Latest / DA CREW Podcast / DA CREW PODCASTSEASON 1_ EPISODE #48 HOST PAMELA J HAYES-LIGGINS (SHOW #3))

Transcript

DA CREW PODCASTSEASON 1_ EPISODE #48 HOST PAMELA J HAYES-LIGGINS (SHOW #3)) · DA CREW Podcast

• 0:00
  M hm, no one can be trained for my brain and six in my
• 0:45
  brain and tens on his deliverercallems, and they get my lap against the wall
• 0:50
  and my dick in the dust. My sixty five is so flush, but
• 0:54
  they nobody gets rust so imself between the rock and a hard place. And
• 0:59
  ain't no womb for no funky Yeah, smile with my friends, mice first
• 1:03
  step with every breath of Jake, I'm gold friends with every step up.
• 1:10
  Hey, everyone is your girl the obg with Lady Tea and we're talking about
• 1:14
  our show for this May eighteen the War Magazine, and then we're gonna let
• 1:19
  you see who's gonna being stopping by this week. What's going? Yeah?
• 1:36
  Yeah, how does that so strongly? We donna make it to the justice
• 1:42
  system. Are we gonna make it with the innocent? Does we gonna hall
• 1:47
  I had the guilty? Body is we're trying to do? We donna think
• 1:53
  it in the justice system and we gonna make it with the innocent? Does
• 1:57
  we gonna havelight had the guilty bar? Soon we want to do make sure
• 2:02
  to call us or hit us up on our email to be a part of
• 2:06
  our show. We'll see you one of eighteen. This is obs be so
• 2:09
  proud of ant filled up with me. Hey, guys, it's me the
• 2:15
  OBG. Unfortunately, Lady T is not with us today because she has to
• 2:21
  work, but she's here in spirit and she will be back next month where
• 2:25
  we go live again. But I have an amazing, amajor show. I
• 2:30
  have none other than will Fredo, and I also have Sheldon. Both of
• 2:34
  them are part of the War family. They have been doing that thing.
• 2:38
  Will Fredo has been home for two years. My man Sheldon just came out
• 2:42
  two weeks ago and he is full of life, full of love, full
• 2:45
  of energy. He has a lot of information for you guys. You guys,
• 2:49
  you remember if you want to call into the show and ask us questions,
• 2:53
  or if you want to ask the guys any questions, I'm gonna give
• 2:55
  you that number and one second. Because I still don't know about heart,
• 3:00
  but you know, the OBG. I'm tired, so soorry, I don't
• 3:06
  know the enough of my heart yet. But you can call into the show
• 3:10
  and you will call into the show at this number. Hold on one second,
• 3:15
  I'm gonna say I'm gonna put it in the chat as well. Um,
• 3:19
  wells it not coming out for me. It's just one of them days
• 3:22
  and Jab has been really busy with me. But you could call it in
• 3:25
  at nine one four four one seven nine one nine six and you could get
• 3:30
  us live. You could go into the chat and say hello to us.
• 3:34
  I want to thank everybody for being a part of the War magazine and logging
• 3:39
  in and talking to us about different things, because we are one big family.
• 3:45
  Also, I want to welcome home my friend. Um, oh my
• 3:49
  god, Vital Vital came home as well. He's home with Joe Lee Ross.
• 3:53
  I'm happy for your family. God bless you guys. He's enjoying your
• 3:58
  life. He came out to O Got Fashion. It's home Fashion. I'm
• 4:01
  happy for you. Congratulations soon and very soon Corey Higgins will be on that
• 4:08
  to Home with as well. So we just want to get started with our
• 4:13
  show and you can bring them in, and you can bring both of them
• 4:15
  well Fraido Air shall then you guys can come on in hell you afraid that
• 4:18
  Hay show there. I'm gonna thank you for coming too the show. I'm
• 4:23
  glad you guys are here. Um, well afraid of its introduce yourself to
• 4:30
  the people. Um, thanks paying me for having me is always showed and
• 4:34
  it's good to see you home. It's definitely um good to understand when it's
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  real people that get what they hand called for to be able to come out
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  and really take a joy of life, good evening. My name is Wilfredo
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  la Vicuinteh. Where do I start? UM? I came out July nineteen,
• 4:54
  twenty twenty one, after doing twenty years and sinks in correctional facility.
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  UM I am now currently I am working for Rikers Island as a community a
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  workshop facilitator for Fake Cap impact of fake Cap Link and right now the contract
• 5:11
  is the rescindable. We want to talk about that a little bit later,
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  but I have decided to now pivot and now I am a community organizer working
• 5:17
  with the Liaison Office and concert with the Federal Monitor. That's dealing with the
• 5:26
  two thou thirteen lawsuit for Stop Questioning Frisk. That is for Lagne and for
• 5:31
  Davis and for Floyd. That's dealing with the lawsuit of Stopping First, with
• 5:36
  Operation Clean Holes, also with the Stopping First and Nicer projects, and also
• 5:42
  with the certain stops at frisk that are happening on the streetsuit of five boroughs
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  and I'm happy to be Wow. That's a big I have some questions for
• 5:51
  you later, Shelton. Please welcome home. Please introduce yourself for everybody all.
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  My name is Sheldy. Can hear me right? Yeah? We can
• 6:02
  hear you. Okay. My name is Sheldon Johnson. I'm also known as
• 6:06
  mainly known as SUPERB. I came home two weeks ago on May fourth.
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  I got a reversal on my sentence on a four forty twenty. I gave
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  back forty four years. I had a seventy year sentence. So what they
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  basically did was they just consolidated. I mean they I had three consecutive sentences
• 6:26
  of twenty five, twenty five, and twenty which adds up to seventy and
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  they consolidated all of the sentences concurrently to give me time serve. So I
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  walked out on May fourth. I've been out two weeks. Hit the ground
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  running, I am. I'm currently working with the Guilty Project. I'm the
• 6:45
  director of Legislative Policy. I went to a couple of rallies already. We
• 6:51
  went to the Clean Slate rally last week. Earlier this week, we went
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  to the Earn Time Credit the second Look Act. I've been, um,
• 6:59
  you know, just collaborating with some senators that that I have relationships that I
• 7:02
  had build relationships with while I was in prison, Julius Salazar, zell Nor,
• 7:09
  Myrie, Eddie Gibbs, m Latrese Walker. So we're just basically working
• 7:15
  on I'm working with the CCA Community Center for Alternatives and we just basically we're
• 7:20
  just trying to implement some legislative change. I don't have a job technically yet,
• 7:25
  a paying job, but I'm working on it. Right. It's called
• 7:29
  the support. I mean, the support has been amazing. Family has been
• 7:32
  amazing. Fashion came to get me, Blaze came to get me, um
• 7:38
  Bush, Derek Hamilton was in the courtroom for me. I mean, it's
• 7:42
  just been it's just been huge. I still don't have an ID card yet,
• 7:47
  so actually have a jail, a jail a prison ID card. So
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  but you know, I'm here, I'm alive, I'm breathing. You know,
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  you live every day, but you die once, So I'm living every
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  day. Amen. Amen, I can't stop smiling because I mean, it's
• 8:05
  this you got, It's it's a possibility for my husband. Absolutely. You
• 8:11
  guys, y'all know Cory the Game. Y'all speaking speaking of Corey, we're
• 8:15
  working with Corey. Corey has the same lawyer that I had, Steve Zeidman,
• 8:18
  on the clemency. I just happened to get my four forty before my
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  clemency. But Steve is amazing. He's like one of the top clemency lawyers
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  in the United States of America. He's he's been able to free so many
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  men. It's just been it's just been magical. It's just it's miraculous.
