All language subtitles for VICE S05E12

Last year, we followed
President Obama

as he made history
becoming the first

sitting US President

to actually enter
a federal prison.

- How y'all doing?
- Alright.

- How you doing, sir?
- Alright.

Now, our special
report focused on men

caught up in the system's
harsh treatment

of non-violent
drug offenders,

but lost in the debate
is the fact that

women are actually

the fastest-growing
population

of inmates in America.

Face the wall, please.
Face the wall.

Hands on the wall.

You need to be leaning
into the wall!

If you're not leaning,
you and me have a problem.

The Bexar
County Jail houses

around 600 women
at any given time.

They gave us access
to their intake process

as a group of women
were being booked in.

Since 1980,

the number of women
incarcerated in America

has increased by more than 700%.

Congresswoman
Karen Bass has watched

as the population of
American women behind bars

has grown to be
the largest in the world.

Do you think that there's
enough momentum

behind criminal justice reform
for incarcerated women?

I do not believe there's
enough momentum right now.

What I have found is
my-- my colleagues

were very enthusiastic
around criminal justice reform,

and as they moved forward,

did not recognize that they
were not including women.

It was an oversight
due to lack of understanding.

Women go to prison for very
different reasons than men.

The overwhelming
majority of women

are there for
non-violent crimes.

The average woman
that winds up incarcerated,

her pathway to incarceration

is a long line of abuse

that is never dealt with,

and then she winds up
getting trapped

in the criminal justice system.

We wanted to
know what it was like

for the unprecedented number
of women now trapped inside,

and to see how the system
itself was coping.

Do not remove your hands.
Do you understand me? - Yep.

Yes, ma'am.

How do you normally
treat the intakes?

The people coming in?

Well, with the intakes,

I'm a lot more stern
with the intakes.

Cause I need to set an attitude.

If you come in,
and I'm all smiley,

you're gonna be glad to be here.

I don't want you
to be glad to be here.

Get back out of the doorway!

There's a whole cell
back there. Use it!

Male offenders are processed
in the same facility as women.

Both populations have
increased so dramatically,

that Bexar County has opened
multiple new housing units.

I've seen some
people get hurt in this place.

Officers and inmates.

Women are just as bad as the men.
Yeah?

I've been--
I've been attacked

by women more than once.

Which is kind of scary.

And it's your jail policy

for everyone to be
wearing a-a uniform?

We are about to spend
the night in the jail.

Nothing's allowed in.

All jewelery off,
hair bands, everything...

that could potentially be
used as a weapon.

Hi, ladies.

Hey.

So, this is it, I guess.

Uh...

I've got a blanket inside,

although it's pretty
hot in here.

Pretty gross-looking sheet,
which I think is the bed sheet,

and this, which is toiletries.

Is this all the
toiletries you guys get?

Is it tough, you know, like...

peeing and going to the toilet
in front of everyone? No.

Yeah, you're just here!

You've got a perfect
viewing platform.

Are some of you guys
in here for the same reason?

What kind of reasons?

What are you in here for?

How long were you using for?

- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.

Is this your first time in here?

Someone needs the toilet?
Alright, we'll move out.

This is lights out?

It's super bright in here.

It's gonna be really
frigging hard to sleep.

After barely three hours,

the lights were on again.

It's 3:30 in the morning.

Officers have just
woken everyone up

to serve breakfast.

I think so that they can stagger
it throughout the jail.

Meals are served in shifts

in an attempt to deal
with the sheer number

of non-violent offenders
now crowding the cells.

My charge is felony possession

of a controlled substance
under a gram.

It was tampering
with government records,

and I had a fake ID.

Making checks, writing checks.

ID stuff.

Prostitution.

- It's all money.
- Mmm.

And then money leading to drugs.

How many addicts
are there in here?

Most are. - I think everybody's
an addict in some way.

Since many laws
require mandatory

minimum sentences
for drug crimes,

judges like Nancy Gertner

find they fail to
take into account

the specific
circumstances of women.

