I may have told this story here before, but I was arrested when I was 19 or 20 (can't remember at this point). A friend and I were out at a local bar, drinking nickel drafts (yes, folks, a nickel for a draft beer). It was a local dive, where everybody knew everyone, and this stranger walked in and immediately shouted "Where are all the fine benches at?" (I guess he was going for a Blazing Saddles thing)
My friend took exception to it, went up to him and had words with him and next thing I know, they're outside rolling around in the dirt. Didn't take long for the cops to arrive, and they've got them both cuffed and leaning over the hoods of the vehicles and my dumbass decided to ask the officer what my friend was being charged with. I was a freaking part-timer at the local newspaper and when the cop told me it was none of my business, I made a stupid comment that I worked for the paper and that I would get it anyway, whether the cop wanted to tell me or not.
Well, a second later, I'm being tackled into the ground, arms twisted behind my back and cuffed and stuffed into the back of the patrol unit with my friend. All three of us went to jail. For the record, my friend and the other guy were charged with disturbing the peace by fighting, public intoxication and assault on an officer (the other guy was charged with that because when they slammed him into the hood of the car, the antenna snapped in half and whacked the cop in the face. Not sure how the guy gets charged for that, but whatever). I was charged with public intoxication and interfering with duties of a police officer.
We spent the night in the drunk tank (all three of us, which was dumb considering we were there for a fight) and at around 4 a.m. we got a nice pepper spray bath because they brought in some unruly drunk and when they threw him in the tank with us, he went after the officer and so we all got a nice little shot of spray. I never want to experience that again as long as I live.
Long story short, I spent six hours in the drunk tank and two hours in a cell with another inmate. I didn't sleep a wink. They got us out of the drunk tank around 7 a.m. and made us go out in the yard and do PT. I got through about 25 jumping jacks before I barfed my lungs out. I ended up being excused from PT, but I have to walk around the yard until they were finished. The two hours in the cell with the inmate wasn't bad. It was an older guy doing 10-20 for some kind of embezzlement (he didn't get into it and I didn't ask). He showed me his collection of books, showed me how to properly clean a cell for inspection and told me which foods to avoid in the mess hall.
Good news is that the assistant police chief was a neighbor. Better news is that he had all the charges dropped. Bad news is that he released me to my mom, who made me wish I was back in that cell.
It's been my one and only run-in with the law. And it was enough for me to know I'd never last 24 hours in a prison.