>> Over the years, Corrections has been growing quite fast.
We have, right now, over 21,000 people in prison.
We have about, between 1,200 and 1,300 women behind bars.
Taycheedah alone has about 700 to 730 offenders.
>> I'm 21 years old.
I got an 11-year sentence, four in and seven out.
I'm here for first degree reckless homicide.
>> To me, rules train us to be self-disciplined.
You lost control.
>> I'm here on a first degree intentional homicide charge,
which means that I'm directly responsible for taking someone's life.
>> Society took control.
>> Holding people against their will, false imprisonment.
>> The case was gang related. Three people got shot.
>> I was waived to adult court at the age of 14 for felony murder, party to a crime.
>> I thought I was so street smart. And I thought I knew everything.
You know what, you come in here and it's done.
That's it, no more. You're done playing.
Game's over.
You're in prison.
You're sitting here, doing your time, every day.
>> We have women who have murdered.
We have women who have done armed robberies,
who have physically hurt people.
Am I seeing more violent offenders coming into the system?
Yes.
And I believe that's also related to drug offenses.
And it's also related to neglect, abuse, physically, mentally and also sexual abuse.
>> What you just witnessed was the first doors that you will see upon entering Taycheedah.
It's part of the intake process when you're taken in at the MC Unit.
This is the strip cage area.
This is where you come, upon being entered from the county jail with your clothes.
You come into one of these cages, which obviously, you see is not very comfortable.
You don't have any carpet. Sitting on hard, cold concrete cement.
Being stripped is one of the worst experiences of prison.
>> I'm here for party to a crime on burglary, robbery, and homicide.
This is my case.
This is seven days of trial.
This is police discovery.
I will never be rid of this, or this.
This is the number, my number. I'm branded now. I am a number.
>> Prison life is not easy life in terms of amenities.
We have a lot of rules.
So, what do the rules do?
They restrict.
Obviously, they're not going to be able to stay up till 3, 4, or 5 o'clock in the morning partying, just hanging out.
They have to get up by 7:00.
We have counts during the day.
What that means is they have to stand up, and the staff have to make sure that they are here.
>> I was, when I first came, when I was coming, I was scared.
It's a bad experience to walk through these doors.
And I didn't know what was going to go on.
You know, it was different.
Prison, wow.
I never thought I was going to hit prison grounds till I did.
It's a bad feeling to come through them doors, and to see 'em close.
It hurts. I broke down and cried right there and then.
>> It's so easy to come here and hard to get out, you know.
I didn't think I was going to end up in prison.
>> When I found out I was pregnant, I was devastated,
'cause I knew I was going to prison, but I just didn't know for how long.
>> Here we do all intakes for assessment evaluation inmates.
And basically, on assessment and evaluation, what we try and do is classify you into your specific needs.
Along with that, there's a lot of changes that you'll see when you come to prison.
Some of the changes are, is that we decide when you are going to shower,
when you're going to have meals,
when you're going to get up,
and just about when you're going to go to bed,
and when it's going to be quiet within the unit.
>> On my way to prison, the bus trip here, I was feeling sick.
All the things that I've done to put myself in this position are just now becoming reality.
The events that led me to prison, were several bad choices, actually.
The selling and distributing of powder cocaine, for one.
And just for the thrill of it, actually, not for any means of making money or doing drugs.
It was a pure adrenaline rush.
And you know, I was caught.
I was currently employed at Children's Hospital as a dialysis technician.
I also have a four-year B.A. in Criminal Justice, along with a two-year ITT Programming Associate.
So, my education is lengthy, extensive.
There are so many other things I could have done with my time.
>> Your right to choose who you live with and where you live is taken away when you come to prison.
Now that is our choice.
And from time to time, you may not like the individual inmates that you have to live with.
But again, that right to choose who you live with is taken away when you do come to prison.
>> I was this bad ass person,
just this, this-- [beep]
This, can't be touched, you know.
The females were scared of me.
The guys were scared of me.
You know, I just, they wouldn't mess with me.
They wouldn't touch me.
They knew, you know, I meant business.
You know, I did what I did.
It's like I pumped fear into their hearts, you know.
And I mean, they just knew.
>> I came from a good childhood. My parents have been together for many years.
I have two brothers.
We all graduated.
I had to go through methadone withdrawals, which was very hard being locked up.
And when I came here to prison, I was using oxycontin.
And coming here straight from like a court date to here,
I had to go through a lot of withdrawals, which is really hard,
because withdrawals are like no fun.