The factors in the system
distorted the sentencing.

It's not just that women got

higher sentences
than they should have.

It is that sometimes they
got higher sentences than men.

You rarely found
women at the top

of a drug conspiracy.

They were more often
at the very, very bottom,

because they were being
abused by the head honcho.

So, a woman gets
a very large sentence,

because she's associated
with the drugs in some way.

She could not cooperate against

the man on the rung above her.

It-- it--

It is-- It's a criminal
justice policy

that was, sort of, profoundly,
profoundly irrational,

and it was very difficult
to be a judge

meting out these sentences

when you wanted to say
something different.

Because of these pervasive
mandatory minimum guidelines,

one of which was reinstated
in Indiana in 2016

by then-governor Mike Pence,

non-violent offenders end up
serving lengthy sentences

in federal or state prisons.

We're here in Indianapolis
at the Indiana Women's Prison,

which is actually the oldest
women's facility in the country.

It's currently running
at pretty much full capacity,

so we're gonna head in
and meet some of the offenders.

All right.

With so many crimes
revolving around drugs,

the effects of
mandatory minimums

are felt throughout
the facility.

Do you mind me asking what
your sentence is for?

Uh, manufacturing
meth, dealing meth,

and I get a total of 58 years.

- 58 years?
- Yeah.

That's what your original
sentence was for or...? - Yeah.

I have more time than
some people here for murder.

I have more years than they
do in-- in total amount.

Resigned to long
periods of time behind bars,

women make do
with what they can.

- So these are cards that people have
sent you? - These are cards, yeah.

It's girly!

What other kind
of stuff do you get?

Well, we make hairspray
with Jolly Ranchers.

I just-- Yeah.
You made it yourself?

Is it easy to get
hold of tampons and stuff?

That works?

Alright, ladies, this is a
stand-up or sit-down count!

But feminine hygiene
barely scratches the surface

of the inmates' concerns.

Over 70% of
incarcerated women

suffer from mental illness,

and with inadequate mental
health resources inside prisons,

the solitary confinement unit

is becoming a De facto
mental hospital.

So, we're just walking along
the restrictive housing unit,

which houses about
25 women here.

You can see two women out
here are on suicide watch.

These women are on
four-hour shift rotations,

and they're checking in
every few minutes

to check that no one
has killed themselves.

For officers
like Lieutenant Spells,

guarding mentally ill women

has become a major part of
their responsibilities.

How many of the women here are
suffering from mental health problems?

Pretty much gonna
be all of them.

This unit holds 25.

I've been here
for a while, 18 years.

At one time, we used to have just,
maybe, like a couple of 'em.

But the ones that's
coming in here,

you know, throughout the years,

- is more mental issues.
- Mm-hmm.

What's the hardest
part about your job?

A lot of times they have kids.

Then, you know, when
they come in to visit,

the kids are crying, and...

I just really feel
sorry for the kids.

Around 60% of women in
state prisons are mothers.

Some of whom enter the
system while pregnant.

Charissa didn't know
she was pregnant

when, she says,
she violated her parole

by smoking marijuana.

Now, she's facing
the sobering reality

of giving birth behind bars.

Can you talk me through the
process of what happens

when you go to give birth?

I know that I can only stay
24 hours with my baby.

Once you're there for 24 hours,

the family-- or whoever
you have, the caregiver--

- will pick up the baby.
- Mm-hmm.

What do you think that's gonna
be like coming back here

to the prison after 24
hours, after given birth?

It's gonna be--
I'm gonna be a mess.

Not being able to have
that bond with my kid,

and having somebody else
take care of my baby.

Though Charissa
didn't qualify,

Indiana does run one of a
few programs in the country

that allows select
non-violent offenders

to keep their newborns
in prison with them

for a period of up to 18 months.

How old is she?
She is nine months.

You were in here
when you gave birth?

Yes, I went to the hospital,

and I had to have a emergency
C-section with her,

because I went early with her,

so, she's my
little early-comer.

