Who is down for some new 60 Days In Recaps? We are in an Alabama jail this season, and spoiler alert! Most of the undercovers don’t make it the 60 days. It’s bad. County jails are the worst place to be locked up. And so it begins…
“Welcome to Etowah County, Alabama, the Heart of Dixie. We are a very conservative, Christian community. There’s a lot of things we don’t do on Sunday. We don’t cut grass, we don’t hunt, it’s the sabbath day. We enjoy eating Friday chicken and work six other days of the week.
“I’m Jonathon Horton and I’m the new sheriff in town. I took office Jan. 14 and cameras were rolling the whole time. I wanted to become sheriff so I could make a difference in the detention center and the community.”
The Seven New Inmates
We start out the season with seven undercover volunteers. Ashley, is a 29-year-old white police officer. But. that long blond hair will not be a benefit to her in the jail. She promises we will not see her cry. I bet we will. Jennifer is a black woman. Not sure of her age yet but probably in her 30s. Her job title is “Christian woman.” Apparently, she is there to bring everyone to Jesus. I predict she is the one who has a come to Jesus moment. Shanise is an older black woman who is an educator who works with at risk youth. I predict she will be running the pod within two weeks.
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Dennis is a black guy who was a former college quarterback who “will not tolerate any disrespect.” Adam is a white college student majoring in political science. My money is on him to be the first to drop out. He will not last three days. Jacob is a white corrections officer. He’s big. He should be able to do this. Matt is a white guy who it appears was a Marine for awhile. He doesn’t give me Marine vibes he is a superfan. Dennis, man, this is all going to be on you. Jacob might be there with you but… YOU IN DANGER, Dennis.
The First Two Inmates Are Chosen To Go In!
Afters some very basic and irrelevant combat training for the guys, Matt is told he is going in first. And he is going in now. Then, Matt immediately goes outside and calls his wife and cries. Le sigh. There is no crying in the Marines! And there is certainly no crying in the county jail!
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Then, it is time to train the females. They seem much less nervous than the guys. There is only one pod for the women. So they will be in there with people arrested for violent or deadly acts as well as traffic tickets. The sheriff says the women are a lot nastier than the men. It’s dangerous. Ashley is smart enough not to tell the other women she is a cop. She doesn’t look like a cop. Wow! Jennifer is 41! She looks a lot younger. She’s a minister in her church. She was a rebellious child who ran away at a young age, was a stripper at age 14, and had a child as a teen. Jennifer is going to be better at this than I thought.
The Women’s Pod
The cops pick Ashley to go in right away. She is ready to get it over with. No tears. She seems ready to do this. She has training as a cop and she’s been in the National Guard for 11 years. Ashley is shocked and horrified by her “pat down.” Not for the normal reasons, but because they barely did a pat down. No one watched her change clothes. There were no cavity searches. When she walked into the pod, her looks got her a lot of unwanted attention.
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When she gets released into the pod for the first time with the other inmates, she is terrified. This place is insane. When she says this isn’t like any other jail she has seen on the show, she’s not lying. This jail is extremely overcrowded and full of mentally ill women and violent women. The women in the pink shirts have been charged with murder. There are a lot of pink shirts. Ashley is freaking out.
It’s Not As Easy As It Looks On TV!
Matt says that on TV it looks like you just check in to the jail. It took him nine hours to be processed in. As he is finally processed in, one of the other inmates asks what unit they are going to. The guard says “400.” One of the inmates says, “Oh SHIT! The thunderdome!” They are trying to rattle Matt and it is working.
Next, Jacob, the corrections officer, is going in. He tells us that for him to tap out it would take a shank to the body. I hope that is not foreshadowing. I love Jacob already. He has a cute house and family. On the way there, Jacob is told that intake is the one place that he cannot use the distress signal. Oh, this is sounding bad already. Jacob immediately notices that this jail may be worse than any of the previous jails on the show. He’s freaking out.
And We Have Our First Tap Out?
Dennis is going in on this episode too. I’m still not sure what he does but he seems to be living the good life. He is used to being admired and is really cocky. This is going to take him down a peg or three. The guy that I guess is second in command tries to tell Dennis not to be a pretty boy in jail. I am not sure Dennis gets it just yet. But he will.
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He goes into the same holding cell as Jacob. They do not talk. But Jacob appears to be very stressed. Despite knowing that he can’t give the distress signal in intake, he gives the signal anyway.
Then they show the season previews. Pretty much everyone gives the distress signal at some point. Who will make it through?
Oh, wow. A jail show? I might have to watch this. Thanks for the hot tip, TT.
Dude! We are on SEASON SIX! It comes on Thursdays at 10 real people time on A&E! It’s a great show. Well season five was not as good because half the time the focused on the drug cartel out on the streets instead of the jail.
