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Across the country, hundreds of thousands of women are facing a new reality.
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If a girl is performing sexual favors, he would bring her in colored pencils, lip gloss.
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Where they are forced to navigate worlds of sexual bartering, manipulation, and abuse
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while finding ways to survive.
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They'll definitely use your needs against you.
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Sexually, physically, emotionally.
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They will break you down any way they can.
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Over the last few decades, women have been making gains in representation in almost every
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field and industry.
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Yet there's one part of society where the number of women has exploded and they're
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still fighting for basic rights:
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Prison.
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Since the 1980's, the number of incarcerated women has skyrocketed by 700%.
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Women have become the fastest growing population entering the criminal justice system.
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It's a $173 billion dollar industry, making it bigger than Target, Uber, and Netflix.
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Just outside of Portland, Oregon, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility has found a unique way
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to ease it's overpopulation problem:
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providing beauty behind bars through its cosmetology program.
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Thank you.
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I have to admit, I was skeptical.
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I knew that beauty had the power to transform, but could it really change how women do time?
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We went to see who these women were, and what they had to say.
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The cosmetology program here started in 2002, when Coffee Creek saw a need for female focus
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programming, and decided to do something about it.
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What do you want to do today?
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Just a trim.
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The program has become so popular that it recently doubled in size.
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Fellow inmates make up most of the clients who come in for services provided by the students.
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How's that?
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Yeah.
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Everything from hair and makeup, to gels, and even eyelash extensions.
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I think it looks really good, you did a very good job
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The program itself is highly competitive to get into.
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To even be considered, inmates must have a track record of good behavior and a desire to change.
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If there's anything I'm good at, it will be makeup.
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Its certainly true for 34-year-old Candice Altman, a repeat offender at Coffee Creek
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on drug charges.
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Some of us made more than one bad decision, but a majority of us are just here feeling
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bad about the things that we did.
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We want to get out and be good moms, and have careers, and to be reintegrated.
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We want that.
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The majority of women coming into prison are like Candice, in for a non-violent
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offense and the primary caretaker of a child under 18.
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It doesn't look like much now, but it's gonna be nice when it's done.
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They're also predominantly women of color.
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This is my third time in prison and so, at every other time it's just been hopeless,
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like wasted time.
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For the first time I feel like I just have this goal.
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This just– something, some kind of purpose.
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Why is beauty especially important for women who are in prison?
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You kind of lose your femininity.
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We all wear men's jeans and these terribly fitting blue t-shirts.
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They take away all your individuality.
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They take away everything like that.
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So I think you taking care of yourself and doing your makeup and fixing your hair,
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it just helps your whole attitude about being here.
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It's all affected by that, I think.
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Someone might say that women in prison don't necessarily deserve access to beauty products.
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What would you say to that?
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Maybe it's not a matter of deserving these things.
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It's a matter of rehabilitating people and giving them hope, and keeping them from continuing
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the same cycles of coming back.
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We have a lot of women that are here that we find have co-occurring disorders, so both
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mental health issues, and alcohol and drug treatment needs, and they find themselves
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on this path that they don't really have a lot of control in.
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Christine views the success of the cosmetology program as proof that an approach tailored
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towards women works.
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These women, a number of them, repeat bad relationships, and the notion of their own
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sense of worth and value is not something they have a great grasp on.
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Certainly, the programs help the practice.
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They help the sense of,
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"I can do this. I know how to do this."
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And supporting them in that manner is crucial.
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Many of the women here at Coffee Creek and across the country come into prison with a
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history of mental health issues, domestic violence, and sexual abuse that makes their
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rehabilitation that much more complicated.
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Programs like this not only provide women with an access point to beauty and self care,
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but help to bridge the gap of mental health, drug, and social services that are underfunded.
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Despite the fact that for every taxpayer dollar spent on services, up to five more are saved in recidivism.
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Coffee Creek gave me a glimpse into what a prison at the forefront of responding to the
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influx of incarcerated women looks like.
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But I wanted to know, how are other prisons across the country responding?
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I went to visit another program in another prison with a very different environment.
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Lowell Correctional Facility is one of the largest women's prisons in the country.
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The officers are underpaid and stretched thin, often at the expense of the inmates.
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But there's a bright spot: the cosmetology program.
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As soon as I walked in I met Kerry, who after serving almost three years for multiple charges,
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was coming in for a haircut before being released the next day.
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Why was it important for you to come in today before you get out tomorrow?
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I mean, it just means everything to have your hair done, and walk out and feel good about
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yourself as you're re-entering society.
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When those little things are taken away you don't realize how important they are until you don't have them.
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It makes sense, for many women, including myself.
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Beauty has been ingrained in us by society as an integral part of how we understand who we are.
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And in prison, where so much is stripped away from you, makeup becomes a lifeline to hold onto.
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It was clear that this program was doing a lot for these women.
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But even in this little sanctuary, they couldn't entirely escape what was allegedly going on beyond these walls.
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It's what you have to live with, since you are in prison.
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The problem is the whole structure of the prison is set up in a way that sort of invites abuse.
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When guards have so much power, and inmates are so powerless, it's just a corrupting situation really.
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27-year-old Amanda Hunter was sentenced to a year and a day for resisting and battery
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of a law enforcement officer.
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She was released in December of 2016.
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I told the officers, “I made a promise I'm coming for heads.”
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I'm telling everything.
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The abuse, you know, sexually, physically, emotionally.
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They will break you down anyway they can.
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What would happen if you saw and reported an officer?
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Anything.
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I mean, they'll take you to lock for it.
