Major funding for this program was provided by The French National Centre of Cinema, The Jerome Foundation, France Télévisions.

Additional funding was provided by Procirep-Angoa, Check-in Films, and by La Scam.

Program33 For more information and a full list of funders, please visit us at PrisonShowFilm.com.

♪♪ [chorus of chirping crickets, a light breeze blowing] [tender, peaceful music slowly builds] ♪♪ [electric guitar now louder and echoing brightly] [car whooshes past] RAY: It's been 40 years since I got out of prison, and I, I never truly got out.

I don't think anybody ever really gets out because the shadows of prison kind of sticks with you like stains on a plastic glass.

And you think you're out, and then you turn a corner, or you wake up, and you wonder, where are the bars?

What happened to my cell?

And you never really get out of prison, and you never stop really thinking about the people you left behind.

And it haunts me still.

[music soars with emotion] [music gently fades] [siren wails in the distance] [Country and Western song plays quietly on the radio] HANK: Hers are flashing out there, too, so.

RAY: Are we on the air?

Let’s have some sound here.

[a Country ballad ends] Well, lo and behold, welcome to radio station KPFT and the wonderful, wonderful “Prison Show,” now in I don't know what year, 40th year?

How long we've been doing this damn thing?

HANK: 37 years in March or April.

RAY: 37 years, damn near 40.

Yeah, I felt, I felt 40 when I was 37.

I remember that very well.

We started off just talking to convicts, and it has evolved into an institution of its own liking.

HANK: You know, if it weren't for these very people around in here right now, it wouldn't be like that.

RAY: You know, "The Prison Show" is kind of a labor of love.

I mean, it literally becomes that.

I'm sitting here looking at an old convict that did more years than... Hell, I didn't, I didn't think he was that old.

[laughter] Well, do I have business to take care of?

HANK: KPFT Houston, that's about it.

RAY: Okay.

That's where we are.

Can I go back to calls?

HANK: Yeah, absolutely.

RAY: Okay, let's get Julie in Georgia.

Julie, is that you?

JULIE: [on the phone] Yes.

First, I would like to say, I really enjoyed the show tonight.

This is my first time, and I would like.... LINDA: "Prison Show," may I help you?

JULIE:...to my husband, Richie Justice.... LINDA: Well, you got through, so!

Okay, which unit are you calling for?

Polunsky, okay.

[keyboard clacking, conversations nearby] Okay, well, I'm gonna put you on hold.

Don't hang up ‘cause you'll, you'll be, you know, like, it'll be a while before you get on.

All right.

MAN: And she’s cutting it close.

LINDA: I've got a... I got a nephew in the, in prison up in... Abilene, or?

He’s in a... HANK: We're getting kinda short on time here.

LINDA: He killed his parents.

[nervous chuckle] DIANE: Oh, my God.

LINDA: I know.

When he was 17 ‘cause they didn't like his girlfriend.

He'll be locked away forever.

[clears throat] DIANE: Oh, my goodness LINDA: They asked us if we wanted him to have death or life, and we said life.

DIANE: Yeah.

LINDA: So.

DIANE: That's punishment enough.

LINDA: Yep.

DIANE: 17 years old, my gosh.

LINDA: He's 39 now.

DIANE: Oh, my God, he's already been in there 22 years.

LINDA: KPFT, may I help you?

HANK: Well, everybody in here are ex-convicts.

There's five of us sitting here and been out varying amounts of time.

Jack, how long did you do and how long you been out?

JACK: I did 37 flat, and I've been out a little over three years now.

HANK: And doing good.

JACK: Doing good, real good.

HANK: And Hank, how long did you do and how long you been out?

GARY “HANK”: I did about 24 and a half years.

I've been out since May 1st, 2015.

HANK: Wow.

And doing good.

GARY “HANK”: Oh, yeah.

I had 25 years to get ready for it.

Wasn’t no surprise.

[laughter] HANK: Didn't waste no time.

Doug, how about you?

DOUG: A little over 21 years, and I've been out almost five years now.

HANK: Y'all all listen to "The Prison Show" while y'all were in?

SEVERAL: Yes.

HANK: That's, everybody said yes.

GARY “HANK”: I hail from Wisconsin.

So my mama, when I got locked up, there wasn’t no phones in the system.

So and she couldn't come down here every weekend to see me, you know, and so that was the only way I'd ever get to hear her voice.

HANK: Yeah.

[fluorescent lights buzzing] WOMAN: [on phone] Hurry, come here.

CHILD: Why can’t he talk?

WOMAN: Because he’s, it's a radio show, baby.

He’s listening to you.

C'mere.

Talk, tell your daddy hi and you love him.

CHILD: Hi!

WOMAN: You just gotta tell and talk.

He can’t... he’s listening.

CHILD: Hi, I love you.

WOMAN: Tell him you miss him.

CHILD: I miss you.

I can't wait until you come home!

