- [bridget] hi, mom. hi, dad. - i'll have to do this. - [bridget] i don't trust people like i once did. - i made it! - [bridget] oh, your boy's gonna be safe there. you believe things like that. - clearly, things went wrong. - [gabryell] i call it solitary confinement, they might not, but when you get one hour a day, that's solitary confinement. - i don't know if i would ever let go of him. ♪

[ambient music] - (male announcer): support for reel south is provided by: additional funding for this program is provided by: [birds calling] [contemplative music] ♪ - [announcer] it's hard to make sense of what happened at the ware youth center last month.

two teens being held at the detention center hang themselves to death within 72 hours back in february. jordan bachman was 17 years old and solan peterson had just turned 13. - [bridget] my kid didn't deserve to die because he set he set a fire to a roll of toilet paper in a school. - [speaker] they need to close that facility down. they need to close it down. - everything that could have gone wrong went wrong in this situation. [serious orchestral music] ♪

[people chattering] - hey, you gotta quit moving so i can tie your skate. - [indistinct] like dancing. - [bridget] i know you like dancing. - daddy said i can do 10 laps. - okay. after solan passed away, i thought being on the ice would be hard, but that's where i feel the closest to him. there's a lot of emotions there, but because of sammy, i put on a mask. ooh, don't do that. you're gonna make me fall. her forever friend and playmate is no longer here, but it's not always on her mind like it is like me. and that's a good thing. she needs to still be a kid.

- you come. - chicken little, chicken little. it's time to get up. it's time to wake up for school. are you gonna be a sleepyhead this morning? come on. hey. we gotta get up and go to school. all right, ready? nope, i'm just gonna do it. stand up, stand up. i've always thought about adoption. there's always kids out there that might not have parents. open wide. spit. good job. my husband ronnie and i, we got solan when he was six and a half. and then sammy came to us and she completed our family.

see what santa claus brought you. - we're going to great wolf lodge, sammy! - [sammy] we will? - yeah, we're gonna go to a waterpark. you wanna go swimming? - we met solan on a wednesday back in 2012 and he's spent almost his entire life at that point in foster care. the kid has big personality and you saw it from the minute he bursted into the house. hi, mom. hi, dad. - i'll have to do this [indistinct]. i made it! - when we got solan, we didn't know a ton about his past. his parents had issues with drugs and alcoholism. he moved around from house to house. to know that this is what he went through before he got us and all's it took was finding the right thing and being a little patient to see him blossom. ♪ jump off, spread out, have lots of fun ♪

♪ hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity ♪ - on the morning that solan got arrested, i got a phone call from the school saying that solan had set fire to a roll of toilet paper in the boys' bathroom. didn't know if it was a medicine thing that might've caused this or him trying to be funny. - [solan] leave me alone. - solan being on anxiety medicine and being on adhd medicine, we just started him on a third medicine trying to figure out some behavioral issues. one of the things that just came out through counseling is that he was scared of being taken away in the middle of the night. he would start sleeping on the floor. i got to the school. they told us that he was being arrested,

where they were gonna take him. they were taking him to ware. one of the things i do remember asking was, "is my kid gonna be safe there?" i was assured that that's one of the safest facilities around and that's where he was going. [engine whirring] - there are many, many ways that the system could have handled solan's case differently that do not involve putting him in jail. in particular, solan had just turned 13. he was only two weeks past his 13th birthday, but i think it's just very broadly accepted that that is the way we respond when children are charged with crimes, even if the crimes are similar to normal adolescent behavior

that a lot of us engaged in as children. but that doesn't take into consideration the seriousness of the risks that are facing the child if you put that child in jail. - you was a lawyer. you was a lawyer. [faint speaking] - [speaker] oh, you just look different. - ladarian, tell us why you were placed in ware in the first place. - they was trying to say we did something, but come to find out that boy had the wrong people. - [dianne] i have a form when your charges were dismissed. so you spent all that time there for false charges? - yes, ma'am. - [dianne] when you said he slammed you on your head, what was he doing? slamming where, with his hand?

