A Texas woman has booked herself into the Utah County Jail under the direction of Sheriff Mike Smith and appeared on a television show to shed light on the realities of prison life.
Smith, the Utah County Sheriff, told Fox News Digital that he initially turned down the opportunity to be the subject of A&E’s hit show “60 Days In,” but changed his mind when he realized the opportunity the show offered.
“For me, I looked at it as an audit,” he said. “I looked at it as an opportunity to do the most thorough audit that’s ever been done in this office.”
“I feel like the opportunity to go through this process outweighs any embarrassment that may come my way.”
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Sheriff Mike Smith has 30 years of law enforcement experience. (Mark Hill)
Smith said Utah County residents should expect improved law enforcement.
“At the end of the day, people shouldn’t expect us to be perfect, but rather we should be willing to accept areas where we need to improve and continue to improve,” he said.
“People don’t expect us to be perfect, but they should expect us to accept areas that need improvement and be willing to improve.”
Smith said he hoped the show’s seven participants would shed light on drug, contraband and gang activity behind bars.
“A lot of our inmates are incarcerated on drug charges, and we want to keep them off drugs while they’re in prison,” he said. “We have programs to help them, but unless they’re on drugs, I don’t think those programs have a chance to make an impact.”
In the ninth season of “60 Days In,” seven contestants volunteered to go undercover at the Utah County Jail. (Mark Hill)
Sheriff Smith said his team is always striving to improve, but the show also highlighted issues they are currently working to resolve.
“There were some surprising things, and some of it had to do with how my employees treated the inmates and some of the interactions,” he said.
“I had a hard time seeing it on the screen. It’s not what I teach my kids or what I expect.”
Sheriff Mike Smith has served as Utah County Sheriff since 2018. (Mark Hill)
Sheriff Smith said he hopes viewers of the reality show don’t glamorize life in prison.
“At the end of the day, this is a prison,” he said, “and I think sometimes you hear a lot of complaints, but at the end of the day, this is a prison.”
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“I want people to be treated well in prison, but prison is a place where you are punished for breaking the law. Prison is not a country club or a place you go to get away from the world.”
“Prison is not a place you want to end up. It’s not a path you want to go down.”
WATCH – NINA INTERVIEW:
Nina – Contestant on A&E’s “60 Days In”
Nina, one of seven participants in “60 Days In,” spoke to Fox News Digital about her voluntary detention at the Utah County Sheriff’s Center and what inspired her to go undercover.
“I’m an eternal learner and an anthropologist, I love missions, I love humanity, and I’m a Christian,” Nina says. “I honestly felt like I was chosen for this.”
Nina, who works as a bail bondsman in Texas, said everything she’s done has been in preparation for the reality show.
“Something that I thought would be hard turned out to be not that hard,” she says. “Some things are unexpected.”
Nina has been in the bail bonds and fugitive recovery business for over 10 years, beginning her career in the industry while earning a degree in fine arts in college. (Mark Hill)
Participants in the “60-Day Detention” study said the most difficult part about being detained was “having everything taken away” and the ultimate “boredom.”
“You don’t know how you’re going to react until you’ve been in prison,” she said. “Until you’ve been treated like a prisoner and been robbed like a prisoner, you don’t know what it’s like.”
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Nina likened her experience to a worse version of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.
“Before you go in, imagine the basics,” she said. “Think about COVID-19. How crazy it’s made us all. Without luxuries like cell phones and the ability to communicate.”
She said she is grateful for her freedom after self-imposed detention.
“It made me think about how lucky I am,” she said.
The man from A&E’s hit show “60 Days In” was booked into the Utah County Jail, overseen by Sheriff Mike Smith. (Mark Hill)
Nina spoke about how it has changed her perspective on the U.S. criminal justice system.
“I believe in results. I believe you reap what you sow. I’ve always believed that,” she said. “It’s easy to pigeonhole the results and sit back and do our jobs. The truth is, we’re asking too much of a broken demographic.”
“We’re just starting to talk about how we’re treating inmates and how it’s working, and we’re finding out it’s not working.”
Nina said after the show, she plans to compile literature for inmates to read and implement more programs at the county jail.
Nina said it was tough being confined to a prison cell for most of the day. (Mark Hill)
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The reality show follows seven participants who voluntarily go undercover in the Utah County Jail to uncover drugs, contraband and gang activity.
Utah County is the second most populous county in the state. The largest city in the county is Provo.
