- In this edition of "Artifacts," an immersive art exhibition at the decommissioned Nevada State Prison.

- [Narrator] The artists have taken over different cell blocks.

They have transformed these spaces into gallery spaces.

- [Host] Using the art of theater to share stories of imprisonment.

- It was just natural.

It just jelled for us to come together and form a group that can use the arts.

- And how art can solve a crime.

- It is very gratifying to me when I can help a victim get a little bit of closure.

- It's all ahead on this edition of "Artifacts."

(bright jazz music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Artifacts" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

- Hello, I'm Beth MacMillan, and welcome to "Artifacts."

In our featured segment, we take a look inside the decommissioned Nevada State Prison and enter "Far Beyond the Walls," an immersive art exhibition creating awareness around incarceration in the US.

- [Recording] A man can hope while in prison.

Our children hope we will return one day.

Our wives hope we will return to help support the family.

Our mothers hope we will return to them one day.

Behave and do something positive when you are in there.

I was told.

- "Far Beyond the Walls" is an exhibition project that I put together.

My name's Frances Melhop.

I am an artist, a curator, and contemporary art gallery director.

"Far Beyond the Walls" is a series of exhibitions.

It is seven solo exhibitions and two group exhibitions held in the Nevada State Prison, which is decommissioned.

The exhibitions are exploring many different mediums.

There's oil paint, there is ceramic work, there is sculpture, there's photography.

We also have poetry and a soundscape.

- [Recording] I can't change the past.

I can't change me and I can't change the future.

- The artists have taken over different cell blocks, areas like the maximum security, the culinary section, the muster room.

They have transformed these spaces into gallery spaces.

They're investigating ideas of confinement and incarceration through their artwork.

This is the work of Glen Cartilage.

Glen is a former criminal defense lawyer who worked in this prison with people on death row.

Once she retired, she devoted herself to being an artist.

Glen is referring to a cemetery down south where people who've been executed from prison are still treated as numbers.

They still don't have their names on their grave sites.

So this carceral cloth, she's made it exactly the size of a commissary machine.

All of these items are things that you can buy while you're in prison.

She has, again, used the motif of the black and white tiles.

It is the size of a cell that two people would occupy.

So always she's working with scale as an important factor within these carceral cloths.

Within that, she has made these portraits of formerly incarcerated people.

They are from a series called "P2P," which is short for "Prisoners to Paper Dolls."

When people come out of prison, they are treated in a very two-dimensional manner.

And so each of these portraits is painted as if it's one of the paper dolls that we used to play with when we were little kids.

This area here is still the infirmary and basically it was three cells that were divided into a larger space where people would recover from injuries or surgery.

The concrete blocks are actually from onsite at the prison.

So because it's a historic building, I've had to use very different installation tactics.

These are more formally incarcerated people that Jennifer Garza Quinn photographed for Glen and then Glen painted them, and she's quite an academic painter.

The soundscape that you can hear behind us is by Gia Dryer.

Gia has melded their own music with interviews with formerly incarcerated people that Glen actually recorded.

We're in the bullpen.

It's where people are brought to when they're first incarcerated while the prison is trying to work out where they're going to be housed.

This area is devoted to Jennifer Garza Quinn, who is a photographer.

This particular series is called "Imprints and Abstractions," ruined mugshots that she found in an abandoned police station in Detroit.

And so all of these are enlargements of people's identity mugshots that were scattered all over the floor in this abandoned building where you can also see the kind of chemical collapse of the emulsions.

We're in the barber's cell of cell block one east.

This is the work of Lisa Jarrett.

Lisa got very excited when I showed her this space because her work is basically very concerned with migration and care.

All of her work is thinking about Black femininity.

And when she saw this space, she created this installation and it is actually impossible escape plans that are woven from hair.

This cell block is devoted to John Pierro Esoma.

He is from Naples in Italy.

And this series, he spent 10 years going into the psychiatric criminal prisons in Naples and photographing the spaces and the people in there.

They were closed down in 2014, but he has a body of work that we've put all through these cell blocks.