[a distant door closes and echoes] JOSEPH: When you're a prisoner, you feel, you feel like you're not a part of society anymore.

When I got my sentence and I got shipped off, I was basically in a world inside of a world because that's what prison is.

It's a different environment.

It's a different culture.

It's a different habitat.

And you have to learn how to, like, live in a different, it's a different world, you know.

You have a different set of rules and everything, codes, ethics.

It's everything.

So, I didn't know that there was a show, actually, a radio show actually out there dedicated to actually reforming us and actually helping not only us, but our families as well.

TANIKA: It looks like our Death Row Angels are on their way in the studio.

Miss Dani, Miss Linda.

JOSEPH: You forgot one angel.

TANIKA: Oh, and how could I forget Joseph Clark?

[laughter] DANI: So good evening, everyone on Texas Death Row.

And I'm gonna turn it over first thing to someone who do, does not need an introduction.

Joseph.

JOSEPH: Let me get into the business, though.

Everybody knows how a support system and how strong it is to reduce recidivism.

And general population actually has access to telephones.

But what about the people on Death Row and ad seg?

Those people do not.

So today I'd just like to wish all of the guys inside a Happy Father's Day.

But I'd also like to wish my mom a Happy Father's Day as well, ‘cause, you know, without her, you know, I wouldn't be where I'm at right now.

And, you know, just raising three kids by herself was really tough, man.

So she took the role as a mother and a father.

So, I appreciate that.

DANI: Linda, Joseph, and I would like to ask everyone able to please meet us out in Huntsville to protest each and every execution.

I also wanna add that the only way we can beat the machinery of death is to work together as a unit.

LINDA: And guys, I just wanted to tell you I haven't been there as much this week.

I was with Danny Bible and making arrangements for him in case the execution goes through.

We hope it doesn’t.

We're praying it doesn't, but we have everything in place now, so, hopefully I'll be able to see y'all again next week.

Okay.

Good night, guys.

[quiet hum of traffic] [passing cars whoosh] [sirens wail in the distance] LINDA: I visit with people that haven't had visits in 30 years.

There's one guy that's been there 32 years, and he's never had a visit.

One of the inmates told me about him, and, and I, I went to visit him.

And, I mean, it's made a big difference in his life.

He's really, he said he started changing.

He's going out to rec now.

He's doing things that, he's talking to the inmates.

He didn't talk before.

He just stayed to himself.

He didn't have a radio or a hot pot or a fan.

And we bought, my husband and I, bought all those things for him.

And it's made a big difference in his life to have somebody care.

[letters rustle, people converse nearby] -How are you?

-All right.

-All right.

It's a little early.

DAVID: Yeah, we'll do the meeting now.

I'd like to thank everybody for coming.

You guys had a good drive, didn’t you?

MAN: Yes, sir.

DAVID: It really does my heart good to come in here and see just a room full of people.

Tonight’s show: "Life After Prison."

You know, I mean, me, me and Hank, we tell our stories all the time.

But you two listened to the show while you were inside.

And now you come out and you call in as often as you can, you volunteer on the show.

What about finding a job and some work?

I mean, all these things are questions that these guys lay up in that 6 by 9, and they wonder, and they're scared.

I mean, it's a legitimate fear.

Whenever they called my number and told me it was time to go home, I didn't believe them.

I didn't know what the future held, and I thought I had made good plans for it.

But I don’t know.

It took me three tries before I finally got it right.

And every day I still wonder if I do have it right.

So, these are all the things that these guys need to hear so that they know that they're not alone, and it gives them hope.

You guys have got some great stories to tell.

But life out here is tough sometimes.

And you gotta remind yourself, and DeeDee reminds me all the time that I'm not incarcerated anymore.

[keys and doors clank and echo] JOSEPH: We don't have names in prisons.

We, you know, they ask us what's our number.

You know, 1754790.

It's stuck in my head.

I don't have a name.

When I'm in prison, I didn’t have a name, I had a number.

And you know, we got, like I said, when our food came, we were told to back up and, you know, get on our knees.

And, you know, they would put our food on the ground just like you would do with a dog, I guess.

I’ve fed my dog like that before.

[door closes with a thud] [pensive music] MAN: [on phone] This is to Alto and to my home group.

I hope you guys are doing good.

I'm doing... I'm doing... I'm doing.

I'm gonna put it that way.

I'm doing.

I miss you guys, but I don't miss the place.

And as always, we just gotta keep on keepin’ on, man, no matter what.

And sometimes I feel like I'm not making any progress or it's not moving.

And then it kicks in.

And can’t promise I'll be here next week, but if I can, I will.

[trains click and clack along the tracks] [papers rustle] DANNY: And if I have to say anything, I’m gonna use your mic.

VINCE: [whispers] That’s fine.

DANNY: Okay.

VINCE: I started off in the U.S.

Navy.

I served in the United States Navy, got out, joined the U.S.