>> Any time you leave the institution for court and you're gone overnight and you come back,
this is where you have to take a shower before you can go back to your regular housing unit.
As you can see, it's basically a cage with a shower.
You make pick up lice or anything else in the county jail.
And they try to avoid spreading it to the rest of the population.
>> And I didn't care. And so, I was just doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.
I didn't care. I didn't care about anything.
I didn't care about myself. I didn't care.
And nobody ever told me to stop, because they were like, oh well, she's doing good in school.
Or, she's actually passing school, even if I wasn't do that good.
Or, she has a job.
You know, I did what I had to do, but that doesn't matter, because I was, I was [beep] up.
I was getting high. I was getting drunk.
I was staying out all night. I was sneaking out.
I wouldn't listen to anybody.
>> This is one of the rooms in the Max Unit, which is where I'm housed at.
You can see this is with me and another roommate. It's very crowded in here.
We both have property, and it's very small.
There's hardly any room to do anything.
I mean, she's on her bed and I want to write, you know,
I've got to sit kind of up close.
We both can't walk around the room at the same time without bumping into each other.
The toilet is exactly right here.
So, imagine when I'm sitting down using the bathroom, as you can see, it's like right here.
And you know, my cell mate lives right here, so I can reach out and touch her if I'm using the bathroom.
>> There's no privacy in here.
None. None at all.
If you want to come to your room and cry about something, you can't, because somebody's going to hear it.
And then people are going to talk about you.
>> What led me to drugs was I was hiding my deeper problem.
My deeper problem was I was molested as a child.
And as a child, I got raped.
And then being raped on the streets.
And then, I just covered all that up by using drugs.
>> I made the choice to have sexual relations with girls that are younger than I was.
>> You first come in, you get three pair of socks.
And as I said, these are not the brand new, or the most brand new.
You get three pair of recycled socks.
You get three pair, at this point, of new underwear.
You're responsible for your own socks and underwear.
If you lose them, damage them, anything of the sort,
you will be paying for them.
It will come out of your account, whether or not you choose to pay for them.
All it takes is a signature from an officer and they'll deduct it from your funds.
You get one state-issued bra for three days.
You shower every other day.
When you first come in through the intake process, you get two.
After your third day, you go down to one bra, one jumpsuit, two sets of towels, one t-shirt,
your three pairs of socks and your three pairs of underwear.
>> When it comes down to things you're used to outside,
you better kiss that Vidal Sasoon goodbye.
You better not hope you're getting any Neutrogena lotion.
You better--
You're not getting no curling irons.
>> This is our delicious entree here at Taycheedah.
We got some creamy coleslaw, some canned fruit cocktail,
yellow tartar sauce, five brussel sprouts,
diet ice tea, some rye bread, a baked potato.
This is our fish, Friday fish fry. Butter.
>> You couldn't have told me at 20 years old that I'd be in prison for the next 15-20 years.
I'd have never believed you. But I didn't listen to anybody,
'cause I was making my choices the way I wanted to.
I wasn't listening. I didn't care.
And now, 15-16 years later, it's kind of late to care.
This is what it's like to live in the dorm.
You have somebody next to you, like she said, 24/7.
You have your neighbors. You have your bunkie.
If you pull out your drawer beneath your bed, your neighbor can't pull their drawer out at the same time.
You have to move around each other.
Four people have to be in this small space at any time.
At any given time while you're here, your stuff is subject to search,
whether it's on your person. You could be pat searched.
You could be bunk searched at random. They can go through any of your stuff.
Nothing is personal. Nothing is private.
As you can see, they can go through anything you have.
>> Robbery, breaking and entry. I did carrying a concealed weapon, assault and battery.
>> Inmate Number 376794. I'm an inmate at Taycheedah Correctional Institution.
I am an A&E Clerk/Janitor.
We work at a scale of minimum wage, about 0.1%, I think I make about eight cents an hour.
Well, they do offer hygiene loans here for people.
But it's kind of rough, because you only get, I think it's $12 a month, you get with state pay.
But they take, deodorant is like $4,
soap is like, you can get maybe two bars for a dollar.
And if you use them the way you should, you'll go through a lot of the soap.
It's really not enough money to go around.
So, you have to have a job here just to get your very basics.
And there's so few jobs, if you get one, you're blessed to have one.
>> I've been locked up almost five years now.
When you want to get your hair cut, it has to be one length.
If it's two lengths, they can make you cut it.
>> I used to cut hair on the streets, but it ain't the same. It ain't the same at all.
Here, you get a couple cents for doing this, eight hours a day,
or however many they need you to do it. And I mean, you got the right tools to do it with,
but you've got to worry about people stealing combs and stealing scissors.
