Lost weekends

Thousands of Los Angeles County prisoners are housed in Pitchess Detention center, 50 miles from the inner city neighborhoods where police make many arrests. The closest bus stop is a mile away from the jail, and visitors can either walk the last mile or get a ride from Mama Betty.

The journey, which can take hours, ends in a 30 minute visit with the person behind bars. "It's like the whole journey the whole process is longer than the visit itself," says 25-year-old Nancy Rivera, who has visited the jail countless times.

George Lavender finds out how this weekly journey to the jail has made a community out of the visitors, and an unlikely hero out of a woman named Mama Betty.

Photo: Betty Peters, known as Mama Betty, shuttles jail visitors along the last mile of the journey. (George Lavender)