a day in the life of a prisoner essay

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Why Write About Life in Prison?

Because every story needs hope..

This essay is excerpted from The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison, a recently released collection of essays from Haymarket Book and PEN America. Edited by PEN America’s Director of Prison and Justice Writing, Caits Meissner, the book weaves together insights from over 50 justice-involved contributors and their allies to offer inspiration and resources for creating a literary life in prison. 

It started out just another day in prison: I shuffled the deck for a game of spades. My opponents had either been cheating or were having one hell of a lucky streak. Or maybe I just sucked at stacking the deck. I was certain I’d gotten all the cards just where I’d wanted them, when everyone stopped talking, eyes wide.

With my back to the window, I smelled the acrid stench of old insulation and smoldering cloth before turning toward the flames. Outside, grown men with faces covered in towels and T-shirts ran every which way. Prisoners were laying waste to the building’s weak points: the windows and doors. I’d later hear that some officers—fearing for their own safety—opened doors and stood back as their prisoners revolted in response to the warden’s lockdown orders. A billowy plume of smoke rose from where the chow hall used to be. A brick exploded against the metal grate barricading the window, and glass shards cascaded through the room. As my opponents rushed out into the chaos, the cards fell to the floor, the king of spades staring up.

The entire prison began to riot.

The year was 2009. The aftermath was Kentucky’s costliest riot in history. A friend of mine asked if I could help him put the experience into words for his family. For the first time since my imprisonment, I sat down to capture the havoc and devastation on paper. With pen to paper, my words flowed like the tears I was too ashamed to cry.

I’d never before been asked to describe the hell of prison. Why had I resisted depicting my environment for so long? I’d always wanted to be a creator of worlds, an author, an artist with words. Only somewhere along the way, I’d become convinced I wasn’t smart, educated, or articulate enough to say anything someone else would ever give a damn to hear. My dream of being an author was beat down by the poverty I was raised in, my inability to focus on my teachers, their lessons, and my grades, and eventually by the drug addiction I used to mask my inadequacies.

Three years into my incarceration, I was asked, “When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?”

It was then I decided to do something different. My pursuits turned to writing. I’d ask any and everyone for help. I’d finally dream. I’d change! But there was the nagging thought: Would anything I put down on the page make a difference? It was discomforting to not know where to begin, or what I wished to say.

Who was I as a writer? I found myself emulating all of my favorite authors in an attempt to locate my voice. But everything I wrote received the same critiques. Despite my imitation, I wasn’t making the progress I wanted. I still needed to work on my dialogue, characters, and plots. Discouraged, I stopped showing anyone my work. For a time, I stopped writing altogether.

It was only after my success with the riot piece that I felt comfortable enough to want people to read my work again. I felt validated, even if only temporarily. By then, the piece had been published on prisonwriters.com, and now all I had to do was wait. Someone would recognize my greatness, I thought to myself. And someone did—just not in the way I’d imagined it.

The friend who I’d written the riot piece for signed me up to join a group from Pioneer Playhouse, a local theater bringing the arts to prison. I was less than thrilled. Though I had zero interest in acting or writing plays, the prison offered nothing else.

I took the risk and joined the Voices Inside program.

“Write about what you know,” said the instructor. “Write from the gut.”

“I’m not writing about prison. Nobody gives a damn about prison,” I replied.

As it turned out, though my prison riot piece had been published, aside from pats on the back from a few of my fellow inmates and a small fifteen-dollar payment for the article, no one else said a thing about it. I’d bled on the page, and no one seemed to care, or even notice. The other twenty inmates of the very first Voices Inside class all agreed—no one wanted to write about the hell we all woke up to every morning. Instead, we showed up with our knockoffs of popular sitcoms, SNL skits, and all too many thinly veiled retellings of Romeo and Juliet.

The work was uninspired. The plays we would go on to write and perform in class all suffered greatly for our avoidance. With excuses of writer’s block, procrastination, and sheer refusal, we were lying to ourselves.

In attempting to tell stories—any stories—to avoid the topic of prison, we weren’t being true to our stories. I decided to set down the heavy sack of shame that I’d lugged around everywhere since my conviction. I wrote a new play in which I spoke of my own incarceration, not as something that had taken my life from me, but as something that had allowed me the time, separation, freedom to examine “my life.”

I wasn’t dead. None of us were. And though we’d all been stripped away from our families, our comforts, our routines and were confined to this “new normal,” our lives had not come to an end.

My first prison play involved the very people I’d spend the next twenty-five years locked away from: my children. With myself as the protagonist, I used my children’s hypothetical questions, blame, and confusion over my absence as the antagonist to reveal every truth I’d once steered clear of. Ultimately, guilt and innocence aside, it was my own poor choices that had put me in a prison of my own making.

I staged the play in the crowded classroom we used each week. Desks were moved aside to make an improvised auditorium with a few rows of plastic chairs. The play took place in the span of a visit with my now-grown children—strangers to me, with the names and once-familiar faces of the young people they’d been fifteen years before.

I wrote them as tragic characters who’d missed out on the father who had never put down roots, never truly loved their mother, never even attempted to be the man his children needed him to be. In the play, my daughter, the eldest, arrived on the scene to confront me with her anger. How could I ever leave her alone with two small brothers and a drug addict for a mother? Had I been the one to put the pipe to her mother’s lips, the needle in her veins? Did I know about the overdoses? All the strange men who’d found their way into my daughter’s bedroom in the middle of the night? Did I know all of the pain my being incarcerated had caused? Was I happy? Did I know all of the terrible things my children had grown up hearing about me? Did I know?

The man playing my daughter slapped me in the face with her last question before rushing offstage in tears. A voice from the audience called out: “Fucking go after her, man!” But the play ended with my character being restrained by an officer’s single hand.

Afterwards, I sat devastated and exposed. But as I glanced around the room, everyone’s resentment toward the man playing the officer was clear. I could feel them stewing on the same question. How do we begin to comfort the loved ones our decisions have taken us away from?

“That child needed her father,” said the man beside me. “I hate prison,” he said, placing his own comforting hand on my shoulder. “That really happens.”

Eleven years later, I still hear my fellow prisoners complain of having to share the details with those in their lives who know nothing about the realities of prison. No one wants to relive the grief of their incarceration. Ripping off scabs is painful. Their reticence is valid. I am patient. They have to find the courage on their own terms, within their own voices.

Why write about prison? Every story needs hope.

In our stories, we may have started out the murderers, rapists, thieves, and addicts, the monsters, the bad guys, the adversaries, the villains, the defendants, but prison does not have to be the end of our tale. If we don’t write our own endings, we hand our pens over to the legislators, owners of privatized prisons, and propagators of the lies behind mass incarceration.

I write about prison because there are more people in prisons in America than populate some small countries.

Because my experiences are the experiences of countless others. I write because there is truth in our stories that cannot, must not, be denied: the separation from our families, the toll on our loved ones, all the wasted time, the warehousing of our bodies, and our fruitless efforts to prevail against a flawed reality of incarceration.

That is the story I dare everyone to acknowledge. And only people behind bars can tell it as it truly is.

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A Day in the Life of a Prisoner

“What’s it like in there?” I’ve been asked repeatedly.

“What do you guys do in there?” “What’s it look like?” “How do the days go by?”

An old convict at San Quentin in 1979 said to me with outflung arms that embraced the entire upper yard, “son, a prison yard is a microcosm of society at large. What you see here is a miniature replica of the entire world.”

As I followed his gaze to that windblown, rain-battered patch of asphalt, pigeons, and galls, I struggled to make some sense of his statement.

It was hard to see the analogies to the free world. Convicts in raincoats played dominoes while rain ran off their hats. A beady-eyed gun-rail guard stood above them with a 30-30 rifle in his hand, watching every ploy.

After seeing many years and prison yards go by, I’ve found his words hold a lot of truth.

We have our own economy in prisons. Cigarettes were 95 cents a pack in 1979, with Camels the preferred currency. Camels were to Philip Morris what the dollar now is to pesos. Sandwiches were “a pack” back then. A pack would get a shirt or a pair of pants pressed, or “Bonorooed,” as we call it. A quart of prison wine, or “pruno,” cost five packs, and interest on loans was 50 percent. Most of those prices are still the same, though cigarettes are $4.00 a pack these days.

Another real price increase has been on hard drugs, and that’s entirely understandable. The heroin business is a much more dirty and dangerous occupation today than it was 30 years ago. The demand has gradually surpassed the supply.

We have our gang members, serial killers, conmen, factory workers, religious groups, wine shops, grocery stores, lenders, laundries, artists, musicians, intellectuals, and people of all political persuasions. You name it, we’ve got it. We’ve got the whole world in our can.

Prison restores order and certainty in a person’s life. Meals are served according to a rigid schedule, laundry exchanged at definite times; sick call, mail call, and visits are all at fixed hours on designated days. We are accustomed to breakfast at six and lunch at twelve, supper at five. McDonald’s is only a dim memory.

In prison we are confronted with another certainty, a job. Everyone in prison works unless physically or mentally unable to do so. The employment ranges from factories to janitorial, kitchen, laundry, and maintenance crews. There are also vocational and educational programs. Everything is scheduled.

A convict can also get marijuana, or a shot of dope or a drink of booze now and then. Not enough for a habit, but enough to take the edge off a bit.

These few amenities, however, do have their price. The California Department of Corrections (CDC) accepts prisoners from mental hospitals who are too unstable, violent, or sensational for local jails. The more violent of these are kept medicated on strong psychotropic drugs. They walk among us like zombies in slow motion. Others carry on lengthy conversations with imaginary companions or affect poses resembling the Statue of Liberty—they can remain motionless for hours on end.

We endeavor to ignore these unfortunate souls as we go about the business of serving our sentences.

A mental patient here not long ago walked into a cellblock office where a guard was sitting and began cutting the officer in the head with a single-edge razor blade. They never exchanged a word. It took a multitude of stitches to close the wound.

As a result of that type of incident, we are all treated like mental patients instead of like convicts. Most regular officers aren’t certain whether we are here because of insanity or criminality. In a cellblock with only one guard and 120 convicts, they can’t afford any chances. This attitude breeds distrust and bad communication between staff and convicts.

Now that our existence is orderly, we are easily upset by tentative or uncertain measures. Yet much of this we take in stride, as just another part of our judgment and sentence.

In the prison setting we begin to understand that the most important thing we have is our set routine. Something we do every day. Our routine is the motor that drives us over the hump of time. We fine-tune it and get it down to a science.

We are confined to one cellblock and not allowed in any other. From our cellblock we can go to the yard, the mess hall, or our job. Movements are allowed hourly during a ten-minute period. Many of us spend our free time in the yard, which is a precious place indeed.

In the yard, we have handball courts, tennis courts, weights, basketball, volleyball, a running track, green grass, and miles and miles of blue sky and fresh air. It’s the place where we play, shaking off the dust, disease, and gloom of the cage.

A man with an afternoon job may come to spend his mornings on the yard, afternoons at work, and his evenings studying in his cell. This routine is as certain to him as the years he must do. When we meet a new convict, he doesn’t inquire as to the health of the family, he asks, “What kind of routine have you got?” But there are changes these days in our routine.

The California Department of Corrections’ punishment of choice now seems to be closing the yard. More and more reasons are found to close it. In Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California, convicts are confined to their cells twenty-two hours a day. What is happening at Pelican Bay is the end result of the tactics being used here. A man who has to do 10 or 12 years locked in his cell for twenty-two hours a day is definitely a man I do not want for a next-door neighbor.

It used to be that the only reason for closing our yard was severely inclement weather or heavy fog. Then one day, as some convicts from the prison camp next door worked between the double fences, spreading time to kill the grass and enhance the view, someone inside yelled an insult at them. Now our yard is closed when a crew works between fences.

A few years ago, five convicts stole the prison trash truck and crashed through the fences. One was killed by gunfire, and the other four were captured immediately. Since that incident, our yard is closed when any truck or other motor vehicle enters the prison. Many trucks come here to bring groceries and other supplies. Before the breakout, the yard had remained open when trucks came to call because there is the protection of a fence between the yard and the trucks.

Seldom does a week pass now when our yard isn’t closed a few days for one reason or another. Guards, when asked why, will say “Truck,” “Men working,” “Lack of staff,” or just that it’s closed and that’s that.

Back in the cellblock, some of us remove our running shoes and go back to bed, sleeping all day and tossing and turning all night. Others sit in the stuffy cellblock and watch the rays of sunshine filtering through the iron security screens on the windows.

Taking away the yard spoils our routine and unbalances our body clocks. Tempers begin to go bad; we snap at each other like too many rats crammed into a cardboard box; hating becomes second nature.

Some of us believe that there are conservatives on the staff who are bent on “getting tough on criminals.” They seem to be responding to a mood prevalent on the outside—both in the courts and among the general populace. These staff workers, we believe, would like to start “getting tough” by locking us in our cells twenty-four hours a day. This belief, whether right or wrong, fuels our cloistered hatred.

