“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert H Schuller

As suspended visitation continues across the board for not only TDCJ but also FBOP, ICE and County Detention Centers, my clients are concerned about their loved ones, rescheduled ceremony dates and marriage licenses that may expire waiting on reschedules. Stay calm. This is temporary and put in place to prevent an outbreak.

For those of you who are booked clients, I’m offering to pay 1/2 the cost to replace your marriage license should it expire waiting on a reschedule. We will work through this together. You will get married eventually this virus and the ripple effects of state, federal and counties is put in place to prevent the spread of the virus.

I’ve had a few interviews with reporters the past two weeks regarding my thoughts about Rikers. Someone somewhere brought the virus into Rikers. It could have been Weinstein. It could have been someone else. We may never know. But we know this, Rikers has some of the most widespread virus numbers there are at a correctional facility. Louisiana, Washington, California and other states are behind but FBOP, TDCJ and other are keeping their numbers low and they are doing so by being cautious.

New York is leading the numbers and sadly there are a number of county detention centers releasing inmates “to prevent the spread of the virus.”

In Texas, an Executive Order halted the release of inmates. Dallas County is still releasing inmates. Dallas County has 17 cases of this virus.

While fear and anxiety regarding the future affect all of us in one way or another, my clients from Texas Twins Events and Belltower Chapel have also been forced to make changes to planned events too.

At the kickoff of wedding season and my busiest booking year yet, the virus has caused so much change to occur so fast that I’ve spent hours day and night talking to and counseling clients through extraordinary unique circumstances.

From canceled funerals to canceled weddings and baptisms as well as inmate wedding ceremonies being canceled, these changes and disappointments have affected all of my booked clients for March and April.

Moving canceled March bookings to April and possibly May at this point is a literal juggling act. I’m no longer traveling to California in May as previously planned due to the number of reschedules I have in Texas as this time. Currently, I plan to return to California in July but this is unconfirmed until my clients in California are taken care of. I appreciate your patience California Clients as we work through reschedules no one could have anticipated or predicted.

Regarding Texas TDCJ, FBOP, ICE and County Jail Clients in Texas, FBOP made an announcement yesterday that will give them 14 days to re evaluate.

During this window, they will monitor and isolate inmates to control the spread of this virus. There are very few FBOP cases in the United States.

(Inmate) 3/31/2020 – MDC Brooklyn; FCC Oakdale (7); USP Atlanta (2); MCC New York (3); FMC Butner (2); FCI Otisville; FCI Danbury; FCC Lompoc (3); FCI Elkton (2); USP Canaan, PA; RRC Phoenix, AZ; RRC Brooklyn, NY (4); RRC Janesville, WI. 

(Staff) 3/31/2020 –Grand Prairie, TX; Leavenworth, KS (no inmate contact); Yazoo, MS (2); Atlanta, GA (3); Danbury, CT; Butner, NC (2); Ray Brook, NY (2); New York, NY (5); Chicago, IL (2); Brooklyn, NY (4); Oakdale, LA (3); Lompoc, CA; Otisville, NY; Talladega, AL; Tucson, AZ.

In a statement to the AP, Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal said the agency has “thus far been fortunate in that our rate of COVID-19 infection is remarkably low.” 

The lockup in Oakdale accounts for five inmate cases. Only one other facility has as many cases, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Prison advocates have been warning for weeks about the likelihood that COVID-19 will spread rapidly inside U.S. detention facilities.

The top doctor at Rikers Island said the coronavirus-hit New York jail is a “public health disaster unfolding before our eyes” as he warned of the rapidly rising number of infections in the city’s jails.

In just 12 days, Ross MacDonald, the jail’s chief physician, said confirmed cases at Rikers had soared from one to nearly 200.

He added: “This is not a generational public health crisis, rather it is a crisis of a magnitude no generation living today has ever seen.”

He warned that it is “unlikely” they will be able to stop the growth, predicting that 20% of those infected will need hospital treatment and 5% ventilators.

He also called for the release of “as many vulnerable people as possible”.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainees must be immediately released from county jails where cases of novel coronavirus have been confirmed, a federal judge in New York ordered Thursday night.

The 10 detainees asked for their release “because of the public health crisis posed by COVID-19,” their petition said.

