Transcripts For KQED Frontline 20140430 : vimarsana.com

Everyday life. This systems set up for them to fail, because when they come out of prison, theres nothing for them. And inside one state thats trying to fix a broken system. Incarceration has become the response to every social problem that we encounter. Jail doesnt work, prison doesnt work. We need to distinguish between who were mad at and who were afraid of. Tonight ofrontline. Prison state. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and Jo Ann Hagler, and a grant from james worth. My name is keith huff. Im from louisville, kentucky. Ive been incarcerated five times in the kentucky state prison system. I got a total of 27 years in the system. Is it okay to go in . Yeah. Thank you, sir. Narrator keith huff is a milliondollar prisoner. The state of kentucky has spent an estimated 1. 1 million incarcerating him. Hes been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disor. whispering prayer i do great in prison for some reason. Its sad, but i do great in prison, i mean, because i got the structure, people telling me what to do. When i got somebody behind me, on me, i do great in life, for real, i really do. Narrator keith is currently serving five years for burglary, theft and impersonating a police officer. Hes set to be released in three months. I do some stupid stuff. I have been coming in and out of prison since the early 80s. Every time i have left prison, it was like a revolving door. Its just a cycle. Its a curse. And where i come from, the neighborhood i come from, most everybody get locked up, and i mean everybody. sirens blaring narrator keith is from beecher terrace, a Housing Project in the west end of louisville, kentucky, where one in six people cycle in and out of prison every year. Of the west end. Yes, a lot of people in my family have been locked up. My big brother been locked up, my daddy. My uncles been to prison. Yeah, my daddy and my granny. Narrator kentucky spends more than 15 million a year incarcerating people just from beecher terrace and the surrounding neighborhoods. My brother ike has been locked up three or four times. My best friend erics in prison right now. My uncle, well almost all my uncles. Id say ive been incarcerated 50 times. My granddaddys been locked up, my sisters been locked up, my cousins, all of them. Narrator this is the story of a year in the lives of four residents of beecher terrace. I got cousins on both sides that been locked up. Narrator men whove been in and out of prison for decades. I spent more time in prison than ive been in society. Thats a shame narrator children getting locked up for the first time. When i go to jail, i dont feel like it teaches me a lesson. She is so angry. Christel could be heading towards prison if she doesnt get it right right now. My mothers been locked up. You know, the United States locks up more people than any other country in the world. Me and my cousin got some crack cocaine. Narrator its the story of a place where incarceration is almost inevitable. Incarceration has become the response to every social problem that we encounter. They doing bad at school . Lock them up. Problem in the home . Lock them up. Narrator . And of a state trying to break the cycle. We really have to look at a paradigm shift in this business of how we operate justice. Jail doesnt work. Prison doesnt work. Im 15 years old, and im in here basically for skipping school. My name is christel tribble, and i live in beecher terrace. Its basically a regular ghetto. I know a lot of people thats been in jail. My dad, my uncle. Well, almost all my uncles, my cousins. But im my own person. I want to go American Idol when i get old enough, or i want to be a detective. Narrator christel is 15. She lives with her mother and Four Brothers and sisters in a twobedroom apartment on beecher terrace. Her father has been locked up most of her life. I think it played a real big part in christels life. Not good. She really didnt know him, he didnt really know her. So it was like every time he got out, he was starting over, starting over, starting over. So for the child, i think it fills them a lot with anger, which causes a whole lot of problems as they get older, you know . I dont like him. Every time he told me he was gonna come back and stuff like that and be in my life, he lied. As i got older, i didnt care about my daddy anymore. I wanna believe that my mamas my daddy too, so. I dont wanna talk about it no more. sighs christel started acting out a little bit when she was in elementary, but she really started acting up when she hit middle school. As she got older, all this stuff was just waiting to come out. It was just waiting. yelling narrator last year, christel was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and adhd. A hundred mother bleep cant tell me nothin. Narrator after a classroom fight, she was sent to an alternative school for disruptive children. Put it in your kidney got a new ls 450 aint no keys in this dohicky. Narrator now she stopped showing up and has just been summoned to court for truancy. This is all coming down on you. You know which way youre heading to . Piggie, do you like it . Are you sure . Because were back in the court again for the truancy. If they got to, if they feel like they have to, they could lock you up. Is that what you want . This is stuff that they can do because you gave them permission to. Look at me. Just think. If you graduate, go to a college, this is something you can talk about with pride because you can share your stories with other kids. Youll be one of the hood project kids that proved a whole lot of people wrong, and i know you can. I know you can. Your family, we know you can. Cant nobody do nothing about this but you. Thats it, just you. Quit being a knucklehead. In these communities where incarceration has become so normalized, the system operates