Transcripts
Transcript for Figure 1.8, Victim Impact: Listen and Learn
Peggy’s Story
[Peggy, mother to victim of arson-related homicide]: I deliver mail and I was out on my route delivering mail and here the supervisors – two of them whipped up in front of me. My dad’s in bad, was in bad shape, he’s on oxygen, and I thought something happened to my dad. And so they come running over to my car and I said, “Is it my dad?” and they said, they shook their head no, and I said, “Is it one of my kids?” and they went like that [nods] and I said, “Is it my son?”
My son was a senior at the University of Pittsburgh and a girl that lived on the second floor, her ex-boyfriend set a fire and the smoke, you know, killed my son while he was upstairs sleeping.
This boy more or less was – I don’t know if he was stalking her or what, you
know, jealous or whatever – and you know, set the fire and intended to kill her and, you know, Joey didn’t make it, you know.
We buried him on Monday and I think it was Thursday, was when the detective called me to tell me that it had been an arson. And he wanted to let the family know before it hit the news while I was by myself when he told me and yeah I just couldn’t imagine. The trials would start and stuff and the first time I took my daughter was when the trial was actually going to start and ever since that day that she’s seen this Matthew I’ve had to sleep with her and that was back in July.
Chrissy and I was watching TV one day and they said how one act, stupid act, can affect so many lives and she looked at me and she said, “We really know that mom, don’t we,” but you
figure this boy was jealous or whatever about this girl living with this guy or I don’t understand what he was thinking of, but his stupid act has ruined lives of people he didn’t even know. We’ve never done anything to him. I’ve never got a traffic ticket, nothing, and to be punished like this, we’ll be punished the rest of our lives because of someone we didn’t even know.
If he would have been in an accident with – where he was drinking or if he would have been in a car accident, where was an accident or something, but to know that someone deliberately, while he was sleeping that…. Where is the safest place you think your child is? In bed sleeping.
He’s the – what this kid did is – he has no idea how he has affected all of us. I mean just the emptiness, the sick feeling that you have inside you every single day. Not a day goes by that I don’t, do not shed a tear. Not one day.
Alan’s Story
[Alan, victim of assault]: [I] had gone through a couple of years of problems. My wife found a boyfriend and moved away to Cleveland and then my mother started getting sick so I came home to take care of her, and we were together for about eight months and then she passed away. And I had just gotten a job with a real estate company where I was going to do their maintenance for them, and I was in an alley behind their property bringing a key back.
Somebody followed me back to the property – well, these are all fun-loving people, you know, and I thought it was a mistake. I thought it was a joke. Somebody pulled in behind me and got out and approached me with the fact that he thought I was somebody else. He thought I was somebody that had stolen a stained glass window from one of his properties and I just happened to be working across the street from one of his properties. And I thought it was a
joke, I really did, and so I… I really didn’t put up any resistance and then he slid out a metal baseball bat and he started to attack me.
I was obviously the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time but I backed up. He took out my knee. I went down. He just started beating me like crazy, I never even defended myself,
which is the the hard part because all my life I’ve defended my family, my friends. I’ve worked as a doorman at local restaurants and clubs and I always had confidence myself to take care of myself and my friends and my family, and when he took me out like that it was… it, it changed my life.
I’m very angry and I mean up, from time to time, I’ll burst entities, screaming fits in my own health. You think I’m talking to myself, I ain’t talking about… I’m just mad. It’s tough when you can’t physically do what you want to do. I can’t climb ladders. I have no knee – my muscles and tendons are crushed and that’s going to take four or five years to maybe build up the strength in my knee that I could even climb a ladder.
I’ve gone through a lot of depression. I sit on my couch and cry and I live like a spider. I mean, I keep my blinds closed cause I’m scared to death to answer the phone or answer the door and that ain’t right. I’m 6 – I’m almost 6-3, I weighed 225 pounds and yet I’m scared to walk from my house to my car you know. What aggravates me to Moses, I was just at the point where I was ready to rebuild my life. I look to the future and I see things but it’s… I’m not impatient but I really want to get back to where I was.
Leanna’s Story
[Leanna, victim of burglary]: My house was broken into while we were at work and I… it was when I actually had called, kept calling my house, because my husband gets home before I do, and I was going to be inviting him over to my parents for dinner and that’s where I was at. And he picks up the phone and immediately says the house had been broken into, you need to come home.
They kicked in my backdoor and they had taken our 36-inch TV that was in the living room, they took our 25-inch TV that was in our bedroom. They took just a lot of weird stuff that we kind of don’t understand why they would take it, but like towels out of our our closet, they took like wash rags, there just seemed like there were so many little things that just kept coming up missing. Every day that went on. I’d find something else.
They took my camcorder which had my youngest son’s newborn video in it, which, that’s probably the worst thing. They could care less what’s on that video, they’re not going to watch it, they probably just threw it away, but that’s, that’s my, you know, that was my baby, my newborn baby on there that I’m never going to get that back.
A detective, like, tried to get fingerprints on, like, the computer because I’d mess with that and he couldn’t. We’ve never heard anything back. I just want my things back, you know, I mean granted they came into my house and I don’t think it would have been the greatest to get it all back, you know, or to find it. I still would have been that, I think that would have probably been traumatizing too, is knowing that they had them and then they got them back, you know, it’s like what have they done with them?
We ended up getting a security system but there’s still times when, like, if I come home by myself and I have the kids and it’s dark – our garage is detached from the house and
it’s like I just want to grab the kids and run. And I make sure that my oldest son doesn’t leave the garage and I’ve got the baby out and I’m just, I just almost want to run, hurry up and lock the door, run, shut the door. I mean, I don’t even set anything down until I’ve shut the door and locked it, and I mean, that’s not a good feeling and I do that any time I’m by myself. I’m always really scared.
You do feel violated it’s just like it’s like they’ve been in your home, they’ve been through your things, and I just… it’s not a good feeling, and that’s something, you know, yeah they’re there for 20 minutes – to wreck your life for you, your sense of security for a year. It seems like such a small thing to, you know, to get burglarized and that it wouldn’t be that big of an impact or it wouldn’t really affect you since you weren’t there, you weren’t physically being harmed, but it is. I mean, it’s just – mentally, it messes with you and just not feeling safe in your own home is not good, not a good feeling at all.
Nia’s Story
[Nia, victim of child abuse]: It happened when I was between – I can’t remember the exact age, but it was between five and seven, um, but I never told anyone until I was a senior in high school, 17.
The one that I was abused by was mine – at the time, my best friend’s older brother. He was about seven, we were the same age. He was about seven years older than us. Um, it all started off with the hugging game. He would take us into his room, her and I individually, and just we would sit on his lap and, and he would hug us, and to any child that feels really good. It was a fun game, you know, but he was very weird about it. He said we couldn’t, we couldn’t even talk to each other about it, we couldn’t – her and I couldn’t talk to each other about it. Every time she would leave the room he would jump on me. He never, I was never penetrated vaginally, it was always oral, um, mostly he would lay on top of me. I couldn’t even breathe. He would say stupid things like, well, why didn’t you say something? How could I?
When I told my mom, I remember we were in my room and I just kind of broke down. I started crying and I ran, I ran out of my room and ran downstairs and it was like I didn’t want to tell you this, I didn’t. She’s going, what don’t you want to tell me? And finally I just laid it all out there for… and she was very, I mean, she was upset, she was hurt, and I didn’t tell her who it was. I didn’t tell her for about a year or so who it was. It took a while for me to tell her.
