WEBVTT - The Girlfriends S3/E4: The Shawties 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.080 Hey, girlfriends, it's me Anna. I wanted to give your 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.800 heads up. This episode takes place within Reiker's Island Jail, 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:09.320 so we'll obviously be speaking a lot about. 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:10.600 The prison system. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.720 Plusa's going to be talk about addiction, and there's lots 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.960 of references to violence, including domestic abuse. 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:19.720 But I'll also get. 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.720 To introduce you to some incredible women who formed a 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.560 sisterhood while locked up and who helped Kelly become the 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.960 woman she is today. If you're affected by any of 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.120 the themes around domestic and gendered violence in this show, 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.920 reach out to our charity partner No More. There are 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:39.120 domestic violence charity with a lot of great resources to 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.680 help you or your loved ones. You can search No 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.080 More dot org and we've put a link to their 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.600 website in the episode description. There's also going to be 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:56.840 some bad language, so let's go. It's a swelteringly hot 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:01.760 day in early July twenty ten. Kelly Hannatt has just 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.959 arrived at the infamous Riker's Island Jail. She's been taken 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.080 into a unit called pretty Uninspiringly New Admissions. 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:11.520 This is where you. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.680 Wait around while you and a busload of other detainees 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.640 are processed. It's not a comfortable place to be even 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:22.440 at the best of times, and this month temperatures are 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.000 reaching as high as one hundred degrees fahrenheit For the 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.559 non Americans in the room, that's nearly forty degrees celsius 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.080 at the time. Rikers also doesn't have any air conditioning, 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.160 so you're just cattle in a hot tin can. 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.760 I couldn't take it. And this one piece paper suit 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.640 covered my footing and I had no shoes on. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:51.200 Remember that bloodstained suit Kelly was wearing. She still got 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:51.440 that on. 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:56.520 It was so hot. I ripped the shoe part and 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.760 rolled it up now on barefoot. In II Grews Island 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.680 Inn Intake, which is the philbies place that I know 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:04.680 of in the world. 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.160 From Intake, where all new arrivals go, Kelly is taken 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.000 through a series of invasive medical tests, blood tests, mental 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.120 health assessments, drug checks. Then she's issued with a kind 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:23.520 of jail starter pack, some clothes, two towels, two sheets, toothpaste, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.720 and a toothbrush, a single green cup, plus something called 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:35.680 state soap, whatever the fuck that means. After getting her supplies, 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:40.480 Kelly spat out into the general population a sixty person unit. 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:44.880 As she walks through a communal area lined by cells, 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.360 she can tell that everyone's looking her up and down. 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.160 Oh, I stayed on me for two reasons. I was 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:58.960 white and the paper suit. Now I know that African 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:02.320 Americans are true. You did very unfairly in the justice system. 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.000 So it made sense when I went in there and 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.240 there are sixty cells, and fifty nine of them are 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:15.200 African American and then there is me. So people started 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:21.160 talking to me, you're blondie, your white girl, and I said, nah, no, 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.960 we're not doing that. I have a name, I'm not 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.720 a punk. You're not going to push me around in here. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.280 Other than rejecting some new unwanted nicknames. Kelly keeps her 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.040 head down for the first couple of weeks. She's got 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:37.760 a plan. 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:42.400 Just watch and watch and watch, get a feel for 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:48.440 absolutely everybody. But while I was watching, I was definitely sick. 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.280 Kelly's been an opoid addict for a decade and it's 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.520 been on and off methadone for most of that time. 0:03:55.400 --> 0:04:00.160 Right now, she's going through something called administrative detox. It's 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.200 the fastest detox that you can put a person through legally. 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.600 When they're called methodon. A few times I had to 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:13.000 crawl on my hands and knees, and one captain when 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.960 he saw me, he said, you see, I hope you 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.680 remember this for the rest of your life. This is 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.120 what drugs do you. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.920 During this time, Kelly's barely able to speak, throwing up 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:35.279 and worse. Kelly's very religious, the Catholic girl through and through, 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.280 and a dedicated disciple of Saint Terrez, whose signature token 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:39.960 is a rose. 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.000 Kelly's been praying to her since she was four years old, and. 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.479 I imagine she spent these early weeks of detox doing 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.000 the same. She's always relied on Saint Terrez to get 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.880 her through the worst. But right now there's someone else 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.960 by her side too. Kelly's being nursed by a woman, 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.279 a fellow inmate, someone she's never met before. 