Jailbirds in Flight
CO Smith
grace · authority · mercy
The mercy that wears a uniform.
Please take a moment before you continue.
Most stories about prison end at the bars. CO Smith is what happens on the other side of them—the officer who reads the file, sees the human being inside it, and quietly chooses to do the small, dignifying thing she was never required to do. She is proof that authority and tenderness are not opposites, and that the systems we distrust are still made, hour by hour, of individual people deciding who they will be inside them. Spend ten minutes with her and you will think differently about power, and about the ordinary heroism of refusing to become what your uniform allows.
Get to know CO Smith
A short film in the Jailbirds in Flight series. Please watch, if you can, in one sitting.
An AI-generated film portrait based primarily on scenes and language from Jailbirds in Flight. All imagery and voice are AI-generated; no real footage or recording of CO Smith appears.
Soundbite of the Day
A moment with CO Smith
A portrait based primarily on scenes and language from Jailbirds in Flight.
A passage with CO Smith
From Nicole's writing — a scene as it happened.
"You know this Topeka?" Smith asked.
"Yes, ma'am," we said, in unison.
"I looked at your case," she said. "Doesn't seem to have anything to do with this woman. You wanna go?"
I couldn't help it—I lit up. If I hadn't been in prison, I might have actually levitated. Instead I tried to keep it to a human level of joy. Topeka is my oxygen. I was about to get to breathe for the first time since I arrived.
Smith watched me ride the edge between hysteria, laughter, and tears. To protect my dignity, she put a firm lid on the moment.
"Well, alright, go on now," she said, catching my eye just long enough for me to give her a nod that meant, You just saved my life. She received it with her own small look that said, I got you.
One of the biggest challenges I faced walking into MDC was that, before I ever got here, I had spent years building Unconditional Freedom, the nonprofit I started to test a stubborn belief: that people are not the worst thing they've done, and that the places our culture throws away—prisons, jails, encampments, the food-insecure corners of our cities—could become monasteries in disguise.
With programs like The Art of Soulmaking for incarcerated people, Guards to Guardians for corrections officers, and Free Food for folks who are hungry in both body and dignity, we tried to give everyone on both sides of the bars real practices, real responsibility, and a real way to contribute.
My job on the outside was to see the best in everyone and build systems around that faith. So at MDC, my challenge is different from many…
What did CO Smith awaken in you?
Written responses become part of the exhibition's guestbook.
If CO Smith met you where you stand, pass her forward.
Adjacent rooms
Move through the exhibition, one portrait at a time.