March 11, 2025 • 34 mins
Trisha grew up in a close, loving family, but at 25, her life took a devastating turn. Convicted and sentenced to mandatory life in prison, she was forced to leave behind her 18-month-old son in the care of his father. Now 50, she reflects on the past, the impact of her incarceration, and the life she continues to build behind bars.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
We'd like to acknowledge for our listeners just upfront that
what you will hear from individual incarcerated women throughout the
episode you may find to be emotionally charged and even disturbing,
So we just want to acknowledge that and make you
aware of that. Furthermore, something that listeners probably don't realize
(00:22):
is that all of our individual conversations with each woman
was recorded inside a maximum security prison, the State Correctional
Institution SCI Munsey in Pennsylvania here in the United States.
So the noise, there's any chatter, anything in the background.
(00:44):
For our listeners just to understand that we actually recorded
inside a prison where the day goes on. The women,
the officers, the staff, they all have their jobs. Just
because we're there, it doesn't stop or everything becomes quiet.
So if you do, as listeners here any background noise,
please understand that is part of being inside a prison.
(01:17):
Hello everyone, and thank you for tuning into our podcast
Self Identities Conversations with Convicted Women. My name is doctor
Catherine Whiteley and I'm a feminist criminologist. Today I am
visiting SCI Muncy, a state correctional facility for women in
(01:38):
Pennsylvania in the United States and joining me today is Trisia. Welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Thank you very much. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's great to eventually get to meet you in person. Yeah, lovely,
thank you. Okay, so we're going to start, Trisha and
talk a little bit about or you're going to talk
a little bit about your life, if you don't mind.
So if I ask, could you go back, let's look
at your childhood or what part of your childhood could
(02:06):
you share with us any part?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I had a really good childhood. My mom and dad
were always in my life. I have one sister, and
it was just like a normal day, every day childhood.
Like you know, we went to school, we came home
from school, we ate dinner, we did our homework, we played.
(02:32):
We're six years apart, so me and my sister have
problems in the beginning because I wanted to be with
her and she was older, so she didn't really want
me around. But I really did have a wonderful childhood.
Where were you born, Tricia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Okay, So if we go back to that wonderful childhood,
can you describe when you say you had it was wonderful?
But what were the things that made it most wonderful
for you.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
My grandmother lived directly across the street and I was
born on her birthday, so I used to get out
of my house in the morning and run to hers,
and my mom would be so mad because she would
be looking for me and I'd be at my grandmother's house.
But like sharing those moments with like my grandmother and
my mother, and we were all close, like we all
ate together. We went on vacation together, and then my
(03:19):
cousin on my mom's side. Every weekend, we couldn't afford
to stay down the shore, so we used to get
up early Saturday morning all summer long, every Saturday and
drive down the shore, spend the day on the beach,
and then drive back home. But that was like one
of my best memories. We did that for years every summer.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right, grandparents are very special. Mm hmm, they can't be yes.
What about education? What year did you go through school? Education?
What year did you finish school?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
The twelfth grade? And I had a little bit of
problems in high school, caught on myself. You know, you
used to like in boys and you start not wanting
you know, study and stuff like that. So I was
going to one school. My mom switched me out to
a private school and then I finished fine, and then
I went to hairdressing school. At that time it was
(04:16):
called beauty school, but now it's cosmetology school.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Right right? And what why did you choose that I
love doing hair?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah? I used to play with my barbies and cut
their hair and do all kinds of stuff and it
was just fun to me. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah. Yeah, Well let's go back to those fun years
in your teenage you know, teenage years. What else did
you do?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Mmm? I probably did some things I shouldn't have stayed
out late, snuck around, drank a little bit, but nothing
really severe. But I have fun.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You had fun. And the other than you, you know,
you mentioned your grandmother and your sister, other people that
impacted you in your life that you think, you know
that you hold with high regod.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Other than my mother and my father, probably my uncle,
my mom's brother. I just he just was like everything
to me, he used to. I don't know it was.
I don't know if it was because he like spoiled
me and took us out and did things. Plus he
was like a hard worker. And I used to spend
all this time with his kids, and he like always
(05:27):
pushed me to do better, Like when I was beer
and off, he always got to be but not in
a way of scolding me, more in a way of
you could do better, and you could be anything you
want to be and you can, and it always made
me feel like I could do things.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, yeah, yeah, So today, how old are you if
you don't buy me asking, fifty fifty? Okay? And how
old were you when you entered the criminal justice system
twenty five? Twenty five? Would you mind if we talk
a little bit about that County jail now, I'm assuming
(06:03):
you first attended County jail and if you could share
with the age you were when you entered that and
what was that experience like for you, if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Trisha horrible. It was my first arrest ever. Right, So
you go in there and people, I don't think realize that,
like you just feel like they take your dignity because
when you first go in, you're already dealing with everything
that happened, and then you have to I'm gonna get
(06:36):
kind of graphic, but not really graphic. You have to
strip down totally naked with people watching you when you're
not really used to that, and you have to do
things that a woman shouldn't have to do, Like they
want to search your body basically, but with their eyes.
They don't touch you or anything. But it feels so
(06:58):
violating the first time you do it. I mean, and
it's sad to say, but it gets easier after twenty
five years because you still have to do it sometimes.
