00:00
So many times that my friends weren't there for me.
00:03
I said, you know what, I have to step up to the plate.
00:05
I have to beat my fears.
00:07
I have to become somebody.
00:09
I gotta be stronger for myself.
00:12
God put me here to be a strong person and to take care of myself
00:17
respect myself and love myself.
00:24
Currently, I'm an officer for the Sheriff's Department.
00:30
You can say I take care of about approximately, well, on different
00:38
It varies but usually 300 inmates just, you know, with two
00:44
other deputies and myself with almost 300 inmates, male inmates
00:55
I take it, these aren't the Bernie Madoff type of my, with some
01:02
Sometimes, sometimes because mostly the inmates that I take
01:08
care of or you know, that we watch.
01:11
It's usually, you know, your, what, what do you wanna call
01:16
Uh, gosh, DUIs people that, you know, violate parole, domestic
01:24
violence and drug addicts, drug addicts that are ordered
01:30
by court, you know, to serve their time in jail.
01:34
But mainly that's it because the facility where I work at,
01:38
it's a level one through seven and, you know, one being the
01:43
lowest, like a parking tickets or warrants, pedophiles in
01:49
Oh, yeah, we have pedophiles, we have child molesters, Gangsters
01:56
Of course, we have a little bit of everything, a little identity
02:02
theft, um, which we call it criminals.
02:08
It just a little bit of everything.
02:10
It's a totally different world.
02:13
But I love, I love what I do.
02:16
I think that I love my job because I feel so respected among
02:23
my coworkers, my partners and the inmates.
02:28
I treat them fair and I feel so comfortable just I know that
02:33
because I've been, I've been left alone mostly all eight hours
02:39
I've been left alone with 300 of these inmates and I have to
02:41
walk once an hour to make sure they're all alive and nobody's
02:46
beaten up or nobody's missing an arm or whatever, you know
02:49
And I can, I am, I feel so sure of myself that I can go inside that
02:54
Barrack because each Barrick holds about 100 inmates that
02:58
I can go inside and I can just walk by myself, walk by myself
03:04
all the way to the end of the Barrack to check every single one
03:07
of them and come right back alive.
03:10
I know I know that they will not do anything to me.
03:13
I feel, I think as women, we have an extra instinct and we know
03:19
that, you know, when something's gonna go wrong.
03:20
Of course, if you feel it, if I sense it, I won't go.
03:24
But I thank God I've never had that feeling never because I
03:28
treat them all fair because like, like I, I forgot there was
03:33
an officer another officer that told me, you know what I know
03:37
that because sometimes among our partners, we, we tend to
03:44
have problems because some of them are really, really bad
03:49
They treat them like animals, they degrade them.
03:52
And some of us are like, you know, they call us softies.
03:57
You know, they, we, we give them too much, we help them too much
04:02
But there was an officer that told me once that he said, you
04:06
I treat him fair because I don't know if somewhere around this
04:10
world, you know, somewhere around the world I have a cousin
04:13
or I might have an uncle.
04:14
I might have a grandpa, a father that's in jail also.
04:17
And I wouldn't want somebody to treat him like those people
04:20
treat them, you know, and that kind of like, wow, it stuck with
04:24
me, it stuck with me and it stuck with me all, all this time.
04:29
And that's why I know that these people will not do anything
04:32
to me because I always always treat them fair when I get really
04:38
They know I'm that they know how my my facial expressions change
04:43
my tone of voice change and my posture changes and they know
04:48
when I'm talking business, it's business.
04:50
When you tick me off.
04:52
Don't, don't talk to me because you're not gonna get absolutely
04:56
So just go back mo most, most of all, I kind of feel like a counselor
05:01
sometimes because I talk to these guys.
05:04
You know, I feel like I feel like telling them, you know, I think
05:08
I had a worse childhood than you.
05:10
I think I had less things in you.
05:12
Sometimes I didn't even have food to eat and you're over here
05:15
telling me that you're using drugs, you're committing all
05:18
these crimes because your parents separated.
05:21
Like, come on, bro, like why, you know, God put us on this earth
05:27
to, to, you know, to create our own destinies, I believe, you
05:32
know, it's up to you what you wanna do with your life.