- yeah, with his hand like this. he came from behind me like by around my waist and he slammed me, boom, on top of my head. - [dianne] slammed you where, against the wall? - on the floor. - [dianne] okay. - with concrete under there. - okay, was that the only thing that was injured? - [ladarian] yeah, my head and my neck. - he was telling me his eyes were blue. - essentially, what i got was a statement saying that there was an altercation and they assisted him to the floor. so that's about as much. they denied, of course, they denied everything else. [dogs barking] - the guards were too aggressive. they'll just throw you in the cell any kind of way. he gave me a towel from around the stopped up toilet that had a leak. and he got mad 'cause i walked and got my own towel.

and he would get on the phone, talking to a female that he talked to, talking about just slammed me a little [censored] on his head, like bragging about it. [contemplative ambient music] [contemplative orchestral music] - monday at eight o'clock, we didn't get to see him until they brought him into the courtroom. we were requesting a psych evaluation to be done.

we told the judge that this is what his doctors wanted from the beginning and judge agreed that he needed a mental evaluation, but he needed to remain at ware until one could be determined. tuesday, we knew he needed a refill on his adhd medicine so we made a plan to go take his medication to him. so we got off work early and we drove down there. when we got down there, we were told he picked his lock sometime around 11:00 or midnight. he was in solitary confinement. you were only allowed to see him through a little tiny window and the only thing he had in his cell

was a little green mat. they took the most outgoing kid and put him in a cell, and kept him there from monday night, all day tuesday, all day wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, and then sunday morning is when we got the phone call. - one of the reasons that it's so concerning that solan may have been in isolation is because we know the impact that that can have on mental health issues. and if he already had mental health issues and in fact was being detained to receive a psychological evaluation, that should immediately raise concerns that his mental health would only deteriorate in that kind of situation. - ronnie's phone rang at 2:00 a.m.

who would be calling at 2:00 in the morning? something's wrong somewhere. i heard him start crying. i heard him say, "what do you mean, he's dead?" and i knew. i remember screaming that my boy was gone. [contemplative orchestral music] - 3 investigates is getting answers after two teenagers took their own lives in the same juvenile detention center less than 72 hours apart. - [announcer] the incidents took place thursday, february 7th and saturday, february 9th at the ware youth center in coushatta. jordan bachman was 17 years old and solan peterson had just turned 13. the red river sheriff's office

took the lead on that investigation. - the department of child and family services has standards that they monitor the detention centers against. it allowed dcfs to go in right away and do an inspection. what we found through the investigation by the state, there were structural problems with the cells that the children were held in that allowed them to attach a bed sheet and use it as a method of hanging themselves. and we also found that the proper checks had not been made on the children even though they were recorded that they were made. but the video footage showed that the staff person

did not actually walk down the hall and look into the room. - according to the death certificate, it took 15 minutes for him to pass away. if they were checking every 15 minutes, they might have been able to at least get there and maybe restart his heart if they did cpr, but. - clearly, things went wrong in the situation in ware and the detention center standards were not doing what they needed to do to make sure that this didn't happen. but because dcfs has the threat of being able to take away their license, those problems were corrected. i mean, i know the structural problems were corrected,

but we need to do more after a suicide to prevent a second one, or god forbid, more than that. [contemplative ambient music] [faint speaking] okay, great. okay, so why don't we dive in then to our conversation about ware. i think everyone was in the last meeting. in 2017, we decided to create a task force.

the idea was to have the task force come up with a plan for how to create some system of oversight. i will just say that as we shared with everyone, we submitted a request to dcfs for the documents related to the suicides in the detention center at ware. it certainly raised some concerns for me about the overall management of the facility. i think that what happened at ware all begged the question of whether there are larger issues at ware, but i can accept if there's a different time and place for that conversation. - well, and i just want us to point that out. i think we've all made, i think we all had reactions to that as agencies and went in and looked at certain things, and didn't find concern. so if there is something of concern or if there was concern, we clarified it and went through. - based on the fact that there have been three suicides in the facility as a whole over the past few years, i worry that the state, they're not making a choice based on what's best for the children, but what's available to them.

we need to come to some agreement on the letter that needs to be submitted to the legislature, the governor's office, and ojj. - under room confinement, where y'all put at least one of the children had been in room confinement for an extended period of time. i think that's, i don't know that we should put that in there. - [rachel] okay. - that was gleaned, i think, from the information y'all received on the public records request. - [rachel] and reports from the family, yeah. - and if you want to put that in there that it was a report from the family. - [rachel] okay. - because i don't think that's a fact. [contemplative ambient music] - they ran this facility a certain way that i didn't feel comfortable in,

so it was best for me to find another job. they kept the kids confined long. the kids really didn't get a chance to come out of their cells. most of the time, the kids was on lockdown. - we were locked in cells basically all day and let out for an hour for a shower. - they just isolate you in the cell that you in. - [gabryell] i call it solitary confinement, they might not, but when you get one hour a day, that's solitary confinement. - [interviewer] was that typical for facilities you'd worked in before or was that unusual? - no, ma'am. that was unusual and that was my main concern when i got down there. - ware was just one of those places. these people don't care, they don't care.

