"In the streets of Atlanta, if you're by yourself you need a gun." "Down here in Atlanta, you can get killed." "You think that's the DMV?" "You're in the roughest jail in the state of Georgia right here." "Absolute." "With about 2,500 inmates," "Fulton County Jail is one of the largest in the country." "To paint a picture what it's like being in Fulton County versus DeKalb County versus Columbia County versus Richmond County jail," "I've been to all these jails and this is the worst jail I've ever been to." "I'm Colonel Mark Adger." "I'm the Chief Jailer here at the Fulton County Jail." "This jail was under federal supervision because of the dangerous conditions and overcrowding." "Ready?" "This jail is ran by black folk." "They don't care nothing about black folks." "There was a officer that choke a inmate out with his covers and killed him." "There's definitely things that we need to fix here at the Fulton County Jail." "I wanna know what it is that we're missing." "What makes you so much better than me?" "And by having the perspective of somebody who's been there and done that, only then will I be able to make the changes that are necessary to become a better institution." "It was humiliating." "Like, literally humiliating and it's something that I never wanna have to deal with again in my life." "Screw you!" "This is not for me." "This is not something that I, I wanna do." "Nothing much." "Yeah, sure." "Cool, all right, thanks, man." "Yeah, so, I've been losing sleep about around training time." "It's an environment like no other." "You're gonna see assaults more than likely." "You're gonna see fights." "If you're not scared right now, you should be." "There's certain grit about Fulton County that is not in Clark County." "There's certain hardened toughness that comes from those streets" "in Atlanta opposed to Indiana." "The effect that jail has on everyone is negative and I don't wanna take the psychological, emotional stress to carry forever." "That's not something that I want to do." "My message to everybody else that's God bless, good luck and hope that this does not effect you" "the way I fear it would effect me." "Keep straight, all the way down the hallway." "Sergeant Jones coming in with one from intake." "I don't know anything about the Fulton County Jail." "I don't know if I'll get a pillow." "I'm assuming that I'll have to be sharing showers and bathrooms and things like that, so that's gonna be quite a difficult adjustment." "We'll deal with you, have a seat." "Tower, open up 600." "What room?" "Zone 600 has older inmates." "Some of these older guys have been here for years." "I've seen everything." "I've been here for three years straight." "I know all the stuff the jail doesn't even want you to know about." "They're set in their ways." "They don't want people coming in causing conflict." "They have big personalities, they have tempers, and when there's conflict, they can blow up." "You know, it's going down, it's going down rough." "This ain't a place you want to be if you got an option." "It can be a very dangerous place." "Tower, open up 605." "Mr. Thomas, 605." "Walking the 600 was like, what the hell did I get myself into and how long would this gonna last and what do I need to do to stay on my toes as possible." "No good." "Maybe I'll tell the truth, maybe I'll tell the truth." "When I walked into the cell that was the scariest part." "I had no idea that I was gonna be locked down the whole time I'm here." "Hey what do you say free man!" "Free man!" "Free man!" "Free man!" "What do you say free man!" "Free man!" "The van is hot." "It's like breath and urine and you have drug addicts next to you." "It's like, horrible." "I would describe I-Pod at the South Annex jail where we house the females as daytime drama." "Two to one." "24 hours a day." "The door closing bothers me, because once you hear that door close, you're stuck." "You're stuck in there, you cannot get out." "Lyric is my girlfriend, we've been together for two weeks." "She's young, she's about 21." "She's very smart, she's loud, she wants to fight." "Lyric likes to fight, she's in fights all the time." "She's still trying to figure out who she is." "She's a blood, everybody care about Lyric." "Like, everybody know Lyric." "She's a bitch, I don't like her." "I don't with her." "And you already know it!" "This girl Lyric was really concerned about me and helping me put like my bunk together." "She was just overly nice, it just makes me uncomfortable." "My name is Michelle, I'm 43 years old and I wanna go back to school and finish my degree in criminal justice." "That's where my passion is." "I have a daughter, she's