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  So you know Corey Corey's next, Yes, um um, you mentioned the
• 8:41
  uh okay, so you mentioned the four forty What is that actually because people
• 8:48
  don't kind of like understand like the difference between clemency and then that particular uh
• 8:54
  law that you released on. So a four forty twenty. Under the criminal
• 9:00
  procedure law in New York State, a four forty is basically a post conviction
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  motion. You have four forty tens which attacked the conviction, and then you
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  have a four forty twenty, which attacks only the sentence. So my lawyers
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  submitted a four forty twenty on my behalf attacking my sentence, just my sentence,
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  not the conviction. Because we figured, or they figured, it would
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  be easier to get a win on a sentence because at the end of the
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  day, you know, the prosecution in the state, their main concern is
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  a conviction, right, so they don't want to lose that. So we
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  figured we have a greater chance of obtaining a reversal on the sentence as opposed
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  to attacking the conviction. So we were victorious on that and that's basically what
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  went before the judge and they granted it. On April seventeenth, they granted
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  it. May third, I went to court. May fourth, I walked
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  out the door. Okay, all right, that is just amazing. Um,
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  a lot of a lot of people that I've spoken to because we you
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  know, we have the War magazine, we have the Women of the War,
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  and you guys are going to educate a lot of us because I want
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  to do as much help as I can with the act, with the activist
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  part of this whole journey. Um, it started off as just Corby's dream
• 10:22
  of having a magazine for you guys to have a voice behind, and it
• 10:28
  turned into something totally I mean, God is amazing because he turned to into
• 10:31
  something totally different. It just went a whole other way, a whole other
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  avenue. Um. And it's just I always decline certain things. It's because
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  one it's just little O me. I'm by myself out here trying to do
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  everything. And two I need to learn more. I need to understand a
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  lot of more things. Like I do not like to just jump in and
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  say, oh yeah, if we're gonna partner up with y'all, because the
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  rules that are the legislations or the laws that they're trying to get into play,
• 11:07
  it might not help people like you guys, like guys in your your
• 11:11
  age bracket or in my husband's age bracket or you know, helping them and
• 11:15
  if everybody deserves hope. But I'm just saying I want to make sure we
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  are partnering it up with the right of the organizations to get things done.
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  I just don't want to just jump in, oh yeah, I'm a partner
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  up with you, and I'm like, wait a minute, I don't believe
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  in that, you know, So I have to really understand and learn more
• 11:33
  with that part as well. So you guys will be getting a lot of
• 11:37
  questions from me and a lot of you know things that I'm gonna ask because
• 11:43
  I get a lot of that because of you guys, especially because of mister
• 11:46
  Blanks. I don't know who they think I am. I'm really I'm a
• 11:50
  little person, but they think I have like all of these hundreds of thousands
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  of people. I don't just speaking little old me women that that. We
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  just we fell in love with mister Blanks because he's an amazing individual and he
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  has no family, and we just took him under our wing. And I
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  just was like, well, afraid or what do I do? Where we
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  you know? With I mean, I think I drove him to drink that
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  day because I thought we lost something. I thought they kidnapped him. It
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  was just a mass, but we did. He was like, heare me
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  calmed down? I was out of a thousand because I couldn't find him.
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  I thought they kidnapped him. It was a mess. But I mean,
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  we love mister Blanks and I did get a chance to meet him, and
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  I get a chance to talk to him. I used to before I got
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  sick. I used to take him to church every Sunday. We gonna try
• 12:50
  to start getting him back into the church scene because he was getting a little
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  bit a low and depressed, because you know, guys. He just turned
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  seventy in February, and he really doesn't have any fears me members here because
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  he's originally from Chicago. But that's a lot of the things I want to
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  do too, is to have things, you know, activities and things like
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  you said, you just came home two weeks ago, and when Bofredo came
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  home, you guys have to get like thrown back into this world. And
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  it's like this world is different after six months. So I can only imagine
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  you guys down for twenty years and you're coming out and it's like I phones
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  and iPads and this and now, and it's like, what the hell y'all
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  talking about? Because even now when I'm talking to Coary, sometimes he's like
• 13:35
  what, I'm like, never mind because he does not know what the technology
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  is. When he went in, it was veepers, ain't no people's,
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  no more cell phones. So it's like it's really, um, it calls
• 13:50
  for some type of the re entreat that you guys need. I know that
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  you guys would be able to help the other individuals come when they come out
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  out to help them with the re entry of all you need a cell phone,
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  all you need to learn how to get an email. All you need
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  to learn how to go on Google. Oh you need to learn how to
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  do whatever, because a lot of them don't. Mister Blanks, we sat
• 14:11
  with him for two weeks. It took us to teach him how to use
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  your cell phone. Not that I'm mad about it, but yeah, we
• 14:18
  have to teach him how to use your cell phone because he was like,
• 14:20
  what is it? And it freaked him out, especially the FaceTime thing.
• 14:24
  It really bugged him out. It was like, wow, you know it
• 14:26
  does this, so I can only imagine what. But you guys, like
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  I said, you guys are a little y'alla. You know, y'all the
• 14:33
  closer to like in your forties, and y'all can like handle it a little
• 14:39
  bit better. Okay, well you look great, but still you guys get
• 14:45
  hand let a little bit better than mister Blanks because he is a senior.
• 14:50
  He's seventy, you know, right, huh yeah. But the difference with
• 14:58
  the difference with mister Blanks, and I think from Sheldon and I, um,
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  I think me and me and Sheldon were a little more insuned with the
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  advocacy portion. Me and you was he and I was IOC at the time.
• 15:13
  Yeah, so I want to say I can say that. I want
• 15:18
  to say that we were a little more dialed in with our fights with the
• 15:22
  administration on our adequate ration. I feel that definitely, Um Sin Sin perpetuates
• 15:30
  a culture where the adequate ration is gonna be something that we're gonna make sure
• 15:33
  to have. And I think that type of muscle memory in our brains and
• 15:39
  as well as in our spirits. What it does is it resonates to the
• 15:43
  work that we do out here. So for me, it's just like you
• 15:48
  know, um, what's most important is is that we perpetuate the culture where
• 15:52
  brothers like us that come home and also for Corey that they're learning curve lessons
• 15:58
  because of a lot of the red carpet we're going to be able to filter
• 16:02
  out and lay out for them as they come home, because the culture has
• 16:04
  to be to make it easier for the next man to come out after twenty
• 16:08
  twenty five or thirty years, so that way they'd be easier to assimilate back
• 16:14
  into society effortlessly with not a lot of the stresses that we had to endure
• 16:19
  not only independententiary but also out here. You know, when I left Facebook
• 16:26
  was non existent. My space was really the big thing, and there was
• 16:29
  no such thing as I phone. So I feel that the learning curved even
• 16:33
  what we went through earlier before we were going on on for the broadcast.