But you just that first feeling feels like you're violated.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And what else in that period of time? What it
was going on within your mind? What was happening.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
My son was only eighteen months old, okay, so I
had to leave him. I got married two years ago
before then. So it was like I felt like I
was just I don't want to say, like I was
just dead inside, like I'm leaving a child with his father,
(07:38):
of course, but it was like I was I didn't
know what was my world. Like I couldn't hold my son,
I couldn't see these memories of him and stuff. It
was just devastating, Tricia.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
How did you navigate that? As you've just mentioned the
devastation of leaving behind your beautiful child, how did you
learn to work through that? What does it look like
for someone that doesn't understand you're incarcerated and you had
this beautiful little child on the outside. Did you get
to see your child whilst you can?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You just ecass I saw him when I was in
the county. My husband and my mom and dad would
come up once a week on a Saturday, that was
our visiting day, but you could only see them for
an hour, so it was an hour a week. But
I feel that like I would journal a lot, Like
(08:34):
I would write a lot, and I would journal my
feelings and some of the things I would send home,
some of the things I would keep for myself and
sometimes I would rip them up. But it helped me
get out my feelings just by writing and releasing and
not holding in. And I would get on the phone
a lot and call. But it was like one of
(08:55):
the hardest moments of my life.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yes, how long will you incarcerate? Do no county jail?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
A year?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
One year? And as you mentioned, the loss of having
to give up your son and the relationship, no doubt
with your family years later, how does that when you
reflect now on that.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, it got harder than easier because you know, I
didn't expect my husband to stay around, but I also
didn't expect him to leave and not let me see
my son. Because then I stopped seeing him when he
was eight, and I didn't see him again until he
turned eighteen, and he reached out to me. Right, So
(09:39):
those years were probably even harder than the beginning years
because I didn't know, like, they won't let my mom
see him, they won't let my sister say hm, nobody
in my family, so he had no contact. I didn't
get pictures. So from the time he was eight till
he was eighteen, it's like a lost space. So he
(10:01):
reached out to me when he was eighteen with this
beautiful letter and card, and he thought that I was
mad at him. He didn't realize that, but I didn't.
He didn't realize that they kept him for me. He
thought that I didn't want to see him. So we
had talked it through and our relationship is up and down, okay,
(10:27):
because I don't want to bad mouth his father, who
did raise him, So I just say that, you know,
it was difficult. Things were going on in your home,
things were going on here. It wasn't possible that we
saw each other. I did write you, and I wrote
him and somebody that was here. That's no longer here.
(10:48):
Told me to keep a journal of the letters that
I sent. So I did, and then I sent him
the journal, like I ripped out the pages, so he
did see that I was writing him, and I think
that made our bond a little stronger. Yes, he's twenty six.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Now, wow, thank you. We're going to go back and
we'll talk a little bit more about your relationship with
your son in a minute. But when you left, I'm
going to take you on this little bit of a journey.
When you left County jail and came to Sci Munci.
Can you talk a little bit about that transition and
then arriving here, how did you feel? What did you
(11:27):
expect was going to happen? If you don't mind, Oh,
I was terrified.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Okay, you know, you always hear all these horrible, horrible
stories of like violence and being horrible and being locked
down and stuff. And when I got here and I looked,
and I said, this looks kind of pretty. Because the
county they were nasty and mean, and here when I
got here, nobody was nasty. Like the officers weren't nasty,
the staff wasn't nasty. When I first got here, I
(11:54):
was scared to be around all these women not knowing.
But it was a easier transition from county to here
than from home to county, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yes, yes, And so when you first arrived, as you mentioned,
you scared fear, and you hear all these things and
you see things on television about how it's supposed to
be when you first came in. How have you changed
or moved beyond the Tricia that came in all those
years ago.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
That's a good question. I feel like I've tried to
grow within myself by you know, taking groups and schooling
and building better relationships outside, learning how to communicate when
you don't see people, And I think I became a
better listener before I always wanted to know, well, I
(12:53):
feel this way, and I feel this way, but you
don't realize they're feeling the same pain that you're feeling.
It's just that they're home and you're here. When you're younger,
in your sentence, I think it's all about well, for me,
it was all about well, I'm here, I'm going through
this and I don't know how I'm gonna make it,
and where they're going through the same thing, like my
(13:13):
mothers feeling the pain of losing her daughter, like my
grandmother's feel in the pain of losing me. And then
she passed away before I even came up here. She
passed away while I was in the county. But yeah,
I feel like you get as you get older, if
you allow yourself to mature, you mature in your thinking
because they're in't just as much pain that you are.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
And working through that pain. As you've just described. Being here,
you mentioned their programs and you keep yourself busy by
the sounds of what do you actually do? What are
you involved in? And if you could explain in more
detail what that represents.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Well. I had to go back to cosmetology school because
I let my license run out, so I work there
for seven years. I did a lot of like self
help groups. My favorite group was Choices here. I don't
even think they have it anymore, but it's like, how
do you make the proper choices in life? Like you
have two roads to go and you could go this
(14:15):
way or this way, and it was it was just
a really good group. I love that group. And I went.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Sorry, I was didn't mean to interrupt it. Could you
explain a little bit how is what does that group
look like is the many women that participate just to.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
No, it's about she only had about eight in there
at a time, because like we got really deep with
things and because we had to talk about like what
choices led us here and what could we have done differently,
and you know if we would step back and think
about it. And then she had us write that kind
(14:48):
of like an obituary, you know with the dots what
is it called? It's like a poem where it's like
what do you see in between the dashes, like the
date you were born and the date you were deceased,
and you I had to write it and it was
really hard. But when you think about it, what do
you want to represent? What do you want people to
know about you? And a positive light that would make
(15:08):
you change what you're doing now and to be more positive.
So it was really a good group.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And then what else have you been doing or involved in?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I took college classes when it was like combing, I
believe community college was coming up here, so I have
fifteen credits in business. Then I'm looking forward to when
they start new classes at the school to get back into.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And why did you choose business?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Because I would love doing hair and I figured I
could open up my own salon. I could, you know,
learn how to maneuver in that area in the business
aspect of doing hair very good, So everything can kind
of work together and I have something to fall back on.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
And is it a challenge being educated within a prison system?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
No, only if you make it a challenge. They do
offer a lot of things. If you want it, it's there, right,
but you have to want it, like it's not going
to come knock on your door. You have to write
about it and request it. But no, I've done a
lot since I've been.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Here, right, And what else can we learn about you?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Okay, I'm really spiritual?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Would you like to share a little bit more? What
does spirituality mean to you?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I believe in God. I don't like to say that
I'm a Christian because that comes in various ways, like
people always say, oh, I'm Christian, and they act horrible.