No matter how we approach the issue intellectually, it doesn’t dampen the rage we acquire from being packed in gloomy cages while there is blue sky and sunshine just beyond the wall. We have to share this place down to our germs. If one gets the flu, we all get it.

When our routines are disrupted, chaos is once again among us. The future seems fragmented, uncertain. A strange type of resolve takes hold among the convicts; should our keepers choose to deal in pain, chaos, and destruction, we will try to give them a good game. After all, we invented it.

Happy Trails to Explore

Indeed, in San Quentin State Prison, our trails are a maze of concrete walkways that run to and from among our units, the mess hall, and many shops required for prison maintenance.

The most traveled walkway leads to the state prison industries, where each of us criminals, if we so desire, can spend eight to sixteen hours a day as an employee in a government factory. The pay isn’t bad for a prison—tops is $3.10 per hour—and the jobs afford some chance for economic stability upon release.

The trails I prefer lead to the mess hall and the recreation yard. Unfortunately, the rules say all convicts must work, and that includes me, a middle-aged convict. So I found myself a job close to home as an outside unit orderly, tending the local patch of dirt. My paycheck is $30 a month.

We live in modules—or units—new look in cellblocks. Each houses about 120 convicts. This prison was constructed 50 years ago to hold some 500 men in single cells. Now there’s over 1000 of us here, and the cells are doubled up.

We refer to our cell partners as “cellies.” My cellie and I live on the second tier of a four-tier module. Below us, on the first floor, is a dayroom that contains a pool table, four card tables, and some chairs. The unit guard has a small office near the outside door of the dayroom.

Our cell is about six feet by twelve feet, with a wooden double bunk at the rear, next to a large window that looks out onto the compound. The window has four thick vertical bars that frame and section our view of cacti and dirt.

The solid door at the front of the cell is metal with a three-inch-wide, eighteen-inch-high window made of some type of plexiglass.

The door is blue, the walls are off-white cinder block, and the window bars are chocolate brown. The floor is sparrow-egg tile over cement.

Two large fiberboard lockers, one with a writing desk attached, and a sink, toilet, and mirror complete the furnishings. My pinups of beautiful wahines in the sunshine and lush south sea islands adorn the sides of one locker and the writing desk.

My cellie is a bank robber who received seven years for two bank robberies in the Los Angeles area. Like me, he’s a former drug addict. I received 33 years for five bank robberies in the San Diego area. That gives us plenty to talk about.

We argue a lot about the elusive nature of criminal justice. But we both agree that San Diego federal judges take a much dimmer view of bank robbers than do Los Angeles judges.

My cellie gets up this morning and goes to breakfast at 6:00. I never go to breakfast. Twenty years of identical breakfast menus have destroyed my morning appetite. I awaken when he returns.

I wake to the music of water gurgling in a cheap gooseneck drain and the sound of his toothbrush going shuka shuka shook shook, shuka. The toothbrush sounds compete with gunfire echoing off hills nearby. The guards have a firing range right outside the prison.

At 7:00, my cellie leaves in response to a blaring loudspeaker: “Work call! Work call! All inmates to your job assignments! Work call!” I’m up and dressing as cons tramp off to work. Doors slam, feet stomp, and cons yell at one another.

Summer is here early, and it’s nice outside. The front of our unit is landscaped in dirt, cactus, and a few pathetic petunias that struggle for life in the shade of the building.

My job is raking out of the dirt the footprints that were left by night security patrols and convicts going off to work. I also water and care for the sparse foliage.

I spend close to an hour and a half raking the dirt around the unit. As I work, a warm wind blows. The guard is inside, and it’s peaceful and quiet except for the gunfire. I enjoy the solitude. As I rake near the double fences and rolled razor wire, I think of my junkyard. My goal in life is to own a junkyard. No cars and grease, just a Sanford and Son-type of place with old and used things. I spend a lot of time designing it in my mind.

At nine o’clock, a ten-minute movement period is announced on the speaker. These are held hourly, for movement from the yard and other places. Anyone leaving the unit—except for meals—must get a pass signed by the officer, and it must be signed again before it is returned to the issuing guard.

I’m finished raking—there are only so many footprints out there—so I ask the guard for a pass to the yard. “I’ve run out of passes,” he tells me.

This happens often, and until he gets more, no one can go anywhere. Another bureaucratic foul-up that we learn to live with in here. Still, it makes me grind my teeth and take a few deep breaths.

Back inside, three cons are seated at a table in the dayroom. I join them for some talk. The guard now has a heavy rubber mallet in his hand, and he’s going from cell to cell beating on the bars. The bars make a different sound if they’ve been shaved.

The table talk is about Charlie Menson’s recent execution in California. It’s one-sided talk. Everyone despises the guy—mainly because we convicts are further tainted in the public eye by his monstrous deeds.

No profound insights here. There’s much more brawn than brain at our table—mainly weight lifters stranded by the past drought. The guard walks by with his hammer in his hand, eyeing us to see if anyone is smoking. Smoking isn’t allowed in the dayroom.

Guards are always close by, but they seldom join our conversation. When the subject of Charlie is safely disposed of, I make my way back to the cell to do some writing. But the banging on the bars distracts me. So I make a cup of coffee and sit for a while designing my junkyard. At 12 o’clock, I hear the speaker calling the prisoners in the shops to lunch. Our unit eats last, so we won’t go until about 12:30.

Some twenty cons are gathered in the dayroom now, waiting for lunch. The talk is of two recent stabbings here and other assorted mayhem. Boredom seems to breed talk of violence. Our dialogs continually drift toward violent acts and monstrous deeds. So much so that the talk becomes a form of monotony in itself.

Many convicts become steeped in that way of thinking and completely lose their sense of humor. When they attempt to smile, their mouths are as rigid as the coin return on the Coke machine. Many guards suffer from that syndrome, too. It’s a sure symptom of the Cage beginning to swallow its prey.

After an interminable wait, lunch is announced for our unit. We tramp down a sidewalk toward a mess hall done up in pastel colors. The outside walls are glass, and it looks like a deformed hamburger stand.

Off to the left is a sidewalk leading to the recreation yard a half mile away. Other sidewalks run to the isolation unit, visiting room and education building, laundry and maintenance shops. A few bushes and forlorn cacti “decorate” the bare dirt between the walkways. No one is allowed to walk in these expanses. It seems a terrible waste of space in a crowded prison.

The mess hall, built for half the population we have now, is crowded and noisy, with spoons hitting plates and people yelling and talking in several languages. Lunch is pretty good today. A recent one-meal food strike has helped a lot.

Various bigwigs, including the warden, stand against the walls and watch us eat. Convicts pushing carts of dirty trays and others bringing clean silverware yell to each other, “Get out of the way!”

As we progress down the serving line, a young man in front of me decides he wants just spinach. A server piles his plate with spinach until water runs over the edge onto the plastic food tray. A woman guard stands at the end of the line, protecting the desserts. She looks at his tray as he passes and says, “Hello, Popeye.”

We sit four to a cramped table. A few loudmouths bellow across the room, their voices bullying out over all the regular noise. Miss Manners would be appalled at this culinary anarchy.

The idea is to eat fast and get out. With a closed fist I bang my knuckles once on the table before I get up to leave the dining room, a guard I call Robocop beckons me over for a shakedown. Lying around his feet are extra oranges and napkin-wrapped sandwiches that he has confiscated from convicts. As he digs his fingers up in my crotch, I ask in a loud voice, “Hey, if these shakedowns are random, why do I get one every day?”

He doesn’t reply, just goes on patting and squeezing.

Back at my unit, there are passes to be had now. I head out to the handball court in the recreation yard. Halfway there, I meet one of the people I call derelict personalities. “DPs”—in my personal shorthand—are people who have been defeated by the cage or life itself. They don’t fit anywhere and are just barely able to mimic those of us who believe we do fit.

This one is on psychotropic drugs, and shuffles along slowly. He’s a nice fellow with a warm smile. He burns a cigarette, and as I light it for him, a female guard walks by us wearing a pair of tight uniform pants.

I turn facing his direction as we both watch her hip movement. I’m a bit ashamed of this blatant display of male chauvinism, but her hips have the visual effect on us as would an unidentified flying object.

Off to my right, I notice a large saguaro cactus with one limb raised skyward. It reminds me of an eternally stranded hitchhiker. An appropriate backdrop for a derelict personality and a sex-starved convict—descriptions that would fit many of my fellow prisoners.

It’s a workday, and there are only a few people on the recreation yard. Most of them are lifting weights, while a few run the track, shoot baskets, or play handball. I’m addicted to handball, and an older man invites me to play a few games.

My friend Leroy comes along. Leroy is a longtime convict I met many years ago in another prison. We sit on the grass in the warm sun talking sports, parole dates, women, and freedom. The last three are common topics in here.

At 3:45 p.m., the loudspeaker blares out, “Recall! Recall! All inmates return to your living quarters! Recall!”

As we walk back to our units, guards stand alongside the sidewalks watching us. Squarks and snarls blare from their two-way radios. They remind me of vigilant sheepherders.

At 4:00 p.m. each day, we are locked in for a standing count.

We must remain on our feet until two counting guards go by. This is to prevent the dummy-in-the-box trick.

Mail call is immediately after count, and we gather around the pool table as the officer calls names.

Then we settle down to wait an hour or so until our unit is called for supper. We spend a lot of time in here waiting for doors to open.

After supper, I head to the yard for my evening phone call. There’s a world-class sunset above me. Heavy pearl-gray clouds hang low over the California coast.

At the phone room in the yard, I turn in a slip to reserve a phone call the following day. We are allowed one collect call of 15 minutes each evening. Appointments are made a day in advance. When my turn comes, I make my call from one of 15 phones on the wall in a small room. Beside me, 14 other convicts babble in English, Chinese, Farsi, and Spanish. It’s no place for sweet nothings, but a phone call is an important link to the Free World. Back in my unit, I shower in one of two showers on my tier and wander down to the dayroom to relax a while.

It’s 9:15 now, and lockup is at 10:30. A newly arrived convict takes the chair beside me and asks for a cigarette. I hand him one. He lights it, leans back, and lets out a sigh that sounds like a truck tire going flat. Oh no, I think to myself, here it comes! Sure enough, he begins talking. The courts trampled on his rights. His lawyer sold him out. His wife is doing him wrong. The parole board is corrupt. On and on he goes for a half hour and never mentions any crime he committed.

I rise in the middle of his monolog—it’s one I’ve heard thousands of times in places like this—and say: “Well, buddy, I’m tired and I’m going to bed.”

Tomorrow, I’ll get up and do the same thing all over again.

The Zoo Zoos and Mush Fakes of San Quentin

The old ways of convicts are disappearing at a rapid rate. There’s a new age of criminality usurping our old social systems.

No one knows what motivates the new breed of convicts. Their values are few, and they refuse to adopt the traditional rules and customs of prison life. I can’t explain modern prisoners because I understand them less than anyone.

The most glaring difference between the new and the old is that today’s prisoners are more apt to plead guilty and to inform on their associates. Many of them—especially captured high-level drug dealers—see themselves as failed businessmen rather than criminals. It’s an attitude that often leads to confession and informing. Old-school cons never plead guilty, and to them, informing is a craven sin.

As that old tribe of convicts becomes extinct, they walk around prison yards like old, slow dinosaurs. I know something about these relics of antiquity because I happen to be one of the clan.

Their demise is tinged with sadness, if only because a way of life is passing away from society that was never truly known by anyone except its own members.

It wasn’t a glamorous group by any means, but it was the oldest minority group known to man that was never fully studied by a cultural anthropologist. Experts have lived among apes, lions, wolves, and the tribes of darkest Africa, trying to learn their habits and customs. I don’t know of a one who ever lived among and studied convicts.

In lieu of the real thing, I’ve decided to play cultural anthropologist for a day and take a look at some of the rapidly expiring habits and mannerisms of the tribe. They can be put into three categories: vernacular, custom, and etiquette.

Some of the terminology is being absorbed by society at large—words and phrases like “homey,” “homes,” “homeboy,” “zoo zoos,” and “off the wall” are a few that come directly to mind.

Before 1958, there were no racial prison gangs in California. All the cliques in prison were neighborhood groups. The biggest towns in the state had the biggest and most powerful cliques.

If someone was from your town, he was a “homey” or “homeboy,” unless for some reason no one wanted to claim him. If he was from the same area and you associated with him outside prison as well, he was a “road dog.” The terms “homeboy” and “road dog” have been incorporated into society’s vocabulary. “Zoo zoos” and “wham whams,” convict slam for candy and sweet edibles, have found life beyond the walls.

Those prison walls are filled, and always have been, with obscenities and graffiti, most of them bitter and contemptuous and satirical. As long as decades ago, a convict spouting scatological absurdities would be told that he was talking nonsense, or that his words were “straight off the wall.” Years later, when hippies began describing things as “off the wall,” older cons smiled knowingly.