These red areas that are on the walls are actually designated spaces that the prisoners were allowed to hang their images and photographs in.

And the rest was supposed to be kept clear.

We're actually in the muster room or we are in the entrance to the muster room, which is where the guards used to get ready, rest between shifts.

We have Sean Griffin's poetry and Sean is currently the Nevada Poet Laureate.

- Frances reached out to discuss doing this exhibition.

I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

I've been teaching at the prison for 30 plus years, teaching a poetry workshop and I said, "You can have whatever I've done.

I hope you use it and it'll give voice to the guys' work inside."

- These poems are actually, I see them as portraits of his students.

They found poetry and found a way to focus, a creative focus, and I feel like this is a super important aspect of this whole exhibition.

- When I first started teaching out there, you know, I got so much grief about teaching this.

Poetry particularly gets a bad rap, but, you know, it's the most rewarding thing I do.

It's the one thing that grounds me.

It's a time to be real with people and just be straight and be who I am.

They can be who they are.

They lose their back number for an hour and a half.

They're not a man tied up in denim and a crime.

They're a person tied up in what might happen in the future and what they can do with their language.

- He's really made a huge difference to their lives.

All of them, basically, you know, they really said, "Poetry saved my life or Sean Griffin saved my life."

- It was a really tough exhibition.

I took one of the guys who was also in the workshop with me, but had been released and it was very hard for him.

It was like having to go back and not being able to get out.

One of the guys, Bo Brown, who's been in my workshop for many years, specifically, his poem moved many people to tears.

And when I told him that, you know, it was like letting him out of jail for that time.

He was free again 'cause his words had moved beyond the prison to other people's lives.

And that was profound.

- The people that are behind bars are completely invisible to us.

I wanted to give them a voice, but also to just start a conversation surrounding this issue because I feel like rehabilitation is not happening that much.

- The recidivism rate is around 60 to 70% on every prison in the United States.

You know, you have an X on your forehead after you get out because you're a felon.

And so getting a job, getting a house, getting a relationship, anything, it's beyond difficult.

It's why we're getting more of these creative writing classes started in all the prisons.

They're support that really changes lives and gets people out and helps 'em stay out.

- If we can humanize the people that are incarcerated, then at least it's starting to change the social conditioning that we grow up with.

Art is such a language and it's such a great communication tool when you can't use words.

You're dehumanized systematically when you're inside and treated as a number.

And being able to hold onto your identity and hold onto your, you know, your self-respect and dignity I think is very, very important.

- [Recording] I continue to press on and I continue to look at the positive in my life, not on the negative.

It's been a long time since I've had to think about the past, but I want people to know what I went through.

- To keep up with the Melhop gallery, visit their website at melhopgallery.com/exhibitions.

Now it's time for this week's art quiz.

Who did Governor Joe Lombardo appoint to serve as the Poet Laureate of Nevada between May, 2024 and April, 2026?

Is the answer: A. Gailmarie Pahmeier, B. Sean Griffin, C. Dustin Howard, or D. Norman Kaye?

Stay tuned for the answer.

Six men in Cleveland, Ohio are raising awareness about wrongful conviction and taking their stories to the stage as voices of injustice.

- I don't say nothing else anymore after that, right?

- And they both jump back.

- [Actor] I don't know how to act.

I'm totally out of my comfort zone.

- I know, I do say that.

I say, "Come on, let's go to school."

- You know, it should be seen like it should be easier since it's my story, you know, and I try to look at it like I'm having a conversation with my nephew.

And when I do it like that and think like that, then it get a little easier.

- Sweet man.

You know you don't have to be afraid of him, right?

- I want 'em to see like a whole little clip of my life from different stages, like when I was young, then I grew older, and, you know, when I got arrested for this crime I didn't do, and when I got out and just to see my story and how I held on and how I surprised everybody 'cause everybody thought that like I was a killer.

But in fact, at the end of the day, I saved my nephew's life by donating him my kidney.

- I believe using the least amount of words to get across what I'm trying to get across.