She got me into therapy right away, it was never a question of are you sure this happened, you know, are you sure you’re not making this up or you’re just remembering things wrong? She never doubted me and to this day I wish I had said something to her years before but I couldn’t.
I was depressed for a long time. I didn’t even realize I was so depressed for a long time. All I ever did was sit in my room and watch television and eat.
I have a hard time trusting people or I just jump in like feet first without them giving me any reason to really trust them. Usually I find I’ve gotten burned like a lot of times but it’s like, because I did, I feel as though as when I was that young I wanted to be able to do that with someone and I couldn’t, so now I’m still kind of looking for that.
When I walk into a room, within ten minutes of being in that room, I know every way out of that room, including if I had to jump out a window, and it’s just, it’s like instinct to me now. I don’t even realize that I do it anymore but just, I’m always looking for an out. I’m never trying to be trapped in the corner, never again.
I recognize now that it’s not about sex at all, it’s all about power. I really do fear that a lot of them get off on that, um, the whole idea of you hurt me, you know, you’re hurting people. I think that’s what, that’s what they’re looking for.
It’s weird for me to talk about this cause it’s so third-person, cause I do feel as though she’s still with me, she’s still in there. That little girl is still, you know, she cries sometimes still and it’s like it’s okay, it’s okay to cry. I’m still angry. I think I have every right to be angry but it doesn’t, it doesn’t ruin my life anymore.
Ron’s Story
[Ron, victim of child abuse and neglect]: It was a part of my childhood to be beaten so badly that my eyes would be swollen shut for days on end. I had an uncle who was, um, he was a sadist. He was, um, brutal. He was, um, he was absolutely insane and I suffered beatings at his hands time and time and time again. He would be the only father figure that I would know as a child because my mother and him lived together all throughout the earliest part of my childhood. My mother was, as well, she was a violent person. Any, any small thing that annoyed her, it was taken out on us kids.
My mother handed me over to a pedophile when I was five and by then, I, you would have thought that I was conditioned to handle, um, the horrors of my life but this added a new dimension to my suffering and I found it almost unbearable to deal with. So as a kindergartner I would have to leave kindergarten class and go home and have sex with this man who was in his 50s. I remember the long walk home and crying and falling down and having to get back
up and walking on and falling down and crying and getting back up and walking on. I had to adjust to that situation. I had no choice but to shoulder this responsibility and I learned that food and sex for me.
Young in life, I turned to drugs and that would be a friend of mine for a long, long time. My journey has been an enormous struggle for me. I’ve known years and years of depression. I’ve, I’ve been physically sick in times in my life. I lost my job, I had no friends. I assumed I would die. I never expected to live through, live through this.
I don’t think being abused as a child goes away. There’s things that I do deal with as an adult now that it’s kind of like problem troubleshooting. I maintain taking care of my mental health
and my emotional health and I’ve learned over the years to be fairly good at it. I know that I am a high-functioning abuse survivor. I have a propensity towards honesty whereas my siblings don’t, they, they want to just forget it, they don’t want to think about it, but I think it’s more insidious than that. We were made to witness crimes committed against one another over and over again, it’s like where we hold the truth and we can’t get near one another. It’s too horrible to even see each other. It’s so painful.
Kimberly’s Story
[Kimberly, victim of a crime against a person with a disability]: When I was 16 years old, a senior in high school, my girlfriend and I were coming home from snow skiing and she had just taken her eyes off the road for a minute and we hit a truck. And my neck was crushed and it left me paralyzed from the neck down.
After I had recovered from my injury and kind of built back some self esteem and confidence, I was a senior in college and had a boyfriend. Shortly after we became engaged I heard him refer to me as his pretty bird in a cage and I think it just sent chills down my spine. When I heard that I always had to come home from class on time and tell him where I was going and when I would be back and when I came in from class, I was a few minutes late, and when I came in the door he was sitting on the couch and he had a butcher knife in his hand. He grabbed me by my feet and pulled me out of the wheelchair. He climbed on top of me and held my arms down with his knees and he started choking me and stabbing the butcher knife around my head.
At that point in time I realized my life was in danger and I didn’t want to stay in this relationship but it was just three weeks later, um, that he had pretty much held me hostage throughout the night and I was admitted into the hospital with a broken arm, broken nose, broken ribs, and my sternum was permanently damaged. Then at that point it took. The hospital, the police, the University and my family all stepped in and got me out of that relationship and it was about a year later when the trial was starting for the first charge and I went into that courtroom with the utmost confidence that the person that did this to me would be punished for what he did.
It was a five day trial. On the witness stand his attorney portrayed me as a woman with a severe disability that no other man would ever want or ever loved and how wonderful his client was for giving up his life to take care of me, and in a jury of 12, my batterer was found not guilty. That was completely devastating for me. I felt revictimized only this time by the system, but what was so difficult for me is I knew there were other people that went through experiences of domestic violence but I felt like I was alone as a person with a disability going through that. And there were so many layers of issues with my disability that contributed to the abuse and made it more difficult to get away and to recover from.
I had moved to California after the abusive relationship and I was out there and I had just completed my master’s degree in social work and this was six years later in ‘96 and it was one Friday evening about eight o’clock. I was sitting on the living room floor and I had my bedroom window open, not unlike all the other apartments in my complex, and I heard a noise in my bedroom. I called for my caregiver to come to see what the noise was and the next thing I saw was she was walking out of my bedroom backwards and there was a man that had a gun to her head and behind him was another man with a knife. Then the man with the gun went to the sliding glass door opened the door, in, in walked two more men so there were now four men in my apartment and they pulled all of the phone cords and all of the lights out and they burglarized my home and I was raped and repeatedly told that they were going to kill me.
I know that the reason I was chosen is because of my vulnerabilities with my disability. I could not run from them, I could not fight back, I hardly even have the strength in my voice to be able
to yell. I’m an easy victim, an easy target. Those four men were never caught.
I see all of the additional stigma in our society for people with disabilities. I see how they are being targeted for crime and abuse and for me I felt like those experiences happened to me and I don’t want to just bury them and not do anything with those experiences. And people with disabilities is a huge population and I think it’s important for everyone to realize that people with disabilities want to be treated fairly and equally in our society like everyone else and we want to have the same services and the same respect as everyone else in our society.
Rebel’s Story
[Rebel, victim of domestic violence]: I am a victim of domestic violence and I think the thing that was the hardest to realize was that I really was a victim. My ex-husband was very controlling, very isolating from friends, family, church. He monitored my coming and going, he didn’t let me talk on the phone, you know, my family was stupid and I was stupid and the things that, you know, the apartment that I lived in that he moved into with me, it was stupid, you know. Everything wasn’t up to his par including me and so you know I was constantly in a race with myself to see, you know, what I could do to make it better or fix it and it just kind of snowballed from there.
And the crux was when he threatened to have me killed you could put on your social face when you were outside but, um, the thing that was most frightening was I was literally afraid to go home at the end of the day. Work was a comfortable setting. Church was a comfortable setting Um, nobody was gonna do anything, um, but then you get in your car to go home and you start having panic attacks. The daily impact – once he threatened to have me killed, um, it was like you were outside looking in cause by the time that happened, you know, I wasn’t really talking to my family because I had pretty much pushed them by the wayside. They didn’t like him or how he treated me because they could see and of course I was, I was too involved in the relationship to see and, um, so there was nobody to go to. I kept thinking in the back of my mind that domestic violence happened to somebody else, you know, on TV it’s, it’s some other person or some other background or lifestyle or, um, age of a person you know.
