(door closing,
people chattering)
♪ ♪
(lock buzzes, door creaks)
(indistinct conversations)
(lock buzzes)
(gate clanks)
WOMAN: Come on.
(door shuts)
SERGEANT ABBOTT:
You got your seatbelt on?
Yes, ma'am.
ABBOTT:
Okay.
ABBOTT:
How far along are you now?
MISTY: Nine months.
Are you having a boy or a girl?
MISTY: A boy.
First one, second one?
MISTY:
It's my second boy.
My little boy's been
getting in trouble at school.
ABBOTT:
Yeah, how old is he?
He's ten.
ABBOTT:
Mm-hmm.
Usually he's good.
ABBOTT:
He's going through some stuff.
But don't let that be, like...
Don't pity him to the point
that you just spoil him.
MISTY:
I know I can't do that.
My husband passed away
four years ago.
ABBOTT:
Mm-hmm.
And I let them
get away with a bunch.
Yeah.
MISTY:
That's where I messed up at.
ABBOTT: Have they been able
to come to visit at all?
MISTY: No, I wouldn't want
to put them through that.
ABBOTT: Yeah.
I just feel bad
when kids come, because,
you know, they have to be
searched too, and...
MISTY: When I was a little kid,
I remember we went to prison
to see my dad, and it was crazy,
because I had Timberland boots
that had little metal things
on them.
The metal thing kept going off.
ABBOTT: Oh, mm-hmm.
And I had to take my shoes off.
ABBOTT: Do you have a doula?
MISTY: Yeah. Mine's Sarah.
ABBOTT: Yeah, we're the only
prison in the Southeast
that has that program.
MISTY: I know.
I mean, you're going to
have someone there with you,
but we're complete strangers,
you know what I mean?
And it's different-- they know
you on a different level.
And they can interact with you
differently than we can.
♪ ♪
(door unlocking and opening)
GUARD: All right, y'all ready
for dorm inspection?
What time is inspection?
GROUP: 8:00.
GUARD: Okay, so we should
be ready, right?
This is a non-smoking dorm.
We have pregnant females
in here-- I mean, come on.
So do not smoke
in this dorm, ladies.
GROUP: Yes, ma'am.
Okay.
I'm going to start at the end
and work my way down.
Trim just a little.
You're running close
on that hair-- pull it up.
And yours too, your nails.
That's the prenatal vitamin,
Captain.
GUARD: Huh?
Prenatal vitamin do that.
GUARD: But you've still
got to clip your nails.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay, good morning.
WENDY WILLIAMS: Tutwiler is
the only women's prison
in the state of Alabama.
But on average we have
between 45 to 50 pregnant women
in and out of Tutwiler
in a year's time.
I know at one time we had three
generations of women at Tutwiler
that were from the same family.
And, of course,
we have that concern
every time a woman
comes to us pregnant--
is this going to be
another cycle?
♪ ♪
(lock buzzes)
GUARD: Shake, shake.
(lock buzzes)
CAPTAIN SONJA ROSE:
Captain Rose to... officer.
Get Misty up and send her
to the shift office.
SARAH DOYLE:
What is your current age?
MISTY: 36.
DOYLE: How long have you been
in this facility?
Six months.
And what is the length
of your current sentence?
MISTY: 36 months.
DOYLE: Not including
your current incarceration,
have you been in jail
or prison before?
MISTY: Mm-mmm.
DOYLE: What is your
highest level of education?
11th grade.
DOYLE: In the month before your
arrest, were you employed?
No.
Were you raised by someone
other than your biological
mother or father?
- Yes.
Yes, and who was that?
Grandparents.
- Grandparents.
As an adult, have you ever been
a victim of domestic violence?
- Yes.
Do you have children?
MISTY: Yeah, two.
DOYLE: Yeah, two.
MISTY: Plus the baby.
DOYLE: Yeah.
And you're just wanting to do
an epidural and then
whatever the doctor recommends,
just go with the flow, laying
in bed, birthing on your back.
I want a big cup of Pepsi.
DOYLE: A big cup of Pepsi, okay.
Sometimes being a doula just
means giving you your space,
so you're always welcome
to kick me out.
MISTY: No, you're
staying there with me.
Okay, sounds good.
I'm going to be around
through this.