The men and women had been detained by federal immigration authorities and had removal proceedings pending in immigration court. They were being held at three jails in New Jersey where either detainees or staff had tested positive for coronavirus.

“Each Petitioner suffers from chronic medical conditions, and faces an imminent risk of death or serious injury in immigration detention if exposed to COVID-19,” the decision said.

Concerned that thousands of migrant children in federal detention facilities could be in danger of contracting the coronavirus, a federal judge in Los Angeles late on Saturday ordered the government to “make continuous efforts” to release them from custody.

The order from Judge Dolly M. Gee of the United States District Court came after plaintiffs in a long-running case over the detention of migrant children cited reports that four children being held at a federally licensed shelter in New York had tested positive for the virus.

“The threat of irreparable injury to their health and safety is palpable,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers said in their petition, which called for migrant children across the country to be released to outside sponsors within seven days, unless they represent a flight risk.

There are currently about 3,600 children in shelters around the United States operated under license by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, and about 3,300 more at three detention facilities for migrant children held in custody with their parents, operated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

For the tens of thousands of kids locked up in juvenile detention centers and other correctional facilities across America, experts have issued a gloomy warning: The coronavirus is coming.

Already this week, Louisiana confirmed that a staff member and three children in state custody had contracted the virus, including one living in a group home in Baton Rouge. Delaware, Minnesota, New York, Texas and Connecticut are among the other states that have reported positive tests among youth or staff.

Worried about the virus spreading in crowded facilities, where kids have little access to masks and even hand sanitizer, more than 30 correctional administrators and rights advocates called Tuesday for the release of vulnerable youth and for the stoppage of all new admissions. They also want a clear safety plan for those who remain inside, including access to adequate protective measures and better contact with loved ones.

“Even though these kids are hidden from view, they are still part of our community and their health affects the health of all of us, as we affect them,” said Renee Slajda, of the nonprofit Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. “Imagine what would happen if one school were allowed to stay open, even when students began testing positive for the virus. Hundreds of people would be exposed — the children, staff, and communities they go home to every night.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has moved to restrict the release of people in jail during the coronavirus pandemic — but Harris County’s misdemeanor judges aren’t abiding by his executive order. Instead, they’re following a federal court’s orders for their bail decisions.

And those tied to the court have again raised skepticism that Abbott’s order is even constitutional.

Instead of following Abbott’s recent executive order, a lawyer for the 16 criminal court judges that preside over low-level offenses in Texas’ largest county said in a Tuesday letter obtained by The Texas Tribune that the judges will continue to comply with practices solidified in a federal court agreement. That will allow for the automatic release of most misdemeanor defendants without collecting bail payment.

Before a lawsuit that spurred that agreement, the release of jail inmates accused of misdemeanors relied heavily on cash bail. Those practices were found unconstitutional in federal courts for discriminating against poor defendants, prompting a consent decree last year.

Now, many Harris County defendants are required to be released on no-cost, personal bonds, which can include conditions like drug tests and regular check-ins.

The number of detainees testing positive for coronavirus at the Cook County Jail in Chicago skyrocketed over the weekend, leaving Sheriff Tom Dart grabbling with a dilemma that runs against the very grain of a veteran lawman and former prosecutor: whether to free alleged criminals instead of keeping them locked up.

As of Tuesday afternoon, one of America’s largest single-site jails had 141 inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19, up from just 38 on Friday, Dart told ABC News. Of all the inmates tested so far only 11 were negative, he said.

“This is beyond complicated,” Dart said. “There was zero playbook for this stuff.”

The news of the death comes as coronavirus infections continue to climb in Orange County. 

The total number of cases in Orange County reached 502 on Tuesday. Seven people — three men and four women — have died of the virus. Four of those individuals were at least age 65, and one was between ages 45 and 64. One person who died was between 25 and 34 years old and another was between 35 and 44 years old, according to data from the Orange County Health Care Agency. 

As of Monday, nine people who had symptoms consistent with COVID-19 were being isolated in the jail. Five inmates have tested positive, and roughly 150 are being quarantined under observation, Sheriff Don Barnes said.