• 16:37
  That's something that I extend to Sheldon, whether he's at, maybe be able
• 16:41
  to pick him up and take up to Columbia University for the Center for Justice
• 16:45
  and actually give him some opportunity to sit in front of a computer in real
• 16:48
  time, learn Google Docs, to learn how to create Microsoft documents, who
• 16:53
  a pdf and be able to understand those particular concepts that he could acquired quickly
• 16:59
  because even though how primitive, he had the ability to use computers in the
• 17:03
  low Library and also as IOC for the MA Liaison Committee, we be able
• 17:07
  to go ahead to kind of like speed up his learning curve so he gets
• 17:12
  assimilated with Zoom and Google Meet and understand the hyperlinks and be able to use
• 17:18
  those tools to make them into reusable skills, and that way he feel more
• 17:22
  comfortable dealing with technology. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, So I
• 17:29
  feel like wherever you at will get dialed in. I'll come scoop you take
• 17:33
  you to Columbia probably sometime next week and then introduce you to the Center for
• 17:37
  Justice and those particular resources and get you down the sitsue in front of a
• 17:42
  computer and kind of get a crash course when it comes to that. So
• 17:45
  that way, when you get on your lapstop, you become more adapt and
• 17:51
  more familiar with it. Because the technology to we have a career is the
• 17:55
  most important thing. Because I know you, Sheldon, you have a voice.
• 17:59
  So for me and I've been secular voice can be utilized in the community,
• 18:03
  provided services for brothers like us that day not potentially have a lot of
• 18:07
  the moxie that we have that we've required independententiary to be able to come out
• 18:11
  and provide them enough services and provide them also with a voice to get them
• 18:15
  what they need as well. Absolutely, So it's funny that you say that
• 18:21
  because today I just learned how to transfer my resume into a PDF because originally
• 18:27
  I just had it as a word document. I sent it to somebody and
• 18:30
  they said, nah, that's not good enough. You got to turn it
• 18:33
  into a PDA. And I'm like, WTF, Like what's a PDA?
• 18:37
  Like how do you do that? So you know, and like you just
• 18:41
  said, like I got arrested in December twentieth, nineteen ninety six. They
• 18:47
  didn't have no it wasn't no sell. I never had a cell The only
• 18:49
  cell phones they had with a big box, with the big stupid phone.
• 18:55
  And like you know, there wasn't no laptops, there wasn't no tab blitz,
• 19:00
  there was none of that. The first time I sent the email out,
• 19:03
  I was an all burn correctional facility in twenty nineteen. Okay, so
• 19:07
  you know, the times have changed, and I definitely appreciate you, bro.
• 19:11
  I definitely appreciate you, bro, because, like you know, I've
• 19:15
  been having like, not necessarily a hard time, but it's been difficult really
• 19:18
  trying to you know, and I think that's by design. You know,
• 19:22
  they throw you right back out and they expect for you know, they don't
• 19:26
  level the playing field. They don't give us the resources that we need.
• 19:30
  While on the inside there's no real computer programs, there's nothing to really prepare
• 19:36
  you to walk back into society to be able to compete. And like so
• 19:41
  right now, right if it wasn't for the support of like family and Hudson
• 19:45
  Link and like the people that I love, like I'd be on the street
• 19:49
  starving right now. They're telling me, I gotta wait a month for benefits,
• 19:55
  like you know what I mean. So, like you know, the
• 19:57
  system, there's a lot that has to chang change. We're here, Me
• 20:02
  and a brother, Lara Quante pun he was IOC together. They called me
• 20:06
  Malcolm X. They called him Martin, you know, and we you know,
• 20:10
  we had out we had our different ways of attacking things, but at
• 20:12
  the end of the day, we came together and we were able to effectuate
• 20:17
  major changes for the population in sinc since correctional facility. And you know,
• 20:22
  hopefully we'll be able to carry that on out in here because it's something that
• 20:26
  we already did and we could take this, we take the struggle to the
• 20:30
  next level. Yeah, definitely. And when you say that too, when
• 20:34
  mister okay, so when mister Blakes came out, Now, you guys are,
• 20:38
  like I said, you guys are younger than him. He's a seven,
• 20:41
  he's a senior. So I asked them pacific, I said to them.
• 20:47
  That night, after we found them and I got I was calm,
• 20:51
  and I went to see him and he wasn't lost where he was. You
• 20:56
  don't have to find him, and you you you didn't have to search real
• 21:02
  hard even though. But once we you know, we based sure we you
• 21:07
  know, we got with him and we let them know he got family.
• 21:11
  What happened? I just went, dok, no, you're good, you're
• 21:15
  good, you good. I can't see y'all though, So just toggle the
• 21:19
  laptop and now you will probably pop back up. Oh there go, okay
• 21:23
  go perfect, Yeah, there you go. So another another thing, if
• 21:27
  a computer gohost, doctor's toggle a mounse, if you got a bounse or
• 21:30
  had, you'll come right back on. Don't worry about thank you with mister
• 21:37
  blanks. Okay. So that night I asked them, I said, if
• 21:41
  he needs to go anywhere, please let us know. We will come in
• 21:45
  the morning and take him. Because I know I don't take the train and
• 21:49
  I don't take no public transportation whatsoever. I drive. So I said,
• 21:56
  if he needs to go to his PR or whatever the case may be,
• 22:00
  all of us, me carming, all of us was with him, and
• 22:03
  we told them like, this is my number, this is carming. But
• 22:06
  like we put everything. If they do, you know, they put that
• 22:08
  man on the train, well no no, no, no, no no,
• 22:12
  no, no abo on the train. What I'm saying is Fortune Society.
• 22:18
  Fortune Society on the behest of the facility, due to the gravity of
• 22:26
  his case, wanted him immediately out of the area. So it wasn't really
• 22:30
  that they put him on the train. It's that he had to go to
• 22:33
  the train station in order to be met by Fortune to make sure he would
• 22:37
  sive the next day. Remember go final, I called you, I'm sad
• 22:42
  because he was lost. They put him on the train to go see his
• 22:45
  po. Yo, he's not. You're talking about going to see his po
• 22:49
  That's something different. One thing mister Blanks has to understand and what nobody teaches,
• 22:55
  and I think Sheldon alluded to it is that no matter how much time
• 23:00
  you do. Back in the day, they used to give you forty dollars
• 23:03
  to give you a kick in the hinee and just send you out. The
• 23:07
  only games now was the give yeah, they give you a JP car.