And then if people steal stuff, then you've got to worry about going in the hole, because they done stole from you.
>> At the age of 13, I was out running in the street, running away from home, hanging around with the older crowd,trying to fit in.
>> This is like all we have. You know, we have the holes in the door, you know, 'cause the officer sometimes,
you know, have to make sure that you're in the shower alone,
no one else is in the shower with you.
We don't have any controls, any way to control the water.
All we do is push the button in and whatever water comes out is what we get.
It's warm water. It's not hot like you want it, or cold like you want it.
>> It's someone's choice to be here.
It's not the probation and parole officer's choice.
It's not the Judge.
It's not the society.
It's not the police officer.
It's their own.
>> I committed my crime when I was like 21. I had just had a baby.
And also, I had this boyfriend, that I thought he loved me.
He made me do things that I didn't want to do. But I was doing them because I thought he loved me.
He used to beat me all the time. And so, when I committed this crime,
because he had a drug habit, and I wanted to help him out.
And so, we went out there and we robbed like this elderly lady at this Capitol Court.
And my intention was not to hurt the lady, but she got hurt anyway.
And I just felt bad about that.
>> This is my fifth incarceration. I've been in the system for 32 years, in and out.
And a lot has changed.
When I first came into the system, because I was an abused child.
I was sexually assaulted. And so, I was pretty much on my own.
I've been on my own since I was 11, running in and out.
So, the system is all I know.
I now have three kids, who are also in the system.
>> Think, really think about what you're doing, who you're affecting.
You're not just affecting yourself by being locked up.
You're affecting your family. You're affecting everyone you love.
If you know, you killed somebody, the victim, their family.
You know, someone's always going to be affected by the things you do, not just yourself.
And if you think that way, you're being selfish.
>> We're now in the Seg Unit.
And this is a shot of an observation cell.
This is where you would spend you time in Seg
if you're violent,
if you would harm yourself,
if the staff are afraid of you of leaving you in a room where you can't be directly supervised.
As you can see, there are big windows in the room.
You're right in front of the control area.
The staff are able to see you 24 hours a day.
>> Let's talk about Seg.
Seg is four walls, a toilet and you in a room all day with nothing, sitting.
You don't get TVs.
You don't get--
You get three showers a week.
And you get this little, tiny cup, okay, with this little, tiny bit of soap in it.
And this little, tiny bit of Vaseline.
I'm serious. When I say little bit of Vaseline, I'm talking about my thumbnail, all right.
And that's supposed to cover your whole body.
>> This is the only way you get your meals, or any other personal items you may need.
>> I'm 24 years old.
In in segregation for threats and disrupted.
I've been down here for a whole year in like two weeks.
When I first got locked up, I was 17. But when I came back here, I was 22.
I was doing robberies. I'm in here for--
I'm in here for doing a robbery on a money express place.
I was accused of shooting somebody. I got 12 years, and 13 years out.
So, it's no good.
I mean, I regret doing what I did.
And I wish I could take back the hands of time, so I wouldn't be here right now.
I'm young, and half of my life's been in prison. It's not worth it.
>> This is all you get.
You get a wool blanket, sheets, a pillowcase, towel, wash cloth.
You get a set of orange clothes that are changed three times a week, when you shower.
Your shower's taken in your cell.
You get a pair of panties, bra and socks, which are used.
You don't get your own underclothes. You don't get any of your own clothes.
And all you have for personal hygiene is generic deodorant, generic toothpaste, a small comb, the inside of a pen.
You aren't even allowed a whole pen.
And a toothbrush that is a few plastic bristles you put on the end of your finger.
>> Change your lifestyle before you guys end up where I'm at.
You know, this is not a life.
I mean, what kind of life is this, this being locked up 24/7,
basically in a cell by yourself. And if you're in the population, you have a roommate.
I mean, this ain't life. This ain't life for nobody.
>> This is where our visitors enter and exit the institution.
This is the gate that they have to leave out of.
As you can see, there's multiple fences, razor wire.
They have to wait to be buzzed in and out of the gate.
>> Oh, you sure can, yeah.
You get a 30-second hug in the beginning, and a kiss, and maybe one at the end.
Not even that long.
I mean, they're on you. If you do it too long, you can get a ticket and to go Seg.
Sure can.
And I mean, there's no touching.
You can't hold.
If you want to hold your kid's hand, they're not going to want you to do that.