An inmate and four people who work in the Los Angeles County jails have tested positive for the coronavirus infection, heightening fears that the disease could spread quickly in the overcrowded jail system.

The inmate, who was at Twin Towers Correctional Facility, displayed symptoms Thursday and was moved to the jail’s Correctional Treatment Center for isolation, Correctional Health Director Jackie Clark said. His test came back positive over the weekend, and he is now at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. 

The inmate had been held in a one-man cell in a “high observation housing” area reserved for mentally ill inmates. About 16 others in that housing area were being quarantined, with staff monitoring them regularly with temperature checks, Clark said. She added that classes and therapy sessions for that group were halted about three weeks ago to minimize the risk of exposure. 

“We don’t have a huge concern for the 16 that’s in quarantine,” she said. Clark said it’s likely the inmate was exposed in the jail, where he’s been housed since about December. Officials are working to track his movements and determine exactly where he was exposed and by whom. 

 California plans to expedite the release of up to 3,500 inmates in the coming weeks to combat the spread of the coronavirus through its prison system.

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced the move Tuesday in a court filing asking federal judges not to intervene and order further inmate releases from California’s overcrowded prisons.

“We do not take these new measures lightly. Our first commitment at CDCR is ensuring safety — of our staff, of the incarcerated population, of others inside our institutions, and of the community at large,” Ralph Diaz, secretary for the corrections department, said in a statement. “However, in the face of a global pandemic, we must consider the risk of COVID-19 infection as a grave threat to safety, too.”

The California prison system is operating at more than 134% of its capacity, holding nearly 30,000 people more than it was designed for.

Amid fears that the coronavirus will carve a deadly path through prisons and jails, counties and states are releasing thousands of inmates — New Jersey alone began freeing hundreds of people this week — and the federal prison system is coming under intense pressure to take similar measures.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, people who usually spend their days fighting with each other—public defenders and prosecutors—joined forces to get 75 people released from jail in a single day. And outside Oakland, California, jailers are turning to empty hotel rooms to make sure the people they let out have a place to go.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot told The Marshall Project he was frustrated about the slow pace of releases from the county’s jail, among the largest in the country. The jail population is now almost 1,000 over its typical average of 5,000.

All jury trials have been canceled, so Creuzot worried those numbers would swell. His office has been working with defense attorneys and judges to release eligible people on personal recognizance bonds, he said.

While other states hurriedly work to release inmates, this virus and the affects of jobs, inmates, correctional staff and my clients continues to change on a daily basis.

FBOP issued a statement to self isolate inmates for 14 days to prevent the spread of this virus within the Bureau Of Prisons.

Homeschooling, Homebound, & The Tiger King? A Literal Trifecta Of A Quarantine Craziness…

This morning my concerned son, also a new father, worriedly me if “anything like this has happened before?” He was referring to the world today.

Not in my lifetime has nearly everyone other than essential employees being told to stay home has ever occurred.

My twin sister is currently trying to wake the twins up for homeschooling and Netflix used a worldwide quarantine to create a Tiger King frenzy of viewers.

I don’t watch television as a whole as I’m usually working seven days a week.

But, my niece and my twin sister both told me “you have got to see this show!”

It’s rare for anyone in my family to advise me to tune in. I’m not accustomed to laying around watching television but this “Tiger King train wreck” was too hard to to pass up.

First, I did some research about Joe though. If this guy was really as flamboyant portrayed, I knew that someone somewhere had come across him in the entertainment industry.

If you had told me “that someone” would be our former production company, GCF (Good Clean Fun), I wouldn’t have believed it. But, Jason has an eye for big characters.

Sadly, most of Hollywood would find Joe Exotic “too controversial.” How would you pitch this guy to a network? Honey Boo Boo and Mama June pale in comparison to the wild ride of Joe Exotic.

The crazy outfits, the wild attitude, hating his competition, having two husbands, an employee that gets an arm bit off AND returns to work? Wow.

Between answering emails of alarmed clients concerned about their licenses expiring waiting on the shut down of prisons to lift, I found time to view the sizzle reel filmed by Good Clean Fun.

The fact that Cindy and I knew everyone at GCF since they had filmed our sizzle reel and subsequent television pilot made this Tiger King sizzle reel filmed by them far more intriguing to me. After all, we spent a year with the team at GCF. Filming the sizzle, Skype calls, filming the pilot, voice over calls and more.