Other word from old convicts’ societies aren’t even used in prison anymore. “Mush fake” is one such word. It meant handmade goods often contraband.

Everyone smoked in the old days, and convicts made picture frames and jewelry boxes out of woven cigarette packaging. People made cardboard shelves and curtains for their cells. It was all mush fake. Now and then a guard would say: “You have too much fake in this cell.” The meaning was that if you didn’t get rid of a good portion of it, he would take it all.

Another dead and gone word is “rumpkin,” which was the convict equivalent of “airhead.”

The first convict custom that comes to mind is tattooing. Most convicts wear tattoos that are laden with symbolism—strictly macho statements in a macho world.

They don’t like color in their tattoos—it’s all basic black ink. Anything else is considered sissyfied. We call tattoos “tacks.” If someone has a lot of tattoos, we say he is “tacked back.”

What tattoos say more than anything is: “I’m an outlaw and don’t care who knows it.” Some tattoo “White Power,” “Brown Power,” swastikas and other symbols, adding a further dimension to their statement.

There are some convicts—despite the macho image they project—who have deep feelings of fear and insecurity in this violent environment. They wear their tattoos as camouflage.

Another custom in all prisons is walking counterclockwise around the perimeter of the exercise yard. It’s done that way in every prison I’ve been in or heard about. Even as a pseudo-anthropologist, I’m at a loss to explain that custom.

Often I feel that since we are all fighting time, we walk that way to defy time itself as represented by the clock. But that sounds more like metaphysics than anthropology.

Nowadays, prisoners are seen standing around laughing and joking with guards. In the old days that simply wasn’t done. Anytime a convict had to talk to a guard, he would approach the nearest convict (whether he knew him or not) and have him stand by and listen while he talked to the guard. That was the custom when I was in Soledad, Folsom Prison, and in San Quentin in the early 80s. A man could lose his life for getting too cozy with the police. That custom, too, is all but dead and gone.

Prison mess halls usually seat four to a table. Often a con eats a meal with three people he knows. When someone is finished eating, he will close his fist and bang his knuckles once on the table before he departs. Everyone at the table knows the meaning of the knock.

It’s the way we say “Excuse me.” I’m not sure if it’s etiquette or custom, but I know how the practice originated. In the 1800s and the early part of this century, convicts weren’t allowed to talk in prison mess halls. Knocking on the table was the only was to say “Excuse me.” We still do it—it’s one of our tricks of the trade. Even the newcomers have picked up on it.

There are many other mannerisms and customs that we jailbirds live by. I’ve pointed out a few in an effort to show that there are strong tribal bonds among a captive population of old scofflaws. When I use the word “convict,” I don’t mean the ones in jail.

The term also refers to those who are outside the walls making time until they come back. I’ve often heard a convict on his way home tell a friend with a long sentence: “I’ll see you when I get back.”

There’s a world of difference between the attitudes of the old-style convicts and the new, but that’s a story for another day. Suffice it to say that these new boys have fewer scruples about senseless, unprovoked violence and crimes.

The old ways may be going, dust to dust, but what’s replacing them doesn’t look to me like much of a bargain for society.

What was once a spurious cliché now seems to be the general rule. There’s no honor among thieves.

…And that’s the news from my house.

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What a Day in Prison is Really Like

What would you ask a person who has spent decades in prison? You might inquire about the violence, or perhaps you’re curious about the food. When I encounter individuals who have spent more time in prison than myself (26 years), my question is consistent: “Why are you still here?”

As for me, I’ve been asked a lot of questions, but the most common was, “What is your typical day like and how does it feel to be locked in a cell?”

The first time I was asked this question was during a community awareness program session. I sat on a Q&A panel with three other incarcerated individuals. The purpose of the program was to bridge the gap between the community and prison population. Most of the participants were students studying criminal justice. I thought to myself: how can I give them an accurate depiction of my reality? Then it came to me—a bathroom. Imagine your bathroom being your cell. But we have to make a few adjustments. Let’s remove your medicine cabinet and mirror. Next, remove the toilet seat and disable the hot water in your sink. Replace the bathroom door with bars and the drywall with metal; metal that will make your bathroom hot in the summer and cold in the winter. No fancy showerhead—instead, one that sends small, sharp streams of water that burn your skin. You can’t control the water temperature; it’s been replaced with a button you press in order to turn the shower on. Some days, the water may be too cold or too hot to stand under. Your bathtub is your bed, with a mattress as thin as a sleeping bag. Each week you are issued state clothing, one towel that you can barely wrap around your body, a hotel-size bar of soap, a single-blade razor that irritates your skin, and one roll of toilet tissue. Lastly, you are given one thin blanket that barely keeps you warm during cold nights. The simple luxuries you once enjoyed are stripped from you—but this is only the beginning. Depression will likely begin to consume you. You’re trying to cope, but you simply don’t know how. These feelings are unfamiliar. With time, your depression will turn into stress and, eventually, anger—a roller coaster of debilitating emotions. You’re told when to eat, sleep, exercise, and visit with your loved ones. Not being in control of your life brings about a feeling of frustration. Your thoughts begin to consume you, and you just want to sleep to escape this reality, but the yelling and banging all night keep you awake. As you lay in your bed, you’re wondering if these people are losing their minds. It scares you. You fear encountering them. You also hope you can keep it together mentally. Your thoughts are redirected as hunger settles in, but you must wait for breakfast; you have nothing to snack on.

Eight hours later, your cell opens—time to take a walk for breakfast. As you enter the mess hall, you notice nothing but metal chairs and tables. You see a friend and call out to them, but an officer yells at you: “No talking in the mess hall!” You smile at your friend, and they smile back. That’s the best thing that has happened since you arrived. You sit down to eat, and when the person next to you begins to talk across the table, food from their mouth lands on your plate. You remain silent to avoid conflict and decide not to eat.

Suddenly, a fight breaks out. The officers jump into action and use pepper spray to break it up. The mist travels through the air and reaches the table you are sitting at. You inhale some of it and begin to cough; your eyes burn, and you need water—but this must wait until you get back to your cell. Once you are back, you wash up and wish you never had to walk to the mess hall. After this eventful morning, you just want to speak with your family. But today isn’t your phone day; you must wait until tomorrow. That time comes, and your family answers. After 15 minutes, the officer tells you to hang up. All you can say is, “I have to go.” You don’t even get a chance to say, “I love you.” You spend the rest of the night thinking about that 15-minute conversation, wishing it was longer. You lay in your bed wondering when you will see the ones you love.

A few days pass by, and you are called for a visit. When you walk into the visiting room, you’re greeted with forced smiles. They notice that you have lost too much weight; they remain silent and immediately buy you something to eat. Your loved ones are affected and feel helpless. Your child has many questions—questions you find other answers for, except the truth. You lie and say you’ll be home soon. They tell you to promise and you unwisely say, “I promise.”

Now comes your biggest fear of the day: it’s time for them to leave. There are no more smiles. Your child begins to cry, saying, “I don’t want to leave!” There is nothing you can do or say to comfort them. It overwhelms you to know that your relationships are at risk. You want to do something, but your hands are tied. This is the worst feeling you have ever experienced; it feels like mental torture. You consider not having anyone visit because it is too painful for all. Anything less than a miracle . . . 41 more years to go, and hope is all you have. There’s my answer. It may leave you with many more questions and, hopefully, with the conclusion that changes need to be made. Incarceration in our country is impeded by the punitive approach taken. Prisons, in many ways, should reflect the way one would live and function in society. Some Scandinavian prison systems have adopted this approach and people are much less likely to return to prison in those countries. In some prisons, cellblocks resemble college dorms, rooms have TVs, stereos, refrigerators, and a cell phone on the dresser. Wages are $5.30 to $9.50 per hour. Incarcerated people are allowed to spend time with family outside of the facility, wear their own clothes, and eat with staff. Correctional officers fill both rehabilitative and security roles. People in prison feel like humans. What’s the benefit? They yield recidivism rates one-half to one-third of those in the United States.

So, I ask you this question: why should you care about the way men and women are doing time? Because over 95 percent of all incarcerated individuals in state prisons return to their communities. What type of man or woman do you want living in your neighborhood, or even next door to you?

Although our prison system may not be as accommodating as those in Scandinavia, there are many men and women who have dedicated their lives to change and would do more good in their communities, alongside their families, rather than deteriorating in prison. While incarcerated, I have met amazing men—men who have influenced my life in truly transformative ways. They are woven within my every accomplishment. These are mentors I will never forget. And they deserve a second chance in a system that, for those with lengthy prison sentences, has yet to provide any meaningful hope of returning home. For those men and women, I often ask myself, “When is enough enough?!” For our families, I say the same.

David Sell is a husband, grandfather, writer, hospice volunteer, and advocate for prison reform. In an attempt to bring about awareness and create change, he writes for the millions of families and people who have been impacted by mass incarceration. He can be reached on JPay at David Sell, 97b2642, NYS DOCCS Inmate Services.

Vera believes in using our platforms to elevate diverse voices and opinions, including those of people currently and formerly incarcerated. Other than Vera employees, contributors speak for themselves. Vera has not independently verified the statements made in this post.

Change for the Worse: Life Under New York DOCCS’s New Package Policy

Incarcerated people need access to phone apps, covid-19 restrictions may be easing, but in prison we’re still here alone.

Title of Journal

Day in the Life of a Prisoner

Take some time to reflect on these pieces. Did anything surprise you about “daily” prison life?

“Ripping-off Kafka” was inspired by Jackson State Prison. Writer J.S. Copeman describes his experience in the prison: “…suddenly I remembered all the cockroaches I’d lived with during my stay behind the Wall at Jackson. A wretched place on so many levels. From the orange water, the predatory homosexuals, the sociopaths, the deranged and drug addicted prisoners overdoing it every other week in there. Stabbings and suicides (1995 being a banner-year for that) were literally daily events at SMI (a.k.a. “Central Complex”). Furthermore, with the poor air quality, there’s an incinerator described in the piece that fits as a great metaphor, don’t you think?”What do you make of Ellis. Jr’s “Diary of a Dead Man (Excerpts)?” What about “Orwell’s Nightmare?” In what ways does the carceral state [*probs should include definition*] reflect the Big Brother government in Orwell’s 1984 ?

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a day in the life of a prisoner

A Day In The Life Of A

Ever wondered what it’s like to be a prisoner? He may have done something wrong to end up there, but ever wondered how someone’s life is, once they get put behind the bars?

I opened my eyes and a yellow light on the ceiling greeted me with a bright stare. I rolled myself out of the bed with a slight groan and my back started complaining by cracking in different places like firecrackers.

I can see the sun shining outside my cell but no warmth is being given in. The only warmth I get is from my 2cm sheet of "blanket". The air-conditioner in front of me just drones on and on and on, slicing the early morning silence. Overall, my room isn’t the best place on earth, but I don’t have a choice but to rot in it.

My bladder was going out of control so I went across the room to my own private buzzer. Like a doorbell, when pressed, a speaker on the ceiling becomes an intercom and expressing your needs is as easy as talking to a brick wall.

After a few seconds, a scratchy voice breaks the silence.

"What?"

"I need to go to the bathroom."

After about a minute, the door swung open and I hurried down the hallway. Afterwards I walked back into my "bedroom" and waited on my bed, with thoughts of freedom on my mind, for the clang of the keys and the daily morning directions.

"Get up, get up, sweep and mop your rooms and brush your teeth. Make your beds. Get up, get up……"

This is a preview of the whole essay

Throwing my towel around my neck, I went to the foul toothbrushes and walked into the bathroom. Four sinks, bolted to the wall, provide about seven toothbrushes and water for our pearly whites. Once I finished, I wiped my mouth and threw it into the bin for the dirty laundry and grabbed a broom and trudged back into my room, with envious thoughts of freedom sliding down, inside my skull.

Once I swept the entire room, I waited for the same rattle of keys that always gets my stomach growling. Time for breakfast.

When the unfriendly staff unlocks the door, the beauty of temporary freedom puts a smile on my face. We walk in single file, with boys on one side and girls on the other. After they’ve checked us up, we put our hands behind a backs and walk towards the dining hall to eat breakfast, which consists of muesli and lukewarm water.

 Breakfast ends and we head to the playground for free play. Free play is the time where the prisoners are allowed to do whatever they like and play whichever sport pleases them. As a prisoner, all I can do is enjoy it to the best I can. The fresh air is soothing yet disturbing at the same time. As usual, I just sit by myself and reminisce on old times and past events. However, when my imagination takes me back in time, my reality doesn’t change. The harsh reality of being in prison.

We come to the Lunch Quarters and wait for our lunch to arrive. We change out of our trainers and back into our sandals and as a privilege, we are giving deodorant to pump on ourselves. After playing and sweating, everyone’s hormones are high and skin is glistening.

Lunch is here. Today’s menu consists of a hard cheese sandwich and a desert of crackers, with butter as hard as a rock. We usually go through four jugs of lukewarm water. Everybody here thinks that the lunch meal is by far the best meal of the day, but compared to the food in the outside world, it’s just plain repulsive.

