Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Surviving Juvenile Prison | What's it Like to be a Kid in Prison
15 Nov 2025
Chapter 1: What types of juvenile facilities are there?
There's a few different types of facilities that a juvenile can go to. The first one I'm going to name is a detention center. That's a holding facility. That's where you go when you wait for a court proceeding. The second one is a residential placement facility.
From my experience, those places can be ultimately worse than some of the secure places because of the amount of freedom that these kids can have. Then there is secure placements. Then there is state secure, which is essentially a juvenile prison ran by the state. So I was born in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. It was my mom, my dad, and my older brother. And we lived there for quite a while.
My mom ended up getting pregnant with my younger brother, which then caused us to have to move out of that apartment. And we ended up moving to a place
different place in new jersey about 20 minutes away where was your dad he was there he was there the whole time he's still here oh okay we moved to a different apartment complex i guess that's when i started to realize some weird things going on um you know my mom has bipolar disorder you know so what i know now to be bipolar disorder i was just it you know it was just odd behavior
right right so you know one minute she's sleeping for weeks on end you know the next day she's up oh i'm going back to college i'm doing this i'm doing that you know so that was kind of an unsettling environment for me um so we ended up getting kicked out of that apartment complex my brother and some neighborhood kids um flooded the bathrooms and like a recreational facility in the apartment you know they put toilet paper in the urinals and flooded it
Uh, so we got kicked out. Um, we ended up moving to a different house in New Jersey. It was like a farm style house. It was actually a duplex. We moved there. Um, and this is when, you know, my mom's mental health really took a toll. Um, she, you know, she wasn't, you know, she's not the type of person to be very delusional, but, but it's just erratic, you know, it's erratic behavior.
It's this, it's that, you know, it's a million miles an hour. You know, she's a manic depressive, right.
um so she ends up getting pregnant with my younger sister we're living at this farmhouse um and you know one morning me and my dad my older brother wake up and my mom my little sister my little brother aren't home you know my mom ended up you know the marriage was really on thin ice they ended up getting into an argument my mom took them to texas to move with her sister so that didn't last very long you know my dad got the kids back whatever
But my mom ended up moving into a mental facility.
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Chapter 2: How did Carter's family dynamics change during his childhood?
She ended up, you know, needing some type of treatment. And I think she realized that for herself at a certain point. Right. Yeah. How old were you? Dude, I'm like not even seven at this point, maybe eight, you know. So, you know, it got a little too much for my dad because my dad has to work a full time job at the time he was a teacher and take care of four kids.
So some of his family ended up intervening like, hey, you know, One kid can live here, one kid can live here. So I ended up moving in with an aunt and uncle. My older brother ended up moving in with a different aunt and uncle. My younger sister moved in with her grandmother. And my dad ended up moving back into his parents' house with my younger brother, right?
um and this was like kind of a lonely time for me because you know here i am eight years old seven maybe and i'm living with somebody i'm comfortable with and i know and trust them but you know they're not my immediate family right you know so it you know although i was being taken care of and they're great people it it wasn't where i wanted to be right and it's just a confusing time because i'm like you know what's going on with mom why is why is she leaving you know you know i felt bad for my dad i felt bad for my younger siblings
And that's where I lived for about eight months, maybe closer a year, you know. So we end up grouping back together about almost a year later and we move into Pennsylvania. My dad got a new job and we all, you know, group back up and move to an apartment complex in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, about 15, 10 minutes from where I'm at now. A lot of apartment complexes in my story. So we move there.
And at this point, I'm nine. You know, I end up meeting one of my best friends that I'm still friends with today. You know, and I have some good memories there, but that's when I remember my oldest brother getting involved with drugs. I now know that, you know, he was about 12 years old and he's taking Oxycontin and doing pills.
One of the kids that lived near us, you know, this kid's mom had a stash, man. And, you know, I remember this Even years later, this kid's mom just had so many of these pills. Right. And I feel like that's a story that a lot of kids have like, oh, you know, I found this bag of pills and my parents, blah, blah, blah. And I've been taking them. They don't really know what they are.