they let you know that they don't care. it's not like they're trying to hide it. - it was just a big swamp. they would hire cousins, nieces, whoever in coushatta that they knew. the staff was not properly trained and some of the staff should have never even been allowed to work with kids. - when certain staff would work at night and i'm on lockdown, i would be scared that they would do something. the male guards would come in and they would rough us up. busted lips, busted nose hurt. yeah, he said, "i see why i had to choke you out."

- [interviewer] was there an incident where he tripped you? - yeah, plenty of times. plenty of times. [birds calling] [downbeat rock music] - i have bad headaches. my anxiety start messing with me more too 'cause i already be having anxiety bad. like i'll be repeating the same thing over and it'll scare me. - mines were fortunate enough to come out of there alive.

other kids weren't fortunate enough to come out of there alive. the world need to know, world need to know how they're running it over there. - i'm 25 now, i've been there when i was 13. like all these years have passed and it's still the same thing. and nobody has done anything. - [eleanor] ware is not being held accountable for the staff that they hire, for the lack of training that they give to their staff, and the safety of the kids. something should be done. [downbeat rock music]

- you been out here a while? - about 15 minutes. - 15 minutes. - been about 15. that place needs to be closed down. i won't be happy until that place is closed down. - i don't- - hell, being happy is a relative term now these days, but shut the place down. they wouldn't listen to what two doctors and parents were saying. if they would've listened to those four people, my kid would still be here. - well, you know what?

we have resources and you have your mother. [rainfall pattering] - grace, is she okay? - mm-hmm. - i've always been a worrier. i'm even more of a worrier. i don't trust people like i once did. oh, your boy's gonna be safe there. you believe things like that.

[downbeat rock music] if i could have one more conversation with him, i don't know if i would ever like go of him. he would be wrapped up in my arms in a bear hug and i would tell him i love him, and that i'm proud of him, and i miss him and i miss him being on the ice. all right, one lap. and that all of the family love him and that we're super, super proud of who he was. [downbeat rock music]

[downbeat rock music] [people chattering]

- there was no doubt in my mind that kathlyn and i was gonna get back together. - [ron] i've seen guys when they fall in love and then lose that love do crazy things. - i love her so much. i did ask for her hand in marriage and she said she would be honored to become my wife. - [kathlyn] marrying a prisoner, very unusual. and i just thought that everything would work out. - [speaker] the one thing about falling in love in prison is it keeps you up at night. [contemplative ambient music]

- today's my wedding day. i'm gonna marry the most beautiful woman in the world. i just, i never imagined that i could just be so happy. i mean, i'm just, i can't even describe it. i guess i'm just intoxicated off of love. [laughing] [upbeat funky music] i was a real snoopy kid, you know? i liked to just snoop around people's stuff. might steal a can of spray paint right here and go do some graffiti somewhere. just nonsense like that. and yeah, my dad, he opened up a private detective agency there in columbus. him and my mom was divorced and he would come like in the summer

and take me on cases with him on the weekend. it might be following somebody's wife or husband to see if they was having an affair, that kind of pi work. but we was following a guy that was cheating on his wife and he also had outstanding warrants on him in georgia. well, he was staking out his house in phoenix city, alabama. and it's right across the river from columbus, georgia. and my dad had told me, he said, "son," he said, "if you ever get in any trouble, don't do it in phoenix city." [intense orchestral music] i was in this junior police thing now. i got my little badge. he got me a little thing like the fbi carries, you know? and so i went up the hallway not trying to catch anybody doing anything. i just happened to look in the classroom and there was two guys in there and they were going through all the little girls' purses. so i went in and went through the door with my badges thrown out and tell 'em i'm junior police and just the whole nine yards.

