here. this is the only meal that s not great. it s bologna every day. hot meals in the morning, hot meal at night. but this one s this is the best part of the day. lunchtime. pretty much we try to eat and don t talk. because if they catch us talking, they re going to tell you to get up, throw your food away and get up. you got to deal with it until 6:30, dinnertime. out of control here, you re not allowed to even talk in the dining room. this is an exception. it s amazing we re not getting thrown out. it s because of you guys. but you re not allowed to say a word in here. because the dining facility can only accommodate a small percentage of inmates at a time, each table has approximately 15 minutes to eat. 10 minutes. it s time to go now. we re up and running. i ll just take a little water. no talking. women s detention center is the nicest of all the facilities, if you can call any of them is nice. but jail is hell. vitamins. i have low blood.
at the women s detention center, i believe the most effective vocational program we have here is our cosmetology because they have the opportunity to receive a certification and it does not print that they received this in jail, so then they can present that to a possible employer when they get out. hold your ridge, hold your ridge. start to clean out. swing it. that s it. see, it closes up the opening. you got it? elizabeth valenza is the head instructor for the cosmetology program. i m here for them, and that s very important to them. i mean, that they would tell you straight out. they would tell anybody. that s good. to them, it s just very important that they have this class because otherwise they re upstairs for five hours in their cell doing nothing, except perhaps getting in trouble. take the comb out. clean it out. clean it out. and swing it back. to me, personally, it makes me feel good especially with miss liz because she teaches us a lot not only about cosmet
kicking and screaming, they can t give her medicine, so they have to tie her down. so it s working under adverse conditions with extremely ill people. dr. mary sue haber is a forensic psychologist and has worked in corrections for 35 years. there are less places for women to be treated after they leave here. and even if they are released and go to a hospital in a short-time treatment program, they come back. they sometimes commit crimes, deliberately, to get arrested because they don t have a place to sleep, they have not a meal to eat. and surviving on the streets is really tough. when we built the women s detention center, it was well under capacity. once we opened it up, we never could get back to capacity. there s just there was a lot of need for housing female inmates. in an attempt to decrease recidivism, miami-dade corrections offers counseling services, life classes and vocational programs.
i don t write poetry for the fame, speaking loud with no shame, the words i spit i claim, it s all a part of the game i call life. i consider myself an artist, painting mental pictures in my head. we saw collins the slam poet when she gave an impromptu performance for the women in her jail dorm. and the bible says that god blesses baby and fools. i think god has a sense of humor and is amused, you see, because being in a women s detention center is not all he has in store for me. i guess that s how i started to write poetry. it saved me from arguments, headaches and heartaches. i like it because i feel that i can express, i can teach, i can motivate others. i feel good when i m up there. when i m on stage and i recite and on the mike i feel free. there s no boundaries. living a life of crime bought nothing but misery. i had nice cars, living like a star with the bling-bling and the dress code and my gun always
though frustrated by the system, collins had found a way to voice her grievances. my name is gwendolyn collins. and the poem is why i write poetry. i don t write poetry for the fame, speaking loud with no shame, the words i spit i claim, it s all a part of the game i call life. i consider myself an artist, painting mental pictures in my head. we saw collins the slam poet when she gave an impromptu performance for the women in her jail dorm. and the bible says that god blesses baby and fools. i think god has a sense of humor and is amused, you see, because being in a women s detention center is not all he has in store for me. i guess that s how i started to write poetry. it saved me from arguments, headaches and heartaches. i like it because i feel that i can express, i can teach, i can motivate others. i feel good when i m up there. when i m on stage and i recite and on the mike i feel free.