almost 20." "Her dad is not in the picture." "He's been in and out of the system." "He has a criminal mind but maybe the system is failing him and I wanna know is it the system or is it the person?" "Hey." "Hey Michelle, how you feeling?" "Very nervous and scared, yeah." "Well, like we've told you that's normal." "Okay." "You'll do fine." "My heart is pounding, I can't breathe." "I felt a little dizzy, a little faint." "My anxiety is getting the best of me right now." "My stomach is doing flip flops." "I feel like I'm not even myself." "Like, I feel like someone else and I am scared to death." "There's crazy thoughts going through my head." "Like, I'm kind of having out of body experience, like I'm looking down at myself." "I don't just freak out." "This is the scariest thing I've ever done in my life." "In 600." "You don't know how long you've been in." "You don't know when you're getting out." "Yeah, I mean, it's, it's pretty terrible." "Open the door, open the door!" "Mentally, being locked in a cell, if you're weak, you'll break." "For y'all gonna lock me in this room about as big as my closet for 20 hours out of the day." "That shit with my mind, so, of course, when I get out of that room," "I'm gonna be mad as." "Go ahead and pop all the doors in 600." "Open doors they go." "Hey son!" "Whats up free man?" "It's very important that I establish my cover story effectively." "Then, I think things will be good for the rest of the time." "The first time in general population, a couple of guys come to me and start taking care of me." "Are they trying to manipulate me, or being really nice?" "I don't know at this point." "How many did we get?" "Eight." "Okay, come in now." "Lyric was the first one to help me put my bunk together so, like," "I like Lyric as a roommate but I don't know who Lyric is." "So, my strategy is to just shut the hell up and watch." "The cup was filled up to here, up to here." "No, we won't do." "You're itheone that's into hearts." "No, she was in the other room." "I just told I was gonna go get out." "It's so much drugs, so much drugs and how they get it is through the trustees." "So, the trustees, they come in and they hand it off." "They make this thing called whippits." "So, it's like MM's, Jolly Ranchers, coffee." "Like made into a paste with some medication, like some pills and then they stir it up and they share it and then they're high." "It's crazy, just day one and day two." "I'm feeling very very scared and nervous." "Petrified is a better word probably." "Yeah, I'm okay." "Absolutely." "I don't know about feel good but I'll be able to get through it." "All right, Ms. Smith, if you would, step to the rear of the vehicle." "I really can't relax my body to settle down." "Just trying to breathe and know that this is temporary and it's not temporary for some of the people in there." "This is a short little window of time that I have to accomplish and it'll be okay." "Turn your whole body towards me, yes, ma'am." "When I call your last name y'all step out." "Ms. Tar," "Ms. Smith." "My biggest fear going into this is not making it through the entire 60 days." "Close 12!" "It's my biggest, biggest fear." "All right ladies, be good." "I just figured it'd be like handcuffs but they like shackle us all together." "Put us like in this tiny little, like hole, like literally squished in there." "I'm freaking out." "It's just like complete terror over my entire body." "My names is Calvin, I am 26 years old, and I'm currently working as a special education teacher." "I love working with children." "I love inspiring them and I think after this project, it's gonna help me relate to them even more." " Lieutenant Cochran." " Calvin, nice to meet you." "Good to meet you, Calvin." "How you doing this morning, Calvin, doing okay?" "I'm good." "I'm nervous, but I'm ready." "You still clear on your cover story?" "Calvin Kelly." "There you go." "Credit card banking fraud." "Excellent, I think, you'll do a great job." "Thank you." "All right, let's go." "The kids that I work with are low income." "It's a urban area." "Lot of violence, lot of drugs, activities, things of that nature." "Now, I'm gonna go ahead and search you like I would anybody else." "I've seen it time and time again where the drug dogs came into the school, and the kids had drugs on their locker, and we had to take them to the juvenile detention center." "You wanna help me put these on too?" "Okay, can you grab that?" "No, I'm not gonna hurt you." "I'm never gonna hurt you." "Many of the students and the kids I work with in my community think that going to jail is like a status symbol." "Hold it tight, all right, and I'm gonna put