We knew our production company people at GCF and we liked them. While we didn’t love the pilot, we rolled with the punches.

Jason was before his time finding a character that even the best writers could never create. Truth is stranger than fiction.

No frankenbiting here. It wasn’t needed with a guy so far out there that he wanted to be president.

The story and the characters are so shocking that I called Cindy and said “Hey, GCF found this guy and filmed a sizzle. I wonder how that pitch meeting must’ve gone?”

Was it “hey we found this wild guy living at a zoo who is so outlandish and passionate that there has to be a series here. He would make Billy The Exterminator look mild by comparison.”

The Networks..”Umm well this guy and his life are too controversial for television. What would the sponsors think?”

Netflix… “Everyone is stuck at home under quarantine. Now would be the time to air that Tiger King series.”

A lot of folks don’t know what a sizzle reel is so I will explain. The variations of filming for Cindy and I verses Joe Exotic are remarkably different.

How so? We filmed at GCF while Joe filmed from his zoo. Why? He wouldn’t leave.

We were in California filming for Hot Bench. Kristen and Kjerstin had found us on LinkedIn about a month before we were scheduled to film “Don’t Call Me Bridezilla” on Hot Bench.

The timing of flying to LA to film Hot Bench made going to GCF to film the sizzle convenient as I had asked the travel coordinator for Hot Bench to extend our travel plans. I do this all the time when filming. The network wants to fly you in and out. You explain you will pay your own hotel beyond the network and extend your travel plans. The coordinator changes your flight for you.

Kristen had sent an email which was how we wound up under contract for Pawning Planners.

Here is how it went “My name is Kristen and I’m with a production company in Los Angeles. Would you be interested in a show about your business?”

Between GCF and Taillight, Discovery had called me first from Beverly Hills. I was at the doctor when the call came in to schedule a Skype call. I had never used Skype and had no idea what they expected. I was advised to “show my big personality.” Whatever the Hell that meant. Because I had just moved and didn’t have wifi set up. The connection issues and my frustration made that Skype call with Carmen at Discovery a bust.

But, other production companies would come and go. I’m now an expert at Skype. I don’t need anyone telling me to show them “my big personality” either. I’m myself and not acting. I don’t need to act.

Taillight came after Discovery. Good Clean Fun came after Tailight. There have been so many others after GCF that it’s easy to lose track.

I’ve learned to have the production companies pay travel though. You learn along the way. If you don’t learn, travel can become really expensive!

The Hot Bench episode came in the midst of production companies and networks calling me. It’s a long story about that Bridezilla ya all. She lied to get a police discount and was 2 hours late to her own wedding. That wedding was a train wreck. A Tardy Party Bride Who Lied. By the way, I won the case on Hot Bench.

Since we would be in California filming Hot Bench, I told Kristen we would be in LA and she invited us to go to GCF.

It was there at GCF that our interview for the sizzle was filmed. It would be edited and added to before we were sent a link to the sizzle. Here it is… The Pawning Planners.

Watching this for the first time from the Office Max parking lot in Weatherford, Cindy and I didn’t know what a sizzle was. The text from Kristen said “here’s the sizzle.”

We clicked the link and watched from our phones the interview in LA that had been edited. We watched in stunned silence. We watched it again. And again. And again. We were shocked.

Would we talk about anything? Yes. Did we want personal conversations on film passed around to networks? No. But we weren’t in control of the edits.

How long were we on film in the GCF offices? I have no idea about an hour I guess. We talked about our lives, our families and our clients. We had merged Texas Twins Events and Texas Twins Treasures to create a barter option, The Pawning Planners.

Were there things on the sizzle we wish there weren’t? Absolutely. But a sizzle is meant to grab the networks attention. The talent has no say in the editing of the sizzle or the pilot. I will get to the pilot in a minute.

Let’s look at the sizzle created by GCF for Joe Exotic. Did he want roadkill in his sizzle? Probably not. But the sizzle is at the production companies discretion. The sizzle for Joe was recently uploaded. Who uploaded it to his YouTube channel? Who knows but he had the film and he had the film because GCF sent it to him.

