Think you had a lousy holiday season? Try ringing in the New Year behind bars.

Think you had a lousy holiday season? Try ringing in the New Year behind bars.

James Krivitz

Contributor

Think of the holiday season, and most conjure up a joyous season of giving, eating, drinking and perhaps travel to be closer to friends and family — and all the ensuing stress related to it. For me, this holiday season was filled instead with smelly people, bad food and worse surroundings.

I was in jail.

From Dec. 26 to Jan. 13 — 18 day of pure hell — I was housed in the Washtenaw County Jail, surrounded by drug addicts, thieves and even one murderer.

Happy New Year. This holiday season was certainly one to remember, but for all the wrong reasons.

Even though I did get to spend Christmas the right way (with old friends and good times), New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were not the bright, lively times of the past. There was no kiss at midnight and no champagne toast to follow. I was sitting in a gymnasium with a room full of criminals — none of them I’d care to toast, let alone kiss.

The first person I saw after the ball dropped to ring in 2010 was a deputy sheriff named Alexander. I reached out my hand to wish him a happy New Year, and he was as cold as the weather that night. He refused to shake my hand, and he treated me like I was nothing more than a dead fly on the ground.

As I watched the ball drop at midnight, I had to fight my tears from rolling down my face, for that would be a sign of weakness, and weakness is something you cannot show in a place like that. Then I went to my “bed” and cried for the rest of the night, until I finally fell asleep around 3 a.m. The depression and despair I was feeling at that time was deeper than a black hole in outer space.

This whole experience could have been avoided if I would have just done what I was supposed to have done five years earlier. Because of the poor choices I made in the past, due to my drug addiction, I was put on probation and stopped reporting in 2005. I was, in every sense of the word, on the run. Effectively, I was leading a catch-me-if-you-can kind of life.

And eventually, they did.

As I look back on the life I once led, I can’t believe I’m still around. I spent almost 11 years abusing drugs, ended up in jail numerous times, and I was homeless. I can’t explain with words the agony of an addictive lifestyle.

Now, things are much different. I needed to finally address this issue for me to move on with what I want and need to do with my life. I agreed to write this because hopefully it will find its way to people who are haunted by similar problems.

I’m very happy to be almost done with this unbearable chapter of my life. Jail is not a good time, especially during the holidays. But I know that there are better days ahead and, God-willing, despite the way it began, 2010 is going to be the best year of my life.

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