response that caused him to look on you with those doleful eyes?" Edward asked again. "I told him my name and thanked him for the warning," Josh answered. "How were you with the rest of the lesson then?" "We did this same material from the same book last term at my old school so I found it okay. I was quite pleased that I remembered most of it so far," Josh told him. "Good. That is encouraging to hear. As I told you, I am a teacher before I am a detention centre officer, so if you are unsure and need help on anything, do not hesitate to ask. If it is during a lesson then I am afraid you have to do so like a little school boy and raise your hand. Wait for me to ask you to speak because I have been known to send pupils to the cooler for speaking before they have been given permission," Edward warned Josh. "Now we had better get back to the class room. This next lesson is English. We combine both language and literature together and use the work on the literature material to help teach the language side of using English." "That should make it more interesting. I like that idea." Josh found that he had confidence with Edward and felt he could express his ideas and opinions. "Thank you. It was my idea to work like this and it has been adopted by most of the multi-discipline teachers at the Academy," Officer Edward told Josh. "You are a bright lad according to Officer George, and I will be looking at your test paper later, but a little suggestion. For today, don't volunteer anything and I will not ask you anything. Tomorrow will be different as I will put you to a bit of a test by asking you some things from today's lessons. So pay attention and no more notes." Josh accompanied Edward back to the class room and as they neared it they could hear the others inside talking to each other but as soon as Edward walked in they all stopped talking and turned to face the front. As Josh made his way to his seat Nathan looked at him and smiled again. Josh returned the silent greeting and sat down next to him. The lessons continued until it was lunch time and they had to line up and have their cases checked in. For this a couple of other officers came in and helped the teaching officer to check each case against the registered list of what had been issued. Following that Josh followed some of the guys he had recognised from his cell block to make sure he got back to the dining room. Josh was not sure, but he was beginning to think that there were more corridors than rooms in the building, he had walked along so many of them, and they all looked the same. Once they had been seated and were eating their meal, Andy questioned Josh about his class and commented that he was lucky, because he had been placed with one of the best tutors in the Academy. "Who was that officer we saw at the Desk this morning? Josh asked. "Oh, officer Stuart. He is Officer Succum's 2 IC and is currently doing the day shift. On Monday he will be off for the day and will come in on nights and Officer Succum will take over on days from Tuesday morning. There will be another officer who holds the rule for Monday's day shift." Andy explained. Just before the end of lunch, when they would once more have to follow a silent rule to get back to their cell block, Andy checked with Josh if he felt he could find the right door again. Josh simply explained that he had counted the doors and now knew that it was the fourth door on the right from their cell block door. Thus it was he made his solo way towards that door, not knowing what to expect but feeling fairly certain that he would get some sort of sexual activity in the office. Please consider making a donation to this site to help keep it going and providing entertaining stories for you to read. Thank you. Rick