Why in the world would anybody halfway
sane do something like this?
It makes no sense at all, and yet here I am.
My name is Matt.
I'm 56 years old.
I am a former Utah State Prison chaplain.
I was an idealist, and I thought I could make a big difference.
But I tired of being exploited, manipulated,
used by the inmates.
Finally at the end I had a bad experience with an inmate,
and in my mind I was fantasizing jumping across that table,
strangling the life out of him.
And I said, I can't think this way.
I'm quitting.
I can't do this anymore.
Currently I'm an MMA trainer.
I teach MMA fighters how to do the stand
up portion of the fighting.
My father was a fighter before me in the Navy, and so forth.
He enjoyed the game, and it's become a big part of my life.
Which ones are vegetarian?
I have a great family.
I'm married.
I've been married for some 29 years now to Martha,
and we have eight beautiful children.
This looks like veggie delight.
Yeah.
I mean, you'll eat seafood, won't you?
Sometimes.
My family is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints, known colloquially as Mormonism,
and have a testimony, if you will, as we call it,
of the, quote, unquote, "truthfulness
of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Could you grab another spoon, please?
Good, take it-- - We're having a [INAUDIBLE].
OK.
[INAUDIBLE]
Well, I have two little spoons.
We've settled back in Utah now,
because my wife decided that she wanted to raise our kids
in what we call Zion amongst those that were not just
like-minded in terms of religion,
but Utah has been noted to be one of the top
five best places to raise children,
and we have eight children.
I have a bit of an announcement to make.
You guys have been wondering a little bit about what's up.
Well, guess who is going to be incarcerated
under cover for two months?
That's what you're doing?
That's what I'm doing.
Now, this is the deal.
They're going to give me a charge.
It'll be a trumped-up charge, but it'll fit.
But what I'm going to do, hopefully do,
is take advantage of my prison experience,
and perhaps after two full months of incarceration,
have something important to contribute to improving
the correctional system.
So there you go.
What are you going to do when-- if they
find out what you're doing?
Well, that's a very good question, Oliver.
This is why this is shrouded in a bit of secrecy,
because we don't want this to get out,
because it makes me vulnerable.
I then am at risk.
This is very serious.
I thought long and hard about it,
and Andrew has an announcement to make.
I'm going, too.
I'm doing the exact same thing that Dad's doing.
It's going to be your funeral then.
Dad kind of sprung it on me.
He was like, well, I'm going to jail,
and it's going to be tough, and you want to come, too?
I probably didn't say it quite like that.
Yeah, that's exactly what his voice sounded like.
[LAUGHING]
How are you feeling today, Andrew?
Good. A bit stressed.
Got a lot on my plate with the GRE coming up,
and grad school applications.
You feel good about it?
Yeah, I'm pretty confident.
You in the right place mentally for this process?
I think so.
Well, talking about being in the right place for a process,
I'm currently involved in a project
that will take me away from the family for a little while.
Oh, what is it?
Well, I'm involved in kind of a research project,
if you will, that will incarcerate
me for a number of months.
And I'm going to go undercover and come
up with actionable information to help corrections improve.
You think you can handle something like that?
Yeah, I think so.
And my question for you is, what if I brought you along,
and invited you to participate?
You will literally be incarcerated
for two months as an inmate, and they'll
be filming this 24 hours a day.
I think he asked me because he knows I'm
up to trying new things, to--
to trying different experiences.
He figured that I would probably be the most willing to accept
something like this.
I'm going to be under duress, difficult moments,
unpredictable.
But I've got your back, you've got my back.
What do you think?
Yeah.
I mean, sure, let's do it.
Well, as your father, that means a lot.
But you know, I'm your friend.
We're friends.
I'll be there for you to the extent that I can.
But the learning curve will be steep, so.
- OK. - OK?
Let's do it.
All right, let's do this.
My man.
[LAUGHS]
The kind of individual that if I were
at the bottom of a deep, dark hole and he couldn't see me,
and I said, Andrew, jump, I'll catch you, he would do it.
He knows to trust me.
And in just asking him to do this,
it was that deep, dark hole.
I don't know the end from the beginning,
but Dad, if you want me to do this, I'm there for you.
This is completely new to me.
I've never experienced anything like that, so--
That's because you're a good boy.
I guess, yeah.
It's better not to know this stuff in advance,
so that's an advantage there.
Yeah.
In the end, the good overrides the bad,
because we can help society, perhaps help
corrections, and perhaps make a difference
in the lives of real people.
Yeah.
This door has opened.
Let's go through it.