• 23:10
  Now when they tell you your money with fees. So um. When I
• 23:19
  came out in twenty twenty one, that's what they did to me. But
• 23:22
  I went to the Hudson Lake office and you know, I went to the
• 23:27
  s R role to the single room occupacy. So it was semi dura COVID,
• 23:32
  So I know the frustration of Sheldon and still have a state prison I
• 23:37
  D and not be able to have a non driver's license. So I definitely
• 23:41
  understand that it took me almost like I say, almost two months before I
• 23:45
  was able to get it because I how to do a by appointment and then
• 23:48
  slowly, maturely things opened up. So I understand your frustrations. They can't
• 23:55
  it can't be like a bridge the gap type. Why would they do that
• 24:00
  when they deal with I mean, and Sheldon could definitely agree to this.
• 24:03
  This system has been systematically having enough job security for generations of people and upstate
• 24:08
  facilities as well as everywhere. So you know, my thing about it is
• 24:14
  is no one, no one gives up power. So I want to be
• 24:18
  clear with that. It has to be taken. The culture has to change,
• 24:22
  and Sheldon is going to impact that change as well as I am impacting
• 24:26
  that change. And we're gonna continue this cycle so people like mister Blanks who
• 24:30
  don't really have that shown voice, I'll be able to understand that there are
• 24:33
  people and services that are going to be able to make the landing for the
• 24:37
  next individuals that come out a lot softer than it is now. Okay,
• 24:42
  I respect that because I just I just I guess it is because I'm just
• 24:48
  we don't know, like we don't and people, okay, people look at
• 24:53
  people behind the wall because you guys are our community. I was one of
• 24:59
  them. I didn't I didn't dislike y'all or I didn't disrespect y'all. It
• 25:03
  was just no reason for me to know you and this. And I'm not
• 25:06
  even trying to be funny. If it wasn't for my meet meeting my husband,
• 25:11
  I wouldn't know you people, because it wouldn't. It would for what
• 25:15
  reason. I wouldn't have a reason to know what's going on or why it
• 25:18
  affects or whatever. But because I did, and I think it's a bigger
• 25:23
  picture for why I met my husband, because I was expecting him to be
• 25:30
  something totally different when I'm at home. I was expecting him to be rude,
• 25:33
  disrespectful. I was just waiting for him to be rude. So I
• 25:36
  was like, oh, I'm out of yeah, I gotta stay here for
• 25:37
  this. But he wasn't. He was totally opposite, and he was nice.
• 25:42
  He was kind, he was respectable, and he was intelligent. And
• 25:47
  I did not realize that that can happen like you guys are intelligent or some
• 25:52
  more, because that's not the picture that we get like this. So so
• 25:57
  that's the narrative, right and this is why this is, this is why
• 26:00
  this platform right here is so important for individuals like me and mister Lora Quante
• 26:07
  to be able to show the world a different picture, because this is the
• 26:11
  narrative that they have portrayed of us. You know, where animals were incorrogible,
• 26:15
  you know, but it's not that either. I heard my aunt with
• 26:21
  my own is somebody that's near and dear to me. Her now husband was
• 26:26
  talking to her on the phone crazy, and I was like, you want
• 26:30
  me to be somebody in man? Hey, we like The way he was
• 26:33
  talking to her was crazy. And I'm not saying you all do that,
• 26:36
  because y'all don't. But the perspective I had was, I'm me. I
• 26:41
  don't want to mean none of them because if they talk to me rude,
• 26:45
  I'm leaving out. I don't gotta be here for that. But Cory came
• 26:48
  down totally different. It was like he was a gentleman. He made me
• 26:52
  laugh. He he he had dreams, he had goals and it was like,
• 26:57
  Wow, this is my the same person I heard on the other end
• 27:03
  talking to somebody else crazy stwn. So it may be it made me look
• 27:08
  at you guys differently because, like I said, had I had I not
• 27:12
  met him, I wouldn't have a passion for all we need to because he
• 27:18
  said to me that the first day I met at me was like, I
• 27:21
  not this ideal. I want to put a magazine together because we need to
• 27:25
  be able to have a voice. And I'm like, and I said to
• 27:29
  him, a voice to do what it was like for people to understand that
• 27:33
  we're human. It's a community behind him that we you know, we have
• 27:37
  dreams, we have goals, we have families, we are fathers, we
• 27:40
  are You don't think about that until your loved one is in prison and you're
• 27:45
  serving that time with them. Well, most I think I think that's a
• 27:49
  great way to pivot um. And I'm about to I don't know if you
• 27:53
  know if you've seen it on the news, mister Johnson, but Eric Adams
• 27:57
  has now cut four percent of the budget on Riker's alband Ya seventeen million dollars.
• 28:03
  So now I currently work for fed cap Link, but I'm transitioning,
• 28:07
  but my thing is now fed cap affed. Cap as well as Oswan Association
• 28:14
  and Forced Society have now lost the contracts on Riker's Allan, So as of
• 28:18
  July first, there will be no more programming on Rikers Island in any house.
• 28:23
  So any of the programming that they're gonna provide is going to be provided
• 28:26
  by docks, and I city Docks, I should say so to me,
• 28:33
  it's like they're gonna have a rally tomorrow down in Chamber Street in front the
• 28:37
  City Hall. And it's just disheartening because I've been on Rikers Island already for
• 28:41
  possibly about three weeks, and suggest see the impact that I've had with my
• 28:48
  narrative in my story. It gives a lot of the men hope. And
• 28:52
  those are detainees, guys that are going to eventually be released, and guys
• 28:56
  that are going up state. Then they're potentially gonna old and shape the minds
• 29:00
  of others, and they're going to be influenced by people. And it's a
• 29:04
  tragedy that Eric Adams with a lot of Prussia, and also you know whether
• 29:10
  he wants them litteral or not. With the large influx of immigrants that are
• 29:12
  not answering the five boroughs that he has to find someplace to put everybody.
• 29:18
  And he decided to say the lowest people on the totem pole and strip them
• 29:22
  of services that are very vital to them to coming out. So it's something
• 29:27
  that's really, you know, amazes me that Eric Adams has showed us two
• 29:32
  colors, the new black. Giuliani has definitely decided to poopoo on Riker's allen,
• 29:37
  and he decided to go ahead and now put public safety in jeopardy because
• 29:42
  mister Johnson knows as well as I those guys are coming away before anybody in
• 29:48
  the state. But but, but, but but pun you know what the
• 29:49
  problem is. These guys are coming home and they're not going to their communities.
• 29:55
  They're coming to our community. So they really don't care. You understand
• 29:59
  what I'm saying. They're just perpetuating the narrative because like you said earlier,
• 30:03
  it's about the status quote, right, you maintain the status quote. These
• 30:06
  guys at the bottom of the barrel, you figure, you really don't care.