practically from cradle to grave. When youre born, your parent has likely already spent time behind bars. Youre likely to attend schools that have zero tolerance policies, where Police Officers patrol the halls, where disputes with teachers are treated as criminal infractions, where a schoolyard fight results in your first arrest. You find that at a very, very young age, even the smallest infractions are treated as criminal. And thats where it begins. It sends this message that whether you follow the rules or you dont, youre going to jail just like your uncle, just like your father, just like your brother, just like your neighbor. You too are going to jail. Its part of your destiny. Hey, hows it going, man . Anything good going on . Got everything under control . Yes, sir. How you doing . Narrator since the 1970s, the number of people locked up in the United States has grown from 300,000 to 2. 3 million. Kentucky has been at the center of this prison and jail expansion. The number of inmates here has risen faster than in almost any other state. Our number one frequent flier has been in and out of here over the last five years about 95 times. And he is not dangerous, and throughout the entire criminal justice system, we have probably spent millions of dollars on this guy. Gentlemen, good afternoon. Im director bolton. Narrator louisvilles jail is a few hundred yards from beecher terrace. Its home to inmates awaiting trial or serving time for minor offenses. Weve got a jail capacity of 1,793 beds. Whos been in here longer than 72 hours . Anybody . No, longer than 72 hours. On any given day, we are trending over 2,000, sometimes as high as 2,100, 2,200. Were crowded. I mean, were crowded. If i can get you out of here, because i need the space, were going to get you out of here. Okay . Were always over capacity. Were always having to house inmates in nooks and crannies, on the floor, in any Available Space that we have. How you doing . Detoxing pretty hard . Yeah. Heroin . Lets see. Boy, you were using a lot. At any given time, were detoxing up to 90 people. Residential detox beds are full, so more often than not, they come here to jail. How you guys doing . Could be better. So what are you in here for . Heroin. Heroin . Dont have room for you here. Were locking up people that were pissed off at. We ought to be using this space for people that were afraid of, violent folks, people that are going to hurt me and you. Weve gone through just an explosion of jail and prison construction in this country, costing us billions and billions of dollars to build and billions and billions of dollars to operate. And weve come, i think, to a fork in the road where we just cant do that anymore because number one, we cant afford it, and secondly, we are locking people up that dont need to be locked up. My names Charles Mcduffie, age 67, and im here for breaking the law. Get in there narrator Charles Mcduffie is in state prison serving a fiveyear sentence for burglary. I had a drug problem. I turned to drugs for help. Itll ease your mind for a minute, and then youre right back to where you started from, you know . But, uh. Here i am, man, still here. Still here. Narrator 45 years ago, mcduffie served with the 11th cavalry in vietnam. helicopter chopping thats when i first started doing drugs, started drinking, was in vietnam. And, uh. gunfire plane engines revving i started smoking marijuana, and it seemed like it made it easier, you know, to get through it, you know, but. Man, vietnam was crazy, man. It was crazy. Uh. Ive seen a lot of killing and stuff, man, you know . gunfire explosions that was rough. It was rough. plane engine humming mcduffie helicopter chopping narrator since vietnam, mcduffie says hes had almost no Mental Health treatment. Hes set to be released from prison in two months. Keeping him locked up over the years has cost an estimated 200,000. Incarcerating people is very, very expensive. Creating an infrastructure to house and control hundreds of thousands of people costs billions of dollars. And whats bizarre is that weve actually taken money away from systems that are designed to help people stay out of jail and prison education, health and human services, family services, social services to fund an investment in incarceration. And you invest it in jails and prisons, almost conceding that theres a whole community that has to go to jail or prison, we cant do anything for them other than incarcerate them. My momma was locked up, my daddy, my cousins on my momma and daddys side, most of them have been locked up. I got uncles, brothers, everybody. I got 11 charges. Who gets 11 charges at the age of 14 . Who does that . I dont even. I really didnt even peep myself getting that many charges. I didnt even peep myself going to court that many times. Like, where did all the time go . When did all these charges come . What . Narrator demetria grew up on beecher terrace. Shes already been to juvenile jail three times. Shes now been charged with assaulting her aunt her legal guardian and placed in a shelter run by the juvenile courts. She is on medication for anxiety disorder. I just got a short temper. Its like my anger be taking over. I dont know. When people get on bad with me, i just cant let nobody talk crazy to me. Like, i feel like i got to Say Something back. Come here, come on, talk to me, baby. All this fighting, violence, that does not solve the problem, baby, in life. It really doesnt. It makes it worse. A lot of kids ive worked with over the years, theyre dead or theyre in prison doing long time. When i say life, theyre doing life, and thats not a good life. Narrator when demetria was nine, her mother was shot dead. The police say she killed herself. Her family thinks she was murdered. Shes still having a difficult time in dealing with her moms death. Several times, she expressed to me thats why she fights because