So we got a simple job, man.

You know what I mean?

- Us six are here in Cuyahoga County.

It was just natural.

It just jelled for us to come together and form a group that can use the arts.

We're big on mental wellness and local politics as far as judges, races, prosecution races, counsel.

You know, we're interested in what's going on right here.

- Our sheriffs.

- Yes.

- County prosecutors.

- Our prosecutors.

- The public sees when guys get out and they think everything's gonna be okay, but they don't see the denials, they don't see the appeals that have been denied from one district, one court to the next.

The heartbreak.

You know what I mean?

We wanna put flesh and blood on to these stories so people can understand what happens to the individual, the trauma to the families and to the community.

- And our system still don't like to admit that they messed up.

You know, they don't want to admit that.

And you barely ever see a court official or a prosecutor or anything like that apologize for what they did to the person.

You know, it just don't happen.

- So you just listen to me and I can get you a plea or you can take it to trial and you'll be wishing you're free.

- Look, I ain't do nothing in that soft top.

It was four of us in that car.

- So we called it "The Lynched Among Us" because we did some research and we saw some striking similarities between wrongful convictions and the lynchings from back in the early 1800s and 1900s.

Those similarities were that these mobs were formed because of allegations, many times false allegations.

Many of the men who have been injured by wrongful conviction, they've had evidence hidden from them, they have fabricated evidence, false accusations hurled against them.

- And I could change your life with the entry on my computer.

This is chess, not checkers.

You've already been outmaneuvered.

- You know, Michael Sutton, his judge at one point when he was accused, it was teenagers accused of a horrible shooting.

Two people.

Police even said they shot at them.

But a judge read that evidence in the height of the hysteria of their case and said, you know what?

Something's not right here.

She chose to release them.

- [Announcer] And to the stage, 2007 high school diploma South High, Marco Sage!

- For some reason, some decision maker said, "Let's go to this kid's graduation, a moment he'll never forget in his life, and arrest him," and bring him back to jail where he was sentenced to astronomical time.

- [Actor] Get your hands up like so!

- But we felt like the theatrical part of it makes you be with the story, like you in the story if you watching it and live, you in it.

So when you take away from it, when you leave, it becomes more impactful that you were able to visualize what we were saying.

- It's a part of the healing journey when you use the arts to express yourself.

It's more about the expression.

You have to remember, like, we came from a place that tries to take that from you.

- [Actor] I didn't do nothing, man!

Listen!

- We're definitely raising awareness of that wrongful conviction is a huge problem that needs to be addressed.

And I feel like it's just not being addressed enough.

These are human beings' lives that are being taken away from them.

Like, these are people that we losing while we in prison that we'll never see again, moments of our kids' life we'll never get back again.

And I just feel like it's not a level of importance for real with it.

Nobody sees though it's something urgent.

Like, this has to stop right now.

We can't keep sending innocent people to prison for crimes they didn't commit and then just let 'em out and act like everything's okay.

- It's more than just my wrongful conviction against my families as well.

You know, I lost several family members throughout this, and when I came home, I came home to a whole new world.

You know, and I'm thinking, looking for the same people who care for me, love me the most, and a lot of 'em was gone, you know what I'm saying?

So, you know, it's deep, you know?

It's more than just you that suffer and go through things.

It's your whole family and the people that you knew.

'Cause you come home, your 27 years, six months and 20 days, it's like, that's a whole lifetime.

So you don't even know the people that you thought you knew, like your family members, 'cause people change.

The world change.

- I worked for the city of Cleveland.

I worked at RT.

I started my own business.

But like I said, it's been rough since I've been home.

Been home eight years now.

I have four sons, it's like, and I have a daughter, you know.

Like building a relationship with people, it's like hard for me 'cause I'm so detached from everybody now, you know?

And everybody was like, "Man, you coming to the party?

I'm like, "I probably won't come."

- You know, for me, the hardest part for me was to call home and tell my family when I got time at the parole board, like the reaction I was getting to hear 'em crying and different things like that.

