She used to become involved in a lot of drama with other inmates, getting into fights with other girls, but she changed. The superintendent said that she was a handful and was quite tough, but then when she started opening up, she wasn’t the monster that everyone thought her to be.
She was already preparing to leave Madison Juvenile, but she started to act out a week before her release date. According to the officer-in-charge, that behavior had something to do with being nervous about the idea of returning home. Acting out meant she lost her privileges, and was asked to change into the regular purple shirt. However, she refused to do that and threw things around, even lashing out at another inmate and starting a fight. She was sent to the Making A Change (M.A.C.) room, the facility’s version of the solitary cell, as a way to reprimand that kind of attitude. It wasn’t something new to her, since she’d been sent there around 10 times during her whole stay in the facility.
Eventually, she left juvie and was quite happy when she was fetched by family.
She said that a different Chrissy left the facility, and since she graduated from high school inside the juvie, she planned to get a job to help her mom.
Where is Chrissy now? In 2021, she is still single, but as she promised, she’s been on good behaviour since her release.
Some of the inmates such as Amanda Caroll were sent there because of drug abuse; in some twisted logic, she said that she started taking drugs just to spite her mother. Apparently, her mother went to prison when she was quite young, and was only released when she Amanda was 12 years old. It made her so mad that her mother wasn’t with her growing up, saying that it was time for her to be the one in trouble, while her mother would be the one worrying.
Amanda was interviewed by the TV crew three days before her release date from the facility. She shared that her mom had changed a lot, and that had inspired her.
She was excited to be with her again, but also nervous that she might fall off the wagon after her release. Before she ended up in the juvie again, they attended counseling together, which improved her relationship with her mother. Amanda was hoping it would be the last time she would ever enter a juvenile correctional in her life, as this was already her second time. The difference this time, she said, was that she realized that she was quite dumb for making wrong decisions. She said that it didn’t only hurt her mom, but most importantly, she hurt herself in the process of taking revenge.
Where is Amanda now? When a follow-up on her was done by the TV crew, Amanda was doing great, and has managed to stay drug-free since her release from the juvenile facility. She was working at a fast-food joint, and was back in school to finish her high school education. The mother and daughter were both attending therapy, to heal together.
Najwa Pollards
When the TV crew started interviewing 15-year-old Najwa Pollards for the documentary series, she has already been an inmate in Madison Juvenile for over a year. She said that she began acting out when she was younger, because her father started to become really abusive. She ran away from home many times to avoid the situation, hung-out with bad people, which led her to underage drinking and smoking weed. Her father often called the police, as she became uncontrollable.
Najwa’s case touched the hearts of the viewers, and made them feel frustrated as well, because technically she was supposed to be back in the outside world long before the TV show premiered. However, the system couldn’t release her because her parents or guardians refused to take her back. The staff and other inmates had good words to say about her, and described her as a good girl.
Girls Incarcerated
She was one of the youngest when she first came to the facility, and it broke their hearts that she had no home to go back to. She didn’t talk to her parents anymore, but has communicated with her two younger brothers. While she always hoped that she would be granted a release date whenever she filed the required paperwork, it just didn’t happen. The first season ended with the staff and inmates giving her a birthday party, which was the closest happy ending they could give to her at that moment.
Where is she Najwa now? Somebody posted online that she was eventually released to a group home, and was later picked up by her mother. She was trying to behave well for a while, but was unfortunately arrested again for gun possession and drug trafficking. Najwa spent a year in jail, but during that period and after her release, she worked on getting her GED. She would often post selfies on her social media account.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CO5tTknhZqf/
Taryn Twine
Not all of the girls inside the facility were incarcerated because someone sent them there, as was the case of Taryn Twine. In August 2016, she was the driver of a Jeep that was involved in a vehicular accident. After attending a party, she went home with some friends, recalling that it was quite dark that night, and she wasn’t aware that there was a curve along the road; she went across the road, skidded along a ditch, and slammed into a metal duct before rolling down on its side. It was ruled an accident because she wasn’t under the influence of alcohol or any illegal substance, however, her friend who was sitting in the passenger seat died even before the paramedics arrived. Taryn couldn’t handle the pain along with the guilt. She felt that staying in the facility would give her the punishment that she needed, even though her friend’s family had already forgiven her.
When she arrived at the juvenile correctional, it didn’t take long for her to get the burgundy shirt, as she’d led quite a disciplined life before the accident.
She was a cheerleader in her school and was into sports so she knew how to follow rules. Taryn had always been the epitome of model behavior inside the facility.
Where is Taryn now? She eventually got her release date from the facility, and from her Instagram posts, it seemed everything was going great for her. In September 2021, she announced that she’s expecting a baby by posting a sonogram, and captioned it, ‘Our little curly-headed bundle of joy will be making its appearance March 2022.’
Heidi Lakin
The staff of juvenile correctional often witnessed inmates bragging about bad things that they could do just to show off – Heidi Laken was one such student. Her personal story was so tragic that most people around pitied her instead of taking her threats seriously. She shared in one of the episodes in “Girls Incarcerated” that she was molested when she was seven years old by a friend’s stepfather; whenever the pervert touched her private parts, he told her that those were “shark bites.”