she is still mad about her moms death. Youre going to have to break the cycle. So do you plan on breaking the cycle . And at the rate that shes going, i really fear prison and death for her if she dont turn some things around. Dont start lying. Theres socks in here . I know whats in the box, but. Spread out, baby. Kick your foot back. No, i dont think im no bad person. I dont try to get locked up. I dont think going to jails good. But when i go to jail, i dont feel like it teaches me a lesson. I feel like it just makes me even more mad. It dont do nothing. Like, you know how people are like, it taught me a lesson . It dont teach me a lesson. It just makes me even more mad, like, so now i have to do all this time . Cool. When i get out, this really might be world war three. Thats exactly what goes through my mind world war three. Narrator if demetria is found guilty of assault, she could face a year in juvenile detention. Incarceration has become the response to every social problem that we encounter. Theyre doing bad at school, lock them up. If theres a problem in the home or behavior problem, you wanna lock them up. And so weve criminalized an entire population of our young people instead of responding to it appropriately in the community, in the schools, in the home with social services. We want to do the ultimate response we want to lock them up and teach them a lesson. But we could take each one of these inmates and put them up at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in new york for a month with room service and still not get to the amount of money were spending every year for them. Does that make sense . sirens blaring narrator it costs the state an average of 87,000 a year to incarcerate a child. Kentucky spends more than 50 million annually locking up juveniles, most of whom have never committed a violent offense. We need to distinguish between who were mad at and who were afraid of. The United States comprises about four and a half to five percent of the worlds population, yet we incarcerate 24 to 25 of the worlds prisoners. And then you look at kentucky, and over the past decade, from about 2010 backward to about 99, we had a prison growth rate of 45 . The average for the rest of the country was 13 . Kentucky had truly become the epicenter for prison growth. Our spending jumped almost 220 to nearly half a billion dollars. bell ringing narrator now states like kentucky can no longer afford this growth and are trying to reduce their prison population. In 2011, the Kentucky Legislature passed a law overhauling incarceration in the state. Thousands of nonviolent offenders like keith huff will be released early over the next decade. Some of the money saved will be spent on treatment for addicts like Charles Mcduffie. Its controversial, but the bill estimates savings of somewhere near half a billion dollars over a decade. Nobody would dispute that prison serves a core function of government. We need to segregate those individuals who are a threat to public safety. Those individuals that were mad at, there may be a better way. There may be treatment, there may be intense supervision, there may be any number of things that would serve not only the individual better and his or her family, but society much better as well. Um, well, today im being discharged and im really happy about that. Im a little kind of jittery, though, but you know, it just comes with the turf. But most likely, im excited to go home today. Take care of yourself, man. I got you, brother. Take your butt on up out of here, man. Take care of yourself. Thank you, man. Take care of yourself, stay out of trouble. Im not coming back to penitentiary. Aint no ifs or buts, im not coming back. Ill do everything in my power to stay out. I dont care if i have to call anybody to get me some help. Im not coming back here. engine revving okay, youre good to go. The most beautiful sight in the world. Narrator under the kentucky reforms, keith is being released six months early. This should save the state more than 15,000 if he doesnt get sent back to prison. Im glad to be released early, but i know its going to be really hard. Really hard. I dont know how im gonna get my Social Security and i dont even know how im gonna get my medicaid to pay for my medicines. No one gonna give me a job because im a convicted felon. All right, mr. Huff, im officer robinson. Narrator keith was diagnosed with his schizophrenia. In prison. He has a long history of burglary, fraud, theft, and Substance Abuse. Intensive parole supervision is supposed to help him stay out of trouble. Understand you shall submit to random alcohol and drug testing. Understand that seven nights a week, youre to be at the address on marion. Right. I am not here to send you back to prison. Thats not my goal. Yes, maam. My goal is that in six months, i can hand you that final discharge. You are this close to being done. You can do this. Yes maam, i know i can, thank you. So communicate with me, trust me. If somethings going on and i can help you, let me know and ill help you. Yes, maam. Hey, buddy, whats up . Whats going on . Im doing all right, you . Im not going back to beecher terrace this time because i want to get a fresh start in my life. Glad to be with you. God bless you for it. Hey, how you doing . Narrator keith has found a room in a group home for exprisoners. How you doing, sir . You wont have no problems out of me. I dont use drugs and alcohol, so im. I get along well with everybody, and i appreciate you giving me the opportunity, maam. And thats what its all about. Teds got this program to try to help people get themselves that second chance. Yes, maam, i appreciate you giving me the opportunity. Everyone deserves a second chance. Thats right. Of course, this is roberts third or fourth laughing weve been in prison together. His biggest challenge is, right now, surviving. The state