Survivors Guide to Prison Page #4

They just said,

"Oh, case dismissed.

Don't worry about nothing."

What do you mean?

Y'all just took over

three years of my life.

[Matthew] The New Yorker

reported that Kalief's relatives

said he was inflicted

by paranoia, suspecting cops

or other authority figures

were after him.

Two years after he was released

from Riker's Island,

Kalief Browder

took his own life.

The eighth amendment

to the US Constitution

is also supposed to guarantee

us the right

to be free

from excessive bail.

Bail is money

that you temporarily loan

or give the courts

as collateral to guarantee

that you're going to show up

for your trial.

But like the rest

of the eighth amendment,

this idea that you're supposed

to be free from excessive bail

is a right

that's regularly violated

by our criminal justice system.

Meanwhile,

the bail bond industry

is making profits

of $2 billion a year.

What we would need

is at least for you

to be employed two years

on the job.

What you do need to pay

is going to be 10%.

[Susan]

After 30 days in custody,

Bruce finally had

the opportunity to post bail.

Bail was set at $250,000.

Neither Bruce

or his father had the money.

I was scared shitless.

I was so frightened.

The whole way down,

I just thought, this is...

you know, I keep using the word

"nightmare,"

but I mean, this could be

the end of my life.

I don't know.

I don't know.

The most important thing

that I can tell you

is to protect yourself.

Don't talk to people.

If you're running off

at the mouth,

you're usually going to dig

yourself a hole.

If you want to survive

in jail or prison,

take the advice of old-timers.

[Matthew] This is Tim.

He's going to elaborate

on the most important

rule of all.

[man] I want you

to pay attention!

In 1986,

Tim was 19 years old.

He got involved with a girl

who was in some trouble.

[Tim]

She's living with this guy.

She starts insinuating that

she's being sexually abused.

But like a dummy,

I'm contemplating going

and getting her stuff.

She says that he's got a gun so,

you know, we got to be careful.

The guy that we're going with,

he's like, "Well, that's cool.

We'll just take our own guns."

They start wrestling

over this gun.

I step out of the bathroom.

Fight or flight.

No excuses.

Just dumb.

This is... there's no excuse

for what I did.

There's no excuse.

Pulled out my gun.

I start shooting.

He falls behind the door.

I pull Rob out of the door,

kick the door,

and I shoot him again

in the head

and was sentenced

to 25 years to life

in the California prison system.

Tim's first advice

to new fish is simple.

Start with, you got two eyes

and two ears and one mouth.

So you should be seeing

and hearing

a whole lot more

than you're saying.

If you don't take that advice,

you're usually going to dig

yourself a hole

because while you're talking,

how many other people

are listening and watching?

Keep it zipped up,

and don't think

that any of those dudes

are your friends.

[Bruce]

I was put in a cell alone

when I started hearing

this scraping sound.

It gets louder and louder,

and it persists and finally,

there's a hole in the wall now.

And I'm like,

"Leave me alone."

"Hey, youngster,

you know, what's up?

My name's Bobby."

He said, "I'm a Christian.

You don't have

to worry about me, I'm okay.

Want a cigarette?

Do you smoke?"

And he wants

to Bible study with me.

And he was, you know,

reading the Bible

about hope and about,

you know, truth.

Basically,

I had told him

everything

that I was arrested for.

"What's your attorney

doing for you?"

I said, "Well, not much.

I'm sitting here still,

you know?"

He goes well,

"I'll help you with your case.

Anything that I can do,"

and, you know, by the way,

do you have any money

that I could...

you know, I don't have

any money and, you know,

if you can help me out

with some money."

My dad put money

on his books for him,

and my attorney comes down

and has a tape recorder

and pushes play,

and it's Robert Hughes

on the tape saying I met Lisker

in the 7000 module

of the county jail and,

you know,

he ran down

how he killed his mom.

My jaw is just on the table.

I can't believe it.

This was my friend,

this Robert Hughes,

this Christian,

this good guy.

My case was the fourth case,

fourth defendant

against whom Robert Hughes

had come forward and claimed

a confession in the span

of about a year and a half.

[Matt] I think for about

a decade,

prosecutors had

this corrupt alliance

with jailhouse informants

who would either make up

or try to solicit confessions

from fellow inmates

and then use that information

to try to get

some leniency on their own case,

their own sentence.

There was a shift in my attorney

with the tape of Robert Hughes.

He gave up on me.

I saw it in his eyes.

I saw it in his eyes.

[Susan] Bruce had been

incarcerated now for a year.

As long as it's been,

which was incomprehensible to me

that anybody could spend a day,

let alone close to a year

behind bars for something

they didn't do,

now I have another year to wait

potentially until my trial.

One of the times that I came

back up front, juvenile hall,

when they were receiving me,

said, wait a minute,

the date of birth here,

this guy's over 18.

He can't associate

with other minors.

Because Bruce is now an adult,

they put Bruce in the box,

which means

solitary confinement.

The statewide prisoner

hunger strike began 11 days ago

as a protest over solitary

confinement conditions.

And now more than 2,300 inmates

are refusing to eat.

Solitary confinement

is a prison within a prison.

You're locked in a 6-by-9 cell.

Everything is made of concrete,

even the bed.

You're locked in there

23 hours a day,

one hour out for recreation.

You can be put into solitary

confinement for anything.

You know, prison guard might

just get pissed off at you.

[Matthew] Shane Bauer

is an American who was arrested

in Iran for accidentally

hiking across their border.

They put him

in solitary confinement.

I would definitely say

that the situation

in California is more extreme.

The cells in California

are smaller

than the cell

I was in in Iran.

There's no windows

in the cells in California.

The hole is considered torture

by Amnesty International

and the United Nations.

This is Anthony Graves.

He's an innocent man

who was wrongfully convicted

and spent 16 years in solitary.

No one can begin to imagine

the psychological effects

isolation has

on another human being.

95% of Americans

who spent time in solitary

report developing

a serious psychiatric condition.

Guys become paranoid,

schizophrenic,

and can't sleep because

they're hearing voices.

You're more than five times

more likely to commit suicide.

I was there when guys

were attempting suicide

by cutting themselves,

trying to tie a sheet

around their necks,

overdosing on their medication.

In Iran I know of nobody

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