Transcripts For RT Documentary 20240714

Punished right along with. The founder people dont think so but the collateral consequences of somebodies incarceration affects not just that whole family but it affects the whole community and affects you as an individual or the you know whether or not and whether you know that person or not thats incarcerated. Get to inform. You should care. I have a background in film and as a producer and i thought theres got to be something i can do so why not combine my career and my experience with the present system and come up with something for these kids. And a parent in that camera. And they can look at them and. Then this isnt your fault you did nothing wrong it means a lot and for many of these men and women its the 1st time theyve really taken responsibility which is huge and thats a 1st step in recovery of any kind anytime is to take responsibility for. But even with. This little. Episode everybody. Is going to go. On to do the best they can to stay out of this please. Im glad this. Its been the way. This was you guys know the numbers so can we be with. The. Next chapter. From 1020 to 1970 this whole half century of American History the rate of incarceration was roughly level or about 11400000. And this is a broad span of our history this is the ruling twentys and prohibition the depression and all the social change the world war 2 the postwar economic boom the the the fiftys the explosion of suburbia the sixtys and all the social turbulence through this whole period the rate of incarceration is roughly level in the United States at about 110400. 00 times and this reflects you know the policies of Police Departments and prosecutors and judges operating all over the country in local and state level and then in 1970 this all changes so that by now the rate of incarceration nationwide just over 7103. 00 requests or issue for africanamericans is over 4400. 00 and so you have to wonder how does what she why did this half century of stability get ended with this dramatic increase in incarceration in spades of americas public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse once the federal government decided that were going to have the war on drugs they were able to then take a lot of money from the federal budget and send it out states. Are real. The need for money to deal with this problem i am glad that in this administration we have increased the amount of money for handling the problem of being green 7. 00 it will be 600000000 dollars this year more money will be needed in the doing virtually everybody thought the drug war was the number one issue and so you had politicians in both parties and you know district attorneys and elected sheriff everybody wanted to get in to drug cases and get aggressive about new laws to punish the new agents to arrest the new prosecutors to convict them and new prisons to hold them. We move the train when i was very young when we moved here we moved you know to malones we used to always roll up and down the hallways of course it was the projects so some time we will sneak up on the roof which was the top floor 12th floor and you know look out and of course i was very scared as a young child but you know when you live in the projects its always so much stuff that you can get into my brother was tragically killed when he was ran over by a truck and i remember pacifically going to the corner with a habanera and seeing all the blood because they left all the blood still in the street the traumatic experience of losing my only brother and that truck x. And i know it had done something to me you know drugs from our skate that time was hard all the way or because my son was doing drugs my nephews was too much drugs my niece was doing drugs my sisters with doing drugs it was like an epidemic. Of drug abuse. And i cannot explain. I cannot explain my feelings because i had at that time i didnt know how i felt you know i was sad because i felt like they were different in their lives but there was nothing i could do about it to change their lifestyle. How was it. After my brother passed away a kind of withdrew from a lot of things i didnt talk as much i was very quiet on probably as early as my teenage years. 1213 years old you know i started sneaking a drink in a little bit here and there started smoking marijuana at a very young age i started all selling drugs in you know he came right along with. The family you tend to trust family when i 1st saw him and then with a. In the hallway and i used to be a hall before monitor and i was stationed right in front of his locker so when i knew that he was coming to his locker i would put my hands up in like blackheath way. So he would have to say excuse me or something in that we started talking we got to know each other you know at the walk in our home many times in and out over at her house. You know my home. Wasnt really a home compared to her house margaret grew up with her parents before the parents or the nice decent house oh great mother great father hope something that i didnt have and i started you know just being around her a lot and being around family law and next thing you know you know its pretty much you know once we started going to get i was pretty was never in our house and 14 years old i was pretty much stay in there because my mom was on drugs she longs she knew i was there she really didnt have a problem with it but a kindness started you know living this day with morgan at a very young age. By the time i was 1617. 00 i was fully engulfed in the drug game and it is only was so big it was only 7. 