60 Days In: Blood Debt & Tears

Sorry for the delay in getting this up. I have a new DVR conflict and then got sidetracked.  This week, the gang of six is just trying to survive their last few days. Someone might get out this week.

C-Pod

Ryan continues to sell his lunch trays. He basically lived off of peanut butter from the commissary the whole time he was there.  There is a guy in C named Justin who is just pitiful. He is indigent and has no money on his books. He’s a smoker who is desperate for a vape pen or a prison cigar. He borrows some money with no way to pay it back and is now in a lot of trouble. Justin owes an inmate named JoJo seven dollars.  JoJo continues to threaten Justin. Justin presses the intercom button and tells the guards, “I need to get out of here, man.”  The guards don’t really know what is going on so they tell him he can’t be moved.

Justin approaches  Quintin and Ryan. He asks Ryan for some mentoring about selling his trays. Ryan gives it to him. The problem is, Ryan has plenty to eat off of commissary and Justin selling his trays means he doesn’t eat.

Quintin has a ton of money on his books. He has a radio and plenty of snacks. But if he gave them to Justin, that would make him look weak. Plus, Quintin feels like all of Justin’s problems are self-inflicted.  All of his problems in prison are, but no one gets in this condition without enduring a lot of bad things on the outside first.  Plus Justin came to Ryan asking him for some advice on how to pay off his debt.

Seven Dollars.

Quintin gets called to be released. When all his new best friends surround him, he takes all of his shit with him and doesn’t let anyone, not even Justin, have so much as a Twinkie.  I just knew that on the way out, he’d had off his stuff to Justin. What the fuck is he going to do with it? Sell it on E-Bay?

Ryan tells us that even thought Justin has started selling his trays, the interest rate is so high that he will starve to death before paying that seven dollars off.  Justin is fucked.  JoJo goes HAM on Justin. Ryan has tons of commissary and he is contemplating helping out Justin. But would that make him a target?

F-Pod

Damaris, the new inmate accused of serious battery of an infant is an unwelcome new guest in the pod. The girls all know about her crime and she has a huge target on her back.  There is a rumor that the boyfriend actually did the abuse but she was charged as well for being there.  Ashleigh and Sheri are really shaken by this information.  Everyone is out to get her. I think she looks like she has some mental issues. There is no light behind her eyes. I get the feeling if all of these girls jump her, it won’t be the worst beating she’s ever gotten.  I see this as another example of someone who needs way more help than just being locked up in the county jail.  Ashleigh wants Damaris is segregation.

Monalisa is more compassionate. She wants to just sit down and talk with her. Monalisa says it is not their (the undercover girls) job to judge. Ashleigh is furious with Monalisa for giving the girl the benefit of the doubt.  Damaris tells Monalisa that she didn’t do anything to her child and neither did her husband. They are Christians. They don’t do drugs. Monalisa wanted her to talk to her bunkies so they would know about the person they are sleeping next to. Damaris said her attorney told her not to talk to anyone about her charges so she was not going to do that. I guess her attorney didn’t say anything about signing a release to be on a reality show. NONE of them should have agreed to that unless they have already had their trial. And even then…

Monalisa relates a more detailed story from Damaris to the girls. It doesn’t sound believable. Ashleigh is ready to start something with Damaris. Monalisa is disappointed that Ashleigh, who was there undercover, was ready to cause such a major disturbance.  With Ashleigh making threats, she will likely be the first girl released.

I don’t understand why the other girls think that Damaris can just check into another hotel. She has no control over where she is placed. And quite frankly neither do they.  Monalisa points out that she has not been convicted of anything.  Monalisa tells Damaris that she needs to tell the guards she is not safe in this pod and she needs out. She goes to buzz the guards and doesn’t have the intelligence to articulate what is going on. Instead she says, “I’ve decided I don’t want to be locked up in here anymore.” And well, that applies to everyone in the pod.

