How can you help us dothat?
What's thesolution? How can I help you out withit?
Previously, onSyria. Not guilty oflying.
That'sfine, but you still have to go throughthis.
I said I wouldn't go with thesituation.
I said I shouldn't want tocourt.
Right, you were burningit?
There was a lot of talk that they would check in on him and hope that that means somehow protectinghim.
It'ssmall. Comeon.Yeah.
Why would you have any courtgates?
Why would you have a court gate comingup?
From this American life inW.B.E.Z.
Chicago, it'sserial. One courthouse told week byweek.
I'm SarahCanick. I'm SarahCanick.
I'm SarahCanick. I'm SarahCanick.
I'm SarahCanick. I'm SarahCanick.
Joshua wascorrect. The state was trying to invoke hisS.Y.O.
They wanted to send him to adultprison.
The morning after he'd calledme, I'd inquired over at the Juvenile JusticeCenter.
See what waswhat. So I'm actually at the courthouse rightnow.
Areyou?Yeah. So they're just going to set a datefor, Iguess, a hearing or thenext, whatever is going to happennext.
But,um, butyeah, how are youdoing?
I was up all night lastnight.
I wasthinking. Like mymom's.
I was thinking about last month and I justsaw.
All I could muster was a solutionthat, when I was Joshua'sage, I always foundirritating.
Um, allright, try to get somesleep.
It's nothing's going to be better if you don't getsleep.
Do I sound like yourmother?
Sorry. Try to get somesleep,though.
I know you'reworried. I know you'reworried.
Iknow.You. It's not my job to comfortJoshua.
Certainly not my job to tell him when to go tobed.
But I happen to be the one on the phone rightnow.
Out of all the cases wewatched, I knew Joshua's got to memost.
I could not fathom that the state would give up onhim.
After all he'd risked for lawenforcement, after all the beat downs he'dabsorbed, a 19 year oldkid.
I did what I know how todo.
I reported out every beat of thissucker, everyturn, spoke to Joshua almost everyday, sometimes twice aday, for a year and ahalf, so that the story of Joshua wouldexist, not for posterity'ssake, but for the sake of straight-upfairness.
First thing I wanted toknow, whyJoshua?
What was ODYS saying he'ddone?
It made them want to eject him from theirfacilities, and put him into the adultsystem.
I got a copy of the motion to invoke Joshua'sSIO.
It had been filed by the County Prosecutors Office at the request of the juvenile prison IndianRiver.
The motion claimed that Joshua created a substantial risk to the safety or security of theinstitution, that despite all the therapeutic programming Joshua hadcompleted, he consistently chooses to make criminaldecisions.
Then there was a list of about a dozen specificincidents, just from the past sixmonths,assaults,fights, disruptivebehaviors.
He'd thrown urine on akid.
He'd thrown a remote control at a femaleguard.
He'd smashed a video gameconsole.
I'd later find out the incident that triggered the motion toinvoke, apparently Joshua had put out a hit on anotherkid, which usually means arranging for other kids to jumpsomeone.
The kid wasn'tjumped, butstill.
The prosecutors considered it a seriousthreat.
I got tosay, I was taken aback by thelist.
I had that anxious joltof, holdup, have I completely misunderstood who this personis?
The list lookedbad. The summary at theend,extensive.
Sixteenfights, six menacingthreats, 21 disruptivebehaviors,etc.
But, I have anotherreport, an internal ODYSreport.
The documents every incident involvingJoshua, whether as victim oraggressor, for almost all his time in ODYScustody.
And when I cross-referenced the request to invoke Joshua'sS.Y.O.
With that internal ODYSreport, Irealized,oh, these aren't isolatedincidents.
Many of them areconnected.
In the request toinvoke, there's anassault, when Joshua hit a kid on February3rd.
What's missing is February2nd.
Which you can see on that internalreport.
February2nd, that same kid walked up to Joshua at the water fountain and punched him in theface.
There were a few sequences likethis, tit fortats, in which only the tat was included in the request to invoke hisS.Y.O.
Yes,indeed, Joshua did throw P at a kid on March27th.
The daybefore, the same kid had assaultedJoshua, and threw P onhim.
A common weapon injuvenile?
P. I ran the list of Joshua's offenses by people who've either worked in ODYS or worked on behalf of kids insideODYS.
And theysaid, it's notgreat, butyeah, for a kid who's been in there threeyears, it's notexceptional.
An ODYS guard who known Joshua for a couple ofyears, she told meoverall, not atroublemaker, not even on the radar in terms of major threats inside thefacility.
He gets madsometimes, shesaid, but usually for a legitimatereason.
Joshua did throw a video game remote at aguard, forinstance.
