After Lincoln Hills

Abstract

How do you support your criminal child? How does a sex offender move on with their life? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Jake is released from Lincoln Hills, a prison for boys. He was convicted and sentenced to two years because, when he was fifteen years old, he was found have sexual a relationship with a ten-year-old boy. He is now a convicted sex offender, with all the rules, regulations, and social stigmas that go with it. He comes out of prison and moves back in with his mother, who loves him dearly, but is confused. She doesn’t understand how her son could do something like that, or how to interact with him moving forward. She loves him, but she’s also confused, and afraid. And the conversations with her co-workers aren’t helping. In the end, “for his own good,” she decides to move him into a vocational school for recently released young men with dormitory house.