And how was that,
giving birth there?

We was handcuffed
to the bed by just one arm

when the C-section
was happening,

and your legs are
shackled to the bed.

Whilst the C-section's
happening? That's--

Yeah. - Like that's the point when
you're gonna run away.

I know, right!

Yeah!

It's tough. It's tough...

but it's worth it.

I can't imagine...
having my baby,

and then the next day,
giving her up.

Some people don't have families,

so they have to give it to...

foster care.

You know, you don't
know them people.

You don't know who's
taking care of your child.

In fact, incarcerated mothers
with children in foster care

risk losing them permanently,

because of a law called the
Adoption and Safe Families Act.

It stipulates that any parent
with a child in foster care

for 15 out of 22 months

loses permanent custody.

But the vast majority of primary
caregivers are mothers.

This leaves women, like Nakita,

in a race against time

to retain their parental rights.

Oh, he's so handsome! That's
him when he was younger.

This is all him up here?
Yeah, yeah.

Uh-huh.
You must be happy.

Nakita is serving the
remainder of her sentence

in a halfway house,

where she's allowed to leave
to go to and from work,

but has limited access
to her son, Antonio.

Where's your son now?

He's been in foster care

since I turned myself in
in February.

How's that been?

Oh! Hmm.

Me and my son ain't never been
separated from each other,

so this is our first time.

He don't understand it.

All he know is
mommy's not there, and...

we done had
an episode with my son

trying to kill hisself,
because...

he felt like...

I left him, and... didn't
nobody want him, so...

He was in a mental hospital
for about three weeks.

And how old is he?
He'll be nine in October.

If I don't get a early release,

I will be here
until August 2017.

So, whether or not
you get your son back

depends on whether or not you
get an early release from here.

Yeah.

Like Nakita, most
incarcerated women are mothers,

which leaves hundreds
of thousands of children

without their primary caregivers

and vulnerable
to the cycle itself.

What are the
legislations that you think

need to be passed
on a national level

to address women who are
entering the justice system?

Well, I think we need to get
rid of mandatory minimums.

I think we need to, um...

increase resources in prisons.

I also think, because
of all of these years

of mass incarceration,

now our society needs to build

an entire layer
of support services

for people when they come out,

so that they
don't re-offend.

We are ones to clamor

about human rights
in other countries,

and I think we need to examine

the human rights issue
right here in the United States,

and I think we should
start with our prison system.

Art has become one

of the hottest commodities
on the planet.

International art sales

topped $45 billion
last year alone.

and high-end works
consistently

have seen better
long-term results

than investments
like gold or silver.

Picasso's "Le Reve"
sold for $155 million.

Up over 200%.

But all of that value,

depends on whether
the work itself

can be verified as genuine,

and in the case of prolific
artists like Andy Warhol,

determining which pieces
are real and which are fake,

is a controversial decision

that could be worth millions.

In the 1960s,

Andy Warhol changed
the very definition of art

and what it means
to be an artist.

Andy, a Canadian
government spokesman said,

that your art could
not be described

as original sculpture.

- Would you agree with that?
- Uh, yes.

Why not
create something new?

Uh, because it's easier to do.

Warhol's methods--

removing the artist's hand

and industrializing
the creative process --

was revolutionary.

I spoke to Warhol's close
friend, Joe Simon-Whelan,

about Andy's world.

By the time I met him, everything
was moving so fast for him.

I mean, he was turning
out a film a week.

He was managing
Velvet Underground.

He wasn't so much into painting.

The concept of the--
of the piece, he liked,

but the actual making of it,
he didn't like,

and, um, he was very open
to having others make the work.

He used to call it
"art by telephone."

He would call his
off-site ventures,

and say, "Okay, I need,
you know, ten of these."

They would make ten,
give 'em to Andy,

then he would roll 'em
out for the client,

and say, "Whoo! Voila,
they're all made."

