1 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:17,382 Welcome to the United States of America. 2 00:00:17,601 --> 00:00:19,182 We call this the land of the free, 3 00:00:19,394 --> 00:00:20,975 but this country is home 4 00:00:21,188 --> 00:00:24,680 to the largest prison population in the world. 5 00:00:24,900 --> 00:00:27,482 2.2 million Americans. 6 00:00:27,694 --> 00:00:30,777 We put more people in cages here than China, 7 00:00:30,989 --> 00:00:32,729 Russia, than anywhere. 8 00:00:32,950 --> 00:00:35,987 We have more people in prisons. 9 00:00:36,203 --> 00:00:38,319 More than we have colleges and universities. 10 00:00:38,539 --> 00:00:42,703 1/3 of all incarcerated females globally 11 00:00:42,918 --> 00:00:45,000 are locked up here in the United States. 12 00:00:45,212 --> 00:00:48,796 13 million Americans are arrested every year. 13 00:00:49,007 --> 00:00:51,794 - Get your hands off the truck! - I'm not doing anything. 14 00:00:52,010 --> 00:00:54,592 Put that in perspective... Imagine all of Los Angeles 15 00:00:54,805 --> 00:00:59,048 and all of New York combined arrested every year. 16 00:01:03,814 --> 00:01:05,645 Saving lives every day. 17 00:01:05,857 --> 00:01:08,189 Able to pull her limp Bo... 18 00:01:09,653 --> 00:01:11,689 But not a single state in our union 19 00:01:11,905 --> 00:01:14,521 has use-of-force laws... =l can't breathe! 20 00:01:14,741 --> 00:01:17,824 That meet even the most basic international standards... 21 00:01:20,372 --> 00:01:23,705 With record poverty, drug use, 22 00:01:23,917 --> 00:01:25,748 and countless nonviolent social issues 23 00:01:25,961 --> 00:01:29,624 left to our police officers to solve with only three tools, 24 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:31,671 we have a national crisis on our hands. 25 00:01:31,883 --> 00:01:33,464 Of course, we need dangerous people 26 00:01:33,677 --> 00:01:35,417 removed from our communities. 27 00:01:37,931 --> 00:01:39,967 But how many Americans are really so dangerous... 28 00:01:40,183 --> 00:01:41,798 He's arresting me. 29 00:01:42,019 --> 00:01:43,680 That they need to be locked in a cage? 30 00:01:43,895 --> 00:01:46,762 I enrolled my girls in my father's school district. 31 00:01:46,982 --> 00:01:49,849 They sent me to jail. 32 00:01:50,068 --> 00:01:52,059 They sent my father to jail, too. 33 00:01:52,279 --> 00:01:53,564 My father never came home. 34 00:01:53,780 --> 00:01:55,486 The law enforcement apparatus 35 00:01:55,699 --> 00:01:57,860 is deployed disproportionately against people of color. 36 00:01:58,076 --> 00:02:00,158 If you're a black man, your crack is gonna get 37 00:02:00,370 --> 00:02:01,860 300 times more than your... 38 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,072 We know reform is desperately needed, 39 00:02:05,292 --> 00:02:07,172 - but how do we reform... - Can't record inside. 40 00:02:07,294 --> 00:02:09,159 When prisons don't just lock people up inside? 41 00:02:09,379 --> 00:02:11,836 You don't want to tape me with your telephone! 42 00:02:12,049 --> 00:02:13,689 - Get it all! - I'm a member of the press. 43 00:02:13,842 --> 00:02:15,924 - They lock us out. - Pack up and go. 44 00:02:16,136 --> 00:02:18,798 Citizens, the media, independent journalists 45 00:02:19,014 --> 00:02:22,177 are all routinely barred from recording or documenting 46 00:02:22,392 --> 00:02:25,884 anything that's going on inside our criminal justice system. 47 00:02:26,104 --> 00:02:27,685 You're a chicken shit motherfu... 48 00:02:27,898 --> 00:02:29,889 We have to get all our information and impressions 49 00:02:30,108 --> 00:02:32,099 from corporate commercially funded television. 50 00:02:32,319 --> 00:02:34,480 If you can't do the time, don't do the cr... 51 00:02:34,696 --> 00:02:35,882 These shows are filmed and edited 52 00:02:35,906 --> 00:02:37,146 under tight supervision. 53 00:02:37,366 --> 00:02:38,856 They're not going to prepare you 54 00:02:39,076 --> 00:02:41,317 for the inhuman conditions, the violence 55 00:02:41,536 --> 00:02:43,902 and brutality you're going to have to face. 56 00:02:44,122 --> 00:02:46,363 You think because you obey the law, 57 00:02:46,583 --> 00:02:47,863 you have nothing to worry about. 58 00:02:48,043 --> 00:02:49,283 But recently, 59 00:02:49,503 --> 00:02:50,993 the wall street journal suggests 60 00:02:51,213 --> 00:02:52,919 we now have so many laws on the books, 61 00:02:53,131 --> 00:02:55,338 the average American commits three felonies a day 62 00:02:55,550 --> 00:02:57,550 - without even knowing it. - He didn't do anything! 63 00:02:57,761 --> 00:03:00,594 As an American, you're more likely to go to prison here 64 00:03:00,806 --> 00:03:02,592 than anywhere else in the world. 65 00:03:02,808 --> 00:03:04,514 You need to know how to handle 66 00:03:04,726 --> 00:03:06,591 an out-of-control police officer. 67 00:03:06,812 --> 00:03:08,348 Yes, why am I gonna... 68 00:03:08,563 --> 00:03:11,555 How to survive an interrogation, 69 00:03:11,775 --> 00:03:15,563 how to survive county jail and an extreme prison sentence. 70 00:03:19,157 --> 00:03:22,445 To take us through the steps... 71 00:03:22,661 --> 00:03:26,245 We're going to follow the stories of two Americans... 72 00:03:26,456 --> 00:03:31,200 Bruce lisker, an innocent man convicted of murder, 73 00:03:31,420 --> 00:03:34,082 and Reggie Cole, another innocent man 74 00:03:34,297 --> 00:03:36,788 who endured an even more horrific nightmare. 75 00:03:38,844 --> 00:03:41,324 We're going to get perspectives from investigative journalists, 76 00:03:41,471 --> 00:03:43,177 analysts, academics, prison staff, 77 00:03:43,390 --> 00:03:44,880 lawyers, cops, inmates. 78 00:03:45,100 --> 00:03:46,806 So in the unfortunate case 79 00:03:47,018 --> 00:03:48,633 that this may happen to you, 80 00:03:48,854 --> 00:03:52,312 this is the survivor's guide to prison. 81 00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:58,147 J they controlling you? They got a hold on you 82 00:03:58,363 --> 00:04:01,105 j you need a man in a suit to tell you what to do? 83 00:04:01,324 --> 00:04:03,315 J I'll grab the podium mic and open the knife 84 00:04:03,535 --> 00:04:05,275 j we don't read between the lines 85 00:04:05,495 --> 00:04:07,235 j let alone the stripes and the stars 86 00:04:07,456 --> 00:04:09,196 j presidents get popped in their cars 87 00:04:09,416 --> 00:04:11,202 j I ain't coppin' the drop, real talk 88 00:04:17,924 --> 00:04:20,461 As an American citizen, you don't have to be 89 00:04:20,677 --> 00:04:25,387 a murderer or a rapist or a thief to be arrested. 90 00:04:25,599 --> 00:04:27,635 You can call the police in an emergency 91 00:04:27,851 --> 00:04:29,716 and find yourself arrested just because 92 00:04:29,936 --> 00:04:32,052 the officer doesn't like you. 93 00:04:34,441 --> 00:04:36,352 My strongest memory of my mom 94 00:04:36,568 --> 00:04:41,608 is she was very into teaching and sharing. 95 00:04:41,823 --> 00:04:43,279 We loved each other. 96 00:04:43,492 --> 00:04:44,972 I would've put my own life on the line 97 00:04:45,035 --> 00:04:46,741 to try to save my mom's had I known 98 00:04:46,953 --> 00:04:48,818 anything like this was going to happen. 99 00:04:51,041 --> 00:04:53,908 And it was a day just like any other day. 100 00:04:54,127 --> 00:04:56,493 I went over to my parents' house. 101 00:04:56,713 --> 00:04:58,704 Normally, when I went over, my mom would come out 102 00:04:58,924 --> 00:05:01,131 on the front porch to greet me. 103 00:05:01,343 --> 00:05:04,301 And that day, she didn't come to the door. 104 00:05:04,513 --> 00:05:07,425 I was able to see her on the floor, 105 00:05:07,641 --> 00:05:11,634 and she had been stabbed and beaten and left for dead. 106 00:05:11,853 --> 00:05:14,435 And I was just freaking out. 107 00:05:21,029 --> 00:05:23,896 I was hysterical, and I was yelling and screaming 108 00:05:24,115 --> 00:05:27,073 at the paramedics to hurry up and get her to the hospital 109 00:05:27,285 --> 00:05:30,197 so that the doctors could do something to save her life. 110 00:05:30,413 --> 00:05:33,746 And the police choke-holded me and handcuffed me 111 00:05:33,959 --> 00:05:37,076 and put me in the car for my own safety, ostensibly. 112 00:05:37,295 --> 00:05:39,295 You call the authorities when something goes wrong. 113 00:05:39,422 --> 00:05:40,832 I mean, you call for help, 114 00:05:41,049 --> 00:05:42,835 and you put your full faith in them. 115 00:05:43,051 --> 00:05:45,337 I was telling the police, "I want to go to the hospital 116 00:05:45,554 --> 00:05:49,968 to be with my mom," screaming, crying, you know? 117 00:05:50,183 --> 00:05:52,890 And he said, "no, we have to go to Van nuys police department.” 118 00:05:53,103 --> 00:05:56,971 The detective interrogated Bruce for two hours. 119 00:05:57,190 --> 00:06:00,682 By the time he was done interrogating me, she had died. 120 00:06:03,655 --> 00:06:05,270 Fuck. 121 00:06:09,244 --> 00:06:10,780 So what would you do? 122 00:06:10,996 --> 00:06:12,702 Tell the cops whatever they want to know? 123 00:06:12,914 --> 00:06:14,529 - Demand they release you. - Scream? 124 00:06:14,749 --> 00:06:16,410 - Argue. - Maybe even fight. 125 00:06:22,883 --> 00:06:25,625 There are a number of citizen watchdog groups... 126 00:06:25,844 --> 00:06:28,130 Who observe and record police misconduct. 127 00:06:28,346 --> 00:06:30,382 Their advice is to always be polite. 128 00:06:30,599 --> 00:06:33,636 Never engage with an aggravated or confrontational officer. 129 00:06:33,852 --> 00:06:35,513 First of all, you disrespected me, 130 00:06:35,729 --> 00:06:38,766 this badge, and my department, you understand me?! 131 00:06:38,982 --> 00:06:40,893 When I'm talking to you, you shut your mouth! 132 00:06:41,109 --> 00:06:44,567 Ask, "am I being detained, or am I free to go?" 133 00:06:44,779 --> 00:06:47,486 It's just it's unusual behavior, is what we're getting at. 134 00:06:47,699 --> 00:06:49,051 I'm assuming I'm being detained. 135 00:06:49,075 --> 00:06:50,360 Am I being the detained or not? 136 00:06:50,577 --> 00:06:52,283 - You can go, sir. - Thank you. 137 00:06:52,495 --> 00:06:54,827 If you're not being detained, leave immediately. 138 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:56,280 If you are being detained, 139 00:06:56,499 --> 00:06:57,909 the police can legally lie to you. 140 00:06:58,126 --> 00:06:59,991 So, don't get into any conversation 141 00:07:00,211 --> 00:07:03,294 or start answering questions, just ask for an attorney. 142 00:07:03,506 --> 00:07:05,963 If you're arrested, never talk to anybody 143 00:07:06,176 --> 00:07:07,632 without an attorney there. 144 00:07:09,262 --> 00:07:11,173 Susan mellon was 42 years old 145 00:07:11,389 --> 00:07:13,596 in gardena California when she was accused 146 00:07:13,808 --> 00:07:15,423 of a murder she didn't commit. 147 00:07:15,644 --> 00:07:18,511 The detective assigned to the case 148 00:07:18,730 --> 00:07:20,891 was relying on the testimony of one withess. 149 00:07:21,107 --> 00:07:24,816 The whole case hinged on the word of one person, 150 00:07:25,028 --> 00:07:28,862 June Patty, and everything June Patty said 151 00:07:29,074 --> 00:07:31,065 was inconsistent with every other lead. 152 00:07:31,284 --> 00:07:34,117 Every single lead put three gang members 153 00:07:34,329 --> 00:07:39,164 in the house... and no women. 154 00:07:39,376 --> 00:07:41,287 I was pleading that I was innocent. 155 00:07:45,090 --> 00:07:47,371 When I left my daughter there, I just remember telling her 156 00:07:47,425 --> 00:07:50,383 that, "don't worry, baby, I'll be back for dinner.” 157 00:07:50,595 --> 00:07:52,335 Susan's daughter, Jessica. 158 00:07:52,555 --> 00:07:54,967 She said to me that she was gonna be home for dinner, 159 00:07:55,183 --> 00:07:58,971 and she was home 17 years later. 160 00:08:01,606 --> 00:08:04,598 Not seeing my children, that was very hard on me. 161 00:08:07,779 --> 00:08:09,485 For all those years, I'm still broken. 162 00:08:09,698 --> 00:08:12,656 My heart's still broken from everything I went through. 163 00:08:12,867 --> 00:08:15,950 It's... 1 don't know, it's just so scary. 164 00:08:18,415 --> 00:08:21,873 It was the worst nightmare of my whole life. 165 00:08:25,171 --> 00:08:27,378 The bottom line is you have a right to be silent. 166 00:08:27,590 --> 00:08:29,831 Keep your mouth shut 167 00:08:30,051 --> 00:08:32,383 because those words will be used against you. 168 00:08:32,595 --> 00:08:34,335 To survive and interrogation, 169 00:08:34,556 --> 00:08:37,218 you've got to be ready to stand your ground... 170 00:08:40,854 --> 00:08:43,846 Against bullying, aggression, and intimidation. 171 00:08:49,529 --> 00:08:51,645 No matter how intimidating they get, 172 00:08:51,865 --> 00:08:54,607 just say, "I want to speak to a lawyer." 173 00:08:54,826 --> 00:08:56,316 And I hope you can afford a good one. 174 00:08:56,536 --> 00:08:58,401 I didn't have an adequate attorney. 175 00:08:58,621 --> 00:09:00,725 It was a drive-by shooting that took place in east Los Angeles. 176 00:09:00,749 --> 00:09:02,785 I looked like the actual shooter. 177 00:09:03,001 --> 00:09:04,366 I “resembled” was the correct word. 178 00:09:04,586 --> 00:09:06,372 I served approximately nine years 179 00:09:06,588 --> 00:09:08,499 and eight months in prison. 180 00:09:08,715 --> 00:09:10,876 If you don't have an adequate attorney, 181 00:09:11,092 --> 00:09:13,083 your entire future rests in the hands 182 00:09:13,303 --> 00:09:15,089 of a detective assigned to your case. 183 00:09:15,305 --> 00:09:18,092 The words of Bruce lisker were used against him. 184 00:09:18,308 --> 00:09:20,424 And you're dealing with a 17-year-old kid, 185 00:09:20,643 --> 00:09:24,010 and they were able to manipulate him and twist things. 186 00:09:24,230 --> 00:09:26,972 My case was assigned to a homicide detective 187 00:09:27,192 --> 00:09:29,308 who... It was one of his first cases. 188 00:09:29,527 --> 00:09:33,566 He hadn't even gone to homicide school yet with the LAPD. 189 00:09:33,782 --> 00:09:36,319 And he jumped the gun and basically decided 190 00:09:36,534 --> 00:09:37,990 that 'cause I was a long-haired kid 191 00:09:38,203 --> 00:09:40,068 who looked like he smoked pot, which I did, 192 00:09:40,288 --> 00:09:42,495 that I was the person who had attacked my mother. 193 00:09:42,707 --> 00:09:45,574 He must have had all of his colleagues 194 00:09:45,794 --> 00:09:47,534 scrutinizing him, looking at him. 195 00:09:47,754 --> 00:09:50,587 "How long is it gonna take you to solve this one, Andy?" 196 00:09:50,799 --> 00:09:54,417 And, well, he did it in minutes, didn't he? 197 00:09:57,680 --> 00:10:00,968 In 1994, Reggie Cole was 18 years old 198 00:10:01,184 --> 00:10:03,891 living in south central la with no criminal record 199 00:10:04,104 --> 00:10:07,141 when he was arrested for the murder of Felipe Angeles. 200 00:10:07,357 --> 00:10:10,144 The only eyewitness was a man named John Jones, 201 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:12,476 the owner of a brothel across the street 202 00:10:12,695 --> 00:10:14,811 known as Johnny's house of prostitution. 203 00:10:15,031 --> 00:10:16,671 How long has this place been in operation? 204 00:10:16,783 --> 00:10:18,774 - About 17 years. - About 17 years? 205 00:10:18,993 --> 00:10:21,359 The police were willing to overlook 206 00:10:21,579 --> 00:10:23,285 what John Jones was doing. 207 00:10:23,498 --> 00:10:26,456 Then John Jones would be willing to play along 208 00:10:26,668 --> 00:10:29,375 with whatever the cops wanted him to do. 209 00:10:29,587 --> 00:10:32,420 16 years later, a new theory would emerge 210 00:10:32,632 --> 00:10:35,544 that the actual shooter was more likely John Jones himself 211 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:37,967 firing from the rooftop of his own building. 212 00:10:38,179 --> 00:10:40,261 But the arresting officer on the case 213 00:10:40,473 --> 00:10:42,259 was sure the murderer was Reggie Cole. 214 00:10:42,475 --> 00:10:44,386 It was her first... Her first case, 215 00:10:44,602 --> 00:10:47,344 and she needed to close the case 216 00:10:47,564 --> 00:10:51,148 in order for her to get her shield, her homicide shield. 217 00:10:53,987 --> 00:10:55,477 To be a doctor, 218 00:10:55,697 --> 00:10:57,483 you have to go to school for many years. 219 00:10:57,699 --> 00:10:59,899 To be a lawyer, you have to go to school for many years. 220 00:10:59,951 --> 00:11:03,660 I don't understand how somebody with just a high school diploma 221 00:11:03,872 --> 00:11:06,830 or a ged can have that type of power, 222 00:11:07,041 --> 00:11:09,828 to be an officer of the law with a pistol 223 00:11:10,044 --> 00:11:12,160 that can take someone's life, literally, 224 00:11:12,380 --> 00:11:14,416 or with the charges they put on you. 225 00:11:14,632 --> 00:11:16,873 People, they don't... They don't feel the need 226 00:11:17,093 --> 00:11:19,129 to speak up because it doesn't happen to them. 227 00:11:19,345 --> 00:11:21,631 "Oh, that's... that's messed up, you know what I mean? 228 00:11:21,848 --> 00:11:23,839 But it can never happen to me." Yes, it could. 229 00:11:24,058 --> 00:11:26,049 It could happen to you just like that. 230 00:11:26,269 --> 00:11:29,261 Every staff member, everybody that I encountered 231 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:31,000 I was saying, "a mistake has been made. 232 00:11:31,024 --> 00:11:32,480 I didn't do anything,” 233 00:11:32,692 --> 00:11:35,229 begging for phone calls to talk to my dad. 234 00:11:35,445 --> 00:11:39,108 You know, from moment to moment, the reality 235 00:11:39,324 --> 00:11:43,784 that my mother's dead... 236 00:11:43,995 --> 00:11:46,327 Would just bring an icy chill. 237 00:11:53,129 --> 00:11:55,089 First thing the next morning, I was taken up front 238 00:11:55,298 --> 00:11:57,084 to talk to a psychologist or psychiatrist, 239 00:11:57,300 --> 00:11:59,165 and in this cheery kind of a voice, 240 00:11:59,385 --> 00:12:01,922 he says, "so, how do you feel about being here at sylmar?" 241 00:12:02,138 --> 00:12:06,256 And I said, you know, "are you kidding?" 242 00:12:06,476 --> 00:12:08,637 Since the LAPD report stated 243 00:12:08,853 --> 00:12:11,014 that Bruce stabbed his mother to death, 244 00:12:11,231 --> 00:12:14,143 the doctor determined that Bruce must be psychotic. 245 00:12:16,903 --> 00:12:19,144 Prison healthcare is a disgrace. 246 00:12:19,364 --> 00:12:22,401 I mean, it's more like a horror show. 247 00:12:26,329 --> 00:12:29,446 The medical conditions inside of prisons in California 248 00:12:29,666 --> 00:12:31,076 have been so bad for so long. 249 00:12:31,292 --> 00:12:32,612 You're talking about misdiagnosis, 250 00:12:32,752 --> 00:12:35,289 just barbaric conditions. 251 00:12:35,505 --> 00:12:38,463 So a district court in 2002 said that an outside agency 252 00:12:38,675 --> 00:12:40,631 had to come in and take over 253 00:12:40,843 --> 00:12:44,051 the entire medical system in the prisons. 254 00:12:44,264 --> 00:12:46,380 Today, after spending billions of dollars, 255 00:12:46,599 --> 00:12:48,806 some California prisons still fail to meet even 256 00:12:49,018 --> 00:12:52,135 the most basic constitutional standards for healthcare. 257 00:12:52,355 --> 00:12:54,061 If you have a serious mental illness, 258 00:12:54,274 --> 00:12:55,889 the United States of America 259 00:12:56,109 --> 00:12:57,895 is probably the worst place you want to be. 260 00:12:58,111 --> 00:13:01,729 If you don't have the money to pay for constant care, 261 00:13:01,948 --> 00:13:04,439 you in danger of facing law enforcement. 262 00:13:13,001 --> 00:13:15,538 If you're a schizophrenic or a bipolar, 263 00:13:15,753 --> 00:13:17,869 you are 16 times more likely to die 264 00:13:18,089 --> 00:13:19,954 when encountering law enforcement. 265 00:13:22,635 --> 00:13:24,250 When he was stunned. 266 00:13:24,470 --> 00:13:26,256 Two officers then jumped on top of him, 267 00:13:26,472 --> 00:13:29,179 and while they held him down, the third officer, 268 00:13:29,392 --> 00:13:31,178 who ordered the stun guns 269 00:13:31,394 --> 00:13:34,010 then shot Keith in the chest and killed him. 270 00:13:34,230 --> 00:13:36,516 And if you don't die, 271 00:13:36,733 --> 00:13:40,271 you're ten times more likely to land in prison than a hospital. 272 00:13:43,239 --> 00:13:44,900 The national sheriff's association 273 00:13:45,116 --> 00:13:47,107 got together with a treatment advocacy center. 274 00:13:47,327 --> 00:13:48,327 They looked into it. 275 00:13:48,536 --> 00:13:50,777 It turns out, 50%... 