is trying to pick up a little bit, but its still terrible. Yall aint got a coat or nothin . You dont have a coat . The system is set up for them to fail because when they come out of prison, there is nothing for them. And keith was released from prison with just the clothes on his back. No money, not even a winter coat. He came out with his khaki pants, a sweatshirt and that was it, and not a dime in his pockets. If it wasnt for this house, where would he be . I mean, hed be homeless and without a dime in his pocket. If im a criminal, whats the first thing im gonna do . Im gonna get me some money, and the only way i know how to get money is to do it my way. And theyre right back in where they started. Im really scared, to be honest about it. My parole conditions state that i have to stay off drugs and alcohol, and i dont know how im gonna do it. I only have 30 days supply of my medicine. But im hopeful. It feels good to be free. I know i got a road ahead of me of getting my life together, but i want somebody to have something to say good about me. I just want to leave something behind to say, well, at least he did try. He tried to change. Im overjoyed today, and i thank the lord for giving me another opportunity to go on with my life. Narrator the kentucky Prison Reforms did not address juvenile incarceration. The state locks up more than 1,000 children each year for minor offenses like truancy. Bank error in your favor, collect 200. Get out of jail free card. Go to jail, go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect 200. My card says go to jail, but im already in jail. Narrator 14yearold demetria is still at the juvenile shelter. What if i got a get out of jail free card, what are you saying . Narrator shes due in court soon for assaulting her aunt, who shes lived with since her mother was killed. This weekend would have been her mothers birthday. Miss collins, can i please go to my mamas gravesite on sunday for her birthday . You know that thats considered a special pass, but because you are not on the right track to earning a home pass, getting a special visit on sunday is an incentive. So what plans do you have set for yourself to be able to earn a special visit . Because you aint been on the right track, mama. Ill be good for the rest of the week, i promise. You do what youre supposed to do from now until friday and i will consider it. But the bottom line is even if you do whatever youre supposed to do in here and your aunt says no, then you know its no. Yes, maam. Thank you. phone ringing hello . What you doing . On sunday, um. Can you come and get me and take me to my mamas gravesite . Why . Why . I know yall going. She doesnt wanna. So why cant yall come get me, take me, then bring me back . You dont have to come here, youre right. Why would you keep me here on my mamas birthday . Why . You dont guide me. You dont help me at all. You bring me down. You do not guide me. On my mamas grave, you do not guide me. You bring me down. No, none of yall guide me. All yall do is talk about me. I guide myself. Im saying, look at you, you never have cared. You never have. No, im here because you dont care. Im going to be here on my mamas birthday because you dont care. Start telling her your goodbyes. All right, my time is up. I love you. Go take a few minutes, demetria. Take a few minutes to yourself if you wanna cry. Go in the back. Narrator three days later demetrias mothers birthday. Demetria has a pass to leave the facility at 1 00 p. M. And is still hoping her aunt will come and get her. Shes late. How come when i tell them to be here. . You know you supposed to be here. Narrator if demetria leaves on her own, shell be charged with escape and sent to juvenile jail. Demetria would later flee the court shelter. Back on beecher terrace, 15yearold christel has been skipping school again. She leaves the house each morning, but then doesnt show up for class. Now her mother says she has no choice but to get a court order called a beyond control warrant so she wont be prosecuted for christels truancy. She has been messing up, period. We have had problems almost every day. Every day. This past week, i think she went to school monday, and thats probably the only day she went to school. The only thing i can do is take an out of control warrant to protect myself as far as all the absences that shes had. Theres nothing else i can do. I dont know how to help my daughter. Narrator christel has also picked up another charge for resisting arrest after a classroom fight. Her court date is approaching, and now she faces jail. My lifes messed up. Im in a school full of bad people, full of bad kids. Im 15 and im in the court system and i probably got, like, six charges right now. Im gonna be locked up. And i cant do it. I have a lot of problems. Life is not perfect. Its not perfect. I wrote a prayer. Its my prayer to god. I pray to you, god, just please help me. I dont know who i am anymore. I need your help. Im tired and i just want some rest. I just want to sleep. Im just tired, period. Im ready to give my life up. I am ready to die. I want to do it myself. Thats why i need you, so i know where i belong. Narrator three nights before her court hearing, christel overdoses on pills she stole from her mother. Im a lying, evil, crazy, pathetic problem child. I have nothing to live for or nothing to become. Im useless. And im so ready to go, and if i shall go to hell, then thats where i was meant to be. I dont deserve your love or mercy or life in general. Just please, i beg you, just help me. Amen. When i went in to see christel, christel was still laying in the bed. Shes been crying a lot, because shes red around the eyes. So we both sat on the bed with her and i just talked to her. I felt bad seeing her in there like that. Uh. Responsible. Sort of like i failed her. And i wanted to cut me out too. indistinct radio transmissions