I didn’t think of that, it would be happening to me. You go through the whole realm of emotion, one minute you’re mad as a hatter that you allowed yourself to do this or that he did it to you and the next minute you’re still glad and relieved that you’re out of it. He was sexually abusive and I think of all of it that was probably the most painful and still probably the hardest to get past. Um, you know, when you’re in a relationship with somebody that you love and they use sex forcefully, um, it’s devastating, it’s demoralizing. I’ve gotten to the point where I know I’m better off without him and I’m moving forward.
Me being a victim of domestic violence has really affected my whole entire family and friends structure. For the longest time it was the elephant in the room they tiptoed around. All of the issues, the fear has eased a little but it’s still there, it’s still fresh enough emotionally, I just I can’t imagine going out on a date again or getting into a relationship again. I can’t imagine being intimate. I’m afraid that if I put myself out there it’ll happen again.
Cindi’s Story
[Cindi, victim of drunk driving]: My daughter and I were going to the grocery store in the morning in November of 1979 and she was five months old and we were hit head-on by a drunk driver. It was his fourth time for drunk driving. He had no license, he had no insurance, he drank a pint of whiskey about before 10 o’clock in the morning.
My daughter was in a car seat and she… the straps just busted on it and she came around and hit the back of her neck right here on the corner of the dashboard and crushed – you have a cervical section of your spinal cord and it goes c1 through c10 to right about here, and she crushed C 4 5 & 6, these three vertebrae right here, and they kind of twisted like this and went across and then ended back on top of her spinal cord and she was paralyzed from
the neck down. And I broke about 14 bones from the waist down and I have a couple of plates in my left foot and I have a rod in my right leg, you know. She always had pneumonias and
she had atelectasis and she had bladder infections and she had tracheostomy knees and other kinds of infections and she had seizures. I had seven years of playing tug-of-war with God and I knew that he’d win someday. She died and that was in 1986.
I try and have the good pictures in my head of Laura instead of the bad pictures now, but the bad pictures plagued me for a long time and the hatred was just unbearable for the man that hit me. I mean that was like just carrying an extra tumor, you know, a big tumor and so you’ve got the hate, you know, it’s just this intense hate, and you lay in bed at night and, you know, I used to concoct all kinds of plans on how I was going to kill this guy. And then I thought I’m not gonna kill him, I’ll hit him in the back of the neck with a lead pipe, I’ll have somebody hold him down, I’m going to paralyze him like he did Laura. And then you just go on with these scenarios and you just build this up so now you’ve got all this hatred for this person and you get all this pain and sorrow.
Sometimes the people who do it, even after they’ve been picked up for drunk driving, they still don’t see themselves as a problem, you know, because maybe somebody isn’t in their face showing him a picture of their dead daughter or telling him what that felt like or how horrifying it was to have her chew her fingertips off because she couldn’t feel them and was covered with blood one morning, you know. Let’s, then now, let’s start thinking about what if it was your kid, what if somebody did this to your kid? Let’s start thinking about that a little bit, you know, or happen to your mom or your boyfriend or your girlfriend, your wife or whatever, you know. Start thinking in those terms a little bit and you know maybe that’ll, I don’t know, help deter
You. You want to drink? Great, take a cab.
Teri’s Story
[Teri, mother to a victim of gang-related homicide]: My son Anthony Dyer, who was 16 years old, had gotten, had joined a gang that I didn’t know about, and the gang that he was in, they murdered him.
My son hadn’t come home and it was on my pay week and he hadn’t came home for two days. That Friday I was going to call the television station and ask them to air my son on the TV but that evening I heard about a body had been found and I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I went down to look at the body and when I saw, it didn’t look like my son because his face was swollen, he was, he was frozen, it was, it was a bitter cold. The only way that I really identified him was by his fingernail biting and it was hard, it was very hard to deal with that.
They end up beating him, then they put him, wrapped him up and put him in a towel and put him in a trash can. So the leader of the gang told him to 69 em which which meant killing so one of the guys went down, down the hill and kicked him in his head until he wasn’t breathing anymore and he took his gym shoes off, that I had just bought him. When they finally picked him up, the guy that had kicked him in his head, he had his shoes on.
I didn’t even know my son was in the game – after he passed, he was only 16, he was to me, he
was still a baby. I had a memory loss, people that I had known for years I couldn’t remember who they were. I couldn’t go back to work for at least three weeks, you know, people would question me about different things and I didn’t want to deal with it. I would cry all the time. It’s just your whole life, you know, you just, it’s just turned upside down.
None of them showed any remorse. Next year, three of them, when we get out, they plea bargain. Some of them got several years. One of the girls that cleaned up the blood at the apartment that he had got beat up at, she’s out. The leader of the gang got 15 to 30. The one guy that had his gym shoes on, he got 12 years, then got 16 years, and a guy that took his clothes off and burned them he got 12 years, so they all got time.
If you’ve committed a crime and it is totally shut out and you going on with your life, that family, they’re not going on because their life is forever changed. It’s, it would never never be the same and it hurts because I know my son wanted to leave and it wasn’t fair, it was not fair.
Jee Young’s Story
[Jee Young, sister to victim of a hate crime]: My name is Jee Young and I’m the sister of [name inaudible]. It was a long and difficult decision to sit and write this statement, bringing up the feeling of memories, still something I avoid doing.
It was a Sunday and I think he was playing basketball with our church youth group, Korean church youth group kids. They went over to a local school court to play and 5 or 8 white teenagers came over. He said he didn’t know them. They asked, do you want to play five on five, and they were, they agreed. They started playing basketball, it seemed like the white boys were purposely fouling, pushing them, shoveling and that happens in basketball, so my brother was the oldest among the kids who went with him. He said, come on, you know, let’s play, let’s just play a game, you know, why are you guys pushing? And they would keep on pushing, snicker about it together, you know.
So it came up to a point where it grew into an argument and my brother said I had enough, we’re going to go, and that’s when they started, kind of who the f do you think you are. About five or eight more kids came – so they were in total about sixteen, twelve to sixteen, kids. Um, he heard from the back there’s that [slur] standing there alone, let’s jump on him now, when he’s alone. My brother turned around and they circled him and they’re like [slur] go back to your country and we’re not even from China.
After they spit on his face, they knocked him to the ground, four or five, maybe more kids started to step, stomp and kick his head, face and back. He was lying on the ground, he did not fight back. All the facial cheekbone was all just cracked into pieces, nose bone fracture, and he lost sensation. There was nerve damage so he lost sensation on this four of his upper tooth and whole bottom, um, all that part doesn’t have sensation until now and it’s been about a year since that happened.
The police report was that they wrote it up as if it was a gang fight that, um, they were playing basketball, they got an argument, it was a mutual fight. They thought it was a Chinese gang versus American white gang and that offends me just because of the description of how I look and how we are.
The image of my brother falling on that concrete floor and people stepping and just kicking with shoes on his face, I can’t get that image out of my head. What goes through one’s mind when they kick and step on a living human being just covering his face and head to survive? What does one have to do to deserve all this, getting into an argument playing basketball?