This entire season I’ve had a lot of compassion for the ostracized inmates. Who I have ZERO compassion for is Ashley the mouthy 19-year-old.  Instead, I’d like to beat some sense into her head against a concrete block wall. I’m sometimey with my compassion like that.  So as Damaris waits by the door for her escort to a pod more to her liking, Ashley calls her upstairs promising not to hurt her. I don’t get why these inmates just do whatever the fuck someone tells them to do.  Ashley and her posse promise to protect Damaris from the other inmates and are all of a sudden best friends with her and helping her settle in.  I’m not buying this for a second.

Monalisa is the first one to be released. Sheri is having a Tami moment. She is woken up to find out that Monalisa is going home before she is and she had been there much longer.  When she leaves an inmate tells Ashleigh and Sheri that Monalisa was a plant.  She says if Monalisa was being extradited to New York, the pay phones in the pod would be shut off before she was let out.  I don’t understand why that is a thing, but it is and the phones are working. Ashleigh and Sheri are now super nervous.

Later, Ashleigh is still super angry with Damaris. She glares at her from across the pod. Damaris is much more at ease. People are giving her free commissary and treating her nicely. This does NOT sit well with Ashleigh. Sheri is watching and she knows that you do not get free commissary in jail. She goes upstairs to talk to the girls about what is going on. She finds out that the Ashley and the druggies are expecting a drug shipment and Damaris causing an issue with her pod placement could fuck that all up. So that is why they are placating her. I thought it was because they planned to kill her in her sleep.

D-Pod

Dion is counting the hours until he gets out. He thinks he only has two more days. We learned on the first season that they don’t always get out when they expect to.  Dion is unable to even hear his girlfriend on the phone because the pod is full of mentally ill people acting out. He says on the phone he’s ready to kill himself. I didn’t see that as a serious threat but it my escalate his release date nonetheless.

Dion is indeed the first one called for processing out. That might have been the case anyway as he was in the worst pod with few allies.  When they told him to pack up though, suddenly he had a lot of friends wanting his stuff. He was happy to let them just fight over it.

The Released Inmates

Dion and Quintin were together for a bit in the jail but neither knew the other was in the program.  So when Q, Dion and Monalisa leave, they put Dion in another SUV.  Monalisa is highly emotional. Quintin is playing it cool.  Dion is hyper and excited.  Dion says that the environment pushed him back to his high school days.  He felt himself becoming more immature and ignorant and wanting to fight people.

When Q gets back to his room he tucks right into the fruit basket production left him. That was a tangerine, Q. 🙂 When the producer asks what he is going to do first, he says hygiene.  He wants to take a shower, take a bath, take another shower, take another bath… then he wants to open up communication with the outside world and find out what is going on.  He misses his family a lot.

Quintin meets with Sheriff Noel, Captain Maples and Dr. Jennifer Ortiz a criminology expert. Quintin lays it all out on the line saying that the inmates control the pod not the guards.  He says his biggest thing is that the guards threaten people and don’t follow-up. He talks about the lack of communication from guards to inmates regarding the literal shitstorm.

Monalisa is still shaking when she tries to get into her hotel room. In the car ride over, girlfriend put in her hoop earrings first thing. She is so grateful to production for the fruit and bottled water and the bed. I’ve become quite fond of Monalisa over this season.  She goes straight for the bottle of water. She thanks production sincerely and often. Next she goes for her Tylenol. She was in a lot of pain sleeping on that hard metal bunk every night. She is so overcome with emotion that she can’t really express herself. What she needs is hug. Seriously. I wish they would just put down the camera and hold her. She cries for her daughter serving a ten-year sentence.

Dion literally skips to his room he is so damn happy to be out. When he gets to the room, he heads straight for the bed. He is so happy to have a bed and a real pillow.  Then he calls his girlfriend and wakes her up to tell him he is out. She’s was worried it was  dream. Then he goes for the water. Clearly they need more water in that jail.  He missed being himself and doesn’t ever want to have to lie about who he is again.

Dion met with  Sheriff Noel, Captain Maples and Dr. Jennifer Ortiz a criminology expert.  His main issue was that you couldn’t even use the bathroom without permission from an inmate. He also told them that when certain guard they respected were on duty, the inmates were much more compliant.

Next week is the finale. I’ll get that up as soon as I can, but I am having surgery soon… so thanks for being patient.