Life As a Teenager in Prison: Exclusive Documentary Interview

i know last night mars we were in intake when when you were brought in what's it like to go through that whole intake process to be in a police car for kids who've you know never been known what's it like is it scary is it it's kind of scary because they don't you don't know where they take you well you know they taking but you don't want to be behind a police car anyway or you don't want to go to intake because it's not for kids it's not for me i don't want to be do you think kids who watch this understand what it is you really go through when you get brought into a place like this because i think a lot of kids come in and they at first they kind of think it's a joke do you think they understand what it's really like somehow somehow not most of them [Music] what would you want to tell other kids who you know might be watching a show like this on what your advice would be to them i'll tell them don't do no stupid stuff just to be on tv because some kids they do stupid stuff to come to lc because when jewish first came out they were like oh everybody on tv so i want to go to truth that's not that's what it's for you don't go there just to be on tv i didn't even know i was going to be on this i thought they talked to me what um what's the worst part about being in a place like this i'm gonna sell the food the selling the food the selling the food could be cold in the they make you take all this off and then it was like full of skinny blankets and then the food some photo party ain't even good it's nasty and [Music] is it scary at all being around any of the other kids in the pie is there any no not me what are some of the other kids like that are that are here i think they're scared because they don't know how long they're gonna be well i'm scared i don't know how long i'm gonna be here [Music] but i think they're scared too because i know a lot of the times when kids come through intake they'll ask me if they haven't been here before what's it like in the back am i going to get beat up is it like that at all sometime it is if you it's about who wouldn't have pods and stuff like if it's gangbangers then you're probably gonna get into it but if you like people that don't want to be there like me i'll fight but if you fight you're gonna get detained so i ain't even gonna be fighting age party crack i don't know about these parts they quiet but you probably won't get no fighting now so what's a typical day like for you inside the time like outside like like in there how i was just that made me want to lose my mind because there ain't nothing to do is just stay out the wall go to sleep not like being out isn't it like to sleep on those bats tell me about what it's like to sleep in a place like this he ain't comfortable the mess flat with my back behind because it'd be so flat but the mess they work in the sheets they work too because they ain't so thin but they keep me warning them you don't get four you can't wear your socks you just gotta go in there with your drawers on and be freezing at night so take me through a typical day you wake up in the morning and then like start with waking up in the morning okay you wake up you eat you be in that party for an hour get out eat again i actually want a shower you can tell them yes or no then you go back in and then downstairs come out and they do the same thing we do and then if anybody get an argument start a fight you're gonna get hours like you can be like eight hours up in your cell or you can go on lockdown and have everybody in they said that's how you do the same thing the next day until your court they come or we go to church like we had church out here when you go to um sometimes they have gym then a class so i know you're you're yeah i bet you do go crazy in there after a while nothing to do no no i'll just be able to lose my mind let's see if he's coming right back out be not all right i know later on tonight your mom is coming to visit and that'll be the first time that you've seen her since you were brought in last night what are you expecting from your visit with your mom do you know how your mom's feeling right now probably mad no she probably both mad here sad mad because i got caught and should have been at home and said that i might hear again because that last time i was in she was crying i am a grandma so how do you think visitation is going to go well it's going to go well it wouldn't work last time [Music] it's going to go away i just hope i'll get out tomorrow so when you get ready for court tomorrow when you get in there the judge will probably ask you a few questions what do you want to say to the judge is court scary [Music] is your biggest fear the fact that you've been here before hang on one second that's okay you can go ahead and close it thank you oh you know uh is your biggest fear because you've been here before and you think that [Music] shut the door away okay so is your biggest fear going in front of the judge the fact that she'll be able to see that you've been here before talk to me about that you've been in detention before and so when the judge gets your case and is in court on monday you know are you afraid that she's gonna say hey morris you were here once before what's the deal yeah yeah you know cause she probably detained me but like you ain't learning your lesson the first