So I just am I believe in God. I read
my Bible. I try to treat people how I would
want to be treated.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
When you talk about spirituality and moving forward on that,
do you collaborate with other women? Do you have groups?
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Well, we have a study that we just did ourselves
in the unit and we do it. It was every
Wednesday night, but somebody had a conflict. We try to
do it around everybody's schedule, us from eight to nine,
and the unit manager lets us do it in the union.
And it's kind of like an open discussion Bible, spirituality,
(17:14):
what we're gone through in the day. And it's about
eight of us to get together and whoever wants to
come as welcome, but about eight of us get together
every day and then you know, if they need somebody
and we can lean on each other and stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yes, yes, a very good, a very special, a very
special time moving through your journey here now that you're
incarcerated and you are serving a life sentence correct, yes, yes,
what about over the years your health or i should
say the aging inside a prison. Can you share with
(17:53):
us what your thoughts are on your experiences over the
years and moving forward too. Maybe you have thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, yeah, I see it. It's scary because you see
a lot of people when I came younger, and then
you see the older people either pass away here or
get ill or like get dementia or just kind of
like they look like they disintegrate here, and it's sad
(18:21):
because like they're stuck here. They don't have like no outlet,
like they just kind of like get into this little
shell here and you see it and it's so sad.
And my experience with getting old here, you just get
a lot of aches and pains. But I just recently
(18:42):
had had to have surgery, and it's hard going to
the hospital when you don't have nobody, like no family there,
like nobody. You know, if you were home, you would
have like somebody there supporting you, and it's like you
don't have that support. So it's really hard. Is scary,
(19:02):
I mean, and you don't get the treatment, I want
to say, because you're not home, like you're not in
a comfortable setting. And I'm glad that I feel like
okay after my surgery, but a lot of people are
a lot sicker than me, and I feel like you
have to. I try to take care of myself and
(19:24):
eat as healthy as possible and try to work out
and stuff to keep my body okay. But anything can happen,
Like you know, people have cancer, people have dementia. It's
just that you never know. And to keep people here
all those years, it's sad like, I pray that I'm
(19:45):
able to move around if I have to be here
and not have other people have to take care of me.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Right. Just a matter of a point of interest is
that as a woman, it's going that's incarcerated, and then
you enter into shall we say hospital, what is your
thoughts or your feedback on how you are treated by
shall we say medical staff? Putting aside, you know you're
(20:15):
coming from a prison going to a hospital. What is
your experience being with medical staff knowing that you're coming
in what could you share a little.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Bit about that medical staff here or in the hospital
in the hospital, Yes, we don't often hear about how
you experience that piece of your journey. Well, when I
just went to the hospital, it's embarrassing because you're shack on,
a handcuffed and you go in there in front of kids,
like just people in the hospital. So it's really embarrassing
for me. But the medical staff, for my they don't
(20:48):
treat you different, They really don't. They treated me so well,
they were so helpful. They treated me like I was
a regular patient. I didn't feel that they looked at
me like I was a prisoner. Yes, it was a wonderful.
(21:08):
I have to say, like all the pain that I
went through, it was a wonderful experience. They treated me wonderful.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Thank you, because we don't ever hear about that piece
of women's journey that have to go outside to go
to a hospital and how are you treated. And it's interesting,
as you say, if it wasn't for what you were
wearing and how you know, the handcuff and things like this,
no one would probably realize that you were coming from
a prison. Is that what you think? Yes, yes, yeah,
(21:36):
thank you. That's an interesting piece of information. Now we're
going to talk a little bit about here in the
inside the prison. And you mentioned earlier about family and
importance of family loss, So could you talk about what
loss represents to you here.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Well, nobody in my family had passed away till I
was incarcerated, so I didn't know. I'd never been to
a family funeral or anything. So loss to me is
probably different than other people because I had to lose
everybody while I was incarcerated. Like my dad just passed
away last January. My grandmother passed away when I was
(22:22):
in County. My other grandmother and grandfather passed away when
I was up here, maybe like ten years ago. So
it's loss has been really hard for me. But I
think the greatest loss that I learned from was like
I felt like I lost my son all those years,
So I think that kind of helped me deal with
(22:43):
loss in a different kind of way, because you never
can grieve like that because you're not home. You don't
really say goodbye. So I think that until you go home,
I think you'll still feel it, like when you go
home and you can visit the grave site or they're
not there when you go home. Like when I call
my mom now, I used to call and talk my
(23:04):
dad would only talk for like a minute, but I
would always hear him in the background, and it was
so weird at first to talk to my mom. They
were married fifty nine years when he passed. So now
I call her every day a check on her, and
it was just really weird in the beginning. But now
we talk about my dad and laugh about him and
(23:27):
have the little conversations about him and stuff. Because he
would interrupt. We would be in the middle of talking
and he would interrupt and she would give him the
side eye, and it was just we just laugh at
things like that. Now but in the beginning it was
it was rough.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Thank you talking. If you don't mind your relationship further
with your son, can you just explain a little bit
more about moving forward? How is that evolving?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
It has its good times and bad times. Sometimes we'll
talk four months straight. I'll call him once a week
and we'll talk, and then sometimes it's silenced for three months,
and I think that if he's gone through something. Sometimes
he don't want to talk to me, so he just
shuts me out for a little bit, and then I'll
(24:16):
call again and he'll act like he didn't shut me
out for three months. So in order to keep that relationship,
I don't pressure him, like I don't say why didn't
you pick up the phoner? Why didn't you do this?
And I'm worried about you because I feel like that'll
push him away. But I have to say. The staff here,
the psychologist in my unit, has been dealing with me
with my son. I feel like every union I moved to,
(24:38):
she's my psychologist. She's been dealing with me probably like
ten years, so she kind of knows. So she'll ask
me every once in a while, how's your son? So
I told her maybe like a year ago. I said.
He didn't pick up again for a couple months, and
she said, give me the number, let me leave a message,
like she was just so thoughtful and helpful, and she
(25:01):
left the message. Of course, he didn't call her back,
but like a week later he answered my phone call.
