When Young Kids Do Hard Time | (Full Prison Documentary)

[Music] [Music] i got 30 years to spend five for probation you know if the judge got sentenced to 30 years you know he'd be he'd be freaking out i don't think about the days i just predate my day like i go by each meal like to sit try to be good on each meal i've never heard of such a thing 12 years old we're going to treat him like an adult it's just ridiculous 25 years i couldn't comprehend wrote a goodbye letter to my family and hung myself so uh yes so behind every crime headline is a mountain of tragedy for everyone involved wabash valley correctional facility in southwest indiana is a vault for these headlines 2100 prisoners locked up for everything from rape to murder wabash is also unlike any other adult prison in the state of india it's home to a cell block of 53 kids sentenced as adults who aren't even close to being ready for what lies ahead i'm a colt lundy and i'm 15 years old it's uh overwhelming just to know that there's people in here that can be like my grandpa so it's really quite odd because everybody calls me youngin and i'm always treated like i'm like a little kid on the news they made it sound like i was just horrible you know like cold-blooded my crime might seem like that but like i'm not the person that they may think i am from reading something like i'm way different than that fifteen-year-old cult lundy is at the start of a 30-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting death of his stepfather he and a 12-year-old accomplice were caught in illinois after the boys fled in the victim's car what would drive two kids neither of whom had ever had a brush with the law to commit such an unthinkable act reports show no real explanation and neither boy chose to talk to us about the specifics of the crime i got 30 years to spend five for probation i never thought i could actually go to like prison i just thought the worst would be probation or boy school but you don't realize until after the fact that every decision you make every choice has a repercussion whether good or bad and you just need to keep that in mind because you know this can happen to you the worst thing for me is like when you look outside like it's dark outside you know when you look up at the sky it's like totally black and then i see the like the razor water the brick buildings and all that i'm just like thinking wow like this is really prison you know like sometimes it just hits you like sometimes it feels like a dream it's like it's not real home no more no it's definitely not home teenagers like colt lundy and his roommate are not alone across the united states nearly 10 000 kids under the age of 18 are serving time in adult prisons and jails about a month ago somebody got stabbed in the mouth they tried to stab him in the neck but they miss got him in the cheek stabbed too all right no that was he got hit with a lock sock and a lock sock that's the it's the prison weapon the lock sock lock your sock put it in a sock and then you tie it you would tie it right here so it doesn't come out then put another sock around it so it doesn't rip and you got a weapon this is deadly saw a lot of people in your game died too and westville some guys not too long ago just got beat to death with lock socks to death in indiana all kids sentenced as adults are incarcerated in the youth unit inside the massive wabash compound without all prisoners kept separate in neighboring cell blocks the young offenders are isolated from their adult counterparts kids eat here recreate here and go to school here for most kids time literally seems to stand still this is like your whole life i've spent five months in county and if they would have let me out then that would have been enough wake-up call for the rest of my life but once a youth offender turns 18 they're transitioned out of the youth unit and into the adult population either here or at one of indiana's 21 other adult facilities i'm nervous you know nervous i'm i'm gonna go to a section with guys that got life you know two life sentences three life sentences not coming home that really don't care about life which i do i care about life and anyone be nervous they can act tough and all that whatever they can say whatever they want but they they'd be nervous my name is miles folsom i'm 17 years old and i'm incarcerated at walmart valley correctional facility i didn't care about anything i started marijuana at the age of seven i i personally think that i'd become an alcoholic i would only drink hard liquor and i was 13 and then i turned 14 and i'm we're just partying all the time when they sentenced me to 36 years i was really i was speechless i just looked in awe as the judge walked out of the courtroom at 16 miles was sentenced for felony robbery and criminal confinement charges he still keeps a local newspaper headline from what he calls the worst day of his life as a reality of facing a lengthy prison term set in late last week 16 year old miles folsom went to the bathroom at porter county jail carved i'm sorry on his chest and attempted to hang himself he was rescued before he died and was well enough friday to be brought over to the court to tell the judge he is a changed man porter county deputy prosecutor cheryl polarik said that she did not buy the change of heart and the claim was not enough to overcome the young man's lengthy and violent criminal history porter circuit court judge mary harper sentenced folsom to 36 years behind bars even 25 years