Marine Corps, served two combat tours in Iraq.

I consider myself a PTSD survivor who was blessed to get peer support from another veteran.

This is why I'm doing the same thing now with the homeless veterans to help them, and veterans who are coming home from out of prison, letting them know there's hope on the other side.

DANNY: Vince has a job that he was only qualified for based on the fact he had been to prison.

He has suffered with PTSD.

VINCE: Right.

DANNY: He, so— VINCE: I went to jail, but not prison.

It’s still locked up.

[cross-talk] DANNY: Well, to me, they smell the same, they look the same.

You sharing a restroom with another man.

That's all a jail cell is, is a restroom that you share with another man.

VINCE: And you're right.

DANNY: I just wanna let these guys know that’s behind the walls, VINCE: There’s hope.

DANNY: That me and you, VINCE: Yes, sir.

DANNY: that have these felonies they say you can't have, you don't get these second chances, but you are fully employed.

VINCE: Yes, sir.

DANNY: And most of why you’re employed is based on your experience.

VINCE: Yes, sir.

DANNY: So I digress, but I wanna let you guys know there's opportunities out here when you a veteran.

You know, this is a simple prayer.

Say, “God, I don't wanna get out.

I wanna stay out.” -Amen.

-Mm.

DANNY: Amen.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

And I said that prayer over and over again.

“God, I don't wanna get out.

I wanna stay out.” I'm not worried about getting no FI.

The worst thing could’ve happened to me is to come back after getting outta prison.

So while I was there, I said, I need to find out how to live right here, so I don’t have to come back.

I digress.

GREG: Amen.

[door clanks and creakily slides open] [faint, echoing voices] 40, 68, 44, 62... 73, 97, 87, 58.

[ethereal music layers] 40, 68, 44, 62.... RAY: I was more afraid to get out than I was to go in, because I was getting out into an uncertain world that all I knew... is the whole world thought poorly of me.

And it had been my responsibility that they did that because I went to prison, not because I was wrongfully accused, but because I was guilty of the things I was accused for.

[bus engine rumbles, ethereal music continues] I got out scared of the uncertainty.

I got out scared because of the insecurity.

I got out scared because of people's prejudices.

Their failure or refusal to understand.

[ethereal music layers and builds, ticking like a clock] When you're getting out of prison after having been there, the one thing you know for absolutely certain is that you're going to be nobody for the rest of your life.

And when you think about it, being nobody is very scary.

[ethereal music pulses, rings, numbers continue quietly] [echoing voice continues] 44... [running steps nearing, ethereal music continues] [echoing voice] 73... [music and numbers fade] MICHAEL: When I moved into my community, I registered my email address.

And when I registered my email address, it flagged me as a sex offender.

And what it did was it sent an email to everybody that was on that site and let them know that I was a sex offender.

HANK: Yeah.

MICHAEL: So I expected for people to kinda look at me off-kilter, so I didn't take offense to it.

I didn't take it personal.

The best way to outlive a background is to let your character shine.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, they saw that all I did was I go to work, I come home.

I don't sit on my porch purposely.

I wasn't friendly with my neighbors unless they came to me first.

I don't talk to anybody's kids if they're walking by.

If somebody does something to my yard I don't like, I go to the parents, and I speak to them about it.

And I've been in that neighborhood for two and a half years, and I haven't had one single solitary problem.

And after a while, they finally got to the point where they saw that, you know, I'm not trying to do anything.

-Right.

-So now they all speak to me.

Everything is, is, is, is good.

HANK: You've outlived it.

MICHAEL: Yes.

-Yeah.

-So, it's possible to do that.

But I'm just saying, guys, know what you're getting ready to face when you, when you go out, and you're actually getting ready to be released.

[on call] This is Mama.

And I love you.... LINDA: "Prison Show," may I help you?

NANCY: I’m so happy to be getting to talk to you this Christmas night.... LINDA: How you’re doing, Shirley?

NANCY: I enjoyed being there with you last Monday night, and we just, we just wouldn’t... LINDA: Okay, I hope Blaine’s listening tonight.

[caller continues talking] DAVID: I love Miss Nancy.

MIKE: Say what?

DAVID: I said I love Miss Nancy.

LINDA: Yeah.

She loves her son too, Rick Daniel.

[chuckles] MOLLY:...this afternoon and read the... MIKE: He's on Death Row?

LINDA: Yes.

MIKE: He hadn't gotten a date yet?

LINDA: Not yet, but he, but all of his appeals have gotten denied.

So, he's up for an execution date any time.

NANCY: I love you with all my heart, Daniel, and I’ll say goodnight for now.

LINDA: My nephew killed his parents, both of his parents, when he was 17 years old.

He now has a chance for parole.

It has been hard on the family because we, we don't really understand why he did that.

We're also worried about when he does come out, you know, who is he gonna live with or, you know, is he.... I'm not sure that I want him living with me, you know.

