Survivors Guide to Prison Page #2

and she was home

17 years later.

[Susan] Not seeing my children,

that was very hard on me.

For all those years,

I'm still broken.

My heart's still broken

from everything I went through.

It's... I don't know,

it's just so scary.

It was the worst nightmare

of my whole life.

The bottom line is you have

a right to be silent.

Keep your mouth shut

because those words

will be used against you.

To survive and interrogation,

you've got to be ready

to stand your ground...

against bullying, aggression,

and intimidation.

No matter how intimidating

they get,

just say,

"I want to speak to a lawyer."

And I hope you can afford

a good one.

I didn't have

an adequate attorney.

It was a drive-by shooting that

took place in East Los Angeles.

I looked like

the actual shooter.

I "resembled"

was the correct word.

I served approximately

nine years

and eight months in prison.

[Matthew] If you don't have

an adequate attorney,

your entire future

rests in the hands

of a detective assigned

to your case.

The words of Bruce Lisker

were used against him.

And you're dealing

with a 17-year-old kid,

and they were able to manipulate

him and twist things.

My case was assigned

to a homicide detective

who...

it was one of his first cases.

He hadn't even gone to homicide

school yet with the LAPD.

And he jumped the gun

and basically decided

that 'cause

I was a long-haired kid

who looked like he smoked pot,

which I did,

that I was the person

who had attacked my mother.

He must have had

all of his colleagues

scrutinizing him,

looking at him.

"How long is it gonna take you

to solve this one, Andy?"

And, well, he did it in minutes,

didn't he?

[Matthew] In 1994, Reggie Cole

was 18 years old

living in South Central LA

with no criminal record

when he was arrested for

the murder of Felipe Angeles.

The only eyewitness

was a man named John Jones,

the owner of a brothel

across the street

known as Johnny's

House of Prostitution.

How long has this place

been in operation?

- About 17 years.

- About 17 years?

The police were willing

to overlook

what John Jones was doing.

Then John Jones

would be willing to play along

with whatever the cops

wanted him to do.

16 years later,

a new theory would emerge

that the actual shooter was

more likely John Jones himself

firing from the rooftop

of his own building.

But the arresting officer

on the case

was sure the murderer

was Reggie Cole.

It was her first...

her first case,

and she needed to close

the case

in order for her to get

her shield, her homicide shield.

To be a doctor,

you have to go to school

for many years.

To be a lawyer, you have to go

to school for many years.

I don't understand how somebody

with just a high school diploma

or a GED can have

that type of power,

to be an officer of the law

with a pistol

that can take

someone's life, literally,

or with the charges

they put on you.

People, they don't...

they don't feel the need

to speak up because

it doesn't happen to them.

"Oh, that's... that's messed up,

you know what I mean?

But it can never happen to me."

Yes, it could.

It could happen to you

just like that.

[Bruce] Every staff member,

everybody that I encountered

I was saying,

"A mistake has been made.

I didn't do anything,"

Begging for phone calls

to talk to my dad.

You know, from moment to moment,

the reality

that my mother's dead...

would just bring an icy chill.

First thing the next morning,

I was taken up front

to talk to a psychologist

or psychiatrist,

and in this cheery

kind of a voice,

he says, "So, how do you feel

about being here at Sylmar?"

And I said, you know,

"Are you kidding?"

[Susan] Since the LAPD

report stated

that Bruce stabbed his mother

to death,

the doctor determined

that Bruce must be psychotic.

Prison healthcare

is a disgrace.

I mean,

it's more like a horror show.

The medical conditions

inside of prisons in California

have been so bad for so long.

You're talking about

misdiagnosis,

just barbaric conditions.

So a district court in 2002

said that an outside agency

had to come in

and take over

the entire medical system

in the prisons.

[Matthew] Today, after spending

billions of dollars,

some California prisons

still fail to meet even

the most basic constitutional

standards for healthcare.

If you have a serious

mental illness,

the United States of America

is probably the worst place

you want to be.

If you don't have the money

to pay for constant care,

you in danger

of facing law enforcement.

[voices over telephone]

If you're a schizophrenic

or a bipolar,

you are 16 times

more likely to die

when encountering

law enforcement.

[male reporter] A 5-foot-3,

100-pound teen fell

when he was stunned.

Two officers

then jumped on top of him,

and while they held him down,

the third officer,

who ordered the stun guns

then shot Keith in the chest

and killed him.

And if you don't die,

you're ten times more likely to

land in prison than a hospital.

The national

sheriff's association

got together with a treatment

advocacy center.

They looked into it.

It turns out, 50%...

50% of the people

who are locked up

have some kind

of mental health issue.

[man] We will not negotiate

with terrorists!

[Matthew] In the 1960s,

state psychiatric hospitals

began closing

and the nation's mentally ill

found themselves

on the streets,

often winding up in prison.

If you're mentally ill

and you're in prison,

you're more likely

to get worse,

experience increased

behavioral problems,

and you're going to be

disproportionately abused,

beaten, and raped.

You're more likely

to commit suicide.

And if you're released,

you're more likely

to reoffend

and come right back.

Most prison staff

are poorly equipped to diagnose,

manage,

or treat your condition.

And if you add that all up,

you know,

it makes me ask the question,

who are the crazy ones?

[coughing]

[man] I can't breathe!

I can't breathe!

[Bruce]

And then I was medicated.

I was given Mellaril,

which is like Thorazine.

Numbed my brain.

I was a very docile inmate

at that point.

[Matthew] Warning,

side effects of Thorazine

may include sedation,

slurred speech,

dizziness, memory loss.

So the odds of fighting

your case may be difficult.

Hopefully, you have someone

on the outside

working on your behalf.

[Susan] Bruce was kept

in a single cell

23 hours a day

for the next 19 days.

[Matthew] Over their

two visits together,

Bruce and his father

were confident

they'd solve the murder.

[Bruce] I met Mike Ryan in

a 12-step program that I was in.

He didn't have a place to stay,

and I let him stay on the couch

in my apartment.

And he basically

stopped paying any rent.

You know, worked up my courage

and said, "You have to go.

You know, I have to

kick you out, man, sorry."

So, I started like taking

some of his stuff

off the shelves

and putting them into boxes.

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