narrator under kentuckys Prison Reforms, Charles Mcduffie is being released into drug rehab. Do you have any questions about anything . No. Thank you. Good luck to you, man. All right, all right, man. Oh, i love it, i love it. I even bought me some new shoes to walk out with. laughing i love it, man. Let me out oh, man i aint coming back. Hopefully im not. I know its not gonna be easy. I know that its gonna be hard. But my plan is im not coming back. I like my freedom. Narrator mcduffie will spend six months in a drug Treatment Facility. Man im going to ask you these questions. Do you have any drugs on you . No smoke, no weed, no spice, no pills . No. Youre going to get asked that a hundred million times. Thats good. Thats a good thing. I need you to turn around, hold your arms out like this. Turn out this way. We, the residents of st. Annes, have come to believe that those who have had problems in the past deserve a chance to make a positive change. I think its nuts. laughs but i got myself in this situation. So i got to deal with it. Hey, mcduffie. Im a vietnam veteran, i have a clean date march 25, 2011. applause i dont like it, but i look at it like this if itll help me stay clean and not ever use drugs again, hey, im all for it. Narrator inmates released early under the Prison Reforms have to report regularly to their parole officer. But keith huff has gone missing. Keith at this point has been declared an absconder. Being declared an absconder, it means that you are a fugitive, it means that i will be turning his case over to our Fugitive Task force to locate him. Im highly disappointed. In the first meeting with keith i really honestly felt that he was genuine, he was ready to change, hes been in and out of the system for 40 years. So i really thought he was ready, he had less than six months to be completely done with this. I attempted to call his cell phone, did a home visit, worried of course, you know, because he had medical problems. So at this point, not knowing anything else thats going on im just horribly disappointed. Narrator a month has passed since christels overdose. Her court date for resisting arrest and truancy has been rescheduled for today. She could be sent to juvenile jail. But the court is offering an alternative. Still up to four charges, isnt it . Well, youve got the truancies here, back here. The beyond control is back here. But then right now its the Disorderly Conduct resisting arrest. Okay. Their offer is to plead guilty to the resisting arrest. They would ask that you go on home incarceration. Be on the watch . Be on the watch for a period of time. If youre on the watch you got to go to school every day. Because not going to school is a violation. Good behavior at home, Good Behavior at school, go to school. I mean its kind of like youre at a point right now where you got to make a decision of, you know, im going to change or, you know, things are going to go downhill real fast. All right. Im going to take the deal. Are you sure . All right, miss tribble, this is the document marked admission of guilt, have you had plenty of time today to go over everything on this document with your attorney, miss hurley . Yes, maam. All right, miss tribble how do you plead to the charge of resisting arrest, guilty or not guilty . Guilty. The sentence for that today is 20 days on hip, and you are to attend school daily with no unexcused absences, okay . Thank you. All right thats all for today, thank you. Thank you. I hate having to lock children up. It is used as a last resort. I dont believe detention is a deterrent with adolescents. We have reduced the population in our detention facility since ive been on the bench by 30 . We took money and redirected it into the home incarceration electronic monitoring, which allows us to let children go home far more often than it used to. Know what this is . Its getting thick, christel its getting thick and its not going to get any thicker. Is that the last time . Yeah, its the last time. All right what leg do you want it on . Left. They know what hip means. If they have any issues at school or at home that we dont talk about it, you just get locked up and come to the youth center. Is that going to be a problem . Its not going to be a problem. Were not going to get locked up . No, im good. Its not too tight . Not too tight. Hear that click youre on hip you dont get off until the 24th. Good luck. Once you get home its going to send us a page that everythings hooked up correctly. If i dont get the page then ill be calling you. Christel. 20 days. Christels at that crossroad. She could finally get it now and decide okay, you know, theyre right, i do have to go to school. I do need to get my stuff together. But shes on that level where she can go either way because she is so angry. She could be headed towards prison if she doesnt get it right, right now. I hate to say that about any kid, but it is a reality. Narrator three days later, christel skips school. The police came. I didnt know what was going on. I got arrested. You just never want to be in that predicament. Tribble, christel . Christel, have you currently or recently been pregnant . Uhuh. Have you ever attempted suicide or caused harm to yourself . Yeah. When . A long time ago. Are you thinking about it now . No. Do you have a history of violent behavior . Yeah. On a scale of one to ten how sad are you . Ten. On a scale of one to ten how mad are you . Ten. Narrator christel faces up to 65 days in juvenile detention. Its confusing. You get chained up, like im a criminal. Im in here with people for robbery and other stuff, im. People that actually did stuff. I had the handcuffs, my handcuffs was chained around my waist and i had a lock on it, like i was going to break loose and kill somebody, so i dont get it. Im 15 years old, i was on hip and im in here basically for skipping school. Narrator a year after the