After lunch, we go to daily lessons. The lessons are never constant. They’re always changing, but most of my life is going to go down the drain here, so I don’t really bother listening to the so-called teachers much.

After school is done, we go back to our rooms and just soak in the solitude. That’s all us prisoners can do. Most people think about their dreams and ambitions when they are in solitude. My life has become so feeble, I can’t even do that. When you’re a prisoner, all your dreams and wishes fly out the window as soon as you step into the 4-by-4 cell.

We come out for dinner and then go back into our cells. I know the details are very limited but after all the working, sweating and mopping, the rest is just a blur of dullness that just comes and goes.

Since I have been here, my capability to deal with certain situations has increased. I choose to block out all voices, and I am almost always dissociated. This faculty is a break from the world. A place where I don’t have to worry about when I’m going to wake up, what I’m going to eat, where I’m going to sleep…..etc. Everything is planned out for me. It’s actually like a hotel for me with room and board. When people receive a sentence, they associate it as being the worst time of their life. Nevertheless, this prison has given me a lot of time to think about my life, my mistakes and what I need to do in life to be a better person. Afterall, you only have one life and no second chances.

A day in the life of a prisoner isn’t always dreary but being connected to the outside world only by the 4 o’ clock news is quite dismal.

Although being locked up here isn’t the best thing in the world, its not all that bad. Prisoners get all the attention they need, even if they don’t want it.

I have grown quite attached to this institution. When I had my freedom, I was unsure about a lot of things, like if I’ll be able to get food and a bed. Here I get both. If you take advantage of prison, believe me, you will go far.

Well, that’s enough of me talking. What you have just read is the utmost and bitter truth.

Document Details

• Word Count 1058
• Page Count 2
• Subject English

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What Do Prisoners Do All Day? A Look at the Daily Life of Inmates

Prison life often conjures images of monotonous days filled with boredom and confinement. But the daily routines and activities of prisoners can vary greatly depending on the type of facility, security levels, and privileges earned. Getting a glimpse into what prisoners do day-to-day can provide insight into how incarceration impacts individuals.

Typical Daily Schedule and Routines

While each facility has its own policies, most follow a strict schedule to maintain order and security. A typical day may look like:

• 5-6 AM – Wake up call and breakfast. Most prisoners are required to make their beds and tidy their living space before heading to the cafeteria.
• 7-8 AM – Morning count. Correctional officers conduct an inmate count to ensure no one is missing or has escaped.
• 9 AM – Work assignments, vocational classes, or medical visits. Many prisons have jobs like laundry, landscaping, janitorial work, and food service that inmates are required to do. Those with skills take vocational classes.
• 12 PM – Lunch time. Prisoners get a break for lunch before resuming their work or activities.
• 1 PM – Recreational time. Facilities usually allow 1-2 hours for exercise, sports, or leisure like watching TV or reading. Many have dedicated yards, gyms, or libraries.
• 3 PM – Additional work or education programs. Some prisons offer GED or college courses for inmates seeking to advance their education.
• 5 PM – Dinner. The last meal of the day in the cafeteria.
• 6 PM – Free time. Inmates can socialize, shower, make phone calls, and unwind from the day. Certain facilities allow visitations during the evenings.
• 9-10 PM – Final count and lockdown. Prisoners must return to their cells for the overnight inmate count before lights out.

Strict adherence to the schedule allows correctional facilities to maintain control over the inmate population. While monotonous, the structured routine provides prisoners with purpose through work, learning, and rehabilitation programs.

Common Inmate Activities and Privileges

Beyond the required daily tasks, inmates have time each day to engage in sanctioned activities or enjoy privileges they’ve earned. Here are some of the most common ways prisoners can pass time:

Work Assignments

Work eligible inmates are required to maintain jobs within the prison facility such as:

• Kitchen and cafeteria duties like food prep and cleaning
• Janitorial and maintenance like cleaning common areas and doing repairs
• Landscaping and groundskeeping of the prison yards and gardens
• Laundry washing of inmate uniforms and facility linens
• Clerical work like mail sorting and office assistance

Inmates typically work 6-8 hours a day on their assigned jobs. This gives them productive tasks to accomplish and skills to build.

Education and Vocational Training

Furthering their education is one of the most valuable activities for inmates. Prisons across the country are increasingly offering:

• Academic classes  – Many prisons have classrooms and teachers to help inmates earn their GED or high school diploma. Inmates who dropped out of school can advance their education.
• College courses  – Some facilities allow inmates to take college-level courses or even earn associate or bachelor’s degrees. This allows them to work towards degrees for after release.
• Vocational training  – Prisons provide useful job skills through vocational programs in trades like automotive mechanics, construction, plumbing, welding, and computer coding.

Education programs give inmates positive goals to work towards during incarceration and critical skills that lower recidivism rates.

Exercise and Recreation

Most prisons allow 1-2 hours per day for exercise and leisure activities:

• Yard time  – Inmates can get fresh air and walk, jog, or play sports like basketball, volleyball or handball in designated secure yards.
• Gyms  – Many prisons have workout facilities for weightlifting, cardio equipment, and exercise classes. Being active relieves stress.
• Games  – Boredom is common in prison. Inmates often play cards, chess, checkers, and board games with each other.
• Reading  – Facilities have libraries where prisoners can read books, magazines, newspapers to pass time.
• Television  – Watching TV in the common rooms is a popular downtime activity on weeknights and weekends.

Recreational activities provide physical and mental breaks from the boredom of confinement.

Socializing and Hobbies

Daily social interactions and personal hobbies help inmates maintain mental health:

• Socializing  – Meals, yards, and rec rooms allow prisoners to talk and build friendships. Some write letters to pen pals outside prison.
• Religious services  – Attending religious gatherings or Bible study provides spiritual fulfillment.
• Arts and music  – Some prisons offer music or art classes. Inmates write songs, poetry, make crafts, or draw.
• Crocheting and knitting  – Yarn crafts like making blankets are popular prison pastimes that give a sense of purpose.

Meaningful social connections make time pass easier and benefit rehabilitation.

Visitation and Communication

Maintaining ties with family and friends outside prison is extremely impactful:

• Visitation  – Prisons allow visitation sessions a few days per week for a couple hours. Inmates can visit with loved ones in person.
• Phone calls  – Most facilities allow 5-15 minute phone calls 1-2 times a day to approved numbers. This allows inmates to call family/friends.
• Video visits  – Some systems let prisoners have virtual video call visits remotely with visitors through webcam technology.
• Mail  – Inmates can receive and write physical letters to stay in touch with outside contacts.

Staying connected to support systems lowers rates of recidivism after release.

Typical Daily Activities for Different Inmate Populations

Daily life inside prison can vary across facilities and security levels. The routines of specific inmate populations have some key differences.

Female Prisoners

Women inmates share similar schedules but have some unique activities:

• Childcare  – Many women’s prisons have programs for mothers to spend time with and bond with their children. This includes supervised play rooms.
• Pregnancy care  – Pregnant inmates get access to prenatal medical visits and motherhood classes to prepare.
• Domestic activities  – Some women learn skills like sewing, cooking, and housekeeping to aid reentry after prison.
• Rehabilitation  – Facilities target counseling, addiction treatment, and trauma programs at issues facing incarcerated women.

Accommodating women’s needs, especially motherhood, is an essential part of their rehabilitation.

Youth Inmates

Juveniles in detention centers have tailored programs:

• Classroom schooling  – Licensed teachers conduct middle or high school classes for incarcerated youth to keep up with studies.
• Trade skills  – Auto mechanics, woodworking, and cooking classes teach career skills.
• Counseling  – Individual and group counseling aim to correct behavior problems and influences that contributed to crimes.
• Recreation  – Detention centers emphasize exercise and sports to engage energy and decrease behavioral incidents.
• Life skills  – Programs teach youth important abilities like managing money, cooking, and job readiness.

The focus for youth is education, behavior management, and habilitation.

Maximum Security

Inmates classified as high risk for violence or escape have tighter restrictions:

• Regimented routine  – Tight schedules with frequent inmate counts and close supervision by guards.
• Single cells  – Less time socializing; confined alone instead of sharing cells.
• Limited mobility  – Restricted program access and privileges. Handcuffed with escorts when moving about.
• Work duties  – Mainly individual janitorial and groundskeeping rather than vocational training.
• Extra searches  – More thorough searches of prisoner quarters and possessions.
• Heavy monitoring  – Constant video surveillance and guards observing all activities.

Safety takes priority over programming and privileges at maximum security levels.

While differences exist across populations, all inmates experience highly structured routines in the unique culture and environment of incarceration.

Sample Table of Prisoners’ Crimes and Sentences

Life inside prison is highly regimented and monotonous, yet inmates participate in a variety of work, educational, wellness, social, and personal development activities each day. Prison routines aim to modify behavior while providing rehabilitation programs that prepare individuals for reentry. While prisons could do more to foster healthy environments, understanding what prisoners do day-to-day provides a more complete picture of the inmate experience as well as the possibilities for positive change moving forward.

Related posts:

• What is the Bureau of Prisons?
• Where is Folsom Prison?
• Are Prisons Obsolete?
• How Many People Are in Prison in the US?

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Last 3 defendants in Lev Tahor cult abduction case sentenced to more than 10 years in prison

Three members of the extremist Jewish Lev Tahor religious cult were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison by a New York court on Tuesday.

Brothers Yoil Weingarten, Yakov Weingarten and Shmiel Weingarten were convicted in March of child exploitation and kidnapping for their role in abducting a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother from the Catskills home of their mother in 2018.

Shmiel and Yoil Weingarten were sentenced to 14 years in prison, and Yakov was sentenced to 12 years, the U.S. Southern District Court said.

The brothers were the last of nine suspects in the case to stand trial, all of whom have been convicted or pleaded guilty. They include Lev Tahor’s leader, Nachman Helbrans, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2022 for kidnapping and transporting minors for sexual purposes and other charges. 

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The Weingartens and the other defendants were all leaders of Lev Tahor, which means “pure heart” in Hebrew. They were known within the group as the “Hanhala,” or management, prosecutors said. The men governed all aspects of life in the community, including marriage and sex between underage girls and adult men.

Lev Tahor is a secretive group and little is known about its inner workings. The group adheres to an extreme interpretation of Jewish law that largely shields its members from the outside world and places tight strictures on aspects of everyday life, such as their diet and dress. A group called Lev Tahor Survivors, which opposes the cult’s activities, has estimated the cult’s membership at several hundred people and says it is led by a core cohort, with the rest being held mostly against their will.

The kidnapping case threw the group into turmoil, and since Helbrans’ arrest some members have sought a new home, turning up in the Balkans and Morocco . But the majority appears to have remained in Guatemala, where the group has been based since around 2013, following stints in Israel and Canada during which they attempted to flee government oversight.

The Weingarten brothers were convicted after being extradited to the United States from Guatemala in 2022. They were held in the Westchester County Jail and tried in the U.S. Southern District Court in White Plains. They were convicted of all charges, including international parental kidnapping, coercion or enticement of a minor female, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

In a letter to Judge Nelson Román last week, U.S. District Attorney Damian Williams asked the judge for a sentence “meaningfully greater than twelve years” against each of the brothers because, unlike other defendants in the case, they had committed obstruction of justice during the legal proceedings by providing false information to the court and tampering with witnesses. Yakov and Shmiel also committed perjury, Williams said.

“The defendants’ criminal conduct is deeply troubling and merits a substantial sentence,” his letter said. It added later, “The Court should therefore send a strong message that kidnapping children carries serious consequences.”

In the kidnapping case, in December 2018 members of the cult abducted a brother and sister who were staying in the town of Woodridge, New York with their mother, who had fled Lev Tahor. The kidnappers took the children from the home late at night and, using disguises and fraudulent identification documents, smuggled the siblings across state lines into Mexico to reunite the girl with the adult man they considered her “husband.” 

Lev Tahor had a practice of wedding underage girls to adult men and forcing them to have sex with their “husbands,” U.S. investigators have said. The girl in this case was 13 when she was “married” to Jacob Rosner, then 18, another defendant in the case. The illegal marriage, which was never officially recognized, prompted the children’s mother to flee the cult.

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The children were recovered in Mexico after a weeks-long search involving hundreds of investigators and law enforcement personnel, and returned to New York.

According to prosecutors, the three brothers and the other defendants planned the kidnapping, instructed others who were involved and played a central role in carrying out the abduction. Shmiel Weingarten bought disguises for the children at a Walmart ahead of the kidnapping and was in the car that took the children from the home where they were staying to an airport in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The children flew from there to Mexico, where they met with Yoil Weingarten and other members of the cult.

When law enforcement located the children in Mexico, they were with Yoil and Shmiel. After the children were returned to New York and reunited with their mother, Yakov Weingarten tried to kidnap the girl a second time and threatened her mother.

The defendants in the case claimed the mother had wrongfully removed the children from the community and that they were attempting a rescue.