276 00:13:50,997 --> 00:13:53,329 50% of the people who are locked up 277 00:13:53,541 --> 00:13:56,032 have some kind of mental health issue. 278 00:13:58,546 --> 00:14:02,585 We will not negotiate with terrorists! 279 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:05,758 In the 1960s, state psychiatric hospitals 280 00:14:05,970 --> 00:14:08,882 began closing and the nation's mentally ill 281 00:14:09,098 --> 00:14:10,634 found themselves on the streets, 282 00:14:10,850 --> 00:14:12,886 often winding up in prison. 283 00:14:13,102 --> 00:14:15,343 If you're mentally ill and you're in prison, 284 00:14:15,563 --> 00:14:17,099 you're more likely to get worse, 285 00:14:17,315 --> 00:14:19,431 experience increased behavioral problems, 286 00:14:19,650 --> 00:14:21,686 and you're going to be disproportionately abused, 287 00:14:21,903 --> 00:14:23,609 beaten, and raped. 288 00:14:23,821 --> 00:14:25,812 You're more likely to commit suicide. 289 00:14:26,032 --> 00:14:27,772 And if you're released, you're more likely 290 00:14:27,992 --> 00:14:29,778 to reoffend and come right back. 291 00:14:29,994 --> 00:14:33,361 Most prison staff are poorly equipped to diagnose, 292 00:14:33,581 --> 00:14:35,663 manage, or treat your condition. 293 00:14:35,875 --> 00:14:38,582 And if you add that all up, you know, 294 00:14:38,795 --> 00:14:42,708 it makes me ask the question, who are the crazy ones? 295 00:14:51,557 --> 00:14:55,675 I can't breathe! I can't breathe! 296 00:14:55,895 --> 00:14:58,056 And then I was medicated. 297 00:14:58,272 --> 00:15:00,513 I was given mellaril, which is like thorazine. 298 00:15:00,733 --> 00:15:02,223 Numbed my brain. 299 00:15:02,443 --> 00:15:05,310 I was a very docile inmate at that point. 300 00:15:05,530 --> 00:15:07,816 Warning, side effects of thorazine 301 00:15:08,032 --> 00:15:10,648 may include sedation, slurred speech, 302 00:15:10,868 --> 00:15:12,904 dizziness, memory loss. 303 00:15:13,121 --> 00:15:15,362 So the odds of fighting your case may be difficult. 304 00:15:15,581 --> 00:15:17,367 Hopefully, you have someone on the outside 305 00:15:17,583 --> 00:15:19,119 working on your behalf. 306 00:15:19,335 --> 00:15:20,855 Bruce was kept in a single cell 307 00:15:21,045 --> 00:15:24,583 23 hours a day for the next 19 days. 308 00:15:24,799 --> 00:15:26,630 Over their two visits together, 309 00:15:26,843 --> 00:15:28,424 Bruce and his father were confident 310 00:15:28,636 --> 00:15:30,467 they'd solve the murder. 311 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,013 I met Mike Ryan in a 12-step program that I was in. 312 00:15:34,225 --> 00:15:35,806 He didn't have a place to stay, 313 00:15:36,018 --> 00:15:38,054 and I let him stay on the couch in my apartment. 314 00:15:38,271 --> 00:15:41,138 And he basically stopped paying any rent. 315 00:15:41,357 --> 00:15:44,190 You know, worked up my courage and said, "you have to go. 316 00:15:44,402 --> 00:15:46,202 You know, I have to kick you out, man, sorry." 317 00:15:46,404 --> 00:15:48,645 So, I started like taking some of his stuff 318 00:15:48,865 --> 00:15:50,730 off the shelves and putting them into boxes. 319 00:15:50,950 --> 00:15:54,613 And he grabbed me and put me against the bathroom door jam 320 00:15:54,829 --> 00:15:57,241 and held a knife to my throat and said, 321 00:15:57,457 --> 00:15:59,493 "if you ever touch my shit again, I'll kill you." 322 00:15:59,709 --> 00:16:03,418 And he was gone, and I thought, whew, thank god, he's gone. 323 00:16:03,629 --> 00:16:05,620 My mom told my dad the day before the murder 324 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:08,068 that Mike Ryan had been there that day looking for money, 325 00:16:08,092 --> 00:16:09,832 looking for food, looking for... you know. 326 00:16:10,052 --> 00:16:12,293 We know it in our hearts, my dad and I, 327 00:16:12,513 --> 00:16:14,219 Mike Ryan killed my mom. 328 00:16:14,432 --> 00:16:18,300 This is... this is the letter lisker writes to monsue 329 00:16:18,519 --> 00:16:19,975 after he's arrested. 330 00:16:20,188 --> 00:16:22,053 He's behind bars, and he goes, "dear sir, 331 00:16:22,273 --> 00:16:24,935 I'm sure that by this point, it has become apparent to you 332 00:16:25,151 --> 00:16:26,687 that I am not the murderer." 333 00:16:26,903 --> 00:16:29,565 And this is where he turns him on to Ryan 334 00:16:29,780 --> 00:16:31,441 as a potential suspect. 335 00:16:31,657 --> 00:16:36,276 When monsue went to find Ryan to interview him, 336 00:16:36,496 --> 00:16:40,739 he tracks him down in a jail in Mississippi 337 00:16:40,958 --> 00:16:42,869 where I think he was arrested 338 00:16:43,085 --> 00:16:45,622 for breaking into a woman's house. 339 00:16:45,838 --> 00:16:47,874 His story was so full of holes, I mean, 340 00:16:48,090 --> 00:16:49,690 you could have driven a truck through it. 341 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:51,520 He said that he was sleeping on the streets. 342 00:16:51,636 --> 00:16:55,845 He was sleeping in carports until march 10th, 343 00:16:56,057 --> 00:16:57,922 when he checked into a Hollywood motel, 344 00:16:58,142 --> 00:17:01,350 which is 12 miles away from our house at around 11:00 am. 345 00:17:12,949 --> 00:17:15,656 Suddenly, at 3:00 pm on march 10th, 346 00:17:15,868 --> 00:17:17,733 four hours after my mom was killed and robbed, 347 00:17:17,954 --> 00:17:22,539 he has money to check into a motel. 348 00:17:22,750 --> 00:17:26,208 I don't think that monsue was out to get lisker. 349 00:17:26,420 --> 00:17:29,253 I think that he developed what detectives call tunnel vision. 350 00:17:29,465 --> 00:17:33,424 I had heard a lot of things about him being narrow-minded. 351 00:17:33,636 --> 00:17:35,467 Once he made his mind up, 352 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,843 there was no way of... Of making him change his mind. 353 00:17:39,058 --> 00:17:42,971 And so, that... that leads to some serious problems 354 00:17:43,187 --> 00:17:45,178 when you're dealing with a homicide investigation. 355 00:17:45,398 --> 00:17:47,389 Detective monsue did a search 356 00:17:47,608 --> 00:17:49,724 on Mike Ryan's criminal record, 357 00:17:49,944 --> 00:17:51,809 apparently using the wrong birth date. 358 00:17:52,029 --> 00:17:53,507 He had the wrong date of birth for him, 359 00:17:53,531 --> 00:17:55,271 and if he had the right date of birth 360 00:17:55,491 --> 00:17:57,131 and he checked criminal records back then, 361 00:17:57,326 --> 00:17:59,237 he would've found that just a few months prior 362 00:17:59,453 --> 00:18:01,409 to the dorka lisker slaying, 363 00:18:01,622 --> 00:18:05,661 Ryan had allegedly held a knife to a friend's throat over $12, 364 00:18:05,876 --> 00:18:08,117 which you would think would cause, you know, 365 00:18:08,337 --> 00:18:10,953 a detective to consider him a little more seriously, 366 00:18:11,173 --> 00:18:13,013 you know, for the offense he was investigating. 367 00:18:13,050 --> 00:18:14,506 Eventually, like Bruce, 368 00:18:14,719 --> 00:18:16,505 you're gonna have a detention hearing. 369 00:18:16,721 --> 00:18:19,002 During which time a judge is going to make a determination 370 00:18:19,181 --> 00:18:20,967 as to whether you're going to stay in jail 371 00:18:21,183 --> 00:18:23,143 or you can be released while you await your trial. 372 00:18:23,352 --> 00:18:26,560 Well, unless you have a lot of money for attorneys, 373 00:18:26,772 --> 00:18:28,228 you're not going anywhere. 374 00:18:28,441 --> 00:18:30,081 Basically, you go in there with your hands 375 00:18:30,192 --> 00:18:31,853 tied behind your back because of the power 376 00:18:32,069 --> 00:18:35,982 that we give to police officers in this nation. 377 00:18:36,198 --> 00:18:37,688 His word carried the day. 378 00:18:37,908 --> 00:18:39,694 The constitution is supposed to guarantee 379 00:18:39,910 --> 00:18:42,526 a speedy trial and prohibit the use 380 00:18:42,747 --> 00:18:44,954 of cruel and unusual punishment. 381 00:18:45,166 --> 00:18:48,329 Myself, I spent 15 months before trial 382 00:18:48,544 --> 00:18:51,877 in the county jail in deplorable conditions. 383 00:18:52,089 --> 00:18:54,956 I was in numerous riots, 384 00:18:55,176 --> 00:18:57,383 various situations where I had to defend myself. 385 00:18:57,595 --> 00:19:00,758 I made a new word. It's called I was petrinoid. 386 00:19:00,973 --> 00:19:04,215 I was petrified and paranoid at the same time. 387 00:19:04,435 --> 00:19:06,517 Surviving county jail. 388 00:19:11,567 --> 00:19:14,980 The first thing that you're going to want to do is get out. 389 00:19:15,196 --> 00:19:20,156 So whatever you have to do to get the money, it's worth it. 390 00:19:20,368 --> 00:19:22,450 You definitely don't want to be going to trial 391 00:19:22,662 --> 00:19:24,653 in a jumpsuit or in cuffs. 392 00:19:24,872 --> 00:19:26,767 A study of defendants in Kentucky found 393 00:19:26,791 --> 00:19:28,827 that individuals in jail were over three times 394 00:19:29,043 --> 00:19:30,999 more likely to be sentenced to prison 395 00:19:31,212 --> 00:19:32,689 than those who were released and showed up for court 396 00:19:32,713 --> 00:19:33,713 in regular clothes. 397 00:19:33,923 --> 00:19:35,754 If you're stuck in jail, 398 00:19:35,966 --> 00:19:39,254 be prepared to be completely humiliated and violated. 399 00:19:39,470 --> 00:19:42,678 You are going to be stripped of all your personal possessions 400 00:19:42,890 --> 00:19:44,346 and your clothing. 401 00:19:44,558 --> 00:19:48,016 Your integrity, your respect, everything. 402 00:19:48,229 --> 00:19:51,016 Keep to yourself. Be polite and ask permission... 403 00:19:51,232 --> 00:19:52,952 - To use the water fountain. - The bathroom. 404 00:19:53,150 --> 00:19:54,150 The lights. = the sink. 405 00:19:54,235 --> 00:19:55,725 That's it right there. 406 00:19:55,945 --> 00:19:57,089 Mind your own business and be respectful. 407 00:19:57,113 --> 00:19:58,398 Never call the guards 408 00:19:58,614 --> 00:19:59,716 if you got a problem with somebody. 409 00:19:59,740 --> 00:20:01,401 Just talk to the person 410 00:20:01,617 --> 00:20:03,617 that you have a problem with directly or let it go. 411 00:20:03,828 --> 00:20:06,444 You're gonna want to make a lot of phone calls to your family. 412 00:20:06,664 --> 00:20:08,325 - To get advice. - Find a lawyer. 413 00:20:08,541 --> 00:20:10,623 - To talk to a friend. - To find out how to get out. 414 00:20:10,835 --> 00:20:12,666 As quickly as possible. 415 00:20:15,172 --> 00:20:17,333 They can charge over a dollar a minute. 416 00:20:17,550 --> 00:20:19,632 Calls to and from your lawyer, 417 00:20:19,844 --> 00:20:22,460 your son, daughter, your mom, or your dad. 418 00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:25,092 I wouldn't want to do any time in the county jail at all. 419 00:20:25,307 --> 00:20:26,785 It's not bearable because they don't treat you 420 00:20:26,809 --> 00:20:28,674 with any type of respect. 421 00:20:28,894 --> 00:20:31,134 Like, you're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. 422 00:20:31,272 --> 00:20:33,392 Okay, well, this is a place where it should show that. 423 00:20:39,321 --> 00:20:42,609 "Innocent until proven guilty" originally meant... 424 00:20:44,285 --> 00:20:45,929 Nobody should ever be denied a trial. 425 00:20:45,953 --> 00:20:47,489 And it was created as a protection... 426 00:20:47,705 --> 00:20:49,821 Against torturing people into confessions. 427 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:51,530 It was established as a shield... 428 00:20:51,751 --> 00:20:55,460 Against mob mentality and witch hunts. 429 00:20:55,671 --> 00:20:59,038 And this presumption of innocence until proven guilty 430 00:20:59,258 --> 00:21:02,125 is a foundational notion of civil justice. 431 00:21:02,344 --> 00:21:03,880 The problem is, is that it's 432 00:21:04,096 --> 00:21:06,428 a difficult principle to preserve. 433 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:08,801 You have to be vigilant about preserving it. 434 00:21:09,018 --> 00:21:11,163 David sirota's an investigative journalist who's done 435 00:21:11,187 --> 00:21:13,227 extensive work in America's criminal justice system. 436 00:21:13,397 --> 00:21:16,981 Our media culture, where the camera is on, 437 00:21:17,193 --> 00:21:18,683 you've got court TV... 438 00:21:18,903 --> 00:21:21,645 On the murder count, he is going to walk. 439 00:21:21,864 --> 00:21:23,570 No justice! No peace! 440 00:21:23,783 --> 00:21:25,148 People want to see retribution. 441 00:21:25,367 --> 00:21:26,727 They want to see somebody punished. 442 00:21:26,869 --> 00:21:29,281 Who in the heck is in that jury room? 443 00:21:29,497 --> 00:21:30,807 You've got politicians running around. 444 00:21:30,831 --> 00:21:32,492 Just stoking the flames. 445 00:21:32,708 --> 00:21:35,791 When folks mess with Americans, we go after them. 446 00:21:36,003 --> 00:21:38,665 People want revenge. = and it's reminiscent 447 00:21:38,881 --> 00:21:41,497 of medieval times, people screaming for blood. 448 00:21:41,717 --> 00:21:43,582 And our present culture doesn't seem to value 449 00:21:43,803 --> 00:21:46,419 the concept of innocent until proven guilty. 450 00:21:46,639 --> 00:21:50,097 And so, unless you're vigilant about preserving 451 00:21:50,309 --> 00:21:52,095 a presumption of innocence, 452 00:21:52,311 --> 00:21:54,331 then you're going to lose that presumption of innocence. 453 00:21:54,355 --> 00:21:55,936 Kalief browder was a teenager. 454 00:21:56,148 --> 00:21:58,013 He was walking home from school 455 00:21:58,234 --> 00:22:00,114 when someone accused him of stealing a backpack. 456 00:22:01,612 --> 00:22:03,318 They just arrested him. 457 00:22:03,531 --> 00:22:04,800 And the next thing you know, they putting the cuffs. 458 00:22:04,824 --> 00:22:06,564 I don't even know this dude. 459 00:22:06,784 --> 00:22:08,740 His family couldn't afford the $10,000 bail. 460 00:22:08,953 --> 00:22:11,239 Kalief was subjected to officer assaults, 461 00:22:11,455 --> 00:22:12,865 which you can see here, 462 00:22:13,082 --> 00:22:15,073 and groups of inmates attacking him. 463 00:22:15,292 --> 00:22:17,212 They was just all bawling on my head to the point 464 00:22:17,378 --> 00:22:20,666 where I just had to just grab my head, like, I can't take it. 465 00:22:20,881 --> 00:22:22,801 He missed his sister's wedding, 466 00:22:22,967 --> 00:22:25,208 the birth of his nephew, and so many family events. 467 00:22:25,427 --> 00:22:28,544 After nearly three years of unimaginable torture, 468 00:22:28,764 --> 00:22:32,177 incarcerated without a trial, he was finally offered a deal. 469 00:22:32,393 --> 00:22:34,429 If he would plead guilty, they'd let him go. 470 00:22:34,645 --> 00:22:37,387 She told me if I lose trial, I could get 15 years. 471 00:22:37,606 --> 00:22:39,016 Take the time served, 472 00:22:39,233 --> 00:22:40,752 and you go home today if you say you did it. 473 00:22:40,776 --> 00:22:42,416 I didn't do it. I'm not saying I did that. 474 00:22:42,444 --> 00:22:44,309 He went back to jail. 475 00:22:44,530 --> 00:22:47,988 In June, he was suddenly freed with no explanation. 476 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:49,690 No apology, no nothing. 477 00:22:49,910 --> 00:22:52,117 They just said, "oh, case dismissed. 478 00:22:52,329 --> 00:22:54,570 Don't worry about nothing." What do you mean? 479 00:22:54,790 --> 00:22:56,906 Y'all just took over three years of my life. 480 00:22:57,126 --> 00:22:59,412 The new yorker reported that kalief's relatives 481 00:22:59,628 --> 00:23:02,586 said he was inflicted by paranoia, suspecting cops 482 00:23:02,798 --> 00:23:05,039 or other authority figures were after him. 483 00:23:05,259 --> 00:23:07,591 Two years after he was released from riker's island, 484 00:23:07,803 --> 00:23:10,419 kalief browder took his own life. 485 00:23:13,309 --> 00:23:16,051 The eighth amendment to the us constitution 486 00:23:16,270 --> 00:23:18,181 is also supposed to guarantee us the right 487 00:23:18,397 --> 00:23:20,183 to be free from excessive bail. 488 00:23:22,484 --> 00:23:24,600 Bail is money that you temporarily loan 489 00:23:24,820 --> 00:23:26,548 or give the courts as collateral to guarantee 490 00:23:26,572 --> 00:23:28,292 that you're going to show up for your trial. 491 00:23:28,324 --> 00:23:30,064 But like the rest of the eighth amendment, 492 00:23:30,284 --> 00:23:32,554 this idea that you're supposed to be free from excessive bail 493 00:23:32,578 --> 00:23:33,978 is a right that's regularly violated 494 00:23:34,121 --> 00:23:35,702 by our criminal justice system. 495 00:23:35,915 --> 00:23:37,951 Meanwhile, the bail bond industry 496 00:23:38,167 --> 00:23:41,751 is making profits of $2 billion a year. 497 00:23:48,052 --> 00:23:50,213 What we would need is at least for you 498 00:23:50,429 --> 00:23:52,590 to be employed two years on the job. 499 00:23:52,806 --> 00:23:56,298 What you do need to pay is going to be 10%. 500 00:23:59,063 --> 00:24:01,645 After 30 days in custody, 501 00:24:01,857 --> 00:24:04,724 Bruce finally had the opportunity to post bail. 502 00:24:04,944 --> 00:24:08,277 Bail was set at $250,000. 503 00:24:08,489 --> 00:24:10,901 Neither Bruce or his father had the money. 504 00:24:11,116 --> 00:24:13,949 I was scared shitless. I was so frightened. 505 00:24:14,161 --> 00:24:16,152 The whole way down, I just thought, this is... 506 00:24:16,372 --> 00:24:18,454 You know, I keep using the word "nightmare," 507 00:24:18,666 --> 00:24:22,158 but I mean, this could be the end of my life. 508 00:24:22,378 --> 00:24:24,209 I don't know. I don't know. 509 00:24:24,421 --> 00:24:26,286 The most important thing that I can tell you 510 00:24:26,507 --> 00:24:27,747 is to protect yourself. 511 00:24:27,967 --> 00:24:29,377 Don't talk to people. 512 00:24:29,593 --> 00:24:31,379 If you're running off at the mouth, 513 00:24:31,595 --> 00:24:33,315 you're usually going to dig yourself a hole. 514 00:24:33,389 --> 00:24:36,176 If you want to survive in jail or prison, 515 00:24:36,392 --> 00:24:38,257 take the advice of old-timers. 516 00:24:38,477 --> 00:24:40,058 This is Tim. 517 00:24:40,270 --> 00:24:41,726 He's going to elaborate 518 00:24:41,939 --> 00:24:43,850 on the most important rule of all. 519 00:24:44,066 --> 00:24:47,524 I want you to pay attention! 520 00:24:47,736 --> 00:24:51,228 In 1986, Tim was 19 years old. 521 00:24:51,448 --> 00:24:53,426 He got involved with a girl who was in some trouble. 522 00:24:53,450 --> 00:24:55,281 She's living with this guy. 523 00:24:55,494 --> 00:24:59,112 She starts insinuating that she's being sexually abused. 524 00:24:59,331 --> 00:25:00,787 But like a dummy, 525 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,082 I'm contemplating going and getting her stuff. 526 00:25:03,293 --> 00:25:06,376 She says that he's got a gun so, you know, we got to be careful. 527 00:25:06,588 --> 00:25:08,608 The guy that we're going with, he's like, "well, that's cool. 528 00:25:08,632 --> 00:25:09,917 We'll just take our own guns.” 529 00:25:10,134 --> 00:25:11,874 They start wrestling over this gun. 530 00:25:12,094 --> 00:25:15,427 I step out of the bathroom. Fight or flight. 531 00:25:17,391 --> 00:25:18,927 No excuses. Just dumb. 532 00:25:19,143 --> 00:25:20,863 This is... there's no excuse for what I did. 533 00:25:20,894 --> 00:25:22,850 There's no excuse. Pulled out my gun. 534 00:25:23,063 --> 00:25:26,271 I start shooting. He falls behind the door. 535 00:25:26,483 --> 00:25:29,145 I pull Rob out of the door, kick the door, 536 00:25:29,361 --> 00:25:31,226 and I shoot him again in the head 537 00:25:31,447 --> 00:25:33,278 and was sentenced to 25 years to life 538 00:25:33,490 --> 00:25:35,071 in the California prison system. 539 00:25:35,284 --> 00:25:37,821 Tim's first advice to new fish is simple. 540 00:25:38,037 --> 00:25:42,280 Start with, you got two eyes and two ears and one mouth. 541 00:25:42,499 --> 00:25:43,909 So you should be seeing and hearing 542 00:25:44,126 --> 00:25:45,353 a whole lot more than you're saying. 543 00:25:45,377 --> 00:25:46,867 If you don't take that advice, 544 00:25:47,087 --> 00:25:49,294 you're usually going to dig yourself a hole 545 00:25:49,506 --> 00:25:51,462 because while you're talking, 546 00:25:51,675 --> 00:25:53,882 how many other people are listening and watching? 547 00:25:54,094 --> 00:25:56,756 Keep it zipped up, and don't think 548 00:25:56,972 --> 00:25:58,803 that any of those dudes are your friends. 549 00:25:59,016 --> 00:26:01,974 I was put in a cell alone 550 00:26:02,186 --> 00:26:04,302 when I started hearing this scraping sound. 