Everyday, middle school students are making the mistake of getting involved in criminal activity. Getting involved in criminal activity can ruin a person's life by landing them in jail or prison. A juvenile detention center to be precise. Being put in prison for committing a crime is terrible because living conditions are horrid, prison takes away your indivisuality, and even when you get out, having an arrest record/criminal record will haunt you forever.
Look around you; You're constantly being able to make independant decisions for yourself. Now, imagine if all the privileges you currently have were just taken away. That's life in prison. How would you like to be locked in a tiny cell with another random person for almost twenty-four hours a day, everyday for at least a year? No privacy! And if you're claustrophobic, that's just too bad. You have to learn to deal with it. No more home made food from Mom. Instead, you get prison food slop. You may think school is prison, but if you get involved in criminal activity, you haven't seen anything yet.
Every morning you wake up and choose what you want to wear. You can hang out with friends at school during lunch and between classes. You take full advantage of your first amendment right to freedom of expression. In prison, your rights are taken away. You dont choose what to wear. You can't be yourself. You're just like everybody else. A criminal. You're given a number like an item at the grocery store.
Getting out of prison, you make think, "Now here's my chance to start over,". Its not that easy. You are now officially marked as a criminal. People will no longer look at you like a law abiding citizen. You've lost your chances at getting good jobs because every application you see will ask you if you are a convicted felon or if you have an arrest record; same when it comes to buying a house. A record will haunt you forever. You can't just wish it away.
I hope that this has made you think twice about ever committing a crime. I know you would never want to be put in prison. Prison isn't fun. The conditions are dreadful, you can't express yourself, and the stigma of being a criminal will forever be in your shadow.