The mother is the sister of Nachman Helbrans, the cult leader, who took the reins of the group after his father, Lev Tahor founder Shlomo Helbrans, drowned in a river in Mexico in 2017. She pleaded with the judge to show Nachman mercy at his sentencing in 2022.

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Dozens of people are sentenced to life in prison in the UAE in a mass trial criticized abroad

Jon Gambrell

Associated Press

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

FILE - Activists hold signs during a demonstration for Egypt's jailed leading pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah and Mohamed al-Siddiq, jailed activist, at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A mass trial in the United Arab Emirates of dissidents that has faced widespread criticism abroad ended Wednesday July 10, 2024 with dozens of people sentenced to life in prison, activists said. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)

DUBAI – A mass trial of dissidents in the United Arab Emirates sentenced 43 people to life in prison on Wednesday while several other defendants received long prison terms in a case that has been widely criticized by activists abroad.

The sentences given by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal came in a case described by the UAE government as involving the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Islamic organization declared a terrorist group by the Emirates. Activists, however, decried the case as targeting dissidents, something that drew attention and protests at the United Nations COP28 climate talks held in Dubai in November .

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The state-run WAM news agency reported the verdicts after human rights activists said the sentences had been handed down. Five defendants received 15-year sentences while five others received 10-year sentences. Another 24 defendants had their cases dismissed, WAM reported.

The court ruled that those convicted “have worked to create and replicate violent events in the country, similar to what has occurred in other Arab states — including protests and clashes between the security forces and protesting crowds — that led to deaths and injuries and to the destruction of facilities, as well as the consequent spread of panic and terror among people,” WAM said.

The agency reported on no specific evidence the court cited tying those convicted to violence or the Brotherhood.

The verdict, which can be appealed to the UAE's Federal Supreme Court, drew immediate criticism abroad.

“These over-the-top long sentences make a mockery of justice and are another nail in the coffin for the UAE’s nascent civil society,” said Joey Shea, a researcher focusing on the UAE for Human Rights Watch. “The UAE has dragged scores of its most dedicated human rights defenders and civil society members through a shamelessly unfair trial riddled with due process violations and torture allegations.”

The Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center, an advocacy group in exile, separately reported that sentences had been handed down.

“Regrettably, these sentences were entirely foreseeable," center director Mohamed al-Zaabi said. “From the outset, it was clear that this trial was merely a facade designed to perpetuate the detention of prisoners of conscience even after their sentences had been served.”

Amnesty International also criticized the sentences, saying the defendants had “been held in prolonged solitary confinement, deprived of contact with their families and lawyers and subjected to sleep deprivation through continuous exposure to loud music.” Those tried also were “forbidden from receiving the most basic court documents,” it said.

“The trial has been a shameless parody of justice and violated multiple fundamental principles of law, including the principle that you cannot try the same person twice for the same crime, and the principle that you cannot punish people retroactively under laws that didn’t exist at the time of the alleged offense,” said Devin Kenney, an Amnesty International researcher.

Kenney described some of those tried as “prisoners of conscience and well-known human rights defenders.”

WAM did not identify those sentenced. But among those who received life sentences is activist Nasser bin Ghaith, an academic held since August 2015 over his social media posts, Shea said.

He was among dozens of people sentenced in the wake of a wide-ranging crackdown in the UAE following the 2011 Arab Spring protests. Those demonstrations saw Islamists, including Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, rise to power in several Mideast nations.

The Gulf Arab states did not experience any popular overthrow of their governments and cracked down against demonstrators and those perceived to be dissenters.

Also among those who were likely sentenced Wednesday is Ahmed Mansoor, the recipient of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015. Mansoor repeatedly drew the ire of authorities in the UAE by calling for a free press and democratic freedoms in the federation of seven sheikhdoms.

Mansoor was targeted with Israeli spyware on his iPhone in 2016 likely deployed by the Emirati government ahead of his 2017 arrest and sentencing to 10 years in prison over his activism.

During COP28, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch held a demonstration in which they displayed Mansoor’s face in the U.N.-administered Blue Zone at the summit in a protest carefully watched by Emirati officials.

The UAE, while socially liberal in many regards compared with its Middle Eastern neighbors, has strict laws governing expression and bans political parties and labor unions. That was seen at COP28, where there were none of the typical protests outside of the venue as activists worried about the country’s vast network of surveillance cameras .

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Former Indiana lawmaker sentenced to one year in prison for gambling corruption case

Former Rep. Sean Eberhart, center, exits the U.S. Courthouse in Indianapolis after a sentencing on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. He is accompanied by his counsel and a friend. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

Former Indiana Rep. Sean Eberhart on Wednesday was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for his role in a five-year-old gambling corruption case.

“I have to think it was simply a matter of greed,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Brookman told Eberhart from a sun-drenched, white-walled room in the federal courthouse located in Indianapolis.

Eberhart, now 53, had “plenty of” assets, the judge said, adding: “But you wanted more.”

Eberhart pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud stemming from the 2019 legislative session.

The Republican from Shelbyville accepted a lucrative job opportunity — worth at least $350,000, plus an equity stake — with gambling company Spectacle Entertainment in exchange for his support of a bill allowing the transfer of casino licenses to areas beneficial to Spectacle. A yet-unidentified owner at Spectacle made the offer.

Eberhart advocated to allow the license transfers from lakeside areas to inland locations, and pushed to lower the transfer fee from $100 million to $20 million. The approved legislation also included beneficial tax incentives for Spectacle.

“I am truly, deeply sorry for what I did,” he said. “… I apologize to anyone that’s been harmed or disappointed (by) my actions.”

Eberhart wasn’t taken into custody Wednesday. The judge told him to keep in touch with counsel for his surrender date and location.

Sentencing calculations

The government, represented by Bradley Paul Shepard of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, asked for a sentence of 12 months in prison. Shepard said “even” 10 months would suffice.

Shepard noted that Brent Waltz, another former lawmaker convicted in a separate scheme involving Spectacle, was sentenced to 10 months in prison. Eberhart, he argued, should receive a “similar sentence.”

I don't think it's fair that Sean Eberhart should be sentenced as though he is the cause of political cynicism.

– Attorney Patrick Cotter

“This offense … is a breach of public trust,” Shepard said. He emphasized the importance of honesty in government, in a speech laden with quotes from founding fathers, and said Eberhart’s conduct was “salt upon that” and upon “the republic itself.”

Eberhart’s counsel, Patrick Cotter of UB Greensfelder, asked for a sentence of probation, arguing prison time was “unnecessary” and wouldn’t be an effective deterrent.

He said his client shouldn’t be judged as a “symbol” or as a “tool” of deterrence.

“I don’t think it’s fair that Sean Eberhart should be sentenced as though he is the cause of political cynicism,” Cotter said. He said that cynicism was “there before him” and “will be there after him.”

He said Eberhart served the public honestly for 24 years, and that he has suffered since the conspiracy was discovered.

“The consequences of Sean’s crime have destroyed much of the life he spent decades building,” Cotter said. “… He will be a felon, he will be disgraced in his hometown and state … and that’s worth more than any amount of money.”

Violating trust

The judge reassured Cotter that all defendants are sentenced on an individual basis. But he said Eberhart’s crime was “serious” because it involved a public official.

He said it’s “critical” that the public trust in its elected representatives.

“You threw that (trust) away,” he told Eberhart.

He sentenced Eberhart to 12 months and one day in jail, with the single-day addition entitling Eberhart to good time credit. That means a well-behaved Eberhart could serve less than the full sentence.

The sentence also included $60,000 in restitution — equal to a year of his lawmaker compensation package — a $25,000 fine and a $100 fee for a mandatory special assessment. Eberhart will also serve one year of supervised probation.

The judge said he hoped Eberhart would “use that time to reflect.”

“You’ve got a lot of life … You can put this behind you,” he said, and added that Eberhart could once more become a productive member of society.

Eberhart and his counsel declined to comment to reporters. Shepard also declined to comment.

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‘unprisoned’ creator on her dad and the real nadine dying one day apart before show’s launch.

"The dark comedy writer in me is like, 'Wow, these two really did not want to see my show,'” Tracy McMillan says ahead of the season two premiere of the Hulu dramedy inspired by her real life.

By Brande Victorian

Brande Victorian

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Comedy isn’t the first genre most would assign a show about a man getting out of federal prison and reuniting with his family after serving decades behind bars. But humor is the instinctive approach UnPrisoned creator and writer Tracy McMillan took for the Hulu series, which draws from her lived experience growing up in the foster care system as her father, Harold, ultimately, spent a total of 37 years incarcerated.

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In the dramedy, which returns for season two on July 17, Kerry Washington stars as Paige, a McMillan-inspired mother wrestling with abandonment issues resulting from her father, Delroy Lindo’s Edwin , being locked up and her being raised for a time by his girlfriend Nadine (Brenda Strong) who, according to Paige, was everything but a mother.

Lindo, to get an understanding of Harold’s experience as a formerly incarcerated man and father, spent time with McMillan’s dad when he joined the cast of UnPrisoned , which made its series debut in March 2023. However, Harold never got to see his story brought to life.

“My dad passed like six weeks before the show came out, so he never saw it. And then the other thing that happened is he died on Jan. 21 [2023], and on Jan. 22, ‘Nadine’ died. Now, the dark comedy writer in me is like, ‘wow, these two really did not want to see my show,’” McMillan now says with a laugh.

Below, McMillan talks about the impetus for creating UnPrisoned , and bringing truth and humor to the realities of incarceration before season two debuts next week.

When did you first decide to write this series and was it a hard sell for studios before it landed at Hulu?

So there were a couple of times I was developing in the broadcast cycle — back when there was a broadcast development cycle — let’s say, a cop drama, and I’d be like, “okay, well, in the cop drama, the main character’s dad will get out of prison, and then he’ll help her solve crimes.” I’d write about the thing that was top of mind for me personally. Then finally in 2019, I had a breakup. And I was like, I need to work out my dad’s stuff once and for all, because it was very clear to me that was the place that my dad being in prison had the most lasting impact: my relationships with men. And the way I handle something is to write a book about it. So I wrote this version. I called it UnPrisoned and here we are.

Season one was well received by audiences. When did you find out about the season two renewal?

We were told that we were looking good. I pitched a season two — and the strike happened, I think two days later. So everything went on hold. And then the actors strike ended on Nov. 9, and we started the room on Nov. 13. So when the writers strike ended, we got the order, but of course it was contingent on what happened with the actors strike. We actually had five or six fewer weeks to write this season than we had for season one, but I worked in TV news for 16 years and it was the best of all possible situations because you’re not waiting for inspiration in TV news. There’s a deadline, so you do it. And it’s always served me very well.

What does that feel like for you in the writers room? It sounds like it’d be continuously personally challenging.

I think you have to work through stuff in the writing sometimes. But for me, it really comes in an angle that we’re taking on a story more than like, “gosh, this is so insight-based.” I feel like the writers room is two different parts. There’s plot, or what happens, and then there’s what the show is saying about what’s happening and how you’re saying that. My goal is to always show maximum respect to the characters. I’m not here to make the characters look good to themselves. I’m not here to make the characters think they’re having a good hair day. I’m here to go, “characters, if you want to grow, you’re going to have to get real with yourself about this.” And of course, it requires the writer to get real with him or herself about what they’ve got going on because if you’re not in there, it won’t be in the show. And then also we have this incredible cast that just takes whatever the room does and brings it to a whole other level. I have so much respect for actors and what they do. As writers, we live in our heads. It’s kind of easy up there. You’re basically in control, but actors embody stuff. Literally, they put their bodies through the thing that I only had to think about. So, I bow down.

Are you finding more people are asking you to speak about the issue of incarceration as a result of the show?

Did you always envision young Paige as a physical child character?

No. I think the genius was when we decided to dress them alike. And I say that not to credit myself with being a genius. It’s not that. That’s the thing that really dials you in and makes you laugh about the characters. Also, let’s just say it, Jordyn [McIntosh] is brilliant, and she’s going to be president, and after that she’s going to be emperor. Going on self-esteem, her insight, we think children are like mini people, they’re not; they’re 100 percent full right now, and she’s a comic genius.

Delroy Lindo told THR he spent time with your dad when he first joined the show. How did Harold feel about inspiring this series?

My dad passed like six weeks before the show came out, so he never saw the show. And then the other thing that happened is he died on Jan. 21, and on Jan. 22, “Nadine” died. Now, the dark comedy writer in me is like, “Wow, these two really did not want to see my show.” Also, they went maximum drama all the way. But, you know, that’s how it was in life. They were having an impact on me the whole time. So, with neither one of them did I ever hear how they felt about the show. That’s just how it unfolded. So, I’m going to say it unfolded perfectly. I guess it wasn’t for them. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s for me. It’s for whoever says, “Hey, I identify with that. That’s for me.”

UnPrisoned season two premieres July 17 on Hulu.