551 00:26:04,521 --> 00:26:08,935 It gets louder and louder, and it persists and finally, 552 00:26:09,151 --> 00:26:10,516 there's a hole in the wall now. 553 00:26:10,736 --> 00:26:12,192 And I'm like, "leave me alone.” 554 00:26:12,404 --> 00:26:13,985 "Hey, youngster, you know, what's up? 555 00:26:14,198 --> 00:26:16,689 My name's Bobby." He said, "I'm a Christian. 556 00:26:16,909 --> 00:26:18,945 You don't have to worry about me, I'm okay. 557 00:26:19,161 --> 00:26:20,901 Want a cigarette? Do you smoke?" 558 00:26:21,121 --> 00:26:23,077 And he wants to Bible study with me. 559 00:26:23,290 --> 00:26:25,246 And he was, you know, reading the Bible 560 00:26:25,459 --> 00:26:28,121 about hope and about, you know, truth. 561 00:26:28,337 --> 00:26:29,702 Basically, I had told him 562 00:26:29,922 --> 00:26:31,458 everything that I was arrested for. 563 00:26:31,673 --> 00:26:33,113 "What's your attorney doing for you?" 564 00:26:33,175 --> 00:26:34,460 I said, "well, not much. 565 00:26:34,676 --> 00:26:36,166 I'm sitting here still, you know?" 566 00:26:36,386 --> 00:26:38,106 He goes well, "I'll help you with your case. 567 00:26:38,305 --> 00:26:40,637 Anything that I can do," and, you know, by the way, 568 00:26:40,849 --> 00:26:42,430 do you have any money that I could... 569 00:26:42,643 --> 00:26:44,287 You know, I don't have any money and, you know, 570 00:26:44,311 --> 00:26:45,871 if you can help me out with some money." 571 00:26:45,979 --> 00:26:47,890 My dad put money on his books for him, 572 00:26:48,107 --> 00:26:51,725 and my attorney comes down and has a tape recorder 573 00:26:51,944 --> 00:26:55,732 and pushes play, and it's Robert Hughes 574 00:26:55,948 --> 00:26:59,532 on the tape saying I met lisker in the 7000 module 575 00:26:59,743 --> 00:27:02,576 of the county jail and, you know, 576 00:27:02,788 --> 00:27:05,029 he ran down how he killed his mom. 577 00:27:05,249 --> 00:27:10,118 My jaw is just on the table. I can't believe it. 578 00:27:10,337 --> 00:27:12,373 This was my friend, this Robert Hughes, 579 00:27:12,589 --> 00:27:14,295 this Christian, this good guy. 580 00:27:14,508 --> 00:27:18,046 My case was the fourth case, fourth defendant 581 00:27:18,262 --> 00:27:20,548 against whom Robert Hughes had come forward and claimed 582 00:27:20,764 --> 00:27:23,597 a confession in the span of about a year and a half. 583 00:27:23,809 --> 00:27:25,674 I think for about a decade, 584 00:27:25,894 --> 00:27:28,055 prosecutors had this corrupt alliance 585 00:27:28,272 --> 00:27:31,685 with jailhouse informants who would either make up 586 00:27:31,900 --> 00:27:34,983 or try to solicit confessions from fellow inmates 587 00:27:35,195 --> 00:27:38,153 and then use that information to try to get 588 00:27:38,365 --> 00:27:41,072 some leniency on their own case, their own sentence. 589 00:27:41,285 --> 00:27:45,324 There was a shift in my attorney with the tape of Robert Hughes. 590 00:27:45,539 --> 00:27:49,407 He gave up on me. I saw it in his eyes. 591 00:27:49,626 --> 00:27:51,412 I saw it in his eyes. 592 00:27:51,628 --> 00:27:55,416 Bruce had been incarcerated now for a year. 593 00:27:55,632 --> 00:27:58,624 As long as it's been, which was incomprehensible to me 594 00:27:58,844 --> 00:28:02,553 that anybody could spend a day, let alone close to a year 595 00:28:02,764 --> 00:28:05,050 behind bars for something they didn't do, 596 00:28:05,267 --> 00:28:08,930 now I have another year to wait potentially until my trial. 597 00:28:09,146 --> 00:28:11,427 One of the times that I came back up front, juvenile hall, 598 00:28:11,565 --> 00:28:13,485 when they were receiving me, said, wait a minute, 599 00:28:13,692 --> 00:28:15,728 the date of birth here, this guy's over 18. 600 00:28:15,944 --> 00:28:18,276 He can't associate with other minors. 601 00:28:18,488 --> 00:28:22,731 Because Bruce is now an adult, they put Bruce in the box, 602 00:28:22,951 --> 00:28:25,192 which means solitary confinement. 603 00:28:29,958 --> 00:28:33,371 The statewide prisoner hunger strike began 11 days ago 604 00:28:33,587 --> 00:28:36,294 as a protest over solitary confinement conditions. 605 00:28:36,506 --> 00:28:39,998 And now more than 2,300 inmates are refusing to eat. 606 00:28:40,219 --> 00:28:44,178 Solitary confinement is a prison within a prison. 607 00:28:44,389 --> 00:28:46,505 You're locked in a 6-by-9 cell. 608 00:28:46,725 --> 00:28:49,637 Everything is made of concrete, even the bed. 609 00:28:49,853 --> 00:28:52,060 You're locked in there 23 hours a day, 610 00:28:52,272 --> 00:28:54,103 one hour out for recreation. 611 00:28:56,610 --> 00:28:59,602 You can be put into solitary confinement for anything. 612 00:28:59,821 --> 00:29:02,984 You know, prison guard might just get pissed off at you. 613 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,532 Shane Bauer is an American who was arrested 614 00:29:05,744 --> 00:29:08,577 in Iran for accidentally hiking across their border. 615 00:29:08,789 --> 00:29:10,370 They put him in solitary confinement. 616 00:29:10,582 --> 00:29:12,182 I would definitely say that the situation 617 00:29:12,376 --> 00:29:13,707 in California is more extreme. 618 00:29:13,919 --> 00:29:15,375 The cells in California are smaller 619 00:29:15,587 --> 00:29:17,418 than the cell I was in in Iran. 620 00:29:17,631 --> 00:29:19,747 There's no windows in the cells in California. 621 00:29:19,967 --> 00:29:22,549 The hole is considered torture 622 00:29:22,761 --> 00:29:26,424 by amnesty international and the united nations. 623 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:28,471 This is Anthony graves. 624 00:29:28,684 --> 00:29:30,604 He's an innocent man who was wrongfully convicted 625 00:29:30,644 --> 00:29:33,511 and spent 16 years in solitary. 626 00:29:33,730 --> 00:29:37,314 No one can begin to imagine the psychological effects 627 00:29:37,526 --> 00:29:39,232 isolation has on another human being. 628 00:29:39,444 --> 00:29:43,278 95% of Americans who spent time in solitary 629 00:29:43,490 --> 00:29:45,902 report developing a serious psychiatric condition. 630 00:29:46,118 --> 00:29:49,030 Guys become paranoid, schizophrenic, 631 00:29:49,246 --> 00:29:51,282 and can't sleep because they're hearing voices. 632 00:29:51,498 --> 00:29:55,958 You're more than five times more likely to commit suicide. 633 00:29:56,169 --> 00:29:58,581 I was there when guys were attempting suicide 634 00:29:58,797 --> 00:30:01,709 by cutting themselves, trying to tie a sheet 635 00:30:01,925 --> 00:30:04,632 around their necks, overdosing on their medication. 636 00:30:04,845 --> 00:30:07,837 In Iran I know of nobody being in solitary confinement 637 00:30:08,056 --> 00:30:09,512 for more than two years, 638 00:30:09,725 --> 00:30:11,807 which is an extremely long period of time. 639 00:30:12,019 --> 00:30:14,055 But in California and pelican bay state prison, 640 00:30:14,271 --> 00:30:16,307 the average time is seven and a half years. 641 00:30:22,321 --> 00:30:25,313 For two years, Bruce had been waiting for his trial. 642 00:30:25,532 --> 00:30:27,614 He'd gone over it in his head day after day 643 00:30:27,826 --> 00:30:30,488 what the judge would say, what a jury would think. 644 00:30:30,704 --> 00:30:32,535 When they heard the transcript 645 00:30:32,748 --> 00:30:34,955 of detective monsue's interrogation of Mike Ryan, 646 00:30:35,167 --> 00:30:36,748 that's all they'd need to hear. 647 00:30:38,962 --> 00:30:41,499 All the lies, all the inconsistencies, 648 00:30:41,715 --> 00:30:44,923 there would be no way he wouldn't be found innocent. 649 00:30:45,135 --> 00:30:49,094 Except the prosecutor filed a motion to deny Bruce 650 00:30:49,306 --> 00:30:50,762 the right to make any mention 651 00:30:50,974 --> 00:30:53,056 of Mike Ryan's name at the trial. 652 00:30:53,268 --> 00:30:56,431 On the grounds that we couldn't tie Mike Ryan to the crime. 653 00:30:56,646 --> 00:30:58,432 The judge turns to my attorney, 654 00:30:58,648 --> 00:31:00,585 "what evidence do you have that Mike Ryan is tied to this?" 655 00:31:00,609 --> 00:31:02,769 He says, "he was in the county. He could have done it." 656 00:31:02,903 --> 00:31:04,609 And the judge goes, "is that all you have?" 657 00:31:04,821 --> 00:31:06,981 Because he didn't take the time to read the transcript. 658 00:31:07,074 --> 00:31:08,689 He was just on autopilot. 659 00:31:08,909 --> 00:31:10,865 He was not paying attention. He wasn't engaged. 660 00:31:11,078 --> 00:31:13,034 He says, "yeah, that's it, that's all I have.” 661 00:31:13,246 --> 00:31:15,828 We couldn't tie Mike Ryan to the crime. 662 00:31:16,041 --> 00:31:17,656 That was the framework for my trial. 663 00:31:17,876 --> 00:31:20,618 It is an absolute joke the resources 664 00:31:20,837 --> 00:31:22,498 prosecutors have versus defense attorneys. 665 00:31:22,714 --> 00:31:24,420 Justin Brooks is the director 666 00:31:24,633 --> 00:31:26,544 of the California innocence project, 667 00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:28,751 a nonprofit group dedicated to helping 668 00:31:28,970 --> 00:31:31,382 wrongfully convicted Americans get out of prison. 669 00:31:31,598 --> 00:31:35,216 Prosecutors have a police force at their disposal 670 00:31:35,435 --> 00:31:37,141 as their investigators. 671 00:31:37,354 --> 00:31:40,517 They're... they get the case from the first moment 672 00:31:40,732 --> 00:31:42,142 it's being investigated. 673 00:31:42,359 --> 00:31:43,628 They have access to all the people 674 00:31:43,652 --> 00:31:45,483 who are involved in that. 675 00:31:45,695 --> 00:31:48,903 Defense comes late to the date. We are at a total disadvantage. 676 00:31:49,116 --> 00:31:51,402 The sixth amendment to the U.S. constitution 677 00:31:51,618 --> 00:31:54,860 is supposed to guarantee the right to effective counsel. 678 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,947 But as we're seeing in America, you have to buy your rights. 679 00:31:58,166 --> 00:32:01,374 You're more likely to walk free if you're rich and guilty 680 00:32:01,586 --> 00:32:03,542 then you are if you're poor and innocent. 681 00:32:03,755 --> 00:32:07,247 The evidence is detective monsue telling his lies, 682 00:32:07,467 --> 00:32:11,801 Robert Hughes telling his lies, and no alternate suspect. 683 00:32:12,013 --> 00:32:14,846 And so I'm screwed. 684 00:32:15,058 --> 00:32:17,094 They're charging me with first-degree murder, 685 00:32:17,310 --> 00:32:19,801 which carries 26 years to life in state prison. 686 00:32:20,021 --> 00:32:22,433 It's longer than I'd been alive. 687 00:32:22,649 --> 00:32:24,935 A day and a half in, my attorney comes to me 688 00:32:25,152 --> 00:32:26,813 in the holding tank and says, 689 00:32:27,028 --> 00:32:30,020 "the judge is willing to entertain a guilty plea 690 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:32,105 in exchange for a youth authority sentence.” 691 00:32:32,325 --> 00:32:34,611 I talk with my dad, I said, "guilty plea, what... 692 00:32:34,828 --> 00:32:36,639 You know, I'm not going to take a guilty plea.” 693 00:32:36,663 --> 00:32:38,403 And he said, "I... I hear you." 694 00:32:38,623 --> 00:32:40,909 And a close friend of my... Of the family, 695 00:32:41,126 --> 00:32:44,038 my father's best friend, comes to the juvenile hall 696 00:32:44,254 --> 00:32:46,495 and says, "you have to... You have to accept this plea.” 697 00:32:46,715 --> 00:32:48,515 I said, "no, I'm not going to accept anything. 698 00:32:48,592 --> 00:32:50,486 I didn't do anything. I'm not gonna you know..." 699 00:32:50,510 --> 00:32:52,390 And he says, "look," and he pounds his hand down 700 00:32:52,471 --> 00:32:54,507 on the bench that we're sitting on, 701 00:32:54,723 --> 00:32:56,805 and he goes, "they are going to convict you 702 00:32:57,017 --> 00:33:00,305 of first fucking degree murder unless you plead guilty." 703 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:04,183 And he's practically crying, as am I right now. 704 00:33:04,399 --> 00:33:06,811 He goes, "look, do whatever you have to do to get home." 705 00:33:07,027 --> 00:33:09,518 You are the law. 706 00:33:09,738 --> 00:33:12,104 The defendant is not guilty. 707 00:33:12,324 --> 00:33:14,656 No man is above the law. 708 00:33:14,868 --> 00:33:18,110 What we see on most TV shows is not reality. 709 00:33:18,330 --> 00:33:20,662 Our justice system isn't what you think it is. 710 00:33:20,874 --> 00:33:22,284 Rolling stone magazine 711 00:33:22,501 --> 00:33:24,457 considers Wayne Kramer of the mc5 712 00:33:24,669 --> 00:33:27,411 one of the top 100 greatest guitarists of all time. 713 00:33:27,631 --> 00:33:30,498 He battled drug addiction and in 1975, 714 00:33:30,717 --> 00:33:33,379 went to prison for two years for selling cocaine. 715 00:33:33,595 --> 00:33:35,927 He's since provided guitars and taught music 716 00:33:36,139 --> 00:33:38,721 to inmates at over 50 correctional institutions 717 00:33:38,934 --> 00:33:40,174 throughout the United States. 718 00:33:40,393 --> 00:33:42,224 People think that, you know, 719 00:33:42,437 --> 00:33:44,597 you have a right to a trial and everybody goes to trial 720 00:33:44,731 --> 00:33:47,598 and there's the good prosecutor and the defense attorney, 721 00:33:47,817 --> 00:33:48,897 and they battle it out. 722 00:33:49,110 --> 00:33:50,520 That ain't the way it works. 723 00:33:50,737 --> 00:33:52,602 The way it works is the prosecutors 724 00:33:52,822 --> 00:33:56,110 stack up the charges on you and force you to plead guilty 725 00:33:56,326 --> 00:33:59,238 to a lesser charge to keep from doing life 726 00:33:59,454 --> 00:34:01,115 or double life or triple life. 727 00:34:01,331 --> 00:34:04,823 People don't get trials. What they get is a deal. 728 00:34:05,043 --> 00:34:08,001 People suggest that anywhere between, you know, 729 00:34:08,213 --> 00:34:12,001 three or 10 and 15% of people behind bars 730 00:34:12,217 --> 00:34:15,801 could be innocent of the crimes of which they were charged. 731 00:34:16,012 --> 00:34:18,879 Michelle Alexander is a civil rights lawyer, 732 00:34:19,099 --> 00:34:22,557 Stanford law professor and the author of the new Jim crow, 733 00:34:22,769 --> 00:34:24,805 one of the most highly acclaimed studies 734 00:34:25,021 --> 00:34:26,511 of America's criminal justice system. 735 00:34:26,731 --> 00:34:29,438 The reality is, is that thousands of people 736 00:34:29,651 --> 00:34:32,484 every year in the United States 737 00:34:32,696 --> 00:34:36,063 wind up pleading guilty to crimes 738 00:34:36,283 --> 00:34:37,648 they may not have committed 739 00:34:37,867 --> 00:34:41,655 because they are either railroaded 740 00:34:41,871 --> 00:34:44,578 by police officers who give them false information 741 00:34:44,791 --> 00:34:48,409 or coerce confessions or because they were afraid 742 00:34:48,628 --> 00:34:52,587 of facing, you know, harsh mandatory minimum sentences 743 00:34:52,799 --> 00:34:56,166 and believe that, you know, their best chance 744 00:34:56,386 --> 00:34:57,717 is to just take a plea. 745 00:34:57,929 --> 00:34:59,169 You're an average Joe. 746 00:34:59,389 --> 00:35:00,879 You don't know anything about, 747 00:35:01,099 --> 00:35:02,618 the prison, the politics in county jail. 748 00:35:02,642 --> 00:35:04,132 You don't know anything. 749 00:35:04,352 --> 00:35:06,058 So they put you there with these people, 750 00:35:06,271 --> 00:35:08,728 and this is how they force you to take deals, you know. 751 00:35:08,940 --> 00:35:11,085 You're around people that you see on the news that are, 752 00:35:11,109 --> 00:35:12,989 "oh, those are horrible people, and the same guy 753 00:35:13,153 --> 00:35:14,814 you just saw on the news is your bunkie. 754 00:35:15,030 --> 00:35:16,645 Of course you're gonna take a deal. 755 00:35:16,865 --> 00:35:18,676 Get me away from these people. This is the system. 756 00:35:18,700 --> 00:35:20,361 This is what they do to you. 757 00:35:20,577 --> 00:35:22,457 They understand that if we put this guy in here, 758 00:35:22,662 --> 00:35:24,382 if you did it or not, it doesn't even matter 759 00:35:24,456 --> 00:35:26,412 because you're looking at the end result. 760 00:35:26,625 --> 00:35:29,162 I can't take another fucking day in this place. 761 00:35:29,377 --> 00:35:32,164 Whatever you say, I'll do. So just let me out. 762 00:35:32,380 --> 00:35:34,621 Once you're arrested and charged with a crime, 763 00:35:34,841 --> 00:35:37,173 understand you will be taking a plea bargain 764 00:35:37,385 --> 00:35:38,875 nine out of 10 times. 765 00:35:39,095 --> 00:35:41,507 You have to. The system is against you. 766 00:35:43,892 --> 00:35:47,305 In the world, a system where 95% of the cases 767 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:48,930 are resolved by plea bargain. 768 00:35:49,147 --> 00:35:50,762 You know, it's no longer a trial system. 769 00:35:50,982 --> 00:35:52,472 It's a plea bargain system. 770 00:35:52,692 --> 00:35:56,310 If the enormous percentage of defendants 771 00:35:56,529 --> 00:36:00,238 who plead guilty suddenly one day said, 772 00:36:00,450 --> 00:36:03,567 "we're not pleading guilty,” 773 00:36:03,787 --> 00:36:06,244 the system would grind to a halt. 774 00:36:06,456 --> 00:36:08,913 The court system does not have the capacity 775 00:36:09,125 --> 00:36:10,535 for the current number of defendants 776 00:36:10,752 --> 00:36:12,117 that are passing through it. 777 00:36:12,337 --> 00:36:13,668 The whole purpose of plea bargains 778 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:15,996 from the perspective of a prosecutor 779 00:36:16,216 --> 00:36:17,296 raises his conviction rate. 780 00:36:17,509 --> 00:36:19,295 So prosecutors typically have 781 00:36:19,511 --> 00:36:21,923 in the high-90 percentile conviction rates, 782 00:36:22,138 --> 00:36:26,677 including those plea bargains because of course, 783 00:36:26,893 --> 00:36:29,600 from a legal standpoint, we know that nobody 784 00:36:29,813 --> 00:36:32,555 would ever plead guilty to something they didn't do. 785 00:36:32,774 --> 00:36:35,186 And so, we agreed that I would plead guilty 786 00:36:35,402 --> 00:36:37,688 in exchange for a youth authority sentence. 787 00:36:37,904 --> 00:36:40,611 We went back into trial, we entered the plea, 788 00:36:40,824 --> 00:36:42,780 and I went down for a 90-day observation 789 00:36:42,992 --> 00:36:44,948 at the youth authority in norwalk. 790 00:36:45,161 --> 00:36:47,777 The challenge is if you're innocent 791 00:36:47,997 --> 00:36:50,704 and you plead guilty, you better be a good liar. 792 00:36:50,917 --> 00:36:52,677 You go down there, you talk to psychologists, 793 00:36:52,877 --> 00:36:54,357 and they ask you, "so, did you do it?" 794 00:36:54,421 --> 00:36:56,082 Well, you have to say yes 795 00:36:56,297 --> 00:36:57,483 because it has to be consistent with everything. 796 00:36:57,507 --> 00:36:59,122 "Well, how'd you do it?" 797 00:36:59,342 --> 00:37:01,958 I didn't have adequate answers for these questions. 798 00:37:02,178 --> 00:37:05,045 So, they didn't buy it, in a sense. 799 00:37:05,265 --> 00:37:06,755 And, you know, rightly so. 800 00:37:06,975 --> 00:37:09,307 And they sent a report that was dispositive, 801 00:37:09,519 --> 00:37:11,635 a negative report back to the judge. 802 00:37:11,855 --> 00:37:13,891 And he said, "I didn't realize that youth authority 803 00:37:14,107 --> 00:37:16,894 wouldn't be able to help you, and so I'll allow you 804 00:37:17,110 --> 00:37:19,522 to take back your guilty plea and go ahead with trial. 805 00:37:19,738 --> 00:37:21,820 Or I'll sentence you to state prison right now." 806 00:37:22,031 --> 00:37:25,569 So that began another period of waiting. 807 00:37:25,785 --> 00:37:27,776 It would be well over a year 808 00:37:27,996 --> 00:37:30,282 before Bruce would get another trial date. 809 00:37:30,498 --> 00:37:33,035 23 hours a day in a cell in isolation, 810 00:37:33,251 --> 00:37:35,617 no contact with other juveniles, only counselors, 811 00:37:35,837 --> 00:37:39,375 one hour out for recreation. 812 00:37:39,591 --> 00:37:41,351 And while they might not be able to introduce 813 00:37:41,551 --> 00:37:44,133 an alternate suspect, Bruce demanded his lawyer 814 00:37:44,345 --> 00:37:48,930 knock down every argument the prosecution could make. 815 00:37:49,142 --> 00:37:52,384 The prosecutor said Bruce could not have seen his mother's body 816 00:37:52,604 --> 00:37:54,310 through the back window of the house. 