And I hate to say that, but I just don't, I still don't know why he did that to his parents.

Just, he says because they didn't like his girlfriend.

Well, you know, he might not like something that I did at home too and kill me.

So, you know, I'm worried about that if I'm still gonna be alive.

I'll be 88 years old when he, when he does come up for his first parole.

But, and honestly, my, my son and my other nieces and nephews want nothing to do with him, so.

I worry about that because he has no money.

He has, he has no Social Security, he has, he has nothing.

He’s not being prepared for getting out in the world.

[bright ambient music] ♪♪ [indistinct voices echo behind bright ambient music] [music fades to a voice in Spanish] RAY: Well, there's another couple of lessons there.

We get calls from Mexico City of people who cannot afford to come visit.

HANK: You know, last week we had— RAY: And, and... Give him a microphone.

And we don't really care what language people speak in.

You're not talking to us, you're talking to them.

-Right.

-The other thing I want to point out to you is every name currently on the board is listed as Polunsky.

-Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

-And that means there are some regular inmates in there, but the vast majority of the people on this board are Death Row inmates.

HANK: Yeah.

[airplane slices through the distant sky] MAN: [on the phone] I wanted to give a shout-out to Brian Keith, uh... I love you, man.

We all love you.

I love you, Carrie loves you, Dean loves you, Mom loves you.

And we're pulling for you out here, man.

We're trying to do everything we can do.

And call us when you can call us.

[gulls call out] DANI: You don't know.

You do not know when they may call.

Because Death Row inmates can have phone calls, one every 90 days if they're not on restriction.

When the inmate calls, they are shackled.

Their handcuffs, their hands are behind their backs, and they have to lean over a speakerphone.

It's five minutes long and very expensive and very quick.

[fluorescent lights buzz] [door thuds and echoes] JOSEPH: Because you're in a room by yourself... and that's all you hear, like right here.

That's it.

That's all you hear.

[silence] So imagine that.

Right there, 24 hours a day.

Just pitch.

Nothing.

Silence.

That's it.

That's all you got.

Just right here in your own thoughts.

So, it's torture.

It's literally torture.

Most countries consider solitary confinement cruel and unusual punishment.

But yet, the U.S.

implements it and utilizes it every day.

And it's, it's torture.

You're locking somebody up.

You're confining them.

You're leaving the lights on 24/7.

You know, there's no way to track time.

The only way you can track time is if it's breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

You know, that's it.

And you might have a book in there if you're lucky.

And, you know, you might have a radio if you're lucky.

Might.

Keyword might.

[paper rustles] HANK: All right.

Well, let me see here.

Well, we're ready for Joseph.

-All righty.

-He’s in here, he's on schedule, he’s ready to roll.

JOSEPH: Close your eyes.

I want to, I want you to imagine you’re locked in a cold room the size of a walk-in closet.

In this room, you only have a bed, a sink, a toilet, a narrow slit of a window with a never-changing view.

The hardest part about being alone is remembering that you're not alone.

It's been two months now, and I, and I can only feel numb.

I can't sleep anymore, and I don't have a book to read.

And I don't know what to do.

I wrote my mom a letter asking her not to come visit me anymore.

Not because I didn't wanna see her, but ‘cause I couldn't deal with the pain of watching my mom cry as she begged the guards to ask, ask her to hug... as she begged, as she begged the guards for her to hug me.

[sniffles] She didn't understand that I wasn't allowed any human contact.

But... TANIKA: Mm-hmm.

All right.

HANK: You got this.

TANIKA: Yep.

Come on.

Now go, here.

JOSEPH: All right.

After my first year of living this routine, I fell into a deep depress-, depression.

I wasn't eating, and what could, and go, and I would go with months without talking.

The sounds you hear are not helpful, helpful to your mental health.

People screaming, yelling how they cannot handle this place and how they want to kill themselves.

[voice choking up] Sorry guys.

Ah.

TANIKA: [softly] Take your time.

[Joseph sighs] JOSEPH: I always thought that it was all talk, that somebody wanted to kill theirself.

Until one day I woke up... to a bunch of guards screaming and a bunch of inmates screaming, yelling for the guy to put down the razor blade.

"We have a code Blue in Delta 4."

I looked out, I looked out my cell, and I realized the guy, he didn't put down the razor blade.

That guy didn't make it out that day.

[sniffles] To say that I never considered that option would be a lie.

But the hurt and the pain that I knew that my family would go through made me push through and made me, it gave me hope that I knew I could make it for one more day.

[haunting music] ♪♪ RAY: You remember the pain.

You remember the solitary confinement.

You remember the picking cotton in 120-degree weather.

You remember sweating in your bunk at night in 115 to 120 degrees.

You have made sacrifices to survive prison, and it is important to you that you tell others how you survived in the hopes that they survive.

