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[Pg 48] this sentence with a sincere satisfaction. I knew it meant the end of the reform school for me. At the end o............