She said. All I said was, your mom's a little
worried about you. I'm just checking to make sure you're okay.
And then like a week later he picked up the
phone and I said, are you all right? And he
said yeah, and just went about it like he did
not talk to me for all these months, so I
kind of have to. I mean, he's twenty six, but
I'm sure some days he's still angry with me, and
(25:24):
that's okay. When he wants to talk about it, we
talk about it. If he don't, then we don't talk
about it.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Thank you and Edny. Grandchildren.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Oh yeah, I'm a new grandma. Oh well, the baby
was just born seven eleven.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Really, yeah, congratulations, it's a little boy. Oh beautiful, beautiful, And.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
He let me I called, oh gosh, she was in
labor for two days, like a day and a half.
So I called him like five times a day and
he picked up every time because I was like, how
she doing, it's the baby, what's going on? And yeah,
she had the baby at eleven sixteen at night and
(26:06):
he's healthy and happy.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
And he was seven pounds seven ounces and twenty inches long.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Oh how beautiful.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yes, I can't wait to see him. I didn't see
him yet, but I'm not trying to push it. But
I'm going to bring this up. Miss or. My psychologist
in the meantime called asked me if I had any
other family members on his side that maybe would talk
to her. So I said, well, he my ex husband
(26:40):
has a sister, so you could try to call her.
So she did and she wanted to speak to me.
So now we're starting our relationship back.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So she's going to send me pictures of the baby.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
But isn't that wonderful something unexpected came from that beautiful
gift of the child.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, because I was so concerned. I want to see
pictures like while he's still little, you know, And she
made that suggestion and she called and then we spoke,
and now she's going to send me pictures.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Wonderful, wonderful, thank you. So when we talk about where
you are today and again moving forward your hope for
the future. What does that look like for Patricia?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Well, I don't know. I used to think that, I
don't really I used to really believe in commutation and
trying to get out one day, but I don't believe
in it anymore. I don't really. I mean, I still
believe that I'm going to get out one day. I
believe something else that's going to have, whether a new
law passes or something. But yeah, I want to go home.
(27:49):
But I also don't try to think about it all
the time because then that brings stress and sadness, and
I try to deal with one day at a time,
like what today is going to happen, and then tomorrow
I wake up and what tomorrow is going to bring.
Because if I think too far in the future, then
you get sad or you'd be like, maybe it's not
(28:11):
going to happen today, or maybe it's not going to
happen in the near future. So I tried just to
think one day at a time.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Thank you. So I'm going to take you back. You
have growing up as a little girl. Tricia is a
little girl, Tricia is the you know, the young adult,
and then Tricia today. How would you describe the three
you know pieces of your journey.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
As a child, I was like happy, go lucky, like
nothing really bothered me. Tricia in the middle part was
probably angry, sad, misunderstood Tricia. Now it's different, Like I
(29:04):
reflect on things. I feel like I don't take life
for granted when I did before. Like you always think, oh,
tomorrow's going to be here, Tomorrow, I'm going to be free.
You don't never think that tomorrow's not possible, and tomorrow's
not promised to anybody. Now I take each day as
like a blessing, whether I'm here or not. Like I
(29:24):
woke up, I got to get on the telephone and
call home. Everybody's safe at home. So I take each
day as a blessing instead of like it's owed to me,
and it just makes my time here easier.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Is this something that Tricia would like to share with
our listeners that we have the lots that we don't
We still have to learn about, Natricia, But what about
something that we haven't spoken about. You'd like to.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
That all women that are incarcerated didn't have like a
horrible life, didn't have bad things happened to them, like
a lot of people came from like good homes and
have good homes to go home to. It's just that
one little circumstance, mistake, how do I want to put
(30:17):
this tragedy happened that changed our whole life. And it
didn't only change our life, like it changed our family's lives,
It changed our friends' lives. It just changed everything from
one day, Like, that's not who we are, Like that
(30:39):
one circumstance, that one tragedy, that one mistake isn't who
we are. And I think we get judged by that
one action that took place, and that's who we are
and from this point on, and that's not who we are,
Like we're still lovable, We're still we still have family,
(30:59):
we still are good people that made a horrible choice.
And I don't think people really get to see that
or understand that.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Thank you. And before we do finish, MP, I want
to talk to women about media sometimes in the sensationalism
that they have been portrayed when it comes to media.
Have you any comments about that how you were portrayed
within various media when you were sentenced.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yes, there's this one particular I was on the front
page of like every newspaper but there was these one pictures.
They kept using the same picture and I had a
smile on my face. It was my husband's grandmother and
I was walking with her into the courtroom and I
had a smile on my face and I was looking
at her, and every paper for the next month said
(31:51):
she thinks this is funny. And I don't even know
why I was smiling. She probably said something to like,
cheer me up. She probably every paper said that this
she thinks this is a joke, or she thinks this
is funny. So it makes people look at you in
a light where oh she's cold blooded, her she's horrible,
(32:14):
or she's vindictive, and she don't care because I just
had a smile on my face walking into the courtroom.
I don't even know why I was smiling. But if
you knew my husband's grandmother, she was just She always
tried to bring joy to people. So she probably said
something to like, calm me down, and I had a smile,
and they blew it up and it was on every
(32:36):
paper for like a month at that point.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
What would you like if anyone's listening from a media perspective,
what would you like to share.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
For them to write the truth. Like if they don't
know what I was going through that day, like ask me,
talk to us and see what we're going through. Don't
just assume that were these evil people because of that
one incident. Yeah, Like tell the truth because a lot
of times I'm not saying that they lie on purpose,
(33:10):
but sometimes they exaggerate.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Trisha, it has been wonderful to have met you today
in person, you too, Thank you and again getting to
know you, getting to know you more. And we're going
to finish up now, and thank you again.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Nice welcome, Thank you, Thank you for joining us on
another episode of Self Identities Conversations with the Convicted Women,
(33:56):
a Flying Possums production in association with Matter Production. We
deeply appreciate the support of our listeners and the contributions
from everyone who has made this podcast possible. Your engagement
and encouragement drive us to continue these important conversations until
next time. Take care,
We'd like to acknowledge for our listeners just upfront that
what you will hear from individual incarcerated women throughout the
episode you may find to be emotionally charged and even disturbing,
So we just want to acknowledge that and make you
aware of that. Furthermore, something that listeners probably don't realize
(00:22):
is that all of our individual conversations with each woman
was recorded inside a maximum security prison, the State Correctional
Institution SCI Munsey in Pennsylvania here in the United States.