05:35
That's how you're gonna live and that's the example you're
05:37
gonna, you know, leave for everybody else to see if you wanna
05:41
live your life like a criminal, then you're always gonna be
05:44
down here, you know, treated like a criminal, treated like
05:48
less of a human being, you know.
05:50
But if you give respect hard, work hard, you're gonna get somewhere
05:54
you know, and I, I try to talk to him.
05:56
I wish I could open up to them and tell him what I went through
05:59
you know, I mean, since I was a little kid, you know, but I don't
06:06
know most of these criminals they, it comes from their ancestors
06:13
They have cousins, grand grandpas, uncles, brothers, fathers
06:20
that have lived in prison all of their life.
06:23
So they know that's their world.
06:25
They grew, they grew up around the, you know, talking about
06:28
prison, talking about deputies, talking about officers
06:30
Oh yeah, I'm gonna shoot that deputy.
06:32
I'm gonna shoot this, I'm gonna shoot that.
06:34
I'm gonna kill this fool.
06:35
I'm gonna kill that fool.
06:36
It's so normal to them.
06:41
It's like they can do that every day if they want to drive by
06:45
It's like so normal to them.
06:47
It's just their, their, their mentality so much different
06:51
And that's why I wanna raise my daughter differently from
06:55
my mom, from these criminals.
06:57
I learned from absolutely everybody.
06:59
You know, because they're here to teach me a lesson too, to
07:02
teach me that I shouldn't give my daughter absolutely everything
07:07
You know, because I take care of a, um, well, he's one of the
07:13
inmates in my facility.
07:15
He has a very famous mom, very, very famous.
07:20
And, you know, he, you know, the way he is, he's very cocky.
07:24
He thinks he can get absolutely everything.
07:29
It's like, you know what, I don't want to give my daughter absolutely
07:31
everything because she might end up like this, you know, like
07:34
a brat, just a love, a brat and it bugs me.
07:39
So, you know, I wanna, I think that nowadays you gotta teach
07:43
your kids with actions because words are just in and out.
07:49
You know, I lived it with my little sister.
07:51
Uh, I would talk to her but she still went and did her own thing
07:57
She got pregnant at 17 and blah, blah, blah, you know, just
08:01
like all my other sisters.
08:03
So I think that with visions you gotta see it to believe it aids
08:09
You know, I, I worked at a nursing home prior to being in a job
08:13
I was totally the opposite.
08:14
I'm telling you, I gave all I could.
08:16
I always felt like I had to take care of everything.
08:19
I felt like I had to be everywhere to help everybody that I could
08:24
You know, I did, I did um, CN a work for five years, taking care
08:33
But, um, yeah, you learned, I learned a lot.
08:37
I learned to value my life.
08:39
I learned that I don't have to be rich as long as I'm alive and
08:43
I'm healthy and I'm able to talk, walk, eat and see what else
08:51
The simple things in life are the best.
08:53
You gotta think that way.
08:54
You gotta laugh, you gotta think positive and most of all have
08:59
And that's, that's, that's why I think I'm where I'm at because
09:04
I feel really comfortable.
09:06
I know that if I quit this job and I do something else, you know
09:10
go for RN and I'll be a nurse.
09:13
I know I can do it and I can do it because I feel I, I mold, you know
09:18
to where I wanna go and what I wanna do, you could give advice
09:24
to yourself at the age of five.
09:26
When you first came home.
09:28
Are you gonna make me cry and go back and talk to that little
09:32
girl who came over and saw some terrific things.
09:36
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
09:52
Um What I would say to a little five year old that, you know,
09:58
came here for the first time.
10:03
I would tell her that everything would be ok um to have faith
10:14
because God is fair with absolutely everybody.
10:18
He gives us all, you know, our five senses and that's more than
10:24
we can ask for and we make our own destiny and you know, ask for
10:31
No, like God says, are you that thing that, you know, like it's
10:39
a, you can make your life to be a beautiful life.
10:42
So just have faith and be patient.
10:45
Be very patient and humble.
10:48
They'll get you to places to very high places.