I had a chance to read my victim impact statement at the court. I wanted to see the kids who did this to my brother and I, after I read my statement I said, um, just because someone speaks less English than you, just because someone looks a little different than you and whether if it’s the same, that doesn’t give you any right to step, to kick or spit on someone’s face and the response I got from him was. I’m sorry I caused you such inconvenience but if you think I’m a racist, I’m not, because I don’t treat people by their color.
Hate crime, you know, it’s not something explicit that you can see. You are just hitting or you are just punching someone in your anger, your frustration but then pack the hurt that that person has they carry on for life and the people around that person who love him or her they carry on the same pain. To see someone that you really love suffer and go through pain that’s not an easy thing to carry because it always stays in the back of your mind and it really hurts.
Amy’s Story
[Amy, family member of a victim of homicide]: Jill was on the second floor. The first floor apartment was empty and the basement floor was inhabited by the man that killed her. He apparently had gotten the idea that Jill was narcing on drug dealers in the area and he had been dealing drugs out of the apartment.
She had been there too much, she had no idea he was waiting for her when she returned
home from work at one o’clock in the morning, and he punched her in the face, stunning her and got her tied up and spent six hours killing her, raping and killing her. Eight years later it still seems like yesterday. They did not want any of us seeing her because she had been so badly beaten. I was allowed to hug a body bag that was on the elevator at the funeral home and I basically said the goodbyes for the entire family. At that point Jill’s murder left me with this huge gaping void in my gut and I felt like if I ever let anybody close enough to see that they’d either think that I’m crazy, or they would be terrified by what I had to show them.
I became really really suicidal after Jill’s death and wanted very badly to be with her. My oldest sister became pretty agoraphobic, it’s still difficult for her eight years later to leave the house without a strong family member with her. My brother, who had problems with alcohol prior, became full-blown alcoholic.
Now I’m hyper vigilant so unless I know everything that’s going on, I’m not comfortable. Eight years later I’m still sleeping with the door locked. I have insomnia now, stomach problems that make it impossible for me to eat out. It’s like traveling grief so it just keeps remanifesting in different, different areas but it’s all the same pain and anger that are sitting in there.
I got the the nickname “Angry Amy” when I was working at the salon and I don’t think I was showing any anger at all, you know, I, some of my reactions, you know. If this guy that’s in prison for my sister’s homicide, if he gets raped and killed, I don’t care, and maybe that’s
what they were perceiving of anger. That’s – I don’t see it as being anger, I see it as being realistic. I can’t care about his life. He was found guilty of first-degree murder, he was found guilty of rape. It was death penalty plus 60. The death penalty was then overturned on appeal to a life sentence.
The biggest thing as far as, as offenders in homicide goes is the fact that there is not just one victim. You’re not just stopping at that one person. They are destroying many, many lives. My quality of life will never be the same as it was, you know. My innocence is completely gone. There’s very little that life can show me that is going to be as good as when Jill was alive.
Myrtle’s Story
[Myrtle, mother of a homicide victim]: My daughter was trying to stop an argument between two more girls, a friend of hers and the young lady that stabbed her, and she walked up to her and tried to, you know, protect and well, how do you say, stop the fight so it wouldn’t start rather, and the girl stabbed her in the neck and it hit her aorta, and she bled to death.
As you see, my daughter suffered from MS. She couldn’t fight, she couldn’t walk straight on a straight line. When I got to the hospital they did tell me that she had a pulse and of course that made me feel better because I knew she was, you know, she had life, but then a doctor came out and told me she didn’t make it. And that’s when I kind of went to pieces, I guess you might say.
I do know that there are a lot of people who commit these crimes and think that they should be, shouldn’t be held responsible but they should, and they should be punished, because you can’t go around taking people’s lives and not be punished.
I think the girl that took 10 years, she thought she should get out because she had a son at home who needed her, and I wanted to jump up and say some, but that big son that was with me and he held me down because we wasn’t supposed to talk really, and I wanted to tell you my daughter had a mother at home that needed her but she couldn’t have her. You shared with us the court again or tried to get out on parole again. I work to be there too, because even though I know I won’t get my daughter again, I miss her.
If people just realize how it hurts the family of these people that they hurt, kill and maybe they could understand I wouldn’t want that to happen for me so I can’t do it, but we have some people with no conscience, I guess.
One year later that my son – I lost my youngest son and that didn’t help matters either – but God has been with me and I’m doing the best I can and I’m sure they wouldn’t want me crying every day, or you know, suffering because of them. I could hear them, “Momma, you got to go on, you have to live,” so that’s what I’m trying to do.
Debbie’s Story
[Debbie, victim of rape]: I was carrying on doing routine housework and I had gone outside for a few minutes to check a dryer vent. I had come back in, left a door unlocked just for a matter of moments, and before I could go back to close that door, to lock that door, a man came in through that door, came up from behind me, threatened me, took me out to the woods behind my home where he robbed and raped me.
I really feared that I’d never see my husband or children again but he did let me go, but with the words, you remember that I know where you live and if you tell anyone I’m going to come back and I’m going to kill you. And in a small town like we live in, to relocate would have been, you know, of no use at all, especially my husband’s a police officer. He’d been upstairs asleep during that time that the man came in but he’d been up for over 30 hours and I knew that if I screamed then I was afraid that it would – the end result would be – not only my death but his death as well.
[Debbie’s husband]: I’m the protector, I’m the husband, and I I felt like I had failed. And as a police officer especially, and here this happens not only in my own town but in my own home.
[Debbie]: My husband called the police. I begged him not to, I knew that this man meant what he said that if I had told anyone that he was going to come and kill me. Of course I went into immediate shock, I was like a zombie. It was like, this can’t have really happened to me, you know, I’ve got to be dreaming and I just can’t wake up. I couldn’t sleep. When I did finally sleep there were nightmares, um, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t focus.
[Debbie’s husband]: The kids and I would be having dinner with Debbie in the evening and she would just explode, seemingly for no reason, and you know it would shock us, and then we’d realize, okay, something was just said or there was some reference that that flashed her back and we had to learn how to accept that and deal with it.
[Debbie]: Any time I was in a crowd I looking, wondering, you know, is he following me, is he looking at my children? When I would kiss my children goodbye in the morning I’d wonder, are they going to come back through that door in the afternoon? Because I just really and truly felt that if he couldn’t get to me that he especially would probably grab my daughter. A lot of people told me after I was attacked, “Debbie, at least you’re alive,” and I remember thinking, you know, I’m not alive.
I felt like I couldn’t trust anybody, especially, of course, strangers. I never felt comfortable anywhere. I never felt safe anywhere. You never get over this. I see an anger sometimes in my son whenever he hears about a woman, this happening to another woman, because he knows firsthand what it does to the entire family. It’s not just the primary victim that’s involved here, it’s each and every person that touches her life. And my husband, of course, he felt guilty because here he felt like he was able to protect the whole city of Williamsburg but yet he laid asleep while his own wife was taken out of her home in the middle of the day, so the guilt was phenomenal.
[Debbie’s husband]: There’s multiple victims, I was a victim, both of my kids suffered, my daughter was afraid to go out from the house to the car at night. My son – both of them were actually – bullied at school over this because we did go public with it.
[Debbie]: It was six and a half years after the rape that he was found and he was found because he had robbed two other women. Virginia has a law where they will take a sample from all convicted felons, they do a DNA typing on them, testing on them, put it in the data bank. The computer immediately does a cross-check with other evidence that has been entered and because he was there for another robbery he got caught.