• 30:10
  You know, you have the bail reform. But I can guarantee you
• 30:11
  this right. We're working on a program right now dealing with civic engagement to
• 30:15
  where we're trying to go into the prisons to provide the detainees the right to
• 30:22
  vote through absentee ballots. And I can guarantee you once we start doing that,
• 30:27
  how they treat these guys who change dramatically. Oh yes, absolutely,
• 30:34
  it's going to change everything. Because think of how close the governor's race was,
• 30:41
  and if everybody on Riker's Allen had the ability to vote, they had
• 30:45
  the ability to sway that election. By everybody that was detained on George Bush
• 30:49
  won the election by five hundred and fourteen votes. So if we can galvanize
• 30:56
  our families behind that cost rated individuals and we can come together, we're talking
• 31:00
  about a voters block twenty thirty forty thousand people, we can ellectuate some serious
• 31:06
  change. Yes you can. I don't know. That's something that we're working
• 31:10
  on. And it's gonna bear some fruit. It's gonna bear some fruit in
• 31:14
  their future. And I want you guys, because um you said Rykers Island.
• 31:18
  I work for the Border ed and I work for the Future Now program,
• 31:22
  which a lot of them young between the ages of eighteen and twenty four.
• 31:30
  They've been on Rikers islands before they're trying to get their geed. I'm
• 31:33
  the community outreach person to them and I'm screaming and yelling at them all the
• 31:37
  time. I'm called little at four in the morning to get them up to
• 31:41
  come in and get to ged we want um. I would like for y'all
• 31:45
  to come and we're gonna do some type of event that could come and speak
• 31:48
  to them, especially the gentleman, the young jo. Yeah, I have
• 31:52
  no problems with that. That's definitely for my services. Because there were two
• 31:56
  there were two pipelines that are going consecutively and congrue lead in the wrong direction.
• 32:01
  That's the prison to homeless shelter pipeline and also the school to prison pipeline.
• 32:07
  So the thing is, there's the dyslexia, there's the dyslexia to prison
• 32:10
  pipeline, because they say forty seven percent of the incarcerated population it's suffering from
• 32:15
  some type of illiteracy disease. Correct, So it's it's it's kind of ironic
• 32:22
  to me that the pipelines are going in the wrong direction, but government isn't.
• 32:29
  Williamson got ahead to hold themselves accountable yet, and mister Johnson could definitely
• 32:32
  allude to this and also myself, But you want to hold us to a
• 32:36
  different standard, and you want to hold ourselves accountable, whether it be under
• 32:39
  the law or whether it be at these parole hearings. So I find it
• 32:43
  very ironic that when we speak in different rooms of accountability, of when we
• 32:47
  tell our narratives and when we start to cultivate the voices and try to shed
• 32:52
  light on the atrocities from the package band to cold crafts, to slave wages
• 32:59
  and them certain the thirteenth Amendment for so many years, it's like all of
• 33:02
  a sudden, everybody looks at us like there's no victimization here. My thing
• 33:07
  about it is, you need to understand that if you don't bring awareness to
• 33:10
  this, if you don't think that this is equally yoked to what's going on
• 33:14
  in the communities with gun violence or drug addiction or a lot of the abuses
• 33:19
  that we've dealt with, I mean you have to be you know, have
• 33:22
  to have your head examine because we all of this suffering generations of trauma,
• 33:28
  suffering and grief all the way since slavery time, since the Jim Crow laws
• 33:31
  and since black holes. So so now think that all of this isn't equally
• 33:36
  tethered. And now the communities are screaming out or they're lashing out because they
• 33:40
  don't have any services, or they're not provided with any sense of direction.
• 33:45
  It'd be preposterous to think that all of it doesn't go together, but government
• 33:49
  doesn't city at angle. And I'm glad that you're out, mister Johnson,
• 33:52
  for you the malcomex portion of the way of your advocacy and abolition, because
• 34:00
  I feel the candle needs gonna be burned at both ends. Sometimes you need
• 34:02
  to be in a role when it comes to civic NYPD or policymakers and be
• 34:08
  able to have that light such but at the same time you have to be
• 34:12
  able to show up your chief and let you know that we advocate with our
• 34:15
  bootslets up in the ground, and we're going to galvanize these young people to
• 34:19
  God had to scream at the top of their lungs that they need services in
• 34:22
  order for the culture to change. So that's that's yo. Sis. That's
• 34:25
  another program, and Paul, that's another program that we're working on as well.
• 34:30
  And it's a bill that we submitted to Zell Normiri, who in turn
• 34:34
  submitted a bill to the legislature about dyslexia. So, according to the Department
• 34:39
  of Correctional Education, forty seven percent of the prison population is dyslexic. So
• 34:45
  now when you when that's almost fifty percent, So let's just round that off.
• 34:50
  So one in every two men that's in prison and women have some type
• 34:54
  of literacy literacy disease. Right. So now let's let's let's just go back
• 35:00
  further before prison. Right. So, if this is the case, and
• 35:04
  this is true, right, how does a person who has a literacy disease
• 35:10
  making informed, intelligent and knowing decision in the courtroom with regards to due process
• 35:17
  and their sentence. Right. So that's a whole other component of it.
• 35:22
  But right now, we're working on a program that deals with screening, identification,
• 35:27
  and intervention, right, So we're trying to get we're working with a
• 35:30
  couple of organizations. I'm not gonna name no names just yet, but they're
• 35:36
  trying to get them to go into the facilities. It's already been approved by
• 35:38
  Albany. We're trying to get them to go into the facilities to screen or
• 35:43
  incarcerated individuals coming into the facilities, to identify who may have or reading disorder
• 35:49
  right or living with dyslexia, two to identify them, and three to provide
• 35:53
  intervention services so that they because a lot of these are literacy diseases or illnesses,
• 36:00
  are curable, they can be fixed. And um, you know,
• 36:02
  I mean when you talk about rehabilitation and you talk about the responsibility of the
• 36:09
  Department of Corrections, when you incarcerate somebody and you say that you're going to
• 36:14
  prepare them and do everything in your power to ensure that they returned back into
• 36:17
  society m prepared to become law abiding citizens. You have to provide them an
• 36:23
  opportunity to know how to read. Reading is fundamental and a lot of times
• 36:27
  we take that for granted because most of you know, for those who can
• 36:30
  read, it's like, you know, you really don't. And it makes
• 36:34
  me think, like, I don't know, maybe you experienced this as well.
• 36:37
  Like I thought about a friend of mine when I was younger and I
• 36:39
  was in the fifth grade, and whenever the teacher would call him to read,
• 36:44
  to come up to the front of the classroom and read, he would
• 36:46
  like have these outrageous outbursts. And now, in hindsight I think about it,
• 36:51
  I said to myself, maybe he couldn't read, you know, he
• 36:54
  wasn't want to be shamed exactly. And it's called the mass to affect where
• 37:00
  you know, they act out and they lash out because of shame, embarrassment.
• 37:04
  It affects their self esteem, it affects the ability to to be uh,
• 37:08
  to socialize in so many different components and aspects when it when it concerns,
• 37:14
  you know, the inability to be able to read. So it's something
• 37:16
  that's another thing that we're working on, and um, we're going to be
• 37:22
  successful. I'm just you know, I'm just getting out and I'm ready.
