← Ozarks True Crime
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- [00:01]
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- [01:35]
Narrator
Edit audio this episode mentions suicide and sexual assault. Please take care while listening in the last episode, our team came home from court and looked into the parallels between mental health and incarceration.
- [01:52]
Darrell Burton
So Missouri is reducing patient beds in mental hospitals at the same time that they are building new prisons. And when you build a new prison that once upon a time was a hospital, sometimes you have the same people in it. We've gone from treatment to punitive measures, and then when you get in prison, you know, our prisons are like glorified dog kennels. You know, they're concrete and steel. They're not places that that people can go to get better. If you go to prison and you get better in Missouri, it's totally by accident.
- [02:31]
Narrator
We're now awaiting the decision from Sandy's evidentiary hearing, and we're hoping to have a verdict this spring, and we'll keep you filled in along the way. In this episode, we're shining light on Sandy's current state as she continues to serve her sentence at the Chillicothe Correctional Center. We look into the prison where Sandy is incarcerated, what it's like there, and what life might be like if she gets out. Since Sandy's hearing, I've been thinking about how hard the transition would be after 40 years in prison. So I began to look into what resources are available for exonerees. And through that, I learned something. That those who are innocent and released from prison can have fewer services available to them than those who are found guilty. And because I can't talk to Sandy right now, I wanted to speak to someone who had a similar experience. A man who was exonerated from prison and didn't have the resources he needed on the outside. His name is Darrell Burton.
- [03:41]
Darrell Burton
You spell my name. D A, R R Y L. Burton. B U R T O, N. I am associate pastor at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. I am also co founder of Miracle of Innocence, and that is to help innocent people get out of prison and then help them once they come home.
- [03:58]
Narrator
Darrell's organization, founded with Lamont McIntyre, is called Miracle of Innocence. The organization helps innocent people get exonerated and then helps them with post prison aftercare. It was founded after Darrell served time in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
- [04:15]
Darrell Burton
Nothing connected me to the crime. No evidence of any kind. No ballistics, no fingerprints, no DNA, no confession, no weapon. It was just those snitch witnesses. And that's what sent me to prison for all those years wrongfully. It took almost 25 years to finally get the facts out and so I could be exonerated and proven innocent.
- [04:36]
Narrator
When he got out in 2008, there were no resources. None. Darrell was 22 when he entered the prison system. Remarkably similar to Sandy's age when she entered. He was 47 when he got out.
- [04:50]
Darrell Burton
Well, I went to some of those programs asking for help. They said, you know, we don't help innocent people. We're sorry, but we only help the guilty. And I said, well, that's crazy. I still, I did almost 25 years as an innocent man. I mean, I did time like anybody else who was a convicted felon of the charges that they were actually guilty of. Even though I was innocent, you can't help me. They said, no, we just, we can't help you. So that was the inspiration behind Miracle of Innocence. Because if someone come home from prison who are innocent and needs some help, then we like to have something in place to help them.
- [05:19]
Narrator
Like others we've heard from in past episodes, Darrell reiterates how Missouri compares to other states when it comes to wrongful conviction.
- [05:27]
Darrell Burton
But I know Missouri is a very, very hard state to prove your innocence, and there are a lot of people in Missouri, in other states, I'm sure, that are innocent in those places. I mean, if the prosecutors get it right 98% of the time, well, that's 2% they get it wrong. And so if you say 98 out of 100, well, you got two people that were innocent. You know, that two people, I guarantee you, is not one of their relatives. It's not somebody they like and love. So it's somebody who's poor, minority, perhaps a man, woman. This just can't afford, you know, to hire a high powered attorney or have those connections. Like I said, I had a public pretender is what I call them, who I saw one time for one hour, one hour, I saw this lawyer. So. And for capital murder. I mean, so you can only imagine that I was being set up from the start.