817 00:37:54,522 --> 00:37:56,262 The sun's reflection in the glass 818 00:37:56,483 --> 00:37:58,474 and the furniture would've blocked his view. 819 00:37:58,693 --> 00:38:00,854 His defense was the crime scene pictures 820 00:38:01,070 --> 00:38:03,311 were taken on a much sunnier day. 821 00:38:03,531 --> 00:38:06,113 The prosecution claimed all the bloody footprints 822 00:38:06,326 --> 00:38:08,783 in the house matched Bruce's shoes. 823 00:38:08,995 --> 00:38:10,735 Bruce's defense said his fingerprints 824 00:38:10,955 --> 00:38:12,946 were not found anywhere in the crime scene. 825 00:38:13,166 --> 00:38:15,657 There was no evidence that he wiped anything down 826 00:38:15,877 --> 00:38:17,788 or made any attempt to cover his tracks 827 00:38:18,004 --> 00:38:20,370 because Bruce had nothing to hide. 828 00:38:20,590 --> 00:38:22,581 The prosecution called Robert Hughes, 829 00:38:22,801 --> 00:38:25,543 who claimed Bruce confessed in the 7000 module 830 00:38:25,762 --> 00:38:28,424 of county jail, and the defense compared 831 00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:31,177 Robert Hughes to a used car salesman 832 00:38:31,392 --> 00:38:33,098 who wasn't to be trusted. 833 00:38:33,311 --> 00:38:36,303 Then, one day, they rapped their keys on the door 834 00:38:36,523 --> 00:38:38,809 and they said, "lisker, it's a verdict." 835 00:38:39,025 --> 00:38:40,390 And my dad was there. 836 00:38:40,610 --> 00:38:42,020 He was there just every court day, 837 00:38:42,237 --> 00:38:43,797 and he was right there in the front row, 838 00:38:43,947 --> 00:38:46,814 and we were just, you know... Eye contact, 839 00:38:47,033 --> 00:38:49,303 but you can't really talk because you're not allowed to... 840 00:38:49,327 --> 00:38:50,817 It's not a visit, you know, 841 00:38:51,037 --> 00:38:53,949 you're not allowed to visit with your... 842 00:38:54,165 --> 00:38:58,659 But he was... he was there, and the jury comes in 843 00:38:58,878 --> 00:39:01,836 one by one, you know, excruciatingly slow, 844 00:39:02,048 --> 00:39:05,711 sits down, and the judge speaks. 845 00:39:05,927 --> 00:39:08,088 "Have you reached a verdict?" "Yes, we have. 846 00:39:08,304 --> 00:39:11,762 In the matter of people vs. Bruce lisker, 847 00:39:11,975 --> 00:39:14,387 we the jury find the defendant...” 848 00:39:14,602 --> 00:39:18,094 And they said "guilty." 849 00:39:18,314 --> 00:39:19,599 And it was just... 850 00:39:22,527 --> 00:39:24,813 The bottom literally fell out of my world. 851 00:39:25,029 --> 00:39:27,486 That's it. It's over, isn't it? 852 00:39:27,699 --> 00:39:28,939 It's my life. 853 00:39:35,748 --> 00:39:37,238 When you've been falsely accused, 854 00:39:37,458 --> 00:39:40,791 your only hope is for your attorney 855 00:39:41,004 --> 00:39:44,337 to directly challenge the veracity of the police. 856 00:39:44,549 --> 00:39:46,961 My attorney seemed unwilling to go that far. 857 00:39:47,176 --> 00:39:48,882 He never outright said, "isn't it true 858 00:39:49,095 --> 00:39:50,695 that you're just lying about all of this? 859 00:39:50,805 --> 00:39:52,636 Here's the investigatory work that I did 860 00:39:52,849 --> 00:39:54,464 that proves that you're just a liar." 861 00:39:54,684 --> 00:39:56,595 And he never did that. 862 00:39:56,811 --> 00:39:59,348 And this is part of a larger problem 863 00:39:59,564 --> 00:40:02,101 that David sirota calls the authority bias. 864 00:40:02,317 --> 00:40:04,933 Authority bias meaning the government, an institution 865 00:40:05,153 --> 00:40:07,439 says somebody did something, and they must've done it. 866 00:40:07,655 --> 00:40:10,237 And what's strange about it is that this is a country 867 00:40:10,450 --> 00:40:12,190 that in one way the American zeitgeist is, 868 00:40:12,410 --> 00:40:14,096 "I don't trust... the government can't do anything right. 869 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:15,985 I don't trust anything the government says.” 870 00:40:16,205 --> 00:40:18,571 And yet at another level, at the very same time 871 00:40:18,791 --> 00:40:21,123 that that's the dominant rhetorical paradigm 872 00:40:21,336 --> 00:40:25,204 in our politics, there is this authority bias 873 00:40:25,423 --> 00:40:28,415 where, when the government accuses somebody of a crime 874 00:40:28,635 --> 00:40:31,877 or says somebody's a wrongdoer, reflexively, millions 875 00:40:32,096 --> 00:40:34,052 and millions of Americans think it must be true. 876 00:40:34,265 --> 00:40:35,755 - Am I free to go? - No, you're not. 877 00:40:35,975 --> 00:40:37,260 Your freedom is secondary. 878 00:40:37,477 --> 00:40:39,013 You're not allowed to be holding me. 879 00:40:39,228 --> 00:40:40,828 Would you like to be placed under arrest? 880 00:40:40,897 --> 00:40:42,853 You're not allowed to arrest me. 881 00:40:48,321 --> 00:40:52,280 In the 1960s, Yale university psychologist Stanley milgram 882 00:40:52,492 --> 00:40:54,949 ran an experiment to see how often human beings 883 00:40:55,161 --> 00:40:57,493 would obey an authority figure and follow orders, 884 00:40:57,705 --> 00:40:59,946 even if doing so ran completely against 885 00:41:00,166 --> 00:41:01,827 their personal code of morality. 886 00:41:02,043 --> 00:41:03,749 How is it possible, I asked myself, 887 00:41:03,962 --> 00:41:06,544 that ordinary people who are courteous and decent 888 00:41:06,756 --> 00:41:10,669 in everyday life can act callously, inhumanely, 889 00:41:10,885 --> 00:41:12,671 without any limitations of conscious? 890 00:41:12,887 --> 00:41:14,798 450 volts. 891 00:41:15,014 --> 00:41:17,346 In milgram's experiment, participants were told 892 00:41:17,558 --> 00:41:20,550 by a scientist in uniform to electrocute a subject 893 00:41:20,770 --> 00:41:24,479 for each wrong answer on a test at ever increasing voltages. 894 00:41:24,691 --> 00:41:26,522 Are you all right? 895 00:41:26,734 --> 00:41:28,975 Please continue, teacher. 896 00:41:29,195 --> 00:41:31,652 - Do I keep giving him shocks? - Continue. 897 00:41:31,864 --> 00:41:33,775 = I'm up to 390. Continue, please. 898 00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:39,778 The participants had no idea the subjects were just actors. 899 00:41:39,998 --> 00:41:41,488 And although many protested, 900 00:41:41,708 --> 00:41:43,699 milgram found a strong majority, 901 00:41:43,918 --> 00:41:47,536 over 65% of participants would shock the subject 902 00:41:47,755 --> 00:41:49,291 to the point of killing them 903 00:41:49,507 --> 00:41:52,044 if instructed by an authority figure. 904 00:41:52,260 --> 00:41:54,626 330 volts. 905 00:41:57,473 --> 00:42:00,055 Let me out of here! Let me out of here! 906 00:42:00,268 --> 00:42:02,850 My heart's bothering me! Let me out, I tell you! 907 00:42:03,062 --> 00:42:04,427 Let me out of here! 908 00:42:04,647 --> 00:42:05,978 You have no right to hold me here! 909 00:42:06,190 --> 00:42:08,556 Let me out! Let me out! Let me out! 910 00:42:08,776 --> 00:42:10,892 Milgram concluded that very few people 911 00:42:11,112 --> 00:42:13,694 have the psychological capacity to resist authority. 912 00:42:13,906 --> 00:42:15,942 The way we have the system set up, 913 00:42:16,159 --> 00:42:19,367 the policeman's uniform, gun at their side, the badge, 914 00:42:19,579 --> 00:42:22,992 they're treated with the same deference as our military. 915 00:42:23,207 --> 00:42:25,744 It's like they're infallible. 916 00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:29,123 With judges, we drape them in robes like priests 917 00:42:29,338 --> 00:42:31,579 and literally put them up on a pedestal. 918 00:42:31,799 --> 00:42:33,585 The system hierarchy, which has almost 919 00:42:33,801 --> 00:42:36,634 no real checks and balances, no accountability... 920 00:42:36,846 --> 00:42:39,758 Or transparency, is so deeply entrenched in our culture... 921 00:42:39,974 --> 00:42:42,135 Most people would never even think to question it. 922 00:42:42,351 --> 00:42:44,182 We never see how flawed it is. 923 00:42:52,779 --> 00:42:56,021 How do we resist the natural instinct to obey? 924 00:42:56,240 --> 00:42:58,447 Don't blindly trust authority figures. 925 00:42:58,659 --> 00:43:01,071 If you're given an order that feels questionable, 926 00:43:01,287 --> 00:43:02,777 check your conscience. 927 00:43:02,997 --> 00:43:05,079 The time to argue with a police officer 928 00:43:05,291 --> 00:43:06,997 is not the side of the road. 929 00:43:07,210 --> 00:43:09,166 Pick your battles wisely. 930 00:43:09,378 --> 00:43:11,915 If you can challenge authority 931 00:43:12,131 --> 00:43:14,497 without risking more than you're willing to lose 932 00:43:14,717 --> 00:43:17,208 and something feels wrong, don't obey. 933 00:43:17,428 --> 00:43:19,043 Don't obey even the smallest commands 934 00:43:19,263 --> 00:43:20,924 if you feel that they're wrong. 935 00:43:21,140 --> 00:43:22,951 The more that we accept and obey, the more we become 936 00:43:22,975 --> 00:43:25,512 - blind followers. - And now you're under control. 937 00:43:25,728 --> 00:43:27,969 In a world which is absolutely insane. 938 00:43:28,189 --> 00:43:30,271 To free ourselves from this authoritarian system 939 00:43:30,483 --> 00:43:32,064 in which we've now found ourselves 940 00:43:32,276 --> 00:43:33,812 is going to take a massive effort. 941 00:43:34,028 --> 00:43:37,612 And if you're afraid, I get it. Find an ally. 942 00:43:37,824 --> 00:43:39,405 Milgram's experiment told us 943 00:43:39,617 --> 00:43:41,573 there's is great psychological power 944 00:43:41,786 --> 00:43:44,744 against authoritarianism in groups. 945 00:43:48,835 --> 00:43:52,123 Unfortunately, these techniques are not taught in school. 946 00:43:54,757 --> 00:43:57,069 And so if you're innocent and you find yourself in prison, 947 00:43:57,093 --> 00:43:59,334 it's hard to have any hope at all. 948 00:44:02,473 --> 00:44:04,964 A year later, Mike Ryan robbed 949 00:44:05,184 --> 00:44:06,970 another woman at knife point 950 00:44:07,186 --> 00:44:09,723 and was sentenced to six years for armed robbery. 951 00:44:09,939 --> 00:44:11,679 But other than Bruce and his father, 952 00:44:11,899 --> 00:44:14,356 nobody had connected Mike Ryan to the murder 953 00:44:14,569 --> 00:44:17,185 besides other inmates like Jeff deskovic, 954 00:44:17,405 --> 00:44:20,021 another wrongfully convicted man trying to prove 955 00:44:20,241 --> 00:44:22,323 his innocence and losing hope. 956 00:44:22,535 --> 00:44:25,322 I remember reading about Bruce lisker's case 957 00:44:25,538 --> 00:44:28,154 in the magazine justice denied. 958 00:44:28,374 --> 00:44:29,910 They allow people who allege 959 00:44:30,126 --> 00:44:31,832 that they've been wrongfully convicted 960 00:44:32,044 --> 00:44:35,582 who have a plausible story to write about their case 961 00:44:35,798 --> 00:44:38,084 with the hope that more public attention will come. 962 00:44:38,301 --> 00:44:41,714 When I read about Bruce's case, it was reaffirming to me 963 00:44:41,929 --> 00:44:44,511 that I was on the right path 964 00:44:44,724 --> 00:44:48,012 because even though he hadn't been exonerated, 965 00:44:48,227 --> 00:44:51,594 he was still looking for help, he hadn't given up. 966 00:44:51,814 --> 00:44:55,352 You can't give up, no matter how long it takes. 967 00:44:55,568 --> 00:44:58,025 And it could take a long time. 968 00:44:58,237 --> 00:44:59,797 One of the biggest factors in why the us 969 00:44:59,989 --> 00:45:02,480 has the largest prison population in the world 970 00:45:02,700 --> 00:45:05,032 is the length of our prison sentences. 971 00:45:05,244 --> 00:45:08,532 The average sentence for burglary in Canada 972 00:45:08,748 --> 00:45:10,784 and in england is around six months. 973 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:14,868 In the us, it's around a year and a half. 974 00:45:15,087 --> 00:45:17,954 In other developed countries, a drug offense might land you 975 00:45:18,174 --> 00:45:20,460 a year, year and a half in jail. 976 00:45:20,676 --> 00:45:23,713 In the us, it's five to ten years or more. 977 00:45:23,930 --> 00:45:25,511 If you're a black man in America, 978 00:45:25,723 --> 00:45:28,430 your sentence will be 20% longer 979 00:45:28,643 --> 00:45:31,885 than if you're a white man for the exact same crime. 980 00:45:32,104 --> 00:45:35,346 The federal law still holds marijuana 981 00:45:35,566 --> 00:45:39,605 as equal to heroin, which is unfathomable. 982 00:45:39,820 --> 00:45:42,027 These bullshit laws that are old 983 00:45:42,240 --> 00:45:45,732 and prehistoric needs to be changed. 984 00:45:45,952 --> 00:45:48,489 I met a woman that had a first offense, 985 00:45:48,704 --> 00:45:52,947 nothing more than $5 worth of crack cocaine 986 00:45:53,167 --> 00:45:55,874 and was sentenced to jail in 1979 987 00:45:56,087 --> 00:45:59,671 and didn't come home until 2014. 988 00:45:59,882 --> 00:46:01,713 And she said to me, 989 00:46:01,926 --> 00:46:04,212 "I don't know how to use no phone. 990 00:46:09,433 --> 00:46:13,767 I don't know how to send a text. I don't know how to email.” 991 00:46:19,277 --> 00:46:20,858 I'm sorry. 992 00:46:24,532 --> 00:46:26,318 High incarceration rates 993 00:46:26,534 --> 00:46:29,150 and longer than necessary prison terms 994 00:46:29,370 --> 00:46:31,406 have not played a significant role 995 00:46:31,622 --> 00:46:34,113 in materially improving public safety, 996 00:46:34,333 --> 00:46:37,200 reducing crime, or strengthening communities. 997 00:46:37,420 --> 00:46:39,911 In fact, the opposite is often true. 998 00:46:40,131 --> 00:46:41,667 And as it turns out, 999 00:46:41,882 --> 00:46:43,793 we've known this for a long time. 1000 00:46:44,010 --> 00:46:46,877 In the 1970s, criminologists had developed 1001 00:46:47,096 --> 00:46:50,509 this consensus that, you know, prisons just didn't work. 1002 00:46:50,725 --> 00:46:54,058 But this consensus was interrupted 1003 00:46:54,270 --> 00:46:57,808 by a political movement, racial anxiety, 1004 00:46:58,024 --> 00:47:01,266 racial resentment, and also to capitalize on, you know, 1005 00:47:01,485 --> 00:47:04,227 growing public fear as crime rates were beginning to rise. 1006 00:47:04,447 --> 00:47:06,278 And, you know, as politicians found 1007 00:47:06,490 --> 00:47:08,856 that this get-tough rhetoric, you know, sold well 1008 00:47:09,076 --> 00:47:11,158 to the public, all of the research and studies 1009 00:47:11,370 --> 00:47:13,156 that suggested that prisons didn't work 1010 00:47:13,372 --> 00:47:15,363 were shoved lightly to the side, 1011 00:47:15,583 --> 00:47:17,369 and we went on a prison-building boom 1012 00:47:17,585 --> 00:47:20,042 unlike anything the world had ever seen before. 1013 00:47:20,254 --> 00:47:22,711 And this was compounded by the war on drugs. 1014 00:47:22,923 --> 00:47:24,788 The drug war was born 1015 00:47:25,009 --> 00:47:28,342 with a particular group of people in mind as the enemy. 1016 00:47:28,554 --> 00:47:30,886 We must wage what I have called total war 1017 00:47:31,098 --> 00:47:34,511 against public enemy number one, the problem of dangerous drugs. 1018 00:47:34,727 --> 00:47:37,685 Poor people, particularly, black people 1019 00:47:37,897 --> 00:47:40,479 were defined as the enemy in the war on drugs. 1020 00:47:40,691 --> 00:47:42,522 They were defined that way politically 1021 00:47:42,735 --> 00:47:44,521 but also through media imagery. 1022 00:47:44,737 --> 00:47:46,737 The nation's crack cocaine epidemic 1023 00:47:46,947 --> 00:47:48,608 is taking a new and dangerous turn. 1024 00:47:48,824 --> 00:47:51,361 White people, brown people, and black people 1025 00:47:51,577 --> 00:47:55,911 all use drugs and sell drugs at the same rate. 1026 00:47:56,123 --> 00:47:59,240 But if we look at who's serving time in America's prisons... 1027 00:47:59,460 --> 00:48:01,325 The law enforcement apparatus 1028 00:48:01,545 --> 00:48:04,252 is deployed disproportionately against people of color. 1029 00:48:04,465 --> 00:48:06,080 Oh, look at that. 1030 00:48:06,300 --> 00:48:09,212 And the war on drugs also bears a major responsibility 1031 00:48:09,428 --> 00:48:11,714 for racial bias in our prison system 1032 00:48:11,931 --> 00:48:14,468 as African-Americans are arrested for drug offenses 1033 00:48:14,683 --> 00:48:18,346 at 10 times the rate of whites and serve longer sentences. 1034 00:48:18,562 --> 00:48:22,020 Although people of color make up only 30% of our populations, 1035 00:48:22,233 --> 00:48:24,440 they make up 60% of our prisons. 1036 00:48:24,652 --> 00:48:26,483 By the most conservative estimates, 1037 00:48:26,695 --> 00:48:28,936 if we keep going the way we're going, 1038 00:48:29,156 --> 00:48:31,317 one in four black men born today will go to jail 1039 00:48:31,534 --> 00:48:33,149 at some point in their lifetime. 1040 00:48:33,369 --> 00:48:36,702 An estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied 1041 00:48:36,914 --> 00:48:40,247 the right to vote based on a past felony conviction. 1042 00:48:40,459 --> 00:48:43,542 And that impacts men of color more than anyone else. 1043 00:48:43,754 --> 00:48:46,166 This has got to change. 1044 00:48:46,382 --> 00:48:49,920 You know, with any war, there is some collateral damage, 1045 00:48:50,136 --> 00:48:52,468 and although white people may not have been 1046 00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,547 the original targets, they may not have been 1047 00:48:55,766 --> 00:48:58,929 the inspiration for the war, 1048 00:48:59,145 --> 00:49:02,433 many white people, particularly poor 1049 00:49:02,648 --> 00:49:06,732 and working-class white folks, have found themselves swept in. 1050 00:49:06,944 --> 00:49:09,526 I'm very patriotic. Love my country. 1051 00:49:09,738 --> 00:49:11,058 Not real happy with my government, 1052 00:49:11,240 --> 00:49:12,730 but I love my country. 1053 00:49:12,950 --> 00:49:14,690 Paul rickett is a us army veteran 1054 00:49:14,910 --> 00:49:16,696 who served in the Gulf war. 1055 00:49:16,912 --> 00:49:21,406 I was out like about three weeks when I got busted for LSD. 1056 00:49:21,625 --> 00:49:23,786 I never sold acid. I never made a dime off of acid. 1057 00:49:24,003 --> 00:49:25,868 I took acid on the weekends. 1058 00:49:26,088 --> 00:49:28,295 I reimbursed my buddy for what he paid for it 1059 00:49:28,507 --> 00:49:30,623 so that he wasn't giving it to me for free. 1060 00:49:30,843 --> 00:49:32,583 If you want to call that trafficking, 1061 00:49:32,803 --> 00:49:35,670 then I guess I'm a trafficker, but it was personal use. 1062 00:49:35,890 --> 00:49:37,346 We would just fry and play frisbee 1063 00:49:37,558 --> 00:49:39,014 and listen to rock 'n' roll. 1064 00:49:39,226 --> 00:49:41,182 Drug offenses are another major reason 1065 00:49:41,395 --> 00:49:44,182 for America's overflowing prison population. 1066 00:49:44,398 --> 00:49:46,514 The us locks up more people for drugs 1067 00:49:46,734 --> 00:49:48,645 than any other country on the planet. 1068 00:49:48,861 --> 00:49:51,477 There are over half a million Americans 1069 00:49:51,697 --> 00:49:53,813 locked up for drugs on any given day, 1070 00:49:54,033 --> 00:49:55,694 and Paul was one of them. 1071 00:49:55,910 --> 00:49:57,446 He was facing a lot of time. 1072 00:49:57,661 --> 00:49:59,221 Facing 10-year mandatory minimum. 1073 00:49:59,371 --> 00:50:00,861 Then they offered him a deal. 1074 00:50:01,081 --> 00:50:02,559 For not forcing the government to go through 1075 00:50:02,583 --> 00:50:04,119 the time and expense of trial. 1076 00:50:04,335 --> 00:50:06,576 All he had to do was plead guilty. 1077 00:50:06,795 --> 00:50:10,162 And after some painful consideration, I took it. 1078 00:50:10,382 --> 00:50:12,543 And after all those years in prison, 1079 00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:14,375 one thing bothered Paul the most. 1080 00:50:14,595 --> 00:50:16,281 You know, here we are in this modern society 1081 00:50:16,305 --> 00:50:17,795 where we're a melting pot 1082 00:50:18,015 --> 00:50:20,097 and everybody's getting along for the most part. 1083 00:50:20,309 --> 00:50:21,799 And then in prison, you know, 1084 00:50:22,019 --> 00:50:23,288 it's completely the opposite, you know. 1085 00:50:23,312 --> 00:50:24,768 As soon as you get in there, 1086 00:50:24,980 --> 00:50:26,641 if you weren't a racist when you went in, 1087 00:50:26,857 --> 00:50:28,777 they require you to be one as soon as you get in. 1088 00:50:28,901 --> 00:50:30,857 Every single jail and prison in America, 1089 00:50:31,070 --> 00:50:34,187 every one I've ever been to, it's all divided up by race. 1090 00:50:34,406 --> 00:50:36,192 Everything's segregated in there. 1091 00:50:36,408 --> 00:50:38,990 You have the white phone, and you have the Mexican phone, 1092 00:50:39,203 --> 00:50:41,535 and you have the black phone, and you have the Asian phone. 