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Congress OKs bill overhauling oversight of troubled federal Bureau of Prisons

The Associated Press

July 10, 2024, 9:32 PM

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The Senate passed legislation Wednesday to overhaul oversight and bring greater transparency to the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons following reporting from The Associated Press that exposed systemic corruption in the federal prison system and increased congressional scrutiny.

The Federal Prison Oversight Act, which the House passed in May, now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. It establishes an independent ombudsman for the agency to field and investigate complaints in the wake of rampant sexual abuse and other criminal misconduct by staff , chronic understaffing , escapes and high-profile deaths .

It also requires that the Justice Department’s Inspector General conduct risk-based inspections of all 122 federal prison facilities, provide recommendations to address deficiencies and assign each facility a risk score. Higher-risk facilities would then receive more frequent inspections.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., introduced the bill in 2022 while leading an investigation of the Bureau of Prisons as chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on investigations. It passed unanimously Wednesday without a formal roll call vote, meaning no senator objected.

Ossoff and the bill’s two other sponsors, Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., launched the Senate Bipartisan Prison Policy Working Group in February 2022 amid turmoil at the Bureau of Prisons, much of it uncovered by AP reporting. Reps. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., and Lucy McBath, D-Ga., backed the House version of the bill.

In a statement, Ossoff called Wednesday’s passage “a major milestone” and that his investigation had “revealed an urgent need to overhaul Federal prison oversight.”

Advocates for incarcerated people also praised the bill’s passage.

“After all the headlines, scandals, and controversy that have plagued the Bureau of Prisons for decades, we’re very happy to see this Congress take action to bring transparency and accountability to an agency that has gone so long without it,” said Daniel Landsman, the vice president of policy for the advocacy group FAMM.

Jonathan Zumkehr, the union president at a federal prison in Thomson, Illinois, said the legislation will also help protect prison workers. At his facility, female staff members were subject to more than 1,600 instances of sexual harassment and abuse by inmates from 2019 to 2023, and had little recourse to stop it, he said.

“Inmates were exposing themselves on a daily basis and management was saying, ‘oh no, it never happened here, it only happened a couple of times,'” said Zumkehr. The newly passed bill, he said, “would force an investigation to say, ‘hey, did it happen?’ and it would enforce reporting of the number of sexual attacks from an inmate to a staff member, and vice versa.”

“That would be huge, because right now the bureau doesn’t track sexual attacks on staff,” said Zumkehr, who is pursuing separate legislation to make such conduct a federal crime.

A message seeking comment was left with the Bureau of Prisons.

Under the legislation, an independent federal prison ombudsman would collect complaints via a secure hotline and online form and then investigate and report to the attorney general and Congress dangerous conditions affecting the health, safety, welfare and rights of inmates and staff.

Along with inspecting prison facilities, the legislation requires the Justice Department’s Inspector General to report any findings and recommendations to Congress and the public. The Bureau of Prisons would then need to respond with a corrective action plan within 60 days.

Biden signed a separate Ossoff bill into law in December 2022 requiring the Bureau of Prisons to fix broken surveillance cameras and install new ones.

An ongoing Associated Press investigation has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s largest law enforcement agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion.

AP reporting has revealed dozens of escapes , chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies , including inmate assaults and suicides.

In April, the Bureau of Prisons said it was closing its women’s prison in Dublin, California, known as the “rape club,” giving up on attempts to reform the facility after an AP investigation exposed rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse.

Last year, two high-profile prisoners were attacked and another killed himself in federal prisons.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was stabbed 22 times by a fellow prisoner last November at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona. The suspect said he targeted Chauvin because of his notoriety for killing George Floyd , federal prosecutors said.

Disgraced former sports doctor Larry Nassar was stabbed in July 2023 at a federal penitentiary in Florida, and “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski killed himself at a federal medical center in June 2023.

Associated Press reporter Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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Laura Day speaks out on drowning murder of her stepson

'A tragic accident happened. I tried to save him,' said Day.

In an encore "20/20" airing July 5 at 9 p.m. ET, the show, which originally aired in 2022, revisits the case of Laura Day, who was convicted of murder in the 2012 death of her 6-year-old stepson.

In 2013, Laura Day was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the drowning death of her 6-year-old stepson. Serving nearly 10 years of her life sentence, she maintains that the boy's drowning death at a Texas beach was an accident.

Day said now is the right time to tell her story.

"A tragic accident happened. I tried to save him," Day told "20/20" in her first interview.

The video featured above is from Laura Day's 1st 20/20 interview

On October 5, 2012, Day said that she picked up her stepson, Taylor Syring, from school in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was a Friday and she said that Taylor wanted to go to the beach.

"He said he wanted to have a picnic on the beach," said Day. "It was a spur of the moment decision."

Day said the two drove home to pick up bathing suits and beach towels before going to the beach.

Day also told investigators that the beach was busy that day so the two had gone down to a more secluded area to avoid crowds. She said she had put a lifejacket on Taylor and watched him play in the water before taking off the lifejacket because it had been giving him a rash.

"It was giving him a rash, clearly. I said, 'If you can show me that you're OK and you feel safe enough to dive under the waves and you feel comfortable, then I'll let you swim and play in the shallow water, without your lifejacket,'" said Day.

She said she turned around to head back to the beach and by the time she turned back around, Taylor was gone.

"At first, I didn't understand. I thought maybe he'd dived under the waves and he was swimming, but then I realized he didn't surface and I ran in the water to where he was and he was gone... And then I saw him floating, face down," said Day.

"I tried to get the water out of his lungs. And it just wasn't coming out. I didn't know why. I panicked. And I was disoriented. I wasn't thinking clearly," she added.

Day told police she "panicked" and instead of calling 911 she drove the unconscious child to a hospital 12 miles away. At the hospital, Taylor was pronounced dead.

Investigators began to question Day's story. They found it suspicious that she had driven 12 miles to a hospital because she said she believed that the paramedics would take too long to arrive. Investigators later found out that a Corpus Christi fire station was less than three miles away from the beach where Day had brought Taylor. She had also told police that even though she knows CPR, she had admitted not administering CPR to Taylor.

Police arrested Day on child endangerment charges three days after Taylor's death.

At the time, Day and Taylor's father, David Syring, had been married for two months and Taylor would visit on weekends. Day had met David Syring in 2012 while Syring was still married to his ex-wife and Taylor's mother, Kelly Syring.

"I was going through a rough patch with Kelly. And Laura was very friendly. She was married, too. She would explain to me the issues that she had in her marriage. And seemed as though neither one of us were really happy with our spouse," said Syring.

Syring admitted to having an affair with Day beginning in May 2012 and said his marriage was over. Kelly Syring said the divorce was difficult for both herself and Taylor.

"It was not easy. I was still very much in love with him. I was very angry," said Kelly Syring. " [ Taylor ] was heartbroken."

Only three months after the Syrings' divorce was finalized, David Syring and Day traveled to Las Vegas to get married. They both said the marriage was a bit rushed because of a morality clause in the divorce.

"In my divorce decree, Kelly had wanted it to be put in there that there was to be no overnight guests I wasn't married to around Taylor," said Syring. "We felt like we wanted to get married. Maybe not quite that soon. But I wanted Taylor to be able to be around Laura. And Laura to be around him."

Syring said he felt caught in the middle between Day and his ex-wife.

"I didn't handle things properly with the way our relationship ended, but there was issues, because it seemed like Kelly wanted to make it hard, especially for Laura," said Syring. "And Laura was afraid that, given my close bondness to Taylor, that I would eventually one day maybe go back to Kelly."

Day denies that she was ever jealous of Syring's relationship with his ex-wife and the fact the two shared a child together.

"No, absolutely not. As a matter of fact, David hired an attorney - we both did - to get full custody of Taylor," said Day. "I was very secure in my relationship with David at the time. I was not jealous of anybody."

Later, investigators would record phone calls between Day and Syring where Day would ask things like, "Do you love me more than you loved Kelly?"

"Despite, you know, me telling her, over and over, that I was there with her," said Syring. "She wanted it to just be us."

Day said she loved Taylor like he was her own child.

"We went everywhere together. Movies, Chuck E. Cheese; I took him to Taekwondo and we did everything. I had a bright future for him. Even talked about saving money and putting it away for college, like I did my own son," said Day, who has a son from a previous marriage.

Kelly Syring said that Day was emotionless the day Taylor died.

"She was standing there. Just not doing anything. Not crying. Nothing. Just standing there. As if she had the right to be there," Kelly Syring told "20/20". "All I could do was just cry. Just lay my head on my son, and just cry."

David Syring and Day were brought down to the Corpus Christi Police Department that evening for questioning.

"I just assumed that this was kind of just routine and I wanted to be able to help any way I could, just to make sure everyone had all the information that they needed," said Syring.

During the interview, Syring had told police that a week before Taylor was killed he had found out through an online search that Day had been connected to a series of crimes, including another murder. Syring said that when he had confronted Day with the information, she had told him that "it was not her."

"I took her word for it... she gave me an explanation as to these circumstances. And gave me explanations that seemed believable and plausible," said Syring. "And I believed her."

In May 1982, Day, who was 17-year-old Laura Feist at the time, was dating a 21-year-old college student named James Kendall in Laguna Beach, California. When Kendall decided to end the relationship, Day shot and killed him before turning the gun on herself, according to Jason Kravetz, a former officer with the Laguna Beach Police Department.

She had told investigators at the time that she was a victim of abuse and that she was acting in self-defense. Investigators could find no indication, however, that Kendall was ever abusive. Day pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to the California Youth Authority rather than prison.

When ABC News questioned Day about the murder, she refused to discuss it, saying "I'm not supposed to talk about that. My attorney told me not to," said Day.

After she was released, Day changed her name and married several times. Over the years, she was accused of or convicted of theft, fraud, burglary and bigamy, according to police reports.

After Day was interviewed by the Corpus Christi police, she returned home. But soon after police recounted her timeline, she was arrested on charges of child endangerment. Syring said he thought it was a mistake at the time.

"I figured that the police may have had some questions or doubts. I couldn't see it as anything other than an accident. Especially the way she described the events," said Syring.

After Day posted bail for $50,000, she returned home in less than 24 hours. Syring said she had been acting strange.

"Laura was just trying to get back to life as usual. Trying to figure out whatever it would take to keep me happy. Talking about the possibility of us packing up and moving, and going to Florida," said Syring. "Trying to get me to get past my feelings, trying to get me back to acting normal, which seemed a little strange to me. I mean just so sudden."

A break in the case came when a witness named Rene Ruiz came forward. Ruiz said he was fishing on the beach the day Taylor died and had seen Day.

"The most upsetting, troubling, telling thing that Rene Ruiz said, is that when she ultimately left the beach - now remember, according to her, she has a dying boy in the back of her car - she waved and smiled at him, as she drove off the beach," said former prosecutor Brittany Jensen.

Prosecutors also alleged that Taylor was not the one who suggested the trip to beach. Investigators had found Taylor's clothes in Day's car, suggesting that he changed in the car and that the two never went home before the beach. Day claimed that Taylor had changed in the car because he was finishing his snack first.

They later would collect evidence from Day's jail phone calls to Syring, where she explained that she had never gone home after picking Taylor up from school.

In January 2013, Day was charged with capital murder in addition to child endangerment.

While the prosecution continued to build its case, investigators were contacted by a drowning expert who looked into the conditions of the beach on the day Taylor died.

"When Laura Day stated that Taylor Syring's body sunk, and then popped up 50 yards to the right, the problem was that was the wrong direction. Based on the conditions and the wind and everything else that day, it would've gone left and not right," said Jensen. "It is highly improbable that she would have been able to locate him quickly, unless she was right next to him. Everything was all lies."

After six days of trial, Day was found guilty of first-degree capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

At the time, Syring was still convinced that Day was innocent and the couple hired a new attorney to handle her case.

"You can't keep your eyes on your children every minute, wherever you are. It was obviously an accident," said Appellate Attorney Angela Moore.

Moore also found a drowning prevention expert, John Fletemeyer, who refuted the prosecution's expert.

"Depending on the direction the waves are coming, the long shore drift can go in either direction and that's a common factor on most beaches," said Fletemeyer, who has conducted more than 1,000 forensic investigations into drownings, according to his website. "Certainly could explain why the little boy was 50 yards down the beach."

For now, Day is waiting to see if the Texas Court of Criminals will order her a new trial.

As for Syring and Day's relationship, the couple is now divorced. Syring said he believes now that Day is where she belongs.

"I believe that this is probably the worst punishment for her. To be in prison," said Syring. "She has never apologized. She has never said sorry for what she's done. I feel so stupid to have been this naïve and to have stuck by her as long as I did."

Kelly Syring has lived nearly a decade without her son. She said she has forgiven what she can.

"Well, I have forgiven Laura. That doesn't mean she needs to come out of jail. Look at that, why should she get off so easy? She gets to spend the rest of her life in a jail cell. Miserable," said Kelly Syring. "And as far as my ex-husband... I blame him, too. I do blame him. This is partly his fault. He knew about her past."