and they're begging me, "please, please, please don't tell on us," and da, da, da, da, da, da, da. so i gave in. "i said, all right y'all, go on." so when they left, for whatever reason, i decided to go there and look in the filing cabinet where the teacher's purse was. and i looked in her wallet. she had a lot of money in there, but i got a $20 bill out. [suspicious orchestral music] the attention i got from my dad from that, it was kind of like throwing gasoline on the fire and i was craving that attention from him. and i think that's what really got me started doing wrong things. when i was 17, i was experimenting with different recreational drugs

and kind of hanging out with the hippies and that type of stuff. - you can't look at his criminal history without just shaking your head as to why this man was sentenced to life without parole. - [alex] michael first got into legal trouble when he was 17. - i had a robbery and a possession of controlled substance. both of them happened at the same time. i robbed a drug store, but i didn't rob him for drugs, i just robbed it for the money. - then when he was 21, he pleaded guilty to burglary of an unoccupied dwelling. and then it was at 24 that he was found guilty of robbery in the first degree in alabama. and that is how he got his life without parole sentence under the habitual felony offender act. in none of these priors was anyone injured physically. - [michael] i didn't listen to my dad and the advice he had gave me about not getting in trouble in phoenix city 'cause that's where i committed my crime. so it just kind of went in one ear, out the other. - in 2019, we began looking into a number of cases of people sentenced to die in prison

for non-homicide crimes, cases where there wasn't even any physical injury. so as we were looking through these cases, michael schumacher rose to the top for a number of reasons. if michael were convicted today, one of his priors, the drug possession couldn't have even been used to enhance his sentence. he would be sentenced to a fraction of what he was sentenced to in 1985. - dear gene. well, i'll be 28 in 10 more days. i really hate to think about it because it's depressing to know that i am just wasting away in here.

i see murderers and child molesters leave all the time and some of them should never be permitted to walk the streets again as a free man. and then there are people like me who has never hurt anyone in their whole lives and they're told they will never get out. that's really a strain on the brain. - [carla] alabama has one of the harshest three strikes laws in the country. you can be sentenced to life without parole, that means you will die in prison, if you have three non-violent priors. it can be drug possession, it can be a check forgery. - needless to say, i was disappointed in myself in the way i'd done screwed up my life. - we have the most violent, the most deadly, the most corrupt prisons in the country. the fact that they are not completely traumatized, are not completely broken,

but still have some hope after being in unconstitutional prisons for decades, it's really a miracle. - [michael] well, scrabble for me in prison was a way of, i guess, escaping the crazy stuff going on around you. - mike had always been enthusiastic when it comes to scrabble. he loves scrabble, you know, he spent a lot of his time, and i loved scrabble too, but i couldn't never get to the point where i could beat mike at scrabble, never one time. now, you thought i would've got close one time, right? but he was good. - and i would, when i first started off, i would never win. and a lot of times, we would play for pushups to make it more competitive. and i was starting to bulk up a little bit 'cause i didn't ever win, so i'm the one always doing the pushups. [soft guitar music]

- my name is kathlyn spragg and i live in montclair, new jersey. - so i was getting to that point, i was lonely. my family was passing away and i just wanted some contact. - in 1992, there was a letter to the editor in the newspaper from michael asking if anybody knew his family from new jersey. - [michael] so i started writing to different newspapers and i made up the story in hopes of having somebody to write me. - so my mother said, "i think you would be a good person to write to him. you're a nurse and i think you could bring some happiness to his life." - i didn't say i had life without parole 'cause nobody in their right mind, the way i thought, would read this and say, "well, he's got life without parole. i ain't finna write him." - and at first, i kind of thought about it and i said,

"i don't think so." i don't know, i had a second thought and wrote to him. - when i first got the first letter from kathlyn, i was being investigated for murder because somebody got stabbed to death in front of my cell and i was standing over the body trying to get somebody to help me put 'em on a laundry cart to take to the infirmary just in case he still was living. and it took about 30 days for them to figure out that i'd had nothing to do with this and i was scared to death about that. but while i was in that cell, i got a letter from kathlyn and she was witnessing to me about jesus. so i kind of, i wrote her a hateful letter back, kind of like a, well, it was just real negative. and i was thinking that she wasn't gonna write back. man, i can still remember the first time she came to see me in prison. there was something there that kind of clicked between us.

