Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2016 15:55:11 +0100
From: Reickard Masters <succme@zoho.com>
Subject: Juvenile Detention 25

JUVENILE DETENTION

Chapter 25 – The Check-up

After his return from breakfast, Officer Albert helped Josh to change into
a clean overall and the two of them made their way to the car that would
take them to the hospital for Josh's check-up. This time a driver would
drop them off and return to collect them when Officer Albert phoned him.

At the end of an uneventful trip they entered the outpatient
department. Josh could feel eyes turn towards him as people stared at this
teen being escorted by a prison officer. He could almost feel them cringe
away in case they got infected by something and this upset him. Officer
Albert took him over to the automatic check-in screen and after they had
checked in and found the zone they had to wait at, Officer Albert took Josh
towards that zone's waiting area. As they passed a little kiosk, Albert
asked Josh if he wanted anything, to which Josh replied that he had no
money and no way to pay him back.

"I know that, Josh. This is my treat. Coke or coffee?"

"Thank you. I would like a coffee, I think. It has been a while since I had
one."

"What type – flat white, latte, cappuccino, Americano ... ?"

"A latte would be great, thanks."

"One latte coming up." Officer Albert left Josh standing in the main
thoroughfare, unguarded and not cuffed, while he stepped up to the counter
and ordered two lattes. Once they were served he turned and signaled to
Josh to join him while he put in sugar and stirred Josh's coffee for him
and then did the same for his. Albert carried both cups as they went over
to a relatively private corner of the waiting area and sat down.

"You seemed a bit upset when we were in the atrium."

"Yeah, I noticed how people stared at me and then shied away as if I had
some disease that would infect them if they got too close. It upset me."

"Yeah, I noticed that too. It is a shame that people get a single idea of
what constitutes a detention centre inmate. Then their prejudice paints all
inmates with the same colour."

"But we are all different. Some of us are in there because of a silly
mistake or something beyond our control. Look at Jas and what she has been
through and yet she is still a nice girl. Andy and Chris are not bad sorts,
and when they get out I doubt they will be back."

"Yes and you guys are in the majority, but it is the stereotypical bad guy
who gets the press, and that is the picture that the general public has for
criminals of any age."

"When I get out I am going to try and change that. Oh, I will get my name
cleared first, but then I will set about giving interviews and telling
people that we aren't all bad ones. Just people who made a mistake we will
regret the rest of our lives."

"I wish you luck with that. And if you want to give a name for someone to
be interviewed you can give them my name."

"Thank you. I think I will have to come up with a good slogan or catch
phrase for it before I begin though."

"How about something along the lines of what is enough punishment. Like `Is
a custodial sentence enough – or should there be life-long
punishment?'."

"You have already been thinking about this sort of thing haven't you?"

"Yes I have. I have seen the likes of Andy and Chris many times over and
then seen how they struggled after their sentence because no one wanted to
employ them or even be their friend. That is not right. If we are going to
punish people like that then everyone should be punished like that,
including ourselves because we all have done things that were wrong. Maybe
not to the same degree but they were still wrong."

"Would you be willing to help me with it then?"

"Josh, in my job I have to be very careful. We are required to be
a-political and cannot show any bias or preference towards anything
connected with our work. So I can give an interview, but I can't
campaign. I cannot reveal any personal data for any individual, so I can
only speak in general terms. But what I can do is to arrange for you to
interview different inmates to learn about them and see observations made
about them by some of the officers. So yes I will help you, but it will
have to be in the background. And there are a number of officers at the
academy who will help you in the same way."

"Thanks, Officer Albert. I appreciate that."

Josh's name came up on the screen and the teen and his guard made their way
into the consultation room.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Tolmers. I see you have still got the trust of the
officers," the doctor said. He was the same doctor who had examined and
treated Josh when he was first brought in with the injury. "I see from the
records we did not do as good a job as we should have and you got some
infection after all."

"It was not your fault. The guys used a fork that had been working horse
shit," Josh replied.

"Thank you for your understanding. How is the arm now?"

"There is still quite a bit of pain and having this plaster on makes things
quite awkward."

"Right. We will see what we can do about the plaster. What about your
testicles? Any problems there?"

"No, they are fine."

