in the movies. He got a windowless office with frayed carpet, barely bigger than his room on campus.
The grey-haired judge sat behind a cluttered desk in her stockinged feet, sipping out of a Starbucks cup. Her shoes and handbag rested on the floor, beneath an American flag mounted on a pole. There was a stenographer sitting at a smaller desk off to one side, a guard armed with a shotgun and two lawyers, one of whom James and Dave had met briefly that morning before being taken down to the cells.
The lawyer had explained that when an Arizona defendant pleads guilty, the case is dealt with using a system called plea-bargaining. The charges and prison sentence are haggled over in advance between the judge and the two opposing lawyers. The court hearing was a formality.
James and Dave stood in the back third of the room behind a red line. A sign on the wall guaranteed a ninety-day sentence to any prisoner who dared step over it.
OK,?the judge said, taking a quick glance at her watch. ite late, lete roll this along. James and David Rose versus the state of Arizona, case number six-zero-one-nine-nine. Minors charged as adults, with one count of robbery and one count of murder. The defence council has offered to plead guilty to charges of robbery and second-degree murder, with an attached term of eighteen years. Does the prosecution formally accept this bargain??
Hes, ma抋m,?the prosecution lawyer nodded.
The judge looked up at James and Dave. Nas your lawyer explained to you that by pleading guilty to these charges and accepting the bargain, you lose any right of appeal??
James and Dave both nodded. Hes, ma抋m.?
慥ery well,?the judge said solemnly. 慙et the record show that sentence of eighteen years has been passed on James and David Rose.?
The two lawyers leaned forward and took turns shaking the judgee hand. James looked at the clock on the wall and realised that het spent the whole day sweltering in a cell, waiting for a hearing that had lasted less than three minutes.
13. INDUCTION
The bus to Arizona Max had a metal cage blocking off the exits and bars over the windows. Two hacks with pump-action shotguns sat up front, facing towards a dozen prisoners riding a bus with room for more than fifty.
James and Dave sat near the back. A couple of women had been placed in the middle, and the men were at the front. Pride of place went to a giant with a long red beard, whot been put on board last and clamped into his seat with a tubular metal bar.
James looked back to Dave in the row behind. Lhat the hell did he do??
The only other kid on the bus leaned across the aisle and answered. He was a skinny fellow called Abe, who was no taller than James. The tuft of bristles on Abee chin was the only hint that he was nearly seventeen.
Thate Chaz Wallerstein,?Abe said, as if this should mean something.
James and Dave both looked blank.
Hou know,?Abe said. Bank robber, turned into a hostage deal. He shot up fifteen people, killed eleven of them. It was all over the TV news. Where have you two been, Mars??
James straightened up his overalls so you could read the word Omaha. They had us in solitary up there.?
Abe smiled. Lars, Nebraska, same kind of thing I guess ?You know youte gonna cop trouble when the hacks see those escape-risk bibs??
*
Arizona Max was opened in 2002 to deal with the statee rapidly expanding prison population. It was a multi-role prison, capable of holding 6,500 inmates, inside fourteen H-shaped cellblocks. Nine blocks held maximum-security adult male prisoners, two held female prisoners, and two were super-maximum-security (supermax) units containing Death Row, along with the most dangerous inmates in the state. The final unit held close to 300 boys under the age of eighteen.
The vast prison compound stretched over thousands of acres and was surrounded by three electrified fences and two stacks of barbed wire coils more than ten metres high. All vehicles or persons entering the prison had to pass through a single entry point.
The bus carrying James and Dave drove through the first set of gates and into a small holding pen, surrounded by twenty-metre-high walls. These outer gates were operated from a control building beyond the prison perimeter, while the inner set operated from the main control room inside the prison. This dual-control security system, known as a sally port, means that inmates cant escape, even if they manage to overpower