- i guess seeing him, seeing what a gentleman he was even in the circumstances he was under, there was just something special about him. - the 18th of january, 1993, monday morning. i didn't tell kathlyn about my sentence. i can't put it off too much longer. i've been keeping all of this in prayer and i trust that god will help. - and at this point, i don't believe i had said to many people about michael because i was afraid of the feedback i would get. when i got back to new jersey, i did think about michael and did wonder where this was gonna go. - when she went back to new jersey, she evidently felt the same way 'cause she immediately booked another ticket to come back

like in a week for another visit. - by the second visit, there was really something moving there because i'm pretty sure on the second visit, we had our first kiss. - but i wasn't convinced totally that she actually knew what she was biting off into. and i tried to push her away a couple times and she wasn't having that. and she said, "look, i know what i'm doing and i know what i want." - as time went on, it was harder and harder to leave. - the 19th of may, 1993. to start with, i have finally told kathlyn the truth about my sentence and the circumstances surrounding it. what a burden that was lifted from my shoulders. kathlyn forgave me for not being totally truthful

and has vowed to stand by me until the end. - i was kinda starry-eyed and had visions that everything was gonna work out. when people couldn't see what i saw in the relationship between michael and i, i felt angry. i think i was 33 and i had never really had a courtship, a romantic involvement. a couple of dates here and there, but this was the first man that i really went gung ho about. - i've never been so richly blessed in my entire life. i love her so much. i did ask her for hand in marriage and she said she would be honored to become my wife.

- we were married by the prison chaplain on august 11. - [michael] i think we got about a hour after the ceremony where we could sit out there on the visiting yard and eat a little cake and talk. - it was very hard to leave that day because alabama does not have conjugal visits, so imagine being married and having some time to celebrate and then you have to separate. [upbeat whimsical music] - [michael] she went down the glamour shots when glamour shots was the thing back in them days and she had a whole little thing made out of glamour shots. my whole cell was her.

you walk by my cell, there's no doubt about who my wife is. - [kathlyn] marrying a prisoner, very unusual. i had thought about it and i just thought that everything would work out. - she would come down every two or three months, she would fly down. it would just depend on what her work schedule is. she used to send me little pieces of cloth or whatever paper. she sprayed a perfume on it and i'd put 'em in my pillowcase, the envelope and stuff so i could smell her scent, her fragrance, and just little things like that, try to get by. i got transferred to another prison. she wanted me to go through the drug and alcohol program not because i have them problems, but because it's better living conditions. i finally agreed to go ahead and go through this and it was a 18 month therapeutic community.

- and he graduated with flying colors. the counselors wrote great remarks about his progress. - and was asked to go on and work as an intern, as a staff member to help run the daily functions of the program, teach classes and that type of stuff. - and he took community college programs to become a licensed drug treatment counselor. so he recognized here was my downfall, here's what got me here, i'm gonna fix this. and he did everything possible to do that. he also was able to stay outta trouble. i think he had a total of five disciplinary write-ups in 36 years. you almost never see that. he just kind of laid low. - [michael] so i started going to the law library and reading, just educating myself on what i needed to do. and then talking with other guys in the law library. and i basically done all my law work as far as my different filings and stuff.

- i had gone into this with open eyes and thinking i could change the world. and we hired a lawyer and it went nowhere. - [michael] it's just denial, denial, denial. and i'd always told her, "when you get to a point where you're not happy anymore, i want you to let me know so you can go on with your life." - we were married for four years and it must have been around the three year mark that i realized things were not going anywhere. - dear, gene. for the last several months, kathlyn and i have been having a hard time, and we, and then in parenthesis, i thought,

we're trying to work through this. then lo and behold, two weeks ago, i called and she told me she was tired and couldn't go on any longer. i was shocked, and hurt, and numerous other things. i've been in a state of haze ever since. at the moment, i don't know what to think. kathlyn won't take my calls and that makes the hurt more intense. it's really bad at night. i can't sleep and can only wonder, why me? - when i decided to divorce him, he didn't question it at all. he felt it was better to let me go. - and the one thing about falling in love in prison, it's dangerous because when you allow your emotions to get so wrapped up to somebody you can't be with, it keeps you up at night. i've seen guys when they fall in love and then lose that love do crazy things.

