Audio Story Five

http://www.radiodiaries.org/matthew-and-the-judge-juvenile-court-diary/

          For this week’s first blog, I read ‘Matthew and the Judge: Juvenile Court Diary’, from NPR’s Radio Diaries. The segment follows Matthew, a sixteen-year-old convict, and his time in prison, and is told from both the view of both Matthew, and his judge, Jeremiah. Matt grew up not knowing who his father was, and a mother who was a crack-head up until he was eleven. He described himself as a ‘bad, bad kid’, and says that he did whatever he wanted, and that what got him arrested – prior crimes include assault, battery, tampering with a motor vehicle, and possession of cocaine and marijuana. He says that it doesn’t feel like prison to him, because he has no worries and everything is free, and even tells his social worker, Gary, that he intends to go back to selling drugs. So, when judge Jeremiah lets him out seven months early for good behavior, it’s no shock that he’s back to weeks later for possession of cocaine with intent to sell. The story ends, with Jeremiah talking about how he felt disappointed, and as if he had failed, and that it might be a time where he has to give up hope. Matthew, on the other hand, closes saying that he is, in fact, ‘rehabilitate-able’ - even though those around him have given up - and that he one day hopes to lead a normal life.

          I thought that this story was told very smoothly, and in a way that kept you interested. It never felt like an interview, but felt like a very natural method of story-telling. For instance, in the beginning, it’s just Matthew speaking, and then ambient noises (such as keys jingling, and Matt playing chess) are introduced, and the story becomes alive. Additionally, the small details and anecdotes really made it work, such as when Matthew describes how, when he first came to the jail, he was only 5’5”, and couldn’t see out the window, but now he was 6’4” – that really gave you a visual, and well as a time frame to go off of. I liked how the story was told from two perspectives, because that really gave you a clear understanding of the situation, and how the two perspectives intertwined during their conversations at court. Something that surprised me about this interview was how forward-looking Matthew was at the end of the story, when he was talking about wanting to lead a normal life, since before he had blatantly spoken of how he planned on going back to selling drugs. All in all, I enjoyed this story, and thought that it was told clearly, and obviously had a point to it.