[haunting music continues, a slow, aching melody] [fluorescent lights buzz, haunting music continues] [music fades] MIKE: I've been thinking about this, this locking these kids up, you know.

And I started looking at it, and, and I didn't realize it, but the United States loves to lock up kids.

This system is lock-up crazy.

They like, you guys already know that.

You've heard me talk about how this thing has just grown into a monster in the last 40 years.

They like to lock people up.

Locking people up has become big, big business.

They keep you in prison because you make them money.

[piercing tones, indistinct voice on PA] [fluorescent lights buzz harshly] MIKE: It breaks my heart the, the multi-generational aspect of mass incarceration.

And I think that... a lot of the things we teach our children don't have any words.

And a lot of the things they learn about the world are never expressly... spoken to them or talked to them, but they know it.

And one of the things is a feeling of hopelessness.

A feeling that it doesn't matter... what I do or if I follow the rules, I'm still gonna lose.

And I think that lesson's learned by these kids.

And I think when they go into these jails at Christmastime and they see their parents, their mother, their father, and they can't touch them... I think it has an effect on them.

And the effect, I think, is, is to grow this feeling of hopelessness, that it doesn't matter how badly they want to touch their mom or dad, that they're not gonna be able to, and that whatever they do doesn't matter.

And I hate that.

[whispers] How dare we as a society, how dare we as a culture, do that to these children .

[indistinct conversations, children playing] [haunting music builds and layers] [indistinct conversations and music continues] [door creaks, closes as music fades] RAY: Man of the hour!

Congratulations.

MIKE: Thank you, Ray.

RAY: And yesterday was Mike Allen's big day.

Mike Allen, I did a flyby of his, his action down at City Jail.

Congratulations, Mike.

You did all the hard, certainly did all the hard work this year.

MIKE: Well, I had a lot of help.

We really had a lot of help.

RAY: For you people who don't quite, never visit anybody in jail: You go to Harris County Jail, and you gotta go through security, which is torture, especially if you're a kid.

I mean, you know, [cross-talk] you don't understand what this is all about.

And you're going through all this, this this torture, torture, torture.

You know that somebody you love is on the other side of that wall, and you can't touch them.

And, and, and you go through that ordeal, and then you've got to come down with a herd of other people.

And by the time you get to the bottom of that elevator, and you walk through that lobby, you need a damn Santa Claus.

Mike, this is a special season for you.

MIKE: Yeah, well [clears throat].... You know me, Ray.

I, I, I kinda hold these cards close to my vest, even though I try to, I do put it out there because it's, I have to try to get used to it.

But yesterday was the ninth anniversary of my son hanging himself in a county jail.

And so, the season's taken on a different kind of meaning for me in the last nine years.

I don't like it in most places.

But because of what, what you and I and a group of other people have been doing for the last five years, it's, it's taken on some kinda special meaning for me.

Yeah, it's a time when I can... instead of missing one, one child, I can celebrate the lives of 2 or 300 every year.

[children talking playfully in the distance] MAN: Merry Christmas to you!

Ho, ho, ho!

Come on over!

SANTA: This is for you as well!

[tender, haunting music] Oh, wow!

Look at what Sage has this year.

All right.

That's because you've been a good girl, okay?

[indistinct conversations, tender music continues] [music continues] [singing inaudible] [music swells with emotion] [music builds and layers, becoming discordant] [dialogue inaudible, music continues] [layered music continues, tender and haunting] [rumbling and piercing tone layer over music] [music softens] JOSEPH: Here I am, ten years old, getting handcuffs put on me, getting thrown in the back of a cop car and getting drove downtown to Houston jail, juvenile jail at ten years old with a burglary of a building case.

Just because I wanted to play in the woods and have fun on a raft [chuckles] on a pond.

And so, that's how my cycle started.

[music builds again, turning tense] I'm ten years old, and I'm in juvie with all these 16-year-olds.

And, you know, here I am.

And I've always been skinny like this, you know, and I've always been like, you know.

So here I am with all these, you know, like, the worst of the worst, you know, basically, in juvenile.

So I was at the age of ten, I was already pushed away from society.

[music builds with tension, pulses, aches] [music fades] JANIE: [on the phone] Hi, this is Janie.

I'm calling out for Jeremy at the Polunsky Unit.

I was just calling to tell him that Merry Christmas.

After so many years, you’d think it'd get easier being apart, but it doesn't.

It just gets harder.

I just hope and pray that this is the last year that we’re apart for Christmas, and he'll be home soon.

HANK: Until he comes home, you’ve got this show.

RAY: Yep.

JANIE: Thank you.

HANK: That's what we're here for.

RAY: Yep.

JANIE: Thank you so much.

RAY: And there you have it, folks.

You have a family with an empty chair at the table, making the best of Christmas.

Prisons affect everybody.

If you get within the burn of their glow, it's going to affect your life.

And it's not the sort of thing you can walk away from.

MIKE: That has to do with a lot of people outside here.