You're not doing this alone.
- I know.
DOYLE: Anything else
I can help with today?
No.
DOYLE: All right.
Coffee, coffee, coffee,
coffee?
So this is
the birthing care group.
We're the Alabama
Prison Birth Project.
And we come weekly,
and we do childbirth education.
You'll get a healthy meal,
and then if you want to be
matched with a doula,
you can be matched
with a doula for your birth.
ASHLEY LOVELL:
If it's all right,
we'll just go ahead
and start the lesson.
To safely hold your baby,
the baby's head is close enough
for you to kiss, right?
It's not just important for the
baby, it's important for us,
because it's building
that strong bond.
And you're more primed to bond
to your baby at the moment
than any other time.
Again, if you're separated
from your baby for some reason,
you can do this
as soon as your baby
comes back to you.
Even if your baby's swaddled up
in a little burrito, and asleep,
it's okay to undo the swaddle
and put your baby skin to skin.
They will go
right back to sleep here.
ERIN BROWN: Well,
let's go on and... yes?
I just was... how many of us
have had babies before?
How many of you?
Raise your hands.
WOMAN: I've had lots of babies.
THERESA: What I think
would be good is talk about
how we're going to
raise these babies.
A lot of us go back
and we're like,
"Breathing techniques?"
I think the focus should be,
like, your baby,
and how you're
going to raise your baby
and keep them
and be a good mother
and not have to go through
what you went through.
(indistinct conversation)
This is Antonio Ja'bar,
and he's in a shower.
This me and him...
me and him kissing,
but he's still paying attention
to the lady that took
the picture of us.
But that's my sugar boo.
KIM: Look like
she was praying right here.
These are the last pictures
I got, but I look at them
over and over.
Then I take them out
and look at them again
and cry and hide them again.
This is me and Tylan.
This is the day that I was
with him in the NICU.
I was just praying
with him here, you know,
praying that
he would get better.
He had swallowed some of
my amniotic fluid
whenever he came out,
so he got an infection.
So he's got to take a full
seven-day round of antibiotics.
but this is that day.
It was devastating,
especially finding out that
he was sick the night before,
and the very next day knowing
that I had to come back
to prison.
It just really broke my heart,
knowing that I was
leaving him there, you know?
Um... it's very hard.
Well, this is Romeo.
You got it.
He's a week and one day today,
and, um, I guess he's still
with DHR.
So I don't know
where he at right now.
So, I don't know.
I don't want to talk about it.
PATRICIA: We're all rooting
for him either way.
KIM: Yeah, we talk about him
already.
Don't cry.
It's all right.
You going to get some answers
here in a little while.
♪ ♪
NEWS ANCHOR: The Department
of Justice is telling Alabama
steps must be taken
to curb sexual abuse
at the Julia Tutwiler
Prison for Women.
The report called Tutwiler
"a toxic, sexualized
environment."
The facility in Wetumpka
houses about a thousand inmates.
♪ ♪
WILLIAMS: We had
a lot of concerns at that time
about Tutwiler.
A lot of what we were hearing
from the inmates
was the fact that
they weren't feeling safe.
So what we had to do,
and we're still working on this,
is change the culture.
♪ ♪
(indistinct conversation)
WILLIAMS: I'm Wendy Williams,
if you haven't met me already,
and I'm the Deputy Commissioner
for Women's Services,
and just super excited
that we have
committed stakeholders
that want to have a voice
in our process.
And I know Warden Wright
and Warden McClane and I
share a similar vision.
When we build
a new women's prison,
there will be an area
where the mothers and babies
can actually stay together
from six months to a year
post delivery.
We have made
a lot of great progress,
but we still have
a long way to go.
We're just now entering our
fourth year of implementation
with the DOJ settlement
involving Tutwiler.
We were compliant
with 40 of 44 provisions,
and the court report
that will be filed
by the 28th of this month
will reflect
that we are now
compliant with 41.
Those three are going to take
a little bit more time.
One of them will be accomplished
with the help
of University of Alabama
and Auburn, hopefully.
And then, of course,
the other two are staffing,
and that is a big challenge
for us right now.
We'll look at some data
behind that in just a moment.
What about the doula program?
ASHLEY LOVELL: There's been
a lot of interest
in the lactation room.