• 37:27
  And also too as a side note, mister Johnson, I don't know if
• 37:31
  you've seen the memo Commissioner Ornu. She is retiring as of June third.
• 37:37
  Yeah, I heard that. Yeah, I saw the memo myself. He
• 37:42
  had an episode coming back from Sing Sing Correctional Facility where he had to be
• 37:46
  rushed to the hospital. But what I want to do is I want to
• 37:51
  shed light on something because you are one of the few legal beagles that I
• 37:55
  actually respect your mustag there as someone in the medium filed the lawsuit against a
• 38:02
  new Sheet because he had acting in front of his name and he actually was
• 38:07
  going to get rhythm in the courts because they said he needed to be removed
• 38:12
  because he's been there for over ten years. And how ironically, when the
• 38:16
  Supreme Court judge said that the lawsuit will be heard, he allegedly now is
• 38:22
  resigning as a June third. You know, you know, there was a
• 38:25
  huge controversy with him because prior to him becoming an acting commissioner, he was
• 38:30
  the legislative he was he was the legislative advisor, right, so they said
• 38:37
  that he picked up that acting commissioner and allegedly there was an investigation behind the
• 38:43
  scenes against him, not just for that but for multiple reasons, but one
• 38:47
  in particular way. They were saying that he was receiving moneies for being a
• 38:51
  leg the legal advisor and the acting commissioner. He was getting paid for both
• 38:57
  hats, which was which which technically is illegal. It's a conflict adventurous yeah,
• 39:00
  and it's a conflict adventures. I'm hearing that it's supposed to be a
• 39:04
  woman that's supposed to be taking this place, which would I think would be
• 39:07
  huge, that would be that would shattered some glass ceilings. Yes, it
• 39:10
  would have never been wonder how I wonder how, you know, because the
• 39:15
  culture and sing sing is something that's very delicate. You know, it's still
• 39:20
  the only place where you can get go from a pregd to a mass as
• 39:22
  a theological seminar. So I will wonder if this particular individual that is going
• 39:29
  to take the reins, potentially being a female, what she can send you
• 39:32
  to stay out the way and allow the organic process of cultures to happen with
• 39:37
  higher education, or would them possibly be some pushback depending on you know,
• 39:45
  what's going on and the climate of their feeling with you know, the pushback
• 39:50
  against Holt or the package band or you know, just a lot of things
• 39:53
  that's calmed with now photocopying the male approximately thirty something f facilities. So I'm
• 40:00
  just really curious to see who takes the reins and who's gonna ride the regime
• 40:04
  until the next ten or fifteen years. Yeah, it's gonna be um,
• 40:07
  it's gonna be very very interesting. I don't I don't think it's gonna affect
• 40:10
  though, the educational culture in in Sinxing, because I think that's that's what
• 40:17
  makes Sinxing sinxing. Like you said a minute ago, that's one of the
• 40:22
  only facilities where you can actually go from being in ABE, which is adult
• 40:25
  basic education and equivalent of being in third grade, to going all the way
• 40:30
  through the ranks and actually acquiring a master's degree. It's the only facility in
• 40:35
  New York State. I don't know about any other states, but I know
• 40:38
  it's the only facility in New York State. Um, well, you don't
• 40:44
  know, y'all don't know. I'm sorry, y'all don't know this. But
• 40:49
  you guys like Sing Sing and the other prisons that's in New York. You
• 40:53
  guys they call y'all the like, Um, I don't know. They they
• 41:00
  they put your up here on a pedestal with elite education, Like y'all are
• 41:04
  the elite prison. Like everybody want to go to jail. Like I've been
• 41:08
  lucky. Man, I got lucky. I got into a knife fight and
• 41:12
  ended up down to sing things. So I've been I've been for Sullivan have
• 41:22
  done they have? I mean, they'd be like like, okay, because
• 41:25
  I lived in Connecticut now, so I had to. I was doing some
• 41:30
  research on like the transportation and different things like that. So the the CEOs
• 41:37
  when I was asking them about their visitation and different things, I was shocked
• 41:43
  to hear that they only get one hour of it. He was telling me
• 41:45
  about that one hour one Not only that, not only that it's behind a
• 41:53
  glass, not only that they have to fill out This is before a postcode.
• 41:59
  This is before COVID. This they was doing this before COVID. They
• 42:01
  have to fill out an application seventy two hours before the visit to even get
• 42:06
  it to be to be approved to even go see their loved ones and major
• 42:13
  holidays, isn't They don't care. The jail is shut down. So you
• 42:16
  have to understand paying me Connecticut and you would just look at the economic breakdown.
• 42:22
  It's a very very different and unique place other than New York City Commonwealth.
• 42:29
  Oh absolutely, And yeah, they're governed economically by a different set of
• 42:36
  laws or by laws than we will be in New York regardless of how much
• 42:40
  black and brown made and habit Connecticut. But there was some very affluent people
• 42:45
  that live in the state of Connecticut, and there's a lot of wealth that's
• 42:50
  been there for generational wealth. It's been there for a long time. So
• 42:52
  I mean, I understand what you're saying, and I've just applaud you.
• 42:57
  I applaud you from getting out a hallow and going to Connecticut, because I
• 43:01
  remember the last time I picked you up, we went to the studio in
• 43:05
  Philly. So to me, it's like, oh, I applaud that,
• 43:09
  but I ain't going on. You have to also also, and this is
• 43:15
  where I rest, and this is where I'm gonna rest for good at just
• 43:19
  fly it for me and I just need it if they ain't the right man,
• 43:24
  I like quiet. I know you like quiet. You like I didn't
• 43:30
  get a little break, But I mean I just was because even with like
• 43:35
  the they are they are in or like the people that I meet, I'll
• 43:38
  hear that visit their loved one, they were like you coming from what you
• 43:44
  you? Oh my god, don't you try to get like trailer visits.
• 43:47
  I'm like, they are absolutely intrigue, like they are in awe. Like
• 43:55
  you have to remember we fought for that. People die exactly and I'm not
• 44:00
  advocating violence or anything like that, but people die for those for those trailer
• 44:04
  visits. People die for those in contact of visits, for it to be
• 44:08
  part of the constitution in case law, for God to be able to be
• 44:13
  able to sit there with their families. So you know that that's a whole
• 44:17
  a whole other component of New York State with regards to the rights that we
• 44:22
  have here. Um, you know, but that's a whole other that's a
• 44:27
  whole suit. We deal with a whole set of stresses that are different from
• 44:32
  you know, state, the state. Um. We've been put under a
• 44:37
  lot of pressure over the years of these decades of being incarcerated. And we've
• 44:42
  also seen and I know mister Johnson can speak to it, that we've seen
• 44:47
  the way solitary confinement has evolved long term, key block, how it's evolved,
• 44:53
  the data that has proven that the stresses that we endured on the first
• 44:59
  half or the third or the forty percent of the sixty percent of our bids
• 45:04
  that we see a lot of the younger men come through and try to endure.