- [06:16]
Narrator
We've heard others in this series explain how being at lower socioeconomic levels impacts your access to better legal representation. We've also heard how mental illness plays a role in your likelihood of sentencing. I can't help but relate Darryl's experience to Sandy's. They've both done time in prison and both have faced unfair sentencing. And remember, Sandy and Daryl both entered the prison system in the 1980s. Daryl was released decades later. Can you kind of walk me through what it's like when someone gets out of prison? Do you have monetary resources? Have you made money from working in prison? Do you have someone to give you a ride somewhere? Do you have taxicab money? Do you come out with your clothes? Like, can you kind of just walk me me through what that's like?
- [07:03]
Darrell Burton
Yeah. When I came home, I can just tell you, you know, every. It's different for each individual, but most of us come home, we're homeless, we don't have a place to stay. I didn't have a place to stay. I wasn't going back to St. Louis. My mother's still in St. Louis, but I refused to live in St. Louis. So we're homeless. I came out, you know, seeking some help from the reentry program, but they don't help people like me. And most of the guys who get out, if they don't have family, if they don't have a support system, it's hard to try to figure things out. And we come home to a place that we've been alienated from. We don't know this world. I don't understand technology. When I went in in 1984, but you all wasn't even born. They didn't have any of this kind of Technology. None of this stuff existed. Google, you know, Internet. This didn't exist. So you're talking about somebody get out of prisons with a cell phone. I'm talking to you now on the cell phone. When I got out of prison, I had no clue how these things work. And I'm still learning, it's still challenging to me. And then trying to get re acclimated and reacquainted with family and friends, you know, I had a daughter, she was seven months when I left. She was seven months. I saw her three times when I came home. My little girl was 25 years old, so she didn't know me. We just started back talking just here in the last week or so because I abandoned her. Even though she knew it wasn't my fault intellectually. But it still is hard for her because she ended up in foster care herself.
- [08:24]
Narrator
I immediately thought about Sandy when Darrel told me this. A story that paralleled her life in similar ways. They both spent their adult lives without being able to raise their children. The Chillicothe Correctional center where Sandy is incarcerated lies on the far north side of town in Livingston County. From the outside, the building, constructed in 2008 is the color of mud. It's unassuming and sprawling, meant to hold 1,740 incarcerated individuals. The inside is equally utilitarian, not unlike other prisons. But a few signs of life have sprouted. There's a grief corner. There's also a program that teaches parenting skills so that mothers can one day be reunited with their children. And from a handful of online photos you can see that there are colorful posters and blue plastic chairs. Here. The incarcerees wore khaki colored pants and a matching short sleeve V neck shirt like we saw Sandy wearing during the evidentiary hearing. The Chillicothe Correctional center is one of the two women's prisons in the state of Missouri. If you've heard the name, it's likely because Gypsy Rose Blanchard recently served her time there. We wanted to get an idea of what life was like on the inside of the Chillicothe Correctional Center. So we reached out to Lucas Reynolds.
- [09:53]
Lucas Reynolds
I mean, Luke. Lucas, whatever. It depends. It's half the people call me Luke, half people call me Lucas.
- [09:58]
Narrator
So he works part time at the center. Turns out he's actually the nephew of the woman who owned our Airbnb in Chillicothe. It's a pretty small town and working at the correctional facility is a popular job in the area.
- [10:11]
Lucas Reynolds
Just recently graduated high school last year and I'm looking to go into A career in law enforcement, specifically the Missouri State Highway Patrol. So that's pretty much what led me to the Department of Corrections is it is the closest form of law enforcement that somebody of my age, I'm 19 years old, so not quite 21, which is the age of most law enforcement agencies. So I kind of thought, all right, well that would work.
- [10:42]
Narrator
Can you tell me, well first, how long have you been doing this? How long have you been at the correctional center?
- [10:47]
Lucas Reynolds
I've been working in the at CCC for I think I'm coming up on six months. So I think I started, started all my online training and I graduated academy beginning of August.
- [11:00]
Narrator
Lucas tells me about the training it takes to become a correctional officer at the facility, which totals about six weeks.