time so you gonna have to stay that's what i practice she gonna say but i hope not oh no how long were you here the last time you were here a week in a day tell me about your last time in detention when what that was like what you were here for what i was here for last time because me and my mom got into it and i punched a hole in the wall and then they made me stay for a week but the people that was you know i knew some of them that was cool we didn't fight or not someone one cold the bottom one cool and we almost fought and then i got out of the week now i got on march 19th and my birthday was on march 20. so i got a day before my birthday you know you're such a soft-spoken kid i find it hard to believe you can ever punch a hole in the wall what was that about just anger yeah i'm an angry kid everybody see how uh talks off but you said you're a what everybody say i speak soft when i'm an angry kid why are angry kid have you been able to figure out where your anger comes from no is there something that just sort of snaps want to hit something or what no i don't know like little stuff made me want to punch though i don't know where i get it from is your dad in the picture at all anywhere do you see your dad yeah he live in griffin but i don't see him i don't even call him do you think maybe that's where your anger comes from and man that your dad's not around a little bit yeah a little bit addressed my household that's what i think it's in my household but we're getting it along we're getting it back together i'm trying to calm my anger down go to counseling did they order counseling for you before have you had some counseling already tell me about the counseling does that work it was working but it wasn't working because me i wouldn't go that's what i don't know i wouldn't go i just didn't like it i thought it wasn't gonna help that's what i didn't go and they won't help it wasn't helping what do you think would help i don't know if somebody gave you a perfect situation if somebody said morris you can have your life be any way you want it to be what would you want it to be mm-hmm we gotta i got a good life right now you know it's just my anger i don't know how i'm gonna change i don't know how it's going to stop do you feel angry when you're at school too or just at home maybe well what's school like for you are you in school and if you are what's what's school like for you school i don't like school for nothing i don't like school because i think it's all the people i can't concentrate with a lot of people mm-hmm it just give me frustrating then that's what made me mad then i can't concentrate the whole day then me and the teachers gonna get into it then he said it's crazy every day i go to school i get in trouble every single day really from teachers teachers students everybody even it's just people i'm cool with if i'm playing with them the teachers they don't like me they heard about me before i got to the school so they're gonna try to give me a detention to get me kicked out so it's almost like you're discriminated against before you have a chance to prove who you are yeah that's exactly what it is you think that happens a lot with kids you know that maybe they get a reputation before they get someplace and then you sort of can't get out of being labeled tell me about your friends were you friends with me when you got picked up this time or again yeah that was one so probably said we were smoking marijuana they said they smelt it when they walked up so how they smelt it and they see it i told him it was a cigarette the girl that was with her she smoked cigarettes she legal enough to smoke cigarettes but that was in my pocket now i make it look like i smoke cigarettes so what did they actually bring you in on i forget what they brought you in on i laid county war cuz i didn't go to court and i got laid probation give me two years of placement if i went to court that's why i didn't go did you talk to your probation officer at all at that time no he ain't never even come around i probably saved him caught him one time he caught me one time in birth where he dropped me off at the house that's probably the last time i said so what what's it like being on probation what are they what do they do what's uh nothing i just can't break no rules like get caught back smoking cigarettes bad cigarettes tobacco none of that spray paint nothing no bad stuff we can't do nothing just be regular don't do nothing bad you know i got caught some of the marijuana rest in my pocket do you think marijuana should be a bad enough charge to bring kids to a place like this i would imagine a lot of kids you know are around i mean a lot of kids smoke by mhm i don't know how they could brought me in because i had a probation up i ain't had no marijuana do you think you get treated fairly in a place like this in a detention center tell me about how you get treated in a place like that i know so people get treated it's the way you treat people if i see the d.o detentions office they treat me well because i treat them the same i treat them with respect they treat me with respect so they treat me nice i don't know about the other people they treat me again so do you think your probation officer treats you fairly or how involved is your probation officer i don't even be saying something wrong no no yeah he treat me you know a little bit but he'd be