So the noise, there's any chatter, anything in the background.
(00:44):
For our listeners just to understand that we actually recorded
inside a prison where the day goes on. The women,
the officers, the staff, they all have their jobs. Just
because we're there, it doesn't stop or everything becomes quiet.
So if you do, as listeners here any background noise,
please understand that is part of being inside a prison.
(01:17):
Hello everyone, and thank you for tuning into our podcast
Self Identities Conversations with Convicted Women. My name is doctor
Catherine Whiteley and I'm a feminist criminologist. Today I am
visiting SCI Muncy, a state correctional facility for women in
(01:38):
Pennsylvania in the United States and joining me today is Trisia. Welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Thank you very much. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's great to eventually get to meet you in person. Yeah, lovely,
thank you. Okay, so we're going to start, Trisha and
talk a little bit about or you're going to talk
a little bit about your life, if you don't mind.
So if I ask, could you go back, let's look
at your childhood or what part of your childhood could
(02:06):
you share with us any part?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I had a really good childhood. My mom and dad
were always in my life. I have one sister, and
it was just like a normal day, every day childhood.
Like you know, we went to school, we came home
from school, we ate dinner, we did our homework, we played.
(02:32):
We're six years apart, so me and my sister have
problems in the beginning because I wanted to be with
her and she was older, so she didn't really want
me around. But I really did have a wonderful childhood.
Where were you born, Tricia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Okay, So if we go back to that wonderful childhood,
can you describe when you say you had it was wonderful?
But what were the things that made it most wonderful
for you.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
My grandmother lived directly across the street and I was
born on her birthday, so I used to get out
of my house in the morning and run to hers,
and my mom would be so mad because she would
be looking for me and I'd be at my grandmother's house.
But like sharing those moments with like my grandmother and
my mother, and we were all close, like we all
ate together. We went on vacation together, and then my
(03:19):
cousin on my mom's side. Every weekend, we couldn't afford
to stay down the shore, so we used to get
up early Saturday morning all summer long, every Saturday and
drive down the shore, spend the day on the beach,
and then drive back home. But that was like one
of my best memories. We did that for years every summer.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right, grandparents are very special. Mm hmm, they can't be yes.
What about education? What year did you go through school? Education?
What year did you finish school?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
The twelfth grade? And I had a little bit of
problems in high school, caught on myself. You know, you
used to like in boys and you start not wanting
you know, study and stuff like that. So I was
going to one school. My mom switched me out to
a private school and then I finished fine, and then
I went to hairdressing school. At that time it was
(04:16):
called beauty school, but now it's cosmetology school.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Right right? And what why did you choose that I
love doing hair?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah? I used to play with my barbies and cut
their hair and do all kinds of stuff and it
was just fun to me. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah. Yeah, Well let's go back to those fun years
in your teenage you know, teenage years. What else did
you do?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Mmm? I probably did some things I shouldn't have stayed
out late, snuck around, drank a little bit, but nothing
really severe. But I have fun.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You had fun. And the other than you, you know,
you mentioned your grandmother and your sister, other people that
impacted you in your life that you think, you know
that you hold with high regod.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Other than my mother and my father, probably my uncle,
my mom's brother. I just he just was like everything
to me, he used to. I don't know it was.
I don't know if it was because he like spoiled
me and took us out and did things. Plus he
was like a hard worker. And I used to spend
all this time with his kids, and he like always
(05:27):
pushed me to do better, Like when I was beer
and off, he always got to be but not in
a way of scolding me, more in a way of
you could do better, and you could be anything you
want to be and you can, and it always made
me feel like I could do things.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yes, yeah, yeah, So today, how old are you if
you don't buy me asking, fifty fifty? Okay? And how
old were you when you entered the criminal justice system
twenty five? Twenty five? Would you mind if we talk
a little bit about that County jail now, I'm assuming
(06:03):
you first attended County jail and if you could share
with the age you were when you entered that and
what was that experience like for you, if you don't mind.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Trisha horrible. It was my first arrest ever. Right, So
you go in there and people, I don't think realize that,
like you just feel like they take your dignity because
when you first go in, you're already dealing with everything
that happened, and then you have to I'm gonna get
(06:36):
kind of graphic, but not really graphic. You have to
strip down totally naked with people watching you when you're
not really used to that, and you have to do
things that a woman shouldn't have to do, Like they
want to search your body basically, but with their eyes.
They don't touch you or anything. But it feels so
(06:58):
violating the first time you do it. I mean, and
it's sad to say, but it gets easier after twenty
five years because you still have to do it sometimes.