- [11:07]
Lucas Reynolds
It's quite, quite extensive I believe for our jobs. So starts out it's a lot of online courses. So you go through a lot of policy. You learn how to use some of the equipment you like, you learn your 10 codes, you learn all your radio stuff.
- [11:26]
Narrator
This was Lucas's first job after high school.
- [11:29]
Lucas Reynolds
Five weeks until I had, until I was on my on the job training. And then you have a book that you fill out. It used to be you'd have a book you'd fill out, so there's always somebody with you. So by the time I was completely a full blown officer by myself with all the responsibilities, it was probably looking at about a month and a half to two months of complete comprehensive training.
- [11:52]
Narrator
Lucas has been working at the prison for about six months now, four and a half of which he's been an officer. I appreciate that this training was extensive, but it seems like such a short amount of time for such a huge responsibility. He told us what daily life was like for the women incarcerated there.
- [12:09]
Lucas Reynolds
They wake up at 5:30 for the 5:30am count. So we do several counts throughout the day just to make sure that our numbers are all right and everybody's in the right spot. But at that point, about 5:30, right after 5:30 count, they'll have breakfast. So again we'll go through count everybody in your area at 7:30 and then once 7:30 count clears, a lot of the offenders have different jobs. So they might work in food service, they might work in property, they might work in laundry. Just a various amount of different jobs. They, they'll usually go right after count clears, they'll go to work.
- [12:50]
Narrator
Lucas explained that there's a particular section of the prison that is used for incarcerees with mental illness. He didn't tell us if that's where Sandy is housed. But he did explain that in the mental health unit there are fewer patients, that it's less busy, less stimulating.
- [13:06]
Lucas Reynolds
And then obviously we have a great mental health house. So anytime any of the offenders are having any mental health battles, we have great, great officers over there and some of the best mental health professionals in the state that they have access to. They're put. It's a little bit different style housing. They usually are just in there with one. One other person.
- [13:29]
Narrator
He also told me about the solitary confinement section of the center you were kind of talking about. When someone goes into the hole. Can you kind of explain what that means and what that is?
- [13:40]
Lucas Reynolds
Yeah. So that's just an area where they can be essentially just kind of removed from the general populace in order to just maintain safety and security throughout the institution. So that's just somewhere where they go if they've had a slight lapse in judgment and they've committed an act or violated a rule that is going to threaten the safety and security of the institution. So they are brought there and held there.
- [14:16]
Narrator
Kind of essentially like solitary confinement. Is that kind of.
- [14:19]
Lucas Reynolds
Yes, yes. But I mean, there's still, there's no other. They're still getting their three meals a day. They're. They just have a more limited range of things that they're allowed to keep in their cell just because of obviously safety and security. And then the cells, the. The less that's in there, the less we have to worry about while they're in there. And it's like I said, it's not a long term thing. I mean, when you go on vacation, not that I'm trying to compare it to vacation or anything, but you don't bring your entire house to the hotel. You know what I mean? You're just bringing what you need for your duration of your stay.
- [14:53]
Narrator
We know that Lucas is fairly new to this job and I wanted to reach out to someone with more experience in the Missouri prison system.
- [15:00]
Karen Pojven
Okay. I'm Karen Pojven. I'm the communications director for the Missouri Department of Corrections.
- [15:05]
Narrator
Karen's work focuses on all of the Missouri prisons and she's been in the role for six years. I wanted her to give me some information on the programs offered at the facility where Sandy was living.
- [15:17]
Karen Pojven
Okay. So, yes, Chill Catholic Correctional center is one of two women's prisons we have in Missouri. And currently the population of that facility is 1161 women. And Chill Catholic Correctional center was built in 2008. It's one of the newer prisons in Missouri. Pretty Nice one. It's a very modern facility. It has, you know, great classrooms. It has, you know, a softball field and gym, flower beds. We have career and tech education as well. At Chilicothe Correctional center, we have cosmetology, professional gardening, business technology, culinary arts, certified nursing assistant, customer service representative. We just started a manufacturing technology program as well. And we have about a 76% success rate for vocational education programs.