Joshua told me that was because the guard discussed his case in front of otherkids, saying snitches getstitches.
He said she apologizedlater, and they were cool afterthat.
But there itwas, in the request toinvoke.
Another incident on thelist, sounded as if Joshua had caused a guard to get hurt during afight.
Hesaid, notaccurate, he was trying to defend theguard.
The one time I visited IndianRiver, I met the same guard inpassing, and she confirmedit.
He was trying to protectme, shesaid.
She called Joshuahoney.
Again, I couldn't interview anyone at ODYS on therecord.
They don't participate in stories about specificyouth.
But in astatement, they reiterated that they do investigate allegations of misconduct and take action whennecessary.
When I put the two reports side byside, what I saw was theraggedy, morally compromised chronicle of a kid atwar.
Joshua wasn't only avictim, nor was he only aperpetrator.
Like a lot of kids insideODYS, he wasboth.
The most powerful gang in juvenile prison was afterhim.
He felt like guards couldn't betrusted.
Everyday, he feltunsafe.
So he created alliances where hecould, dominated where hecould, took advantage where hecould, sought protection where hecould.
That didn't make his behaviorright.
Thenagain, ODYS prisons don't really spin on an axis of right andwrong.
See previousepisode. The prosecutors offered Joshua adeal.
If he didn't fight the bindover and transferred to adultprison, he'd get nineyears.
If he went forward with thehearing, put up anargument, he could end up with more thanthat, as many as 18years.
Joshua's assigned attorney was a guy named JimHolflick.
Jim Holflick hadn't done one of these SIO invocationsbefore, not many people in the countyhad.
Joshua didn't know whether to take thedeal.
What's Holflick tellingyou?
He really wants me to fightit.
He really wentfurther.
He made it clear on what he wanted to doeither.
But he's inclined to fightit?
He wantsto,yeah, he wants to fightit.
Everybody wants me to fightit.
Everybody wants me to fightit, butlife.
Who'severybody? Who'severybody?
I thought this was histurn.
My turn wanted me to fightit.
My mom wanted me to fightit.
Myuncle, after I got to myuncle, my uncle said I'd fightit.
Really? Joshua tried to marshalsupport.
He asked some ODYS staff members to write letters to the court on hisbehalf.
He says a few told him they werewilling.
Joshua'sfather, who lives inJamaica, pledged to hire Joshua privateattorney.
He just needed to arrange forpayment.
In themeantime, Indian River declared that it wanted Joshua outnow, while they waited for the final hearing on hisS.Y.O.
The superintendent claimed Joshua was causing an environment of constant response andpanic.
A court magistrate oked thetransfer.
Joshua was delivered to countyjail.
Adult countyjail. A couple of weeks wentby, and I could hear on the phone that Joshua was acclimating to the idea of an adult sentence in adultprison.
He compressed the nine years in hishead.
It really be six years since he'd already spent a few years inODYS, probably less thansix, if he was granted judicialrelease.
Being in county with all these guys who are getting walloped with bigsentences, Joshua had a fresh perspective on the numbersix.
It'slike, it'slike, it'slike, it'slike, it'slike, it'slike, it'slike, it'slike, one home got 13years, but we got six just10.
One oflike, one of the 17years.
I know he'd rather be a Masu than he is rightnow.
So it'slike, they shouldhear,like, she's looking at it and they'relike, they're looking atit.
Like, they're in aclose,no, it'sdead.
Compared to doubledigits, he wassaying, maybe six was a luckybreak.
When Joshua was brought to court the morning of hishearing, he still didn't know what he was going todo.
He met with JimHophlick, who'd laid out the probable truth thattoday, nine years was the best casescenario.
Joshua took thedeal. The actual proceeding was hard tostomach.
Joshua stood therecrying, a few of his umpteen yes-mams fairlyaudible.
And that you have demonstrated by your conduct that ring of billetation during the remaining period of juvenile jurisdiction isunlikely.
At onepoint, the judge asked someone to fetch Joshua someKleenex.
No one had come to hisrescue.
His father hadn't hired the private lawyer he said he was going tohire.
Joshua's civil attorney has never did file a lawsuit on Joshua'sbehalf.
The Indian River staff who told Joshua they'd stick up forhim, vouch for hisprogress, nothere.
I'd learn they'd been firmlyreminded.
You work forODYS. While we're atit, where were the FBI agents who'd seemed to like Joshua back in 2014 when they told him they'd check onhim?
I getit. It was all toomessy, toomuch.
All those incidents on thelist, thecontext, the tit fortats, the who startedwets, toomessy.
Jim Hothlick had toldme, sure we could have picked a part three or four of the incidents on thatlist.
Explained, fights on paper are more intricate than theyappear.