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.800 This lady, she was maybe a couple of years older 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.000 than me. And when I was feeling a little bit 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.479 better and I could speak, I said, thank you so much. 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.440 She gives this woman a hug and I. 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.839 Said, why do you smell like roses? She said, ah, 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.520 these are my rosary beads. I got these from the Vatican. 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:24.200 They made of rosewood. 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.239 The woman takes the beads off and places them around 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:28.960 Kelly's neck. 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:38.520 I said, what is your name? She says Teresa, and 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:46.200 I said, really, it's amazing. I feel that that was 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:51.400 my guardian angel I feel that God sent Saint Terre's 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:56.320 to tell me that everything was going to be okay. 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.200 It's just as well, because Kelly's gonna need all the 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.360 help she can get, divine or otherwise if she's going 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.280 to survive here in Rikers, let's alone prove. 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:13.159 That she's not a murderer. I'm Annisonfield and from the 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:13.960 teams at. 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:18.880 Novel and iHeart Podcasts, this is the Girlfriend's Gaolhouse. 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:31.000 Lawyer, Episode four, The Shorties. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.040 At first, Kelly keeps her distance from the other inmates, 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.360 but pretty soon it becomes clear that to get by 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:47.680 and here, she's going to need some friends. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:50.160 Enter Angelica. 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:53.640 Our sisterhood called ourselves the Sholdies. 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.240 Angelica isn't actually her real name, but it's what we're 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:57.880 going to call her. 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.640 Going to Core, it is the time where men and 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.520 women are brought back together, right because we're very very 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.000 separate quarters, and so we don't see each other until 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:09.320 it's time to go to court. 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.360 The way the guys speak to you. They go you 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.920 show it. You showed it with the blonde here, showed it, 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.280 showed it with a gray shirt, or showed it with 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.080 the black pants. You show, they give me your numbers. 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.840 So we started this show. We started calling ourselves to 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:29.080 show this and this is when I formed a family 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:30.080 in Rikers. 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.080 We're gonna find lightness and everything. I mean, I think 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:37.360 it's part of the human condition. As terrible as an 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:42.800 experience is, in order to survive it, you find some 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.960 beauty somewhere. You find something amusing somewhere. 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.120 Kelly finds her little pocket of joy at the same 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:52.240 place she found it before. Present on the dance floor, 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:55.160 drop the big kel. 0:07:58.720 --> 0:07:59.440 Mice for my. 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.840 Walk and on and dance like in the open in 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:08.600 the huge recreational room. I wanted to feel happiness, and 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.240 that's what made me happy. So I danced and other 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:17.440 people started dancing again. We started what they call a battle. 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.760 One person will go and then the next person goes, 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.160 and then by whatever you hear of the crowd scream 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:32.600 like yo, she got sunned, that's who wins. Then the 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:38.760 officers were calling other officers to come watch this, and 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.840 they said, you gotta see the way this white girl 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:47.720 is sunning everybody. Yeah, I won the battle. They were 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:53.000 like yo, white girl could get down, and they took 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.679 me in as their own. 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:03.080 Which included sharing the most sacred secret recipe, DIY beauty tips. 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:08.040 How do we straighten hair without a flat iron? Well, 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.760 we had a nice hot pot, which is kind of 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.640 like a long tea kettle if you want, and we 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.960 went unplug it and like wrap hair around it and 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.320 brush it. Or in Kelly's skide, she liked her hair curly, 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:27.800 so she would make rollers out of newspapers or tissue. 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:30.920 She's kind of like roll her hair tied a little 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.760 not go to sleep and there you go, curly soup. 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.360 And for lipstick, for example, we had these little packs 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:42.280 of almost like kool aid with the crystals, a little 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:47.720 bit to your lips. There you go, No smuch, lipstick. 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:52.520 What about foundation or eyeshadow or a scar? My scar 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:53.160 must be hard. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:59.280 So mascara was made with toothpaste and the ink from 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.400 a pen. Now, thinking back at it, probably not the 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.560 best thing for your eyes, but don't get your eyes 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:13.360 wet and you're fine, right, And it worked just like mscara, 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.200 and it got to the point where officers were like, 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.280 you guys have makeup in yourselves. Were like no, They're like, oh, 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.480 here go these Building eight girls. You know, because we 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:26.800 were always tipped up as. 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:27.439 The shortiest bond. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:31.320 Over time, Kelly tells them about her case and everyone 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:33.280 kind of shrugs it off. 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:38.200 All of us were like, why are you here. Kelly's innocent. 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.440 They can all tell and it's just a matter of 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.280 time before a jury will see that too. 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.520 We just knew, Oh, you're gonna go home, you know. 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.320 This is just it's unfortunately it is taking this long. 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.480 At one point early in Kelly's detention, her brother Ronnie 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:57.360 comes to pay her a visit. The visitors area is 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.680 one depressing room split into two by a row of 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.800 booths that go down the middle. Glass separates the prisoners 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:06.080 and the visitors. 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:08.760 Over the two way telephones. 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:13.400 Kelly and Ronnie are having a heated exchange. Kelly's been 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.720 offered a plea deal ten years in prison. Her co defendant, 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.080 an ex boyfriend, Tommy Donovan, the man Kelly says is 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:25.520 solely responsible for Angel Vargas's murder, has already taken the 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:26.840 deal he was offered. 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:32.400 He'll take a plea from manslaughter for fifteen years, and 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.280 the deal was as long as he states that I 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.360 helped him. Those were the conditions. 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:39.800 But Kelly's not budgeting. 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.720 I'm not guilty. I'm not taking a plea. I plan 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:45.280 on taking this to trial. 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.560 Don't go to trial. Please, don't go to trial. 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.640 Ronnie. I can't say the words that I did something 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:52.120 I didn't do. 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.320 I was getting so frustrated. 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.040 Ronnie was so scared to lose me that he was 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.360 telling me to take the plea. I screamed it out. 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.439 Do you think that everybody that's shit? Do you think 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:04.320 they all did it? 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.080 And everybody that was there that was shaking their heads 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.760 like he's right. 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.880 Kelly's in a unit of sixty, but Ryker's Island houses 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.800 around six hundred women in total. Their charges range from 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.559 things like simple drug possession all the way up to murder. 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:30.040 They come from different places, but there's one thing so 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:31.800 many of them seem to have in common. 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.520 Very few people wake up one morning you say I'm 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:43.559 gonna hurt somebody today. Right, there's a whole story before 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:44.080 you get. 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:44.680 To that moment. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:52.240 One after another, those stories eventually blend in together. 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.920 Is that a woman calls an ear for the messbality. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:01.920 I have a domestic violence. 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.360 Case, domestic violence survivor fighting off their attacker, and things 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:05.720 like that. 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.080 He came up behind me and put me in an 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:12.320 awful chocoal in trying to kill me the first time 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:12.880 I fell. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:14.760 Back where I ended up killing him. 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.320 Next thing I know, I was being arrested for a 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:20.320 murder in a first degree. 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:23.320 This isn't unique to Rikers. 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.160 Studies showed that more than seventy percent of incarcerated women 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.280 say there've been victims of domestic abuse, and obviously this 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.319 is in addition to the poverty and racial abuse many 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:39.160 have experienced. When Kelly looked around the visiting room that 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.240 day and looked around the jailhouse in the days after, 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.160 she wouldn't have just seen a room full of potential criminals, 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:54.000 but a room full of women like her. All Kelly 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.240 can hope is that the next chapter of her life 0:13:56.600 --> 0:14:00.720 includes a not guilty verdict. But it's a not hill battle, 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:05.440 and the odds are seriously stacked against her. Because that 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.719 plea deal that her ex boyfriend Tommy took, the one 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.720 where he agreed to testify against her. It means that 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:16.600 now she's facing even greater charges than him, and if 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.600 Kelly can't convince a jury that she's a victim too, 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.640 she could spend the rest of her life in prison. 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:44.840 About three weeks after arriving at Riker's, Kelly is still 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:49.160 getting her daily dose of Methadone. One day she gets 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.560 talking to the woman in charge of the detox program, 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:52.560 Miss Cruise. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.760 She goes, Harnett, you need to start it with this 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.640 methodone shit. You need to get the hell off of it, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.920 and you need to get your ast to that law library. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.280 That's what you need to do. You need to get 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.720 your head in those books, seriously, Kelly. And when she 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.960 got me, Kelly, it was like humanizing me. She said, 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:18.800 you gotta start finding your case. So I said to myself, 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:21.720 all right, she go to the law library. See what happens. 