I want to be able to meet face to face with him. I guess in some ways it’s like facing your fear. I want to look at him and I want to tell him I’m not afraid of you anymore. I need to be able to look at him, eye to eye, and say, “You can’t hurt me anymore. It’s over and it’s done,” and I need that
for me.
Jim’s Story
[Jim, victim of robbery]: I was walking home from a dinner party. It’s 11 o’clock at night walking down Pennsylvania Avenue in our nation’s capital, and was accosted by three gentlemen that grabbed me and drug me behind a Dempsey dumpster and beat me and kicked me. They knocked out my front tooth, bruised a couple of ribs, and all they really got out of the attack was $20. I literally gave them my billfold, they took 20 bucks out – that’s what it was in there – threw it back at me and they took off. I got up and I ran, I ran home for the rest of the blocks. During that entire night I didn’t sleep, I didn’t bathe, I just remember laying in my bed staring at the wall and ceiling and thinking, “God, I’m so thrilled to be at home and so thrilled to be alive.”
We called my parents after the police officer had left and I had one friend on one phone and I was on another, and I just wanted to assure my mother that that I was, first of all, okay, that I was going to be okay, but I told her and she was on one phone, my dad was on another, and so it was kind of hectic and crazy, and they were both very upset. My mother was very emotional and crying and you know you never want to hear your parents be that just so sad.
You know, I had a great doctor, I had a great dentist, they worked with me but financially it was very difficult. My parents were extremely helpful in that situation, if not, I don’t know what would have happened. I still think about it when I’m walking down the street, whether it’s, you know, six o’clock at night or nine o’clock at night. I really don’t walk after 9:00. I know that sounds crazy but I take cabs everywhere now. Long-term, I just don’t think that you ever, ever, recover from it, it makes you so much aware and it makes you a little bit more jaded about people that you pass on the street. You never know what’s going to happen.
There were three individuals that were captured that were doing random acts of violence roaming Capitol Hill. I think that they need to take responsibility for their actions. I think that certainly, so they can’t do this to anyone else, I think that monetary damages should be
a consideration. Also counseling, I mean, just all these different, all these different factors. But first of all, I’d really just want to know why. I don’t understand what makes people that way.
Attribution
Transcript for Victim Impact: Listen and Learn by PublicResourceOrg is included under fair use.
Transcript for Figure 8.16, Working Behind Bars
[Heather Redal, Pierce County News anchor]: If you’re looking for a career in law enforcement, now is your chance. Pierce County is looking for more than 20 full-time corrections officers. Greg McClellan takes us inside the Pierce County Jail to see what it’s like to work behind bars.
[Sounds of a jail door opening.]
[Gregg McClellan, Pierce County News reporter]: Patricia Jackson has spent 27 years building a career in corrections, a job, she says, most people don’t understand.
[Patricia Jackson, Pierce County Corrections Chief]: There are those lockup shows and stuff like that, but if you watch that, it’s more based on the prisoners and they’re kind of getting the glam on that thing, so unless you know about a corrections position – what it is, what it entails – it’s very hard to recruit for that.
[McClellan]: She’s trying to get the word out about what corrections deputies really do, because there’s a big need.
[Jackson]: We are short 24 officers to staff the units, to be able to provide the service that we’re budgeted to provide.
[David Chung, Pierce County Corrections Deputy, to the inmates]: Let’s go guys, start bringing up trays.
[McClellan]: David Chung has spent more than 40 years serving in the military and working in the jail. He’s a custody deputy, overseeing 84 inmates in one unit.
[Chung]: You have to have a certain personality to handle the jail. You have to be hard, but also compassionate. I treat them like humans, and if you do that, you don’t have any problems.
[McClellan]: Davon Miller has been on the job for less than a year.
[Davon Miller, Pierce County Corrections Deputy]: I was working at the mall [laughs], so that was a big change, because I was all about helping – yes ma’am, yes sir.
[McClellan]: Most deputies say the job is surprisingly rewarding.
[Miller]: I still shop at the mall. I run into these guys and it’s all handshakes and thank you for talking to me.
[Jackson]: I get to see a difference that I make. Maybe not in 1200 inmates, but one or two of them.
[McClellan]: The Pierce County Jail is like a small city, with deputies who oversee common areas, booking deputies who check in inmates. There’s paperwork to process and escorting inmates to court. And even reception deputies who screen visitors.
[David Berwick, Pierce County Corrections Deputy, to a visitor]: OK, you’re all checked in. Let me get you a badge, here.
[Berwick]: What keeps me around is, the pay is great, the vacations are good.
[McClellan]: Hiring more deputies is critical for reducing overtime costs, covering vacations and opening more pods to meet demand. It takes about four months to hire a new deputy.
[Jeff Reigle, Recruiter for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department]: The first part of the process is taking the National Testing Network test which is a video, a written video-based test and a physical fitness test. After they successfully complete that, then it starts the formal process with the Sheriff’s Department.
[McClellan]: Learn more about Pierce County Corrections Deputy jobs online at PierceSheriff.org or call for more details. Greg McClellan, Pierce County News.
Attribution
Transcript for Working behind bars: Becoming a corrections deputy in the Pierce County Jail by Pierce County TV (PCTV) is included under fair use.
Transcript for Figure 8.17, Detention Deputies Video
[Sound of a door unlocking. Music.]
[Female deputy]: You ladies are good? Okay.
Sir, how are you doing? I’ll let them know that you’re kind of ready to go through the process, okay?
[Cameron Dearing, Detention Deputy, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office]: We do health and welfare checks every 30 minutes. So us two, as deputies, partners here, one of us goes on the top tier and one goes on the bottom.
[Music. Text reads: “Detention deputies describe their relationships at the Hennepin County Jail as one big family. For some Deputies, that’s literally true.”]
[Interviewer]: How do you like working with your mom?
[Cameron Dearing]: I’ve actually worked with her for a week, but we both have the same intentions here. We both enjoy working here. She’s been here for 19 years?
[Erin Dearing, Detention Deputy, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office]: 18.
[Cameron Dearing]: 18 years.
[Sarah Kolstad, Detention Deputy, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, and mother to Daisy Kolstad]: When Daisy first started, I told her, listen to your senior deputies, listen to the sergeants and basically just go by common sense.
[Erin Dearing]: You either have the heart for it or you don’t have the heart for it and it’s something that I was always drawn to and I saw it in him.
[Cameron Dearing]: I grew up in a law enforcement background. I had a grandfather who was a lieutenant for Minneapolis, I had an uncle that worked for Dakota County, Ramsey County.
[Daisy Kolstad, Detention Deputy, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office]: When my mom first got the Hennepin County Sheriff office job, you know, about 10 years ago it was just influential because you know it… in this career you don’t see a lot of, you know, women, I would say, pursue law enforcement so as a non-traditional career it was just that automatic inspiration that, you know, if my mom can do it, why can’t I?
[Sarah Kolstad]: I love it. I’m actually moving up in the ranks.
[Interviewer]: You ever meet anyone outside of the jail that you watched?
[Erin Dearing]: Absolutely. It’s a good experience like they remember me. It’s sometimes, it’s a handshake. It’s never bad. We deal with a lot of mental health, we do try to give them resources. There is – many of us that will take the time. Sometimes they just need somebody to talk to them for five minutes.
[Cameron Dearing]: You really learn how to build rapport and how to speak with people here.
[Sarah Kolstad]: I love that every day is new. You think that you’re coming in – I’ve been here almost ten years – you think you’re coming in and it’s gonna be something the same and there’s always something different. There’s always something that happens.