i couldn't comprehend and i wasn't thinking clearly and it really hit me and i wrote wrote a goodbye letter to my family and hung myself another inmate had heard noises or something for me gasping and he had found me and called for the police and finally they they got me picked me up and pulled because it was a slip knot and they pull it from around my head some might find it hard to reconcile the miles in the newspaper story with the miles inside wabash folsom is one of the highest performing students in the youth unit and serves as an educational tutor for new kids soon to be 18 he's earned his ged in prison and also has a coveted job on the kitchen and cleanup crew i mean this is prison i mean you can only do so many things but if you do nothing then you become nothing i started writing kids on the outs they were in a group called risk that i used to be in that i failed and to tell them what it's like for me in here because you know there's many open cells you know one day they could come walk in and then i don't want to see that at night when you don't have anything to do that's really when it gets to you like you just think like like all the things you could have been doing on the outside everything that you're missing out on it's hard to wrap your head around the different types of kids at wabash from colt lundy a 15 year old with no history in the system doing 30 years for conspiracy to commit murder to 18 year old robert beeler serving a two-year sentence for battery and threatening to kill a police officer my name is robert wheeler i'm in walmart's valley i'm in ccu for a fight beeler is at the start of a three-month stint in segregation he was playing cards he got that guy into it and he smacked my face with the cards so i ran on him from the back hitting a couple times then he's on the ground i start kicking him so what brought you to wabash in the first place i wanted to see my brother though cause he's in a juvenile block so i got some trouble just to come here you got in trouble on the outside to get arrested so you can come to wabash to see your brother who's already here yeah he didn't work out that way hey i did the day before i got there he wouldn't say dabble out what's your first memory of getting in trouble or doing something bad do you remember how old you were i was nine i was at school and i got in a fight so i grabbed a chair i do the teaching and he talked he said i grabbed him i grabbed his watch and i squeezed his wrist open so they locked me up i sent me to juvenile that light bit when it comes to kids and punishment the question needs to be answered do kids no matter what the crime belong in adult prison it's a complicated issue just because of the fact that they are still juvenile so they're still young in mind and body and spirit and everything and yet they have committed some pretty serious crimes against society the natural reaction particularly for a kid who's going into an environment like that they learn survival skills and it's not a positive learning environment either [Music] you just gotta basically rely on somebody in here that you can halfway trust because you don't trust anybody in here nobody other than that you're on your own now we're standing by wherever you're clear for 15 year old kids coming in that have 30 years to do what i would tell them is what the guys told me when i came in users and abusers are all over this place 32 year old inmate greg oozly knows what it's like to be a young kid serving hard time at the age of 15 oozly was convicted for the murder of both of his parents he became the youngest person in indiana history to be sentenced as an adult at that time there were no separate facilities for younger offenders so oozly was placed directly into the adult population i had some guys try to tell me don't tell me you're 15 tell them you're 17. i'm not a liar and i just first got asked me you look kind of young how old are you honestly he was cutting my arm so i'm 15. and he stopped me but he's like what you know how quickly that spread throughout that prison yeah i mean people wanted to be my bunkie at that time for the wrong reasons it's ugly it's ugly it's a sick environment he was 15 and i remember coming in the style house and i remember pulling over talking to him he looked so young he had still had that baby face type of thing you know prison superintendent mark severe knows oozly well severe was superintendent at wabash 18 years ago when oozley first arrived both are now at the miami correctional facility in kokomo indiana sevier still remembers the tense discussions that took place as staff members prepared to put an eighth grader in a cell with an adult offender that facility is all two-man cells and you don't have a choice you're gonna live with someone the leadership of the facility we got together and we screened who was going to be in there with him we've got a duty to protect everyone as best we can and we tried to gear him in the direction to be a positive direction for him it was scary for sure you're tense all the time you know i felt tense and i've never been to prison in the worst case scenario what if i have to defend myself and do things i'm not supposed to do just to protect myself how do i explain it to my family kids are coming in you know it would be it's rough i feel sorry for them [Music] here in just a minute three offenders will be coming in we'll be processing them into the facility uh two of the two of them are the youth offenders [Music] all right