But you just that first feeling feels like you're violated.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And what else in that period of time? What it
was going on within your mind? What was happening.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
My son was only eighteen months old, okay, so I
had to leave him. I got married two years ago
before then. So it was like I felt like I
was just I don't want to say, like I was
just dead inside, like I'm leaving a child with his father,
(07:38):
of course, but it was like I was I didn't
know what was my world. Like I couldn't hold my son,
I couldn't see these memories of him and stuff. It
was just devastating, Tricia.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
How did you navigate that? As you've just mentioned the
devastation of leaving behind your beautiful child, how did you
learn to work through that? What does it look like
for someone that doesn't understand you're incarcerated and you had
this beautiful little child on the outside. Did you get
to see your child whilst you can?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You just ecass I saw him when I was in
the county. My husband and my mom and dad would
come up once a week on a Saturday, that was
our visiting day, but you could only see them for
an hour, so it was an hour a week. But
I feel that like I would journal a lot, Like
(08:34):
I would write a lot, and I would journal my
feelings and some of the things I would send home,
some of the things I would keep for myself and
sometimes I would rip them up. But it helped me
get out my feelings just by writing and releasing and
not holding in. And I would get on the phone
a lot and call. But it was like one of
(08:55):
the hardest moments of my life.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yes, how long will you incarcerate? Do no county jail?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
A year?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
One year? And as you mentioned, the loss of having
to give up your son and the relationship, no doubt
with your family years later, how does that when you
reflect now on that.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, it got harder than easier because you know, I
didn't expect my husband to stay around, but I also
didn't expect him to leave and not let me see
my son. Because then I stopped seeing him when he
was eight, and I didn't see him again until he
turned eighteen, and he reached out to me. Right, So
(09:39):
those years were probably even harder than the beginning years
because I didn't know, like, they won't let my mom
see him, they won't let my sister say hm, nobody
in my family, so he had no contact. I didn't
get pictures. So from the time he was eight till
he was eighteen, it's like a lost space. So he
(10:01):
reached out to me when he was eighteen with this
beautiful letter and card, and he thought that I was
mad at him. He didn't realize that, but I didn't.
He didn't realize that they kept him for me. He
thought that I didn't want to see him. So we
had talked it through and our relationship is up and down, okay,
(10:27):
because I don't want to bad mouth his father, who
did raise him, So I just say that, you know,
it was difficult. Things were going on in your home,
things were going on here. It wasn't possible that we
saw each other. I did write you, and I wrote
him and somebody that was here. That's no longer here.
(10:48):
Told me to keep a journal of the letters that
I sent. So I did, and then I sent him
the journal, like I ripped out the pages, so he
did see that I was writing him, and I think
that made our bond a little stronger. Yes, he's twenty six.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Now, wow, thank you. We're going to go back and
we'll talk a little bit more about your relationship with
your son in a minute. But when you left, I'm
going to take you on this little bit of a journey.
When you left County jail and came to Sci Munci.
Can you talk a little bit about that transition and
then arriving here, how did you feel? What did you
(11:27):
expect was going to happen? If you don't mind, Oh,
I was terrified.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Okay, you know, you always hear all these horrible, horrible
stories of like violence and being horrible and being locked
down and stuff. And when I got here and I looked,
and I said, this looks kind of pretty. Because the
county they were nasty and mean, and here when I
got here, nobody was nasty. Like the officers weren't nasty,
the staff wasn't nasty. When I first got here, I
(11:54):
was scared to be around all these women not knowing.
But it was a easier transition from county to here
than from home to county, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yes, yes, And so when you first arrived, as you mentioned,
you scared fear, and you hear all these things and
you see things on television about how it's supposed to
be when you first came in. How have you changed
or moved beyond the Tricia that came in all those
years ago.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
That's a good question. I feel like I've tried to
grow within myself by you know, taking groups and schooling
and building better relationships outside, learning how to communicate when
you don't see people, And I think I became a
better listener before I always wanted to know, well, I
(12:53):
feel this way, and I feel this way, but you
don't realize they're feeling the same pain that you're feeling.
It's just that they're home and you're here. When you're younger,
in your sentence, I think it's all about well, for me,
it was all about well, I'm here, I'm going through
this and I don't know how I'm gonna make it,
and where they're going through the same thing, like my
(13:13):
mothers feeling the pain of losing her daughter, like my
grandmother's feel in the pain of losing me. And then
she passed away before I even came up here. She
passed away while I was in the county. But yeah,
I feel like you get as you get older, if
you allow yourself to mature, you mature in your thinking
because they're in't just as much pain that you are.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
And working through that pain. As you've just described. Being here,
you mentioned their programs and you keep yourself busy by
the sounds of what do you actually do? What are
you involved in? And if you could explain in more
detail what that represents.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Well. I had to go back to cosmetology school because
I let my license run out, so I work there
for seven years. I did a lot of like self
help groups. My favorite group was Choices here. I don't
even think they have it anymore, but it's like, how
do you make the proper choices in life? Like you
have two roads to go and you could go this
(14:15):
way or this way, and it was it was just
a really good group. I love that group. And I went.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Sorry, I was didn't mean to interrupt it. Could you
explain a little bit how is what does that group
look like is the many women that participate just to.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
No, it's about she only had about eight in there
at a time, because like we got really deep with
things and because we had to talk about like what
choices led us here and what could we have done differently,
and you know if we would step back and think
about it. And then she had us write that kind
(14:48):
of like an obituary, you know with the dots what
is it called? It's like a poem where it's like
what do you see in between the dashes, like the
date you were born and the date you were deceased,
and you I had to write it and it was
really hard. But when you think about it, what do
you want to represent? What do you want people to
know about you? And a positive light that would make
(15:08):
you change what you're doing now and to be more positive.
So it was really a good group.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And then what else have you been doing or involved in?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I took college classes when it was like combing, I
believe community college was coming up here, so I have
fifteen credits in business. Then I'm looking forward to when
they start new classes at the school to get back into.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And why did you choose business?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Because I would love doing hair and I figured I
could open up my own salon. I could, you know,
learn how to maneuver in that area in the business
aspect of doing hair very good, So everything can kind
of work together and I have something to fall back on.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
And is it a challenge being educated within a prison system?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
No, only if you make it a challenge. They do
offer a lot of things. If you want it, it's there, right,
but you have to want it, like it's not going
to come knock on your door. You have to write
about it and request it. But no, I've done a
lot since I've been.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Here, right, And what else can we learn about you?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Okay, I'm really spiritual?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Would you like to share a little bit more? What
does spirituality mean to you?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I believe in God. I don't like to say that
I'm a Christian because that comes in various ways, like
people always say, oh, I'm Christian, and they act horrible.
So I just am I believe in God. I read
my Bible. I try to treat people how I would
want to be treated.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
When you talk about spirituality and moving forward on that,
do you collaborate with other women? Do you have groups?