1093 00:50:41,747 --> 00:50:44,204 It seems the racism that helped spark the explosion 1094 00:50:44,416 --> 00:50:46,407 of America's prison system 1095 00:50:46,627 --> 00:50:49,118 still burns like a raging fire within its walls 1096 00:50:49,338 --> 00:50:51,624 shamefully hidden from the public eye. 1097 00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:54,547 It was a very strict code of, 1098 00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:56,967 depending on your race, this is what we do. 1099 00:50:57,179 --> 00:51:01,718 Even the prison guards promote this. 1100 00:51:01,934 --> 00:51:05,142 Some people theorize that it's a way for the guards 1101 00:51:05,354 --> 00:51:08,892 to keep control over us because if we all got along, 1102 00:51:09,108 --> 00:51:12,145 then who would really be running the prison? 1103 00:51:12,361 --> 00:51:13,817 Us or the guards? 1104 00:51:14,029 --> 00:51:15,469 There's one guard for every 100 guys. 1105 00:51:15,656 --> 00:51:17,567 Prison society is further divided 1106 00:51:17,783 --> 00:51:19,569 from race into gangs. 1107 00:51:19,785 --> 00:51:21,741 So it helps to either be in one 1108 00:51:21,954 --> 00:51:23,660 or be from the right neighborhood. 1109 00:51:23,872 --> 00:51:25,988 On my ride to prison, the guy that was next to me, 1110 00:51:26,208 --> 00:51:28,199 he was just a regular dude from long beach. 1111 00:51:28,419 --> 00:51:30,019 He played basketball at poly high school. 1112 00:51:30,212 --> 00:51:31,773 He was a regular dude. He had a flat top. 1113 00:51:31,797 --> 00:51:33,537 You know what I mean, and, you know, 1114 00:51:33,757 --> 00:51:37,124 he was going to prison for... He had took a deal for... 1115 00:51:37,344 --> 00:51:39,676 I believe it was like spousal abuse. 1116 00:51:39,888 --> 00:51:41,688 Him and his girl... It was a terrorist threat. 1117 00:51:41,765 --> 00:51:44,177 In the United States, a terrorist threat 1118 00:51:44,393 --> 00:51:46,475 covers any statement that contains 1119 00:51:46,687 --> 00:51:48,848 the threat of violence against another person. 1120 00:51:49,064 --> 00:51:51,646 In this case, Reggie is talking about an argument a man 1121 00:51:51,859 --> 00:51:54,019 was having with his girlfriend where he threatened her. 1122 00:51:54,111 --> 00:51:55,726 He told her he was gonna beat her ass 1123 00:51:55,946 --> 00:51:57,591 or whatever it was, it was a terrorist threat. 1124 00:51:57,615 --> 00:51:59,134 There was no physical violence or anything, 1125 00:51:59,158 --> 00:52:00,864 but he took a deal for 18 months, 1126 00:52:01,076 --> 00:52:02,996 and he was only supposed to do like eight months. 1127 00:52:03,078 --> 00:52:05,410 You take a deal for 18 months, you're gonna do five or 10. 1128 00:52:05,623 --> 00:52:07,079 So he fell for the bullshit. 1129 00:52:07,291 --> 00:52:08,622 The first night we got there, 1130 00:52:08,834 --> 00:52:10,199 they ask who's from south central. 1131 00:52:10,419 --> 00:52:12,250 I'm from south central. Where you from? 1132 00:52:12,463 --> 00:52:14,649 Explain to them where I'm from. Your homeboys are over here. 1133 00:52:14,673 --> 00:52:16,753 They're gonna direct you where you're supposed to go. 1134 00:52:16,884 --> 00:52:18,545 This guy, he didn't have anybody. 1135 00:52:18,761 --> 00:52:20,342 He was just from long beach, you know? 1136 00:52:20,554 --> 00:52:22,761 He just was a regular dude, you know? 1137 00:52:22,973 --> 00:52:25,180 And that night I'm on my bunk, 1138 00:52:25,392 --> 00:52:27,348 and I'm listening to what's going on and I'm... 1139 00:52:27,561 --> 00:52:29,097 At first, I thought they were playing 1140 00:52:29,313 --> 00:52:30,582 because that's what it started off 1141 00:52:30,606 --> 00:52:32,221 was this is the whole gimmick. 1142 00:52:32,441 --> 00:52:35,183 Everything is a ploy to lead to something else. 1143 00:52:35,402 --> 00:52:37,233 That's why they tell you don't let anybody 1144 00:52:37,446 --> 00:52:39,126 touch you in jail, and he didn't know this. 1145 00:52:39,198 --> 00:52:40,842 He didn't understand that you're not supposed 1146 00:52:40,866 --> 00:52:42,266 to wrestle with somebody in the cell 1147 00:52:42,368 --> 00:52:44,233 because this is what they're doing, 1148 00:52:44,453 --> 00:52:46,734 trying to see if they can get you in a vulnerable position 1149 00:52:46,872 --> 00:52:48,453 I'm on my bunk, and I'm listening to it, 1150 00:52:48,666 --> 00:52:50,372 and I'm thinking, damn, ain't somebody 1151 00:52:50,584 --> 00:52:52,791 gonna come help this dude? 1152 00:52:53,003 --> 00:52:54,539 I mean, and they didn't. 1153 00:52:54,755 --> 00:52:58,122 That night in his cell, they raped him. 1154 00:52:58,342 --> 00:53:00,958 According to the department of justice, 1155 00:53:01,178 --> 00:53:04,045 nearly one in 10 prisoners suffer sexual abuse 1156 00:53:04,264 --> 00:53:06,471 while in American jails and prisons. 1157 00:53:06,684 --> 00:53:09,141 A quarter of those also reported serious injury 1158 00:53:09,353 --> 00:53:12,720 like chipped or lost teeth, being knocked unconscious, 1159 00:53:12,940 --> 00:53:15,181 broken bones, or worse. 1160 00:53:15,401 --> 00:53:18,234 So let's keep that in mind the next time a talk show host, 1161 00:53:18,445 --> 00:53:20,652 a government official, or anybody 1162 00:53:20,864 --> 00:53:22,980 makes a joke about prison rape. 1163 00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:25,282 The fact that we find these jokes acceptable 1164 00:53:25,494 --> 00:53:28,406 shows just how far we've gone in normalizing rape 1165 00:53:28,622 --> 00:53:31,034 as a just punishment for any offense. 1166 00:53:31,250 --> 00:53:33,707 As long as we keep imagining that people in prison 1167 00:53:33,919 --> 00:53:36,035 are subhuman, that they're predatory 1168 00:53:36,255 --> 00:53:38,086 and incorrigible and nothing like you and me, 1169 00:53:38,298 --> 00:53:41,005 why would we lose any sleep about what their lives are like 1170 00:53:41,218 --> 00:53:42,503 or what's happening to them? 1171 00:53:42,720 --> 00:53:45,427 There are now over 5,000 jails 1172 00:53:45,639 --> 00:53:47,254 and prisons in the United States, 1173 00:53:47,474 --> 00:53:50,887 more than we have colleges and universities. 1174 00:53:51,103 --> 00:53:53,515 In many parts of America, particularly the south, 1175 00:53:53,731 --> 00:53:55,938 there are more people living in prisons 1176 00:53:56,150 --> 00:53:57,856 then on college campuses 1177 00:53:58,068 --> 00:54:01,310 and a multi-billion-dollar business has emerged. 1178 00:54:03,240 --> 00:54:05,026 Brace yourself. 1179 00:54:05,242 --> 00:54:08,075 This is going to sound too barbaric to be real, 1180 00:54:08,287 --> 00:54:12,326 like medieval times, a science-fiction horror film, 1181 00:54:12,541 --> 00:54:14,657 or a French historical musical. 1182 00:54:14,877 --> 00:54:17,084 The 13th amendment of the constitution 1183 00:54:17,296 --> 00:54:20,038 outlawed slavery, but it still allows 1184 00:54:20,257 --> 00:54:23,465 for forced labor if you're in prison. 1185 00:54:23,677 --> 00:54:26,919 Today, there are roughly 1 million American prisoners 1186 00:54:27,139 --> 00:54:30,506 working for corporations and in government industries. 1187 00:54:30,726 --> 00:54:32,637 There is no minimum wage, 1188 00:54:32,853 --> 00:54:35,310 so you could make as little as a few cents an hour. 1189 00:54:35,522 --> 00:54:37,763 Bruce worked in the kitchen for years 1190 00:54:37,983 --> 00:54:41,316 then in clerical jobs making a maximum of 32 cents an hour. 1191 00:54:41,528 --> 00:54:45,191 It sounds like another time or a Coen brothers movie 1192 00:54:45,407 --> 00:54:47,147 but it's happening right now. 1193 00:54:47,367 --> 00:54:50,404 There are no benefits, no organizing, and no strikes. 1194 00:54:50,621 --> 00:54:54,113 And if you refuse to work, you can get put in the hole. 1195 00:54:57,127 --> 00:55:00,619 This is big business for state and for-profit prisons 1196 00:55:00,839 --> 00:55:05,048 who sell inmate labor to fortune 500's like chevron, 1197 00:55:05,260 --> 00:55:09,173 bank of America, at&t, and the us military. 1198 00:55:09,389 --> 00:55:11,880 Nearly half the population in prison 1199 00:55:12,100 --> 00:55:14,967 make military uniforms, body armor, helmets, 1200 00:55:15,187 --> 00:55:17,428 and provide labor as subcontractors 1201 00:55:17,648 --> 00:55:19,479 for fortune 500s. 1202 00:55:22,528 --> 00:55:25,691 They make office furniture, man call centers, 1203 00:55:25,906 --> 00:55:28,989 take hotel reservations, work in slaughterhouses. 1204 00:55:29,201 --> 00:55:34,070 Or manufacture textiles, shoes, and clothing for pennies. 1205 00:55:34,289 --> 00:55:37,122 Prison labor is part of why some state 1206 00:55:37,334 --> 00:55:40,872 and private prisons yield a multibillion-dollar profit. 1207 00:55:42,923 --> 00:55:45,380 Not only are prisoners used to make products, 1208 00:55:45,592 --> 00:55:48,254 prisoners themselves are sold as products. 1209 00:55:48,470 --> 00:55:50,131 Since the 1980s, 1210 00:55:50,347 --> 00:55:52,258 the prison population has boomed. 1211 00:55:52,474 --> 00:55:56,217 Now, 150 private prisons are paid billions 1212 00:55:56,436 --> 00:55:58,392 by state governments to house prisoners. 1213 00:55:58,605 --> 00:56:01,642 Private prisons do so well, some of their biggest investors 1214 00:56:01,859 --> 00:56:05,317 are banks like Wells Fargo or bank of America. 1215 00:56:05,529 --> 00:56:10,364 Many private prisons demand 90 or even 100% occupancy, 1216 00:56:10,576 --> 00:56:13,784 meaning the taxpayer foots the bill for every bed, 1217 00:56:13,996 --> 00:56:15,577 even the fucking empty ones. 1218 00:56:15,789 --> 00:56:18,952 For-profit prisons are incentivized 1219 00:56:19,167 --> 00:56:22,159 to incarcerate more people and for longer periods of time 1220 00:56:22,379 --> 00:56:25,246 to fill their quotas, and to make sure that happens, 1221 00:56:25,465 --> 00:56:28,923 they spend millions pushing tough-on-crime bills. 1222 00:56:29,136 --> 00:56:31,878 Today, nearly 10% of America's prisoners 1223 00:56:32,097 --> 00:56:33,883 are held in private prisons. 1224 00:56:34,099 --> 00:56:37,887 They also spend millions influencing immigration law. 1225 00:56:38,103 --> 00:56:40,685 Half of detained immigrants are held in private prisons 1226 00:56:40,898 --> 00:56:43,685 for indefinite periods of time, often years, 1227 00:56:43,901 --> 00:56:45,641 exposed to brutal conditions. 1228 00:56:45,861 --> 00:56:47,317 And because they're not Americans, 1229 00:56:47,529 --> 00:56:49,440 the government gives them no right 1230 00:56:49,656 --> 00:56:53,444 to even the most basic legal representation or medical care. 1231 00:56:53,660 --> 00:56:56,367 The prisons are private companies. 1232 00:56:56,580 --> 00:57:01,950 Why would they want to decrease violence, okay? 1233 00:57:02,169 --> 00:57:03,579 Why would they want to improve 1234 00:57:03,795 --> 00:57:06,628 the quality of life of these people? 1235 00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:09,377 And then we call it justice, okay? 1236 00:57:09,593 --> 00:57:12,335 It's blood money. It's bad Karma. 1237 00:57:12,554 --> 00:57:15,170 It's going to come back and haunt us 1238 00:57:15,390 --> 00:57:17,597 to the point of extinction. 1239 00:57:17,809 --> 00:57:20,175 Three housing facilities were set on fire. 1240 00:57:20,395 --> 00:57:22,727 It apparently all started over inmate frustration 1241 00:57:22,940 --> 00:57:24,680 over the quality of medical care. 1242 00:57:24,900 --> 00:57:26,220 Perhaps needless to say, 1243 00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:28,100 being treated like chattel 1244 00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:30,060 and used as forced labor for pennies an hour 1245 00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:32,441 is not that popular on the inside, 1246 00:57:32,658 --> 00:57:34,614 but that's not the worst of it. 1247 00:57:34,826 --> 00:57:36,316 The socks they issue you are used. 1248 00:57:36,536 --> 00:57:38,822 The underwear they issue you is used. 1249 00:57:39,039 --> 00:57:41,325 You gotta buy things like shaving equipment 1250 00:57:41,541 --> 00:57:45,534 and food and sweats and socks, underwear, t-shirts. 1251 00:57:45,754 --> 00:57:48,837 The canteen, or commissary, is more expensive 1252 00:57:49,049 --> 00:57:51,005 than any convenience store on the outside. 1253 00:57:51,218 --> 00:57:53,083 It's definitely advisable to have money 1254 00:57:53,303 --> 00:57:54,634 so that you can get started. 1255 00:57:54,846 --> 00:57:56,632 If you don't have 50 to 100 bucks 1256 00:57:56,848 --> 00:57:58,848 coming into your books or your account every month, 1257 00:57:59,017 --> 00:58:00,598 then you're gonna need a hustle. 1258 00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:05,766 This is Philip. He was convicted of robbery. 1259 00:58:05,983 --> 00:58:09,271 As crooked as we are out here, 1260 00:58:09,486 --> 00:58:10,976 we're as crooked inside there, too. 1261 00:58:11,196 --> 00:58:13,858 Whether it's drugs, whether it's alcohol. 1262 00:58:14,074 --> 00:58:15,564 You got people that they don't drink, 1263 00:58:15,784 --> 00:58:18,150 but they manufacture prune-o all day. 1264 00:58:18,370 --> 00:58:19,860 In San Quentin 1265 00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:21,741 in the boiler room, they found a still. 1266 00:58:21,957 --> 00:58:23,788 Friends that I knew had actually gotten so far 1267 00:58:24,001 --> 00:58:25,912 as to, like, get the copper tubing 1268 00:58:26,128 --> 00:58:28,915 from industries over, and so we had copper tubing. 1269 00:58:29,131 --> 00:58:31,747 They were making moonshine in San Quentin. 1270 00:58:31,967 --> 00:58:33,298 Mainly they drank it. 1271 00:58:33,510 --> 00:58:35,922 Did I have a hustle? Sold drugs. 1272 00:58:36,138 --> 00:58:38,098 Through our visits through a correctional officer. 1273 00:58:38,306 --> 00:58:41,298 Prison is like a networking college for criminals. 1274 00:58:41,518 --> 00:58:43,638 The majority of the guys in prison are there 1275 00:58:43,770 --> 00:58:45,601 trying to learn how to do crime better. 1276 00:58:45,814 --> 00:58:48,021 This is just kind of a school 1277 00:58:48,233 --> 00:58:50,940 for criminals to learn more to be criminals. 1278 00:58:51,153 --> 00:58:52,734 And that's not an exaggeration. 1279 00:58:52,946 --> 00:58:55,608 A 2011 study from Ohio university 1280 00:58:55,824 --> 00:58:59,112 showed that after spending time in prison, 1281 00:58:59,327 --> 00:59:01,943 those continuing to engage in crime 1282 00:59:02,164 --> 00:59:04,655 see their criminal earnings increase 1283 00:59:04,875 --> 00:59:08,709 on an average by $11,000 a year. 1284 00:59:08,920 --> 00:59:11,411 Jody lewen is the executive director 1285 00:59:11,631 --> 00:59:13,417 of the prison university project. 1286 00:59:13,633 --> 00:59:15,919 There are thousands and thousands of people 1287 00:59:16,136 --> 00:59:17,467 in the system. 1288 00:59:17,679 --> 00:59:19,340 All they want is the opportunity 1289 00:59:19,556 --> 00:59:21,922 to get a good education and to be hired by somebody 1290 00:59:22,142 --> 00:59:25,100 where they can have a job where they have meaningful work 1291 00:59:25,312 --> 00:59:26,472 and a livable wage. 1292 00:59:26,688 --> 00:59:28,553 In the late '80s, early "90s. 1293 00:59:28,774 --> 00:59:32,517 There were probably 350 programs in the prison system nationwide. 1294 00:59:32,736 --> 00:59:34,547 I took my dad's advice, he'd been saying 1295 00:59:34,571 --> 00:59:36,174 for a long time, "look for some computer training. 1296 00:59:36,198 --> 00:59:37,633 Is there any computer training in there?" 1297 00:59:37,657 --> 00:59:39,022 Because he knows, you know? 1298 00:59:39,242 --> 00:59:40,778 Finally, when I get to San Quentin, 1299 00:59:40,994 --> 00:59:42,714 I said, "do you have any computer training?" 1300 00:59:42,788 --> 00:59:45,871 It was great because I mean, 1301 00:59:46,083 --> 00:59:48,199 those who know the least obey the best, you know? 1302 00:59:48,418 --> 00:59:50,704 And there's this rebellious kind of a spirit in there. 1303 00:59:50,921 --> 00:59:53,663 They have you under their thumb up and to the point 1304 00:59:53,882 --> 00:59:56,669 of being able to put a bullet in your head if they wanted to. 1305 00:59:56,885 --> 00:59:59,092 Stand still and be quiet. Face that wall right now. 1306 00:59:59,304 --> 01:00:01,966 So there's this rebelliousness. I could exercise my brain. 1307 01:00:02,182 --> 01:00:03,843 They can't stop me from doing that. 1308 01:00:04,059 --> 01:00:06,425 And so we really got this pride about our education, 1309 01:00:06,645 --> 01:00:08,498 particularly in that computer programming class, 1310 01:00:08,522 --> 01:00:11,514 and it was an honor to be able to fight the system, 1311 01:00:11,733 --> 01:00:16,773 as you might say, by educating each other. 1312 01:00:16,988 --> 01:00:20,196 And then seeing me graduate that eight years later, 1313 01:00:20,408 --> 01:00:21,739 my dad was really proud of me. 1314 01:00:21,952 --> 01:00:23,738 And our relationship just blossomed, 1315 01:00:23,954 --> 01:00:27,367 just became so deep and so meaningful. 1316 01:00:27,582 --> 01:00:30,244 My dad was everything to me. 1317 01:00:30,460 --> 01:00:33,167 And it was just about two weeks after I graduated 1318 01:00:33,380 --> 01:00:34,916 that he died. 1319 01:00:43,223 --> 01:00:44,554 Sorry. 1320 01:00:44,766 --> 01:00:48,054 J oh, let us stay 1321 01:00:48,270 --> 01:00:50,682 j stay true 1322 01:00:50,897 --> 01:00:54,105 j may we love and listen 1323 01:00:54,317 --> 01:00:57,229 j and hear our hearts sing 1324 01:00:57,445 --> 01:01:00,152 j and keep on giving 1325 01:01:00,365 --> 01:01:05,109 j and may we stay true, let us stay... 1326 01:01:05,328 --> 01:01:08,991 When I sign this crime bill, we together 1327 01:01:09,207 --> 01:01:13,120 are taking a big step toward bringing the laws of our land 1328 01:01:13,336 --> 01:01:16,123 back into line with the values of our people. 1329 01:01:16,339 --> 01:01:19,456 In 1994, congress passed the violent crime control 1330 01:01:19,676 --> 01:01:22,383 and law enforcement act, which, among many other things, 1331 01:01:22,596 --> 01:01:24,837 barred people in prison from receiving pell grants. 1332 01:01:25,056 --> 01:01:27,513 Most of those programs folded almost overnight. 1333 01:01:27,726 --> 01:01:29,808 To be realistic, I mean, unless you're getting 1334 01:01:30,020 --> 01:01:31,476 a college education in here, 1335 01:01:31,688 --> 01:01:33,519 it's probably not gonna help you too much. 1336 01:01:33,732 --> 01:01:35,723 But if they have skills such as welding... 1337 01:01:35,942 --> 01:01:38,604 Welding, on this yard is just phenomenal. 1338 01:01:38,820 --> 01:01:40,811 We've seen guys go through the welding program, 1339 01:01:41,031 --> 01:01:44,364 and they're making 30, $40 an hour out there on the streets 1340 01:01:44,576 --> 01:01:47,283 and they're writing letters back to the instructor over here. 1341 01:01:47,495 --> 01:01:49,656 Those are the things that these guys need. 1342 01:01:49,873 --> 01:01:52,364 They need jobs so they won't be robbing, 1343 01:01:52,584 --> 01:01:54,540 stealing, turning to the dope, you know, 1344 01:01:54,753 --> 01:01:56,869 doing the drugs and that type of thing. 1345 01:01:57,088 --> 01:01:59,204 So, that's... That's what I would change. 1346 01:01:59,424 --> 01:02:01,460 Critical reason number one why people 1347 01:02:01,676 --> 01:02:04,292 are ending up in prison is for lack of, really, 1348 01:02:04,512 --> 01:02:06,218 quality educational opportunity. 1349 01:02:06,431 --> 01:02:08,592 Since 1970, in the state of California, 1350 01:02:08,808 --> 01:02:11,550 we've built 22 prisons and one university. 1351 01:02:11,770 --> 01:02:14,227 We literally have more faith in punishing people 1352 01:02:14,439 --> 01:02:17,351 and controlling them violently than teaching them. 1353 01:02:17,567 --> 01:02:21,230 Let's imagine a parent who raised a child like that. 1354 01:02:21,446 --> 01:02:24,279 What would we say about them? What would we think of them? 1355 01:02:24,491 --> 01:02:27,733 We'd think of them as the most unfit parent imaginable. 1356 01:02:27,953 --> 01:02:30,069 Ironically, we might even call the police. 