on it he made sure i don't feel no drug touching he do you think he'll be at the court hearing on monday yeah he gonna be there you gotta be there what do you think your probation officer will say in court do you have any guess no i don't even think he liked me no no i just can't wait to see my on seven o'clock hopefully that'll go well i hope so i might get out find a question do you think it's better for police officers and juvenile justice people in this field i think it'd be better if they found an alternative for kids other than detention do you think that there's any real purpose for locking kids up do you think there should be other programs for kids instead of putting them in detention no i think i think there should be other programs because this is making it worse for me it is because i'm losing my mind for real and it's making me worse for me because they're trying to find out what's my anger problem and i think it's this because when i first got here it got it worse because when i that's why i'm back in here because it ain't helped the first time it's good for people so really keeping kids in a cell can give them more anger and they're trying to scare the kids so they won't do it again but it's going to make them do it again because they ain't learning them and ain't teaching them nothing but just cinder you can lock me in the house it's the same thing like in the club it's the same thing you're going to do the same thing so ultimately what do you hope the judge rules on monday what do you want to happen in court on monday i'm not saying like give me another chance i'm just saying well yeah i know i'm saying give me another chance give me community service so something i just don't want to be in here oh she let me go and i hope my mom i hope she said she want me to come home to because last time she said she didn't until we started having um business and then we got talking because my mom won't even be talking like that at home because it's my fault i got an anger problem i don't know what's wrong you think your mom's afraid of you when you get angry and that's why she said that do you understand that do you understand where she's coming from when she says she doesn't want you home or is it hard to say i think mama was scared of me she is scaring me do you think there's a chance she'll say on monday she doesn't want you to come home yeah no she's gonna fish a woman to come home you're gonna talk to her about that tonight during the vids because a lot of times it really a lot depends on what the parent says in court and how the judge rules but you already know that because you've been through that before right she goes i hope she's saying she want me to come on how do you think you'll react if she doesn't or you're just trying to keep that out of your mind see when she said she said no it's going to be crazy i can't even control my anger okay it's impossible to believe looking at remarks that you have so much anger you know that right how far back does that go do you remember when you started getting anything were you little i think i had it when i first came out of my mom i've been angry all my life you know i do get it from my dad but it's worse for them it's going to get worse too i could tell you because ain't nothing helping ain't no counseling helping it just not helping me can you think of anything if if you can make your own recommendation for what you want just get away just get away i only want to be in just indiana away get away you think ultimately if you moved out of indiana and moved someplace new or what about spending more time with your dad do you think that would help you probably would a little bit you know [Music] because they say when two people act like you don't make and me my mama and my daddy act like i act like how sometimes i act definitely like just like him he no i didn't come to work do you miss him do you miss having a dad me i miss him but i don't act like because i don't never call him no never go see him only time i see him as if he called or he'd come around it would seem like he would want to come around and see his son yeah he do i think he think i don't love him but i do don't even call my grandma i don't i just don't call you she be calling me my daddy called you they both called yeah my grandma just don't beat up and be all sad so you love him but for some reason you can't i don't call nobody my mama know that she know she too nobody don't call my house phone for me because i don't i don't even like to talk probably have you always been that way i've always been quiet there's nothing wrong with being quiet that's okay there are a lot of people here some people get scared i know people get me you think other people are scared of you too other than your mom yeah they tell me like you crazy man my fault maybe it's not your fault can you like think back to when it all started yeah i think i don't know my mama and my little brother diddy i used to get into it and then we used to be younger so when i used to fight we couldn't we couldn't do nothing because we weren't old enough we couldn't call nobody to do nothing was just watching what beat my mama and then when i get older then i got then i could do something but now eating around them so just to watch my mom get beat on since i was little all of us all four of us well that's it mars i saw when you were young that's why