5 square miles so a lot of rumors a stylus britain along to the train detectives back then they had to take to that one high school and they kind of got to know me very well and i guess they relayed that information to the trip narcotics and they started watching me and follow me around or stuff like that and i remember the 1st time that they that they raided my house i wasnt there but my mother was there and i was i think i just turned 17. And they locked her up and i got a phone call saying that you know your mother was locked up and they want you to turn yourself in. So i visually i turned myself in a 17 a let my mother go and i 1st time you ever going to joe i went to you found because i was. 18 i was always. Still in high school and we missed the prom. When i got out i remember the detective telling me that you know soon as i turned 18 and it was going to come back. And if i didnt straight up my life that 1st spears would be none compared to other experiences in jail because then i would be over 18 and i would be going to a dull facility. Most historians look at the origin of the war on drugs as something of president nixon with his speeches and his creation of of the d. N. A. And other agencies in the 1970 s. But the reward drugs as we understand it with. Nor enormous case loads and and in and filled up prison population is really a feature of the 1980 s. Under president reagan drugs are menacing our society theyre threatening our values and undercutting our institutions theyre killing our children under reagan there was a tremendous increase in federal spending for anti drug activity cabinet level efforts and Congress Creating bre powerful new laws on day 2 of a new campaign against drugs the president backed up a tough talk with action for getting tough on drugs and we mean business its almost like overnight we had discrete idea what we go after the users. And thats what we did we started going after the users in a prison population sore because obviously theyre far more users enter operations major operations and. We started treating sick people people who were addicted to these drugs one member a member talking to my grandmother and having a conversation with her about my life and how far i had fallen she said to me you know trace it will always pray for you and im going to pray that you change your life around. Now one of the things that she said that stuck with me was that you know god is going to far in your darkest hour and only there when you realize who you truly your and i heard her but i really didnt hear her. And i left her house that they skip and then it went right back out into the streets. I remember going to new york on the cob when coming back from new york coming down route one coming through union county we had drugs in the car and we had a gun in a car. And i remember being stopped at a light and get now switching drivers i got around to the passenger side and she took to the pharmacy and not knowing that it was a cop car right behind us so once again i didnt want to go to court i was going to try. I told my laura that you know we just had to try to get all the charges pushed together give me one senses let me go to my time and hopefully straight not my life but i remember pacifically the judge sits in just telling me that element to tom loser. And he said tracy you who convicted in 1900 you know you can begin again in 1980 he said come back before me for the 3rd time in the 3rd time is going to be a chore for you. What politicians do. They put themselves on the line and they get accepted or rejected. So when you want to be president when she. Wanted. To go on to be for us this is like the most all 3 in the morning cant be good. Im interested always in the waters of our. First sydney morning. Herald crisis metaphysic means crisis on a ship. Its as a scale a financial disaster and got this right. This may bring to this. Is unusual here in japan. For the problem of you say a group of substances which are the other being so for us governments and International Organizations do not have enough time to change gradually. As we speak large organized care of it are on the march to the United States. Then 70 and a player coming african. Muslims remains learning that. This is a virtual invasion of our country. So far. They. Know nothing of going to. You know its going to say this. Is you know do is you know were going to see a more rigorous you know to society. That. The. The direct. 2 would judge to sentence can be done into wish to say judge heres a crime and for this crime you can impose a sentence anywhere in this range from probation to some term of years in prison and the other way is to say judge you must impose some minimum number of years or months of imprisonment and go up from there so a mandatory minimum this is sentence where no matter how minor the role of the offender no matter how insignificant a violation of this crime it is a minimum term must be imposed mandatory minimum sentences are not new theyve been on the books in this country for 200 years and there are about one 190. 