Meet Rachael

Help Rachael
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2025
Meet Rachael

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Rachael, an inmate currently housed in the county jail as she awaits transport to a state prison after being sentenced to three mandatory years of incarceration. Rachael has faced a lifelong battle with addiction, one that has significantly impacted her life. At one point, she managed to maintain sobriety for an impressive ten years, but the financial hardships and emotional toll brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic led her to relapse. Now, she is serving a sentence as a result of her struggle.

During our conversation, Rachael expressed her deep frustration with the legal system, particularly how it treats addiction as a criminal act rather than addressing it as a health issue. She feels that her situation highlights the broader systemic issues, where people battling addiction are often punished instead of being offered the support and rehabilitation they need to recover. Her journey is a reminder of the importance of rethinking how society responds to addiction.

Adding to her hardship, Rachael is unable to receive visitation at the county jail, which has further isolated her from her family. She hasn’t seen her children or grandchildren in a long time, which weighs heavily on her emotional well-being. The lack of family support during such a challenging time has only intensified her sense of frustration and helplessness. Despite these struggles, Rachael remains determined to share her story, shedding light on the harsh realities that many individuals like her face within the justice system.

Interview #1 with Rachael
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2025
Hello, this is a prepaid collect call from, Rachael, an incarcerated individual at [redacted] County Detention Center. This call is not private. It will be recorded and may be monitored. If you believe this should be a private call, please hang up and follow facility instructions to register this number as a private number. To accept charges and consent to this recorded call, press 1. To refuse charges, press 2. If you would like to --
Thank you for using [redacted]. You may start the conversation now...
Rachael
Hello
Walls to Words
Hey, this is Paul with Walls to Words. How are you?
Rachael
I'm pretty good. How about yourself?
Walls to Words
Fantastic. Is this, uh, Rachael -- or Racheal? Rachel?
Rachael
Rachael.
Walls to Words
Okay. Fabulous. How are you doing?
Rachael
Oh yeah...I'm doing time.
Walls to Words
Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I was on the phone with a lady from [redacted] and, uh, whenever you called I didn't -- had not expected her call. So, I seen where you were calling but I couldn't answer it.
Rachael
That's alright.
Walls to Words
Okay, so...
Rachael
People got lives to live, you know?
Walls to Words
Yeah. So, I think it was you in the messages when I was texting you -- I think you said that you were pretty, you know, pretty eager to share your story about, you know, what landed you in there.
Rachael
Yeah, I am. Like, um, you know -- cause I've been in and out of prison since I was 18, and -- my first two convictions weren't drug charges, but, you know, I was high while I was doing all that stupid stuff. These last three are all the same: drug convictions. I was doing a lot of things out there that I -- I should be dead. You know -- it's divine intervention why I'm not, and I think that God has led me to where -- I'm supposed to be telling my story to help somebody, you know?
Walls to Words
Yeah. For sure. Um, now you mentioned that you've been in and out of prison but they've all been drug-related charges?
Rachael
Well, the first two weren't drug related. But, I was high while I was doing it. So, I mean, it's drug-related in that aspect. But these last three, my most recent one, what I'm doing right now, possession of methamphetamine.
Walls to Words
Okay. Alright. So that -- I guess would be your drug of choice?
Rachael
Yeah. Yeah.
Walls to Words
Yeah. That's a hard one. It's a hard one to break.
Rachael
Yeah, it is. Cause, I mean -- I don't even know why I was even doing it this time because it's not the same as it used to be. And -unintelligible- getting high like I used to get. And I don't even know what I was doing -- I was just doing it to be doing it, I guess. I don't know
Walls to Words
How old did you say that you were?
Rachael
I'm 45.
Walls to Words
45. And you said you've been in and out since you were 18?
Rachael
Yeah. This -- I'm sitting in county jail right now but I'm waiting for my transfer because I've already been sentenced. This will be the fifth time I've been to prison.
Walls to Words
How much time did they give you this time?
Rachael
Sixth time that I've been to prison. It'll be my sixth time. I got three mandatory years. They hit me with habitual.
Walls to Words
Oh. Well, if they only gave you -- I mean, three is still a big deal, but under the habitual, I think they can give you up to life
Rachael