[Daisy Kolstad]: It’s not easy – we all know it’s tough at times – but at the end of the day we’re just trying to help everyone. We want to get you out and get you successful.
[Music.]
Attribution
Transcript for Detention Deputies Video by Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is included under fair use.
Transcript for Figure 8.18, Virtual Jail Tour
[Melissa Cheng, Bureau of Detention, Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office]: Hi, I’m Sergeant Melissa Cheng. It is my privilege to take you on a virtual tour of the Charlotte County Jail.
The Bureau of Detention’s jail facility is located in Punta Gorda, Florida, and was built in 2001. The jail is run by dedicated, certified civilian and contract staff members whose main goal is to ensure the safety of our inmate population as well as our community. We are always looking for dedicated team members. Human Resources can advise you more on positions that may be available at this time.
So let us start our tour and provide you with some information about our facility. In daily operations, the Charlotte County Jail is run by the Bureau of Detention. The Detention Bureau’s leadership team includes a major and two captains. Administrative services encompasses intake, medical, and contract employees. Operations encompasses the watch commander
and the four housing squads.
The CCSO offers a great benefit package for staff. One additional benefit is an on-site gym
for use by our members. The gym includes weight equipment as well as various cardio machines. Members have access to lockers, showers, and bathroom facilities.
The jail is a direct supervision facility, meaning that officers are stationed directly with the inmates and conduct face-to-face daily management. The facility is broken up into various
housing units where the inmate population is kept. The Charlotte County Jail houses males, females, contract inmates, and on occasion, juvenile offenders. Approximately 64 inmates are assigned to each general population unit with one officer assigned. Each inmate is classified based on their previous charges, current charges, and behavioral history to ensure proper supervision is maintained.
The control center is the eyes and ears of the facility. Staff are manned in the control room 24/7
to monitor the numerous cameras that are throughout the building. Members diligently look for suspicious activity and make sure the deputies and fellow staff are safe. The control room also monitors all radio traffic and announces to supervisors any emergencies throughout the jail.
When an inmate is arrested or transported to the facility, they are brought into intake. They must
have proper paperwork detailing the reason for their confinement. Most new inmates arrive with
a new arrest affidavit or booking paperwork detailing their charges. This office area is where most of the booking paperwork is handled by our civilian jail techs. They enter data such as the arrests, charges, demographics and bond information. They also prepare the paperwork for the
arrestees to attend court for their first appearance. From this area they can communicate with
the road deputies in warrants division regarding their paperwork.
This is the booking area where new arrestees are held while being processed before moving into general population. Because of how many responsibilities the deputies have in the intake area, it is considered a specialty position. When a new arrestee first arrives at the jail they come in through that sally port. The intake deputy meets the road deputy and asks a few questions about the detainee, such as their demeanor and what their charges are, before removing the arrestee from the patrol vehicle. They are assessed for injuries and asked if they have any drugs or weapons in their possession. Once removed from the vehicles, they are brought into the pre-intake area where they are pat searched for contraband items and personal property. Their property is inventoried and photographed and all money is placed into an account. Upon entering the jail, a full body scanner is utilized to locate any items they may have concealed on their person. We have found many things hidden on people since we’ve started using the
body scanner and it has prevented harmful items from entering the facility. The arrestee is screened by medical staff and then has the opportunity to use the phones or sit in the waiting area.
While being processed, they will be fingerprinted and photographed and given their booking paperwork. While they wait, classification will ask them various questions to determine where
they will be housed. If they will stay with us at the jail – we do occasionally receive juveniles for processing – we have to keep them separated from the adults in this section where they have their fingerprints and photographs taken. Most only stay at the jail a short time before a parent picks them up or they are transported to DJJ. Only those adjudicated as adults will stay long-term.
This is the escort office. The escorts are responsible for taking the inmates to and from different areas of the jail, court intake programs, transportation, holding and other housing units, and medical. The escort position is a very important and active assignment.
The transportation cells are a temporary holding area for the inmates waiting to be transported
outside of the facility to court or medical appointments. Contract employees and certified staff take care of our transportation needs using a fleet of vans and other vehicles. Any inmates that aren’t being transported outside to court will be seen in these courtrooms over a live video feed.
The judge will appear on the screen and can speak directly to the inmates or their counsel. This is where first appearance is held and it’s the first time the arrestee is seen by a judge, who will determine if they qualify for a public defender who is an appointed attorney and a bond is determined.
This is our property room where all of the inmates’ property that was taken in intake is kept secure. The inmate clothing is washed and all property is placed within an assigned property bag or bin. All property is recorded and kept here until they are released. If an arrestee ends up staying with us because they are not provided a bond or are sentenced, new inmates will receive uniforms, toiletries and betting items.
The male and female inmates are housed separately, male deputies with the male inmates
and female deputies with the female inmates. This is one of our main housing units. Some housing units have open bunk areas, however, most include multiple bed cells that can be locked. The inmates can watch TV or go out on the recreation yard and exercise with all activities being directed by the officer on duty. The inmates also have access to the
phones and can have video visits scheduled with loved ones. Inmates are provided inmate
communication devices while they are in jail. They can use these devices to learn more
about the jail, participate in programs, educational classes or communicate with
their families. There is a limited entertainment section for their use.
Officers have a desk that they may use while working within the unit. Officers have access to a radio, phone, and computer for communication or data entry. No inmate is allowed to pass this yellow line without permission. The Charlotte County Jail is almost entirely paperless so all reports and checks may be done on the computer. We have a proximity RFID reader which is
used throughout the day to conduct business. Just about everything you do gets logged into the reader, whether it’s feeding, issuing toilet paper, or conducting headcounts. This provides real-time logging of important information to include inmate locations throughout the facility.
You’ll notice these red tags around the pod. When it comes time to do a check the officer walks around the pod and scans these red tags, which shows that the check was done. These are very useful for keeping track of the inmates as well. Each inmate is also given an ID tag and
that tag gets scanned when they receive anything and when they are moving throughout the jail.
The jail has a three-story medical unit on the first floor. The unit has a clinic where the inmates can be seen for regular check-ups, dentist visits,or if they need to speak with a mental health practitioner. Multiple procedures may be conducted within the facility to include IVs, X-rays, and wound care. Those inmates requiring emergency or specialty care may be referred to external providers. The second and third floor contains housing infirmary areas. These are used to supervise inmates that may have medical or mental health issues that require increased medical observation and assistance.
H-pod is our main male confinement unit. It is made up of four smaller units and primarily houses the inmates who are on disciplinary status, protective custody, or on administrative confinement. Maximum segregation inmates are housed here, which are the highest security
level of classification in the jail. Staff are required to supervise all movement in this area while still allowing inmates the ability to have recreation, showers, and visitation.
The jail has an on-site kitchen where all the inmates’ meals are prepared. Meals and trays are prepared by the inmate workers and services, closely supervised by jail staff each day. The inmates get three meals each day that are prepared from a menu approved by medical and a dietitian. Meals are delivered and served within the unit.
Each unit is provided with a washer and dryer for inmates to utilize. The main laundry is used for bulk bedding and other laundering needs. The inmate workers wash all the sheets, blankets, and uniforms throughout the day. Clean linen is delivered to the units as well as all supplies needed for operations.
Inmates within the housing units may wish to purchase additional items during their stay. The jail provides a store also known as commissary for inmates to order from. The commissary is run by an outside company. The commissary workers fill orders and deliver to the housing units. Family
members can also order items online from the store for delivery while inmates are incarcerated.