kentucky reforms were rolled out, prison and jail numbers are slowly starting to fall. You doing all right . Yes, sir. You look happy today. Im always happy. I know you are. Im still alive. I hear you. Beats the alternative, doesnt it . Were starting to see, i think, some positive results from that, but certainly not to the extent that i was hoping for. Narrator some of the inmates who were released early have already been rearrested and locked up again in louisvilles jail. How you been . Im doing fine, man. I keep coming back to jail. I remember you, i know you keep coming back to jail, why you keep coming back to jail for . But youre always so happy when you come here. What are you back for this time, man . One of the big challenges we have here is our frequent flier population. And that is our chronic and persistent mentally ill folks that come to us on a regular basis. These are individuals that by and large are not violent or a threat. They have a mental illness, they also may have Substance Abuse issues. We do a pretty good job of cleaning them up, getting them back on their medication. Only to release them right back out to the streets, a limited supply of medication and that cycle just starts all over again. They end up right back in here and we do it all over again. You know, the true definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the results to be different. Narrator keith huff whos been on the run has just been caught by the police. He had stopped taking his medications and was back on beecher terrace. Well, im in Jefferson County jail right now. Im here for violating my parole. I been in this jail probably 30, 40 times. I was really trying to do the right thing, but at the end of the day im kind of disappointed in myself. I stopped taking my medicine, and you dont think rational like you should think. I made some bad choices because i didnt take my medicine. So really i did it to myself. Thats basically what happened. Narrator keith will now be sent back to state prison. The alleged violations are as follows absconding mandatory reentry supervision, use of a controlled substance, cocaine, failure to attend treatment for Substance Abuse. Thats what youve been charged with. When we release people from prison, the risk of going back to prison is very, very high. Not because youre going to commit a new crime, but because we create these conditions for release that are very difficult to satisfy. You have to pay 30, 40 or 50 a month. You have to report on a regular schedule. You may have to be employed. You cant move. There are a whole host of things you cannot do. And lots of people who are struggling with reentry fail to do that. When you see these technical violations sending thousands of people back to jail or prison, sometimes for years, maybe even decades. You kick me out on the street and you tell me do this and do that. But at the end of the day, i dont have clothes, i dont have food. I dont have no transportation. Its not easy. What do you expect that man to do . When you look ahead at the rest of your life, whats going to happen to you . I dont know. Im just being honest with you, i dont really know. Right now, i dont really care. I really dont. Sometimes ill be just laying here, trying to get to sleep and sometimes these nightmares wont let me go to sleep. Narrator Charles Mcduffie has now been in rehab for a month. He is having nightmares about vietnam. Feel real. I wake up sweating and one day everything were wet pillow case, sheet and everything. Mr. Mcduffie suffers not only from the disease of addiction, he also has some posttraumatic stress issues stemming from his service during vietnam. According to him he had 19 confirmed kills but one, that as he says, his friend that he brought back with him that he still has dreams about, nightmares. Narrator the Treatment Facility has arranged for mcduffie to have therapy for posttraumatic stress. Mcduffie family. Hey mcduffie. I went to vietnam when i was 19 years old, came back when i was 23. I knew something was wrong with me, definitely, but i didnt know what it was, you know. I got a lot of dark memories about vietnam. A little incident happened that i cant get over. indistinct radio chatter i killed a vietcong that didnt have a weapon. I shot that man about 30 times. I could see that little man today, you know, begging me not to kill him, but i did, you know. I mean he had kids, he had a baby son. Me got baby son, me got baby son. And i killed that man, you know. I think it was murder. I mean to me, thats the way i feel about it, you know. That was it, man, that was it. I become a crack addict. Crack is the devil for real, but today im clean and sober. I feel good about myself. Thats about it, thats about it. applause narrator demetria has been rearrested after escaping from the juvenile shelter. I just got locked up. I left the group home, but the police found me in beecher terrace. Im mad, but what can i do . You cant run from here or i would have been did it. Narrator demetria could be released on home incarceration. But her aunt has told the courts shes not ready to take her back. She want me to be locked up. Shes the only parent i know that does that. Any other parent is fighting to get their child out of jail. Shes keep her detained and do this, do that. What . Im not with none of that. I dont like asking people, can you take me in, can i live with you . You know, im not that type of person. I dont like to need nobody. I dont like feeling like i need nobody. Its making me more mad. Locked up do not make you, oh, my god, im never going to do this again. No, it might make some people think that, but not me. Im really sad to say that the data plays out really clearly that once a child is involved with us formerly, it increases the likelihood that they continue to be involved with us or move to the adult system. When you hear those doors