1357 01:02:33,250 --> 01:02:34,615 By not having an education, 1358 01:02:34,834 --> 01:02:36,574 by not having programs, 1359 01:02:36,795 --> 01:02:39,127 by not having positive things for the guys to do. 1360 01:02:39,339 --> 01:02:41,751 It's really about terror and intimidation 1361 01:02:41,967 --> 01:02:44,174 and people basically fighting for survival 1362 01:02:44,386 --> 01:02:46,066 and often committing extraordinary violence 1363 01:02:46,263 --> 01:02:48,504 in order to protect themselves or to stay safe. 1364 01:02:48,723 --> 01:02:51,009 It's kind of like the weak dog in the pack. 1365 01:02:51,226 --> 01:02:54,218 If others spot weakness, they're gonna pounce on you 1366 01:02:54,437 --> 01:02:56,052 for a couple of reasons. 1367 01:02:56,273 --> 01:02:57,604 You pounce on that guy, 1368 01:02:57,816 --> 01:02:59,522 that gives you a little more status. 1369 01:02:59,734 --> 01:03:02,976 So, I had to ask myself, are you gonna be a victim? 1370 01:03:03,196 --> 01:03:05,107 No, I ain't gonna be a victim. 1371 01:03:05,323 --> 01:03:08,235 Well, that really only left me one choice in my mind. 1372 01:03:08,451 --> 01:03:10,487 That means I gotta be the victimizer. 1373 01:03:19,796 --> 01:03:24,381 At some point, for some reason, might be legitimate, 1374 01:03:24,592 --> 01:03:26,423 might not be, someone's gonna test you. 1375 01:03:32,309 --> 01:03:35,051 Even if you lose, you're gonna have to stand up for yourself. 1376 01:03:40,358 --> 01:03:41,939 A guy comes over, and it's your day 1377 01:03:42,152 --> 01:03:43,813 to get your package, and he tries to take 1378 01:03:44,029 --> 01:03:46,566 your package from you that your people sent you, 1379 01:03:46,781 --> 01:03:48,442 if you let him do it, there's gonna be 1380 01:03:48,658 --> 01:03:51,274 10 other dudes, "oh, yeah, he let that guy 1381 01:03:51,494 --> 01:03:53,174 take his package, I'm gonna go get his TV," 1382 01:03:53,371 --> 01:03:56,113 right down the line until somebody's after your ass. 1383 01:03:56,333 --> 01:03:57,743 And that's not good. 1384 01:04:00,754 --> 01:04:02,619 But if you stand up that first time 1385 01:04:02,839 --> 01:04:04,479 and they see you'll stand up for yourself, 1386 01:04:04,674 --> 01:04:07,006 even if you lose, people will respect that. 1387 01:04:11,056 --> 01:04:12,783 "Oh, don't mess with him. There's easier prey.” 1388 01:04:12,807 --> 01:04:14,513 "Yeah, but I can get him." Doesn't matter. 1389 01:04:14,726 --> 01:04:16,216 Don't mess with him. 1390 01:04:16,436 --> 01:04:18,051 Why do you have to go and get that guy 1391 01:04:18,271 --> 01:04:20,151 and get a couple lumps for it when he can go get 1392 01:04:20,231 --> 01:04:24,645 that guy's stuff over there, don't cost you nothing. 1393 01:04:24,861 --> 01:04:26,726 It usually only has to happen once or twice 1394 01:04:26,946 --> 01:04:29,107 but just as importantly 1395 01:04:29,324 --> 01:04:32,657 that you didn't go to the man for help... 1396 01:04:32,869 --> 01:04:34,279 You're gonna be all right. 1397 01:04:34,496 --> 01:04:36,236 Now if you're suddenly thinking, 1398 01:04:36,456 --> 01:04:39,323 this isn't so bad, a black eye, a few scratches, 1399 01:04:39,542 --> 01:04:41,328 and you're in the clear, think again. 1400 01:04:41,544 --> 01:04:43,080 The American public in general has been 1401 01:04:43,296 --> 01:04:46,584 so profoundly brainwashed into thinking 1402 01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:49,382 that what we're doing with our prison system 1403 01:04:49,594 --> 01:04:51,676 is somehow normal 1404 01:04:51,888 --> 01:04:56,848 or rational or... just, 1405 01:04:57,060 --> 01:04:59,392 I find that overwhelming and exhausting just... 1406 01:04:59,604 --> 01:05:02,437 Because the more you spend time in... 1407 01:05:02,649 --> 01:05:04,529 Inside and the more contact you have with people 1408 01:05:04,692 --> 01:05:06,182 who've been directly affected, 1409 01:05:06,403 --> 01:05:09,065 the more depraved the system appears. 1410 01:05:09,280 --> 01:05:13,398 Over 20%, one out of every five inmates, 1411 01:05:13,618 --> 01:05:16,155 are physically attacked every six months. 1412 01:05:16,371 --> 01:05:17,827 I wasn't in San Quentin a week, 1413 01:05:18,039 --> 01:05:20,155 and I watched a man die right next to me. 1414 01:05:20,375 --> 01:05:23,788 I watched two guys just walk up and just stab him to death. 1415 01:05:24,003 --> 01:05:28,212 Part of me wanted to scream in fear. 1416 01:05:29,717 --> 01:05:31,378 But I had a bigger fear of, man, 1417 01:05:31,594 --> 01:05:33,130 what would these guys think about me? 1418 01:05:33,346 --> 01:05:35,587 So I pretended like, man, this ain't nothing. 1419 01:05:35,807 --> 01:05:37,468 I wanted these people's acceptance. 1420 01:05:37,684 --> 01:05:39,328 They tell me, "you know how to make a knife? 1421 01:05:39,352 --> 01:05:41,934 Stab that guy there." And I did. 1422 01:05:42,147 --> 01:05:44,638 So instead of getting a traditional education 1423 01:05:44,858 --> 01:05:46,894 or job training, prison's a great place 1424 01:05:47,110 --> 01:05:49,817 to learn how to make a knife by dropping a razor blade 1425 01:05:50,029 --> 01:05:51,735 onto the melted end of the toothbrush. 1426 01:05:51,948 --> 01:05:54,280 What happens when you have vast numbers 1427 01:05:54,492 --> 01:05:56,107 of people in a system like that 1428 01:05:56,327 --> 01:05:59,535 or in a location like that who have medical needs, 1429 01:05:59,747 --> 01:06:01,954 mental health needs, educational needs, 1430 01:06:02,167 --> 01:06:05,284 substance abuse, all of these things. 1431 01:06:05,503 --> 01:06:07,710 And there's nobody who really knows how to handle that, 1432 01:06:07,922 --> 01:06:10,004 so violence itself is often a failure 1433 01:06:10,216 --> 01:06:13,049 of communication or alternatives for coping. 1434 01:06:13,261 --> 01:06:15,422 There are all sorts of complex social pressures 1435 01:06:15,638 --> 01:06:18,254 on people to be violent in prison. 1436 01:06:18,475 --> 01:06:20,466 So a lot of the violence you see in prison is not 1437 01:06:20,685 --> 01:06:22,663 an expression of the character of the people in prison, 1438 01:06:22,687 --> 01:06:24,393 it's people reacting to the situation. 1439 01:06:24,606 --> 01:06:26,446 And this is something so few people understand. 1440 01:06:26,649 --> 01:06:29,732 If you took 1,000 people off the street and put them 1441 01:06:29,944 --> 01:06:32,560 at corcoran or pelican bay or soledad... 1442 01:06:35,033 --> 01:06:38,867 Some huge number of them would end up committing violence 1443 01:06:39,078 --> 01:06:41,945 because of the situation that they've been placed in. 1444 01:06:42,165 --> 01:06:45,282 Five years into his sentence, an older inmate 1445 01:06:45,502 --> 01:06:48,869 whose nickname was the devil, wanted Reggie to take the blame 1446 01:06:49,088 --> 01:06:50,953 for a knife the guards had found in the yard. 1447 01:06:51,174 --> 01:06:52,755 But Reggie refused. 1448 01:06:52,967 --> 01:06:54,487 The devil attacked Reggie with a knife, 1449 01:06:54,594 --> 01:06:56,050 slashing his neck. 1450 01:06:56,262 --> 01:06:57,798 Reggie later would say he knew then 1451 01:06:58,014 --> 01:06:59,470 either the devil was gonna kill him 1452 01:06:59,682 --> 01:07:01,388 or he had to kill the devil. 1453 01:07:01,601 --> 01:07:04,217 About 15 minutes after Reggie was attacked, 1454 01:07:04,437 --> 01:07:06,393 he jumped over a correctional officer 1455 01:07:06,606 --> 01:07:09,518 and stabbed the devil with a prison shank. 1456 01:07:09,734 --> 01:07:13,022 I sit back every day, and I second-guess myself. 1457 01:07:13,238 --> 01:07:15,900 Could I have went about the situation any other way? 1458 01:07:16,115 --> 01:07:18,197 And no matter how many times I tell myself, 1459 01:07:18,409 --> 01:07:20,491 this was the only thing that could have happened, 1460 01:07:20,703 --> 01:07:22,489 it don't sit right with me in my cell 1461 01:07:22,705 --> 01:07:24,600 because I should have never been there in the first place. 1462 01:07:24,624 --> 01:07:26,239 I'm innocent, man, and you turned me 1463 01:07:26,459 --> 01:07:28,199 into what y'all say I was. 1464 01:07:28,419 --> 01:07:30,080 Y'all been lying on me this whole time, 1465 01:07:30,296 --> 01:07:32,537 and you turned me into a murderer because I had to. 1466 01:07:32,757 --> 01:07:34,998 After that, they put Reggie 1467 01:07:35,218 --> 01:07:36,708 in solitary confinement, 1468 01:07:36,928 --> 01:07:38,884 and he went from a life sentence 1469 01:07:39,097 --> 01:07:43,056 without possibility of parole to facing the death penalty. 1470 01:07:43,268 --> 01:07:47,307 So he gets put on trial in the death penalty case, 1471 01:07:47,522 --> 01:07:50,480 and his lawyer starts looking into his original case 1472 01:07:50,692 --> 01:07:52,273 and gives me a call and says, 1473 01:07:52,485 --> 01:07:54,225 "you know, I think this guy's innocent 1474 01:07:54,445 --> 01:07:56,436 of what he went to prison for in the first place.” 1475 01:07:56,656 --> 01:07:59,068 And the second reason Reggie got out 1476 01:07:59,284 --> 01:08:00,820 besides the prison stabbing 1477 01:08:01,035 --> 01:08:04,653 was this miracle of there happened to be a book 1478 01:08:04,872 --> 01:08:08,785 that had been put out about the la homicide division. 1479 01:08:09,002 --> 01:08:11,084 The author of the book had documented a ride along 1480 01:08:11,296 --> 01:08:13,582 with the LAPD detective. 1481 01:08:13,798 --> 01:08:15,538 This homicide investigator's first night 1482 01:08:15,758 --> 01:08:17,419 that she was on the job. 1483 01:08:17,635 --> 01:08:20,047 The very night she investigated the murder, 1484 01:08:20,263 --> 01:08:21,969 she would ultimately arrest Reggie for. 1485 01:08:22,181 --> 01:08:23,993 And we're flipping through the book and reading it, 1486 01:08:24,017 --> 01:08:25,427 and there's all this stuff in it 1487 01:08:25,643 --> 01:08:27,203 that was never disclosed to the defense. 1488 01:08:27,353 --> 01:08:29,344 That's all documented that all indicates 1489 01:08:29,564 --> 01:08:31,429 pretty clearly that Reggie's innocent. 1490 01:08:31,649 --> 01:08:33,981 But it would still take the innocence project 10 years 1491 01:08:34,193 --> 01:08:35,854 to get Reggie out of prison. 1492 01:08:36,070 --> 01:08:38,607 A grandmother doing life for murder was released 1493 01:08:38,823 --> 01:08:41,109 from prison yesterday after 17 years 1494 01:08:41,326 --> 01:08:43,692 when a judge said she did not do it. 1495 01:08:43,911 --> 01:08:46,618 Susan mellon recently filed a lawsuit against 1496 01:08:46,831 --> 01:08:49,072 the detective who arrested her for hiding evidence. 1497 01:08:49,292 --> 01:08:53,035 That detective is the same one who arrested Reggie Cole. 1498 01:09:11,522 --> 01:09:13,604 You know, we... You know, as a society, 1499 01:09:13,816 --> 01:09:16,307 we see the bad guy and the good guy. 1500 01:09:18,529 --> 01:09:22,943 But when the cop becomes the robber, the game is over. 1501 01:09:23,159 --> 01:09:25,946 The game is over. That's corruption. 1502 01:09:26,162 --> 01:09:30,246 It was a horrific twist of fate that led to Reggie's release. 1503 01:09:30,458 --> 01:09:32,790 Bruce was more fortunate. 1504 01:09:33,002 --> 01:09:35,288 His father's death led to an unexpected turn. 1505 01:09:35,505 --> 01:09:38,668 Providence was his big thing, and he had, 1506 01:09:38,883 --> 01:09:40,464 you know, great life insurance. 1507 01:09:40,677 --> 01:09:43,168 It was 184,000 that my dad left me, 1508 01:09:43,388 --> 01:09:46,221 and I was able to parlay that up to about 236, 1509 01:09:46,432 --> 01:09:48,514 in the stock market, and then it was just 100% 1510 01:09:48,726 --> 01:09:50,682 of my time dedicated to my case. 1511 01:09:50,895 --> 01:09:53,557 And that enabled Bruce to hire a private investigator. 1512 01:09:53,773 --> 01:09:57,732 We had, essentially, a growing war chest of evidence 1513 01:09:57,944 --> 01:10:00,026 that I hadn't committed the crime or at least 1514 01:10:00,238 --> 01:10:02,604 that all the evidence that was presented was false evidence. 1515 01:10:02,824 --> 01:10:05,861 I had received a complaint from Bruce lisker. 1516 01:10:06,077 --> 01:10:09,865 I flew up to the state prison where Bruce lisker was. 1517 01:10:10,081 --> 01:10:11,446 I spoke to him. 1518 01:10:11,666 --> 01:10:13,281 When somebody is accused of murder 1519 01:10:13,501 --> 01:10:15,461 or you're arrested for murder, it's tape-recorded. 1520 01:10:15,586 --> 01:10:18,328 Everything is tape-recorded. I couldn't find his tape. 1521 01:10:18,548 --> 01:10:23,258 It had been taken out of evidence by detective monsue, 1522 01:10:23,469 --> 01:10:26,336 and it was never put back into evidence. 1523 01:10:26,556 --> 01:10:29,298 Detective monsue had said the footprints 1524 01:10:29,517 --> 01:10:32,725 outside the house matched the footprints on the inside. 1525 01:10:32,937 --> 01:10:34,723 Lieutenant Gavin found the footprints 1526 01:10:34,939 --> 01:10:36,895 weren't actually looked at by a scientist 1527 01:10:37,108 --> 01:10:38,723 or any qualified expert. 1528 01:10:38,943 --> 01:10:40,423 So he took matters into his own hands. 1529 01:10:40,611 --> 01:10:42,067 So I contacted our people, 1530 01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:44,145 scientific investigative division. 1531 01:10:44,365 --> 01:10:47,072 So he takes out this big magnifying glass, 1532 01:10:47,285 --> 01:10:48,866 looks at it, looks at the other one, 1533 01:10:49,078 --> 01:10:50,518 and he goes, "these two don't match.” 1534 01:10:50,705 --> 01:10:52,411 See this is a great embarrassment 1535 01:10:52,623 --> 01:10:54,739 for any large organization that you've convicted 1536 01:10:54,959 --> 01:10:57,951 somebody for murder and then five, 10, 20 years later, 1537 01:10:58,171 --> 01:11:01,334 it turns out that the person's actually innocent. 1538 01:11:01,549 --> 01:11:03,585 And this is what my lieutenant said... 1539 01:11:03,801 --> 01:11:05,757 "That motherfucker is not getting out of prison. 1540 01:11:05,970 --> 01:11:07,631 Do you understand me, sergeant Gavin?" 1541 01:11:07,847 --> 01:11:10,964 They will do everything they can to stop you, 1542 01:11:11,184 --> 01:11:13,620 prevent you from coming forward with the information you have. 1543 01:11:13,644 --> 01:11:15,885 Upon reviewing the comprehensive work 1544 01:11:16,105 --> 01:11:17,720 of the private investigator, 1545 01:11:17,940 --> 01:11:19,805 the LAPD internal affairs department 1546 01:11:20,026 --> 01:11:21,937 claimed Bruce's complaints were unfounded 1547 01:11:22,153 --> 01:11:24,144 and that no misconduct had occurred. 1548 01:11:24,363 --> 01:11:26,069 You can't have an internal investigation 1549 01:11:26,282 --> 01:11:28,773 where we all investigate ourselves. 1550 01:11:28,993 --> 01:11:30,858 Tha... that's like a joke. 1551 01:11:31,078 --> 01:11:33,198 I'm not against the authorities or anything like that. 1552 01:11:33,289 --> 01:11:37,157 I'm just against the system that has no checks and balances. 1553 01:11:37,376 --> 01:11:39,037 Who the fuck his checking y'all? 1554 01:11:39,253 --> 01:11:40,868 I believe that internal affairs 1555 01:11:41,088 --> 01:11:42,775 should be separate from the police department. 1556 01:11:42,799 --> 01:11:44,414 There is no way that a police department 1557 01:11:44,634 --> 01:11:46,295 can investigate themselves. 1558 01:11:46,511 --> 01:11:48,752 Currently, there are no independent organizations 1559 01:11:48,971 --> 01:11:52,304 whose job it is to investigate police misconduct. 1560 01:11:52,517 --> 01:11:55,975 And there's no oversight of prosecutors, either. 1561 01:11:58,272 --> 01:12:00,354 Prosecutorial misconduct is a major factor 1562 01:12:00,566 --> 01:12:02,022 of wrongful convictions. 1563 01:12:02,235 --> 01:12:03,896 It's a single thread that runs through 1564 01:12:04,111 --> 01:12:06,853 almost all of the wrongful-conviction cases. 1565 01:12:07,073 --> 01:12:09,985 Jeff deskovic has a master's in criminal justice, 1566 01:12:10,201 --> 01:12:12,192 specializing in wrongful convictions. 1567 01:12:12,411 --> 01:12:15,198 He's also a survivor of prosecutorial misconduct. 1568 01:12:15,414 --> 01:12:17,120 I spent 16 years in prison. 1569 01:12:17,333 --> 01:12:20,325 I was wrongfully convicted at 17. 1570 01:12:20,545 --> 01:12:22,877 I emerged at 32. 1571 01:12:23,089 --> 01:12:26,126 Jeff eventually won a lawsuit against Putnam county, 1572 01:12:26,342 --> 01:12:28,128 New York, for his conviction, 1573 01:12:28,344 --> 01:12:30,072 which enabled him to start his own foundation. 1574 01:12:30,096 --> 01:12:32,337 And I'm the founder and executive director 1575 01:12:32,557 --> 01:12:34,468 of the Jeffrey deskovic foundation for justice. 1576 01:12:34,684 --> 01:12:36,404 There's no deterrence. There's no oversight. 1577 01:12:36,602 --> 01:12:38,388 There's no punishment for prosecutors. 1578 01:12:38,604 --> 01:12:40,140 So they can break the law. 1579 01:12:40,356 --> 01:12:42,312 They don't face criminal penalties, 1580 01:12:42,525 --> 01:12:44,857 even when they engage in withholding 1581 01:12:45,069 --> 01:12:47,105 evidence of innocence, threatening witnesses, 1582 01:12:47,321 --> 01:12:48,811 coercing witnesses. 1583 01:12:49,031 --> 01:12:50,771 No matter how serious the misconduct is, 1584 01:12:50,992 --> 01:12:54,655 if the prosecutor commits that after an arrest has been made, 1585 01:12:54,871 --> 01:12:56,862 they have what's called prosecutorial immunity. 1586 01:12:57,081 --> 01:12:58,537 They're above the law. 1587 01:12:58,749 --> 01:13:00,364 We need prosecutors 1588 01:13:00,585 --> 01:13:03,577 to really uphold what's become just words, 1589 01:13:03,796 --> 01:13:05,957 which is, you know, they're there to do justice. 1590 01:13:06,173 --> 01:13:08,129 They're there to do the right thing. 1591 01:13:08,342 --> 01:13:10,754 It becomes more like "we're there to win," 1592 01:13:10,970 --> 01:13:12,551 especially when prosecutor's offices 1593 01:13:12,763 --> 01:13:16,255 actually keep statistics oh conviction rates. 1594 01:13:16,475 --> 01:13:19,512 Well, you should be credited that you looked at a case 1595 01:13:19,729 --> 01:13:22,937 where the police thought they had a good case 1596 01:13:23,149 --> 01:13:24,835 but a good prosecutor looked at it and said, 1597 01:13:24,859 --> 01:13:26,587 "you know what? There's some mistakes made here. 1598 01:13:26,611 --> 01:13:28,522 We should drop the charges in this case.” 1599 01:13:28,738 --> 01:13:30,899 We should incentivize that. 1600 01:13:31,115 --> 01:13:33,481 But instead, we actually incentivize the opposite, 1601 01:13:33,701 --> 01:13:36,443 of getting convictions and getting conviction rates. 1602 01:13:36,662 --> 01:13:39,199 All of a sudden, justice gets lost in that process. 1603 01:13:39,415 --> 01:13:41,655 And whether this guy committed the crime or not gets lost 1604 01:13:41,709 --> 01:13:44,246 in that process 'cause it's all about winning my case. 1605 01:13:44,462 --> 01:13:46,248 Immunity, that's bullshit. 1606 01:13:46,464 --> 01:13:48,734 I mean, in the real world, you know, you're supposed to be 1607 01:13:48,758 --> 01:13:50,794 held accountable for your wrongdoings. 1608 01:13:51,010 --> 01:13:54,093 So, therefore, if you're a person of authority... 1609 01:13:54,305 --> 01:13:56,512 Of authority, that you have to be held 1610 01:13:56,724 --> 01:13:58,385 at a higher standard than just a layman. 1611 01:13:58,601 --> 01:14:00,432 I think we actually need to step back 1612 01:14:00,645 --> 01:14:02,727 and kind of rethink the whole system 1613 01:14:02,939 --> 01:14:04,520 in the way we're approaching it 1614 01:14:04,732 --> 01:14:06,893 because it's become this game, 1615 01:14:07,109 --> 01:14:09,725 and people's lives are lost as a result of it. 1616 01:14:14,700 --> 01:14:17,487 If you ever do find yourself wrongfully convicted, 1617 01:14:17,703 --> 01:14:19,659 odds are, you're never getting out. 1618 01:14:19,872 --> 01:14:23,456 The first thing you need to do is send preservation letters 1619 01:14:23,668 --> 01:14:26,751 to the police department labs and the courts 1620 01:14:26,963 --> 01:14:29,875 requesting that you want all your evidence saved. 1621 01:14:30,091 --> 01:14:33,458 Otherwise, they may destroy it within 30 days. 1622 01:14:33,678 --> 01:14:37,170 Try to find an innocence project that'll take your case. 1623 01:14:37,390 --> 01:14:40,302 Prepare for this process to take years. 1624 01:14:40,518 --> 01:14:42,679 Then pray for a miracle. 1625 01:14:42,895 --> 01:14:46,513 The innocence project estimates conservatively 1626 01:14:46,732 --> 01:14:51,066 there could easily be 40,000 to over 100,000 Americans 1627 01:14:51,278 --> 01:14:53,860 currently wrongfully convicted, 1628 01:14:54,073 --> 01:14:56,815 the majority of which are people of color. 