I have two emails now
from other facilities
wanting very specific details
on how we implemented
the program here,
which is exactly
what we'd hoped to see--
Tutwiler doing something
that caught on,
and is giving this
opportunity...
WILLIAMS: Who would have
ever thought, right?
...to all of these babies
in the country-- yes.
WILLIAMS: Can you say that
one more time? (laughter)
LOVELL: I will,
because we hear that.
The hospital breastfeeding
initiation rate
where these women give birth
is about 20 percent.
And since we opened
the lactation room in June,
we have about
a 50 percent initiation rate.
So we've surpassed
the hospital initiation rate,
which is exciting.
♪ ♪
CHRISTY: I'm currently on
the breast feeding program.
Every day I'm over there
multiple times a day pumping.
It's very quiet over there,
and this place is never quiet.
And I read my Bible, and I pray,
and just kind of create
my own little bubble,
and bless the milk so when it
does get to her, you know...
♪ ♪
It keeps you connected
with your child,
keeps you focused
on where you need to be
to change ourselves so we can
get home to our children.
♪ ♪
It is much harder to pump
than it is to breast feed,
so I usually only produce
about two ounces,
two to three ounces at a time.
I store it until
they can ship it to her.
A lot of us have been abused
our entire lives,
and we enter into relationships
of abuse,
and then DHR wants to step in
and say we can't
have our children because
they're going to enter into
relationships of abuse.
Well, help us, you know?
Don't just throw us off in
prison or take our children.
Actually help us.
CHRISTY:
All this wasted time.
KIM: The one bad decision
that I made...
it affected everything.
JENNIFER:
"Mama, when you coming home?"
My child tell me that,
"Mama, you come home
and stop doing the things
that you were doing."
To hear my child tell me that,
you gotta get your life
together.
HARRIET:
I just look at...
I'm so mad at myself and angry.
(cries)
To...
to think about how angry
that I am at me.
It makes me angry.
I'm just angry at myself for
not making the right decisions.
KRISTA: We're all angry
because we've put ourselves
here, you know what I'm saying?
It's not the kids' fault that we
took ourself away from them.
It's helped me talk, to learn
that I have to forgive myself
for the mistakes that I've made.
CHRISTY:
You know, a common saying
for being incarcerated is,
"I came in here by myself,
I'm going to leave by myself."
We all had
little riders with us.
(all agree)
And I've actually named my
daughter Ariana Angel Rider.
(indistinct conversations)
All right, so you guys ready?
So we're celebrating
baby Elijah, right?
Yay!
(applause)
He'll be here Thursday.
JANEE ROBINSON: And will be here
Thursday, by the way,
so it's a good thing that we are
celebrating early, yes.
Y'all ready?
INMATE: Little Miss Muffet
sat on a tuffet,
eating her blank and blank.
INMATE: Curds and whey.
INMATE: Yeah, that's what I
thought it was, curds and whey.
INMATE: Ice cream and cake.
INMATE: Peter Peter
pumpkin eater
had a wife but couldn't...
GROUP: Keep her!
(laughter)
INMATE: He couldn't what?
GROUP: Keep her!
(indistinct conversations)
INMATE: Show them your belly!
INMATE: You ready?
INMATE: You got it.
Turn around, let us see.
INMATE: All right.
(cheers and applause)
I know you so good.
- I know.
(woman coughs)
You got it!
- She got it too!
(applause)
We've been in here right at
an hour, believe it or not.
How many people actually thought
about using drugs or alcohol
while we were doing?
Is it possible for you
to have activities like this
and laugh and to
celebrate without using?
ALL: Yes.
ROBINSON: It is.
And that's what recovery
is about, seriously.
I'm happy for her.
ROBINSON: I am, too.
I am, too.
I am, too.
CAPTAIN SONJA ROSE: I hope that
you tap into what you get here.
You're at the lowest.
you're at the bottom.
And so if you can make it
at that level,
you can always make it.
That's the thing.
I think you misunderstand
who you are, with the power
and the strength
that you actually have,
and you don't need someone else
to confirm who you are.
You have to confirm yourself,
okay?
Let's move around, because
I've got a little gap here.
There you go, there you go.
Everybody say cheese.
INMATE: Make it so pretty.
(laughter)
INMATE: You can Photoshop it.