Meanwhile, downtown...

they're just, you know,
just drinking whiskey,

doing whatever they're doing.
Making extra prints.

Don't you think he would have liked
the idea that there could have been

thousands of these prints made,

and maybe even prints made,
you know, after his death.

Actually, he--
he would have liked it,

but his-- certainly his dealers
and his salespeople didn't.

When Joe got the
chance to buy his own Warhol,

he was positive it was real.

The reason I bought
my painting after Andy died

is cause I thought it was

authenticated by the
executor of his estate.

It's on the cover of the
catalogue raisonné of 1970,

which pretty much
covered all of Warhol's work,

so I thought, "Great,
providence, wonderful work."

Joe's friend
and art dealer,

Michael Hue-Williams,
arranged the sale.

In the case of the
"Red Self Portraits,"

I sold that painting
to Joe Simon.

It had a hand-written authentification
on it by Fred Hughes.

Written at a time when Fred
was the only authority.

He was the sole executor
of Andy's estate.

I asked Fred about the painting,

and he said, "Yes, but I've already
written on the back of the painting.

It is a Warhol."

For me, that's it.
That's the end of the story.

After owning his "Red
Self Portrait" for 12 years,

Joe decided to sell it,

but first he was required
to get it verified

by the Warhol Foundation's
Authentication Board.

So, you submitted the
painting for authentication?

And what happened
to the painting then?

Well, it came back with this
nasty stamp on the back,

saying "Denied.

This is not by Andy Warhol."

Sorry, they stamped
the word "Denied"

with ink onto the painting?

The back of the painting? Which
seeped through the picture.

It was very naughty.

So what do you think decides

which pieces get authenticated
and which get denied?

Whatever makes the most money.

At some point, you had
to step down from the battle.

You know, they said, publicly,

"We won't stop."

This is like a beast
that's just rolling upon itself.

I mean, it's a--
it's a commodity,

and people don't want
to see it collapse,

so people will protect that.

This battle
was a direct result

of Warhol's own process,
limiting the role

of the artist in the
making of the art.

As Warhol's work became some of
the most expensive in the world,

the stakes of authentication
increased drastically.

I met with British artist,
Paul Stephenson,

and leading art market analyst,

Marion Maneker, to discuss this.

Many people date the
current art market

from 1998,

when the "Orange Marilyn"
was sold at auction

for a record price.

That sort of woke up the world
to the value of these works.

The first phase
of this market run-up

from about 2004 to 2007,

Warhol led the way.

There are buyers in Asia.

There are buyers
in South America.

There are buyers
in the gulf states.

It has an appeal that
very few other artists do.

Warhol was the first artist
who was talking about

what makes a Warhol,
his own authenticity.

And that's one of the issues
with the art market.

Are these actual works?

Or are these copies because he
wasn't there to approve them?

With individual
Warhol's now selling

in the tens of millions,

we asked Donald Sheridan,

who made many of the
artist's prints,

what makes a real Warhol.

These are the
Retrospective Series.

So they're Warhol revisiting
his most iconic images.

Who decided that the
acetates would be in those positions?

You know, anybody
who was working there,

we were basically
allowed to play.

He didn't take the picture.

He didn't choose
this color scheme.

You decided the composition,

and then you guys printed it...

- on your own?
- Yeah.

- That could still be a Warhol?
- Oh, yeah.

He knew it was
gonna be a Warhol,

Andy did, you know.

He knew that we could
give him good Warhols.

"Just make it pretty."

And you gave good Warhol?

Yes.

Because Warhol wasn't there

when many of his works
were made,

we wanted to see
if we could make a Warhol

30 years after
the artist's death,

using the original acetates

that were used in some
of his most iconic works.

Warhol's
"Jackie" was a photograph

taken by Jacques Lowe
in Hyannis Port,

then appropriated by Warhol,

and then he had it enlarged
into this size acetate.

At that point, he worked
on this acetate by hand,

adapted it, made it

the way he wanted to make it.