- [16:10]
Narrator
That sounds lovely, really. But according to a study that Karen shared with me, from 2023, the age of people in prison continues to rise. In the past 10 years, the percentage of people aged 50 and older has increased from 18% to 24%. As a reminder, Sandy is in her 60s. And I wondered, are these older incarcerees able to take advantage of these programs? People like Sandy who have never lived in a world with computers or zoom or social media?
- [16:42]
Karen Pojven
Missouri had the fastest growing rate of incarceration for women in the country. So we immediately set about trying to make adjustments to, you know, stop that trend. And we actually have very much reversed that trend about the population of women in prison has shrunk by about 40% since then. And one way we did that was by converting a community supervision center into an all women's facility.
- [17:12]
Narrator
Karen told me that this supervision center is a residential program for those on probation and parole. And it helps with things like life skills and substance use, treatment, you know.
- [17:22]
Karen Pojven
Finding a job, finding a home, developing parenting skills, family reunification, like all those tools that you need to be able to be successful living on your own, you know, after incarceration, or in many cases, instead of incarceration.
- [17:37]
Narrator
But the thing is, if Sandy's exonerated, she won't be on probation and parole. Karen also tells me about some impressive programs that are put into place to make sure that those who are released have jobs, health care, their medications, transportation, and even housing and childcare on some occasions. She and Lucas can't speak about specific incarcerated individuals. But I'm wondering if Sandy has or will receive these opportunities that seem so encouraging.
- [18:06]
Karen Pojven
There's a theater program. I was actually there in December, right before Christmas. I got to see their Christmas pageant, which was wonderful. So there's a lot going on. There's no shortage of activities, and there are also special clubs people can join and residents can start new clubs. In some ways, it's a bit like school.
- [18:28]
Narrator
After speaking with Karen and Lucas, I had this shiny picture of what the Chillicothe Correctional center could look like. Gardening, a hair salon, a Christmas pageant. It seemed so idyllic. So I asked Darrell about the services he had available to him. When you're an inmate, do you feel that the prison system is set up for a place for rehabilitation, or do you feel like it's a place for punishment?
- [18:52]
Darrell Burton
It's for punishment. It's a place for punishment. I mean, to rehabilitate yourself is an individual thing as it relates to the administrators and folks who govern those facilities. Now, they may try to offer some rehabilitation programs, and it may help, may work and it may not, but they, you know, they run the place, and so they sometimes run it with a very strong, forceful hand.
- [19:21]
Narrator
Darrell spent 24 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary and explained that they didn't have programs that helped you acclimate when you were released. But he hopes that it will change. We'll be right. Daryl now lives in Olathe, Kansas. He's built a life for himself after being released, something that couldn't be easy for anyone to do, let alone the more than 70% of incarcerees that have a diagnosed mental illness or substance use disorder or both. Add to that, up to a third of incarcerated people have a serious mental illness. I wanted to hear Darrell's thoughts on the number of people with mental illness that are serving time in prison instead of getting psychiatric care.
- [20:14]
Darrell Burton
Because a lot of folks who enter into the prison system, they may be mentally sound, but once you get into an environment like that, you mentally deteriorate. And that can happen to any of us. I mean, it happened to me, and I like to think I'm mentally a strong person. But there was times when I thought about suicide.
- [20:30]
Narrator
Darryl explains that the answer is more complex, that even those who may not have a mental illness before entering the system likely struggle while they're in prison due to a multitude of factors.
- [20:42]
Darrell Burton
I mean, when you're in a place like that, you just never know what your breaking point is. So there's all kinds of things in the trauma and the abuse and all kinds of the force and the power, both from inmates and guards. It can break you down mentally. It takes a lot to just sustain yourself in a place like that.
- [21:00]
Narrator
And those traumas don't disappear with a release. Darryl then explains how they stay with you after you get out of prison, that they're compounded by how overwhelming day to day living is for people who are released after they've been in prison for years, for decades, it can be.