00 of them or something and if you look at them they read like the crimes issue or so you can see what the public was concerned about and then Congress Took that concern and translated it into law and to let sentencing legislation so piracy on the high seas in like 17 ninetys a life without parole robbing banks and crossing state lines in 1934 was you know 10 years of prison skyjacking in the seventys for his 10 or 20 years in prison and so you can see the you know what was the point the headlines were the headlines were translated into a mandatory sentence and so in the eightys when drugs became a big deal and lots of concern about drugs it was in the top 3 of concern congress reacted by creating new mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes what congress sent to president bush was 5 years media minimum 5 grams of crack cocaine grams like sweet. Minimum is 50 grand of crack cocaine thats like the weight of a kid. These are tiny kuan thats all based on one fact. Your sentence you know how what was a drug and how much of it did you have and that determines your sentence so culpability no longer really plays a major role in a persons a person sentence when the crime carries a mandatory minimum when president reagan signed the mandatory minimums in 96. 00 the federal prison population was 36000. 00. Now its well over 200. 00 girls this is a growth that no one could have imagined mass incarceration in the us is really unique in Human History there is no democratic nation thats ever tried to have such a massive social experiment as weve done in incarceration and weve got more prisoners than any other country in the ruling over by rate and numbers i mean i find it a bit disturbing that we have more prisoners from china and they have a 1000000000 more people and we do i dont think it gives people enough when they hear that we have 25 percent of the worlds prison population and only 5 percent of the worlds population in other words we are way over incarcerating compared to any other country in the world. Had allowed. Somebody is a storage in a mine and the police found it and they came after me i ended up literally holding the bag. I knew nothing about the criminal Justice System you know here i was this middle class. Career never even a parking ticket and it was quite a surprise when i went to cork and i had that kind of time marijuana. And i was charged with possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute money going to conspiracy to murder i received a total of 55 Year Prison Sentence the judge suspended all but 6 i was fortunate enough. To make the 1st parole. And i actually served in prison 14 months on the moon. Is the cards that weve put in with the messages and asked the families to respond so weve gotten some really good responses and this one was 3 fam up 3 members of the family viewed it. And we ask what were the ages of the children who just want to put 6 she says an extremely meaningful for the daughter of the mother who is incarcerated she loved that. We all did. And this one said what in the message you mean to your family to know their family was ok and its a huge part of these children who want to know that their families i mean their mom or dad so ok what is the sole shoulders there do you know its been 3 years since either of you seen. Mr jones looms gravely regime or is that youve done 3. Dozen sure folks just very good enough to join the phone do you want to listen the family of done the joni for go do you to fold has been me. Growth a lot of this town has west through for years gone in the last. Go. Swimmin say the. Very 1st. They said to me to go one year administrative segregation and administrative segregation is 23 hour long the locked up 23 hours each day you come out for half hour shower and a half hour. I know a bit of all a person. At that time i was treated like one and were thrown persons in the world i remember going into this i believe maybe if i. By. The ones that door closed i knew i was going to be here for the next year is this an experience that it is going to make your break you youre going to come out a better person are you going to come out of worse a person than you were before you went in. Being in a hole is mirrors and i wouldnt wish on anybody. But you locked up for 23 hours i think you can do is. My words my grandmother just kept playing over and over again in my mind and those words was the guy i was going to fire me in my darkest hour you know there what i realize who are ritually was and what i kept hearing because than i am i thought am at my lowest point. And. I think right there i realized i had reached my lowest point in life and that the only on the way for me to go from here. Another crime another criminal kind of an already fed up with both reno is right politicians focus on often a simple crackdown the reason the criminal Justice System isnt working is that were not sending enough people in jail and keeping there long enough that people are saying very general way that they were to lock these rascals up and keep of there for a long time during the 1980 s. There was a major shift in the congress and in state legislatures have thout how long sentences should be the public was a long term by increasing rates of crime from the 1970 s. And early eightys and they wanted longer sentences they wanted cracking down and thats what happened across the board for all kinds of crimes not only the mandatory minimum drug sentences the effect of all those sensing laws was not just to increase the sentences that people were exposed to so the people were serving longer time in prison than they did before it was also to take the discretion away from the set. Seem discretion away from judges and juries and shifted over to prosecutors it didnt eliminate discretion it just gave prosecutors. The power to determine what your sentence was going to be by making charging decisions and even by bargaining over what the facts of your case were. So it didnt mean that discretion it was eliminated from the system it just put the prosecutors in charge. Amy was born in 1968 and she was very very shy but by the task that in High School People can sat it in