we'll put all your clothes in these bags here put your shoes in this bag and close in this bag all right the majority of them are quiet not knowing what to expect in this environment is totally different from where they came from [Music] like at first when you get here you're just nervous because you don't know how it's going to be like and uncomfortable level is just like nine or ten like all the time hold the sign right here below your chin on any given day in the united states more than 10 000 kids under the age of 18 are held in jails and adult prisons today 17 year olds aaron gabriel and harrison shepard become two of these statistics this hey this is actually a [ __ ] dude yes sir you can't even imagine on the outside what it would be like how you were in prison bro it's crazy yeah it's all different outlets man yeah home sweet home never go home they come to prison think they gotta be tall yeah they gotta prove themselves to somebody but you don't you just gotta be yourself i need to be punished for what i do and i'm never gonna take that away but it shouldn't have been just punishment because it isn't like i just walked out into society and just took some random person there's a reason this happened and i'm not justifying it but i'm saying there's an understanding behind this i mean i've been locked up for 18 years and i've still never had a chance to get the counseling for why i killed my mom and dad if everyone has such a great opinion now you know the community well you need to be locked up where were you before where were you and you know in school i'm you know i'm showing off the signs you know where were you then so [Music] my name is uh michael stanley i'm 18 years old and i'm in wabash while the correct facility i've been here 11 months i like i didn't see like you know a lot of people like murder you feeling people like you know what i mean a lot of high crimes like a lot of time and like i just think thank god every day that you think me i got the time that i got because i wouldn't know what to do if i had you i mean 30 50 40 years so what are you in for robbery michael stanley and aurelius woods are both serving three-year sentences the teens are best friends and cellmates in the juvenile block at wabash they could be shipped out to the adult population at any time woods is set for transfer first but no one knows for sure when or where he and michael will go he's going to feel different to be with somebody else you know i mean i've been on bro for a long time since we got locked up so i was going to feel different but wherever he go wherever i go we still hold it down for each other so as long as he alright i'm hard but you think you're leaving first yes ma'am kind of 18 the longest and i've been approved since december and i can leave any time now are you nervous for him you know i mean i'm gonna say i'm nervous for him but i just want the best one so are you nervous for him no i ain't i ain't nothing for him i'll take i already know that he gonna hold his ground say to himself and get home like i want to get home to his family you know i'll do anything i can just keep out of here i'm saying keep out of trouble locked up period you know after the headlines fade it's hard to know where life begins again for victims of crime it's also hard to define the new meaning of life for the perpetrators who caused all the pain when they're convicted of children that pain takes on a whole new meaning i was kind of like scared because i didn't know where i was like where my environment was going to be and everything twelve-year-old paul gingrich is one of the youngest kids in indiana history to be sentenced as nettle paul was a friend of cult lundy when the two boys fired four shots killing colt's stepdad in his northern indiana home paul was sentenced to 25 years in the wabash youth unit but due to his age and size department of correction officials made a bold decision and placed the seventh grader at pendleton juvenile correctional facility a maximum security prison which only houses juveniles he's not our first murderer here but he's not the typical thing what you'd see you just saw the paper when you expect a much larger scary kid and that's just not the case with him he's kind of a little guy even even for his age i think he's kind of a little guy it's it's hard to imagine someone that age being in that position had you ever been in juvenile no this was my first time gingrich's age and lack of criminal record caught the attention of monica foster an indianapolis attorney who's taken on his case pro bono she's appealing paul's adult sentencing and fighting to keep him in a juvenile facility he's never had a juvenile referral never a juvenile referral i've never heard of such a thing 12 years old we're going to treat him like an adult with zero juvenile referrals but to treat a 12 year old as an adult is for the system to say we give up on you there is nothing that we can do to rehabilitate you and to me that is selling the justice system so far short and it is selling a kid like paul so amazingly short it's just ridiculous monica and paul's mother nicole gingrich hope to keep paul in a youth facility with programs geared towards his age and developmental needs but as it stands now paul will transition to wabash as soon as officials feel he's matured enough to make the move i think that he should be held accountable for the part that he had in this and i would suggest counseling therapy and programs to help him mike dempsey has other