The jail provides opportunities for various programs and classes that may help in rehabilitation. Inmates can be assigned to work details depending on how they are classified. They can request to work in different positions once classified and medically cleared. They may be utilized to clean the floors, pet commissary orders, or work in the kitchen. Some of the sentence inmates can also work outside the jail on the lawn crew or the hydroponic garden. These inmates are the ones you see with the orange uniforms and are the only ones allowed outside the jail.
When an inmate is ready for release, they will be brought back to intake and taken to the releasing area. The releasing jail tech will complete their paperwork, give them back their
Property, and they will be on their way.
[Maj. Mike Anderson, Bureau of Detention Commander, Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office]: Hi, I’m Major Mike Anderson and I currently serve as the detention bureau commander. I want to thank you for taking your time to tour our jail. I believe that we have one of the best facilities in the state. My staff of certified officers and civilian personnel are dedicated to the mission and core values of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. Together we operate a safe and secure environment for our inmates, arrestees, and staff. I trust you’ll consider our agency for your future career in law enforcement. Have a good day.
Attribution
Transcript for 072020 Virtual Jail Tour HD4 by Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Florida is included under fair use.
Transcript for Figure 9.5, Jail without Walls – How does that work?!
Intro
[Drill instructor]: What do you think this is, the Holiday Inn? I don’t want to hear your bulls–t.
[Thomas Eisenberger, inmate]: Sir, yes sir. Sir, yes sir. I don’t want to [unintelligible] bulls–t, sir.
[Drill instructor]: This isn’t high school. If you’re not going to take it seriously then you’re going to end up locked up again. You don’t want to take responsibility for your actions, we can’t help you….
[Eisenberger]: It’s a horrible situation. I hate when someone tells me what I’m doing wrong, what I’m [unintelligible]. It’s hard to take.
Moriah Shock Prison, New York State
[Narrator]: We’re in Mariah Shock Prison in New York State. The special feature: No fences, no barbed wire, no locks. Instead, rigorous military drills. The prisoners could escape at any time but they don’t. How does the prison without walls work?
5:30 am Reveille
[Narrator]: 5:30 a.m. Time to wake up. Fifteen minutes later the 300 inmates have to work out like soldiers – every day for two hours. New in prison: Thomas Eisenberger. He’s in for drug trafficking. Every minute here is a challenge for the 35 year old.
[Thomas Eisenberger, inmate]: When I first got here, the PT was a little, a little hard. I would personally never run away.
[Narrator]: Military drills instead of prison walls. Eisenberger deliberately chose this. Like everyone else, he had a choice in court: Several years in jail, or six months at Mariah Shock. Eisenberger hopes to be reprogrammed. The drill takes its toll. He needs his energy. There’s a tough test ahead.
What the drill can achieve is best shown by Brian Cohen. He’s been here for five months. The system has turned him upside down.
[Brian Cohen, inmate]: I feel great, man. It’s a beautiful morning. I’m close to going home. Getting my mind and my body right. Can’t ask for anything more right now. It’s like medicine [unintelligible].
[Narrator]: Drill instructor Dave Adams’ task: Making the prisoners compliant. The objective: blind obedience.
[Adams]: Physical training starts the day, all right. It’s motivating.
[Adams to inmates]: Second platoon, fall out. Quickly.
[Adams]: They get excited about PT – not so much in the beginning, when we first start the program, but after they’ve been here about a month, six weeks they look forward to it.
[Adams to inmates]: Second platoon, you look bored of PT.
[Platoon, in unison]: Sir, yes sir!
[Adams to inmates]: Second platoon, what about PT?
[Platoon, in unison]: We like it, we love it [unintelligible].
[Adams]: Sets the tone of the day. They like it.
[Narrator]: Six months of military style drill is too hard for many. Twenty percent of the inmates drop out and voluntarily go to the normal jail. The others have to push through and hope to be better people after six months.
7:00 am Breakfast
[Narrator]: After two hours of physical training, the inmates are allowed to have breakfast – one of three meals a day. They have exactly 15 minutes. Every day they get the same menu: two glasses of milk, coffee, potatoes, corn flakes, a banana.
Everything the men do is carefully coordinated to the smallest detail. No walls in jail – this works only through coordination. Nobody is allowed to step out of line. No walls also means no privacy. Eisenberger lives along with 45 other inmates in the same room. The reason behind this: mutual control, and it works because if an inmate is messy, everyone gets punished.
[Eisenberger]: A lot of my fellow peers’ lockers are higher and tighter than mine. They can make this look a lot sharper than I do. I do well, I pass the evals so I’m doing good, but it can, it can look a lot better than this. It can also look a lot worse.
[Narrator]: Just like in other jails, there are no personal belongings.
[Eisenberger]: I knew what was coming. No packages. Nothing like that. These are our personal belongings, that’s what I accept.
[Narrator]: In a few hours, Eisenberger will face a tribunal he doesn’t know about it yet.
8 am Flag Raising
[Narrator]: 8 o’clock. Time to raise the flag. Organized into various platoons, the prisoners have to stand upright for an hour each day without even moving a finger. While they do so, freedom is always present. The smallest mistakes are immediately dealt with by the sergeants
[Drill instructor]: So he was touching himself, even with lots of stuff like that they got to maintain a military bearing.
[Narrator]: For newcomers like Eisenberger, it’s hard to keep his nerve.
[Eisenberger]: So whatever drill instructor come around somebody says, “You, why are you moving?” I’m locked up even tighter hoping it wasn’t me that was moving. Was that moving? Am I moving? Am I doing something wrong? You’re asking yourself these questions while you’re worried about getting corrective PT.
[Narrator]: Some punishments are borderline bullying or they seem deliberately arbitrary. The sergeants first have to break the inmates in order to transform them.
[Drill instructor]: Everything matters, everything. Every little thing matters. It may seem drastic but they’re not supposed to move around.
[Drill instructor to inmates]: Attention! [unintelligible].
[Narrator]: As a reminder, all inmates are here voluntarily, hoping to become better people in six months. But not every offender can apply. The prisoners in Moriah are petty criminals and don’t have a history of violent crime.
10:00 am Therapy
[Narrator]: Therapy is also part of the program. Here, inmates are to tear down their personal walls. They shouldn’t have secrets. Prison veteran Brian Colum has to deal with his past drug abuse today and open up about the darkest chapter in his life. Colum did and sold heroin. He spent five years in a normal jail. But the time was more a swampland of temptation than of improvement for the 39 year old.
[Colum]: In real prison there is no caring community. There’s probably more drugs in prison then in the outside world. There’s more violence in prison than anywhere else in the world. The staff here is phenomenal, they genuinely care. They may come down hard, but it’s all because they see in you what you should see in yourself. I’ve become a better me every way, in every way possible.
[Narrator]: Colum wants to become a better person at any cost. Escape from the prison without walls? Not an option.
[Colum]: I never thought about leaving, never thought about quitting. The main thing, every day I try a little bit harder.
[Narrator]: Brian appears to us as an honest guy, but also robotic. The shock program changed him, every day a bit more.
We discussed how security is ensured with Superintendent Ross Envoice. Since the founding of Moriah in the 1980s, he significantly influenced the prison.
[Superintendent]: There are certain criteria that they have to meet before they’re sent to a correctional setting that doesn’t have a fence. There’s also several counts, and there are several security measures that we take.