They're caught up in their attitudes about, about people in jail.

You know, out there at Christmastime, we do things.

What we mainly introduce people to is the idea, this human face of people behind bars.

And we introduce them to the idea that maybe they're human beings too.

And we free them of their prejudice against people on the inside.

RAY: You can build your own world, and you can be proud of that world.

I am not who I am because, in spite of the fact that I'm a queer ex-convict.

I am who I am because of the fact that I'm a queer ex-convict.

And we're gonna bring Julia in.

Julie, Julie from... I'm not getting— Oh, Julie, there you are!

JULIE: Hello, hello!

How are you?

RAY: Hey.

Well, for a crippled old man going crazy, I'm fine.

JULIE: Okay, good.

All right!

Well, my shout-out this evening is for the one and only.... MIKE: I do the radio show, I do television shows, I go to criminal justice conference, but it's all because... [birds chirp quietly outside] I... I’m empty inside.

There's nothing left.

When my son died, the only thing that meant anything to me died.

So now, to get away from that and to... hopefully be a benefit for the world I, I do things like "The Prison Show" and other things.

I think it's important that some of us try... to connect with other people and help them to connect with other people because that's essentially what saved my life... and allows me to justify my existence.

And I think this reconnecting with our own humanity, I think, is the answer to... to changing the world.

[quiet nearby conversations] LINDA: I’ve had these pictures for a while.

I need to get these in the mail.

WOMAN: Let me see your pictures.

LINDA: Okay.

That's Fidencio Valdez.

This is part, this is one of the Texas Seven.

This is.... WOMAN: One of the Texas Seven?

LINDA: Seven yeah, the group that, that.... That's Patrick Murphy.

WOMAN: What is the Texas Seven?

LINDA: They're the seven guys that escaped out of the prison that just had, like, maybe eight months to go on their sentences, and they ended up getting death because a police officer was killed while they escaped.

-Oh, I remember that.

-Oh, my gosh.

They just had eight months to go, and now he's getting death.

LINDA: Yeah.

I’ve got a book at home with all the guys that I visit and pictures, you know, with them, with their names on it.

I’m leaving that to my son when I die 'cause he hates that I'm doing this.

[laughter] [hearty laugh] WOMAN: Yeah.

LINDA: My son does not, he does not like it.

He thinks I'm completely crazy.

DANI: A lotta people think I'm crazy too.

LINDA: Yeah, he says, mom, you know, “You could come to see me instead of going to see them all the time.” I said, “Hell, you’re not excited to see me like they are.” [laughter] I said, you know?

I mean, I mean, I do see him a lot, but it's like he just doesn't understand.

He says, “What's wrong with you?” I don't care.

[chuckling] It's my life, so.

DANI: Yeah.

WOMAN: She said there's a picture in here of her and her husband.

So, which one of these guys is her husband?

[chuckles] DANI: Oh, here.

Okay, so that's the husband.

[bright, ethereal music] [indistinct voice reading numbers echoes under music] [faint echoes under music] 68, 44, 62... ♪♪ [music fades] RAY: You’re gonna set up a camera on me?

[chuckles] The only radio that I do regularly anymore is "Execution Watch," and I hate doing it.

Whatcha wanna talk about today?

ANTHONY: Well, if everybody's hearing this, then I'm assuming that at this point in time, I'm passing into the next world.

That I've left this plane, and my execution is in progress.

RAY: The only time this will be taped is during "Execution Watch" program while you are being executed.

ANTHONY: Well then, I'd like to talk about what's important.

And to me, I've come to realize, especially in the last few days, you know, it puts things in a different perspective when you're facing your impending demise, that many of the things that you think are important in life become a lot less important.

RAY: Some of those guys I liked a lot.

Some not so much.

Some of them were pretty scary.

But most of them... I got the impression, were very different people... from the people that did the crime for which they were being executed.

I don't know.

Maybe they got out of the crowd they were running with, and maybe they got away from the drugs they were doing or whatever it was.

And some of them searched my face desperately for some hope, which I could not give.

Because that wasn't my role.

My role was to give them the opportunity to have about 20 minutes... 20 minutes at the end of a long and frighteningly lonely life.

RAY: Well, [sighs] how close is it?

JUAN: Well, to be honest with you, I've lost count of the days.

But it's, I would say approximately maybe three and a half weeks away.

RAY: Okay.

October 6th?

JUAN: Yes, sir.

RAY: My birthday's October the 13th.

I hope we're both still alive and laughing about it.

JUAN: Me too.

You know, the bad thing is my, my wife, her birthday is the very next day, October the 7th.

GUSTAVO: I'll probably be executed, more than likely.

The injustices, the errors that have occurred in my case are, are numerous.

I was arrested eight months, I mean, four months after my 18th birthday.

And so, most of my life is, more than half my life has been spent here on Death Row.

RAY: On this case?