But then what about the 40 otheritems, teetering justbehind?
They were going to becrushed, Jim Hothlicksaid, but the sheer volume ofincidents.
The one person who had shownup, Joshua's only witness was ShaylaTurner.
Joshua's mentor from FreedomSchool.
She said Jim Hothlick had contacted heryesterday.
She thought she might be called upon totestify.
Ms. Turner wasupset. I thought it could befought, shesaid.
I really thought it could befought.
In its letter to invoke Joshua'sSIO, ODYS had written that there was no more they could do to rehabilitateJoshua.
No additional interventions and treatments that can beattempted.
It is unfortunate they wrote that he threw away the opportunity he wasgiven.
The idea that Joshua isunfixable,Ms.
Turnersaid? That part of it is completeBS.
Ms. Turner isn't some wide-eyedadvocate.
She's worked with lots of kids in juvenilefacilities.
Her master's is in public administration with a focus on youthpolicy.
She's from EastCleveland.
She has a deep and personal experience with the good and the bad ofgangs.
She agrees that some of the kids at Indian River aren't ready to come outyet, but they are still works in not quite enoughprogress.
Joshuathough? She said he is not one of the ones she most worriesabout, and he's not one of the ones ODYS should be most worriedabout.
She does not accept that he hasn'tprogressed.
Because toher, Joshua at19, such a far cry from Joshua at16, when he was thehothead, arrogant asshole that Judge Weenie met atfirst, that I met atfirst, there's no doubt in my mind that that's when the conversation should have beenhad.
The conversation of should be binding himover.
Absolutely, because he's becoming a threat to thefacility.
And he was a child that Ithought, could he berehabilitated?
So you even had a question of thebeginning?
I had a complete question and didn't think that hecould.
Ms. Turner said the only fight they had in freedom school inside thefacility.
Onlyone,Joshua. His first week in theprogram.
He stood up on a chair and spit onsomebody.
Like, Imean, justoutrageous.
Even in conversation with him afterthat, it was this arrogance tohim.
It was thishardiness. And that literally doesn't exist in himanymore.
So to now hear his conversation completely changedto, I want to get out ofhere.
I want to be a betterperson.
I'm asking to not be put into thesesituations.
I'm asking to be put on a differentunit.
So you have a child that has been crying outsaying, this is what Ineed.
I want to get out ofthis.
And you ignorethat. What most disturbedMs.
Turner, that it wasJoshua, whose ethics and behavior were being scrutinized andpunished.
And now no one would look at what the state had done tohim.
I think Joshua is the best case example of why it's so bogus when we have these expectations for kids to speak up about what's happening in the community and to testify and things likethat.
And we see the ramifications and how we don't wrap around to protectthat.
I think the biggest issue isn't that Joshua hasn't held up his end of the bargain is that the state hasn't held uptheirs.
They haven't protectedhim.
Haven't protected him from the gang he inflamed by testifying for thestate.
I used the New York Times Games app every singleday.
I love playingconnections.
Withconnections, I need to twist my brain to see what's happening in thecommunity.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
I'm going to be able to dothis.
After thehearing, Joshua was taken back to the countylockup.
He figured to be shipped out to prison within a fewdays.
That's supposed to happen once you'resentenced.
Joshua's understanding was that early on a Tuesday or Thursdaymorning, they were going to drive him from county jail to an intake prison about 40 minutes fromCleveland.
And fromthere, they figure out where to putyou.
What's going to be your homeinstitution?
But a couple of Tuesdays and Thursdays came andwent.
And Joshua sat inlimbo.
He wasn't getting either of the two medications he said he'd been prescribed for his braininjury.
None of his personal stuff had followed him from IndianRiver, his papers and photographs andnotebooks.
Andalso, I need toemphasize, county jailsucks.
Go Googleit. Caihoga Countyjail.
See theheadline? ClevelandJudge, I will not send people to jail after sixth inmate dies in fourmonths.
Granted, that was a post-Jasualheadline.
But it was true then aswell.
County is not a place you want to spend even one extraday.
In Salt toinjury, Joshua had no money on hisbooks.
He couldn't buy any edible food or an extra t-shirt or a normal toothbrush or minutes on a phoneaccount.
Why were they keeping him incounty?
What did they want withhim?
Like, I'm just sitting here fornothing.
Like, Iain't...Yeah. I think that's pretty much what'shappening.
Yeah. After he'd sat in jail for a month of Tuesdays andThursdays, I emailed Jim Holflick to ask and tonudge.
Can you explain why Joshua is still incounty?
Hisresponse, Joshua is still incounty?
Jim Holflick wasn't Joshua's lawyeranymore, but he said he'd look intoit.