or she played basketball she made good grades high school that we went to was 7th through 12th grade and i was kind of the little tagalong sister. Me and my brother were friends and i mean my sister were friends just kind of watch sure she was. Always really friendly always showing nice this is a small town and Everybody Knows everybody but she got in trouble wed know about it. I had what i consider an ideal a child. At some point when im in college i mean guy that works for southwest times record the newspaper there in fort smith arkansas and he asked me if i would be a subject for him to go out and take some modeling photos we went to like several locations and he instilled in me that i really ought to pursue a modeling career consider my mother says to get you know i mean ralston moved to dallas and my gosh no you know mom wants us but she thinking was she going to do it so i think shes going to model so i created a little portfolio before i went to dallas that i could show to the modeling agencies fandy it was well brad well traveled well educated graduated Stanford Law School i had gone to princeton Theology School so it was it was very appealing to be around somebody who i was frankly very aware. And so fascinated with and 8 months later we were getting married at the dallas arboretum and all of our family and friends were there and it was at that point seemed like a dream come true. There were red flags before we got married there were there were frankly there were red flags all along the way sandy has what i consider to be a dual personality and that this other character would emerge when every dream literally had to do something radical. The only remedy to remove him from my life was for me to leave dallas i had to leave dallas and id leave all my friends behind and completely. Move to a different city. Who asked sandy. But he wouldnt leave her i just kept saying you know lets be friends lets be friends he wanted it to be more so he told me that he was going to europe and then i never heard anything for a while the word got back to me that hed been arrested. I hadnt been in dallas in over a year so of the only thing i knew to do was to book a flight to dallas and see if i could go through the house listen to the answering machine and try to piece this thing together and eventually think youre going to find out more information and while i was in the dallas house the phone rang and it was sandys german Legal Counsel who had been assigned to the case in germany and at that time he. Gave me very thin details but said that he had been arrested for manufacturing ecstasy and that he wanted to return to turning for him there dallas it was a pretty interesting revelation but i did there was money in the safe that was in the house in dallas and i took that money and retained an attorney. To go over and meet with him in germany. 7 months after sandy has been arrested and i pull into the garage of my car is rushed by Law Enforcement people who are screaming and have a gun out and theyre pointing at my face im being told you know youre in hot water we know that your husband was arrested we know you know we know you visited him in germany and they said we know you have information and all you have to do is just tell us what you know and i wasnt going to say anything because im literally watching these people destroying my moms isnt somebody that i really want to confide in so i have it wasnt very long after that that my lawyer explained to me exactly what it is that my prosecutor wanted they wanted her to wear a wire. And try to m. K. Other people people she didnt even know and. She what she refused to do it she said i dont know they speak on im not going to do this and this prosecutor said you know youre. Paraphrasing. Here cooperate or will ruin your live. Shots seemed wrong. Will just dont hold. And you get to shape out just to get a ticket and in detroit it equals betrayal. When something find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. U. S. China talks are back on track but a 2nd front has opened up the u. S. Europe trade is heading into a storm arend is again in the center of the debate also the circus has come to town and its called the democratic process. During the Great Depression which im old enough to remember there was most of my family were unemployed. There wasnt it was bed much worse objective listen today but there was an expectation that things were going to get better. There was a real sense of hopefulness there isnt today todays america was shaped by the turn principles of concentration of wealth and power. Reduced democracy attack solo down engineer elections manufacture consent and other principles according to no on. One set of rules for the rich offices. Thats what happens when you put her into the hands of narrow sector of will switch is dedicated to increasing power for chills just as youd expect one of the most influential intellectuals of our time speaks about the modern civilization of america. Calls of meeting with kim jong un in north korea a break on nothing but is accused of wondering american influence. At least you take out those protesters and that occupational column and it comes as the territory like the 22nd out of the. 3 of its hyundai above them burst into china and. The e. U. Commission has been dead long periods chief told young delays the block summits with member state leaders divided over who should get used. In germany 3 men are charged in connection with this sexual abuse of more than 40 children who are pleading guilty a lawyer for one of the victims tells us all forest season failed to the