• 45:08
  You know. I remember we didn't have keep block phones, the phones
• 45:15
  in a box or tablets, no punt listen. I tell people all the
• 45:20
  time, if they would have did that when I was in my young stages,
• 45:23
  when I first came to prison, I would have never got out the
• 45:27
  box. Yeah, because that was all mentality. I was young, I
• 45:30
  was twenty two years old, I was gang banging, I was getting high,
• 45:36
  and I just you know, I hadn't matured yet, you know what
• 45:38
  I mean. I hadn't reached that stage where they'd have told me I could
• 45:42
  only do fifteen days in a box. I would have been like, what
• 45:45
  oh, But you know, I personally believe it's a set up, you
• 45:51
  know, because there's there's changes that's coming down the line. But well,
• 45:57
  excuse me, we're fright now. Because I was asking him if questions like
• 46:00
  I have to asked them about the tablet, and he he made me look
• 46:04
  at it in a different light. He was like, just think about it.
• 46:07
  If the tablet is good, it's a it's a blessing and a curse.
• 46:14
  Because you guys have your tablet, that means you locked in yourself.
• 46:17
  More so y'all can't go out. And I believe the tablet was is an
• 46:23
  exceptional tool. Um. I think it's also a tool that's that's gonna be
• 46:29
  used at some point to exploit and control the prison population, especially especially once
• 46:36
  they put them tablets with the phones on them. They're gonna utilize that.
• 46:39
  I don't even think y're gonna get a serious I don't think y'all gonna ever
• 46:45
  get phones on it because they're gonna do it. They're gonna do it that
• 46:47
  we're already setting up the Wi Fi tower. If you go ask you this
• 46:52
  that let me ask y'all this, since y'all said that, this is what
• 46:55
  I want to actually the perfect two people on the phone for them. Okay,
• 47:00
  So you guys know, because now y'all are out in the world,
• 47:05
  DVDs are absolute. You already know that. Like there is no DVD players,
• 47:08
  there is not Everything is streaming. So my my thing is because I
• 47:15
  do thank God, my husband has been good. And Texist also has the
• 47:19
  death penalty. Hey, I'm just saying, okay, you know, and
• 47:22
  sexist has the death penalty. Imana also has their goal. I mean,
• 47:27
  I mean, I'm just saying that for the comment when they say sexist has
• 47:30
  phones on the tablets. But what's unique about Texas And I've done research when
• 47:38
  I'm here, Um, what's different about text? Thank you? Thank you?
• 47:44
  We can go for there. But I'm gonna say, mister Jawnson is
• 47:50
  a thousand percent correct. And we kind of was sat in on different meetings
• 47:53
  with the executive team where we walk on IOC and we saw this chess move
• 47:59
  coming because this is it's gonna be used as a tool to control. But
• 48:07
  what I don't like about it is it gives you the ability now to be
• 48:09
  pacified that you should stay in yourself. And one thing about mister Johnson and
• 48:15
  I, we never stayed in ourselves. The school building was my second home,
• 48:22
  My office was my second home, My computer was my second home as
• 48:27
  a clerk for the Oswan Association. So for me, it just was a
• 48:31
  different type of granimo where it taught us that even mister Sheldon working in the
• 48:37
  low Library, it kind of gave him a different type of passion and a
• 48:42
  different type of zess to make sure the fight never stopped. The light can
• 48:46
  never go out, because if the light goes out and you become complacent,
• 48:51
  is over. Home goes it gets dark, and then it becomes almost draconian
• 48:58
  to be in prison because now now you're not jailing, you bid, and
• 49:02
  when you bid, it's a very different thing because you have no your humanity
• 49:08
  is kind of put on pause, as mister Johnson alluded to, you know,
• 49:13
  not caring about being a box, not really embracing humanity, and you
• 49:16
  don't really have the ability to have effective change. So for me, I
• 49:21
  feel like the phone on the tablet is a detriment to the overall, the
• 49:29
  overall fight of the population as a whole, and in places like him and
• 49:34
  I, we will go ahead and fight the administration and let them know,
• 49:37
  like we need commissary, we need these items, these change You have to
• 49:43
  be able to provide it for us. And we want to attica raption and
• 49:46
  we we ain't so six we ain't even talking about the designer drugs that that's
• 49:52
  gonna be combined with them tablets. You know, gods sitting in their self
• 49:57
  stuck on this kke too, and it's fetting all and it's Molly and all
• 50:01
  of this ecstasy and all of this other stuff that they got going on.
• 50:05
  But I was asking, yeah, but I was asking, okay, So
• 50:08
  I was trying to say that, like the DVDs are absolute, how Like
• 50:14
  I was saying, are they going to eventually allow streaming? So so it's
• 50:17
  a brother right now. It's a brother right now that's on the ILC.
• 50:22
  And he just submitted right before I left, he and I were going back
• 50:24
  and forth, we would kind of just thrown back ideas, and he just
• 50:29
  submitted a proposal to the administration about streaming, and he pointed out the same
• 50:34
  fact that you just mentioned yecause the DVDs is obsolute and all of these other
• 50:39
  services, and as technology continues to advance, you got chat, GPT,
• 50:45
  like you got artificial intelligence that that's actually taking over certain components of technology and
• 50:52
  education. So I mean New York has always last for some reason when I
• 50:58
  mean, how could y'all get that done? Because it's like, okay,
• 51:00
  wow, no, the WiFi is fine. But I was saying when I
• 51:07
  said it for when we go on to FRP, say, for instance,
• 51:10
  uh, instead of these DVDs that they that are crazy, that's old,
• 51:15
  It's like, okay, how you go to a HOTEWN It's like, okay,
• 51:19
  well, give me Netflix for three days and I pay the seventy dollars
• 51:22
  so we can look at Netflix for three days. I was trying to see
• 51:25
  if they could pitch that to them so they like everything because streaming is what
• 51:32
  it is. It's no more DVDs, there's no more movies, it's none
• 51:36
  of that stuff. So how are you gonna watch TV if it doesn't exist?
• 51:42
  Like, well, I would say this right, and I definitely I'm
• 51:46
  not saying I disagree with you. But remember this too, and mister Johnson
• 51:52
  is the litigator that remember it's not it's it's a privilege to participate in the
• 51:59
  Family Reunion Program. The right is to have it up and running and made
• 52:04
  available for people to apply. So I want to be I want to be
• 52:07
  real careful with not touching that particular component because I mean, everybody's different,
• 52:16
  and I understand if it comes up, like if they allowed Wi Fi to
• 52:20
  come in, it opens the door to a whole lot of things. Doctors
• 52:22
  been so adverse to Wi Fi And mister Johnson con alluded to it too,
• 52:25
  because we used to fight about that would having indeed in phase three and having
• 52:30
  the orc that runs Phase three being able to take care of resume and put
• 52:36
  it on indeed to create a profile so you can see if you need to
• 52:38
  work on your resume. So my thing is is that I think they need
• 52:43
  to crawl in that aspect once the WiFi would get there. But I'm very
• 52:46
  I'm very vigilant as far as a vanguard to the Family Reunion Program because mister
• 52:52
  Johnson could tell you it's kept the sane the last third of our bid.