Jim discovered a communication breakdown between the juvenile court and the county sheriff'soffice, which runs thejail.
Administratively, no one knew or seemed to notice or care that they didn't know who had jurisdiction overJoshua.
But Jim said they'd clear itup.
Joshua and I developed a newroutine.
He'd call me andask, anywhere fromMr.
Holflick, and I'd say somethinglike, so apparently now everybody knows what's up and maybe they'll transferyou.
Oh, are youokay,Dan?Nope.
That was earlyNovember.
LateNovember, two months after he'd beensentenced, Joshua was still lousy incounty.
I'd run out of encouraging reports from theoutside.
Somebody at some point has to dosomething.
That's all Iknow. Somebody at some point will have to dosomething.
They cannot keep you in county jailindefinitely.
Oh, what are they doingthere?
The metaphor could not have beenClumzier.
The government had forgotten aboutJoshua.
In countyjail, Joshua wasbored.
Sometimes he'd be cooped in hiscell.
They all wouldbe, for nearly 24 hoursstraight.
But what I noticed was thatJoshua, he wasn'traging.
He wasn't getting infights.
Youknow, you sound like you sound prettygood.
Better than any river is a stressfulriver.
Like, this is the best way to livehere.
But it's better than any river tome.
Like, it's a stressfulriver.
Isit?Like, because this too much drama down there is toomuch.
I get stressful downthere.
And it's less stressfulthere.
It'sgood. That'sbad. Being in county jail was a stressreliever.
The CEOs just did theirjobs.
As far as you couldtell, people were nicer to oneanother.
More relaxed with oneanother.
Moresupportive, hesaid.
He was noticing what I'd noticed in the shift from middle school to highschool.
Just because one person didn't likeyou, that didn't mean the whole pod was againstyou.
It was something of a revelation tohim.
Even white people do okay inhere, hesaid.
Even the white people saylike, white people is nothere.
They even got alike,like, the cold stayed onher.
It's notlike,like, any river like a white dude ain't got a harsh thing inhere.
Down here islike, theycool.
The other young men I'd spokento, LeoMalik,Davon, a white kid namedWave, who'd been in both ODYS and then in adultjail.
They'd allagreed. Bad as itwas, dangerous as itwas, was still better thanjuvenile.
Lessstress. That samefeeling, lessstress, morerelaxed, would stretch out and hold true when Joshua arrived at adultprison.
He finally shipped 11.5 weeks after he'd been sentenced to a place called Allen Oakwood Correctional inLima, Ohio about a three hour drive from Cleveland so his family couldn'tvisit.
But Joshua was just happy to be sprung from hiscell.
King, walking back and forth just because Ican't.
Because he'd cooperated and adult enemies lurked in adultprison, Joshua was put in protectivecustody.
No heartless felons on hisunit.
He wasn't feuding with other inmates or getting into it withCOs.
Joshuamarveled. There were fewerguards, yet the inmates had morefreedom.
Part of it wasmaturity, hesaid, people trying to gethome, see theirkids.
But the main reason the adult system wasbetter, hesaid, was because it washarsher.
Atighter, less forgiving ship allaround.
If you fight or actout, throw urine on aCO,say, severe consequences raindown.
Yeah, seeing children outthere, theynever, people wantingwild, you fedme, and they neverhappened.
Like,I,I, yougo, I atethose, those cuts on the CO downthere, you fedme, I ain't nothing really going tohappen.
Imean, how they stay in Rome foryou, you're all still for the rest of thatday.
That's theend. Come outtomorrow.
He was saying injuvenile, the worst that hadhappened, you'd be shut up in your room for theday.
Try throwing piss in adultprison.
Here, yougo, yougo, yougo, piss on the CO downthere, you're going tomiss, you see to thewhole, how jack yourlevel, and how you getcharged.
Guards here will put their hands onyou, hesaid.
They do notplay. You could lose your phone calls or yourvisitation, and you could fester in the whole formonths.
Thewhole,especially, majordeterrent, hesaid.
InODIYS, the longest your health and seclusion is fourhours.
Joshuasaid, Juvenile's take advantage of thatshit, to themax.
So if you were to propose juvenile justicereforms, it would be that they should bestricter.
Right. And not just on theyouth, theonly, the staff who you feelme.
County jail was better thanjuvenile.
Adult prison was better than Countyjail.
Harshure punishment was better thanlenity.
Joshua's world had rotated a full180.
If he'd known what adult prison was going to belike, he would have skippedjuvenile.
He'd have said to those cops and prosecutors back in2014, just bind meover, I'll take mychances.
Cooperation had gotten himnothing, hesaid.
No realbenefit. Isaid, what about a shorter sentencethough?