reasons for wanting to keep paul in the juvenile system the fact is you can't put a 12 year old child in that type of environment and expect them to have half a chance you just can't do it i think that there are probably some adult offenders who sincerely want to try to do the right thing and help yeah there's a lot of predators out there as well who will eat the weakness up they can get into trouble very quickly serious trouble i mean life endangering type of trouble it's different than where i thought it would be i wasn't expecting the razor wire sucks you don't want to come here [Music] there's a lot of hurt feelings that happen with these cases so understand when people are out there and they're they're angry and they're you know they're hurt somebody needs to pay for that but not just one person that you don't mean you throw this kid away either because kids just don't just wake up one day so i'm gonna kill somebody [Music] a lot of people may think that you know this is a good place for them and lock them up and throw away the key but it's just not that simple miles folsom is at the front end of his 36-year sentence for robbery and criminal confinement when i took the plea bargain i had a maximum of 60 and that's that's what they tried giving me that's what the prosecutor recommended i ended up with 36. you know i could get out of prison you know so many years from now and be old i'm not going to have a family no house no car i mean it sucks you know sometimes you know having to live in this cell and be here but the more you think about it the more it just brings you down i turned 18 in one week and it was told to me that either on my birthday or the next day they'll be transferring me over to the adult sign i say child's running late officer maggie miller is used to dealing with a range of emotions that accompany the transition to the adult population they don't say a lot about it you know they don't tell me a lot about their feelings you know of how it is to transition but you can tell that some of them do get very nervous about it just moments after talking with maggie her comments were a chilling reality for two of the boys she's known the longest at wabash michael stanley and aurelius woods it all hinges on when they finish child they'll move you over there but they want you ready impossible unique yeah and anna's a pretty good unit usually pretty quiet yeah and it's working happening so you know they work they're tighter is it as big because i know next door is bigger than this oh yeah it holds up to 200. 100 to the side two to seven basically my counselor came and talked to me and uh he told me that i'm supposed to be transferring to a different block today i think at 12 45 so basically i'm just getting paid talking to my roommate guess i was the first one up to go so i ain't really mad about it though as it turns out stanley won't be transferring to another prison with his best friend after all he'll be staying at wabash instead it's going to be cool though later today stanley will walk through the massive prison gates to his new adult cell block he'll make the move with someone else he knows youth unit cell housemate alexander rankin i hope the transition is smooth see i know being who i am i'm gonna be talking to everybody i gotta be associate associated with everybody and he does too so hopefully he just follows my lead because i know how to conduct myself around the dance you know it's going to go pretty smooth pretty smooth for the past year 15 year old cult lundy has lived his life behind adult prison walls at the wabash valley correctional facility like afterwards i i couldn't even believe myself like what happened how could i possibly be in this situation you know i went from like a's and b's students are like in in jail like i didn't even know what to think at the time every day i just think i just would have you know like just done one thing different i mean it's a waste of time to do that because you can't once it's done it's done there's no going back lundy's 12 year old friend paul gingrich was sentenced to 25 years in wabash for his role in the crime but due to his age and size department of correction officials placed him in pendleton juvenile correctional facility which only houses youth offenders most of the kids that we get in our juvenile system are going to be here for six to 12 months tops so i think that takes on a different dynamic when you have somebody like paul who is 12 years old who already knows it recognizes the fact that he's going to essentially have to grow up go through puberty and adolescence in a correctional facility i have to say that in those particular cases the juvenile facility is the one best prepared to help him through that type of growth it's for precisely these reasons that paul and his lawyer monica foster continue to fight to keep him in the juvenile system well we're trying to go to the indiana supreme court to get an appeal so i can get way bound to juvenile again hopefully change my sentence sentenced as an adult but held at pendleton juvenile paul is stuck in a type of legal limbo this is the first kid we've ever had who is a legal adult in a juvenile facility so we're learning as we go because we never had to deal with this and and what his situation brings to us i mean tegan we can keep up until he's 21 we could do that i don't imagine we'll have him until he's 21 but no one has really made that decision we haven't crossed the board how long he'll stay here i think the