Category: Miniseries

We get to listen in on confidential interviews conducted by Sgt. Kevin Steele before his death. Plus, we finally get to see surveillance footage from inside the B8 unit that sheds new light on the murder of Luis Giovanny Aguilar.

Editor’s note: After this episode first aired on April 2, 2024, CDCR finally located Valentino Rodriguez’s supplemental report about the murder of Luis Giovanny Aguilar that we reference in this episode. Their public records team was initially unable to find it. However, the agency said the report was exempt from disclosure.

Resources

If you are currently in crisis, you can dial 988 [U.S.] to reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SAMHSA National Help Line

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Helpline

US Health and Human Services

Warmline Directory

Episode Transcript

Find more information at our website.

If you have tips or feedback about this series please reach out to us at onourwatch@kqed.org.  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The team digs deep into the homicide of Luis Giovanny Aguilar—the murder in the day room that Officer Valentino Rodriguez was tasked to write a report about, and that had consumed Sgt. Kevin Steele up until the last day of his life. We track down each of the men who took part in the stabbing to find out: did officers also play a role?

Resources

If you are currently in crisis, you can dial 988 [U.S.] to reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SAMHSA National Help Line

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Helpline

US Health and Human Services

Warmline Directory

Episode Transcript

Find more information at our website.

If you have tips or feedback about this series please reach out to us at onourwatch@kqed.org.  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Valentino Rodriguez Sr. is on the treadmill one morning when he gets a call—Sgt. Kevin Steele is dead. Val Sr. has lost not only his friend, but his partner in their shared quest to find the truth. A meeting with the FBI provides few answers, even as new questions arise about why a second whistleblower from New Folsom has lost his life.

Resources

If you are currently in crisis, you can dial 988 [U.S.] to reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SAMHSA National Help Line

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Helpline

US Health and Human Services

Warmline Directory

Episode Transcript

Find more information at our website.

If you have tips or feedback about this series please reach out to us at onourwatch@kqed.org.  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did Sgt. Kevin Steele go from being a true believer in the institution of New Folsom to writing an explosive memo hoping to tear it down? We sift through video evidence, interrogation tapes and internal reports to find glimpses of his transformation. But when he feels his reports of corruption are ignored—he takes an even more drastic step.

Resources

If you are currently in crisis, you can dial 988 [U.S.] to reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SAMHSA National Help Line

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Helpline

US Health and Human Services

Warmline Directory

Episode Transcript

Find more information at our website.

If you have tips or feedback about this series please reach out to us at onourwatch@kqed.org.  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Valentino’s unexpected death just days after a confidential meeting with the prison’s warden leaves his grieving father with a tangle of questions and suspicions. When law enforcement and prison leadership fail to act, Val Sr. finds an ally in Sgt. Kevin Steele, a senior officer who’d taken Valentino under his wing. The two men have a shared mission–to find justice for Valentino. 

Resources

If you are currently in crisis, you can dial 988 [U.S.] to reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SAMHSA National Help Line

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Helpline

US Health and Human Services

Warmline Directory

Episode Transcript

Find more information at our website.

If you have tips or feedback about this series please reach out to us at onourwatch@kqed.org.  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Consumed with stress and fed up with how he’s being treated, Valentino Rodriguez reaches a breaking point at work. A veteran officer and mentor to Valentino starts looking into the murder that happened in the dayroom. Valentino and Mimy get married, then Valentino goes in for a final meeting with the warden of New Folsom. 

Resources

If you are currently in crisis, you can dial 988 [U.S.] to reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SAMHSA National Help Line

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Helpline

US Health and Human Services

Warmline Directory

Episode Transcript

Find more information at our website.

If you have tips or feedback about this series please reach out to us at onourwatch@kqed.org.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Soon after correctional officer Valentino Rodriguez starts working at New Folsom prison, he gets caught up in a bad incident. An incarcerated man ends up in the hospital with horrific injuries, and the prison starts an investigation. Valentino feels pressured to back up his fellow officers' version of the story, even though he thinks it might not be the truth. Then he gets an opportunity he's dreamed of-- to join an elite unit investigating crimes in the prison.

Resources

If you are currently in crisis, you can dial 988 [U.S.] to reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SAMHSA National Help Line

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Helpline

US Health and Human Services

Warmline Directory

Episode Transcript

Find more information at our website.

If you have tips or feedback about this series please reach out to us at onourwatch@kqed.org.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re back with a second season of On Our Watch from KQED! “New Folsom” traces the footsteps of two whistleblowers in an elite investigative unit in California’s most dangerous prison. Host Sukey Lewis and co-reporter Julie Small piece together a gripping narrative about broken promises and unwritten rules. It’s a story about who gets hurt when the system that promises to keep us safe is bent on protecting itself. New episodes drop weekly, starting February 6. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In God we Lust has moved. You can binge all six episodes ad-free right now by subscribing to Wondery+ in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app: https://wondery.com/links/in-god-we-lust/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Mike Williams vanishes on a hunting trip, the authorities suspect he was eaten by alligators but the true predators who took Mike may lurk much closer to home. The mystery of Mike’s disappearance might have faded from memory, if it wasn’t for one woman’s tireless crusade. From Wondery, comes a new season of Over My Dead Body; a story about an obsessive love affair, a scandalous secret and a mother’s battle for the truth.

Listen to Over My Dead Body: Wondery.fm/_OMDB_

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.