Recap: Wichita ‘Lockup’ turns to skinhead for lesson on race relations

Wichita’s time in the “Lockup” spotlight is now halfway over, as the third of six episodes aired over the weekend.

The most recent episode of “Lockup,” which premiered Sunday (bumped from Saturday by MSNBC’s coverage of breaking news Saturday evening), was a return to form.

Similar to the first episode of the season, Sunday’s “Lockup” focused on two main storylines, as opposed to following four or five mini-plotlines, as it did last week.

Notably absent from this episode was Pastor Tina Gilmore, the prison minister who had been a fan favorite in both episodes one and two.

It was, however, the first time the show ventured into the women’s detention area to film.

The episode, “On Broadway,” is currently streaming on-demand at www.msnbc.com/lockup, for those who missed it over the weekend.

Here’s more information about the real-life people featured on this week’s episode of “Lockup”:

A skinhead with a violent past

One of the scariest plotlines to come out of the Wichita “Lockup” episodes so far is that of Jason Galliart, a 37-year-old self-professed skinhead who is in jail for allegedly beating his girlfriend and threatening to kill her with a knife. Galliart, who is entirely tattooed from the neck to the chest, shows off his “Aryan Pride” and swastika tattoos for the cameras, claiming that he’s “not a supremacist – I’m a separatist.” He tells the cameras he would prefer the jail to be segregated, and in one scene, two black inmates interviewed say Galliart, his tattoos and credo does not bother them. “I believe we should all stick to our own race,” he tells the cameras. “You go with your own people, just like animals go with their own species. It’s just the natural order of things.”

The woman Galliart admits to hurting still visits him weekly and gives him anywhere from $30 to $50 a week. Both Galliart and the woman initially tell the cameras that she has recanted her story, and that Galliart did not have a knife when he allegedly attacked her. But then, in a separate interview with the MSNBC cameras, the woman tells the film crews she was not making it up, and that she plans on telling the truth in court – but she feels guilty for being the cause of him going back to jail.

After she tells Galliart of her conversation with the MSNBC camera crews, Galliart refuses to talk again on camera. He is currently being housed out-of-county, in the Labette County Jail, according to the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office.

A stabbing on Broadway

The second major plot line of this episode starred 20-year-old Vegas Walker, who was in jail on charges of aggravated battery, the result of a stabbing incident on Broadway. (On a side note, Broadway’s reputation continues to go south in the show – Sedgwick County sheriff’s Deputy Michael Clopton notes you can find stolen cars, drugs, prostitution and human trafficking “at any given time … (on) pretty much the entire stretch of Broadway.” Walker, who said she’d been jumped, maced, and otherwise attacked on Broadway, said it gives her an “adrenaline rush.”) Walker, who said she was homeless at the time, was selling drugs on Broadway and had an altercation with a man, who she said she then stabbed in self-defense. A judge doesn’t buy it, and she is convicted of the crime – which a judge notes could have been tried as attempted murder. Shortly after, in the jail, she’s shown trying to jump off the mezzanine level in a suicide attempt. She’s then put on suicide watch.

She hopes to get off on probation, hoping Judge Christopher Magana will be lenient because of her rough upbringing. She is defended by Assistant Public Defender Eli O’Brien, but after a compelling argument by the prosecution, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Amyx, Magana sentences her to 68 months in jail. Despondent, Walker refuses to go back inside her cell until she is calmed down by Sgt. Lisa Abbott.

She was transferred to the Topeka Correctional Facility shortly after filming, where she remains, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

Toilet-paper policy

The episode makes a quick reference to Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter’s policy of providing one toilet paper roll per week to inmates – which, in mid-2013, caused inmates to start writing to the Eagle in protest. Easter explains the toilet-paper rationing is to save taxpayer money and avoid waste. It’s not a full-fledged storyline – as the clip attached to this story is the plotline in its entirety – but it’s amusing to hear the inmates describe their TP woes.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Lisa Abbott

In the Vegas Walker plotline, Sedgwick County sheriff’s Sgt. Lisa Abbott comes across as compassionate, but fair. She tells the cameras it’s often difficult to toe the line between being too friendly and being professional. “You’ve got to keep that separate line of caring too much and doing your job – I want her to know I care about her. I do, that’s my job – to take care of these people while they’re here,” she tells the cameras. She is seen as playing a major role in helping calm Walker down after her sentencing, allowing her to call her mother.

Judge Christopher Magana

Vegas Walker’s sentencing judge, Christopher Magana, is portrayed in the episode as a judge not exactly known for leniency in the jail. A jailhouse friend of Walker’s asks her through her cell door who her sentencing judge is – both of them mispronouncing Magana’s name as something sounding like “McGoningan.” “Girl, you going to prison,” her friend tells her afterward.

This story was originally published January 30, 2017 at 7:50 AM with the headline "Recap: Wichita ‘Lockup’ turns to skinhead for lesson on race relations."