- [21:16]
Darrell Burton
Overwhelming, you know, so these are some, I mean, little things that, you know, folks who've been out here, you just take it for granted. You know, you go to the refrigerator, open up the refrigerator, and it's no big deal. You can get something to drink, water, juice, milk, or nothing at all. Well, we didn't get a chance to go to refrigerators and, you know, use these, you know, high tech microwaves and ovens and all this kind of stuff. And you got to push buttons, you got to know codes, you got to, you know, I mean, just to, you know, cook something to eat sometimes. So, you know, I didn't know how to turn on the television when I come out, and a lady had to help me figure out how to turn on the television and the remotes. I didn't know how to use those things. So these are some of the challenges that we face when we get out.
- [21:58]
Narrator
This doesn't even take into account finding work and making money to live. Like Darrell said, a lot of these exonerees are homeless.
- [22:06]
Darrell Burton
I couldn't get a job for two years. So I started going, speaking about my experience. And that's how I was able to get an honorarium or a stipend or somebody would, you know, just give me some money to, you know, for sharing my story in Catholic charities. I went and I volunteered. I said, just let me volunteer because I just want to work somebody. Just give me a chance, I'll show you. I worked and they let me volunteer. Then they got a grant and then they hired me and that's how I got a job. But I had been volunteering for months. I mean, we have no work skills, you know. And one guy even said to me when I got an interview, he said, man, I'm looking at your, your application and I'm looking at you. You have no work history for 25 years. So I said, what are you, Rip Van Winkle? You, you just disappear and decide to wake up one day, 25 years later and go to work.
- [22:52]
Narrator
Darrell had examples of how this impacted him with the job he was applying for.
- [22:57]
Darrell Burton
My lawyers and supporters, I told them about this job I was excited about getting. They asked me, they said, well, where is it? I said, it was in St. Joe, Missouri. They said, from Kansas City. I said, yeah. They said, Duh, that's 50 miles one way. How are you going to get there? So I'm gonna ride a bike. I had no clue I was gonna ride a bike. 50 miles one way, 50 miles the other. That's a hundred miles on a bicycle. I, I didn't have any clue. I had no perspective on distance. Time and space didn't exist in that place. You know, you're just in A box, you know, you don't know how far 50 miles is from 5 miles or 1 mile. I just, I had no clue. So those are things, you know, we have to just try to learn and navigate and talk about.
- [23:36]
Narrator
I was thinking about Darrell and how resilient he is. He now has a master's degree and he's co founded an incredible organization. He's done so much despite being robbed of nearly a quarter century of his life. I couldn't help but think about how much he would have done without the trauma of prison weighing on him with an extra decade of experience and memories. A question I'm sure he's grappled with himself. I have one question I thought about when you were talking to me, and I was just thinking, how do you grapple with the fact that you were in prison for 25 years for something you didn't do? Is that, is that difficult to. I mean, do you, do you find forgiveness? Do you use this organization as a way to make someone else's wrong or right? I'd just love to know your thoughts on that.
- [24:29]
Darrell Burton
Well, great question. Yes, I have found forgiveness. But I didn't go in with someone who had a forgiving heart, a person who was of faith. All that came later. I didn't believe in, you know, in God or any religion. When I got into that place, I was angry. I was filled with a lot of piss and vinegar. Excuse the expression, but I hated the entire criminal justice system. All judges, lawyers, police, prosecutors, guards. I hated those people for what they'd done to me. And no rules applied to me when I got there. But it took, oh, 12, 15, almost 16 years before I read this book about this guy named Jesus, who. I didn't know his story because I was not a religious guy.
- [25:09]
Narrator
Darrell explained to me that it was his newfound faith that got him to this place. He told me that he didn't go into prison as a religious guy, but that reading the Bible helped him to find peace. He told me forgiveness wasn't for them, it was for me.
- [25:24]
Darrell Burton
I just wanted to be at peace with inside of myself. And Nelson Mandela said it best. To be angry and filled with hate and bitterness towards someone else is a self imposed prison. It's just a mental prison. And so I didn't want to be in a mental prison, either physically or mentally. I didn't want to be in prison.