Three armedrobberies, an adultcourt?
Been warned of time in the teens or 20seven.
Eh, hesaid, look up my code offinance.
Half of them are alreadyout.
Yeah, you run your finger down the list of the 13 people named in the cutthroatindictment.
A bunch of them got two or threeyears.
Only a few were serving more significantsentences.
11years, 13years. Joshua gotnine.
Should've just come straighthere, hesaid.
Instead of having my ass beat in ODIS for threeyears.
Now Joshua was inprison, his six yearsticking.
For mypurposes, in terms ofplot, his story hadended.
But he keptcalling, keptcalling, and I keptanswering.
I just took a 10 minute break infact, because he called me while I was writing thesesentences.
I learned day by day what Joshua's life was turninginto, on the cusp of 20 years old in protectivecustody.
Yeah, I'm going to pile up like a whole bunch ofeggs,eggs, holysolancers, andneos, and lower your cue with that sickrock.
Who was lastyear? You're on a pod with former police officers and formerCOs?
Yeah. About 60 people who couldn't mix with the general prison population in a different building across thestreet.
Cops,COs, and for reasons I never fully understood a lot of whitesupremacists, AryanBrotherhood.
Josh said everyone seemed to get alongokay.
He waslike,yeah,baby, that'scool.
I got no problem withthem.
Anyway, he said you kind of had to getalong.
The unit was too small for anythingelse.
During our phone calls from IndianRiver, I'd often hear hollering in thebackground.
Now from AllenCorrectional, I could hear the soft click of billiardballs.
They had a pool table in the dayroom.
Joshua was the youngest on thepod, hesaid, but he didn't feel like the adults around him weredangerous.
And the adults in charge of the prison didn't feel like Joshua wasdangerous.
ODYS had tagged Joshua as a gangmember.
But he said the gang coordinator for the adult prisonsystem, how to chat withhim, checked out hishistory, histattoos, did not tag him as gangaffiliated.
On a scale of one to five five being supermaxmaterial, Joshua was designated a level twoprisoner.
The sacrifice of being a prisoner in protective custody was the closeness of the unit and thetedium.
Joshua says he couldn't take advantage of some of the programs and apprenticeships across thestreet, where Jenpop washoused.
He was feeling thetime, filling thetime, withpeople.
Joshua is intenselysocial.
He was a talent for gatheringpeople, pulling people towardshim, including people who can help himout, likeme.
I do him smallfavors. I do him small favors that a reporter shouldn't reallydo.
Connecting him to the outsideworld, mostly via three-way phonecalls.
My most immediate benefit to Joshua wasthat, unlike most of the people in hislife, I could afford an endless supply of global town linkminutes.
Allright, what's thenumber?
Two and ahalf. Joshua wantedcontact, continualcontact.
Usually withfamily, I became theoperator.
HeyJoshua. Your granddad's on thephone.
Hello.Hey,Einstein. Joshua's troubles aren't news to hisfamily,obviously.
Incarceration isn't news to themeither.
Evenso, it's heavy information when itcomes.
Allright, that wasgood.
What'sup,man? I'm going toprison.
I heardman,man,Joshua.
Great myheart,Josh. Your dad told me whathappened, youknow?
I can'teven, I'mmad. Joshua lived with his grandfather for ayear, and he was about12.
Well, you'resafe,though,huh?
You'resafe,right?Yeah, I'm goodfor, youknow?
Joshua's relatives said it was okay to use theserecordings.
His family ishuge. They live allover, andCleveland, ofcourse, but also inFlorida,California,Jamaica.
That isfunny. His littleniece, hisgreat-grandmother, his aunts andcousins, hisparents, hissisters, hisdaughter.
In everycall, he tells them he lovesthem, and they say itback.
I loveyou. I loveyou. I love youtoo,baby.
Put mommy in thefall. When Joshua'sfour, his father was arrested by the DEA for conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana in the UnitedStates.
He got a long sentence in federalprison.
His mother went to prison a couple yearslater.
And once they were both lockedup, what happened was what you might imagine would happen to a kid longing for his absentparents.
He floated from a house to housemiserable.
Probably the most stable person in his life is hisgrandmother.
She was his legalguardian, and he lived with her for long stretches growingup.
Uh-huh, I put you in the backseat,remember?
Yeah,yeah. And I was driving aftery'all.
Yeah, shutup. Whattime, oldietime?
Man, I candress. I'm a realcop.
Thistime, I have acop. By the time he was13, Joshua began to pay the juvenilecourt.
Initially for pettystuff, beingunruly, fighting atschool.
Then it got moreserious.
At14, he was caught for strong armrobbery.
He and some friends mugged a guy theyknew.