1629 01:14:59,286 --> 01:15:03,074 It's kind of hard for me to relate to my family 1630 01:15:03,290 --> 01:15:05,030 because they don't see me as the same. 1631 01:15:05,251 --> 01:15:07,617 It's like Adam and Eve when he told them, 1632 01:15:07,837 --> 01:15:09,623 "don't go and don't eat this fruit," 1633 01:15:09,839 --> 01:15:11,795 and they ate it, and they were enlightened. 1634 01:15:12,008 --> 01:15:14,340 I'm enlightened. I'm on the other side now. 1635 01:15:14,552 --> 01:15:16,634 I'm not the same as y'all no more. 1636 01:15:16,846 --> 01:15:19,337 You know, I don't... I can't speak 1637 01:15:19,557 --> 01:15:22,390 in a boisterous tone because everyone gets scared. 1638 01:15:22,601 --> 01:15:24,933 But I'm not that dude. I'm not him. 1639 01:15:35,072 --> 01:15:38,656 And I'm innocent, man. I'm innocent. 1640 01:15:38,868 --> 01:15:40,529 You know, I gotta fight my demons. 1641 01:15:40,745 --> 01:15:42,986 I gotta do what I gotta do for me, you know? 1642 01:15:43,205 --> 01:15:44,945 I got a child, you know? 1643 01:15:45,166 --> 01:15:46,997 I'm trying to get myself right so I can, 1644 01:15:47,209 --> 01:15:48,665 you know, teach her right. 1645 01:15:48,878 --> 01:15:50,414 But I mean, there's no accountability. 1646 01:15:50,629 --> 01:15:52,415 These people that did this to me, 1647 01:15:52,631 --> 01:15:54,792 these people that took everything, man, 1648 01:15:55,009 --> 01:15:56,499 they took everything. 1649 01:16:05,227 --> 01:16:06,888 Bruce's private investigator 1650 01:16:07,104 --> 01:16:08,560 never gave up on his case. 1651 01:16:08,773 --> 01:16:11,731 He had a very vigorous private investigator 1652 01:16:11,942 --> 01:16:13,773 who made a complaint to the LAPD, 1653 01:16:13,986 --> 01:16:17,103 and it landed on the desk of an internal affairs investigator 1654 01:16:17,323 --> 01:16:22,909 who looked at Bruce's claims in a very serious-minded fashion. 1655 01:16:29,043 --> 01:16:31,580 It's the people like detective monsue 1656 01:16:31,796 --> 01:16:34,208 and the others out there that have made our job 1657 01:16:34,423 --> 01:16:36,288 very difficult to do day after day 1658 01:16:36,509 --> 01:16:39,216 because we lose the confidence of the public, 1659 01:16:39,428 --> 01:16:41,259 and we lose the confidence of the courts. 1660 01:16:41,472 --> 01:16:44,088 We have to have police chiefs, directors of public service 1661 01:16:44,308 --> 01:16:46,219 that are willing to do the right thing 1662 01:16:46,435 --> 01:16:49,677 and terminate employees who are doing the wrong thing. 1663 01:16:49,897 --> 01:16:51,637 If you want to say you're the good guy 1664 01:16:51,857 --> 01:16:54,223 but you're ostracized by everybody that you believed in, 1665 01:16:54,443 --> 01:16:57,810 it's a very difficult situation because I have to continue 1666 01:16:58,030 --> 01:17:00,646 to work for the same department that did this to Bruce lisker. 1667 01:17:00,866 --> 01:17:02,652 I don't look at myself as a hero. 1668 01:17:02,868 --> 01:17:07,737 I look at myself as a survivor because the system attacked me. 1669 01:17:07,957 --> 01:17:10,369 The system went after me, and the system did 1670 01:17:10,584 --> 01:17:13,417 everything they could to keep Bruce lisker in jail 1671 01:17:13,629 --> 01:17:15,711 and everything to keep me quiet. 1672 01:17:15,923 --> 01:17:17,914 It's been a lot of therapy. 1673 01:17:18,134 --> 01:17:21,718 My wife and I met in third grade. 1674 01:17:21,929 --> 01:17:24,170 We were elementary, junior-high, high-school sweethearts. 1675 01:17:24,390 --> 01:17:26,051 We lived on the same street, 1676 01:17:26,267 --> 01:17:29,634 and it's been a very difficult, difficult road. 1677 01:17:29,854 --> 01:17:31,845 She is third-generation LAPD. 1678 01:17:32,064 --> 01:17:35,807 And the survival is day by day 1679 01:17:36,026 --> 01:17:37,812 and always looking over your shoulder 1680 01:17:38,028 --> 01:17:39,748 whether you're doing the right thing or not. 1681 01:17:39,947 --> 01:17:41,733 You're constantly looking over your shoulder. 1682 01:17:41,949 --> 01:17:44,736 And every time I get called into the captain's office, 1683 01:17:44,952 --> 01:17:47,489 I wonder, "what did I do now?" 1684 01:17:47,705 --> 01:17:49,570 And I've never had that feeling before. 1685 01:17:49,790 --> 01:17:52,532 I just kept on telling myself, they are not going to defeat me. 1686 01:17:52,751 --> 01:17:54,366 They're not going to defeat me. 1687 01:17:54,587 --> 01:17:57,750 It's just when you come across something like this, 1688 01:17:57,965 --> 01:17:59,330 what are you gonna do? 1689 01:17:59,550 --> 01:18:01,256 And that's the difficult thing. 1690 01:18:01,468 --> 01:18:04,380 If I had not given up the information that I did 1691 01:18:04,597 --> 01:18:08,385 to the la times, Bruce lisker would still be in prison. 1692 01:18:08,601 --> 01:18:12,469 A bloody footprint that was attributed to Bruce 1693 01:18:12,688 --> 01:18:15,896 at his trial had recently been reanalyzed 1694 01:18:16,108 --> 01:18:18,850 and shown to have not been made from Bruce's shoe. 1695 01:18:19,069 --> 01:18:20,650 So that got us interested in the case, 1696 01:18:20,863 --> 01:18:23,149 and we started talking to his private investigator 1697 01:18:23,365 --> 01:18:25,822 and began the seven-month investigation. 1698 01:18:26,035 --> 01:18:28,742 And at the conclusion of that, they filed an article 1699 01:18:28,954 --> 01:18:31,286 called a case of doubt that eventually 1700 01:18:31,498 --> 01:18:33,705 won them an award, won the times an award. 1701 01:18:33,918 --> 01:18:36,125 I wound up sitting between 2005, 1702 01:18:36,337 --> 01:18:39,079 when the first article came out, and 2009 in prison, 1703 01:18:39,298 --> 01:18:42,005 four solid years... 1704 01:18:42,218 --> 01:18:44,800 A widely recognized innocent man. 1705 01:18:45,012 --> 01:18:49,722 We knew back in 2003, 2004, that we had probably a person 1706 01:18:49,934 --> 01:18:52,016 that was in prison for a crime he did not commit. 1707 01:18:52,228 --> 01:18:53,764 And it took five years for the courts 1708 01:18:53,979 --> 01:18:56,186 to work through the... The entire system. 1709 01:18:56,398 --> 01:18:59,014 There were a lot of delays because of the conduct 1710 01:18:59,235 --> 01:19:01,351 of my own police department and the conduct 1711 01:19:01,570 --> 01:19:05,154 of the California Attorney General. 1712 01:19:05,366 --> 01:19:07,857 Reggie Cole spent 16 years in prison 1713 01:19:08,077 --> 01:19:09,988 for a crime he didn't commit. 1714 01:19:10,204 --> 01:19:13,037 10 of those years were spent in solitary confinement, 1715 01:19:13,249 --> 01:19:16,161 and he had to kill another man to get a trial. 1716 01:19:16,377 --> 01:19:18,618 The whole way I've been telling them, I'm innocent. 1717 01:19:18,837 --> 01:19:20,418 Every article I'm in, everything... 1718 01:19:20,631 --> 01:19:22,311 Everybody I'm talking to, I'm telling them, 1719 01:19:22,466 --> 01:19:25,333 "I'm innocent, man, I didn't do anything to anyone." 1720 01:19:25,552 --> 01:19:27,759 They don't care. They don't care. 1721 01:19:27,972 --> 01:19:30,714 It's not that they didn't know. They didn't care. 1722 01:19:30,933 --> 01:19:33,265 It's a miracle Reggie got out at all. 1723 01:19:39,066 --> 01:19:41,682 Tim's is a miracle story as well. 1724 01:19:41,902 --> 01:19:46,396 In late 2012, after 26 years, he made parole. 1725 01:19:46,615 --> 01:19:48,776 I signed some papers for the parole officer, 1726 01:19:48,993 --> 01:19:51,109 he said, "okay, see you later. 1727 01:19:54,498 --> 01:19:56,329 Didn't ask me how I was getting home, 1728 01:19:56,542 --> 01:19:58,703 didn't ask me if I had a home. 1729 01:19:58,919 --> 01:20:03,629 When I realized these people honestly don't give a fuck. 1730 01:20:09,555 --> 01:20:10,886 To survive getting out, 1731 01:20:11,098 --> 01:20:13,089 it's a lot harder than it sounds. 1732 01:20:13,309 --> 01:20:15,641 You may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder, 1733 01:20:15,853 --> 01:20:20,187 agoraphobia, paranoia and require immediate treatment. 1734 01:20:20,399 --> 01:20:23,311 You're gonna need food, new clothes. 1735 01:20:23,527 --> 01:20:25,939 You're going to need money for transportation 1736 01:20:26,155 --> 01:20:28,817 to and from your parole-officer meeting. 1737 01:20:29,033 --> 01:20:30,694 If you miss a meeting, 1738 01:20:30,909 --> 01:20:33,651 you could find yourself back in jail. 1739 01:20:33,871 --> 01:20:35,486 You're going to need a job, 1740 01:20:35,706 --> 01:20:37,466 but there's a lot of discrimination out there 1741 01:20:37,541 --> 01:20:39,156 for employment and housing. 1742 01:20:39,376 --> 01:20:43,085 Speaking of which, you're gonna need a home. 1743 01:20:43,297 --> 01:20:44,912 I wouldn't have a home 1744 01:20:45,132 --> 01:20:47,794 if it wasn't for the rescue a life foundation. 1745 01:20:48,010 --> 01:20:50,717 They set up a house, a transitional housing. 1746 01:20:50,929 --> 01:20:56,049 God and that foundation is what's got me by. 1747 01:20:56,268 --> 01:20:59,180 It's the reason I'm sitting here and not back inside. 1748 01:20:59,396 --> 01:21:02,183 The rescue a life foundation was founded 1749 01:21:02,399 --> 01:21:05,106 by Dwayne mcelwee who knows how challenging it can be 1750 01:21:05,319 --> 01:21:07,105 to re-enter society. 1751 01:21:07,321 --> 01:21:10,233 Dwayne did 25 years himself for murder. 1752 01:21:10,449 --> 01:21:12,485 After school, we would have to go down 1753 01:21:12,701 --> 01:21:15,158 to my mother's dress shop and hang out all day 1754 01:21:15,371 --> 01:21:16,952 and work around the business. 1755 01:21:17,164 --> 01:21:19,450 At that time, we had several organizations 1756 01:21:19,666 --> 01:21:21,327 that would just patrol that area. 1757 01:21:21,543 --> 01:21:23,784 So it was pretty safe. We had the black panthers, 1758 01:21:24,004 --> 01:21:26,370 Ron karenga's whole organization, 1759 01:21:26,590 --> 01:21:27,670 united slaves. 1760 01:21:27,883 --> 01:21:30,044 We had the nation of islam. 1761 01:21:30,260 --> 01:21:32,296 It was pretty cool, you didn't have to worry 1762 01:21:32,513 --> 01:21:34,799 about people coming in, holding you up and everything. 1763 01:21:35,015 --> 01:21:36,846 Didn't have to worry about that type of stuff. 1764 01:21:37,059 --> 01:21:41,803 But it was after the cointelpro when they got pushed underground 1765 01:21:42,022 --> 01:21:44,604 that everything just seemed like, you know, went crazy. 1766 01:21:44,817 --> 01:21:46,497 All the thugs came out, and then, you know, 1767 01:21:46,610 --> 01:21:49,101 you were fair game then, the store operators. 1768 01:21:49,321 --> 01:21:51,241 That's when we started having a lot of robberies, 1769 01:21:51,365 --> 01:21:53,105 a lot of burglaries. 1770 01:21:53,325 --> 01:21:56,613 My mother, she's just a little, bitty 5-foot-4 lady. 1771 01:21:56,829 --> 01:21:59,741 She was beat up and robbed one day while I was there. 1772 01:21:59,957 --> 01:22:02,198 And he grabbed her, threw her to the ground 1773 01:22:02,418 --> 01:22:04,418 and kicked her and beat her after he got the money. 1774 01:22:04,461 --> 01:22:06,381 Then he figured it wasn't enough money, you know? 1775 01:22:06,588 --> 01:22:08,419 And I was a little kid. 1776 01:22:08,632 --> 01:22:11,669 I was probably about 11 years old at the time, you know? 1777 01:22:11,885 --> 01:22:14,045 And he had this gun on him, and she was hollering at me 1778 01:22:14,138 --> 01:22:15,924 not to move and just... you know, 1779 01:22:16,140 --> 01:22:19,132 and this dude is kicking her and demanding more money. 1780 01:22:19,351 --> 01:22:21,467 He got all the money we had, you know? 1781 01:22:21,687 --> 01:22:24,429 Dwayne's mother wasn't robbed once. 1782 01:22:24,648 --> 01:22:26,479 She was robbed over and over again. 1783 01:22:26,692 --> 01:22:28,523 I had a good friend. 1784 01:22:28,735 --> 01:22:31,442 He would always be commenting about me being so uptight. 1785 01:22:31,655 --> 01:22:34,738 And he smoked weed. He said, "man, just take this. 1786 01:22:34,950 --> 01:22:36,360 You need, this, like, medication.” 1787 01:22:36,577 --> 01:22:37,942 That led to other things. You know. 1788 01:22:38,162 --> 01:22:42,246 That led to cocaine, it led to pcp, 1789 01:22:42,458 --> 01:22:45,700 which ended up leading to my crime 1790 01:22:45,919 --> 01:22:47,955 that happened that sent me to prison, you know. 1791 01:22:48,172 --> 01:22:50,254 I went to prison for a second-degree murder. 1792 01:22:50,466 --> 01:22:52,002 Some dudes robbed me. 1793 01:22:52,217 --> 01:22:53,977 They were supposed to have been the middleman 1794 01:22:54,094 --> 01:22:56,676 going to get the drugs, and they end up robbing me. 1795 01:22:56,889 --> 01:22:59,175 Because it had happened to us in our business, 1796 01:22:59,391 --> 01:23:02,133 the family business so much, this guy, 1797 01:23:02,352 --> 01:23:04,889 he wasn't just someone that was robbing me all the time. 1798 01:23:05,105 --> 01:23:06,686 He was the image of somebody 1799 01:23:06,899 --> 01:23:09,390 that had been victimizing my family. 1800 01:23:09,610 --> 01:23:11,851 And all these other times, you had got away, 1801 01:23:12,070 --> 01:23:13,935 but this time, you weren't going to get away. 1802 01:23:14,156 --> 01:23:16,989 So it was kind of like a revenge thing, 1803 01:23:17,201 --> 01:23:19,408 a retaliation thing for you and your kind. 1804 01:23:19,620 --> 01:23:21,986 You're going to pay for that, and so what I found 1805 01:23:22,206 --> 01:23:26,449 is that what you can't forgive, you end up becoming. 1806 01:23:26,668 --> 01:23:30,502 What you can't forgive, you end up becoming. 1807 01:23:34,134 --> 01:23:36,796 So I had to learn how to forgive and let that go, 1808 01:23:37,012 --> 01:23:38,923 and I had to learn how to forgive him 1809 01:23:39,139 --> 01:23:42,006 and let that go because he was also after... 1810 01:23:42,226 --> 01:23:46,765 I got to see his record, and this guy had a rap sheet, 1811 01:23:46,980 --> 01:23:48,860 you know, from here... From one side of the room 1812 01:23:48,899 --> 01:23:52,312 to the other, you know, and I could see that, you know, 1813 01:23:52,528 --> 01:23:54,189 he needed the same help that I needed. 1814 01:23:54,404 --> 01:23:56,235 We are generally taught to imagine 1815 01:23:56,448 --> 01:23:59,235 that there is such a thing as, for example, a murderer, right? 1816 01:23:59,451 --> 01:24:01,692 So in other words, a murderer in the public imagination 1817 01:24:01,912 --> 01:24:04,244 and in most of our minds, whether we've thought about it 1818 01:24:04,456 --> 01:24:07,948 or not, initially, is someone who likes to murder 1819 01:24:08,168 --> 01:24:10,128 and who would murder given the opportunity, right? 1820 01:24:10,295 --> 01:24:12,190 It's like a vocation, right? That's what murderers do. 1821 01:24:12,214 --> 01:24:13,920 They go around murdering, right? 1822 01:24:14,132 --> 01:24:15,972 And that's why you don't let them out of prison 1823 01:24:16,093 --> 01:24:18,363 you let them out of prison, they're going to murder again. 1824 01:24:18,387 --> 01:24:21,800 The reality is that murder is almost always a context. 1825 01:24:22,015 --> 01:24:23,255 It's a situation. 1826 01:24:23,475 --> 01:24:25,090 It is, statistically speaking, 1827 01:24:25,310 --> 01:24:28,052 very rarely driven by a compulsion 1828 01:24:28,272 --> 01:24:30,604 or a desire to do harm, right? 1829 01:24:30,816 --> 01:24:33,102 It's a reaction to some set of circumstances, 1830 01:24:33,318 --> 01:24:38,108 to a real or perceived threat, to some extreme emotional state. 1831 01:24:38,323 --> 01:24:40,109 It's not a propensity. 1832 01:24:40,325 --> 01:24:43,488 Basically, we're confusing the profile of a psychopath, 1833 01:24:43,704 --> 01:24:46,195 the psychopath we've read about, you know, the serial killer, 1834 01:24:46,415 --> 01:24:47,951 with prisoners in general, right? 1835 01:24:48,166 --> 01:24:51,658 If we as a society stop and imagine 1836 01:24:51,878 --> 01:24:55,086 that the people in prison are fully human, 1837 01:24:55,299 --> 01:24:58,006 incredibly diverse, have often been through 1838 01:24:58,218 --> 01:25:02,427 some of the most extreme and difficult situations 1839 01:25:02,639 --> 01:25:04,550 and conditions, some of which many of us 1840 01:25:04,766 --> 01:25:08,258 couldn't even really begin to imagine, then suddenly, 1841 01:25:08,478 --> 01:25:11,561 all of that judgment and all that hostility 1842 01:25:11,773 --> 01:25:14,230 and all that vindictiveness 1843 01:25:14,443 --> 01:25:16,775 doesn't have such a natural place anymore. 1844 01:25:16,987 --> 01:25:19,148 Many of our students have committed murder 1845 01:25:19,364 --> 01:25:21,821 and felt horrible about their crime 1846 01:25:22,034 --> 01:25:23,649 as soon as it happened. 1847 01:25:23,869 --> 01:25:25,680 It's not like they needed to sit in prison for 15 1848 01:25:25,704 --> 01:25:27,504 or 20 years to realize they'd done a bad thing 1849 01:25:27,623 --> 01:25:29,159 or to never want to do it again. 1850 01:25:29,374 --> 01:25:33,617 There's no human element... 1851 01:25:33,837 --> 01:25:37,421 To the criminal justice system. 1852 01:25:37,633 --> 01:25:40,466 There's no human element. They're not there to help you. 1853 01:25:40,677 --> 01:25:42,588 They're not there to help society. 1854 01:25:42,804 --> 01:25:45,967 They can say that that's what it's set up for all they want. 1855 01:25:46,183 --> 01:25:48,640 That's not what it's there for, 1856 01:25:48,852 --> 01:25:51,844 not in California and not in a lot of places. 1857 01:25:52,064 --> 01:25:55,022 It's a system set up to punish people, 1858 01:25:55,233 --> 01:25:56,723 and they take a bad situation, 1859 01:25:56,943 --> 01:25:59,184 and they usually make it much worse. 1860 01:26:02,741 --> 01:26:05,778 You know what the official success rate of state prison is? 1861 01:26:05,994 --> 01:26:11,205 Nearly 80% of all inmates go back within five years. 1862 01:26:11,416 --> 01:26:13,907 That's a success rate of 20%. 1863 01:26:14,127 --> 01:26:16,413 Imagine if we had those requirements of airplanes. 1864 01:26:16,630 --> 01:26:19,337 Wow, eight out of 10 airplanes falling out of the sky. 1865 01:26:19,549 --> 01:26:21,005 It's a little bit crazy-making. 1866 01:26:21,218 --> 01:26:22,799 And that is department of justice data. 1867 01:26:23,011 --> 01:26:24,797 That's federal government research. 1868 01:26:25,013 --> 01:26:27,629 Dr. Michael coyle attended Harvard university, 1869 01:26:27,849 --> 01:26:30,135 has a phd in justice studies 1870 01:26:30,352 --> 01:26:31,888 and is a professor of criminal justice 1871 01:26:32,104 --> 01:26:33,469 at California state university. 1872 01:26:33,689 --> 01:26:35,270 Dr. coyle says that prison 1873 01:26:35,482 --> 01:26:37,268 not only increases criminal behavior 1874 01:26:37,484 --> 01:26:39,941 but has a deleterious effect on society as a whole. 1875 01:26:40,153 --> 01:26:42,940 What happens to a family when the wage earner is removed 1876 01:26:43,156 --> 01:26:46,273 from society and thrown into prison for 10 years? 1877 01:26:46,493 --> 01:26:48,859 What happens to those children? How are they impacted? 1878 01:26:49,079 --> 01:26:50,819 What are their chances of success in life? 1879 01:26:51,039 --> 01:26:52,324 They start to go down. 1880 01:26:52,541 --> 01:26:54,782 How does that impact the community? 1881 01:26:55,001 --> 01:26:56,616 Loss of resources in that community, 1882 01:26:56,837 --> 01:26:58,557 more demands on the community now to help... 1883 01:26:58,588 --> 01:27:00,078 To help this family, 1884 01:27:00,298 --> 01:27:02,289 maybe the other parent, maybe the children. 1885 01:27:02,509 --> 01:27:05,876 It's just so clearly a failure 1886 01:27:06,096 --> 01:27:08,508 by every measure that you look at it 1887 01:27:08,724 --> 01:27:11,682 that I think we just need to rethink the whole thing 1888 01:27:11,893 --> 01:27:15,806 and not just keep trying to put lipstick on this pig, 1889 01:27:16,022 --> 01:27:17,558 'cause that's what we're doing. 1890 01:27:17,774 --> 01:27:19,534 I think it is difficult for people to imagine 1891 01:27:19,651 --> 01:27:21,016 a world without prisons now. 1892 01:27:21,236 --> 01:27:24,148 We've become so accustomed 1893 01:27:24,364 --> 01:27:26,946 to the idea of prisons that it's hard for people to imagine. 1894 01:27:27,159 --> 01:27:29,946 Well, what do you do with people if you don't put them in prison 1895 01:27:30,162 --> 01:27:31,698 when they've done wrong? 1896 01:27:31,913 --> 01:27:33,403 There are other alternatives. 1897 01:27:33,623 --> 01:27:36,080 Dostoevsky said the degree of civilization 1898 01:27:36,293 --> 01:27:39,000 in a society could be judged by entering its prisons. 