This is Carla.
Carla: I’m telling you this house is crazy.
She fell in love with Erik.
Carla: When I tell people that I am married to somebody that’s in prison,
they think like oh what did he do? Did he kill somebody?
And I’m just like no, close to that but.
Erik is currently serving a 13 year prison sentence,
for attempted murder.
Carla: When I found out like all like the crimes and stuff
I’m just like you are the craziest. That’s what I said.
And when these two got together
there were many that didn’t approve the match.
Carla: When we first started talking my family was not okay
with me dating him.
Alexzandria: Her brother had told me that she’s dating some guy in prison,
I was like oh my gosh that’s crazy.
With Erik’s release on the horizon,
will there relationship finally get the acceptance they long for?
Alexzandria: She married this guy and he’s in there for something violent.
It does scare me a little bit.
Carla: So I have a lot of his stuff that he has sent me over the years.
I have some drawings. So he did this one.
Probably before we got married, so like 2012, 11.
This card, he put Eric and Carla.
I am married to an incarcerated man
that is serving 13 years for attempted murder.
He was a part of a gang when he was younger.
We met while he was already serving his time,
he was one year into his sentence.
It's not every day you meet the love of your life,
and they're locked up in prison.
But for Carla and Eric romance blossomed while he was behind bars.
Carla: He contacted his friend, which was dating my cousin,
She asked me if I would talk to somebody.
And then she told me he was incarcerated. So I told her no.
She got me to write him and then and the rest is history.
As a criminal people think like he's just like
wanting to beat up people and like, do stuff to people.
And I'm like, he has feelings. He gets sad. He gets emotional.
If he was a hardcore crazy person, he wouldn't be
sending all these little lovey dovey stuff.
These are all the letters from 2010, 12, 13.
So this just say like I love you with all my heart, Princess,
you are the most beautiful thing that has ever happened in my life.
I never pictured myself in a relationship with an inmate.
There's nobody in my family that has ever been to prison.
I had my doubts, because you never know.
So I still think about it. It's in the back of my head.
I don't just live like a fairy tale world
where I'm like uh I'm in love.
The couple have been together for 10 years,
and Eric is serving a 13 year sentence.
Carla: These are some of the pictures that I have of me and him.
These are all just contact visits. Just regular visits.
The couple's entire relationship has been while Eric has been in prison.
Even their wedding day happened in jail.
Carla: This is a very special picture for me.
The day we got married my parents didn't go,
so I only had my cousin there with me.
Carla’s mother did not approve of the marriage.
But despite that, the pair went ahead and tied the knot.
Carla: My mum, was not okay with it.
Obviously she wanted me to wait until he got out to marry him.
It didn't happen. So they were not okay.
And my mom didn't talk to me for like a month when I got married.
But then she got over it I guess and she's okay with it now.
Carla has found being married to an incarcerated man,
brings a lot of snap judgments about her choices of husband.
Carla: When I tell people that I am married to somebody that's in prison,
you know, they think like Oh, he's a criminal.
What did he do, did he kill somebody?
and I'm just like no close to that. But
you know, that doesn't define him as a person to me.
And it's not just the judgment that's difficult.
There are many physical difficulties that
come on one half of the couple is behind bars.
Carla: So not being able to go out on a real date with my husband,
it sucks because obviously you go out and you see all these couples
out there just walking around and living their lives.
And, you know, I just look forward for my one phone call.
Yeah, this new prison is so stupid.
If something happened, there's a lockdown.
There's a fight, then there's no phone calls.
This is why I don’t wait,
because then I get mad.
You can be in prison but if you tell me a certain time,
you call me at that time.
You know like I also have things to do out here.
You have a prepaid call from an inmate at the Sierra Conservation Center,
Jamestown Carlifonia.
Carla: Hey.
Carla: Nothing just sitting down. What are you doing?
Carla: What?
Carla: Okay, so are they going to pay you?
Carla: How much?
Carla: Okay don’t ***** nobody’s hair.
The phone calls we get 15 minutes if we're lucky.
It's very annoying because you know there's so many things I can,
I want to tell him but then I can't.
Because those 15 minutes go by really fast.
I miss him all the time, you know?
What do you want to do the first day you get out?
What do you want to do? You haven't told me.
Carla: Where you gonna take me? I don't want MacDonald's.
Carla: That’d be nice.
Do you feel like scared though or no?
Carla: Love you.
Carla: Alright.
Like now that he's there and he's gonna get out like
his answers are so much like clear if that makes sense.
Like he gives you like a forward answer.
Sometimes you'd be like, I don't know yet, I don't know.
And then now I think because he's so close to coming home.
He's just like, ABCD and I'm like, whoa.
Society people think because you're married to somebody in prison,
they think you're like that too.
Alexzandria: Her brother had told me that she's dating some guy in prison.
And then it wasn't probably like a year later I actually found out that
they were married and I was like, Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Like,
I don't know anybody who would marry a guy in prison.
It was a huge shock and surprise to me.
I was like, how you can wait that long, you know?
And here we are seven years later,
and he’s about to get out in a couple of months.
I mean, you married she married this guy,
and he's in there for something violent.
It does scare me a little bit.
But he does seem like he has changed and I hope he does good
and stays out of trouble.
Happily for Erik and Carla, his release date is approaching.
And they are now looking forward to finally being united outside prison walls.
Carla: Personally, I'm not scared when my husband gets out.
I’ve thought about it a lot. I think he might
actually be a little bit more scared of me.
Alyssa: Hello. Carla: Hi Alyssa.
Alyssa: Carla told me about her relationship.
I remember the first time that you told me that he was locked up.
Carla: I went to work and I was like Alyssa Erik got locked up.
Alyssa: And I was like, oh my god why?
Carla: She was like very shocked. Alyssa: I was so shocked.
and then when I found out the reason that he
had got locked up I was even more surprised.
Alexzandria: He’ll be out in four months. Alyssa: Four months.
Are you excited? Carla: Obviously he's been in there
for almost 13 years, and he has missed out a lot.
He's missed out his whole 20s like the funnest years.
Drinking partying being able to go to the club just everything.
He doesn't even probably know what it like a touchscreen phone is.
Alyssa: He's not gonna know what apps are.
Carla: That's true. Alyssa: What are you guys gonna do first?
Carla: He’s never been to Disneyland so we plan on going to Disneyland.
Like he's never been there. Alyssa: Well what happened if he
was to go back into prison? Carla: Bye b****
I would literally be like bye b****.
Alyssa: You guys get one phone call a day now,
you're going to be around each other 24/7.
It’s like you're gonna have like things like, run out of things to talk about
or like, are you nervous to actually have him around all the time?
Carla: No, I don't think I'm going to be nervous.
I'm just excited for everyone else to meet him too like,
you guys get to meet him. Alexzandria: I know.
I feel like he's been a part of the family just as long as I have,
but we've never met so it's it'll be exciting to meet him.
Well she's she's happy with him. So why would I go and say like,
don't be with him just because he is, you know, in prison .
That's her decision.
I feel like they have a lot of love for each other.
Alyssa: I think their relationship when he gets out,
and they're finally together,
I think it's going to be even stronger.
Despite having spent almost all of their relationship apart,
with just a few months to go before he gets out,
Carla and Erik have a lot to look forward to.
Carla: You had a good day today you sound really happy?
Very positive.
Carla: Who?
Carla: We're gonna try to live a normal life.
That's what we want and we plan on doing.
I cannot wait to just like hold his hand and walk down the street.
Just walk down the street with him.
That's going to be fun.