Joshua was sent to anO.D.Y.S.
residentialfacility.
Heescaped, climbed over a wall with afriend, and called a sister from a gas station payphone.
She drove out to collectthem.
Once he washome, heartlessfelons, drugdealing,guns, somerobberies.
When he held up the two BPs and thePopeyes, he was15.
Got a lot of 50s and I ain't known till he playsone.
Just after he turned16, his baby daughter wasborn.
And two monthslater, the FBI came to gethim.
Yeah,yeah.Hello.Hello.
Hey,son.Hey,mommy.Hi, first ofall.
Thankyou. You're my 40 yearsold.
That'sold. Sometimes in thecalls, it feels like the master clock of Joshua's immediate family is the criminal justice systemitself.
A continual pulse of court dates and visitation forms and commissarymoney.
Hey, we come down there to drop the moneyoff.
And as I didn't have anidea, they wouldn't let your mother needit, might as well get some idea and bring itback.
You don't have to bring it back toyou.
Joshua knew I was recording thesecalls.
Occasionally, we'd discuss the contentafterwards, debriefs about hisrelationships.
He's open likethat, strikinglyso.
And he knew I was rooting forhim.
And so sometimes he'd call me just to callme.
Nah.Huh. That's toomuch.
I'mrecording. I don't knowwhy.
In case you're feeling fascinating to tellme.
Ido. That's not a fascinatingthing.
What?Uh-oh. Got moreTV.
What?Yeah. Noway,really?
Yeah, I gotit.Nothing,oh,probably.
He wasrelieved. Joshua had wrestled with the language arts portion of his GED twicebefore.
A former ODYS guard who knew Joshua as a younger teenager had described him asimpressionable.
The kind of person who'll do good if he's aroundgood.
Do bad if he's aroundbad.
Adult prison is filled by and large with adultcriminals.
I kept an antenna up for signs that Joshua might be listing towarddarkness.
Sometimes I'd hear a hard blade of anger in hisvoice.
He started swearing more on thephone.
But I couldn't really tell what thatmeant.
Maybe it was just more comfortable withme.
Maybe it was just in a badmood.
On the positiveside, Joshua had become friends with an ex-cop on the protective custodyunit.
A big guy who Joshua laughingly told me it was making his huge muscles even huger working out all thetime.
Thisex-cop, DynaneDixon, from EastCleveland, from Jesse Nickerson'scase.
The officer who'd taken Jesse to the park and pleaded guilty to a couple felonies as aresult.
Joshua really likedDynane.
They knew people incommon.
And Dynane likedJoshua, who's funny andcharismatic, Dynane toldme.
Feels like having a little brotheraround.
I was interested in Dynane'sassessment.
Once Joshua gotout, did he think Joshua could have an OKfuture?
One that didn't include perpetualincarceration.
Rightnow, thispoint.No.
Becausewhy? Becausewhy?
Becausewhy? Becausewhy?
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Becausewhy? If you're successfulones, I hate tosay, The ones that are communicating that they actually feeljoy, Are the ones who went back to thestreets.
Joshuaknew. He'd said it to me manytimes.
His only chance of survival was to never go back toCleveland.
If he returnedhome, he was going to end up hurtingsomeone, Or gettinghurt.
He'd end up right back at the JusticeCenter.
The year we were inCleveland,2017, more than 13,000 felony cases moved through the JusticeCenter.
BrutalistTower,downtown, 26 storieshigh.
The year we were inCleveland,2017, more than 13,000 felony cases moved through the JusticeCenter.
BrutalistTower,downtown, 26 storieshigh.
The year we were inCleveland,2017, more than 13,000 felony cases moved through the JusticeCenter.
BrutalistTower,downtown, 26 storieshigh.
Hundreds of people coming in everyday, wound upemotional.
And this is the famous GGGjuice.
Well, this is thefamous,Rower,Mayer, IReady.
The Contains the GGGjuice.
Maybe watching a little TV will help themrelax.
That was the idea when the court had TVs installed in the waiting areas near thecourtrooms.
On the 15thfloor, an older woman'sweeping.
She retreats into the ladiesroom.
Like in here or howling inthere.
She comes backout, stillcrying.
A youngman, maybe it's herson, is foldedover, head in hishands.
Right abovethem. Just top it off with a touch ofvodka.
Cheers,kiddo. The FoodNetwork.
That's the CourthouseSoundtrack.
CleanKitchens, covered as wellstocked.
The AdministrativeJudge, auditioned otheroptions.
Thenews, twoupsetting.
HistoryChannel, andboom, there was something about the Nazis and the concentrationcamps.
You thought of animalplanet, cartoonnetwork.
In theend, the most reliablysoothing, foodnetwork.