it right here." "But I hope when they see my experience, it will impact them more than anybody, 'cause they know me little bit more personal than a stranger." "They got the rest of they life to grow up." "I just wanna see them be a kid." "And I think that this experience will let the know that this is not a lifestyle that they wanna live." "I don't know anything about Fulton County Jail, not at all." "So, I'm in for a rude awakening." "Everything." "Step back." "Hey!" "It's crazy, looking around, and standing next to the guys." "I hear them talking, they getting charged for possession of cocaine, possession of firearm and robbery, and things like that." "The life that I don't live." "And you know, I'm like, I don't belong here." "Everything must come off, everything must come off." "But I'm black, I'm young," "I got tattoos, and I have a crime attached to my name now." "So I'm going into this program to bring awareness, to break stereotypes." "Due to the time they're in right now with the whole Black Lives Matter movement, it makes my purpose just so much stronger." "Shoulder to shoulder with him." "This is just not for me, this for my kids, this is for the students at my school, this is for Trayvon Martin, this is for Freddie Gray, this is for Alton Sterling, and the list just continues to go on." "This is for all of them." "It's bigger than me, it's definitely bigger than me." "Face the wall." "When I think about that, it just keep me going." "I just try to stay positive." "Turn around, right side, all the way down." "Zero conversation as you walk down the hall." "Okay." "My strategy is to just treat people with respect, and be confident but not cocky and then kind of see what my environment is like, then adapt to the environment." "That's all you really can do." "Respect take you a long way, man." "Respect is a big thing." "Disrespect somebody, something can happen to you fast." "It's about respect, like, leaving the bathroom and the day room dirty." "You get beat up about that." "There be semen in the shower, you'll get beat up about that." "I don't give a if you a granddaddy, you disrespect me and say anything toward me," "I'm gonna whoop your ass." "Still, obviously, don't really have an idea of what the flow is like, what's expected of me." "What's, what's coming next?" "Trying to assess an entire pod of people is a difficult task, but it's pretty hard not to notice, there are several strong personalities." "Delrico, he's the strongest of the strong personalities." "He is very outspoken, very verbal." "Seems like he's utilized his very strong personality to foster control and influence in the pod." "Respect in here is something that's earned, but given at the same time." "You can look at certain people and say," ""That's a vet, they been doing this a long time."" "There's some people that hadn't been here, and they don't understand it." "I got 30 years in here, so I demand it." "Run up on me, run up on me." "You." "You will not give me." "Doing that run your mouth." "You need to get your ass in that water." "I'm gonna put your punk ass." "Do it, do it, bitch." "Bitch." "All you do is run your mouth, bitch." "Run." "I said it,." "Run your ass over here., I'm gonna hit you in your." "I'm sick of you running your mouth." "You already ain't got no teeth, you need to stop." "I don't give a." "I'm trying to respect you." "Don't respect me, respect the system." "You disrespect fast." "I see him as somebody that I definitely wanna be on good terms with, for sure." "You know what I mean?" "Go!" "My dad was in and out of jail, you know what I mean?" "He's on drugs, you know, selling drugs." "Seeing his situation, I was like, man, I don't want to go to jail for no five or 10 years." "Daddy, where are you going?" " Where?" " Where?" "Yeah." "Going on an adventure." "This way." "Somebody will be with you in a second." "It's real important for me to do this, not only for myself, man, but for my family." "My son, whose four years old right now." "He's a black guy, you know what I mean?" "So..." "My son get older, he might ask me what I do out there," "I can tell him I went into the jail cell, man." "You know what I'm saying?" "Volunteered in there, trying to make a difference." "You have any questions, or you know why you're here?" "I'm here for some , know what I mean?" "Okay." "I'm starting to be nervous a little bit." "I know I don't belong here, but I signed up." "I'm here, you know what I'm saying?" "You gotta fit in, you gotta look the part." "All right, so here's the deal guys." "There's no question about it, everybody has to get in the shower, okay?" "Why do I have to take a shower for?" "Well, because