Yeah, they can give you up to 25 years on the habitual. So, I count myself kind of lucky there. I just think it's a travesty that they are criminalizing addicts. I think that -- I'm pretty sure that the law even states that they're supposed to offer rehabilitation before incarceration, and I haven't been offered rehabilitation at all. I -- they send me straight through every single time.
Walls to Words
Yeah. That's one of the big issues facing the criminal justice -- quote "criminal justice system" - in this country right now is the majority of people who are incarcerated, and there's a lot, are on non-violent drug offenses, especially in the South.
Rachael
Yeah, and you know, mine was empty, two of them, was just an empty bag with some dusting of meth in it.
Walls to Words
Yeah, see that's, if I'm not mistaken, in [redacted], they can charge you with a felony possession of a controlled substance if it's methamphetamine. It can be 0.1 grams, whereas in other states, you can have an ounce, and it's not a felony.
Rachael
Yeah, that's crazy. This state is so backwards. They're just so backwards. And then they wanna know why their prisons are overcrowded. Well, I mean, take a look at the judges and the district attorney. Ask them why.
Walls to Words
Yeah. I was actually just on the phone with a lady when you called. She is in -- they gave her -- they charged her with habitual, no prior felonies, but she caught three felonies at the same time. They were all possession of pills and she went to trial. Didn't take their plea, went to trial, and they charged her under the habitual statute and gave her 25 mandatory years for her first offense.
Rachael
How insane! That should've all been under one indictment.
Walls to Words
Yeah, and she was saying -- and you know, I believe her, because I see it happen all the time. There was another person that I guess she was incarcerated with in the county jail awaiting trial who was on a charge of manslaughter, and they gave this person a plea deal for five years. Five years.
Rachael
Yeah you'll hear that all the time. All the time. That's why everybody in [redacted] says, "I'd have done better if I had killed somebody."
Walls to Words
Yeah, it's uh...
Rachael
-Unintelligible- you'll hear everybody that gets any time in [redacted] -- you'll hear them say, "I should have just killed somebody, I'd get less time."
Walls to Words
Yeah. I have heard that, and it proves to be true that there are harsher sentences for people who have drug offenses than there are with people with violent crimes.
Rachael
Yeah, that's crazy. They wanna put us addicts in the penitentiary while there's a bunch of murderers running around free. That's crazy.
Walls to Words
Yeah. Uh, you know, and that's, that's another thing, uh, I've heard stories about [redacted] Department of Corrections. Their um, I think they call it the Alcohol and Drug Program. It's basically nonsense. It's non-existent. They, I think they get some kind of funding from the state, but it doesn't, they don't even do anything.
Rachael
Yeah. You're still in prison and you just go through class for a couple hours a day sometimes. Sometimes they don't even let you go. Um, and you do worksheets, maybe. Like I've done their A&D program and I was ordered to, I was court ordered to do it again. I'm not even gonna, when I get to the penitentiary, I'm not going to their A&D program. I'm not gonna do it. There's no reason why I should, I'm not gonna get any good time for it. I'm doing mandatory time. I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna take what classes I want to be in, and that's what I'm gonna do. I'm not doing their Alcohol and Drug program. I'm gonna be compound-restricted anyway because I take psychiatric medications, so I can't even go to the damn thing. And I'm just gonna, I'm gonna take some business classes and because I was working on my bachelor's before I got arrested, you know, I just started college. I was, you know, I was making, I was taking steps to really get my life together. And then I got indicted on this, which happened two years ago, and then they're gonna put me away. They're just gonna throw me away, throw away my education that I was trying to get and just they'll be like: "Fuck you, Rachael."
Walls to Words
Yeah. So from...
Rachael
Let the taxpayers take care of you instead of you getting you getting your life together and taking care of yourself.
Walls to Words
So would you say from your experience, you said you have been to the A&D program, would you say that it's beneficial at all to the inmates who participate in it?
Rachael
The only benefit that it has is you get a good time for going. That's the only benefit that that program has.
Walls to Words
So you get out -- you get out earlier.
Rachael
Yeah. Except for people like me that have mandatory time, I can't get any good time.
Walls to Words
Okay but it doesn't do any good. I'm sorry. Uh, it doesn't do any good for as far as rehabilitating people who have drug charges at all?
Rachael
No. And you see so many of them women that graduate that program come back within two to three years and be strung out.
Walls to Words
So the state doesn't really offer you anything once you're out to, to help kind of, you know, get you back into society, try to help you with your addiction or anything?
Rachael
