- That can be scary, coming into a place like this if you don't know anybody and you're just getting here. That can be scary. There was a hands-on policy. They didn't mind putting their hands on you back then. I would hear things from other inmates about stuff that was going on, relationships between inmates and officers, assaults by officers, retaliation, stuff like that. I would hear stuff like that. It will have a dramatic impact on you if you're around it because you may wanna speak up or you may be afraid to speak up. I have heard so much. Well, you know, the feds are gonna come take over the prison. We hear that all the time. It's working for the good, and I think it puts people in a perspective that we're not here for that. That's not what we're here for. We've already received a just punishment. I'm not here to be assaulted by anybody, verbally or physically. And they're making that very clear now. That's not what we're here for.

- It means something now that somebody's paying attention and listening. Before, we didn't have the environment for them to do that.

- They're very approachable and treat you as a human. They're not gonna treat you like, well, you're just an inmate. You deserve whatever. There's none of that.

- They made it a safe zone now, where you can make calls or whatever you need to do. You can call and report stuff without being fearful about it and you can remain anonymous if you need to without the whole institution knowing about it. They investigate stuff more than they used to. You can go talk to people, staff members, about if you're having a problem or something.

- Beyond Violence and Beyond Trauma are positive classes because they address the issues that actually brought people here to begin with. There's always a story behind the story.

- And so now we have the classes that are more, for the wrong reason they ended up here, maybe domestic violence or sexual abuse, and that's never been addressed, so therefore they're never able to heal and do better. It's a cycle that, if you can't break that pattern, you're doomed.

- The overall mood in the prison has improved. It's not as oppressive. And I think even the officers probably feel that too. They take into consideration that we have a voice.

- The officer's here to do their job and we're here to do our time, and I think that's a fair way to state that, and it's the truth.