Syring said he's doing what he can to move on.

"I was so wrapped up in, tangled up in all of this, that so many things, so many red flags, escaped me. I don't know if it was just, you know, the trauma of losing my son, I don't know if it was her being a great manipulator. I can't explain it," said Syring.

Day continued to write Syring until 2019, when he stopped writing her back. She did, however, find a new boyfriend through a pen-pal service in prison.

Jensen said Taylor will always live on in her memory as a reminder that justice does exist.

"To this day, I have a picture of Taylor Syring on a shelf directly across from my desk. I see him every day, while I'm working," said Jensen. "And I do that because the justice that the case team and I were able to get for him was one of the more incredible things I think I'll ever do in my career."

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Beryl updates: Matagorda County was “hardest hit,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says

Across southeast Texas, residents and officials are assessing the damage and beginning the recovery process.

Matagorda County was "hardest hit" by Beryl, Patrick says

Some 2,500 households in the unincorporated coastal community of Sargent may not have power for another two weeks, Matagorda County Judge Bobby Seiferman said Wednesday during a press briefing about Hurricane Beryl's aftermath.

The hurricane struck the Texas coast early Monday and knocked out power for millions of Texans along the Gulf Coast, greater Houston and in Deep East Texas. Matagorda County was the “hardest hit” of all 121 counties included in the state’s disaster declaration, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at the briefing.

“And Sargent was the hardest hit of that part, of that county,” he said.

Patrick is serving as acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is on an economic development trip in Asia. Since Monday, Patrick has traveled to Houston, Galveston and now Bay City to provide updates on storm recovery. He couldn’t visit Sargent because of the bad weather and there wasn’t a suitable place for his helicopter to land, he said.

Sen. Joan Huffman , a Republican who represents Matagorda County, also attended the briefing and promised to work with local and federal officials to help the county deal with the storm’s aftermath, including restoring power and cleaning up debris.

Matagorda County officials have asked the state to help set up cooling stations, remove debris and get food to residents beyond “ready-to-eat” meals, Patrick said.

“They’ve asked for a lot because there are a lot of issues,” he said. “We are going to do everything we can to check every box that they asked us to check.”

He added that the state will provide additional security personnel to Sargent as well as food, water and ice.

— Pooja Salhotra

Outages make it hard to discharge hospital patients, leading to backups

Several Houston-area hospitals are having trouble making room for new patients because they can’t discharge patients to homes without power, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Tuesday.

“In fact, we had a police officer who was shot in the leg, and when the mayor went down to see him the next day, he still didn’t have a room,” he said.

Patrick, who has served as acting governor amid the storm, said NRG Arena will be converted into a temporary medical step-down facility to free up space in local hospitals. It will have 250 beds available.

Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said hospitals, physicians and patients will decide who goes to NRG Arena. Any of the regional hospitals can send a patient to the arena, as most of them are in a crisis, he said.

Millions of Texans are still without power after Hurricane Beryl caused regionwide power outages. Kidd said it was in patients’ best interest not to go back to their homes if they don’t have power and they can’t keep their medications refrigerated.

Kidd has also ordered 25 additional ambulances to come to Houston and assist this week.

“The City of Houston told us they had an ambulance shortage because all of their ambulances were in the emergency department waiting to offload patients,” he said. “Some had been sitting there for three-plus hours.”

This isn’t the first time the arena in Houston has been used during a crisis. In 2005, a medical facility was established in what was then known as the Astrodome to treat and shelter Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

— Stephen Simpson

Hurricane Beryl death toll rises to 10

Hurricane Beryl, which brought fierce winds and heavy rains to a large portion of southeastern Texas, killed at least 10 people, according to state and local authorities.

In Harris County, two people waiting out the storm in their homes were killed in separate instances when trees fell on their residences. An Atascocita Fire Department spokesperson said that in the first instance, two people were in a residence when a tree fell, killing one and injuring the other. The second instance saw a 74-year-old grandmother die after a tree fell on her bedroom, according to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced another person, a city of Houston employee, died from drowning in a flooded underpass on July 8. Acting Houston Police Department Chief Larry Satterwhite identified the man in a social media post as 54-year-old HPD information security officer Russell Richardson.

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Harris County also reported two deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning during Beryl, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said in a July 9 news conference. Kidd said that during the power outages, people run generators in unsafe places — like in a garage or near windows — allowing carbon monoxide to pool indoors. This can lead to asphyxiation.

In Montgomery County, two died inside a tent in a wooded area, according to a news release from the county’s emergency management office. No additional details surrounding their death were available. A third person, a man in his 40s, died in Montgomery County after a tree fell on him while he was on his tractor, the news release said.

In Galveston County, John Florence, an investigator with the county's Medical Examiner confirmed that 71 year-old Judith Greet died at Crystal Beach, a community in the Bolivar Peninsula. Greet was on oxygen for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease that blocks airflow and makes it difficult to breathe. When the hurricane knocked out power in her RV home, Greet’s oxygen machine ran out of battery and she died.

In Matagorda County, where thousands are still without power , county officials reported that one person died from heat.

The Houston Chronicle reported that a tenth person died in a house fire caused by lightning. Houston fire officials told The Texas Tribune that the cause is under investigation.

— Pooja Salhotra, Stephen Simpson, Dante Motley and Alejandra Martinez

Power restoration could take days and summer temperatures are rising

Millions of Texans are heading into a third summer day without power after Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc through several counties — including the state’s most populous one — and temperatures rose dangerously into the 90s. The heat index is projected to push past 100 degrees in some areas, compounding the risk for an already battered and worn-out area.

Power companies have deployed thousands of workers to restore power while state and local officials navigate residents’ frustrations at what’s becoming routine in Texas: massive power outages after winter storms, thunderstorms, tornadoes or hurricanes.

Millions of Texans face third day without power in summer heat

Updated: 5 hours ago

As of 6:22 p.m. Tuesday, 1.9 million electricity customers concentrated in the southeastern corner of the state that bore the brunt of Beryl’s fierce winds still didn’t have electricity. Power companies and elected officials said it could be days before everyone has electricity again, meaning people without air conditioning would have to figure out how to cope with the heat.

“The power system is a life saving critical infrastructure — it’s the difference between life and death,” said Costa Samaras, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “The era of nobody could have foreseen these conditions is over.”

Utility officials and state leaders have said it will likely take days to get everyone’s electricity back on — and temperatures are projected to rise steadily over the next week, National Weather Service Meteorologist Ryan Knapp said.

Temperatures in the 80s and 90s can create unsafe conditions for high-risk individuals, especially in a home with no power, and finding ways to keep cool will be paramount, he said.

“The upper 80s can obviously heat the inside of the home pretty quickly,” Knapp said.

— Pooja Salhotra, Jess Huff, Emily Foxhall and Kayla Gao

Federal disaster declaration approved, Patrick says

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said President Joe Biden approved a Federal Emergency Disaster Declaration to aid Texans in the recovery from Hurricane Beryl. Following a phone call with Biden Tuesday, Patrick stated that he requested FEMA assistance to cover costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures.

“We are appreciative that the federal government will step in and they will pick up most of the cost as we go through recovery of the storm,” Patrick said at a Tuesday press briefing.

Biden says Texas officials delayed request for Beryl federal aid

Once the declaration is finalized and issued, the state’s homeowners and business will be able to access loans and grants to help with Beryl-related recovery costs. FEMA’s public assistance program is divided into categories. Part A covers the costs of debris removal, while part B covers emergency protective measures like medical care, transportation and evacuation. Patrick said the federal government would be covering “most of the cost” associated with storm recovery.

The declaration includes 121 impacted counties, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said. Those counties include Brazoria, Galveston and Harris.

Kidd urged residents to adhere to local government regulations if they start doing their own debris cleanup.

Debris will need to be separated into three categories. Vegetative debris includes leaves and plants; construction and demolition debris includes building materials; appliances and white goods are another category.

“Please don’t put it all into one pile,” Kidd said. “It only slows the recovery process.”

On Monday, Biden spoke with Houston Mayor John Whitmire and said his administration is committed to supporting Texas, a White House spokesperson said.

“The U.S. Coast Guard and FEMA are on the ground and stand ready to support local response efforts,” the spokesperson said. “They will remain with the people of Texas every step of the way.”

–Alejandra Martinez and Pooja Salhotra

Texans begin to assess damage and plan clean-up efforts after bruising storm

Hurricane Beryl plowed through the Houston region Monday and, according to local meteorologist Matt Lanza, keeping up hurricane strength until it got halfway across town. Only in the afternoon would the winds die down completely, allowing people to emerge to follow a routine many know well: assess the damage, check on others, clean up and wait for the power to return.

The storm jolted people awake as its winds roared, blowing at 90 miles per hour, pushing tree branches at windows and ripping shingles from rooftops. Ten to 15 inches of rain pounded homes, according to Houston Mayor John Whitmire.

“Just my luck”: Houston begins clean up after Beryl rips through Gulf Coast

July 9, 2024

The wind sounded to 31-year-old Elizabeth Alvarez in Houston like someone screaming. The mother of six woke up at 4 a.m., scared, and didn’t go back to sleep. She thought her window might break. She lost power and — hour by hour — more Houstonians did too, their air conditioning and refrigerated food going along with it.

Later, Alvarez would drag her pet birds in their cages onto her porch to feel the cooler air, while neighbors grilled corn and pork and others kicked a soccer ball. She would clutch a handheld, battery-powered fan, that was turned off to save for when she needed it.

Across the region, fences toppled. Awnings ripped from restaurants. Signs soared away from businesses. Traffic lights twisted askew. A local television station lost power and went off the air. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said on The Weather Channel, “Really, Houston is getting the brunt of the wind and the rain.”

The pops of transformers echoed. Entire trees crashed down.

And the damage pushed on from there, as Beryl uprooted trees and downed power lines into southeast Texas. In Liberty, a beloved pecan tree outside the historic courthouse was uprooted early on Monday, according to Bluebonnet News . The tree served as a meeting place for generations of residents.

“The rebuild is going to be significant. There was real damage. But the good news is for Houston, this ain’t our first rodeo,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said at a Monday evening press conference.

— Emily Foxhall

How to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning from generators during power outages

When electrical power is knocked out after a hurricane, carbon monoxide poisoning from improperly used gas-powered generators is especially dangerous. The odorless, colorless gas is called an “invisible killer.” Early symptoms can include headache, dizziness, weakness and nausea, similar to the flu. To stay safe, experts recommend never connecting a generator directly to your home’s wiring, ensuring it's properly grounded, and always operate it outdoors away from windows and vents.

— Alejandra Martinez

What should I do after a hurricane hits?

Stay away from flood waters and damaged power lines. Don’t enter damaged buildings. Take photos and document damages to your home or property. Residents are also encouraged to document their storm damages and losses through a state-run online survey to help state officials understand the extent of the damages.

Organizations like the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and local volunteer organizations can help you find food, shelter and supplies, as well as even assist you with clean-up efforts.

How to navigate FEMA during this year’s hurricane season

Updated: July 10, 2024

Government and community resources may be available to help with recovery. Disaster declarations from the governor and president may free up federal funds for recovery assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency . People cannot receive disaster aid and insurance assistance for the same damages, so insured Texans should file claims through their existing policies before applying for FEMA assistance.

— Maria Probert Hermosillo and Pooja Salhotra

Tornadoes pop up in East Texas after Beryl downgraded to a Tropical Storm

After downing trees and power lines across the Greater Houston area, Hurricane Beryl has been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, meaning wind speeds have lowered below 75 miles per hour.

Maximum sustained winds have decreased to about 60 miles per hour, a 1 p.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center. Beryl is headed northeastward at about 14 miles per hour and is expected to increase in speed as it continues to move through East Texas, where some local officials asked residents to shelter in place.

The National Weather Service out of Shreveport is tracking three confirmed tornadoes on radar, two in Texas and the third in Louisiana. The first is south of Joaquin, which is north of Lufkin and near the Louisiana border, the second is north of Timpson, which is also near the border.

Forecasters urged Texans to use caution amid downed power lines and warned that improper generator use can cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

On the Texas coastline, a storm surge warning is still in effect north of San Luis Pass to Sabine Pass, an area that includes Galveston Bay. The tropical storm warning was discontinued from Port O’Conner to San Luis Pass.

The Coastal Bend, including areas like Corpus Christi, was spared from the brunt of the storm.

— Pooja Salhotra and Jess Huff

High winds persist into East Texas, prompting requests for residents to shelter in place

High winds have made their way north from the Texas coast into East Texas and counties have begun to ask residents to shelter in place as a way to keep emergency vehicles off the roads as well.

The storm kept up its momentum as a Category 1 hurricane all the way to Interstate 10, surprising meteorologist Matt Lanza at Space City Weather.

“The widespread wind gusts of 75 to 85 mph so far inland was really unnerving,” he wrote in an updated blog post.