juvenile justice system is fully capable of dealing with this situation and in fact they are fully dealing with it right now he is in the juvenile justice system if the judge's order stands he won't be here for very much longer but he's thriving in this system he's doing terrific where'd that attitude change come from having worked in prison systems for many years mike dempsey knows special steps must be taken when dealing with young inmates there is a child involved regardless of the offense that they may have committed i mean you still have to weigh the fact that you know this is still a 12 13 14 year old child and they are not fully developed you also have to weigh that against you know the nature of the crime that was committed it becomes very difficult along with the possibility of being moved to an adult prison paul must grapple with the reality of spending at least the next decade behind bars i don't think about the days i just do date my day just try to make it like i go by each meal i didn't say it try to be good from each meal oh man it's been nearly a year since 18 year olds michael stanley and alexander rankin arrived on the youth unit at wabash across town today they transition to the wabash adult population where they'll trade a unit of 53 kids for a cell block of 200 adults prison staff say on transfer days kids often mask their fear with bravado remember the secret word is no i got you granny uh oh i feel like i'm going home master control almost taken to the south side bad moves who told you what you don't know just basically sit back chill see what's going on yeah for about a week it's clear we adults now whoa uh-oh illegal how long they been locked up right here go to the door on the left [Music] people don't know much about prison except what they see in movies and stuff like that but the food's horrible you got to wear a jumpsuit every day you only come out of your cell couple hours every day you got to be on guard all the time you don't know what's going to happen you don't have any freedom freedom's the worst part for the next few years m cell block at wabash valley will be home for 18 year olds alexander rankin and michael stanley small it's small as hell i mean you know you're gonna get the people in blocks that want to fight you probably got a lot of time to really don't care about other people i'm just leaving people's personal like i get along with everybody you know i mean i catch on myself very quickly so i'll be able to know you know i mean who which was going on so one don't really get past me well they're going through probably feeling extremely paranoid that a lot of guys are checking them out you know that's no lie i mean for me i was 15 year olds and babyfaced i mean at the time you know you have the guys in for sex crimes that have molested you know guys my age you know i'm i'm doing time alongside them i'm in the shower with them when i was 21 years old walking in to be a correctional officer for the first time in the missouri state penitentiary i was petrified and i was just going in there to work so obviously particularly for a kid who's going into an environment like that without question it's got to be the scariest thing that they've ever gone through step number it's extremely sensitive and crucial that you think for yourself and you do what you think is right and not what you think someone else wants you to do that you know within yourself is wrong while stanley and rankin face new challenges in their adult cell block 12-year-old paul gingrich has similar issues even in a juvenile prison the difficulties is just keeping them safe typically the arcades are much larger and they're the type of kid you like to mess or pick on the smaller kids it is difficult he is an easy target even in a juvenile facility do you think about wabash at all and what that is like try not to i don't know really what i'm expecting for now wabash will remain a mystery to paul gingrich but for others like 18 year old robert vealer it's like a second home i've always been in trouble i've always been a juvenile um i've been replacements i went to vegas with the boot camp i mean i always been in trouble biehler landed in prison on charges of battery and threatening to kill a police officer he's currently in segregation for starting a fight okay so name off for me all the people in your family who are in prison my brother brandon who i am my cousin my brother kenny cjg my cousin jamal's in g my uncle williams he you know [Music] kelson my cousin james he's on the forum walker ricky's nowhere i got where he is your mom in the picture at all dad i bought my father killed he died in front of me my brother kenny's face your dad got killed in front of you wow um well some with it within the house somebody knocked on the door and one day opened up the door dude was like a [ __ ] pushed him i guess then he started shooting my dad ran back in before he was at [Music] what did you do after that may three it's not good it's a surreal landscape when you meet the young kids serving hard time in america's prisons inmates like robert beeler in the juvenile system most of his life dad killed in front of him seven family members behind bars kids like paul gingrich never even in trouble with the law suddenly locked up at age 12 now serving 25 years in prison you can't spend time with these kids and not ask the question where did it all go wrong growing up i never really realized the path that i was headed like it's not not that i couldn't have seen