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.000 The next day at twelve thirty pm sharp, Kelly's outside 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.400 the law library. She's waiting at the locked blue door, 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.480 peering in through the window, and. 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.160 The officer opens the door, checks the list. They're very 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.640 used to nobody's showing up. They're still used to getting 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.480 those hours free and they could just go and hang 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.640 out with their friends. So I was cramping their style. 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.720 The law library is divided into two main sections, separated 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.440 by a big divider with windows. As you walk through, 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.760 you'll see a load of computers and then row after 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.760 row of bookcases. But to get to that part, you 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:09.400 first have to pass the officer's desk, which sits directly 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.800 across from a bunch of old typewriters and some of 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.960 the dustiest, oldest law books in the library. 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.840 He was really pissed off the guard that somebody was 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.120 coming in. He said to me, anytime you want to leave, 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.680 you leave early. And I was like, there's no way 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.640 I'm moving early. What am I going back to? Really? 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:32.120 What am I going back to? 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.040 There is one person happy to see Kelly in the 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:37.240 law library. 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.480 The paralegal that was there, an older man. His name 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:46.520 was Fernando Contreras. What an amazing man. I mean, he 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:51.360 was so great with me. He gave me so much hope. 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.359 Kelly picks up her first book. 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:03.280 McKinney's Consolidated Law, that's the binding authority for New York State. 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:09.080 I started reading it and nothing made sense to me. Literally, 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.520 at first, they look like hieroglyphics. It was like a 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:18.000 complete foreign language, and I didn't understand how people could 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:23.480 possibly go in there and understand anything. And I said, Okay, Kelly, 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.399 the only way that you could learn to love this 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.959 is if you're good at it. Everyone loves something that 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:36.040 they're good at. So start reading things over and over 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.720 and over until you practically memorize them. When you practically 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:45.240 memorize them, you're going to become good at it. When 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.600 you're good at it and you master it, you're going 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:55.320 to love it. I was studying for sixteen hours a day. 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:01.119 I was reading CPL seven ten, twenty thirty seven, forty 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.879 and so forth, Brady violations, Rosario violations. 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:09.480 One day, during one of Kelly's hieroglyphic translations, another inmate 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:10.359 comes to join her. 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:12.400 Her name is Peaches. 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.800 Peaches became a really good friend of mine. She had 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.800 such an amazing personality. She was such a good person. 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:26.600 She was just so genuine, and I would help her 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:32.560 a little bit with her reading. And then it became 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:38.000 like a potential assistance for legal work. Because I'm just 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.040 getting started, so I didn't know if I would ever 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:42.160 have the capability to help myself or anyone else. 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:47.360 But the more Kelly reads and then rereads, the more 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:49.000 things start to fall into place. 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.840 By the third time I read it, I couldn't believe that. 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.679 I felt like they look like hieroglyphics because I'm totally 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:01.679 understanding this now, and I'm picking up the wording even 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:06.280 if a case is unfavorable. I'm learning how to write 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:07.679 the way that they write. 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.000 She's not just regurgitating a bunch of jargon. Kelly starts 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.679 crafting legally sound arguments. 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:22.200 They became the love of my life. I started filing 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.520 dismissals and a dateming for people at Rikers Island. 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:30.040 Kelly's not only helping individuals with their own cases, She's 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:32.560 fighting for all of her Rikers Island sisters. 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:38.320 We took them to court for taking our flip flops away. 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.080 We took them to court for searches like they were 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.600 doing excessive searches on a specific unit because it was 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.240 so small, and we took them to court for that. 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:49.240 They stayed away for about eight months. 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:55.439 After that, Kelly's reputation eventually starts spreading around the prison. 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:02.600 It even reaches a recently arrived inmate who will call Tash. 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.040 She's been jailed in Rikers following a lifetime of abuse 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:11.440 after witnessing her boyfriend murder someone everyone who makes Tasha 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:13.160 tells her the same thing. 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.800 You need to go toward the Kelly. So I'm like, well, 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.280 who's Kelly? But she works in a lot of library. 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.200 By this point, Kelly's in high demand. There's a long 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.080 line of women who want her services. Tasha comes back 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:30.399 again and again. 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.720 Eventually I asked her one day, I said, excuse me, 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.520 your name Kelly. She looked at me, she smiled with 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:41.280 the most beautiful and smiler ever gotten. Then she said yes. 