lock behind you and somebody has to start calling for keys and for numbers every time you move and somebody is watching you 24 hours a day, how do you help but internalize that . Especially as a child, how do you help but internalize that this must be my natural habitat . When i came in here i was heartbroken. I was heartbroken when i got put in here because i feel like i was getting torn apart. I shouldnt be in here. I just shouldnt. This is not my place. Narrator christel is now going to face the judge whose court order she violated. Her jail sentence could be extended. All right, christel tribble. Miss tribble, you stand before the court on a motion to hold you in contempt for violation of my court order of home incarceration. Its my understanding that you were admitting to contempt for violation of hip, is that correct . Yes, maam. All right, miss tribble, im placing you on probation to the department of juvenile justice. Miss tribble, you understand you are going to be on a curfew now. And if you violate your curfew, they will bring you back to me. Do you understand what the next step is . Yes, maam. Any further violations of my order will result in a much longer stay at the Detention Center. Are you clear . Yes, maam. Make sure you are. All right, you will be released back on the hip program, thats all for today. Thank you. Thank you. Narrator the judge has given christel one last chance. Shell be allowed to go back home, but shell be on probation for six months. How you doing, criminal . chuckles im so happy to be out. Look at your hair i got to get it done, i know when im 18, all this stuff is going to be gone. Im going to finish school, im going to go to college, im going to get me a job. Im not a screw up, im not going to be one. Seems like it now, but wait till you see me in the future. Im going to be something when i grow up. Hey hi i think shell be okay. Because shes just tired of going back and forth to court and she dont like for nobody to tell her what to do. She knows now that theres really nothing else but camp or being removed from the home. You know, youve used up everything else, so she know its getting real now. I missed you you have fun . laughs narrator after three months of rehab, mcduffies therapist is encouraging him to confront his past by writing a letter to the man he killed. I thought it was stupid, you know. She said, no, lets try it, write a letter to apologize, you know, so i did. When i was in vietnam i did something that i thought was wrong. To me it was murder. I lived with this for years. I have nightmares because of it. I did drugs to ease my problems. But it still comes back just about every day. So i want you to know that im sorry. Ive lost a lot thinking about you for all these years. Im sorry. Now i am telling you goodbye forever. Ive suffered enough from you, no more. Im not sick anymore, so now im able to deal with you. I got a sense of relief, you know. I dont feel so guilty now, i feel a lot of guilt, you know, i feel a lot of guilt, shame for all these years, you know. There are things that come with war, you know, im realizing all this. All this stuff is just coming to me now, you know, and it gives me a sense of relief, you know. I feel good today. I feel good. I feel better than ive felt for a long time. Narrator demetria has been locked up for six weeks. The judge is trying to figure out what to do with her. Okay, lets call her in. Demetria duncan. How you doing . Okay. A little jumpy . Were here for sentencing on contempt stipulation of 327. Narrator demetria is hoping she can be sent back home to her aunt. There have been more significant problems here recently, were not denying any of that. But i really think she can do this. Well, correct me if im mistaken, miss duncan, but you told me in court that you didnt want to live with your aunt. But i do want to go home now. Well, its amazing what the Detention Center will do for you. All right, my problem is, it is a volatile home situation between demetria and her aunt. Shes violated every other release that ive given her. You stood in front of me, miss duncan, and told me you were not going to violate and you were gone within 24 hours. But i promise im not going to leave. I know but you promised me before, okay . I cant trust your promise anymore, thats my problem. So im not going to release you pending dispo, okay . Shes remanded to lmydc pending dispo. Thats all for today. Narrator demetria is ultimately sent to a state Detention Camp for teenage offenders. I dont want to lock a youth up. That is not ever what i want to do. But as a last resort if i cannot get them to come to court, if i cannot get them to quit committing crimes, if i cannot get them to do what they need to be doing then sometimes that has to be done. If for no other reason than to make sure they dont commit any further crimes and to protect the community that we all live in. It is a removal of the child from the home. I certainly dont view that as punishment. The child may view that as punishment, but it is treatment. It is treatment where the child doesnt have the freedom of saying no. Narrator its 18 months since the Prison Reforms took effect. They are starting to have an impact. By 2013, there were 1,300 fewer prisoners in kentucky and almost 3,000 more places in drug treatment programs. Now the state is also planning to reform its juvenile justice system. Kentucky has become a model and other states are implementing similar changes. We have now seen the National Rate of incarceration finally slow and get to the point where it hasnt increased in the way it has over the last 40 years. And i think the big question is whether we can sustain that. I think our consciousness about what weve done is starting to grow. We recognize that we cant incarcerate ourselves out of some of these social problems. But well need a few years of steady decline before