"Good. Let's have a look at you then." The doctor got up from his seat and
moved over to where Josh was sitting. He pulled back some of the dressing
on the wound, which was healing rather well now that the infection had been
sorted. "I am going to cut the plaster off and do an ultrasound examination
to see if the muscles have fused together properly. I need you to make sure
you do not straighten your elbow at all. Okay?"

"I will do my best."

"Good, let's go then. Officer, you can come too and help; that way we will
not have to wait while we get a nurse to assist."

The three guys stood and Josh and Albert followed the doctor down the
outpatients ward to a corridor where they turned right. After a short
distance the doctor opened a door and indicated for the two to go in. Josh
was guided to sit in a chair and rest his plastered arm on a table that
could be adjusted in height. The doctor pumped the pedal on the floor and
the table lifted a bit until Josh was sitting comfortably with his arm
fully supported on the table.

"Officer, what I need you to do is to hold Mr. Tolmers' hand and shoulder
so that when the plaster comes off he is not able to move his arm. You must
be prepared for him to try because it is totally natural for him to
try. His arm has been held in the same place for a week and initially
Mr. Tolmers will not be able to stop himself from trying and so you must be
his will power for those first few seconds."

"Okay, doc. I will do my best." Officer Albert moved around and stood at
one end of the table where he could put his hand on Josh's shoulder and
then lean forward to hold Josh's hand firmly on the table.

"That's good. Now what I am going to do is to cut up the inside of the
plaster. Then you will need to hold Mr. Tolmers while I do a second cut up
the outside and literally cut his plaster in half. I will then lift the top
off and you must keep holding him until I say it is okay."

"Got it."

"Now, Mr. Tolmers, I need you to sit as still as you can. These shears are
shaped to prevent cuts to the patient, but I still have to cut through an
inside corner and that is not easy. I will do my best not to hurt you."

"And I will do my best to stay still and not cry."

"A good sense of humour helps you through a lot of troubles. Keep it up,
boy."

The doctor got busy with the shears and the plaster came off. Albert held
Josh firmly and could feel the momentary tug as Josh instinctively tried to
straighten his arm.

"Right. Mr. Tolmers, I think you have got control now. Can you hold your
arm still without the help of the officer?"

"I didn't believe you at first and was surprised. It was almost as if my
arm was not a part of me and I could not stop myself from trying to move
it. But, yes, thank you, I think I have got control now."

"Good. Officer, will you let go of his shoulder first, please." Albert
released Josh's shoulder and Josh was able to stay perfectly still. "Well
done. You can let go of Mr. Tolmers' hand as well now. Thank you for your
assistance. Now we can take a look at what the muscle is doing inside
there."

The doctor wheeled up an instrument stand and squirted some gel onto the
sonar plate. He then put this against Josh's arm and the three of them
looked at the `V' shaped image that appeared on the monitor screen. The
doctor clearly enjoyed his role and set about explaining to Josh and Albert
what they were seeing. "That very light bit there is the bone, and this
black line is the blood vessel and this grey striped bit is the
muscle. That is how it looks when it is good, but let's now move down to
where the injury is. You see how the pattern in the grey part goes
silly. That is where the muscle was torn during the attack. But you can
also see this line of slightly lighter shading around the damage zone. That
is scar tissue and it tells me that this is healing very nicely but is not
quite there yet. I am sorry, Mr. Tolmers, but we will have to put a new
cast on for another week. I will make it a bit smaller this time, but it
will still keep your elbow bent."

Half an hour later a rather happier inmate walked out of the outpatients
department and waited with Officer Albert for the car to arrive to take
them back.

"I am going to phone Officer Stuart and let him know to expect you so he
can stop the other two making their way to the infirmary to collect you for
lunch."

"I know this is going to sound weird, but I am kind of looking forward to
being back in the cell."

"No, it is not weird. You have effectively been in hospital for a week. It
is not strange to want to get back home. For you, right now, home is your
cell."

"Thank you, Officer Albert, for helping me while I was in the
infirmary. Will I get a chance to come back and thank Officer Simon, do you
think?"

"Well, we still need to get that plaster cut off, so you have at least one
more hospital visit. I should think Officer Simon will be on duty for that,
but I will tell him that you say thank you, just in case."

"I appreciate that. Thank you."

The driver took a while to get to them, so it was nearly lunch time when
Officer Albert led Josh back to the desk and handed him over to Officer
Stuart with what was left of his course of antibiotics.



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