- [25:41]
Narrator
After finding faith in himself, I wondered if he had found any faith in the justice system.
- [25:47]
Darrell Burton
No, no, the justice system. You know, and I have to say this and this with all due respect, it's not about right or wrong, good or bad, evil. It's not even about the truth. It's about convictions. It's set up to get convictions, to win convictions. That's it. That's the bottom line.
- [26:05]
Narrator
Darrell told me that it cost about $500,000 to help just one client, but that despite that, he wants to help anyone who comes his way.
- [26:14]
Darrell Burton
You know, we don't discriminate when it comes to somebody who's innocent. If you need help and we can help you, write us. We'll help you.
- [26:20]
Narrator
Like Darrell, I hope that our prison systems are changing, that programs set in place, like those at the Chillicothe Correctional center, are used for rehabilitation and to help set incarcerated individuals up when they leave. While researching this episode, it became both clear and disheartening to me that those who are wrongfully imprisoned, like Darryl, face a different future than those who are paroled. It almost feels as if they're in this gray fin for yourself situation. Exonerees don't fall into parole. They fall through the cracks. So we reached out to another person whose organization is helping those who have been wrongfully imprisoned and may even be there if Sandy is exonerated.
- [27:05]
John Eldon
I'm John Eldon. I'm the founder and executive director of After Innocence.
- [27:11]
Narrator
John explains how After Innocence works.
- [27:13]
John Eldon
After Innocence is a phone based project. I started it in my kitchen and that's where I'm sitting right now. And the idea is to call people up and offer, offer them highly skilled, consistent help in a few areas that will make a difference for them.
- [27:30]
Narrator
After Innocence is helping exonerees with things like getting an ID or a Social Security card. They assist with job training, housing and adult education opportunities, plus pro bono legal work and a new program for mental health.
- [27:45]
John Eldon
Untreated mental health issues is a major, major concern for this population. And we approach that not as clinicians, not as people providing therapy, but really as the folks who will try and see in a very practical way what resources are available to this individual. It's a pretty intense area of your life, and it's not like going to the dermatologist, where if you don't get along with that person and you don't feel understood and heard by that person, they're probably going to be able to take care of the rash on your arm anyway. Mental health care is the opposite, and finding a good match with a therapist is tricky. And we work with people in exactly that process to try and help them squeeze out of whatever health care they have access to. Squeeze out the most that they possibly can. And one issue that we're working on as a policy issue that comes to mind just about mental health care is we do policy work around the country trying to improve the various ways in which states respond to wrongful incarceration once people are released, and that is in the form of compensation statutes and also in providing services to people upon release.
- [29:06]
Narrator
I wanted to hear more about compensation and how that works in the state of Missouri specifically. We know that Darrell wasn't compensated for the years that he spent in prison.
- [29:16]
John Eldon
So my understanding of the compensation statute in Missouri is that it has many really serious limitations. And one of them is that it is available to people who were exonerated through the use of DNA evidence. And I believe not just that, but DNA evidence that was produced through a particular statute in Missouri. And if your DNA evidence came into the case in a different way, you would not be eligible. So in Missouri and in Most of the 38 states that have a compensation statute, there are are severe limitations that make the statute unfair in that it's not widely available to people who were in prison for crimes they can prove they did not commit. And I think that your audience would expect that our system provides that, that our system makes available, hopefully a generous amount of money to people who can demonstrate that they were in for crimes that they did not commit. And what we see all around the country and Missouri is no except is that the statutes, in important ways, by their process and by what they provide, don't really allow for that kind of compensation. And that's what we need to change. And I understand that efforts are underway right now in Missouri. And I hope listeners get involved and find out what's going on and support good reforms.
- [30:42]
Narrator
Speaking with John left me feeling a bit more hopeful and thankful that there are programs out there like After Innocence and Miracle of Innocence. And I wonder if this is something Sandy could benefit from if exonerated. Do you know if After Innocence will be reaching out to Sandra Hemme if she is exonerated?
