LIFE IN PRISON
I was taken to the county seat wherein the assault took place, and
lodged in jail. My experiences in this jail were similar to my first
experiences in such a place. I found there the same indiscriminate
mixing, regardless of age. Of course I was a bit more hardened in crime
now, and I suppose the environment didn’t have the same influence as it
had much earlier in my career.
I was confined to the jail for about six weeks before I appeared before
the judge and entered a plea of non vult to the indictment against me.
This plea of non vult is a plea acknowledging one’s guilt but mitigated
by the fact that the offender meant no violation of the law.
The judge was lenient with me, and gave me the lightest sentence
the statute would allow--one year in State prison. I received this
sentence with a sincere satisfaction. I knew it meant the end of the
reform school for me. At the end of the prison sentence I was free
to go again out into the world. By this time my mind had formed by
association and environment a desire and determination to live entirely
in the underworld. I would live by my wits; I would prey against
society. With this determination I made every endeavor to learn the
little tricks of the shadowy profession. I had not decided into which
particular class of the underworld I should enter. There were certain
classes I could hope to enter only by a severe apprenticeship. I left
that for the time when opportunity should decide. However, I had made
up my mind that into some phase of the life I would put all of my being.
In this state of mind I entered the principal prison of the State. I
was eager for the opportunity to get in contact with some of the big
men. I was confident of a ready welcome, and expected the ten months to
prove a valuable asset to my after life.