How a Reality Show Is Reforming a Jail

Robert Holcomb's severe constipation may be one of the most important things to ever happen in the Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Thanks to fellow inmates keeping Holcomb from the communal toilets in lock-up and his subsequent health issues, Clark County sheriff Jamey Noel was able to make changes to his jail so that no inmates will face the same potty-based intimidation that Holcomb did. And for all of this we have reality television to thank.

Holcomb was one of the eight participants in the first season of A&E's popular reality show 60 Days In, which takes innocent civilians and places them undercover in the jail. Neither the inmates nor the correctional officers know that they are really there to let Noel—and the viewers at home—know exactly what is going down behind bars when the inmates and COs think no one is watching.

"I was shocked that they were using the restrooms as a form of control for people," Noel told VICE earlier this week over the phone. "The inmates weren't complaining about it and the staff hadn't heard about it." However, when Robert left the program before his 60 days were up due to his lack of bowel movements, Noel said he noticed that lots of other inmates were suffering from the same problem, which is consistent with having to hold it in all the time. As a result, the jail now designates certain toilets as available to all inmates.

60 Days In, the second season of which kicks off Thursday, has been a hit for A&E, regularly garnering more than 1 million viewers an episode. Holcomb started off thinking that jail was a country club but finished by spending four weeks in solitary confinement and quitting the show prematurely. His mind was definitely changed. Another participant, Jeffrey Downs, left after being attacked by another inmate. Never before has the drama on a reality show been this real—or this dangerous.

While the threats and violence may get people to tune in, the nominal reason behind 60 Days In is that Noel needed to find out what was going on in his jail. He teamed up with Lucky 8 Productions, which not only recruited the subjects willing to be sent up the river but also tricked out the jail with new state-of-the-art cameras so that they could catch all the action. (The production company left the cameras in the jail so that the authorities could use them.)

After talking to the 60 Days In participants on their way out, Noel found that many of them were very anxious or depressed when leaving jail, and one subject even said she felt like doing something so that she would be put back in jail because the reentry was so difficult. Because of this, when inmates are released, the jail now provides them with information about how to contact local mental-health professionals, suicide hotlines, and other free resources to help them reintegrate more successfully. "They're not pushed out the door with no help," Noel told VICE.

"I think it's a better place for staff and inmates both now compared to what you see on the show," the sheriff said. "Overall [making 60 Days In] was a very positive experience." According to Noel, the Clark County Jail is both understaffed and underfunded, but he has been able to make changes. As a result of things that Noel has seen happen on the show, ten correctional officers were either fired for their behavior or resigned.

Monalisa Johnson, one of the participants in the show's second season, wasn't a fan of cops or correctional officers before she started this experiment, and her experience only solidified the way she feels. "When COs are given dominion over someone's life, they have to take that seriously," she told VICE. "I think because they have so much power they are abusing that, and there is no one checking their authority, and there is no one holding them accountable."

Every day, Johnson said, she wanted to quit the program because of how tired and sore she was from sleeping on a flimsy mattress on a metal bed, but she made it through her entire two-month stretch. She had a personal reason to endure: Her daughter is incarcerated and serving a ten-year sentence. She said she wanted to see what her daughter experienced in prison, and her time in the prison system has made them closer. Now Johnson's daughter opens up about her hardships because she knows her mother can sympathize and has endured them herself.

The second season was filmed shortly after the first season and before Noel could implement many of the new policies that came about from what he witnessed during season one. It was important to film the seasons close together so that other inmates and officers wouldn't suspect his undercover inmates. (Everyone was told by the production company they were filming a documentary about first-timers in jail.)

"I doubt very seriously we'll be able to continue now that it's public and season one has aired and the staff know and the inmates know, and they're suspicious of everything anyway," Noel said. "It would be impossible for me to do another season."

Maybe the production will have to move to another jail and help that sheriff improve their facility. It's going to take way more than reality television to fix what is wrong with the American prison system, but every little bit helps—even if it comes in the form of a reality TV show.

Follow Brian Moylan on Twitter.

60 Days In premieres Thursday, August 18, on A&E.