This season looks like the worst jail system ever. You should be able to stream the first four seasons on the A&E website without logging in or anything.
So far episode one is what I expected that season one would be like.
It did get too “tv show ish” so this should shake up all the wanna “be in a reality show person, “lol.
Jacob is a complete baby and it doesn’t help his wife treats him like one as well. He can not be a cop, how? You work a job like that you better know what commitment and integrity mean.
I can’t believe there are still people willing to do this. But it is one of my favorite shows and it is really insightful about what jails are really like. I can’t believe everyone is just roaming around multiple rooms!
I can’t keep up with you! I’m a couple shows behind but 60 days is on the top of my list. Last season I missed because it was in the field and didn’t really appeal. Looking forward to this season!
I can’t keep up with me either. 🙂 That’s why I crap out sometimes. But I am trying!
This does look like the worst place ever. One show more violent than housewives. It looks like because the new sheriff worked to capture everything on camera because of previous corruption 60 Days In isn’t suspected.
If it wasn’t for Mark on Twitter I would have missed this. Thanks Mark! Wow this stuff look skeery! I just couldn’t get in to last season. No clue what happened even. I stayed up until 11 to watch it this time and I have a feeling every single one of them will try to tap out. Every single one of them.
I may actually watch this season based on your recap TT. All of it sounds sketchy already! Have to check my tv schedule to see when it repeats as I down a dvr. Maybe it’s on the A&E app?
Thanks again for the wonderful recap!
Off topic, but I always click notify me by email of new comments, and it never does. Anyone else have this issue???
I had that happen. I updated my WordPress account, logged back in and started receiving emails again.
Yes, 60 Days In! I couldn’t watch last season, so glad it’s back and back to “normal” Love that you are recapping! Dennis has no clue what he is getting himself into and Adam? I think he is clueless as well. The women seem more ready for this even though their pod is absolutely insane.
So excited for a new season! Especially after last season’s bologna show. Going to have my 12 & 14 year old sons watch it with me. So happy you’re recapping it Tamara!
Etowah County is very close to where I live. The former sheriff fed the inmates food that was spoiled, out of date or donated. Some was stamped “Not Fit For Human Consumption “. Per Alabama state law at that time, he was able to pocket any money left over from the jail’s food budget. He bought a $700,000 beach house during his tenure.
Wow. What a crooked law that was. Thanks for the info.
I’m from Gadsden (in Etowah County) and this is 100% true. The former Sheriff had TWO beach houses (one he rented out). He was so sketchy. I have attorneys/judges in this area in my family and everyone was completely shocked when it was announced that they had filmed this show. They were able to keep that secret so well. I think it was really smart for the new Sheriff to do this in order to document what a shit show the former Sheriff had made of things.
omg so excited for this, was hoping you would recap again. I am with you every season! This shit looks SCARY! I hope they dont get identified as being with 60 days in, that really spoiled it for me last season.
This is going to be crazy, everyone should be watching it.
At least the thugs aren’t wearing cocktail dresses.
lol. Y’all I need an intervention! There were some movies I wanted to watch tonight. But somehow I landed on Live PD reruns and can’t stop watching! This shit is addictive!
Live PD *is* addictive! My fave is Danny Brown in Richland Co. So I’m sure that was a big help in your intervention.
I’ve been cooking actual REAL FOOD tonight. So I have paused it a lot. But in another hour it goes live. I should be caught up by then.
This season looks really interesting for the female participants. In past seasons, there was the vague threat of violence for female inmates, but ended up being more about cliques and social connections. Looking at this jail, the potential for violence is very real! I don’t wish harm on any participants, but this place is a powder keg like no other seasons before.
It seems like the largest, with the smallest amount of CO’s working. They said the ratio was 1 officer to every 110 inmates. That is crazy.
Skipped last season but after watching this episode I’m back in.
Very interested to see if the CO quits before he even starts. Didn’t he say that unless he was shanked he wouldn’t tap out? Anyhow, looks like an intense season and I look forward to your recaps TT!
Looks interesting this year.
Holy shit.
This place is absolutely insane. I could not believe the non existent pat down or cavity search. They must have people in and out of there constantly that just go in to bring drugs! I mean you could get arrested for something minor and bring in a LOT of drugs and sell it all and get out and do it all again.
After last season I thought I might not watch again. (That was seriously awful.)
But this is something else entirely. It is by far so much worse than any season.
I don’t understand at all why any of these people do it. We can see very easily exactly what is wrong and nobody ever seems to fix anything.
The number one thing I think is SO wrong is that non violent/non drug inmates should absolutely be in their own area. It’s disgusting and insane that you could become a criminal just by having to defend yourself from psychos.
The fact that they lump all the women in together is pathetic.