Um, not unless you go out on paper. Then you, if you're, if you have a drug charge, I think it's a requirement that you go to AA or NA meetings. It really just up to the discrepancy of your probation and parole officer on that aspect. Um, there are some Christian-based transition housing that you could parole out to, um, like sober living facilities, but in my experience -- I've only, I've only come into contact with a couple of people that, that go to the sober living houses and they're still getting high.
Walls to Words
Okay..
Rachael
One of them is my daughter-in-law and my daughter-in-law was in a sober living facility and she was steady, she was getting high off of things that won't show up on a drug test like aerosol, I think because they call it, she was getting high from that and she actually was in drug court and uh, she decided that she didn't wanna be on drug court anymore, so she was, she came back to jail and they let her go to [redacted], um, instead of sending her back to the penitentiary, which is good because she gets more drugs in prison than she did out on the street.
Walls to Words
All right. Well, uh, there's a couple things that I want to ask you. One is, has there ever been a period, uh, you know, since you did your first stint in the legal system, has there been a period in your life where you've had an extended period of sobriety?
Rachael
Yeah, I did actually, um, after I went to the [redacted]. Um, down there in [redacted]. That's a good program right there at the [redacted]. Um, I was, I was clean for almost 10 years after that.
Walls to Words
Well, what happened?
Rachael
I didn't start -- COVID.
Walls to Words
COVID?
Rachael
COVID happened. Yep. I, um, I was a bartender and waitress at Buffalo Wild Wings, and then that first shut down, I went from making $300 to $500 a night bartending and waitressing to making $30 or most at the most $50 car hopping. And so I had to pick up all the extra shifts that I could get 'cause I was newly single. I had two kids at home still. I was raising my grand baby and so I didn't have time to sleep. So I started doing ice again and everything just went downhill from there. I lost everything.
Walls to Words
Wow. Um, you mentioned, you, you said you have two children?
Rachael
I did. I had two children at home, still. At the - I have four and grown children and one grandbaby.
Walls to Words
Do you get to see them where you're at now?
Rachael
Oh no. We don't get visitations here, but when I get to the penitentiary, my mom will bring 'em to see me. Um. And, but she won't be able to bring him much 'cause she lives down on the coast.
Walls to Words
Okay. Um. Now where you're at, they, um, you know, I've been texting you, so they have tablets. I assume they have like a video calling?
Rachael
Yeah, they have a video visit, but our kiosk, it doesn't work, so we don't get to have any video visits.
Walls to Words
Oh, so you guys don't have tablets, you just have a kiosk?
Rachael
No, we have tablets. We just can't do the video visit on the tablet. That has to be done on the kiosk. And it, it doesn't work. They sent a guy in here to repair it, but it still isn't working.
Walls to Words
That's crazy they don't give you visit in the county jail. Is there a reason why?
Rachael
They don't -- This is [redacted] County. They do what they want and they don't have to tell us why.
Walls to Words
Okay...
Rachael
Down in the sallyport they have a big 'ole sign over the door that says: "This is [redacted] County, not Burger King. You're not gonna get it your way."
Walls to Words
That, that's a literal sign that's out there right now?
Rachael
That's a sign that's in the sallyport.
Walls to Words
Wow. Okay. Um, do you happen to know the, uh, sheriff's name and is there like a jail administrator there, or?
Rachael
I don't know the sheriff's name. Um, we have a warden and I can't remember his name. We have case manager. Her name is [redacted] -unintelligible-. Um, anybody know the warden's name? Yeah. This where the girl got to find out she didn't look in the handbook.
Walls to Words
You, uh, mentioned that you, the charge that you have now was from two years ago?
Rachael
Yeah.
Walls to Words
Now were you out on bond or were you in, had you been in the county jail for two years?
Rachael
No, I was out on bond. I didn't get arrested until I got indicted.
Walls to Words
Oh, okay. So how long have you been at this facility?
Rachael
I've been here for a little over a month. The warden's name is Captain [redacted].
Rachael
And the sheriff is [redacted].
Walls to Words
Okay. Alright, uh, Rachael, um, we're coming up on the end of our call. Uh, couple things I need to ask you. One, do I have your consent and permission to publish this so I can try to get some support for you?
Rachael
Absolutely.
Walls to Words
Okay.
Rachael
Absolutely.
Walls to Words
Fantastic. Also, as far as conversations in the future, you can call back anytime. I will answer as long as I'm not on the other line with somebody. So, you can call anytime day or night, uh, and if I'm available I will answer.
Rachael
Oh, that's great. Thank you!
Walls to Words
All right. Thank you so much Rachael. I look forward to hearing from you.
Rachael
Alright, same. You have a good night.
Walls to Words
You too. Bye. Bye.
The caller has hung up.

Help Rachael