1899 01:27:39,212 --> 01:27:41,749 Hebrews, 13:3, 1900 01:27:41,965 --> 01:27:44,331 remember those who are in chains 1901 01:27:44,551 --> 01:27:47,668 as if you were in chains with them. 1902 01:27:47,888 --> 01:27:50,504 If we don't, we put everybody at risk. 1903 01:27:55,937 --> 01:27:58,303 And he was killed in the line of duty. 1904 01:27:58,523 --> 01:28:02,232 My goal at the trial was to get the man 1905 01:28:02,444 --> 01:28:05,982 who killed my husband convicted of first-degree murder 1906 01:28:06,198 --> 01:28:09,440 and be given the death penalty, and that's what I got. 1907 01:28:09,659 --> 01:28:12,275 That's what happened. I thought okay, here it is. 1908 01:28:12,496 --> 01:28:16,409 I got justice. I'm gonna be free from this. 1909 01:28:16,625 --> 01:28:19,833 And it didn't happen. It was... it was just a lie. 1910 01:28:20,045 --> 01:28:22,161 It didn't change anything. 1911 01:28:22,380 --> 01:28:24,166 Aqeela sherrills is famous 1912 01:28:24,382 --> 01:28:26,338 for brokering the truce between the crips 1913 01:28:26,551 --> 01:28:28,587 and the bloods in 1992. 1914 01:28:28,804 --> 01:28:33,264 Then in 2004, he experienced an unimaginable tragedy. 1915 01:28:33,475 --> 01:28:38,094 My oldest son was murdered, home from winter break, college. 1916 01:28:38,313 --> 01:28:41,646 And, yeah, was shot to death at a party. 1917 01:28:41,858 --> 01:28:43,586 You know, so my daughter called me and was like, 1918 01:28:43,610 --> 01:28:45,271 "hey, you know, dad, they getting together 1919 01:28:45,487 --> 01:28:47,398 over on sesame street in the projects and stuff, 1920 01:28:47,614 --> 01:28:49,734 and they talking about going on a mission for Tyrell." 1921 01:28:49,825 --> 01:28:51,585 So I jumped in my car, and I drove over there 1922 01:28:51,785 --> 01:28:53,992 to the projects, and I jumped out the car, 1923 01:28:54,204 --> 01:28:56,365 and I said, "hey," I said, 1924 01:28:56,581 --> 01:28:58,242 "man, we've played this eye-for-an-eye, 1925 01:28:58,458 --> 01:29:00,119 tooth-for-a tooth game long enough.” 1926 01:29:00,335 --> 01:29:02,826 I'm like, "you know, it's left us all blind 1927 01:29:03,046 --> 01:29:04,502 and toothless, you know?" 1928 01:29:04,714 --> 01:29:06,329 And I'm like, "without anybody here 1929 01:29:06,550 --> 01:29:08,027 to provide direction and guidance for the kids 1930 01:29:08,051 --> 01:29:09,712 and the young folks and the parents 1931 01:29:12,055 --> 01:29:14,762 I'm like, "let's do something different.” 1932 01:29:14,975 --> 01:29:17,557 I've met people who've had 1933 01:29:17,769 --> 01:29:20,181 absolutely devastating things happen to them, 1934 01:29:20,397 --> 01:29:22,638 and they're just angry and bitter. 1935 01:29:22,858 --> 01:29:27,022 And I didn't want that to be me. I'd done that long enough. 1936 01:29:27,237 --> 01:29:29,102 And it wasn't working. 1937 01:29:29,322 --> 01:29:31,483 And I needed something different. 1938 01:29:31,700 --> 01:29:34,783 Dionne and ageela did something incredible. 1939 01:29:34,995 --> 01:29:38,453 They Rose to a consciousness most of us cannot imagine. 1940 01:29:38,665 --> 01:29:40,326 They didn't condone what happened, 1941 01:29:40,542 --> 01:29:42,203 but they forgave it. 1942 01:29:42,419 --> 01:29:44,535 I believe in the "f" word, you know, forgiveness. 1943 01:29:44,754 --> 01:29:47,871 Because of forgiveness is not, you know, 1944 01:29:48,091 --> 01:29:50,457 something that you do for the perpetrator. 1945 01:29:50,677 --> 01:29:52,237 It's something that you do for yourself. 1946 01:29:52,429 --> 01:29:56,513 There is no cure to violence in violence. 1947 01:29:56,725 --> 01:29:59,262 Violence can never be a cure for violence. 1948 01:29:59,477 --> 01:30:01,058 It's been said for thousands of years. 1949 01:30:01,271 --> 01:30:04,559 You can't fight darkness with darkness. 1950 01:30:04,774 --> 01:30:06,480 You can only bring in the light. 1951 01:30:06,693 --> 01:30:10,026 If we're really trying to deliver public safety, 1952 01:30:10,238 --> 01:30:13,105 then we need to start asking questions. 1953 01:30:13,325 --> 01:30:14,781 We need to say why. 1954 01:30:14,993 --> 01:30:16,824 What happened in the personal life 1955 01:30:17,037 --> 01:30:19,265 of this young man to cause him to have this callous heart, 1956 01:30:19,289 --> 01:30:21,530 this fear that he would take another human being's life? 1957 01:30:21,750 --> 01:30:24,867 Why is this person 1958 01:30:25,086 --> 01:30:28,078 cycling in and out of jail or prison? 1959 01:30:28,298 --> 01:30:30,414 For dionne, she decided she wanted the death 1960 01:30:30,634 --> 01:30:33,967 of her husband Dan to lead to something transformative, 1961 01:30:34,179 --> 01:30:39,344 something good and the same for ageela and his son, Tyrell. 1962 01:30:39,559 --> 01:30:41,424 We're going to harness the essence of Tyrell, 1963 01:30:41,645 --> 01:30:43,706 and we're going to do something much more profound with this. 1964 01:30:43,730 --> 01:30:45,721 The point is to understand what's happened. 1965 01:30:45,941 --> 01:30:48,398 How can we repair the harm that's been done? 1966 01:30:48,610 --> 01:30:50,771 How can we make sure that it doesn't happen again? 1967 01:30:50,987 --> 01:30:52,798 And how can we, you know... With that individual, 1968 01:30:52,822 --> 01:30:54,782 but also with other individuals coming after them. 1969 01:30:54,824 --> 01:30:56,860 When we get the answer to that question, 1970 01:30:57,077 --> 01:30:59,033 we need to actually do something about it. 1971 01:30:59,245 --> 01:31:01,327 Real investment in institutions 1972 01:31:01,539 --> 01:31:03,780 that help people to heal from trauma. 1973 01:31:04,000 --> 01:31:06,992 There was an interesting article 1974 01:31:07,212 --> 01:31:08,793 in the New York times a few years ago. 1975 01:31:09,005 --> 01:31:11,667 It was called million dollar blocks, 1976 01:31:11,883 --> 01:31:15,467 where if you calculated how many of the residents 1977 01:31:15,679 --> 01:31:18,512 of that particular block were actually incarcerated 1978 01:31:18,723 --> 01:31:21,465 and you added up how much it cost the state 1979 01:31:21,685 --> 01:31:23,516 to keep those people incarcerated, 1980 01:31:23,728 --> 01:31:27,061 you would actually come up with more than $1 million per block. 1981 01:31:27,273 --> 01:31:30,231 What I would say is take those million dollars 1982 01:31:30,443 --> 01:31:33,025 that you're spending to put all those people in prison 1983 01:31:33,238 --> 01:31:35,900 and invest them in the kinds of things 1984 01:31:36,116 --> 01:31:38,402 that we know very well 1985 01:31:38,618 --> 01:31:40,449 will actually transform those communities. 1986 01:31:40,662 --> 01:31:43,870 My passion is Shakespeare because it's about words. 1987 01:31:44,082 --> 01:31:47,119 And the only way that you can heal trauma 1988 01:31:47,335 --> 01:31:48,666 is to find language for it. 1989 01:31:48,878 --> 01:31:50,994 I met my father when I was like 15. 1990 01:31:51,214 --> 01:31:53,045 Never met him before? Never saw him? 1991 01:31:53,258 --> 01:31:55,499 There's something strange here. It's something... 1992 01:31:55,719 --> 01:31:57,799 Someone with my kind of background here a little bit. 1993 01:31:57,971 --> 01:32:00,212 What they're trying to do is simply inhabit 1994 01:32:00,432 --> 01:32:02,889 that character as truthfully as they can. 1995 01:32:03,101 --> 01:32:04,932 And in analyzing and digging down deep 1996 01:32:05,145 --> 01:32:06,931 into the truth of that character, 1997 01:32:07,147 --> 01:32:09,388 what happens is they begin to dig into their own lives. 1998 01:32:09,607 --> 01:32:12,519 When I was a young man and I came to prison, 1999 01:32:12,736 --> 01:32:16,149 the older convicts taught me how to hustle at every opportunity 2000 01:32:16,364 --> 01:32:18,480 to make money, how to get over on the police. 2001 01:32:18,700 --> 01:32:22,739 And I looked up to them. They were my mentors. 2002 01:32:22,954 --> 01:32:24,444 Through Shakespeare behind bars, 2003 01:32:24,664 --> 01:32:28,828 I have learned that mentoring... Mentoring is... 2004 01:32:29,044 --> 01:32:31,786 It's very important, but it's also important 2005 01:32:32,005 --> 01:32:33,620 to mentor them in the right direction. 2006 01:32:33,840 --> 01:32:36,502 So, our recidivism rate in Kentucky 2007 01:32:36,718 --> 01:32:39,926 for this program, 22 years old, is 5.1%. 2008 01:32:40,138 --> 01:32:42,629 Guys that are out on the street. "Why didn't they go back?" 2009 01:32:42,849 --> 01:32:45,511 People ask all the time. I say, "don't ask me, ask them." 2010 01:32:45,727 --> 01:32:47,705 What'll they tell you? Here's what I hear them say. 2011 01:32:47,729 --> 01:32:50,971 "I take responsibility for the crime that brought me here. 2012 01:32:51,191 --> 01:32:53,432 I now understand where that behavior came from 2013 01:32:53,651 --> 01:32:55,562 because I've gone back in my life, 2014 01:32:55,779 --> 01:32:57,235 and I've looked at all of that. 2015 01:32:57,447 --> 01:33:00,655 But I am not that human being anymore. 2016 01:33:00,867 --> 01:33:04,735 That's what arts programming many times gives prisoners hope, 2017 01:33:04,954 --> 01:33:08,196 because arts deal with the internal essence 2018 01:33:08,416 --> 01:33:09,997 of what it means to be a human being. 2019 01:33:16,758 --> 01:33:21,593 Vipassana is an intense program, a meditative technique. 2020 01:33:21,805 --> 01:33:25,923 The inmate has to go through it 24 hours a day 2021 01:33:26,142 --> 01:33:29,430 - for a 10-day period of time. - I spent eight and a half years 2022 01:33:29,646 --> 01:33:31,136 on death row, and this was harder. 2023 01:33:31,356 --> 01:33:33,768 All the stuff that's buried down deep, 2024 01:33:33,983 --> 01:33:35,439 they come up gradually. 2025 01:33:35,652 --> 01:33:37,563 They want you there long enough 2026 01:33:37,779 --> 01:33:39,986 that you actually deal with your stuff. 2027 01:33:40,198 --> 01:33:41,654 She says... 2028 01:33:46,454 --> 01:33:49,161 This is a restorative justice workshop. 2029 01:33:49,374 --> 01:33:51,615 They're very rare, and they are much harder 2030 01:33:51,835 --> 01:33:54,793 on perpetrators of crimes than sitting in a prison cell. 2031 01:33:55,004 --> 01:33:57,086 It puts these guys face to face 2032 01:33:57,298 --> 01:33:59,334 with the human consequences of their actions. 2033 01:33:59,551 --> 01:34:01,291 This is Rosa. 2034 01:34:01,511 --> 01:34:03,502 Her son was killed in a drive-by shooting. 2035 01:34:03,721 --> 01:34:06,508 And now, she devotes her life to telling inmates 2036 01:34:06,724 --> 01:34:09,841 serving time for murder what the effect was of their crime 2037 01:34:10,061 --> 01:34:12,677 not just for the deceased but on everyone. 2038 01:34:32,167 --> 01:34:34,158 - Thank you. Thank you. - Thank you. 2039 01:34:53,479 --> 01:34:55,140 You know what? 2040 01:35:03,114 --> 01:35:04,979 Restorative justice programs 2041 01:35:05,200 --> 01:35:07,691 and victim/offender reconciliations can take years. 2042 01:35:07,911 --> 01:35:09,993 They require a staff and resources 2043 01:35:10,205 --> 01:35:11,741 and they're incredibly successful. 2044 01:35:11,956 --> 01:35:13,492 Those who go through these programs 2045 01:35:13,708 --> 01:35:15,949 have as low as 10% rates of reoffending 2046 01:35:16,169 --> 01:35:20,287 as opposed to the 80% failure rates prisons shamefully have. 2047 01:35:20,506 --> 01:35:22,610 We sit there perplexed like, wow, what are we gonna do 2048 01:35:22,634 --> 01:35:24,170 about this criminal justice system? 2049 01:35:24,385 --> 01:35:27,422 It's such a mess. 2050 01:35:27,639 --> 01:35:31,552 Maybe if we just stopped doing these things that we're doing 2051 01:35:31,768 --> 01:35:35,556 and we try on a whole new set of other things, 2052 01:35:35,772 --> 01:35:38,935 it might turn out to be a little bit simpler than we thought. 2053 01:35:39,150 --> 01:35:43,985 The biggest prison we have is an invisible prison. 2054 01:35:44,197 --> 01:35:47,064 It's the conditioned mind, and you don't know 2055 01:35:47,283 --> 01:35:49,490 you're in the prison because you can't see bars. 2056 01:35:49,702 --> 01:35:51,317 You can't see walls. 2057 01:35:51,537 --> 01:35:54,279 And the conditioned mind is the separate mind. 2058 01:35:54,499 --> 01:35:55,830 It doesn't exist. 2059 01:35:56,042 --> 01:35:57,828 We are part of a collective mind, 2060 01:35:58,044 --> 01:36:00,831 and if the collective mind is violent, then we are violent. 2061 01:36:01,047 --> 01:36:03,914 And you can change that. 2062 01:36:04,133 --> 01:36:07,466 There's an opportunity here for us to take the wisdom 2063 01:36:07,679 --> 01:36:09,260 that we know works, what we would do 2064 01:36:09,472 --> 01:36:11,392 for our own kids if our own kids were in trouble, 2065 01:36:11,599 --> 01:36:13,214 and do it for everybody's kids. 2066 01:36:15,019 --> 01:36:17,806 We need to end the war on drugs. 2067 01:36:18,022 --> 01:36:20,604 We have to demand once and for all 2068 01:36:20,817 --> 01:36:25,151 an end to policing and prisons for profit. 2069 01:36:25,363 --> 01:36:28,070 At least half of the people in there are in there 2070 01:36:28,283 --> 01:36:29,739 for crimes of addiction 2071 01:36:29,951 --> 01:36:32,033 or economic desperation or mental health. 2072 01:36:32,245 --> 01:36:33,906 Instead of just throwing everybody 2073 01:36:34,122 --> 01:36:35,962 that we've decided we can't help into prison... 2074 01:36:35,999 --> 01:36:39,116 Use the money for restorative justice programs, 2075 01:36:39,335 --> 01:36:42,543 rehabs, and social services. 2076 01:36:42,755 --> 01:36:44,962 There has to be citizen oversight 2077 01:36:45,174 --> 01:36:48,086 and accountability for all our public servants. 2078 01:36:48,303 --> 01:36:50,510 Luckily for us, we have access to all of the data. 2079 01:36:50,722 --> 01:36:53,885 If you have any interest in justice or equal access 2080 01:36:54,100 --> 01:36:55,681 to opportunity in this country, 2081 01:36:55,893 --> 01:36:57,508 all the data, luckily, is out there. 2082 01:36:57,729 --> 01:37:00,141 It's just a matter of whether you give a shit. 2083 01:37:00,356 --> 01:37:03,940 Our survival depends on being logical. 2084 01:37:04,152 --> 01:37:07,815 Our survival depends on being smart. 2085 01:37:08,031 --> 01:37:12,900 And our survival depends on love... 2086 01:37:13,119 --> 01:37:15,656 For each other... 2087 01:37:15,872 --> 01:37:17,863 And, um... 2088 01:37:18,082 --> 01:37:20,118 Love for yourself. 2089 01:37:23,254 --> 01:37:25,370 And a good Monday morning to you. 2090 01:37:25,590 --> 01:37:29,174 California man finally free after serving 16 years 2091 01:37:29,385 --> 01:37:31,341 for a crime he didn't commit. 2092 01:37:31,554 --> 01:37:33,324 I didn't think it was real until I saw 2093 01:37:33,348 --> 01:37:36,465 my attorneys in visiting, and... 2094 01:37:36,684 --> 01:37:38,845 I'm trying to describe the feeling. 2095 01:37:42,899 --> 01:37:44,764 It was an unbelievable feeling. 2096 01:37:44,984 --> 01:37:49,068 It was just an emotional roller coaster that, you know... 2097 01:37:49,280 --> 01:37:51,020 I mean, I cried walking out. 2098 01:37:51,240 --> 01:37:55,279 It was just the magnitude of all these years 2099 01:37:55,495 --> 01:37:57,406 and, like, now here it is. 2100 01:37:57,622 --> 01:37:59,408 And then a moment later, 2101 01:37:59,624 --> 01:38:01,285 I would be too bewildered to cry 2102 01:38:01,501 --> 01:38:04,038 and I would just be... 2103 01:38:07,882 --> 01:38:10,419 That... that whole day was really scary for me. 2104 01:38:10,635 --> 01:38:13,547 A lot of people, like, think that they would be like, 2105 01:38:13,763 --> 01:38:18,348 "yay," but I was terrified. 2106 01:38:18,559 --> 01:38:21,642 There were well-wishers... Well-wishers there of officers 2107 01:38:21,854 --> 01:38:24,687 that knew the... I think they knew the truth 2108 01:38:24,899 --> 01:38:26,764 and certainly knew the character, 2109 01:38:26,984 --> 01:38:28,394 you know, my character. 2110 01:38:28,611 --> 01:38:30,397 And then I was in the parking lot. 2111 01:38:34,075 --> 01:38:36,691 The air smelled different. 2112 01:38:36,911 --> 01:38:38,276 I wish my mom could've been there. 2113 01:38:38,496 --> 01:38:39,952 I wish my dad could've been there. 2114 01:38:40,164 --> 01:38:41,644 I wish my stepmom could've been there. 2115 01:38:45,461 --> 01:38:47,042 But I think in a way they were. 2116 01:38:49,507 --> 01:38:52,249 And it was good. It was good. 2117 01:38:54,637 --> 01:38:58,380 Like, once I got on the other side with my attorneys, 2118 01:38:58,599 --> 01:39:01,261 I just felt like running, like just getting as far away 2119 01:39:01,477 --> 01:39:03,638 from that place as I possibly could. 2120 01:39:03,855 --> 01:39:06,312 That's probably not the answer 2121 01:39:06,524 --> 01:39:09,186 that everybody would think that I would have. 2122 01:39:09,402 --> 01:39:14,237 But... it wasn't a joyous time for me. 2123 01:39:14,449 --> 01:39:16,656 I mean, like, I literally was scared to death. 2124 01:39:16,868 --> 01:39:18,404 My cousin was waiting for me. 2125 01:39:18,619 --> 01:39:20,405 My private investigator was waiting for me, 2126 01:39:20,621 --> 01:39:24,660 and I said... you want to hear what I actually said? 2127 01:39:24,876 --> 01:39:30,041 And I looked at Paul, and I said, you know... 2128 01:39:30,256 --> 01:39:31,712 "Let's get this stuff in the truck 2129 01:39:31,924 --> 01:39:33,915 and get the fuck out of here." 2130 01:39:34,135 --> 01:39:36,251 And we couldn't leave fast enough. 2131 01:39:38,848 --> 01:39:42,466 The first place we stopped at was ihop for some breakfast. 2132 01:39:42,685 --> 01:39:48,100 And I was, like, amazed at just the syrup menu. 2133 01:39:48,316 --> 01:39:51,433 It just was overwhelming, like, 2134 01:39:51,652 --> 01:39:53,062 it was completely overwhelming. 2135 01:39:57,492 --> 01:39:59,699 I haven't been in a vehicle 2136 01:39:59,911 --> 01:40:03,495 without being chained at my feet and with a waist chain 2137 01:40:03,706 --> 01:40:06,072 and then handcuffs hooked to the waist chain 2138 01:40:06,292 --> 01:40:10,035 and in a paper jumpsuit for 26 years. 2139 01:40:15,426 --> 01:40:17,257 J 1am a man 2140 01:40:17,470 --> 01:40:19,506 j 1am a man 2141 01:40:19,722 --> 01:40:23,761 j lam a man 'cause you said I am 2142 01:40:26,312 --> 01:40:29,600 the word "adjustment,” I mean... 2143 01:40:29,815 --> 01:40:32,306 I try to... I try to figure that word out. 2144 01:40:32,527 --> 01:40:34,267 Do I have to... 2145 01:40:34,487 --> 01:40:37,775 I'm still trying to figure that word out. 2146 01:40:37,990 --> 01:40:41,778 Like, how do you adjust coming from the planet Mars to earth? 2147 01:40:41,994 --> 01:40:45,077 I don't even think the oxygen is the same up there. 2148 01:40:45,289 --> 01:40:47,029 I don't think I'm adjusted at all. 2149 01:40:47,250 --> 01:40:51,289 J it's impossible to be invincible 2150 01:40:54,006 --> 01:40:58,375 j but maybe it's possible to be impossible 2151 01:40:58,594 --> 01:41:00,255 j 1am a man 2152 01:41:00,471 --> 01:41:02,462 j 1am a man 2153 01:41:02,682 --> 01:41:04,547 j 1am a man 2154 01:41:04,767 --> 01:41:08,851 j lam a man 'cause you said I am 2155 01:41:10,606 --> 01:41:11,937 j yeah 2156 01:41:14,819 --> 01:41:16,855 j 1am a man 2157 01:41:17,071 --> 01:41:18,936 j 1am a man 2158 01:41:19,156 --> 01:41:21,112 j 1am a man 2159 01:41:21,325 --> 01:41:25,443 j lam a man 'cause you said I am 2160 01:41:26,956 --> 01:41:28,366 j yeah 2161 01:41:30,626 --> 01:41:33,083 j oooh 2162 01:41:56,736 --> 01:42:00,854 J ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2163 01:42:01,073 --> 01:42:04,065 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2164 01:42:04,285 --> 01:42:07,072 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2165 01:42:07,288 --> 01:42:10,246 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2166 01:42:10,458 --> 01:42:13,325 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2167 01:42:13,544 --> 01:42:16,502 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2168 01:42:16,714 --> 01:42:19,581 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2169 01:42:19,800 --> 01:42:22,792 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2170 01:42:23,012 --> 01:42:25,845 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2171 01:42:26,057 --> 01:42:29,049 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2172 01:42:29,268 --> 01:42:32,226 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2173 01:42:32,438 --> 01:42:35,271 j ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh 2174 01:42:35,483 --> 01:42:38,316 j ohh, ohh, ohh...