‘He glanced at his bitten nails, and with his chin resting on his knees, said,…

‘He glanced at his bitten nails, and with his chin resting on his knees, said, ‘well, i ask them to let me go below to visit my pa in the cell. they feel sorry for me, and say its okay. So i go down to see him, this man what made my ma’s life a misery like hell, and who never had a word for me, and did nothing but give me the belt’.
From what he says, the kid in this passage