How do I know? Because I have the sizzle and pilot film for Pawning Planners. It was sent to me too. I have and have had both the sizzle reel film and the pilot episode film discs for five years now.

Before we jump in and watch this tantalizing sizzle, I cannot in a million years imagine Joe flying to LA and walking in to GCF to film a sizzle. It would be similar to Billy The Exterminator strolling down Hollywood Blvd. These types of characters don’t blend in anywhere.

Joe must’ve told GCF to come to him. Here we go kids and buckle up for one of the craziest sizzle reels I’ve seen… Joe Exotic Sizzle Reel.

The filming of Joe’s sizzle reel obviously took far longer to film. Why? Our sizzle had footage edited into it from stock video and ironically footage from Taillight TV for their project with us, Texas Twins TV, that had been uploaded to Vimeo from one of the two people hired to film Cindy and I in Fort Worth, Sean Percer.

Chris Watson and Sean Percer filmed Cindy and I at home, at the TCGPWA parade and at the Rainbow Lounge for a sizzle with Taillight.

Kristen had asked “if I had any film to send to GCF?” I asked Sean and Chris and Sean had a Vimeo video link that I sent to Kristen.

The video from Rainbow Lounge was used in the sizzle, Pawning Planners.

The footage from Rainbow Lounge was commissioned by Taillight which I found odd since it wasn’t my film to begin with.

But I didn’t question my production company. Maybe they had asked Sean or Tailight to use the film? Who knows?

The footage of Joe is obviously shot on site. There was no stock footage rolled into his sizzle.

I remember Jason having Kristen call me to advise me “we were needed in LA to attend pitch meetings.”

For folks who don’t know what a pitch meeting is, I will elaborate. The sizzle reel is used to pitch the networks.

If the networks have interest, they schedule a pitch meeting. I asked “who is paying for travel?” I was told “you are.” Well then.

I made travel and hotel accommodations to fly to LA and attend pitch meetings with Cindy.

Cindy and I flew to LA (at our own expense) to attend two pitch meetings with our production company.

The first was at Lifetime. The second was at TLC. Lifetime gave a green light and plans to film the pilot in Texas were made a few months later.

Why no one gave Joe a green light is odd. This guy was so wacky that the only person I could even compare him to was Billy The Exterminator or Dog The Bounty Hunter.

But who sponsor such a show of controversy? Caged animals are controversial.

Carol and a disappearing husband? There’s mystery, animosity, intrigue and a wide array of characters going on in this series that you can’t stop watching.

While Netflix took a gamble on rolling with the punches, they took a risk that paid off.

As for GCF, Jason saw something there but the timing just wasn’t right in my opinion. He had an eye for talent. He had a vision for drawing you into the characters. He was ahead of his time with Joe Exotic.

How this Joe guy went unnoticed for as long as he did is anyone’s guess. He was “out there.”

Rumors are circulating that Joe is at FMC in Fort Worth, Texas. I have been to FMC a number of times to officiate Inmate ceremonies.

I perform state, federal and ICE as well as county jail weddings. My twin sister does too as does my niece.

A number of people may view my clients as controversial. Others don’t. I have a mixed bag of clients from Texas Twins Events, The Pawning Planners and TDCJ Officiant.

Like Joe having fans and critics, I also think have people who might disagree with inmate marriage or LBGT marriage but I accept being controversial because my goal and my role is unbiased.

I don’t ask why my clients are marrying an inmate or why someone is incarcerated. Why? It’s none of my business. My business is to plan and execute religious ceremonies and services. My twin sister and I have found a way to help anyone regardless of their income.

Did this make us different? Maybe. Did our passion to give others the Dream Event we didn’t have require thinking outside the box? Absolutely. All of these years later, we are stronger than ever. Busier than ever and aware of how television works.

If you don’t fit a certain mold and let’s face it Joe didn’t, your story may never be told. Netflix took a gamble but it’s a gamble that paid off for them.

As I review a number of emails from clients who are on hold awaiting confirmed and cancelled dates at TDCJ Units, the Executive Order issued yesterday is pertaining to county and municipal jails regarding release.

For those of you who haven’t seen this Tiger King series, if you are stuck at home like many of us are, it’s worth tuning into…