By Caleb Yarbrough
Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist
Women are the fastest-growing prison population in the country. And each year, thousands of women go behind bars — pregnant.
“Tutwiler,” a PBS documentary short film, takes viewers into the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka — the only state women’s prison in Alabama.
Long considered one of the worst women’s prisons in the United States, a 2014 federal investigation found more than one-third of Tutwiler’s staff had sex with inmates, according to the film.
In one scene from the film, Wendy Williams, deputy commissioner for women’s services at the Alabama Department of Corrections, says that following the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation, ADOC has made a concerted effort to “change the culture.”
Investing in mothers
ADOC is investing in Tutwiler with help from the nonprofit Alabama Prison Birth Project, which began providing support to pregnant women in Tutwiler in 2016.
Services include maternal education, access to doulas — individuals who provide emotional assistance, often to pregnant women — and resources like a lactation room.
In one of many touching moments in “Tutwiler,” there is palpable excitement at the prospect of the prison leaving behind its past and becoming an example for other prisons across the country.
APBP provides nutritious meals to pregnant women as well as resources aimed at leading incarcerated mothers to build a foundation, helping them parent well and bond with their children when they are released.
Alysia Santo is a writer at The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism organization that specializes in reporting on criminal justice reform. She is the film’s producer and reporter.
“It’s really rare that a prison allows reporters in, especially allowing reporters in with cameras, but they are really proud of their doula program, and they believed that they could spark change in other prisons,” Santo said.
Santo first heard about the APBP’s doula program while reporting on the Minnesota Prison Doula Project.
Recognizing Tutwiler from recent reports of the prisons’ mistreatment of inmates, Santo contacted ADOC and requested to document the prison’s doula program.
After The Marshall Project found PBS’ Frontline as a collaborator, Elaine Sheldon was called upon to direct the short film that would become “Tutwiler.”
40 days inside the prison
Sheldon and Santo spent nearly 40 days in Alabama working on the film; half that time inside the prison.
It took numerous meetings and conversations with ADC officials before filming inside could take place, according to Sheldon. But eventually the crew was provided “nearly unrestricted access” to the doula program.
In addition to bureaucratic challenges were those of logistics. During filming, Sheldon and Santos spent two weeks at a casino hotel down the road from Tutwiler waiting for an inmate to give birth. Large industrial fans took the place of air conditioning at the prison, which made it difficult to record quality audio. And the crew was only allowed to bring into Tutwiler what equipment they could pack into a small backpack.
“It was dark inside the prison, with bars that blocked much of the natural light from coming inside. We decided to not see those as barriers to good sound or video, but rather, as part of the story,” Sheldon recounted.
The result is a touching short film that accomplishes the creators’ objectives.
“Our goal for this film was to show these women are more than their prison sentence. We wanted to humanize and shine light on an issue so rarely seen. We want viewers to see these women as mothers, sisters, daughters,” Sheldon explained.
Separation
Previous films on expectant mothers in prison have focused on “in-prison nurseries,” which Santo said are rare.
“What happens to most women is, if they enter prison pregnant, they give birth and they are separated from their child. By focusing on Tutwiler, we were able to show the experience most women actually have when they enter prison pregnant,” Santo explained.
“I hope the film helps viewers understand that people who are incarcerated are regular people who go through all the same emotions that everyone else does,” she added.
While doing research for the film, Santo said she discovered nearly all the pregnant women incarcerated at Tutwiler are serving time for drug-related charges.
“I hope people think about what that means,” she said. “This is how we deal with people who have an addiction — even if they’re pregnant.”
“I hope people can look at them and see the strength, and not just think, ‘Well, what did they do to get there?’ —which is the easy way to think — and say, ‘Wow, I can see myself in this woman’ or ‘I can’t imagine what that would be like. They must be pretty incredible people.’
“Because they are, and I hope that comes through for people,” Santo declared.
Toll of incarceration
The film also highlights the toll incarceration takes, not only on the inmates but on their children and families.
“There are children who are wondering where their mom is, and that carries through into their lives. It can also create a cycle of incarceration,” Santo said. “The director of women’s services, Wendy Williams, told us at one point they had three generations of women in the prison at the same time. When you incarcerate people, it really trickles down to the whole community.”
While much of “Tutwiler” focuses on expectant mothers and their experience giving birth while incarcerated, for the women who already have children — and the mothers who give birth while behind bars — one of the most difficult things about serving time is being away from their children.
Faith-based care for children
The Adullam House is a faith-based children’s home in Wetumpka that houses and takes care of many of the babies born at Tutwiler.
Kendisha Brown is a nursery caretaker at Adullam House. In the film, while feeding a baby, Brown describes how her personal life experience has given her a special empathy for the children born to mothers who are either incarcerated, struggle with substance abuse, or both.
“I can relate to the kids a lot because I was born drug addicted to crack cocaine,” Brown says. “My mom did drugs most of her life. And so society says that they’re throwaways and that there is no hope for them or they are going to end up in the system or they are going to end up on drugs just like their parents.
“I show them the love that I didn’t have as a baby,” Brown says. “For me to be able to do that for these children — it has been healing for me.”
Speaking of the baby in her care, Brown said, “When I look at her I think of me when I was a baby. And I look at me and I see her future.
“There’s hope for her.”
To watch “Tutwiler,” visit themarshallproject.org/2020/05/06/the-separation or your local PBS station.
For more information on the Alabama Prison Birth Project, visit prisonbirth.org.
For more information on the Adullam House, visit adullamhouse.org.
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