Dion Shepherd survived 60 days in prison, here’s how.

A guest from the Netflix series ‘60 Days In’, tells his horror story whilst surviving within the jail cells of criminals and the challenge of trying to change his community in his own way. Write Owl brings you his story.

Dion Shepherd was a guest who was in season 2 of the Netflix show 60 Days In. The show was a way to fight against the impurities within the justice system. They allowed members of the public to voluntarily live within prison cells undercover for 60 days. Dion speaks about the harsh truths which occurred when doing this programme, something he admits he would never want to experience again.

“The first thing I noticed when I first entered the pod with everybody, was that it smelled like rotten eggs and like man musk,” He said, “it was so bright in there and it was just like blinding and the smell was the first thing that hit me.”

Although Dion was completely disgusted by the smell within the cells, he still stuck it out until the final day. Unlike other participants who had to leave earlier due to illness or safety reasons.

However, there was a time where Dion figured he was officially done with the programme and that was when the cells began to flood with sewer water. “It was like little parasites that was in there,” he says, “they were just swimming around, and the water was flooding our pod, it was the most disgusting thing ever.”

During this situation, Dion and the other cellmates were crammed into a dayroom to remove them from the sewage water. This was when Dion realised, he was ready to leave the programme.

“The flooding was the worst part ever. When I tell you that I was done. I was done,” he said, “but they couldn’t get me out. They were like we can’t get you out till Monday. I’m like we gotta spend the whole weekend in this bull? it was the worst thing ever.

“Nobody was letting anybody use their toilet to boom boom. People were boom booming in their towels, in the corners. It was the worst thing.

“I was like get me out of here, I was about to expose, I was ready to get up out of there.”

On top of everything the inmates, including Dion, were unable to have water for 48 hours. “I got into it, I started standing on tables. I was like man,” he said, “They were like you trying to start a riot and I was like I don’t care, because I got everybody to start messaging their families.

“I’m typing people messages, I got everybody on the phone, I’m like we gotta call our people.

“People were peeing in bottles, it was the wildest thing, people was peeing in garbage cans.”

The inmates were overcrowded within the dayroom. The ones who were able to get a hold of a room, which held the bathrooms attached to them, did not let the other inmates use them. “Those people didn’t care about us, they treated us so savage,” He said.

By the time, the awful event was over Dion decided he was going to stick it out until the final day, considering he was able to survive the weekend. “By Monday coming I was like, oh shoot I done survived, didn’t I? Y’all left me for a whole weekend I might as well stay,” He says.

Unfortunately, not all of the staff within the facility was as professional as you may have thought. Especially one female officer who entered the room numerous times with guns, threatening to shoot the inmates as a way to calm them down during their weekend of horror.

“They didn’t show this part, but I had made a makeshift pillow, but you can’t have pillows inside the jail,” He says, “so she came in, I’m asleep, she snatched the pillow and I slammed my head on the metal.

“So, I jump up because I thought it was an inmate jumping on me or something. She started going crazy and put us all on lockdown, made the whole pod hate me.

“It was like the worst thing ever. I did not like that lady; she came in there yelling and acting like she was going to shoot us.”

Considering the show was able to have a place on Netflix, you’ll be surprised to know that Dion found out about the show through an ad he found on craigslist. “I didn’t think that they could actually put you inside the jail, I thought they would probably get some actors,” He said.

Dion mainly wanted to participate in the programme because at the time he was studying free-lance criminology. When he broke the news to his family his parents were surprised to hear about his decision. “My daddy was telling me I’m crazy because like don’t know black people be volunteering to go to jail,” he says, “My mom was tripping she was like hold on it’s a real jail? She was like nah that’s crazy you shouldn’t do that.”

The main aim of the programme was to identify what goes on within the jail and take on the appropriate action to improve them. Dion believed he was doing something for the better, which would encourage change. “At the end, we gave a report to them on the different things that they could do to improve the jail,” He said, “They didn’t show the full extent of the report, because Quintin had done a whole fifteen-page report, that we all had worked on.”

Now Dion is creating his book covering his experience which he will be releasing on his birthday, June 30th, as well as releasing his own films which he has written and directed himself. One being about the transition children go through from the 8th-9th grade, whilst in the East side of Detroit.

“If I knew it would be like that I would never go back,” he says, “I wouldn’t even think about going back… I feel like I did the best I could, so going back there isn’t anything that I could have done more of. I survived in that thing. I did the best I could.”

Although Dion has decided not to return to the show if, given the opportunity, he still takes on the responsibility of promoting change within his community by starting with his family. He hopes that starting here will help to spread the same energy elsewhere.

Video Interveiw

Dion's Interview was the funniest one I've done, truly a chilled guy all about good vibes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TCO5BWF_xU