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They'll threaten your life.
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I've heard the stories, you know, of people who overdose on blood pressure medicine.
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You know, but these people were fearing for their lives and were writing home telling
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their families, "I'm afraid they're gonna kill me," and then you end up dead.
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Amanda was referring to the case of Latandra Ellington, an inmate who in 2014 was found
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dead in her confinement cell at just 36 years old.
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The autopsy ruled it a natural death even though toxicology reports found levels of
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blood pressure medication 7 to 8 times the normal amount.
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Just 10 days before, Latandra allegedly witnessed an officer having sex with an inmate.
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Latandra said that when she threatened to report it, the officer threatened her life.
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The mysterious conditions surrounding Latandra's death set off a series of investigations that
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came out in the Miami Herald.
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The reports revealed a culture of abuse by officers, including sexual bartering with
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inmates for things like cigarettes, sanitary pads, or even makeup.
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40-year-old Natalie Hall witnessed firsthand how the conditions at Lowell opened the door for exploitation.
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I'm not gonna project like I was some perfect model inmate, cause I wasn't.
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Natalie was sentenced to five and a half years for armed robbery.
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She told us that she's been clean since her release since March of 2017, blaming her
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heroin habit putting her in the wrong place with the wrong people.
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So these are colored pencils.
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They're contraband, which means you can't have them.
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But we still get them.
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And you dip it in water and it just comes right off.
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We would do our eyes with them.
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Where did you get them?
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Usually if a girl's performing sexual favors for an officer he would bring her in colored
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pencils, lip gloss, things like that that she could use for makeup or to sell.
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She revealed to us that this kind of sexual bartering for makeup was just the tip of the iceberg.
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You would have to sit at the window and basically flirt with a male officer for a good 20, 30
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minutes just to get just enough toilet paper to use the restroom.
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They'll definitely use your needs against you.
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The things that they keep from us, toilet paper, pads.
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You didn't get tampons, unless you bought them.
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See, as inmates, we find a way.
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When those necessities aren't met, and taken care of, it becomes your primary goal to always
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see that these things are taken care of.
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This is your prison tampon.
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Even if you'll get in trouble for it, you have to get it, and you will find a way to get it.
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On Lowell's main unit, there's not even walls in between shower heads.
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So here's the officer's station, here's a wall that's maybe four feet, and here's
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six shower heads where six women shower next to each other.
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And believe me, the officers watch the whole thing.
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Did they ever make comments?
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Oh yeah, I even have text messages.
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“I miss turning around and seeing those things, you in the shower, ha ha ha.
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You know you got extra toilet paper that day.”
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Officers have reached out to you since you've been out?
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Yes.
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At least four.
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Would you be willing to show us those text messages?
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Sure.
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I don't care.
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He was like, "That's good.
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I still talked about you after you left.
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Always turning around and seeing you and those things in the shower because of you being
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taller than the door and wall.
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Boy, I miss that. LOL. And Jacksonville isn't too far from me, maybe 40 minutes at the most.
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Could we meet up?"
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What did he mean by “those things?”
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My breasts.
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I really thought he was just like checking in on me.
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And I think this is when it hit me that all they wanted was sex.
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It's a situation of power.
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How many tampons you get, if any.
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How many pads you get.
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Whether you get to your shower or not.
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Those decisions are all made by guards.
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So, you can see how if you get somebody in there who's mean or vindictive, or wants something
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from you, it's easy for them to make that happen.
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If a guard wants sex from you, what do you do?
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You could say no, but they have control over every aspect of your life.
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While the allegations we heard about Lowell illustrates an extreme version of what can
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happen when a prison systematically fails the inmates it's responsible for, this type
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of exploitation and abuse is pervasive across the country.
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Even Coffee Creek has had issues.
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That fact is, until the criminal justice system overhauls the way it treats women behind bars,
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no prison is immune to these problems.
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Billions of dollars are being spent in the name of mass incarceration.
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But what happens once the inmates are in the system?
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Without safe conditions to serve their time and the programs to address the underlying
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issues, women find themselves trapped by bad circumstances and bad choices.
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Sometimes we just have to get them out of the scenario that they're in, or the situation
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that they're in.
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They find that they're stronger and smarter than they ever knew they were.
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Do the women who participate in an educational or vocational program tend to have a lower
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chance of returning to prison?
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Participation in programming, in general, greatly impacts recidivism rates.
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It is something that the women have just really thrived in.
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I didn't know how to take care of myself so I always went back in to use drugs and
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committing crime to support myself.
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Has your experience this time been different from the other because of this program?
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Everyday I build more and more confidence.
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This program is really is helping me to be able to build that foundation.
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Not have to depend on nobody to provide what I'm supposed to provide for my kids.
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It's clear that programs like this provide the means to restore women's dignity and
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self-respect amid the harshest conditions.
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Beauty is just one small piece of a complex puzzle, but it's one that can change lives.
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Prison is supposed to be punishment, it's also supposed to be rehabilitation.
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I needed rehab, not a prison where men degraded me and put me down and abused people.
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Nobody deserves what I went through.
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Nobody.
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Somebody says that I'm not getting necessities that I need to live life normally,
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that's not a punishment, that's abuse.
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If you did that to a child, you're gonna lose your child, you're gonna go to jail.
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So why is it okay to do that to an adult?
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There's no quick fix for a system overwhelmed with problems, but one thing is clear:
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No one can rehabilitate when they're fighting for basic needs of survival.
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And until then, the criminal justice system will continue to funnel predominantly non-violent
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offenders into a world that leaves these women worse off than when they went in.
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