You can still
see actually, just...

here on the sides, her hair
flicks up quite a way out.

Warhol's cut it right down in.

In producing these acetates,

and then, blacking out
bits of them, that's--

that's the only stage
where he's actually

physically involved in--
in the process.

- Wow.
- In terms of this image, yeah.

How much do these sell for now?

If a 40-by-40-inch "Jackie"
came up for sale today...

$40 million plus.

This is probably in excess

of 200 or $300 million worth

of paintings that you
could make with these.

So, he'd put
the small acetate on here,

this light shines
through the acetate,

through this lens

and into the other room

where he'd make it
the correct size.

The lab is one
of the last in the world

still able to carry out
the exact same process

Warhol's printers employed.

In East London,

Paul has also managed to track
down the exact same paint

that Warhol used
for his background.

It was so old it was
about to get thrown out.

It was on sale at half price.

Naphthol Red is, uh,
the lips on a "Marilyn."

This is Chairman Mao's face.

Yellow-Yellow Orange Azo.

Um, and this is late
'70s Acro-Violet,

which is the face color
for Jackie O.

Marilyn,
all the self-portraits.

This has got
"Copyright 1980" on it, so...

this was a kind of a cool thing to find,
cause they don't make that anymore.

There's only a limited amount of
this-- this stuff left that was made.

This might be the
last pot of--

of Acro-Violet
left in the world.

The
next thing we need

is one of Warhol's
original printers.

Alexander Heinrici now
works in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

He was Warhol's primary
silk-screen printer

from 1974 to '76.

I saw him almost every day
when I worked with him.

And what do you think of, like,
the Warhol idea of-- of--

almost removing the hand of the
artist from-- from the process.

Oh, he totally
changed everything.

I mean, that--
that's his, uh, forte.

I mean, that's what he did.

I was just lucky to be his
silk-screen printer, you know?

At the time.
Yeah, yeah.

Can you explain that?

Like, exactly what's
happening now?

Well, the screen
is coated with emulsion,

which is photo sensitive.

We put the positive on,

and then we expose it
with ultra-violet light

that will harden the emulsion
where the light hits it,

and leave it soft
where it doesn't.

The emulsion breaks
out where it's soft,

and stays where it's hard.

Is this exactly the same as the
process that you did back then?

Yeah.

Okay, let's go.

You got it? Over here.

This looks like Warhol now.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

Well, we're learning, right?

Not many more years,
and we'll be pros.

♪ Andy Warhol looks a scream ♪

♪ Hang him on my wall ♪

♪ Andy Warhol, Silver Screen ♪

♪ Can't tell them apart at all ♪

We showed
it to Rainer Crone,

who was the world's
leading Warhol scholar,

and author of Andy's first
catalogue raisonné.

Whoa! That's incredible.

That's how you wanted
to surprise me.

Wow.

Beautiful, no?

Fantastic.

Same acetate,

same printer, Alex Heinrici,

same everything.

In your mind, are these--

you know, how close
are these to Warhol's?

They are fan--
this is fantastic.

Yeah. What do you think
Andy would have made

of the idea of recreating these

decades after his death?
It's good! Good!

It's in his concept,

in his traditions.

So, he has the idea,

- and then anybody can make them?
- Yeah.

- As many prints as they want?
- Yes.

That's what he wanted.

Since the Warhol controversy,

numerous other artists have their
own issues with authentication.

Two of the biggest galleries

have been fooled
with older works.

Sotheby's admitted that two
paintings worth over $10 million

they'd authenticated
and sold were fake.

The Guggenheim had to do the same
with a painting in its collection.

After its legal battle,

the Warhol Foundation disbanded
its Authentication Board

leaving hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of Warhol's in doubt.

Markets like gold and art
are about confidence.

You buy something
with the hope that

you'll be able to resell it.

And the real question
of its value is your confidence

that there are other
buyers behind you.

One of the things that
the art world needs

is a better system
for people to be able to say,

"Yes, this is real."