It does lullyou. You forget for amoment.
How much is happening all over thisbuilding?
Sir, do you have an attorney or the meat andsire?
In the space of ayear, all those thousands of cases begin here in the arraignmentroom.
Crucial decisions are made in the arraignmentroom.
The judge chooses your lawyer if you can't affordone.
Youcan't,usually. Assigns your case to acourtroom, reviews yourbond.
You buy the set of 10,000 dollars tocash, sure you have pros andproperty.
Adjust it up or down if hewants, keeps you in jail or lets youout.
If you received your indictment right atnight, I just didit.
I really couldn't understandit.
Didn't really quite understandit.
Dozens of people are waiting their turn with thisjudge.
The bailiff is at theready, big pile of casefolders.
On thesand, if you understand what the chargemeans, not thefacts.
It's been a lesson since the 100-inch article is goingon.
Asking questions slows therhythm.
So you understand what the chargeis.
Arraignment is the Justice Center's intakevalve.
The rush of cases nowprocess, they all wound up stairs intocourtrooms.
Has anyone made any promises or threats to not do it in due time to changeearly?
About21, they're teeing up the three words that will button closed many thousands of plea bargains thisyear.
Noimly.Valenterally.
Intelligently. Theknowing,voluntary, and intelligentfashion.
And I want to be sure you're doing thisvoluntarily.
Andvoluntarily.Noimly,intelligently, and voluntarilymade.
A few floorsdown, Judge DanielGaul, just reelected by theway.
Tells a defendant to pull up hispants.
The guy's been injail. Doesn't have abelt.
Pull themup. It's just abigger, I'm the bigone.
Pull themup. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull themup. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Pull up yourtrousers.
Pull up yourtrousers. Then they seehim.
Exonerated. We can't do anything right beforeI.
We can't do anything right beforeI.
We can't do anything right beforeI.
We can't do anything right beforeI.
Outside on thestreet. Police officers from all over thecounty, in thestate, march in the annual memorialparade.
We can't do anything right beforeI.
Honoring two local police officers who died during the past year in the land ofduty.
Separateincidents. But both hit by cars while working on thehighway.
Back up on 18 in Jeju Donald'scourtroom, asentencing.
The brother of a murdered woman gives astatement.
He talksquietly,angrily, for a fewminutes.
So he's glad the defendant is going to suffer every day inprison.
I'm just thinking that I made a way out of who youare.
Seems like maybe he's winding down and then he launches himself like a missile at thedefendant.
Another sentencing for a triple murder in abarbershop.
It's a capitalcase. The courtroomscrammed.
Relatives of the victims and of the defendant filled thegallery.
The media set up in the jurybox.
Their cameras andmicrophones.
A man named Alvin Wright comesforward.
He was a victim in thecase.
He'd been cutting someone's hair when shooting exploded theshot.
He saw people in who getkilled.
Alvin Wright had testified for the prosecution attrial.
And now just before the judge issues her finaldecision, whether she's going to sentence thedefendant, who's21, todeath.
Alvin Wright addresses thecourt.
The whole situation is fuckedup.
It's a quarterone. Imean, this isdifferent.
Imean, this is what I'm dealingwith,though.
The judge tells him it's a court oflaw.
There's differentwords.
Goahead. Imean, the situation is messedup.
The next upsituation,man.
Do I agree with putting them down like adog?
No. That's justme. And nobodywent.
You put themdown. We don't get nobodyback.
Nothing. It's just like we just keeplosing.
Just blackpeople,periods.
We just keeplosing. We got all these white people righthere.
They looking at us likeus, like we in azoo.
Like this realshit. Like we in azoo.
That'sright.No,no, I'm just looking at the big pictureof,like, look atthis.
Well, look atthis. That'slife.
We got to do better inthat.
That'slife. That'slife.
That'slife. The best kept secret in the Justice Center is in thelobby.
It's tucked between two pillars near theelevators.
Looks like a wheel you might see at a raffle or a bingogame.
But it functions as a suggestionbox.
You can send kites to thestaff.
The administrative judge will getthem, who's got thekey.
After hanging around this building for ayear, I have manysuggestions, just off the top of myhead.
I'dsay, gominimalist.
Don't pile six charges onto a singlecrime, when one charge willdo.
Don't overcharge to force a guiltyplea.
Don't lock anyone up unless they're demonstrablyviolent.
Admit that police officers lie underoath.
Get out of the punishment business and turn toward the urgent problem offairness.
Keep obsessive track of who exactly is being charged with whatcrime, how their sentence shakesout, and what their life looks like in three years or fiveyears.
Take note of the color of their skin and how much money theyhave.
Don't shove what you learn in a drawer and forget aboutit.