[Narrator]: Hardly anyone relapses and it’s cheaper. The shock program saves up to $20,000 per inmate. By comparison, in Germany, sooner or later every second inmate relapses and ends up back behind bars.
[Superintendent]: In this setting also, the inmate has the advantage of going home in six months rather than being incarcerated for his entire state bid, so the inmates don’t want to jeopardize that.
[Narrator]: The huge reduction in the prison sentence keeps most of them from running away. In the morning, the risk of escaping is at its highest. The inmates perform charitable work in the next town.
11:00 am Work
[Eisenberger]: Today I believe, we’re going to clean up some campsites.
[Narrator]: It’s 11 o’clock. Without shackles, in an unsecured van, Eisenberger’s group is on its way. The destination: a campsite 10 kilometers away in the middle of an idyllic National Park. Only three guards to look after the ten inmates on the large site, unarmed as well. A great moment to make a break. For Eisenburger, however, the thought never crosses his mind.
[Eisenberger]: I would, I would personally never run away. There’s too much at stake. I was sentenced to five years, this sheds almost 30 months off my sentence. To come out here and I mean rake, on the edge of this lake, and look at these mountains and it’s a blessing in disguise. I’m thankful to be here.
[Narrator]: Only two people have fled in the prison’s entire history, in a situation like this one at work. Both were caught and sent to normal jail.
4:30 pm Dinner
[Narrator]: Time for dinner. Pasta, peas, white bread, a yogurt and a glass of milk are being brought to the table. The most important thing now is food because after 10 hours of continuous drill, the prisoners have been pushed to their limits. And even then, the sergeants don’t back down. Eisenberger has to adjust to the pressure.
[Eisenberger]: We only have 8 minutes to eat, so the key is to shovel it in as fast as I can.
[Narrator]: The short amount of time isn’t the only thing adding pressure on the inmates, especially when the guards spoiled their meal.
[Drill instructor, holding a pad of paper]: Where’s that go?
[Inmate]: Sir, it fell out of my pocket, sir.
[Drill instructor]: Why isn’t it in there?
[Inmate]: Sir, no excuses, sir.
[Drill instructor]: That’s right. Enjoy your meal on the back wall.
[Inmate]: Sir, yes sir.
[Drill instructor]: See you.
[Inmate, balancing tray of food against the wall]: The same [unintelligible] reasonable although my fellow peers and myself, we know [unintelligible] it’ll make us not do it again next time.
[Narrator]: Are these antics really necessary? We talked to one of the guards.
[Guard]: The discipline here for the very small things, is the small things make the big things come together. In the end, we create structure.
[Narrator]: Which means the guards educate the prisoners for everyday life, even at the dinner table. Newcomer Eisenberger looks pretty exhausted.
[Eisenberger]: There’s no private time at all, it’s very exhausting mentally challenging
[Narrator]: Eisenberger still has the biggest challenge of his day ahead of him.
6:00 pm Conflict course
[Narrator]: After dinner, this means surrendering to the conflict course. Inmates tear down walls amongst themselves. They even drill criticism, all against one. If you’re the one in the pillory, you’re not allowed to defend yourself.
[Eisenberger]: We sit down here in this corner. We have to air each other’s issues and shortcomings and defects of character. It’s a horrible situation.
[Narrator]: Today is Eisenberger’s turn for his first run in the hot seat. His platoon has a lot to say. He seems to be far down the group’s hierarchy; now he has to deal with the criticism.
[Fellow inmates]: You’re a whole new person. I can barely talk to you. Too busy running around politicking of the Shock program. You’re extremely loud out there. You’re the house mouse. You seem somewhat aggressive still. Just working on the surface.
[Narrator]: Eisenberger has to bear it all. Only when all the inmates have had their turn to speak is he allowed to justify himself, but not before the drill sergeants speak.
[Drill instructor]: They said you wanted to be our friend. You want to shoot the [unintelligible] with me?
[Eisenberger]: Sir, no [unintelligible] does not want to be your friend, sir.
[Drill instructor]: Good. ‘Cause I don’t want to be your friend.
[Eisenberger]: My neighbor was asked by his platoon leader to help with issues that are involved with the platoon, dress code, locking up on time.
[Narrator]: Eisenberger begins ranting but the sergeants are only expecting short apologies.
[Drill instructor]: I don’t want to hear your bulls–t.
[Eisenberger]: Sir, yes sir. Sir, yes sir. I don’t want to [unintelligible] bulls–t, sir.
[Drill instructor]: This isn’t high school. If you’re not going to take it seriously then you’re going to end up locked up again. You don’t want to take responsibility for your actions. If you change, you become a better person.
[Drill instructor]: [Unintelligible]. You’re going to be out in quiet time, my favorite time.
[Narrator]: The conflict course is over.
[Eisenberger]: I’m mad at myself. I’m upset with myself. I need to slow down more. This program is helping me with patience and very, you know, positive.
[Drill instructor]: Right [unintelligible]. Forward march. Lock it up and [unintelligible] your lockers.
9:30 pm Curfew
[Narrator]: 9:30 p.m. Locked down the prison without walls. A tough drill and the hope for a better life. Nobody thinks about leaving.
Attribution
Transcript for Jail without Walls – How does that work?! | Free Doc Bites | Free Documentary by Free Documentary is included under fair use.
Transcript for Figure 9.6, Part 1: What are Drug Courts?
[Narrator]: Drug addiction has become an unprecedented public health crisis. We cannot solve this with incarceration. Drug courts are part of the solution.
[Music.]
Drug courts, also called treatment courts, are specialized court programs for persons with substance use disorders. Instead of simply going to jail, the programs give people the opportunity to enter long term treatment and agree to court supervision. Drug courts address the root causes of drug use and criminal behavior like poverty, mental health issues, physical health, and unemployment. Participants in drug court maintain recovery from drugs, take on
responsibilities, and work towards lifestyle changes.
Members of the court help participants in their progress towards these goals and hold them accountable for lapses and improvement. Unlike traditional court, drug courts take a collaborative approach to justice. The judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, and probation official work collaboratively as a team. They use their individual expertise in partnership with public health professionals such as treatment providers, social services, and mental health specialists. Together they seek solutions that benefit the participant.
Ultimately, drug courts reduce crime and affect real change in lives. To learn more, visit NDCRC.org.
Attribution
Transcript for Part 1: What are Drug Courts? by AmericanUnivJPO is included under fair use.
Transcript for Figure 9.7, Part 3: Drug Courts are Effective
[Music.]
[Narrator]: Drug courts are operating with incredible success across the country. They are effective at getting people into treatment, a key step in long-term sobriety. People who complete drug court programs are significantly less likely to be arrested again compared to those who are sentenced with traditional punishments.
The most successful drug courts reduce recidivism by as much as 35 to 40%. Drug courts are also cost beneficial. The National Institute of Justice concluded from a decade-long study of a drug court that reduced recidivism and other long-term program outcomes resulted in public savings of $6,744 on an average per participant.
We know drug courts enhance public safety, save dollars, and most importantly, restore dignity to individuals, families, and communities. In the words of Judge Thomas Warren of Loudoun County, Virginia, drug courts are the single most powerful and innovative tool available to the criminal justice system in the fight against drug abuse.
To learn more, visit NDCRC.org.
Attribution
Transcript for Part 3: Drug Courts are Effective by AmericanUnivJPO is included under fair use.