we can actually declare an end to an era. Narrator in the jail next to beecher terrace, its business as usual. So were back above 2,000 this morning . Yeah, 2,004 this morning. Theres been some progress, but i think theres a lot more progress to be made. Narrator dozens of new drug addicts and mentally ill offenders continue to arrive every day. Hi, how are you . I think locking up folks that are a clear and present danger to the community obviously makes the streets safer. Locking up people for not paying their traffic fines, locking up people for possession of small amounts of drugs or marijuana, locking up people who are intoxicated in the public, locking up people that are mentally ill. Well that certainly does not work and that does not keep the community any more safe. Im back in state prison right where i started at. Now what im going to do when i get out i dont know. I dont even know where im going to go at. I dont know how im going to eat, clothe myself, none of that. So i just got to deal with what god give me. So is this all going to happen again in five months . I dont know. I cant tell you whats going to happen four or five months from now. I know after four or five months i know department of corrections got to turn me loose. What i do after that, i dont know what my future holds, i just dont know. When you dont have nothing, and you dont have hope, what the hell do you have . Narrator mcduffie has completed his rehab and is a free man. So far, he has stayed clean. Well, im excited today because im going to see some people i havent seen for a long time. Are you one of us brothers . Yes, i am. Welcome home. All right, man, all right. The guys are inside. Im going to meet some guys that i fought with. I havent seen them in 46 years. I want to check in. Im mcduffie. Thank you. Thank you for your service, sir. Youre welcome, youre welcome, any time. And welcome home. Thank you, thank you. Im glad you came. Give me a hug. All right. All right, all right. Welcome home. How you doing, brother . Im doing good, good to see you. Welcome home. Thank you, same to you, welcome home. How are you . All right, all right. We fought together. You know, we like brothers, you know, its something else. How you doing . Who are you . Im mckee, man. I remember you, and aaron harris and dennis. Im doing great. Mckee. 46 years it is 46 years, man. Aint that something . Remember you used to do all that singing. Yeah, man. Feel good. After all these years, man. Long time, long time. That will never go away, the vietnam war. Itll never go away. I was not afraid. Man, tears in my eyes, man. Whens the last time you heard from aaron . Ive been trying to find him for years. He was my real close friend. He was my close friend. You know, i named my son after him. I feel real strong. I think im going to be all right this time. I dont want to get caught back in that cycle again. Im doing good. Im okay. Im okay. Im okay. Im okay. Hes talked a lot about you. Nice to meet you. Christels been on probation for two months and shes been staying out of trouble. Its like shes looking through new eyes. Shes doing what she got to do, you know. Its way better than it was. Its way better. Shes good at school, she hasnt had no problems with none of the teachers, none with no kids, shes doing her work. So its better. Shes finally faced the fact that she will never win an argument with me, you know. I feel like ive changed. Yeah, im determined to stay out of the court system. I think theyre trying to get me locked up. And if i prove them wrong ill make them all look stupid, right . I dont think shes going to be one of those statistics. Not saying that because shes my child. Well, yeah, partially i am saying that because shes my child, because im the one thats going to push hard to keep her steering the right way. About a year ago if youd ask me, i probably would have said i think shes going to wind up in penitentiary. At the rate that she was going. But it looks better though now. It looks a whole lot better. It does. Narrator demetria spent almost a year locked up. See, times like this is like when i wish my momma was alive. Because i dont think i be doing all this if my momma was alive. But it is what it is, shes not here, so. I just dont care no more. I just dont care, like, i dont care. Im not going to give a bleep . I dont give a bleep . Im not going to care. Every time they catch me, im going to run. Im going to keep running. I dont care. Narrator demetria was released back home to her aunt in early 2014, but then violated the terms of her probation. She is now on the run. Go to pbs. Org frontline to learn more about the cycle of incarceration in the u. S. The system operates practically from cradle to grave. And how some state and federal authorities are trying to break that cycle. Hear more about kentuckys next experiment with prison reform. Im in here basically for skipping school. And connect to thfrontline community, sign up for our newsletter, and follow us on facebook, twitter and pbs. Org frontline. Next timfrontline. We are in the postantibiotic era. Untreatable infections. They had asked me to sign the papers to let her go. And i did. Drugresistant super bugs. He had some bugs that they had never seen before. Frontline investigates. We are seeing the emergence globally of bacteria that are untreatable. Hunting the nightmare bacteria. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from and by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from john and Jo Ann Hagler and a grant from james worth. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontline. Frontlines prison state is available on dvd. To order, visit shoppbs. Org or call 1800playpbs. Frontline is also available for download on itunes. What if television. Ali i shook up the world could remember the heroes we honored . 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