GUSTAVO: On Death Row.

RAY: In other words, you had just four months— GUSTAVO: After my 18th birthday.

RAY: After your 18th birthday.

GUSTAVO: I was arrested.

RAY: If this had happened five months before, you wouldn't be here.

GUSTAVO: Correct.

RAY: But we've run out of time.

Our interview’s over.

DANIEL: Mm-hmm.

RAY: Any last word that you need to get out there?

DANIEL: Thank you for the interview.

And if my family does see this, you know, I wanted to let them know that I love them.

And I hope they finally move on in life.

And that's what I really, really want, for them to move on in life, and also the victim's family and, and, this, so this, this volunteer execution won't be, voluntary execution won't be wasted.

And so, that's all I gotta say.

[receiver clicks down, thuds, echoes] [birds singing, quiet conversations] DANI: I think it's become so routine in Texas, especially around the Houston area, that there’s an execution, a lot of people just, you know, brush it off.

DANI: Hey, Karen, thanks for joining us.

Hey, y’all share the video.

I wanna be out there.

We wanna be out there to let them know: Hey, you know, your tax dollars right now... are being used to pay to murder this man.

I hear from people all the time who live in the Houston area who do not wanna see this happen, but they, there's always an excuse: “I have to work.” Well, I have to work.

I take off.

When you believe in something enough, you can take off an hour early to do something about it.

“It's too emotional for me.

I don't think I can handle it.” You know, it's hard for everyone, but you do what you have to do ‘cause, you know, these men are dying.

These women are dying.

And sure, what they did is horrendous, but... we're killing them.

DANI: We're here at Danny Bible’s execution.

Miss Linda is actually in the admin building right over there.

She will be witnessing tonight if the execution goes through.

JOSEPH: These are the places that are supposed to rehabilitate offenders, but yet we're killing everybody.

[scoffs] These are what our tax dollars are going.

JOSEPH: My father was taken away from me.

My father was murdered by a drunk driver who ran him off the road.

And like, his, my father was burned to death in his car by a drunk driver.

And all the drunk driver did was he got probation, you know, so.

And but, you know, I'm, I'm happy that he's not on Death Row.

I'm happy that his life wasn't taken.

I'm happy because now that guy that took my father's life has two kids, and he's raising them right.

Those two kids are in college.

You know, those two kids had their father in their life, you know.

Just because I didn't have mine in my life doesn't mean that those two kids should be subjected to not have their father in their life.

GLORIA: [on megaphone] We’re here because we know that the death penalty is racist.

We’re here... because Texas has executed more people than the next eight states combined.

[horn honks, engine rumbles] Thank you for honking to stop executions.

Thank you.

JOSEPH: Well, unfortunately the witnesses just crossed the road, right at 6:00 as the bells were going off.

We’ve got a bunch of, we’ve got a bunch of protesters out here, a lot of, a lot of new protesters showing up from Sam Houston.

We got the regulars out here.

We got Gloria with the megaphone from Texas Abolishment the Death Penalty.

RAY: I can hear her in the background.

JOSEPH: We got "The Prison Show" out here going live.

RAY: Okay, now, when the witnesses cross the road, it means that Danny Bible is strapped to the gurney and needles are in his veins.

JOSEPH: Yes.

RAY: It has taken extra staff to do that.

Number one, because he was wheeled into the death chamber in a wheelchair, and it took multiple officers to lift him up onto the gurney.

And then it took extra help to hold down his arms because he has a severe Parkinson's disease.

So they've staffed up for the killing of, of Danny.

Mike, what happened in this case?

MIKE: Well, it seemed like in this case, we might’ve had a true serial killer.

What this case is, is a 1979 murder and rape of a lady named Inez Deaton.

She was raped and killed with an ice pick, with an ice pick.

That becomes a rape-murder, which is eligible for the death penalty.

That is what we're here for today.

RAY: No, no.

Danny, Danny’s not the kind of guy you want to rent the spare room to as a boarder.

That’s not who he is.

GLORIA: [on megaphone] Danny Bible, if you can hear us, we are out here for you today.

Tonight, it is Danny Bible: execution #553.

On July 17th, the State wants to murder Christopher Young from San Antonio, and the list goes on.

RAY: Elizabeth, our producer, has a word.

ELIZABETH: Ray, I'm sorry to interrupt.

But we just got a call from a reporter in Huntsville.

Death has occurred.

RAY: Okay.

Danny Bible is dead at this point.

It is now 6:37.

I was started worrying about 6:29.

And 6:37, it's over.

MIKE: Let's talk a second about the relatives who have done nothing wrong except be relatives.

RAY: Oh, yeah.

MIKE: Do we think that the mother has a right to hold her son before he passes?

RAY: Oh, I'm, see I'm opposed to all of this no-touching stuff.

MIKE: Why does Texas do this?

Strictly for security?

RAY: Meanness.

Meanness.

