Fox & Rob Richardson: 21 Years as an Incarcerated Family | TIME Documentary, Angola Prison, Clemency & Redemption

When Fox Richardson found out her husband Rob had been sentenced to 60 years, she was pregnant with twins and standing in a prison yard herself. Through a bob-wire window, with Rob standing on tied-together mattresses in another inmate’s room just to reach her, she heard the news that would define the next 21 years of their lives.

“When I found out that Robert had been sentenced to 60 years, I almost spanked it,” Fox told me. “And pregnant with twins, I turned hot all over. I’m on the prison wreck yard myself. He’s talking to me through a bob-wire window that he’s tied mattresses up together to stand on top of in another stalemate’s room so that he could talk to me while the women that are incarcerated are outside on the wreck yard.”

But in that moment of devastation, something else happened. Instead of breaking down, Fox made a promise that would sustain them through two decades apart: “My words to him in response to that, instead of feigning, which, you know, I clearly felt, my words to him immediately were, it will make the movie more better. But I promise I won’t let go of your hand, we’ll walk it together.”

From High School Romance to Business Dreams

Fox and Rob’s story started long before that prison yard moment. They met when Fox was 16 and Rob came knocking on her door to pick up her girlfriend Wanda. Rob was home visiting from military service, about to be stationed overseas in Scotland. Their early relationship was built on letters and expensive long-distance phone calls, a foundation of communication that would prove crucial later.

After ten years of on-again, off-again dating, they finally married in 1997. Rob had attended the Million Man March in 1995 and was inspired to marry the mother of his children. “I thought that she deserved to be something more than just the mother of my kids but that they deserved the right to be, you know, brought up in a structured setting,” Rob explained.

They eloped to Florida, and Rob bungee jumped the night of their wedding to celebrate. The next day, they signed paperwork for their first home and started negotiating the lease for their first business together, a hip hop clothing store called Culture.

When Dreams Became Desperation

Everything moved fast those first six months of marriage. They bought a house, secured rental property, and prepared to open their store. Then it all fell apart. Their investor pulled out right before opening, their new house’s foundation shifted, and the roof collapsed during the first rain, destroying everything inside.

“Being in our mid 20s, you know, doing all of these things, we didn’t have the best of mentors, you know, are people that could even guide us through what we were experiencing at the moment,” Rob reflected. “And left our own devices, you know, we started entertaining thoughts that would ultimately lead to the action that would change our lives forever.”

The idea of robbing a bank didn’t come from criminal sophistication. It came from desperation mixed with cultural influences. Movies like “Dead Presidents” and “Set It Off” were playing. Hip hop culture was emerging. “When you add to desperation or when you add to hardships and you add music and you add movies and films and all of these things that tend to condone such behavior, you know, and sensationalize it in certain instances, then you kind of are, you have a predisposition toward doing certain things when the right scenario creates itself,” Rob explained.

Even on the day of the robbery, they weren’t committed criminals. They had a bus accident on the way, which Rob now sees as God giving them an out. But instead of taking it, they saw it as one more problem to solve. “We saw a wrecked car and said, oh, man, now the car is wrecked. Throw that on the pile.”

The Legal Nightmare

What many people don’t know from watching the documentary “Time” is that initially, all three participants pled guilty and had a reasonable plea deal worked out. Fox would do no jail time, and Rob and his nephew would face 10 to 18 years pending a pre-sentence investigation.

But an overzealous attorney upset the plea bargain trying to get a “better deal,” then pulled out when they couldn’t pay him anymore. A special prosecutor came in, pulled all deals off the table, and pushed for trial.

Rob was sentenced to 61 years as a first-time offender: 60 years for armed robbery and one additional year for jury tampering. The judge made the sentences deliberately provocative. The last jury tampering in that parish had been in 1938, and Rob was sentenced in 1999. Sixty-one years apart. The judge wanted to send a message.

Walking It Together

Fox’s response to Rob’s sentence became their north star for the next two decades. Her immediate words weren’t about unfairness or anger, but about commitment and faith. That promise to not let go of his hand carried them through 21 years of separation, raising six sons, and fighting a system designed to break families apart.

Fox served her own time and came out ready to fight. She used her voice to advocate for the voiceless, documenting their experience and building a movement around criminal justice reform. “When I saw all of the atrocities that actually existed in how they were warehousing of the human beings and I just looked around in my prayer was just a guy would let me use my voice for the voiceless,” she told me.

Their story, captured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Time,” shows what’s possible when love refuses to break under impossible pressure. For Rob, who got $5,163.36 from that bank robbery (and Fox jokes the 36 cents was probably theirs to begin with), 61 years seemed like a death sentence. But Fox’s promise kept them both alive to the possibility of redemption.

Today, they lead advocacy efforts through Rich Family Ministries, working to change both lives and laws. Their nightmare lasted 21 years, but their commitment to walking it together made survival possible. Not just survival, but purpose.