Like, that hurt me more than anything.

And I'm the one that's getting the time, you know?

So that was like a hard pill to swallow for me.

But I think to get out to bring awareness to this situation is me turning that negative thing that happened to me into a positive.

So, that's why I try to do it as much as I can.

- Everyone is exceeding my expectations.

I plan to keep going with this.

I'm getting great directorial experience.

I'm thinking like, this can go on Broadway.

If somebody would just say, "Okay, this is good enough, I will back you," and I can do it in its fullness, this can be on Broadway.

- For more information, visit voicesofinjustice.com.

And now let's review this week's art quiz.

Who did Governor Joe Lombardo appoint to serve as the Poet Laureate of Nevada between May, 2024 and April, 2026?

Is the answer: A. Gailmarie Pahmeier, B. Sean Griffin, C. Dustin Howard, or D. Norman Kaye?

And the answer is B. Sean Griffin.

At the Reno Police Department, an artist is occasionally needed to catch a suspect.

We meet Reno police officer Colleen Connolly, who found a way to merge her interest in art with her desire to solve crimes.

(somber piano music) - Sketching has always just been a hobby for me and it was nice when I found that there's a thing called composite sketching.

And I was able to marry the two, my professional career in law enforcement, but then also a personal hobby.

My name is Colleen Connolly and I'm a police officer for the city of Reno.

I have been a police officer for almost 16 years.

A composite sketch artist is someone that compiles different facial features that a victim or a witness points out to us.

We compile shapes of the face, different hair, different eyes, different facial features, and we kind of work through it one feature at a time and sketch it all out on one piece of paper to closely reflect what a witness or a victim saw in a suspect.

A crime is committed and I usually will get a phone call from a detective, whether I'm on duty or off duty.

They ask if I'm available.

When I sit down and work with a victim or a witness, for me, it can be very intense.

Sometimes sitting down and interviewing that witness is the first normal contact that they've had with someone in a uniform that's away from having to recreate and describe the crime.

I show up with my sketching paper, my pad, a sketch board.

I have probably 40 pencils that are different shades and different hardness of charcoal or graphite.

I have highlighting pencils, white pencils, where you can go back and kind of highlight certain areas.

I have two books.

We flip through thousands of pages to find facial features.

The structure, the eyes, and sometimes we'll go back and forth and they'll say page 63.

It kind of looked like that with eyes, but if you could change the edge of the eyes and put just a couple more crow's feet or wrinkles or more eyelashes.

The benefit to having a composite sketch artist recreate or sketch is you can manipulate and change the reflection.

People have had different scars on their face that you just can't pick out of a book or show comparison.

So being able to have a little bit of art background, you can re-sketch, change, and work with your victim to get it right.

You can see it in their face.

They start to get a little bit of hope or closure.

Being able to regurgitate the information and see it come out on paper, you can see a change in them.

And that to me is really great and therapeutic.

It's the good part of law enforcement.

It's very gratifying to be able to make efforts to putting the bad people in jail.

Through the process, it takes about two to three hours, depending upon the crime and the detail.

When I see the completed product and I get a very strong reaction from a victim, I'm confident as an artist that I put something out there that's gonna very closely portray.

And then it's great when you see a booking photo of someone that's arrested for the crime.

So that's really nice when we get a lot of secret witness tips or people calling in because someone strongly resembles a sketch that was put out on the news.

I love doing composite sketches here in the valley.

It is very gratifying to me when I can help out a victim, really get a little bit of closure.

And if I can recreate it on paper, it gives them just a little bit more hope that we will find the person.

I enjoy sketching and I enjoy painting, I enjoy photography, so it's nice for me to be able to utilize that for a really good cause.

- For more information, head to renopd.com.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "Artifacts."

If you want to watch new "Artifacts" segments early, make sure you subscribe to the PBS Reno YouTube channel.

And don't forget to keep visiting pbsreno.org to watch complete episodes of "Artifacts."

Until next week, I'm Beth MacMillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Artifacts" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pierce Motors.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(bright jazz music)