They're a little more lenient with the children, because they're just the babies.
but say you got a boyfriend, or a husband, or a girlfriend, or somebody,
I don't know, grandpa, mom, aunt, uncle, and you want to hold their hand,
you can't hold their hand.
>> As you can see in the background, there are cameras.
If you're in segregation, that's the only way you're allowed to visit with your families.
And this is the only place you get to see your family.
>> I cry every night that my family has forgot about me.
I don't get any mail from them.
My dad, I thought I was daddy's girl.
And now that I'm here, I don't hear from him. He doesn't write. He doesn't,
I'm not able to call.
He doesn't come to visit because it's so far to drive.
It really hurts me that I don't have my sister.
I have a sister I haven't talked to since, for six months.
And I write them all letters begging 'em to at least write me
and say that you miss me or you love me, or something, anything.
>> I find that there are very marked differences between the women and the men.
When working with men, and talking with them,
I would ask them about their children, and they always talked about them.
But it seem to me that it was somewhat removed.
I'm sure they love their children.
However, it was, they talked about them as they were out there somewhere.
What I find with the women, is that that's all they think about.
They talk about it, and they think about it day and night. It's a huge concern of theirs.
>> Taking a lady's life. That's something I live with every day of my life, and I truly regret.
If I could go back and change that, I would, but I can't.
Do I miss my kids?
(breaths heavily) Yes, I miss my kids.
My kids is, you know, as I said, my kids get me through my time.
My kids has always been my world, you know.
When I was growing up, my mother wasn't there.
And with my boys, I always wanted to be in their life.
This is my first time incarcerated.
And I never wanted to be out of their life.
So, this is really, like taking a big toll out of me to be away from them. I'm missing out on a lot.
And you know, your kids, they go through a lot. And you can't be there to protect 'em.
You never know, you know, what's going on with them, or how they may be feeling.
>> I don't know, because I've asked my ex-husband, you know, where does she think her mom is.
And he says, "Out of sight, out of mind."
So, the last time I saw her was August of 2005.
And she called me Andrea, you know.
It was-- It was really an awkward situation.
>> Shanice live with my sister,
and Carolee, I had to give her up for adoption because my family wouldn't take her.
So, I don't never get to see her, so I don't know what's going on with her.
But Shanice, she writes me like once in a while,
but I don't really know what's going on with my kids out there.
>> My kids, my daughter is only seven, so I try to talk to her.
But she really, she knows. My daughter knows why I'm here and that I made a bad mistake.
And she understands that, but
the only thing that she asks from me, you know, she says,
that why can't these people kick me out, you know.
And I just tell her I can't get kicked out.
And I tell her that I have to do three more years.
She doesn't even know how much time three years is. She's still a little girl.
And it's hard to even explain to her when I'm coming home.
So, I just tell her I'm coming home soon, but not yet.
So, anything I tell her and my little boy, he's always just so quiet.
I think he's always quiet because he just misses me. And he's only five.
But it's hard to, you know, spend time with them and talk to them in two hours,
because two hours goes by so fast, and it's hard.
>> One of the obstacles that women are going to face
when they leave and they look for work, or try and get themselves back into
a normal way of living, is to get a job and do the regular things that all of us do.
For example, voting, because they're felons, obviously, they're not going to be able to vote.
So, then what happens about work. Obviously, some doors are going to be closed.
If they're going to be looking for work as police officers, they cannot bear arms,
so obviously that's not a choice they want to make.
However, just because they're in prison, it doesn't mean that it's the end of the world, you know.
It's a time to reflect and start planning for what it is they need to do when they get out.
>> I'm currently enrolled in the dental laboratory technician program.
I'm serving a five-and-a-half year sentence for drunk driving, seventh offense.
You can't roll up your sleeves. Everybody's got the same greens.
About the only thing you have different is maybe a pair of glasses. And you can only spend so much on your glasses.
There's a limit on everything here.
My partying got in my way. I liked to party. I liked to drink to have fun.
It's not what life's all about.
I had a baby while I was incarcerated.
Um...
I was pregnant the whole time I was in jail, and I had my baby while I was here.
Nobody wants to--
thank you--
go through that.
Leave your baby at the hospital and come back to a prison.
You can't fathom how it is here unless you live here.
And it's not cool.
People may come out and say, oh, you know, I was in prison, you know.
But that's not cool.
It's something to be ashamed of. It's not something to brag about.
>> Women come to prison because society decided to remove them from their communities,
so that their communities could be safe.
There were reasons for them to be here. So, the public needs to know that.
But also, the public needs to know that while in prison, women have a choice to better themselves.
And that they are paying their debt to society.