-Hey. How are y'all? Good. -Good.
-All right. -Good to see y'all.
She don't come back, don't say anything to us.
We don't know anything that goes on with her.
Half of us don't even know her name.
I keep asking, "What's the sheriff's name?"
'cause I wanna write her.
Sheriff shoulda came and said, "What can we do?"
How can we see her?
Paula Dance is the first Black woman in the sheriff's seat.
You can't even come here and see about your people.
Or ask these people how they feeling
or what is things that need to be changed,
or what is things that need to be looked at.
[dramatic music playing]
I have one very last piece of information.
They so desperately desire for you to visit them.
Absolutely. Note taken.
Yeah.
They were disheartened she's never been there, they said.
They said, "It's a woman and she doesn't visit us?"
[dramatic music continues]
[tense music playing]
Hey, ladies! How are y'all?
[dramatic music playing]
I'm doing well. Are you?
[overlapping chatter]
Wow. Sheriff Dance, uh, what are you doing here?
What do you think about WEAR?
If it weren't for WEAR, I wouldn't be trying to go out
and do better, 'cause my whole life I been...
basically a prostitute and stuff.
And I never thought I would be wanting to go to school,
uh, wanting to change, make a difference,
like, get even more girls into WEAR.
Because it really is like sort of a mental.
'Cause I been through a lot.
Good.
Absolutely.
...because only certain people can get in WEAR.
So my name is Tara [bleep].
And I've been here, um, incarcerated
-15 months. -Mm-hm.
But I can't get in due to my bond amount.
Tara [bleep].
[Dance] Okay.
I got rejected
'cause my bond was too high.
It's baby steps to get where we need to get,
but we'll get there.
And I'm very grateful that you came to see us.
[Dance] I'm glad I came to see you.
Hey, Candace? How are you?
I see that you like art.
-I love it. -Yeah.
So is this how you pass the time away?
Yes, ma'am. It helps me
-'cause I have anger issues. -Mm-hm.
Now are you in any of the programs here?
I wanted to be in WEAR
but they said that my bond is too high.
My charges, I can't be in there.
We gotta look at that
because I know we're limited on space,
and the intent was to grow...
I hope so, because I've been clean for...
April 2nd will make a year I've been clean
off heroin and cocaine.
So we've got some things in the works.
-Thank you so much. -You're welcome.
She went to every table, every cell.
Man, that's awesome.
Any of you guys in WEAR?
I filled out two applications for WEAR.
Jessica...
She put hers in too. Nobody's seen hers.
-And what was your name? -Caroline [bleep].
-[bleep]? -Yes, ma'am.
When the sheriff came in, I felt like, "Wow.
This gal's really trying to make a difference."
It felt good, like, someone actually hearing us out.
She went to everybody.
She wanted to hear everybody say something.
It's all about your own mindset
and what you believe that you can do
and what you believe that you can be.
And we just don't let these little obstacles--
jail is a obstacle
that has gotten in our way.
But you can do it.
It's your choice,
and your choices should always be positive.
Don't come back. I don't want y'all in my jail.
I can't let you out right now, but... [laughs]
Visiting the female inmates
gave me an opportunity to think about
and put myself in their position.
Y'all have been very informative,
and making sure I knew what I needed to know.
-Especially this one. -I know. I talk a lot.
[laughter]
I talk a lot, I'ma tell you.
[indistinct chatter]
Yes! Oh!
[laughs]
The WEAR program, that's absolutely incredible.
There's so many resources.
Women are going home, changing their lives.
These programs are working amazing.
But I think there should be about 15 seats in there
to help more women.
Bond is considered part of that assessment.
So we're definitely gonna look at bond stipulations.
We're trying to keep the program as full as we can keep it,
uh, to make sure we maximize the opportunity
to help someone.
That I did get into WEAR.
Yeah.
[Dance]
we're doing what we can to admit more women into WEAR.
I got approved.
Hell yeah.
Good.
Yeah. I needed it. Mm-hm.
Yeah.
[soft dramatic music playing]
I'm waiting for me to go to court
'cause I have a feeling I'm going home.
I'm nervous 'cause I get to see my kids after ten months.
And I'm gonna be a grandma, so I'm really anxious
to be around my daughter while she's pregnant.
[man]
and it ain't looking good at all.
[dramatic music playing]
They're looking at 20 to 30 years active sentence.
So I'm possibly going up the road.
Me, I'm homeless. I don't know.
I'm gonna go stay with a friend where I've stayed prior
and just hope to stay off the drugs.
[Candace speaks indistinctly]
[tense music playing]
Already! [continues indistinctly]
[indistinct chatter]
[Candace]
And I know that I probably won't go home,
but I'm hoping that I'll just be able to do my time here.
When I finally do go to court
and the judge sees I'm doing okay,
then he'll just go ahead and let me have time served.
That's what I'm hoping.
[laughter, chatter]
I'll see you next week.
To save a life. That's my goal. Yeah.
[dramatic music playing]
[Smiley]
she motivated me to want to go back to school.
I might just start tomorrow.
I might start getting on it.
[RiRi]
somebody like you come in here and talk to these women
and hear their opinion, hear their voices.
What can be different? What can we change?
What do we do today
when it comes to situations like this?
This is the first time.
And we're grateful for that.
I just wanted to let y'all know that.