it i just never took the time out it really it didn't hit me until the judge sends me to 36 years and then it's like oh my god you know the rest of my life could just be gone i don't i don't believe that there was anything that could have helped me besides for this there's a lot of people it's like day one all over again i just hope some of my friends are listening to me you know some of my friends that were out there running the streets with me and doing all those bad things that we did you know terrorizing people it could all change in one day by the stupid decisions you make as for paul gingrich lawyer monica foster continues to fight to have his sentence appealed i would expect that we'll have an opinion by the end of the year or very early next year we'll be asking for oral argument and i will be making a pest of myself as best i can within the rules this isn't a kid that we should say there's no hope for you it's just it's unfathomable i like to keep things like in perspective i've almost been in locked up a year now and i remember what it's like to be outside you know and do those things and i just you you got to keep that mindset like you know you're gonna i'm gonna be able to do them again someday you can't be thinking about negative things and if you do you're just gonna sit in here and destroy yourself every day for me it took 13 years for me to actually say and i don't i it sounds a little cliche and maybe to me it sounds cliche because i've heard it so much but to actually say i forgive myself it took me 13 years i could i could intellectually understand why i did it and tell a story about what happened i know what i was thinking back then i know what i was feeling and i knew i didn't want to do it but i felt trapped and no one was helping even though i was asking and pleading for help no one was helping and it happened but i'm able to tell myself now that i have something to offer that i'm actually i like to think actually i have more to offer because i've been on both sides i mean i'm a remorseful for what i did but i mean it takes more than that i mean once you've done something you could say sorry all you want but i mean there was a crime done and you you have to serve your punishment you know you learn from everything in your life you know everything you do cars you know who you become like i said if you do nothing you become nothing man if somebody would come here and just like give me a second chance and i'd just be so happy like because i know now that when i get out i'm not ever messing up again you know because i know what it's like in here like really not just on tv but really what it's like to experience it i don't wish nobody bad or nobody i wish nobody would have to ever get locked up but i mean people do what they do so all they can do is learn from what they've done but i mean i'm just gonna say next time you see me he's gonna be out there somewhere positive though for sure in a world that demands justice when the unthinkable becomes reality there are no easy answers when that reality includes kids outside wreck the united states has the highest incarceration rate in the world and remains the only nation to sentence its juveniles to life without parole is it a solution does it work do we care dear crew how have you been doing i hope good i was thinking about it the other day and i'm definitely not the person that was described in that old newspaper article but really it wasn't far off from what i used to be sometimes i read that article and it just seems crazy to say that was me i was so lost i've learned over the years that i'm a person of extremes that can be a really good thing or a really bad thing when you have a person like me in the wrong path it gets bad quick but likewise if i'm doing the right thing i can't be stopped i can't really explain to you how a place like this can make a person feel i can promise you that you never really appreciate how beautiful this world is until you've seen it from behind this fence someday when i finally get out from behind these bars i hope i'll be able to show you and everyone else the person i've become until then i work harder than ever to keep my head up and keep smiling sincerely miles [Music] dear karen i received your letter tonight at wreck since the last time you were here i've changed a lot day-to-day life in prison is very taxing on your mental state you really have to learn faster you will get ripped off and whatnot but i'm doing pretty good it was funny the other day i heard someone on the phone say she was dreading to have to spend three hours at her grandparents and i was thinking to myself how wonderful it would be to be able to stay at my grandparents it amazes me how different life is in prison it's like a whole different world behind these walls and i remember how i was and think of how many kids are out there being dumb they don't even realize it only takes one bad choice that's all it takes to take away a good chunk of your life to this horrible place if i could send a message to all the kids around the world it would be something like this you're not untouchable have fun and do what you want but always think before you do something nothing is worth being locked away for from your family friends and freedom i'll go for now sincerely cole lundy [Music] you

Channel: Calamari Productions

Views: 3,314,290

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: VqrH_7lQMvc

Length: 45min 18sec (2718 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021