Residents of San Jacinto, Liberty, Hardin and Tyler counties have been encouraged to shelter in place, especially to stay off the roads in an effort to also keep emergency vehicles off the road.

News outlets and emergency management teams throughout the region have reported downed power lines and trees throughout the region.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch until 10 p.m. Monday for counties between Montgomery and Texarkana counties, as well as Northwest and North Central Louisiana and Southern Arkansas. A wind advisory is in effect until Tuesday morning.

— Jess Huff

Storm passes over Lake Livingston Dam, which was inundated with rain in April

In Polk County, which is home to the Lake Livingston Dam, the storm began to peak around 11 a.m. with the worst of it located over the dam, according to Polk County Emergency Management. High winds are still top of mind, even as Beryl has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

The dam, which recently reported potential failures, was releasing 21,175 cubic feet of water per second as of 11 a.m. and the lake level is at 130.93 feet above sea level.

This is significantly less than the several hundred thousand cubic feet of water released in April, when storms required several hundred thousand cubic feet of water per second to be released for multiple days in a row.

The Trinity River Authority, in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Authority, initiated a temporary flight restriction over the dam as the authority also began construction to mitigate potential failures early Monday.

Houston officials ask residents to remain off roads as damage assessment begins

Downed tree limbs and power lines, flooded streets, and power outages have Houston officials pleading with residents to stay home.

Houston mayor John Whitmire held a news conference Monday detailing the dire situation the city finds itself in as it took the brunt of Hurricane Beryl.

“We are dealing with a very serious amount of water. Around 10 inches of rain across the city and 90-mile-per-hour winds and hurricane conditions,” Whitmire said. “Please, Houstonians, shelter in place. We are in emergency and rescue mode.”

Whitmire said over 700,000 Houston electricity customers are currently without power, and the region’s two major airports are not open. However, city officials should better understand the situation now that the storm is moving away.

“We are experiencing the dirty side of a dirty storm,” Whitmire said.

The storm's sustained winds were still at 70 miles per hour as it moved from the Gulf Coast into the Houston area. The National Hurricane Center said that up to 10 inches of rain could fall in some places — and some isolated areas of the state may receive 15 inches. Some areas of Houston have already received nearly 10 inches of rainfall, according to data from the Harris County Flood Control District. On Monday morning, local officials in the Houston area said the storm had downed trees and caused street flooding. At least two people died when trees fell onto their residences.

In Rosenberg, a city 35 miles southwest of Houston, a downed tree hit a high water rescue vehicle returning from a rescue, police said on X . Officials there also urged residents to stay off roadways.

Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Pena underscored the strain on resources due to the high demand for high-water rescues and live wire calls. These are currently the primary service requests, consuming a significant portion of their resources, and they have already helped eight people in high-water rescues.

“Earlier today, we saw a video of a high-water rescue , and you can see how resource-intensive those call types are. We can’t keep using those resources. Please be cautious and heed the warnings,” Pena said.

— Stephen Simpson, Pooja Salhotra and Emily Foxhall

Refineries begin reporting storm-related air pollution

Some refineries along the Texas coast have shut down due to Hurricane Beryl and are self-reporting instances of “unintentional” emissions.

In one instance, Freeport LNG, a large natural gas terminal on the coast of Brazoria County, reported releases of over 8,000 pounds of unplanned air pollution on Sunday. Pollutants included ethylene , a chemical with a faint sweet and musky odor, that can cause headache, dizziness, fatigue, and lightheadedness if people are exposed to it in large amounts overtime.

In their report to the state, the company wrote the facility was proactively shutting down before the hurricane winds caused power outages.

“[The shutdown] resulted in a subsequent unavoidable venting,” the report said.

Flaring, a process for burning unwanted gas to relieve pressure or clear pipes, usually happens before or during extreme weather events, said Luke Metzger, executive director of the nonprofit Environment Texas.

The Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, along the Houston Ship Channel, tweeted the facility was flaring Monday morning due to a brief power disruption during the storm. No report has been submitted to the state yet.

Metzger said Beryl’s pollution events are low compared to Hurricane Harvey’s 8.3 million pounds of air pollution reported to the state, but suspects more facilities will submit reports after the storm’s passing.

“I was surprised looking at the pollution reports that there has been relatively little pollution reported,” Metzger said. “That’s either good news because the storm had less of an impact [on refineries] or facilities [operators] have learned their lesson.”

Beryl makes landfall in Texas as Category 1 hurricane

Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda around 4 a.m. Monday as a Category 1 Hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm strengthened through Sunday evening and had maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour when it came ashore. A 5 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center warned about life-threatening storm surge and inland flooding Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of Texans are without power , including many in coastline counties such as Brazoria and Matagorda, according to PowerOutage.us. The full scope of the storm's damage is not yet clear — and it could cause more Monday as it moves northeast through the state.

The hurricane center said the coast was experiencing life-threatening storm surge. It also warned of flash floods throughout the southeastern portion of the state as the storm continues moving inland, bringing five to 10 inches of rain to some areas — or up to 15 inches in some isolated places.

Category 1 storms primarily damage unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery and trees. They can also do extensive damage to electricity lines and cause power outages that last several days.

Disclosure: CenterPoint Energy has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here .

Maria Probert Hermosillo , Berenice Garcia and Emily Foxhall contributed to this report.

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Information about the authors

Pooja Salhotra

General assignment reporter.

[email protected]

@PoojaSalhotra

Stephen Simpson

Mental health reporter.

[email protected]

@Steve55Simpson

Alejandra Martinez

Environmental reporter.

[email protected]

@alereports

East Texas Reporter

[email protected]

@JessHuff16

[email protected]

Contributors

Maria Probert Hermosillo

Berenice Garcia

Rio grande valley reporter.

[email protected]

@berenice__g

Emily Foxhall

Climate reporter.

[email protected]

Learn about The Texas Tribune’s policies , including our partnership with The Trust Project to increase transparency in news.

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Where Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard Now?

Released from prison in December 2023, Gypsy Rose Blanchard just announced she’s having her first child.

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Blanchard, 32, announced in a video posted to her YouTube channel Tuesday that she is expecting her first child with boyfriend Ken Urker in January 2025. “We’re both very excited; this was not planned at all,” she said. “It was completely unexpected, but we’re both very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood.”

The new baby is the latest surprise from Blanchard, who has stayed in the public eye ever since her release on December 28, 2023. She is already the subject of two television series and has revealed plans for her memoir, My Time to Stand , available this December.

Here’s what to know about all the recent changes in Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s life.

She wants people to learn from her mistake

Her first book published, plus she has another on the way, gypsy is getting divorced from her estranged husband, she’s having a baby with her new boyfriend, gypsy stars in a new reality series, she’s still learning to navigate social media as a public figure, gypsy was released from prison in december 2023.

According to The Cincinnati Enquirer , Blanchard was released on parole from the Chillicothe Correctional Center at around 3:30 a.m. on December 28, 2023, after serving 85 percent of her 10-year sentence for second-degree murder. “I’m ready for freedom,” she told People in an interview just before her release. “I’m ready to expand, and I think that goes for every facet of my life.”

Blanchard conspired with an ex-boyfriend to kill her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, in June 2015 after suffering years of abuse. Experts have surmised that Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental disorder in which a caretaker makes someone sick or gives the illusion of being ill to garner attention. She led doctors and the community to believe that Gypsy suffered from an array of fake illnesses, such as asthma, leukemia, and muscular dystrophy, subjecting her to unnecessary treatments and procedures.

In 2021, Gypsy told The Springfield News-Leader she hoped to rebuild relationships with the rest of her family upon her eventual release. Her stepmother, Kristy Blanchard, told NewsNation host Ashleigh Banfield she looked forward to belatedly celebrating Christmas with Gypsy Rose upon her release and also planned a spa day for her. Today, Gypsy lives with Kristy and her father, Rod, in Cut Off, Louisiana.

In an interview with People , Blanchard expressed remorse about her mother’s murder and the events that preceded it.

Blanchard testified she met ex-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn on a Christian dating website in 2012, and they initially carried out a secret relationship. They met in person for the first time in March 2015 and, shortly after, began plotting to kill her mother. Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee 17 times inside her home in June 2015. Gypsy said in 2018 , she “talked him into it” because she wanted to be free from her mother. Godejohn was eventually found guilty of first-degree murder in 2018 and sentenced to life in prison.

“If I had another chance to redo everything, I don’t know if I would go back to when I was a child and tell my aunts and uncles that I’m not sick and mommy makes me sick. Or, if I would travel back to just the point of that conversation with Nick and tell him, ‘You know what, I’m going to go tell the police everything.’ I kind of struggle with that,” she told People in December 2023.

Gypsy Rose wants to use her story to help people in abusive relationships. No matter how dire the circumstances, she wants to make sure they don’t resort to murder. “It may seem like every avenue is closed off, but there is always another way. Do anything, but don’t take this course of action,” she said.

Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom

Hoping to be an advocate for other victims of Munchausen by proxy, Blanchard first told The News-Leader in 2021 that she was writing a book detailing the years-long abuse by Dee Dee and her incarceration. True to her word, Blanchard published an e-book titled Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom in January 2024. The book includes exclusive information about Blanchard’s time in prison and personal photos, drawings, and illustrations from her past.

Even before the book’s release, Blanchard had already opened up about the effect of her incarceration on her life. “I’m the type of person that, I will make a mistake, learn from it and move on, and hopefully never make it again,” she told The Hollywood Reporter . “So I definitely think that that level of maturity kicked in, and you can see the transformation from when I first got to prison to me actually walking out of prison and feeling, as a confident woman like I could stand my ground, say no when I need to, be my best advocate.”

On April 29, 2024, Blanchard revealed plans for her next writing project—a full memoir titled My Time to Stand —set for publication in December 2024. “Now, I can stand with other victims as they take steps toward doing whatever work is necessary to stand for themselves. My Time to Stand is about reclaiming my footing so others can be inspired to walk a life of purpose and meaning and build a future sturdy enough so others can stand for something, too,” she told People .

Years removed from her relationship with Godejohn, Blanchard found love while imprisoned. She married Ryan Anderson, a teacher from Louisiana, in June 2022. According to People , Anderson, now 38, picked up Blanchard from prison when she was released.

Before gaining her freedom, Blanchard told People , “When I’m at home with my family, with my husband’s arms around me and I’m surrounded by my loved ones, that is when I will be happy.” However, she had an apparent change of heart. Blanchard announced in a March 2024 post to Facebook she had moved in with her father and stepmother amid a separation from Anderson and, on April 8, filed for divorce, according to Louisiana court records. The legal grounds for the filing weren’t made public.

Anderson later told Daily Mail.com the pair separated over Blanchard’s rekindled relationship with her ex-fiancé, Ken Urker. “I’m not doing well with it. For me it just came out of the blue,” Anderson said.

TMZ reported on April 30 that Blanchard and her ex-fiancé Ken Urker were an official couple, with her telling the outlet, “After reconnecting earlier this month, we realized that our love for each other is simply undeniable, and life is too short to not take a chance.” They have repeatedly appeared in public together and were spotted with matching tattoos .

On July 9, Blanchard announced she was 11 weeks pregnant and expecting her first child with Urker in January 2025. “It is so going to be a long journey ahead, but I’m up for it,” said Blanchard, who vowed to focus on her and her child’s health. “I feel a shift in myself. When I found out that I was pregnant, none of anything else mattered.”

In the meantime, Blanchard and her family are currently featured in the Lifetime reality series Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up , which began on June 3. According to the network, the show provides a “raw and revealing look at Gypsy’s new life on the outside,” including her relationship with Anderson and rising media fame. The eight-episode series continues through July 22, with a new episode airing each Monday night at 9 p.m. ET.

Lifetime previously aired the three-night docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard in January 2024. Prison Confessions was a major hit for the network, averaging 1.1 million viewers with three days of delayed viewing, according to The Hollywood Reporter . “Millions have followed Gypsy’s story and are invested in seeing what is in store for her next,” said Elaine Frontain Bryant, executive vice president and head of programming for Lifetime.

In addition to her TV projects, Blanchard wasted little time establishing a presence on social media upon her release. Only one day after leaving prison, Blanchard posted a photo to her Instagram account with a celebratory caption: “First selfie of freedom!” Then, on New Year’s Eve, she revealed via TikTok that she was celebrating with family members—including her father, her stepmother, and her husband—and had joined Snapchat ( gr_blanchard ).

Blanchard had amassed as many as 7.8 million followers on her public Instagram but, in March 2024, deleted that page as well as several others on social media, including her X and TikTok accounts. “I do my best to live my authentic life, and what’s real to me, and what’s not real is social media,” Blanchard said in a TikTok video before logging off, according to Rolling Stone . “Social media is literally a doorway to hell.”

But Blanchard had an apparent change of heart and has since returned to social media. She regularly posts on her verified Instagram ( gypsy.rose.blanchard.insta ) and TikTok ( gypsyblanchard.tiktok ) accounts. She also posted the first video to her YouTube channel on June 27.

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

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