MIKE: Okay, not security?

RAY: People on Death Row cannot be touched by their visitors, families, friends... for the whole time they're on Death Row.

There is no contact visit, there is no way to hug, there's no way to shake hands.

And so, touching the body after it is dead is the only occasion that you can feel the warmth of the body if you're next of kin.

And we don't know if somebody was there as the next of kin.

[soft, chiming music, bird squawking] [birds singing, bright, droning music] ♪♪ [balloons rattle in the wind] [bright, droning music continues, pulsing] LINDA: He really struggled.

I mean, he, he didn't just go to sleep.

[music fades] And he looked at us like, help me.

I mean, it's like he wanted to say, “Help me, please help me,” but he couldn't say it.

He's, his... it's like he couldn't talk, you know.

I don't see how they can give... I mean, even when you put an animal to sleep, there's something that, that, that makes them kind of go to, go to sleep so they relax.

And then they, you know, they end up dying, and they don't.

I mean, I've watched a lot of my animals be put to sleep, and they do not struggle like that.

DANI: All right.

And we're rushing, we’re rushing.

Good evening, everyone on Texas Death Row.

Danny Bible was executed June 27th.

I’m going to quote the Houston Chronicle's article: “Shaking from Parkinson's tremors, voice quavering as he muttered, ‘it hurts,’ Houston serial killer Danny Bible took his, took his last gasping breaths on the gurney in Huntsville before closing one eye, snoring, and falling forever silent.’” And I think— [phone busy signal] I think Miss... SEVERAL: Linda.

[laughter] DANI: wanted to say something.

LINDA: Yeah.

Guys, it was very hard watching him die.

He struggled, and it, it's really affected me this whole week.

But, you know, I, I’d do it again because I think no one should die alone.

But it was very hard.

DANI: All right, rest in peace, Danny.

I come from, ‘cause I've had people very close to me who were executed.

But I've also, a very close family member of mine was murdered in the ‘90s, and so, so I have both experiences.

And then I was, I was also... raped, you know.

So I've come from, I've had violence against me.

I've had a family member murdered.

And I always use the... you can't, you know, we don't go around raping the rapist.

We don't, you know, it's just, we don't cut off the thieves’ hands.

We don't.

So why do we kill them?

It's... we're better than that.

We're supposed to be better than that.

That's just how I look at it.

TANIKA: Let's squeeze this last caller in then.

Joanne, how are you?

CHILD: I lost a tooth, and I’m so excited because I got two dollars.

Here is my mom.

JOANNE: [chuckles] Hi, I hope everybody had a great New Year.

My shout-out to my husband, we got some amazing news.

He's gonna be home on January the 14th, and I can't wait.

Babe, we’re counting down the days, and we're all just super excited and ready to start this new chapter in our lives and move on.

[peaceful droning music] ♪♪ RAY: In radio, you’ve gotta create your own pictures.

And they're yours.

The rest of it comes from your memory, your imagination, your experience.

[peaceful droning music continues] So as radio, I can not only reach into people's cells, but I can reach into their minds.

And give them new ideas, new ideas about their worth, about their value, about their potential.

[music fades] Guys, I'm gonna get out of here and turn the show over to folks that got other important things to talk about.

I love you, and I want you to hang in there.

Oh, by the way, while I'm here, and I got a minute left.

Jesus a minute’s forever in radio.

If you’re living in a dormitory, sit up.

Look around.

How many people can you see in that dormitory that are either so emotionally and mentally disturbed that they couldn't possibly be culpable for the crimes they committed?

They don’t belong in that institution.

You wanna feel better about yourself?

Go by and throw a ramen noodle on their bunk.

Come by with a candy bar.

Offer to buy them a cola.

Those people need and deserve your stronger hand to make it through their time.

TANIKA: That is beautiful.

HANK: Ray Hill.

TANIKA: Uncle Ray.

RAY: I love y’all.

TANIKA: We love you too.

Thank you.

HANK: Thank you for coming in, Ray.

TANIKA: Well, good night, y’all.

[heavy sighs, quiet conversation] [solo voice singing slow, soulful melody] ♪ Heartaches, I had my share of ♪ ♪ Heartaches ♪ ♪ But I'm still here ♪ [keeping time with snaps, quiet humming] ♪ Troubles, I seen my share of ♪ ♪ Troubles ♪ ♪ But I'm still here ♪ ♪ Yes, I am ♪ ♪ God kept me here ♪ ♪ I made it ♪ ♪ Yes, I made it ♪ ♪ But I'm still (I'm still here) ♪ ♪ Through it all, Through it all ♪ ♪ I'm still here ♪ Major funding for this program was provided by The French National Centre of Cinema, The Jerome Foundation, France Télévisions.

Additional funding was provided by Procirep-Angoa, Check-in Films, and by La Scam, Program33.

For more information and a full list of funders, please visit us as PrisonShowFilm.com.

♪♪