you're angry that's where it comes from that's not your fault i know i i know i'm angry more though because my dad he's real old and i think i used to think i used to have nightmares and he was gonna die he used to follow me it's still a problem yeah my mom i don't know but he's okay i mean he's still in good health but you probably felt like that maybe then you'd be abandoned then there'd be nobody around for you so this was your younger brother your dad and your younger brother's dad are two different no my younger brother and my younger sister they got the same deal their father and me my older sister got the same day and my daddy he's older he's 63 and they did younger and it was the younger kid's dad who used to have the fool but he's not around anymore [Music] you know he know why he don't supposed to come around saying because we're older he already know what i do you know but he cool though he i probably see him once in a while but he you already know don't try that no more man older me and my two sisters and my younger brother he ain't gonna try no more hopefully that's all over him i just want to go home i don't blame you we'll talk to your mom united visitation you know you're lucky some kids don't get any visitation at all so at least she's coming that's a good sign you see she when i was locked up last time she used to come every day i had my grandma and my dad that's a lot worse with kids i fell in kids who hadn't seen their parents in two years man i know they doing worse than me but i wasn't realizing that they loved me because all this anger i wasn't realizing [Music] until somebody had to sit down and talk to him that's what my problem is no i don't like to talk i just need if you sit down and talk to me i'll talk but i don't like to talk with see us guess i don't look at you as scary and i understand where your anchor comes from and i've worked with kids for 11 years teenagers and i have a teenager i think a lot of times people probably pick at you guys and try and get to the bottom of what's wrong and sometimes it's just not that simple you know every time somebody see me they probably give me a mean face because i i'll be giving me a favorite when the faith i make this party is my happy face it's just my my look people take my kindness for weakness [Music] and i remember back like five years ago my grandma told me if you keep frowning your face gonna be stuck like that you know i think she won't man i think she's your grandmother i think she might learn she so used to tell me if you keep frowning like that your face gonna stay like that so it sounds like your grandma's i need to make one quick adjustment okay sorry it's this book she said joe witness really she should be home you know i talked to so many kids over the years whose grandmas play a huge role in their life is that how it is with you and your friend hello my grandma my love my mama my whole i love my family you think that maybe this is the last time you'll be here and maybe this coming here a second time will be enough to solve the situation if you get to go home it's probably i hope it's gonna be my last time and when i go home i'm gonna solve the situation because i'm gonna sit down and talk to my mama and my brothers and sisters and her boyfriend so your mom has a boyfriend now that's gonna be hard he cool sometimes i just be gone that's i got so much i ain't gotta be gone all day so i could just be out there face cause i always he's a starter argument and then later right back here well at least you recognize that when you're home arguments start so you try and get out of that situation and everybody in that household acts just the light because we get it from her me and my oldest get it from her and my daddy and her my little olders my younger brother and young sister they get it from they did yeah so we all acting like that's why we got problems so there must be a lot of arguing in the house we working on it now it's getting better because i've been gone see when i be leaving and coming back it'd be better and if i'm standing up and then it's gonna be worse like i gotta see them like in two more weeks like y'all like i'm in here right now when i go see him it's gonna be better because i ain't being seen have any of your brothers or sisters going through the system my little brother your little brother how old is he he's 13 13 maybe 14 october 7. so does he have some anger problems too no no no be good would it be possible for you to live with your grandma with that help or that's that's what they were saying i was like they probably will help but no i can't be away from my friend my momma and i'm like that you don't want to necessarily you love your grandmother so you can see me come and see some mary we should be coming to see you i think that's how the problem started when we first moved from east chicago to mirabian my mama thought it was going to help she moved because she didn't smoke with us because the school system was numb and i wouldn't learn nothing so we moved america to a better school system and it made it worse because she moved us from our family and cousins and relatives out there to maryland we ain't know nobody and he didn't help yeah he helped my other three brothers just not me you just feel sort of out of place in maryville because that's a pretty big change from east chicago to maryland but do you understand