A&E’s 60 Days In Recap: We’re (Maybe) Going to Disneyland!

A&E’s 60 Days In returned for a second season of putting some real nice people in a really nasty prison for 60 days or until they go insane, whichever comes first. In the two-part season premiere (Aug. 18), we get to meet the eight new suckers/crusaders who are going to experience a world of hurt in Indiana’s Jefferson County Jail.

Captivated by 60 Days In? Check Out All the Recaps, Previews and Interviews!

So if you’ve never seen the show before, you might want to check out our Season 1 coverage and our recent interview with Sheriff Jamey Noel, the Grand Poobah of the whole operation. (And, hey, if enough people read these things, I might actually do a full season of recaps. So tell all your friends!)

Let’s meet this season’s lucky contestants:

Ashleigh! Yes, the wife of Season 1 participant Zac is taking on the 60 Days In challenge, because her husband was apparently not convincing enough to talk her out of it. Ashleigh has a history of alcoholism and drug addiction, but she’s been sober for four years. She hopes to help other women who’ve gone through the same hardships. And she looks like this when not in prison garb:

60 Days In Ashleigh

Dion A 24-year-old Detroit native, Dion is is going for his masters degree in criminology and thinks some real-world behind-the-bars perspective on the prison system will help his work and the community. Dion’s a nice, smart, level-headed guy, but I’m wondering about this temper thing and if it will play against him in the slammer.

60 Days In Dion

Ryan An aspiring police officer, Ryan, 27, joined the Army Reserve straight out of high school and served as a medic. He’s about to finish a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, which opens him up to all kinds of ridicule and future unemployment. Ryan’s problem is that he’s an arrogant smarty-pants, and he needs to take his sense of superiority down a few notches.

Sheri Former corrections officer at a maximum-security state prison, Sheri, 39, wants to get back to work in corrections and thinks this experience will give her some valuable insight into what it’s like on the other side. This experience will be tough on Sheri’s daughter:

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But the prospect of going to Disney World Disneyland makes mommy’s time in prison all worth it!

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Monalisa  Monalisa is mom to a young woman who is three years into a 10-year prison sentence for armed robbery. She founded Parents With Incarcerated Children, an organization providing resources and advocacy for, well, parents with incarcerated children. What we’re not told is that Monalisa is also CEO of Sierra Productions, a multifaceted marketing/advertising/communications house in New York City. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se. She’s heavily involved in philanthropic causes and social issues, and that certainly shouldn’t disqualify her from being on 60 Days In. I do think Monalisa is playing her “role” a little rougher and more working class than she actually is. And I think that she’s really playing up this ax-grinding angle a bit too much.

Quintin Quintin is my man. He’s a recently retired state police officer and currently works in private investigation and bounty hunting. He’s arrested, like, 1,000 people. He is a quiet, straightforward badass and I want to see him ruin any and all who get in his face. Seriously, how can you not love a guy who plays keyboards and packs heat simultaneously?

60 Days In Quintin

Brian A lawyer for a Department of Corrections Legal Affairs’ Prosecution Team on the west coast, Brian works with internal affairs on cases involving corrections officers’ misconduct. He wants to see how the corrections officers do their jobs from the perspective of the prisoners. 

Chris The brother of a former prisoner, Chris wants to go inside to see how the prison system dehumanizes and changes a person for the worse. Chris seems like a Southern lumbersexual hipster who’s been unironically following the Spin Doctors around the country on their latest tour:

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So after a lot of meet-and-greet in the first two episodes, it’s finally time for some jail. First up: processing! It’s a scary place in there with a lot of crazy people screaming and DEAR GOD, WOMAN! PUT THOSE THINGS AWAY!

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Ryan is so smart and superior to these low-IQ scumbags, which is why everyone in D-Pod almost immediately doesn’t buy his story. Ryan claims to have been busted for making fake IDs and forging checks. His whole timeline of college and the military doesn’t add up, and the other inmates are really suspicious. Ryan gets grilled pretty hard, and he has no explanation for why a college graduate and a military veteran would be so desperate as to commit this kind of fraud.

60 Days In Ryan

Meanwhile, Brian has no idea where he just came from or what he’s doing. I can tell he’s going to have a great time in here.

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The ladies get to stay in F-Pod, where there are lots of fun activities, such as pole dancing:

60 Days In Pole Dance

And twerking!

60 Days In Twerking

And lots and lots of drugs! (But that’s OK!)

60 Days In Mackenzie

We’re told that last season’s F-Pod residents were older and therefore a lot more mellow, which is odd because I thought they were feisty as hellcats. We didn’t get to meet many members of this season’s F-Pod crew, but one of them, Mackenzie, is all kinds of whacked-out from cooking, snorting and hot-railing meth. Sheri makes the mistake of hiding her PIN — the code inmates use to make phone calls and purchase things from the commissary — in her bra instead of doing the smart thing and memorizing the code. Hey, she’s old and can’t be expected to remember stuff! So now all the other inmates think she’s hiding heroin in her bra, and they’re not going to leave her alone until they get some of that action or she proves to them that she’s not carrying anything. All of this results in some nasty stuff “behind the curtain” that we’re going to have to wait until next week to find out about.

Monalisa is being a pain in the ass from the get-go. She appears to think the COs are violating her human rights if they don’t cater to her every whim posthaste. C’mon, lady! This is prison, not some charity benefit luncheon. Monalisa starts complaining to the CO about getting her phone call, and the CO says that nothing ever gets done in a hurry around here. (Is this prison or the DMV?)

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Monalisa gets transferred to F-Pod, where her first order of business is to make that phone call. Her second order of business is to whine about the phone not working. So what do you do when the phone doesn’t work? Push the emergency call button, of course, and complain that the telephone isn’t working. A CO comes in and explains that the button is for medical emergencies only, then walks out. Monalisa complains that there should’ve been a sign on the button indicating that it was for medical emergencies only. She probably considers the lack of an INOPERABLE TELEPHONE EMERGENCY button to be cruel and unusual punishment.

And that’s pretty much all the highlights to the season premiere episodes. I’m definitely not as entertained as I was last season, since there’s no one like Robert around for comic relief. And so far, there aren’t any other inmates as interesting as this guy.

So here’s other stuff we have to look forward to this season:

A sewer backup in one of the pods!

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A party!

60 Days In Party

And some stuff I’ve only seen late-nights on Cinemax.

60 Days In Ashleigh

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5 Comments

  1. Ashleigh i will pay you two soups next weds. If you show That azz one more time girl .ps sorry Zac..Oo!

  2. I’m pretty sure Ryan is this season’s Robert. And frankly as long as I’m getting a regular dose of Inmate Kody L.W. losing his mind (and his fist and his foot) on his pod mates, than I’m good. My new favorite show EVER! And ohhhh I’m worried about Ashleigh, Brian and Sheri because they do everything wrong. Why would Ashleigh show her butt to prison lesbians? LOL

    • Ha! Was Kody still in there? I didn’t see him. He’s got quite the fan following. I don’t think anyone’s quite the “actor” that Robert was, but Ryan’s definitely filling that role. The fact that this episode opened and closed with talk of Ashleigh’s butt leads me to believe they’re going to really work that angle this season.

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About Ryan Berenz 2166 Articles
Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.