They just know it makes them feel good. Right.
Right. So I take the wrong Oxycontin. You end up dead.
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember my brother like like I remember waking up one morning and he's throwing up in his room. And I'm like, dude, what's going on? And he's like, oh, I'm sick. I'm sick. I now know that, you know, he took too much and he was having a bad reaction. But that's where we lived for about two years after that.
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Chapter 3: What led to Carter's involvement in petty crimes?
And I'm kind of like like attached to this group. And I, you know, one of the first things I really enjoyed doing was, oh, OK, we'll go into Trenton, New Jersey, which is, you know, five, 10 minutes from where we're at, you know, car rides. We're walking up there and we're, you know, we're exploring these abandoned buildings.
And that was like the first kind of thing that I would do that was adventurous and out, you know. So we're doing that. And I remember at this point, you know, I have drugs around me, but I'm not participating in the drugs. I still, I think, held myself at a higher standard. I'm not putting anything in my body. I'm not doing that right.
Either way, I end up, you know, it becomes so normal to me that I end up going, you know, why are these kids smoking? What's to it? You know? And I feel like that curiosity just came out of me. Right. One night we're standing in a circle. I mean, these dudes, you know, I'm 11 and they're 15, 16, some, you know, into their twenties even. Right. You know, a neighborhood group of kids. Right.
And they're smoking this blunt. And I looked to the dude who's, who's, it wasn't like, Hey man, you think I could, I could smoke with you guys. And he looks to my brother. He's like, you want to let your, your brother smoke? And I think he's like, yeah, if he wants to do that, that's on him. Right. So I end up I end up smoking. And I remember really enjoying it.
You know, I remember it being like like it's like you just found something new, you know, and it's like, oh, my God, where has this been at all my life? And that's that kind of sparked it. You know, now I'm smoking. And then the thievery starts. You know, at first it's small. It's, hey, man, I'm hungry. We have no money. What do you guys want to do?
Oh, let's go to the grocery store up the street and steal a hoagie and some soda, some energy drinks, right? But then it starts to go into a way of how can we, you know, get money from this, right? How can we come up, right?
So one of the first things I ended up doing is we go to a local mall, four or five guys bring a big backpack, and we're going to the JCPenney and we're putting four shoes in each bag, right? So, you know, we're leaving with 10 pairs of shoes, 12 pairs of shoes. Right. I don't know how they didn't catch us, man. But we'd walk out and go to this clothing store nearby and we just resell the shoes.
And these shoes are $70. We're selling them 12 a piece. Right. So we're getting no money back. Around this time, something happened. You know, we would just do a lot of dumb stuff. You know, we weren't putting guns in people's faces. We weren't doing anything like that. But we were causing havoc to the neighborhood, I'll explain. It's like May at this point.
And in Pennsylvania, fireworks are illegal. So you could buy them from a lot of stores, right? So the grocery store near where we lived had a fireworks section. It's one night. I'm hanging out and... You know, I'm like, oh, man, you know, I'm about to go home. I'm 11. You know, my birthday is about to come in a few months. I'm about to be 12. So I'm like, oh, man, I'm about to go home. I'm tired.
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Chapter 4: How did Carter's actions impact his life trajectory?
And I remember there's two people ahead of me and I'm walking in a group with my brothers next to me and another friends next to me. And it's maybe 11, 1130 at this point in night.
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And I looked at my brother. I'm like, yo, we got to get him to sleep over. And if we come back too late, my dad's going to He's not going to have it. He's going to get out of here too late. Right. So we're like, OK, we're going back. You know, we we dab up to people in front of us and we leave to go back to my house.
I remember just sitting in my room with my friend and we just start hearing these sirens. And, you know, like when you're at home, you just start hearing all these sounds like, oh, something's going on. Right. That's that's what's happening. But it's not registering in our mind that something's really wrong. We just think, oh, these cops are trying to catch us and we're inside.