- i tried to be honorable, and i encouraged her, and told her i understood, and i respected her decision. i just wanted her to be happy, that i still loved her. we had a lot of group therapy inside that program anyway and i'm a big believer in group therapy, so i had a good support system so i was able to get through it as good as i could under the circumstances. - and that i really thought was gonna be the last time i'd hear from michael. - dear ms. crowder, my name is michael schumacher and i am incarcerated at holman prison. well, i remember i wrote carla a letter after i seen her piece on the news where she had got, appleseed got out the first person they got out

from a robbery case. - even though we were divorced in '97, we still kept in contact. - when i called kathlyn before christmas and was telling her about appleseed, and carla, and alex, and the help they're trying to do for me with my case. - and in the back of my mind, i'm just thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is another story that never goes anywhere. - and so we were able to file a post-conviction petition that was unopposed. usually, district attorneys will oppose post-conviction petitions. once they get that conviction in life sentence, they want it to stick. but there was such a injustice in this case and michael had proved that he was a different person than he was in 1985, so the district attorney did not oppose. and that gave the judge jurisdiction and an opportunity to grant our petition,

which he did in, i think it was about 48 hours. - i didn't even know a petition had been filed yet. - and once a client is ordered released, i want him released. the prison conditions are so dangerous and so violent that anything can happen on any given day. - and she said, "you really don't know what's going on, do you?" i said, "none. what's happening?" she said, "the judge signed your petition and he gave you time served. and if today wasn't a holiday, it was good friday, you'd get out the today." that was just more than i could digest at that moment. i just broke down. i started crying, tears running down my face and everything. i just couldn't believe what i was hearing. - and we were talking every day for a week because michael was not sure what day the lawyers were coming to get him. - i couldn't get enough of talking to her.

there was no doubt in my mind what was gonna happen with me and her. - and i can't recall when we got all tangled up in love again. - there was no doubt in my mind that kathlyn and i was gonna get back together, and be remarried, and be a family. - i remember him saying, "kathlyn, i have always, always loved you and i always will love you." and my throat got twisted up and i said, "michael, i've always loved you too." - [carla] and he walks out with his bag of stuff and is elated, overwhelmed. they're always overwhelmed. what are you gonna say when all of a sudden you're free?

- well, i'm staying at a re-entry ministry here in birmingham called shepherds fold. and there's several of us that's been released through appleseed. we was there for so long together, it was kind of like we became family. my roommate alonzo, he did 27 years. i knew him his whole time over at donaldson. ron mckeithen, he served 37 years and i knew him his whole time in there, me and him. and here about two weeks ago, it was on a sunday morning, we both ended up, we got talking about gratitude and the things we was grateful for today. and the next thing i know, we're both in there crying. i mean, it was just amazing. and finally he said, "man, i gotta get away from you." i've got a great deal of gratitude for alabama appleseed 'cause they've basically given me my life back.

and the only way that i can show them how much gratitude i have is for me to be a success in my reentry back to society. they made me rethink what i thought about lawyers, i'll say that. [laughing] [upbeat funky music] - we're clearly a full service non-profit law center at appleseed. i think yesterday, they were at the hardware store. alex, our staff attorney was getting mulch and flowers and plants and making it really perfect. she's been up since the crack of dawn. we had our intern working on signs, the journalist, beth shelburne, who first got us connected with michael's case because she wrote about him for years. they've been corresponding for years. she baked their wedding cake. - but no, i didn't never think that i would be at rose park

or any park in the free world getting married. just wanna pinch myself, make sure it ain't no dream. it's just... uh... [laughs] it's just awesome. [upbeat funky music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [camera shuttering] ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - (male announcer): support for reel south is provided by: additional funding for this program is provided by:

- people might not express it, but there's gonna be a change in somebody's life. that's what i'm working for. - if we don't know our history, no one else is gonna teach it to us. - i'm formally announcing my candidacy for city council district eight. [crowd cheering] how my life becomes better is politics. - there came a point where it was either you can kill yourself, or you can be gay and surrender everything you've known and accepted to be true. - to really find out who i am, i don't think i'll ever have the answer to that. [ground exploding] - times like that, people come together. and i mean all of us pitching in, and that's when we started getting real. - i grew up very much thinking that even though i looked asian and i looked korean,

i felt that still encompassed whiteness. am i jewish enough? am i korean enough? it never feels as if i am enough. - i've always been a worrier. i don't trust people like i once did. - you know, i think everybody has something in their life that changes them. [dramatic music] ♪ - i love this place, and i hate this place. like, i am this place, you know? [ambient music] ♪ you're watching pbs. ♪ ♪