As for the drugs, why don’t prisons have dogs to sniff them out? It wouldn’t cost that much to keep a few dogs around. They could do intake and go around the pods every damn day. Not expensive or difficult.
One thing I noticed that really kinda pissed me off was the officers repeatedly telling the women that this is not to get on tv. They didn’t say that to the guys. I guess because women would only do it to get on tv? Assholes.
Etowah looks to be similar to Jefferson County Alabama. One or 2 counties over. Overcrowded, staffing issues. Its a completely foreign life to those who have chosen to follow a law abiding path. Sad how the issues are similar. You have to applaud any sheriff and corrections department that invites cameras to document compliance and address the problems.
Some of the volunteers are clearly there for their “careers”. The women seemed authentic though
One can only hope that the new sheriff corrects these issues ASAP. I am guessing that for ratings and viewers they withhold any of that info until the season is over.
Thumbs up to Etowah County for baring it all. Hope it trickles to other counties in Alabama
This is turning out to be the craziest season yet. Jacob, a supermax corrections officer taps out from intake BEFORE he even starts the program, and then former marine and scaredy-cat Matt tapped out in the second episode crying all the way. Even schoolboy nerd Alex puts these 2 supposed he-men to shame!
Totally vindictive and ‘snitch’ Ashley spends her time griping, crying and trying to get back at one of the guards whom she is intent on getting fired. And then there’s Dennis – a self-centered arrogant bully with no redeeming qualities. I look forward to him getting his cum uppance and going down in flames.
I’m from West Alabama. A couple counties towards Mississippi side of BAMA. I’m bout 2 watch this season, with it being my first full series to watch all the way through and reading the comments, I had a hard time deciding 2 post this b4 watching. It’s pretty Dope putting BAMA on the map like that, though. Shout out 2 tha 205!!!!
Not to mention, all the overcrowded Prisons and County Jails in Alabama has gotten to the level of overpopulation that is outrageous. These standards have obviously been ignored and loopholed through for years. Just like any other overpopulated correctional facility in the Southeast, these overseers of these facilities undermind the overpopulation situation and it continues to get worse until a riot breaks out and caused more trouble than the causing factor in this situation was. Some counties charge inmates for sanitary products. The detention and correctional facilities from juvenile holding facilities to the max 5 camps are overpopulated. I’m sure there’s a few facilities that can be shown to anyone with authority that shows interest in the population situation and it be somewhat acceptable. Only an Opinionated statement to have and voice. Naturally one could assume the possibility of this actually being the truth. Naturally one could assume the officials that are in charge of maintaining these facilities do the responsibilities this job, maintaining correctional facilitates entails and involved, doing by the book, are in fact, done by the book. Considering that we are talking about law enforcement, I only assume their standards of, by the book ,is taken very seriously.
My first trip to Pickens County county jail in 2009 up until a year ago was the worst in the state with funding and overpopulation messed up from the core. The counties sheriff of 25 years strong is now sitting in a federal detention facility far away from Alabama. Last year in 2019 he was charged for embezzling money from food and hygiene funding distributed by the state to Pickens County facility. Facts is, he’s been doing it for the 4 years says the F.B.I. after gathering their case against him. Only one could assume he may of been doing this for longer. One with the common sense of a local Pickens County citizen would have the opinion that his million dollar home was paid for by the states money altogether. The state of Alabama has been building a major interstate highway, in his hometown city in Pickens county, that starts where his old ranch and houseplaces sits at for 8 years now. Being offered a price he couldn’t refuse by the state for his property, along with, the state choosing his property to start the project at was Ironic, but it wasn’t illegal. Naturally you wonder if he ironically was ordered to pay any of the money back to the state.
A Local meat processing places for wild game hunters is where the small amount of meat were substituted from in place of what the state funds would have purchased. For years, the meal trays would be half filled with a hint of deer, hog, or cow meat cooked into northern and/or pinto beans, and a single slice of bread. That’s what 95% of meals consisted of being given to inmates for 15+ years. A cold pile of grits for breakfast. No matter your religion you ate pork or starved. A local bread factory used to donate bread that wasn’t sold or shipped out in time in place of state funding purchases. The Sheriff had a ranch and large size gardens he worked inmates on as a work release program. On his ranch and gardens that was just miles down the road from the facility was where the vegetables/beans were substituted in place of what the state fund would have purchased. Donations from churches and food drives around locally would also make small monthly donations.
Apparently a food drive and food bank was established when the state changed a law making it illegal to use any outside funding and/or donations of goods to be accepted and used for the correctional facility 4 years ago. The sheriffs was A former Sunday school teacher at a baptist church In his hometown had a long time food bank established but would only go into action in local emergencies. The sheriff turned his connections with the meat process plants, bread factories, gardens, and ranch to funnel goods into the detention center quietly and efficiently for these past 4 years. Making up for what the change of the law eliminated.