ROSE: All right-- baby!
ALL: Baby!
INMATE: So what's been going on?
BRITTANY: Nothing much.
My baby's almost a month old
now.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Do you have a boy or girl?
- A little boy.
- A boy?
- Yeah.
- What's his name?
- Tylan Denver.
- That's a pretty name.
- Yeah.
BRITTANY: When I was eight,
it was the first time
I smoked marijuana.
By the time I was a 13 or 14
I was a full-fledged addict,
used every day.
The first time
I got locked up, I was 14.
I've been having, I guess,
a little bit of depression
and anxiety and just everything
knowing, okay,
I just had a baby in prison,
and now I'm fixing
to get back out to him,
and what do I do from here?
You know, how do I...
how do I go forward?
How do I stop making those...
some of those same mistakes?
♪ ♪
It's really hard in here.
There's drugs everywhere.
We can't even
go to the bathroom, you know?
You know, if you want to
try and change your life,
and you're an addict,
how do you say no
when it's all
in your face, you know?
They just threw us behind bars,
you know,
behind the fence,
basically just to live
with a whole bunch of addicts.
♪ ♪
WOMAN: There's some peach crisp
for dessert.
At this hospital, I've seen them
give IV narcotics
right after the baby was born,
which is something
I've never seen
at another hospital.
And I've seen them
offer Percocet
even to a mom
post-vaginal birth.
So if you want to
stay away from narcotics
for your recovering,
you have to say that to them.
You'd have to say, "I'd like
to try not using that."
And when we talk about fear,
tension, pain,
when you relax your body,
it doesn't hurt as bad
when it's contracting.
But when you're tense,
and you have a contraction,
it hurts worse.
It's a poor pillow, I know.
CHAUNTEL NORRIS: As we're
starting to have contractions,
the first thing your doula's
going to walk you through
is breathing through it-- like,
that's really important.
Because when you're in pain,
we're all "Ow!"
You know, you tense up,
and you stop breathing--
that's the first thing
you do, right?
Take a deep breath in,
relax your shoulders,
and breathe it out.
You know, where you like to be,
what makes you feel relaxed.
For some of us it's the beach--
we're feeling that sunlight
on our face.
And we'll close our eyes
and just relax.
In through your nose
and out through the mouth.
Very good-- in through your
nose, out through your mouth.
NORRIA: So what are some things,
when you get home
that you plan to do differently
so you don't have to be back?
Not to be back here?
Mm-hmm.
My goal, when I go home, I don't
want to come outside for a year.
But... okay, so...
JENNIFER: But taking my baby
to the doctor,
that's totally different.
- Right.
So you're going to have to
come out at some point.
You're going to have to take
your kid somewhere.
You're going to have to
go to the store.
You're going to have to,
you know,
become a part of society again.
And so you need
to have something in place
you know, to keep you
out of trouble.
I want us to
come up with a good plan.
"When I think I want to do this,
this is what I'll do instead."
And then, you know,
we'll set bigger goals,
you know?
Yeah, you're right.
NORRIS: Set bigger goals.
Like, when we talk about goals,
our goal is to be available
to our kids,
you know what I mean?
To be able to be a good mom
to them, you know?
And to be present
with them, you know?
(indistinct conversations)
AMY:
So I picked out this book.
It's called
"I Love You Animally"
and it's just going to tell you
how much that I love y'all,
okay?
It says, "I love you hugely,
like a whale.
"I love you shyly
like a quail."
(indistinct conversations)
PATRICIA:
"I'll float around
"inside my space shuttle.
"I'll eat all my food
and special gadgets.
"Could I be any of those things
when I grow up?
"But I don't need
to decide just yet.
I can just dream
of having big adventures."
Leah, I love you.
We're almost to the end of this.
So I'll see you soon.
INMATE: "Anne thought
Gilbert was cheeky."
JENNIFER: Rodriguez,
Mama wanted to talk to you today
to let you know I'm so sorry
that I had to go.
I hope you come see me
September the 8th, baby.
Mama loves you so much,
and be good to your grandma.
Stop being bad, baby, okay?
And be good in school and
make good grades, Rodriguez.
CHRISTY: I want them
to know that not a day goes by
that I don't think of you;
I think of you every day.