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Well, we have a study that we just did ourselves
in the unit and we do it. It was every
Wednesday night, but somebody had a conflict. We try to
do it around everybody's schedule, us from eight to nine,
and the unit manager lets us do it in the union.
And it's kind of like an open discussion Bible, spirituality,
(17:14):
what we're gone through in the day. And it's about
eight of us to get together and whoever wants to
come as welcome, but about eight of us get together
every day and then you know, if they need somebody
and we can lean on each other and stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yes, yes, a very good, a very special, a very
special time moving through your journey here now that you're
incarcerated and you are serving a life sentence correct, yes, yes,
what about over the years your health or i should
say the aging inside a prison. Can you share with
(17:53):
us what your thoughts are on your experiences over the
years and moving forward too. Maybe you have thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, yeah, I see it. It's scary because you see
a lot of people when I came younger, and then
you see the older people either pass away here or
get ill or like get dementia or just kind of
like they look like they disintegrate here, and it's sad
(18:21):
because like they're stuck here. They don't have like no outlet,
like they just kind of like get into this little
shell here and you see it and it's so sad.
And my experience with getting old here, you just get
a lot of aches and pains. But I just recently
(18:42):
had had to have surgery, and it's hard going to
the hospital when you don't have nobody, like no family there,
like nobody. You know, if you were home, you would
have like somebody there supporting you, and it's like you
don't have that support. So it's really hard. Is scary,
(19:02):
I mean, and you don't get the treatment, I want
to say, because you're not home, like you're not in
a comfortable setting. And I'm glad that I feel like
okay after my surgery, but a lot of people are
a lot sicker than me, and I feel like you
have to. I try to take care of myself and
(19:24):
eat as healthy as possible and try to work out
and stuff to keep my body okay. But anything can happen,
Like you know, people have cancer, people have dementia. It's
just that you never know. And to keep people here
all those years, it's sad like, I pray that I'm
(19:45):
able to move around if I have to be here
and not have other people have to take care of me.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Right. Just a matter of a point of interest is
that as a woman, it's going that's incarcerated, and then
you enter into shall we say hospital, what is your
thoughts or your feedback on how you are treated by
shall we say medical staff? Putting aside, you know you're
(20:15):
coming from a prison going to a hospital. What is
your experience being with medical staff knowing that you're coming
in what could you share a little.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Bit about that medical staff here or in the hospital
in the hospital, Yes, we don't often hear about how
you experience that piece of your journey. Well, when I
just went to the hospital, it's embarrassing because you're shack on,
a handcuffed and you go in there in front of kids,
like just people in the hospital. So it's really embarrassing
for me. But the medical staff, for my they don't
(20:48):
treat you different, They really don't. They treated me so well,
they were so helpful. They treated me like I was
a regular patient. I didn't feel that they looked at
me like I was a prisoner. Yes, it was a wonderful.
(21:08):
I have to say, like all the pain that I
went through, it was a wonderful experience. They treated me wonderful.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Thank you, because we don't ever hear about that piece
of women's journey that have to go outside to go
to a hospital and how are you treated. And it's interesting,
as you say, if it wasn't for what you were
wearing and how you know, the handcuff and things like this,
no one would probably realize that you were coming from
a prison. Is that what you think? Yes, yes, yeah,
(21:36):
thank you. That's an interesting piece of information. Now we're
going to talk a little bit about here in the
inside the prison. And you mentioned earlier about family and
importance of family loss, So could you talk about what
loss represents to you here.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Well, nobody in my family had passed away till I
was incarcerated, so I didn't know. I'd never been to
a family funeral or anything. So loss to me is
probably different than other people because I had to lose
everybody while I was incarcerated. Like my dad just passed
away last January. My grandmother passed away when I was
(22:22):
in County. My other grandmother and grandfather passed away when
I was up here, maybe like ten years ago. So
it's loss has been really hard for me. But I
think the greatest loss that I learned from was like
I felt like I lost my son all those years,
So I think that kind of helped me deal with
(22:43):
loss in a different kind of way, because you never
can grieve like that because you're not home. You don't
really say goodbye. So I think that until you go home,
I think you'll still feel it, like when you go
home and you can visit the grave site or they're
not there when you go home. Like when I call
my mom now, I used to call and talk my
(23:04):
dad would only talk for like a minute, but I
would always hear him in the background, and it was
so weird at first to talk to my mom. They
were married fifty nine years when he passed. So now
I call her every day a check on her, and
it was just really weird in the beginning. But now
we talk about my dad and laugh about him and
(23:27):
have the little conversations about him and stuff. Because he
would interrupt. We would be in the middle of talking
and he would interrupt and she would give him the
side eye, and it was just we just laugh at
things like that. Now but in the beginning it was
it was rough.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Thank you talking. If you don't mind your relationship further
with your son, can you just explain a little bit
more about moving forward? How is that evolving?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
It has its good times and bad times. Sometimes we'll
talk four months straight. I'll call him once a week
and we'll talk, and then sometimes it's silenced for three months,
and I think that if he's gone through something. Sometimes
he don't want to talk to me, so he just
shuts me out for a little bit, and then I'll
(24:16):
call again and he'll act like he didn't shut me
out for three months. So in order to keep that relationship,
I don't pressure him, like I don't say why didn't
you pick up the phoner? Why didn't you do this?
And I'm worried about you because I feel like that'll
push him away. But I have to say. The staff here,
the psychologist in my unit, has been dealing with me
with my son. I feel like every union I moved to,
(24:38):
she's my psychologist. She's been dealing with me probably like
ten years, so she kind of knows. So she'll ask
me every once in a while, how's your son? So
I told her maybe like a year ago. I said.
He didn't pick up again for a couple months, and
she said, give me the number, let me leave a message,
like she was just so thoughtful and helpful, and she
(25:01):
left the message. Of course, he didn't call her back,
but like a week later he answered my phone call.
She said. All I said was, your mom's a little
worried about you. I'm just checking to make sure you're okay.