of germs and all the stuff that people bring into the jail, we wanna make sure..." "What I'm really gonna struggle at, taking orders from corrections officers." "Underwear, socks, shoes, everything goes in that bag, that plastic bag." "Only thing you have on is that blue uniform." "Yo, I'm a grown man, you a grown man." "I know, you have authority over me, 'cause I'm in here, but yo, you don't be talking down to me like I'm one of your kids, which I ain't." "Basically, that's what I'm gonna tell 'em." "All right, who's been here before?" "Okay, pretty much everybody been here before." "We got anybody ordering commissary?" "Got more money?" "No, we're good on the money, you ready?" "All right, lets go, guys." "Type in your change now, print now." "This ain't part of the jail?" "They gotta own these..." "Go sit down." "Is there a contract at all?" "Go sit down." "They owe me 50 cents, mention something with 50 cents." "Yeah, okay." "Nah, you ain't gonna mess with me." "I'm gonna speak up for myself." "One, two, three across, gentlemen." "One, two, three across." "I'm scared about so many different things." "How are the other women gonna react to me?" "Are they going to be mean to me and not like me?" "Are they going to attack me?" "On the wall, on the wall, on the wall." "All right gentlemen, grab all your belongings." "Tower, close the door!" "Zone 500 is populated by mostly young men." "They're definitely aggressive, and a lot of these guys are gang-related." "The gangs that operate here in the Fulton County Jail are an extension as to what's going on out in the street." "Bloods and Crips and hybrid gangs that are particular to the Atlanta area." "They like to intimidate, they like to control, they like to dominate." "They will definitely try to test you to see whether or not you're weak and can stand up to their pressure." "I will kill one of these ass with no problem." "Wouldn't blink twice about this." "Let me have 501." "501, 502, 503." "Walking at Zone 500 was scary." "I'm just like, man, new people, new environment." "Doroghty, you going to 502." "So, I'm paranoid and cautious." "I don't know what's gonna happen." "That kinda cell makes you gonna have, you're not in comfortable position." "I'm nervous really, this is so far my most nervous I've been." "This is where the real danger may begin." "I walked me to my cell and the lights are off, it's high, it's stuffy, you got toilet right where you sleep at." "And to know I'm gonna be here for 60 days," "I just didn't think I can live like this." "Okay, gentlemen listen up, listen up." "Donny Swift, Donny Swift on the wall with your property." "Okay gentlemen, let's go." "The toughest part is not being in jail before, not knowing what's gonna happen, you know what I'm saying?" "Go to your right, gentlemen, to your right." "All right, step back just a little bit." "Hands up, feet spread apart." "607, pal, 607." "When I'm coming through that door for the first time, everybody stopped what they doing, they looked, they said, "New guy here."" "You know what I'm saying?" "'Cause once someone new comes in there, everybody looks at 'em." "Can't be looking like you nervous or you're scared," "You know what I'm saying?" "Being here with a bunch of strangers you don't know, anything can jump off." "Mentally, I'm just thinking like don't do nothing stupid." "I know physically I can do it." "Just go over there." "Go clean the bed up for him." "We can be brothers?" "I don't want no problems, you." "Like, I respect you, you respect me." "You in your space, I'm in my space." "If this dude right here is adamant, you know what I mean," "I don't want to do physical harm to this dude but I gotta defend myself and hopefully the guards will be here, you know what I mean, to make sure nothing bad happens." "My cell, it's never quiet." "Talking, screaming, yelling, dancing, playing games." "It's always like a little party." "It's way worse than I expected." "The first night they're playing cards, no big deal." "And then like Girls Gone Wild." "They're just like naked girls just running around." "You said one time." "No, I said three." "I'm just like watching like, what the is happening right now?" "Like, I thought I was just like, you know, it's cool, it's my job for a couple months, I'm gonna get through this." "No, it's up in there." "I'm blending in well, I think my story is good." "He definitely suspicious." "I'm like, man, I'm just like." "Jail absolutely is gonna be a rude awakening." "I was the only white person that I've seen." "All the way down, gentlemen, all the way down." "I couldn't defend myself if I had to." "I was just kind of shark bait." "Hey, hey, hey!"