“Gay for the Stay” & “Trains Run on Her”: Inside Mackenzie’s Prison Dating Life
7/1/20261 hr 7 min
Some of the best advice you’ll ever hear is simple: don’t go to prison. But sometimes, it’s unavoidable. If you do, the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville isn’t what you’d expect, more like a college campus than a prison. Programs, classes, even freedom to move during three daily yard times.
Yard time is where everything happens, fresh air, social life, information. It’s where people start whispering about the show they just saw.
The one about 17-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla.
The same Mackenzie walking the yard, full face of makeup, hair done, curls set, gems in her hair.
That one?
Killed two people.
And now, one former inmate says,
She’s in the bathroom getting trains run on her…
Davion Flanagan Memorial Scholarship Fund
Change the Game for Dom Foundation
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsStephanie Soo· Host0:01
Bada bing, bada boo. Some of the best advice you'll hear in life is sometimes the most simple advice. Don't go to prison. But apparently not all advice is worth taking, and sometimes, or, like, all the time, it's completely unavoidable at that point. But if you are to end up in a prison, the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, Ohio, is probably one of the better options. One reporter who's been inside, she says it's more like a college campus, and instead of housing students, there's dorm rooms with women that are classified by their charges. You've got units. They call them cottages. They don't even call it units. Cottages for the four-lifers. They're in there for life. You've got cottages for the people that are coming in and out. They've got a lot of programs in the reformatory that I have honestly not seen being offered at other prisons or even at, like, your local community college. You can get your GED, yes, but you can also take lessons on how to properly raise your child. You can help train service dogs. One former resident, Kat, she says, "You actually have a lot of freedom in there. There's a track. You've got a volleyball court, a basketball court, a softball field. You've got a gym. You've got school, a place where you can go to use computers for job readiness. You've got cosmetology school. You've got college, GEDs. There's a lot of buildings, and you kind of have free rein to kind of go and come as you please. If you're not doing that, you walk the track or you sit in the yard. There's, like, tables also, or you can watch TV in your bunk.