You know, I'm in my house. They're not finding me. Right. Either way, what ended up happening was the group of people that kept on going and kept doing this ended up throwing the fireworks into somebody's garage port. There was one person at home. It was a woman and her dog. They both got out alive. But the house completely burned down.
I mean, the fire was so hot that the next door neighbor's house, the siding of it melted. So this was a hot fire. And this easily could have killed a family. This was bad. I remember waking up the next morning and, you know, we go back outside to the spot we always used to hang out at. And I remember I'm getting these text messages on my phone from like friends and people I know.
They're like, yo, you guys burnt down a house last night. And we're like, what are you talking about? Because in my mind, all we did is put these fireworks in people's doorsteps. I didn't think that that could happen, right? So I'm naive and I don't understand my footprint in the world. I don't understand that the things that I do have a real impact on Everybody. Right.
So I remember getting these text messages like, what's going on? Right. Anyway, we end up, you know, we're going to the store or we're walking somewhere and we just get bombarded by police. It's seven or eight of us. We get bombarded by police, you know, seven, eight squad cars, you know, sit on the ground, blah, blah, blah. They're like, you know, you guys burnt down a house last night.
These cops to us. I'm 11 years old. I'm like, what are you talking about? They end up searching one of the dude's bags and finding a firework in his bag, a singular firework in his bag. They end up catching one of the dudes with some on him. They take him down to the precinct. They call up my dad like, hey, you know, your son needs to be picked up. Pick me. And my brother was with me.
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Chapter 5: What happens when Carter is moved to a new dorm?
Do you did your dick get removed? And he's like, well, no, I have a dick. But, you know, it's not the same. Right. And and then that kid got switched dorm. So he got switched, I think, a dorm. The interesting the interesting thing about a dorm is they will house you with women.
So I will be sitting on on one side of the dorm and there will be girls on the other side of the dorm and you could talk to them. Now, if you touch him or get near him, you're going to pre a charge, you know. Right. But it's, it's, it's an interesting dynamic when you're in there.
Cause it's like, you're with these girls and it's like some of the guys now they're acting tough to, you know, it's not a smart thing. I don't think the fish, the facility ever should have done that. Right. They end up taking this kid certain out of B dorm and going to a dorm.
Chapter 6: How does Carter deal with conflicts in the dorm?
So I'm in B dorm now by myself without this kid. Then they transfer me to a dorm. Um, And I'm there and he's just acting different. He's acting tough. He's trying to like, he's trying to like clown people, you know, oh, the front seat's my seat. Oh, you know, Pete, you know, he starts doing that. And I remember one day I'm sitting down and he makes a joke to me.
And I remember like, like, like saying something back to him, you know, Oh, don't talk back to me. You know, so I remember at this point, I'm like, OK, I got to do something now. So I stand up and and immediately the staff come and pull us away like like these staff are good, bro. These staff know what they're doing. You know, they come and they pull us away and take me to my cell.
And I remember the director of the program I was about to go to comes over and enters my cell and he's at Carter. He's like, there's going to be kids over here that are going to piss you off more than that kid ever can piss you off. So if you're up here and you fight, if you get in trouble like that, you're going to a secure program for 12 to 24 months. Like you're not coming home till you're 17.
You're 15. Now you got to understand that there's so much in this for you, you know? And I remember thinking, like, you know, he's right, you know. So a few days later, I get moved over. They booked me out of detention. They booked me into another place, and I'm walking over. It's just through a sally port. They walk me over. They open the door, and I walk in.
Now, it's a little bit of a different environment. It still looks the same, but, you know, there's, like, a PlayStation 2 in the back. There's, you know, a nicer TV.
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Chapter 7: What events lead to Carter's realization about his surroundings?
And I walk in, and I see this kid, Jatar. And a few other kids, I think the other kids that were there were at the gym or something. So there was like, you know, 12 kids there. I meet this kid named Jatar and I sit down and we're talking, I'm still in my intake, you know, I'm still in my detention clothes, but I got these white air forces on.