why she did it yeah i understand and i used to be mad at my mom for a long time because she helped me back in the third grade and i'm supposed to be a junior right now and i've been following me for a long time too just a minute so you're supposed to be starting your sophomore year of high school this year so will you not post them and starting my junior then a sophomore so do you plan on going back to school this year what's your school plan i do want to get back in school i do but i don't know how from up in here that's probably something important to bring up in court yeah i'm going to be scared to jewish i'll just be honest but i think education is always a big a big deal yeah educators come first so how do you think you're going to get along in school this year i'm going to get along with everybody i'm a cool kid everybody know me i'm getting them it's just i don't know something about me and the teachers i don't know it's something about me in the school any school every school ever made i don't like school i'm lazy and then if i go to my grandma's house she loves three she gonna tell me to read and i ain't i'll read the bible i'll read it watch tyler already because she's holding us i ain't got no problem with that i'll go to the kingdom hall whenever she wanted to go do you think tutors or mentors or anything would help that's because my my uh my counselors they nice they school but i don't think it's gonna help i don't think nothing's gonna help my problem i don't know i think if me and my mom connect bond like that i think that'll help i think that will because it sounds like a lot of people are trying to help you but they're just not sure what that i mean me and my brothers and sisters we used to fight real bad you know i think we getting better now i gotta just get better with my mom because me and my sisters and brothers we ain't even already know we don't look at each other me you know i don't look at my mommy and i'm awake i try cause i know she going through what's the hardest thing about your family life [Music] um [Music] but our whole family got issues everybody got issues but i hope we get together it's not going to be pretty impressive ever huh yeah it probably will but no helpful has the judge or anybody ever talk to you about placement i know a lot of times kids end up going to placement how do you that's my probation officer mr gordon fleming he was talking about sitting in place when i'm like no that's why i go to court because they said you're gonna see me replace me for two years i was like no i ain't gonna go to prison so i didn't go to court were you afraid this day would come that there'd be a warrant since you didn't show up do you think if you explained the reason you didn't go to court was because you were afraid that that might help i hope so see the officer the officer that brought me in he was me because you know when when we were sitting on the stairs he didn't matter he never know me he just walked up he was mean he grabbed him by my neck they got to push me again when i got in the car he took me to the uh he brought me to the department first and then i had to go they thought i was high so i had to go to saint mary's to get a drug to and then i've been talking to him like i'm talking y'all talks to him now he's the coolest officer now now he cool i'm cool with him he called me and now he said i'm sorry for even picking you up cause you was a nice kid that's what he said hmm well maybe since it was a minor charge yeah he said he won't come charge me because i gave him the wrong name for because i was scared he said he won't charge me after we talk that should all play in your favor i would think i just want to go well visit with your mom tonight and see how that goes and make them go with me we'll catch up with you during visitation cause i'm gonna meet your mom [Music] well good luck tonight thank you i think i'll leave you good to talk to your mom i just hope to judge i hope she just listen what i gotta say someone could someone don't even try to listen they're just gonna throw you back in here to detain me usually the delinquency hearing is all about whether or not they think you're a threat to yourself or to the public so if she doesn't think you're a threat to yourself or the public then that usually affects the outcome of what she decides though we'll see what she says okay i'm going to tell her the reason i come to court so you should probably ask you anyway mm-hmm let me tell you okay let me talk and last time i didn't even let me talk she'll have to talk but you might have um a public defender there and he'll let him talk or she'll let him talk to you my counselors they came to court last time in the park when i posted went but i didn't go they came all for and they had my back because they i talked to them too but it took me a while to get to know them because i was quiet you know i like to talk so i'll just be sitting there quiet while i let now they ask me questions i don't ask one person i just i'm just quiet and that's okay mars there's something that would be important think more than anything everybody just wants to know about what it is you want so they can help you so you don't come back to a place like this again let me try to stay out out because i know you don't want to be here no yeah maybe if you smile instead of frown i'm trash yeah i was wondering can you