Don't be insensiblytempted, as Charles Dickenswrote, into a loose way of letting bad things alone to take their own badcourse.
Cops,prosecutors,judges,lawyers, call out the colleagues who degrade yourprofession.
Pay assigned attorneys and public defenders at least twice as much as you're paying themnow.
Judges stop choosing those assignedattorneys.
Citizens, mix up thebench, stop electing judgescountywide.
Andoverall, slowdown, doubtyourselves.
And I know how corny thissounds, but imagine that every person in the elevator car is part of your own family and reflect on the far-reaching pain ofprosecution.
Also, don't tape anyone's mouth shut incourt.
Don't let thathappen, and consider getting rid of the grandjury.
I could cram that wheel tobursting.
But if I'm only allowed onesuggestion, I'dsay, let's all accept that something's gonewrong.
Let's make that ourpremise.
Many times during our reporting inCleveland, when I'd ask about problems orreforms, someone would throwout,well, let'sremember, we have the best system in theworld.
County prosecutor Michael O'Malley said it tome, I just think people need to realize we have the best criminal justice system in theworld.
The people who operate that system know about thewards, and they can see we can alwaysimprove.
Butgenerally, they're not chomping for anoverhaul.
The kind of extreme makeover that the data is screaming at us toundertake.
We've all heard the stats that we here in the United States imprison a vastly higher percentage of our population than any other country in theworld.
We are numberone. The numbers are welldocumented, wildly out ofwhack, and unprecedented in ourhistory.
Also welldocumented,inequity.
Every joint in the skeleton of our criminal justice system is greased by racialdiscrimination.
Compared to white people who've committed the same crime and who have similar criminalhistories, black people and other people of color are arrested moreoften.
They're charged moreharshly, given higherbails, offered worse pleadeals, their handed longer prisonsentences, and their probation is more oftenrevoked.
These numbers aren't floating above us in thesky.
They're alive all over thecountry.
We looked at studies from New York City and Alabama and Wisconsin and Iowa's sixth district in Hampton Road's Virginia and HarrisCounty,Texas.
It's everywhere in all ourcourthouses.
Reporters often hear that we only report the badstories.
We exaggerate andsensationalize, especially when it comes to law enforcement or wonkyprosecutions.
But we didn't go to Cleveland and sift through hundreds of cases looking for the most egregious injustices we couldfind.
We didn't haveto. The ordinary ones told us everything we needed toknow.
Serials produced by JulieSnyder, a manualJochi, BenCalhoun, and me with additional reporting by EdelieOskowski, editing on this episode from Ira Glass and NancyUpdike, tape transcription by RobinSmith, Whitney Dangerfield is our digitaleditor.
Research and fact checking by BenFalen, sound design and mix by StoneNelson, music clearance by AnthonyRoman.
Seth Lind is our director ofoperations.
The serial staff includes EmilyCondon, JulieWhitaker, CassieHowley, FrancisSwanson, and MattTierney.
Our music is by Adam Doran and HalWilner, with additional music from MattMcGinley.
Our theme song is by Nick Thorburn and Remix by AdamDoran.
This is our final episode thisseason, so we have some special thankyous.
Our tapebloggers, ValerieCaesar, BethCard, NicoleRichter, SarahStodder, and MeredithFrancis.
Thanks to the entire staff at the Cairoga County Criminal JusticeCenter, thanks to EdFarence, KevinBrighman, JillianEckert, JoeBuckley, RyanMede, and KathleenCaffrey.
At the juvenilecourthouse, thanks to Mary Davidson and GregoryMoore.
Thanks also to KimberlyHenderson, EliseBergerson, SarahAdams, BennettEpstein, LisaNoller, MelissaGeorge's, AyalGoutentag, YtaiSutker, RyanAingar, KabeMutamid, ChristinaHagner, AnnetteNavee, Ad ResultsMedia, KishaLadsson, AngelaLadsson, IanFriedman, KevinKylbane, AddisonRiley, TomShawna-Sea, EricNorton, WendyFinn, DannyTrafagnihoo, The Ohio HighwayPatrol, and Amy Gifford at the Start County Clerk ofcourse.
Also a personal thanks to JeffMelman, BenShryer, and ArleneRichmond.
And a huge thanks to RichOrris, who builds and manages our fantasticwebsite.
The talented team at Moth Studio did the animation and illustration for thisepisode, and it isgreat.
You can check it out on our website atserialpodcast.org, that isserialpodcast.org, where you can also sign up for our emailnewsletter.
Occasionally, we'll take the show on the road and hold events at theaters anduniversities, so if you'reinterested, sign up for ournewsletter, and we'll send you the details forthose, and for our next season and newprojects.
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