And this kid's like, he's like, yo, I like your shoes are clean, bro, but they're a little dirty. You think I could clean them for you? So I'm like, I'm like, I'm a little skeptical, but I'm like,
no so you clean shoes right and everyone else is like yeah he cleaned shoes so i i let this kid clean my shoes now he's sitting there with a with a 7-eleven cup some soap in it and a toothbrush he's wiping my shoes off and he's like okay so what i do now is i take him and i i put him in the washer Cause there's a washer inside of the bathroom to make us wash our own clothes and stuff.
So I'm like, okay, go ahead. You know? And this kid's like small, but he's like 12. He's like 12. I'm like 15. I'm like, this kid's not taking my shoes.
Right.
He doesn't. I'll get to the story. A few hours later, this kid walks out with my shoes and I could just see the expression on his face isn't the same. One shoe, super white, super nice looking. The next shoe has a yellow tint at the bottom. He ended up putting them in the washer on a high setting and basically ruining my other shoes.
So he comes up to me, he's like, dude, I'm so sorry, but like I've done this a million times and like I f***ed your shoe up. And I remember feeling so bad for the kid. I was like, dude, you're good, bro. Don't even worry about it.
that's my first introduction to the dorm um a few other kids come in the dorm and i remember i'm sitting down at the table we're playing palace you know palace you ever play palace no okay either way we'll you know we're playing palace uh and this kid's sitting across from me that i know this kid to be a man named caden now and you know we're telling stories of why we're in here
And Caden, he's telling me why he's in here. At 13, Caden took his parents' car, $5,000, and went to, and he had a plan to escape the country. Okay, so he makes it all the way to Louisiana.
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Chapter 8: What does Carter's transition back to life outside juvenile prison look like?
Okay. Gets, gets into a high speed chase in Louisiana. And this is a capable kid. Like this kid's smart, you know, all the way in Louisiana. He gets booked into Louisiana detention center.
What's he think he's going to do? Go to Mexico.
His plan was to go to Mexico, Mexico. Right. So he's in Louisiana. He gets booked in. He gets extradited back to Bucks County and he goes to detention and he leaves and he leaves detention and he's home now. And he's like, yeah, I just wanted something bigger. I'm like, what do you mean bigger? He's like, well, I started a cat and mouse game with the FBI. So what are you talking about, dude?
At this point, he's like, well, I started to send bomb threats to facilities and places in the area. And then the FBI, you know, I I eluded them for about six months until somebody told on it was actually a friend's girlfriend that told on him. And
remember him telling me this i'm like dude what's wrong with this kid like this is what i'm thinking yeah ended up actually becoming a very good friend of mine that i still keep in touch with today but i remember like i'm like what the wrong with this kid why is he doing that i later on you know later on after living with him for almost a year you start to understand people's patterns and why they do things um you know so i understood it a lot more later on but at this point i'm like what's wrong with this dude um either way
this is a nice place. It's rather controlling and it's definitely not an easy place to get through. Not because you're getting beat up or you're getting jumped or stuff taking too much, but it's like, Carter cursed today. If he curses three more times, there was a level system. At the top of the level, you can get a job in the community. You could have a PlayStation in your room, but to keep
Yeah. So but to keep that level, you can't get more than two zeros a week. And a zero can be anything as simple as speaking in line or cursing or you get into an argument, you know, bad peer interactions. You have an argument with the staff. Right. And another thing about this place, if you fight, you're gone. Like if you get it, it could be one punch.
You know, you're getting dragged out and you're going back to detention and you're, you know, You're Don, right? At this point, I met a kid. I'll leave his name out. But I ended up meeting this kid. And I sit, you know, it was actually my first day in there. I'll tell another story about my first day. I sit down and we're playing cards. And he looks at me. He's like, so what are you here for?
He's a real jumpy kid. He's like, oh, so what are you here for, bro? And before I could tell him what I'm here for, he goes, oh, I stabbed somebody. Right. And I'm like, OK, well, you can let me tell my story. Well, I have somebody at the mall and he got airlifted and, you know, he's he's telling me the story. And this this was an interesting kid.
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