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:43.040 I said, can you please help me? And I just 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:46.680 started crying. I sat down and she was like, well, 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:48.800 tell me what's going on. So I told her a 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:50.480 little bit about the case. And she went and she 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:52.800 found this paperworking that pertment. She put it out and 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:54.560 she gave it to me. She was like, I want 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.240 you to read this and write down whatever you feel 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:02.040 fits in your crown. Eventually, no, I will continue to 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:02.640 go back. 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.159 I was giving a lot of people hope, and they 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.320 were telling me that thank you so much for you 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.359 giving us so much shop. All of a sudden, the 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:14.920 little library started getting packed and like mister Brown wasn't 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.040 happy about that. Mister Brown was the officer. He goes, 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.679 oh god, her net Jahau lawyer. 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.920 Of course, life isn't all roses for Kelly inside, even 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:30.080 with Saint Z watching over her. Kelly spent the last 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.399 few months fighting for her fellow inmates, but her trial 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.040 is coming up she needs to go back to fighting 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:40.719 her own corner. Unfortunately for Kelly, though, that's not the 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.960 only fight she needs to be prepared for, because while 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:46.920 the Shortys have her back, Kelly's also. 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:48.600 Made some dangerous enemies. 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:14.679 It's always an uncomfortable experience running into your ex's x. 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.360 Now imagine running into them in jail when. 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.280 Neither of you can get away, which is exactly what 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:26.639 happens to Kelly. She's trapped in Rikers with Tommy Donovan's 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.320 ex girlfriend, who Kelly says is inside for selling drugs. 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:32.719 And the worst part of all of this is that 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:36.359 Tommy's ex she has serious beef with Kelly. 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.880 I asked her why she's like you stole my men. 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:45.600 I had a fistfight with her literally every single solitary day, 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:48.320 every day, to the point where one day I said 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:50.600 I want to have a peaceful day today. So I 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.720 was five point thirty, it was breakfast time. I pounded 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:57.520 on her door and She's like what who's there? And 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.399 I was like, it's Kelly. Get up, let's go. So 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:05.200 we get it out of the way. So she comes 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:06.840 out like hair all crazy. 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:09.520 I said, come on, She said, where are we going? 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:13.280 I said, to the staircase where there's no cameras and listen. 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.000 My brother told me to fight. And you know, for 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:20.840 a white blonde girl like people get shocked at my strength. 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:24.639 It's not something I'm proud of. I'm a lady. However, 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.439 if you're going to touch me, you are going to 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:30.840 get a receipt. So yeah, I kind of beat the 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:33.879 hell out of her on the staircase, but I didn't 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.280 start the fight. She kept hitting me first every day. 0:23:37.760 --> 0:23:40.560 This went on for forty five to sixty days, so 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:42.800 I was like, okay, so it's a one to day thing, 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:45.800 so I'm just going to get her first. But I 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:48.640 would never be like a dirty person and like hit 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:51.199 her when she's not looking like she would to me. 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:55.160 This isn't the only fight Kelly was getting in. 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:02.199 They have these girls that we call bubble now. Bubble 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:07.160 leuts are the girls that hang around the officer's bubble 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:10.600 and flirt with them all day long, and you get 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:13.960 really pissed off because you're like, you can't get your 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:17.000 door open, you can't do this, you can't do that. 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:21.280 You need toilet paper, and they're just flirting and flirting, 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:23.880 and for I want to just say, listen, just put 0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:25.840 the floating on hold. Can you just give me some 0:24:25.880 --> 0:24:28.240 toilet paper? Please? I just use the bathroom and you 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:30.480 have to wait. Flirting, flirting, flirting. 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:33.639 Kelly asks if she can get past to use the 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:36.640 shower because one of the bubblets is standing in her way. 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.320 She told me I couldn't use the shower, and I said, 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:43.199 ex use me. The last time I checked. You're an 0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:46.840 inmate here, just like me. And she said you can't 0:24:46.960 --> 0:24:49.800 use it, and I said, I'm using it. 0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:53.240 Kelly breezes passed and steps into the shower. 0:24:53.720 --> 0:25:00.480 Bad move. I feel someone rebb meat and yank, like 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:05.480 instant whiplish. Right now. I see people running in one 0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:09.040 held one arm in back of me. When I went 0:25:09.119 --> 0:25:12.399 to hit her, the girl cault my hand and hold 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:15.720 it back. They pull it like a crucifixion because it's 0:25:15.760 --> 0:25:18.159 like one arm here, one arm here, you can't use it. 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:22.240 And then the girl who was flirting, she just starts 0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:25.720 punching me in the face. Punch, punch, punch, punch, punch. 0:25:26.240 --> 0:25:29.040