tell karen what you know what what placement is can you tell her what replacement is why are you afraid of placement what is placement placement is like this but in no visit you know i think i think you do convince but they try to keep me away for two years from my family and some places they got placements in arizona they got places across the world i thought they were going to take me all across the world oh fought for my mama now it's all like no i ain't going well i got this friend he ain't placement in arizona right now and he live in america his mama in the mirror and that's look how far it is so i was like no place placement is just like this you ain't gonna see your mama if she don't come visit you and i'm on my influence right here is the only flat ears on just to visit me so i was like no placement that ain't right either i just want to be free well the judge will kind of listen to what your counselors say what everybody involved in your case will say before she makes a decision just so you know i've filmed at a lot of placement facilities some of them are actually okay but i know your whole point is you don't want to go anyplace far away where you can't visit with your mom i don't want to be around nobody i don't know and that's your biggest fear and that's why you didn't come to court last time because that's what you thought they were going to say well that's exactly where you come well if you talk about that in court though oh yeah if she let me talk was there anything else you want to say before [Music] well we'll be around high school absolutely and you can answer to her i know you have a lot of anger issues and you punch walls do you punch people too they made me mad yeah yes but no i won't like if they make me real mad at you and like if they hit me i'm gonna have to i'm gonna have to hit them back but i think it's interesting that you got mad at home instead of punching my mama i hit the wall because i'm not gonna hit my mama so do you typically tend to hurt yourself or things more than you hurt other people and some people know they know not to make me mad because they know what i do to him or maybe man ain't no threat to them they just know but you've never been in here for hurting another person and i'm the littlest littlest person in pride in the school and people scheduled it make you feel bad that they're scared of you or does it how do you feel about that does it bother you that people are afraid [Music] sometimes i do nobody they just heard it from somebody like he crazy mess with him some people would be smart enough to come speak to me see how what was wrong with me and stuff like that's why i'm cool with a lot of people not because they know i'm not like crazy crazy you know i just got an anger problem that's what most people like me know i'm well known everybody know it's just the people that don't know me they're gonna be scared because they can look at me do you have a best friend at all that you talk to about stuff or no i don't got no best friend i got friends but i ain't got no best friend have you ever had like a really really close friend that you could tell everything to or my sister my older sister does she have this name she understand is she at home yeah come on yes she gonna be able to come see me if i get back here and you can answer to karen again what would you like to be when you grow up i'm an entrepreneur an entrepreneur no like do real estate i want to say that in a full sense that you know when i agree because a lot of people might think that you kids don't have any aspirations and no goals so if you say when i grow up what when i grow up i want to be do real estate sell houses build them up remodel them seal houses you think you'll accomplish that problem i hope so you think it just maybe maybe somebody just needs to give you a chance and you can prove what it is you can do and who you are do you feel like you've ever been given a fair chance at anything no no i think when people hear stuff about me and then when they finally meet me then everything changed like when they like gossip people gossip rumors and all that and then when they finally meet me they were like man gossiping and rumors and all stuff man they get the hang of me and that's when people like i know a lot of people because myself when they started them romans they meet me in person and didn't find out about them that's wrong i think that's one of my angers too all these gospel rooms and i got a good mama good daddy well sometimes this is just kind of what happens through the teenage years too and as you get older some of that anger goes away is that what you're hoping for oh so high school years aren't easy to get through for a lot of people [Music] it gets better worse

Channel: Calamari Productions

Views: 406,680

Keywords: teenagers, teens in prison juvenile prisons, life inside juvenile prison, juvenile prison what it's like, kids in prison, juvenile court, detention, arrest, Inside juvenile prison, probation, prison guards, corrections, juvenile justice, child welfare, psychology, child psychology, 60 days in, lockup, locked up, orange is the new black, lockup raw, criminal justice, documentary, documentary 2020, dw documentary, crime documentary, prison documentary, real crime, true crime, crime

Id: jeknBQwdZwA

Length: 45min 37sec (2737 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021