I took my brother to jail today...

I took my brother to jail today. I blogged earlier that I was proud of him for entering the teen challenge program to get his alcohol problem resolved. Well yesterday he was going through the entry process when he mentioned that he had a court date in the morning. That got the wheels turning pretty quick as the councilors have to make arrangements to get their students to the courts and with under 24 hours to prepare for a six hour car ride they were a little freaked out to say the least. What freaked them out even more was finding out that my brother had a warrant issued for his arrest for probation violations three weeks ago. Apparently he never got approval from his probation officer to attend a rehab program. When my brother told me he got approval we assumed the courts were in agreement, that was not the case. In doing the due dillagence what we found out is my brother pretty much ignored the court's mandates and was "willingly" entering a program to stay out of jail. Apparently he was arrested last November on a warrant and was given a second chance to take care of the court ordered mandates from the year before. He ignored them once again, proclaiming his innocence (he pleaded guilty), the stupidity of his lawyer and the money grabbing court system getting the blame for all of his problems. After we made the six hour drive back home I told him he had a choice to make, he could keep ignoring the problem that would never go away or he could step up and take care of it. Again he wanted to ignore it claiming that it was not important, his crimes were misdemenors and no one would come get him for those in violation of probation. His plan was to jump state and live with my mom. The only problem is my mom said living with her for the last two and a half years done her in to his problems and he could not stay with her any longer, that he needed to take responsibility for his own self made problems. So then it is back to me. "I guess I can stay with you?" he asked on the way back. "Yes" I said, "for one night" meaning he would in the morning have to make a decision on where he would go. I counciled with him and told him to face his fears (three years in prison) and deal with his issues or keep running and never find freedom. I finally convinced him to turn himself in was the best thing he could do and hope for mercy from the courts. We made the journey to the jail in silence as the tension weighed down on both of us. For me it was a freedom of having to take care of him, plan for him, baby him. For him it was giving up his freedom to face the unknown. It was somewhat bittersweet in that moment when the cell door clanged shut locking him behind prison bars knowing that he was finally taking his first steps to a life of freedom by giving up his freedom.
I pray that he will find mercy in the courts. I pray that he will find help to help him be able to deal with life so he can start over and live a life filled with hope and not despair. I pray that those around him encourage him to take the path least traveled as that is the one that leads to true freedom. I pray that I will never have to take anyone else to jail...