I just pray to God that one day
it can all be made right.
TORI: We're scared.
We're scared because
we don't know what's going on
outside of these walls.
KIM: I wonder how much
she weighs,
what she's doing.
ASHLEY: What is she doing?
Does she sleep good?
KIM: Does she sleep good?
ASHLEY: Is she happy?
KIM: Do she cry a lot?
ASHLEY: Does... is she
calling somebody else "Mom"?
KIM:
What does she like to eat?
I think about
all them... them questions.
♪ ♪
This is her mom right here.
I can relate to the kids a lot
because I was born drug-addicted
to crack cocaine.
My mom did drugs,
like, most of her life.
And so society says
that they're throwaways,
and that there's no hope for
them, or they're going to end up
in the system, or they're
going to end up on drugs
just like their parents.
You know, show them the love
that I didn't get as a baby--
being held, you know,
being talked to.
I didn't have that, you know?
So for me to be able
to do that for these children
has been like a healing for me.
When I look at her I think of
me, like, when I was a baby.
And I look at me
and I see her future.
Like there's hope for her.
Right, Amiyah?
There's hope.
(laughs)
There's hope.
(traffic rumbles,
birds chirping)
(door slams, lock buzzes)
(indistinct conversations)
ABBOTT: Thank you.
(indistinct chatter)
Excuse me.
INMATE: You going
to have your baby?
INMATE: You going
to have your baby?
(indistinct conversations)
INMATE: Which way
are we going, Miss Mims?
You having a girl?
Boy.
INMATE: Boy.
(bus engine rumbles)
♪ ♪
CHRISTY: You don't
want to give birth,
because you want to be able
to at least feel them
and have them with you.
KIM: You feel so empty.
Your heart just stop.
♪ ♪
KRISTA: It still hurts
deep down inside,
because you had that bond.
24 hours to bond with a baby
is not really much.
TORI: When you were locked up
your whole pregnancy
and it was just
you and that baby,
and then to walk away
from the person
that's been there with you,
it makes the strongest person
break.
ABBOTT: I know, I'm sorry.
♪ ♪
(gate creaking)
LOUDSPEAKER: Last call
for (indecipherable)...
(doors slam shut)
ABBOTT: We have Sergeant Abbott,
Lieutenant Nelson
out with J3 Misty en route
to Baptist South Hospital.
What are you naming him?
Elijah.
ABBOTT: That's right.
The little labor suite
or whatever is way nicer
than the room they're going to
put you in for postpartum.
I'm just letting you know.
Don't get attached.
They're only going to
leave you in there for like
an hour after the baby's born.
- An hour?
And you go back
to them little rooms again?
ABBOTT: Yes, Lord.
♪ ♪
- Thank you.
- Mm-hmm.
(indistinct conversation)
♪ ♪
KIM: I always tell them,
I say, "Y'all go
and prepare yourself,
"because, you know,
"you're talking about you're
ready to go in labor,
"well, when you have your baby
and spend time with him or her
"and it's over, that's, like,
the hardest thing that ever done
happened in the world."
♪ ♪
Line?
601.
(keys jingling)
(gate creaks)
(gate creaks)
(tires on gravel)
(door closing)
(door opening)
(indistinct conversation)
(door closing)
(van starts)
(gate creaks)
(keys jingling)
(indistinct conversations)
GUARD: I have 315115.
(Velcro tearing)
♪ ♪
Bye, handsome.
Thank y'all for taking such good
care of my little buddy.
All right.
You are so alert.
Look at you.
♪ ♪
Okay, all right, almost got it.
NAOMI HELLUMS:
I want to get a picture.
Elijah...
Elijah.
Hi, buddy.
BRITTANY GENTRY: He's so tiny.
Look at that.
Everybody's waiting to see you.
(baby cries)
Oh, okay, let's see.
There we go.
There we go.
♪ ♪
ANGELA SPACKMAN:
He is beautiful.
Baby!
Hello, you.
Look at those cheeks.
Well, welcome home.
Welcome home.
(baby cries)
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, my goodness.
Welcome.
(indistinct conversations)
(rustling)
GUARD: Welcome back.
- I'm going to change in here.
- Okay.
- Is it bad?
- I can't tell...
(keys jingling)
(indistinct conversations)
♪ ♪