- [31:00]
John Eldon
Sure. I mean, we reach out and we're open and available to anyone who's released from prison after wrongful incarceration. And, you know, our goal is to collaborate with whoever else is out there helping the individual and just make available to them the services that we provide, many of which are quite unique, and work with everybody to provide the person with the most help possible.
- [31:29]
Narrator
After writing this episode, it was hard not to vacillate between feeling hopeful and feeling disheartened. I'd finish up an interview with these folks like Lucas and Karen who want to do good. People who are trying to make this a better and safer and easier place for those who are incarcerated. But after hearing from Darrell, I'm aware of just how violent these systems can be. Is trying to do good in a flawed system enough to actually change things. My conversation with Lucas ended by speaking of hope and change. He told me that he hopes to change the perception of correctional officers and law enforcement in general. The first thing that he brings up is about a Prison Rape Elimination act, which took me by a bit of surprise.
- [32:15]
Lucas Reynolds
It's called the prea. So it is the Prison Rape Elimination Act. So being a women's facility and there being lots of male staff, obviously there could be issues there. So the Missouri Department of Corrections does a really, really good job of really breaking down and going through all the expectations, how the officers can protect themselves from allegations. Obviously, going through that policy, making sure you're always on camera, making sure you're always being respectful. Specific language to stray away from. That doesn't sound as good out of context. So it may be what you're trying to tell the offender is completely makes sense in context. But if it's heard or something gets picked up out of context, how that could look on you and reflect the department. I always want to do as much as I can in terms of community outreach to kind of. Kind of flip the coin on that. That public perception of law enforcement, especially institutional correctional officers, they've kind of had a bad rap here recently. And I just. It's always kind of been my. My role that I wanted to play is to clear up those things and let everybody know that it's. It really is a positive thing. And we really are doing the best we can for these offenders. And it's. It's not a power thing. It's not anything like that. We're not trying to. We don't think we're above these offenders. We're all people here, and we're just doing the best we can to help each other out.
- [33:46]
Narrator
Why? Sorry. I guess this leads to another question. Why did they have a bad reputation.
- [33:52]
Lucas Reynolds
With all law enforcement? You know what I mean? You're only ever in the public eye when something negative happens. You know what I mean? You never really see the stories of positive police work as you do the negative stuff. Anytime anything negative happens with law enforcement, that seems to be what is portrayed all over, whether it's social media or the mainstream media. Not necessarily that it's a narrative. It's just that's how it kind of kind of happens is all the negative stuff's pushed forward.
- [34:23]
Narrator
After our call with Lucas ended up, I began to think more about the reputation of the Chillicothe Correctional center and why it's something Lucas hopes to change. After a quick Google search, we found some information about a different officer at the Chillicothe Correctional center that was pretty shocking. A Kansas City star article from June 1st of 2023 says that the state of Missouri has started to pay out $20 million awarded to four four women who alleged that they were sexually abused by a guard at the Chillicothe Correctional Center. During the civil trial in Kansas City, one of the women's lawyers said that this correctional officer considered the prison his personal hunting ground. She said that he groomed and complimented the prisoners and gave them items they weren't allowed to have, like soda. He sexually harassed them, isolated them in small spaces without cameras, and raped them. The article ended by saying that lawyers with the Attorney General's office, which represented this officer as a state employee, tried to paint the women as liars. The Sandra Hemme Story is part of the Edit Audio Original series Ozarks True Crime. It is written and hosted by me, Ann Roderick Jones. This episode was produced by Ali Sierwah and Kathleen Speckart and was edited, mixed and mastered by Ali Sierwah. Our Executive producer is Steph Colburn. Thank you immensely to the entire Edit Audio team and to Patrick Rendle for the theme music. A special thank you to Darrell Burton, John Eldon, Karen Poachman and Lucas Reynolds. If you want to get in touch with us, you can email us at helloeditaud IO that's H E L L O D I T A U D IO.