And then like a week later he picked up the
phone and I said, are you all right? And he
said yeah, and just went about it like he did
not talk to me for all these months, so I
kind of have to. I mean, he's twenty six, but
I'm sure some days he's still angry with me, and
(25:24):
that's okay. When he wants to talk about it, we
talk about it. If he don't, then we don't talk
about it.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Thank you and Edny. Grandchildren.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Oh yeah, I'm a new grandma. Oh well, the baby
was just born seven eleven.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Really, yeah, congratulations, it's a little boy. Oh beautiful, beautiful, And.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
He let me I called, oh gosh, she was in
labor for two days, like a day and a half.
So I called him like five times a day and
he picked up every time because I was like, how
she doing, it's the baby, what's going on? And yeah,
she had the baby at eleven sixteen at night and
(26:06):
he's healthy and happy.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
And he was seven pounds seven ounces and twenty inches long.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Oh how beautiful.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yes, I can't wait to see him. I didn't see
him yet, but I'm not trying to push it. But
I'm going to bring this up. Miss or. My psychologist
in the meantime called asked me if I had any
other family members on his side that maybe would talk
to her. So I said, well, he my ex husband
(26:40):
has a sister, so you could try to call her.
So she did and she wanted to speak to me.
So now we're starting our relationship back.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So she's going to send me pictures of the baby.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
But isn't that wonderful something unexpected came from that beautiful
gift of the child.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, because I was so concerned. I want to see
pictures like while he's still little, you know, And she
made that suggestion and she called and then we spoke,
and now she's going to send me pictures.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Wonderful, wonderful, thank you. So when we talk about where
you are today and again moving forward your hope for
the future. What does that look like for Patricia?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Well, I don't know. I used to think that, I
don't really I used to really believe in commutation and
trying to get out one day, but I don't believe
in it anymore. I don't really. I mean, I still
believe that I'm going to get out one day. I
believe something else that's going to have, whether a new
law passes or something. But yeah, I want to go home.
(27:49):
But I also don't try to think about it all
the time because then that brings stress and sadness, and
I try to deal with one day at a time,
like what today is going to happen, and then tomorrow
I wake up and what tomorrow is going to bring.
Because if I think too far in the future, then
you get sad or you'd be like, maybe it's not
(28:11):
going to happen today, or maybe it's not going to
happen in the near future. So I tried just to
think one day at a time.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Thank you. So I'm going to take you back. You
have growing up as a little girl. Tricia is a
little girl, Tricia is the you know, the young adult,
and then Tricia today. How would you describe the three
you know pieces of your journey.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
As a child, I was like happy, go lucky, like
nothing really bothered me. Tricia in the middle part was
probably angry, sad, misunderstood Tricia. Now it's different, Like I
(29:04):
reflect on things. I feel like I don't take life
for granted when I did before. Like you always think, oh,
tomorrow's going to be here, Tomorrow, I'm going to be free.
You don't never think that tomorrow's not possible, and tomorrow's
not promised to anybody. Now I take each day as
like a blessing, whether I'm here or not. Like I
(29:24):
woke up, I got to get on the telephone and
call home. Everybody's safe at home. So I take each
day as a blessing instead of like it's owed to me,
and it just makes my time here easier.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Is this something that Tricia would like to share with
our listeners that we have the lots that we don't
We still have to learn about, Natricia, But what about
something that we haven't spoken about. You'd like to.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
That all women that are incarcerated didn't have like a
horrible life, didn't have bad things happened to them, like
a lot of people came from like good homes and
have good homes to go home to. It's just that
one little circumstance, mistake, how do I want to put
(30:17):
this tragedy happened that changed our whole life. And it
didn't only change our life, like it changed our family's lives,
It changed our friends' lives. It just changed everything from
one day, Like, that's not who we are, Like that
(30:39):
one circumstance, that one tragedy, that one mistake isn't who
we are. And I think we get judged by that
one action that took place, and that's who we are
and from this point on, and that's not who we are,
Like we're still lovable, We're still we still have family,
(30:59):
we still are good people that made a horrible choice.
And I don't think people really get to see that
or understand that.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Thank you. And before we do finish, MP, I want
to talk to women about media sometimes in the sensationalism
that they have been portrayed when it comes to media.
Have you any comments about that how you were portrayed
within various media when you were sentenced.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yes, there's this one particular I was on the front
page of like every newspaper but there was these one pictures.
They kept using the same picture and I had a
smile on my face. It was my husband's grandmother and
I was walking with her into the courtroom and I
had a smile on my face and I was looking
at her, and every paper for the next month said
(31:51):
she thinks this is funny. And I don't even know
why I was smiling. She probably said something to like,
cheer me up. She probably every paper said that this
she thinks this is a joke, or she thinks this
is funny. So it makes people look at you in
a light where oh she's cold blooded, her she's horrible,
(32:14):
or she's vindictive, and she don't care because I just
had a smile on my face walking into the courtroom.
I don't even know why I was smiling. But if
you knew my husband's grandmother, she was just She always
tried to bring joy to people. So she probably said
something to like, calm me down, and I had a smile,
and they blew it up and it was on every
(32:36):
paper for like a month at that point.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
What would you like if anyone's listening from a media perspective,
what would you like to share.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
For them to write the truth. Like if they don't
know what I was going through that day, like ask me,
talk to us and see what we're going through. Don't
just assume that were these evil people because of that
one incident. Yeah, Like tell the truth because a lot
of times I'm not saying that they lie on purpose,
(33:10):
but sometimes they exaggerate.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Trisha, it has been wonderful to have met you today
in person, you too, Thank you and again getting to
know you, getting to know you more. And we're going
to finish up now, and thank you again.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Nice welcome, Thank you, Thank you for joining us on
another episode of Self Identities Conversations with the Convicted Women,
(33:56):
a Flying Possums production in association with Matter Production. We
deeply appreciate the support of our listeners and the contributions
from everyone who has made this podcast possible. Your engagement
and encouragement drive us to continue these important conversations until
next time. Take care,
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