and don t like you for some reason. they just target in on you, and a lot of them have been in there for 10 months, 12 months. so they re already basically, you know, all settled in. and i m basically new. bernard is charged with threatening to kill and unlawful use of a firearm. for allegedly holding a bb gun pistol to his father s head. during the course of his arrest, he picked up additional charges of resisting and assault on police officers. he s pled not guilty to all and is awaiting trial. if i really think about the future, it really, being contained and not being able to see my family and just be way way overwhelming. adding to bernard s stress is the fact that he s housed in a maximum security unit. he says he spends most of his time in a cell and trusts no one. not even the inmate worker who used to cut his hair.
you can find examples just outside downtown, at the bergen county jail. he s cleared. while some of the men and women incarcerated here have been convicted, most are only charged with crimes and are awaiting trial and the resolution of their cases. this is like country club compared to my county. william bernard might disagree with the country club description. except for a brief stay for driving with a suspended license, this is his first extended stay in jail. bernard says his four months here have caused him panic attacks and worsened his stuttering. i would stutter sometimes when the anxiety level would get real high on the outside, but nothing like on a on a daily basis to where guys on the unit would be making fun of me because that s just, you know, the way i m talking every day. i guess some people look at you
my barber, he stabbed somebody 27 times. they wound up taking him out of the unit. then he bailed out of there and got in a fire fight with police officers and got shot seven times. my bunky before kidnapped somebody at gunpoint. was doing all types of drugs. he was doing robberies. so you just you don t know who you re sleeping with. one of the times bernard does leave his cell is to perform his duties as a unit maintenance worker. but he says even that led to trouble when another inmate got angry because bernard threw away the lid to his soup bowl. he came up behind me and just smacked me and smacked all the stuff out of my hands so it went all over the floor. because of his fear of being a snitch, bernard says he does not report his harassment to staff. and he says it was another set of problems in the free world that put him in this predicament. after my ex had left me, she
they going to get it. he go to his room, we say go into your room. he go into a room, he s finished. bernard denies being a snitch. he says frequent visits to the medical unit because of his anxiety and panic attacks have caused some inmates to suspect he s been reporting illicit activities to staff. i don t want to have that label follow me all the way through because a lot of these gangs and stuff, they re interconnected, so word travels. coming up there s been rumors going around about suboxone, a synthetic type of heroin, sent into the jail. staff must contend with yet another drug. but now how did you get this? they have a new source of intel. one hand washes the other.
i respect that. the inmate that was mentioned is a smooth mover. he s a jailer. he did a significant amount of time in new york state prison system before he came here. so, you know, somebody to keep a watchful eye on. think you can get me back into s-4? i don t see a problem with that. appreciate that. his one request was to go back to a certain unit. i can grant that request. he helps me, i help him. that inmate s now in my pocket. i do him a favor, he wants to return the favor and tell me what s going on. so, you know, one hand has to wash the other. coming up you guys are suspicious of an envelope or a package or something coming in that would be suspect, bring it to the attention of your supervisor. staff gears up to choke off the drug flow. and you shouldn t have told cops i was armed and i tried to kill