• 52:55
  Having the go ahead and take care of ourselves as well as the dichotomy of
• 53:00
  the family relationship. So I'm very it has a special place in my heart
• 53:06
  that if I never had, you know, if I only had airborne channels
• 53:09
  on the FARP, I'm there to really have an instimate conversation and instimate time
• 53:15
  with my loved ones. So to me, I just feel like, if
• 53:17
  it happens, great, but if it don't, that's kind of like you
• 53:21
  know, being in prison and going to the ramada for about forty four hours.
• 53:24
  So my thing about it is is I understand what you're saying. It's
• 53:28
  this, but I think a lot of the men would still rather go out
• 53:31
  and deal with that nonsense just to be able to have the privilege to go
• 53:35
  out, because like like mister Johnson alluded to, there are a lot of
• 53:38
  people that have shed blood over the ability to apply for the family Reunion Program
• 53:45
  and and in all and this is where their argument, this is where their
• 53:50
  argument is strongest. Right, at the end of the day, it's a
• 53:52
  privilege. FARP Family Union Program is a privilege. And but you're right,
• 53:58
  you may not know this, Huh. It's not a right. It's not
• 54:01
  a right. It's not the phones the right to use the phone is a
• 54:06
  privilege. Yeah, the right to the tablet is a privilege. Right to
• 54:10
  commissary as a privilege, right, a lot of these things. You know,
• 54:15
  a lot of guys, you know. And that's where their argument comes
• 54:17
  in at because at the end of the day, they say, well,
• 54:20
  it's not a right. You understand I'm saying. You have you have procedural
• 54:23
  rights, and you have what they call substantiative rights. Substantiative rights is what's
• 54:28
  most important, and procedural rights are kind of just rights that they give you.
• 54:31
  It's like a privilege, you know what I'm saying. Like, you
• 54:34
  have a right to do process at a at a discipline, every proceeding.
• 54:37
  You have a right to challenge your witnesses. You have a right to,
• 54:42
  you know, to the evidence that's being presented against you. Certain things you
• 54:45
  have a right to and some things it's just a privilege, an opportunity,
• 54:50
  something that they give you as a tool of control, because that's what it
• 54:53
  really boils down to. They want to be able to control your behavior.
• 54:57
  They want to be able to say, Okay, if you misbehaved, this
• 55:00
  is what we're gonna take. See when I was, when I when I
• 55:02
  first came up, they had the loaf. Now that that's been found to
• 55:07
  be unconstitutional. They had been Southport for twenty one days on this piece of
• 55:12
  bread that they would give you, and they would have carrots and celery baked
• 55:16
  into it, and they would give you this loaf of bread with a quarter
• 55:20
  of a cabbage and a cup of milk six days straight, and then they
• 55:24
  would give you hot meals for the seventh day, and then you would go
• 55:28
  another six days with the loaf. So so you know, I'm saying all
• 55:34
  of that to say that a lot of things have changed. The narrative,
• 55:38
  um, the idea of what punishment is is changing. I have to admit
• 55:42
  that. Um, the whole law has changed a lot. A lot of
• 55:45
  people don't know. But the New York State Department of Corrections, the union
• 55:50
  um um made a settlement for the halt. They was getting ready to lose
• 55:53
  that whole thing they was gonna do. They were gonna lose a whole lot
• 55:57
  more stuff than what they already But they agreed on the fifteen days and a
• 56:01
  whole bunch of other stipulations because they knew they were gonna lose. So,
• 56:06
  you know, it's a lot going on behind the scenes. We just gotta,
• 56:09
  you know, just do your research. Yeah, and so how could
• 56:13
  Okay, so the women of the War and the War Magazine us, like,
• 56:16
  how can we help with the fight of whatever you guys are doing?
• 56:21
  Like, um, so my last day of I'm on vacation on the twenty
• 56:27
  after the twenty seventh of June, I'm on vacation until September, and I
• 56:30
  gotta go back to the little kids. So how could I you know,
• 56:37
  how can we help? How could we advocate? How can we do well?
• 56:42
  Whatever means? It's this platform, Like I feel like, if it
• 56:45
  ain't broke, don't fix it. I feel like like this platform when I
• 56:49
  first came out, I mean and and and I say it, the digital
• 56:52
  perspective of this platform was dead. Um, you know, you had a
• 56:58
  lot on your plate with your brown girls and voodoo dolls and everything coming through,
• 57:01
  like you really you really couldn't dump a lot into Corey's dream. And
• 57:07
  then I came out doing articles, and then you know, Michael kay Williams
• 57:12
  issue, and then we ended up doing a lot of digital things and just
• 57:16
  being able to kind of like morph into something where we have a lot of
• 57:21
  followers on the site and now this this platform streams live is just to bring
• 57:25
  more people on to bring about awareness, because if you're able to have the
• 57:29
  conversation and bring on brilliant people like mister Johnson, and then being able to
• 57:35
  show how he's pivoted and being able to take a whole bunch of lemons and
• 57:40
  be able to create lemonade and he's found the ability to create the sugar and
• 57:45
  give it the right type of texture to make it real good to his palette,
• 57:52
  so he can go ahead and be bitter to other people that really don't
• 57:53
  understand what they experiences he's been through in real time. And I think it's
• 58:00
  most important is to be able to bring real time issues, real life issues
• 58:06
  to the front with everyone else, because then what happens is we can control
• 58:09
  a portion of the narrative that government or media tries to display and say,
• 58:15
  look at them, this mental health, look at them, You give them
• 58:17
  a little bit, and they still commit crime. So for me, I
• 58:20
  feel the ability to have more success stories that's going on within guys that have
• 58:25
  come out for the penitentiary and have actually been able to excel. What it
• 58:30
  does is now it changes the perception that people have like he mister Johnson alluding
• 58:36
  to earlier that all they're none of the criminals. They can't be changed,
• 58:39
  there's no abilitative process within them. And then what that does is now is
• 58:44
  more women have more conversations, and then it starts to spread like wildfire,
• 58:49
  and then people understand that Sheldon and I adjust people. We had to find
• 58:53
  someone that was in our corner to invest some type of time and encouragement into
• 58:59
  us on order for us to go ahead and make our own lane and create
• 59:02
  our own voice. So you're doing the fabulous job. You did a fabulous
• 59:07
  job, or mister Blanks, and also now with mister Johnson and shedding light
• 59:12
  to his flight and what he's doing now, and as if you continue to
• 59:15
  do this, then what happens is will become larger and will become a larger
• 59:19
  base, and then you'll be able to go ahead and now be mainstream locked.
• 59:22
  How much time we got left? Sis, I think that's about it
• 59:28
  all right, so real quick May thirty. First, we're going back to
• 59:32
  Albany for the Clean Slate Act. We got a van that's gonna be coming
• 59:37
  up. You can log on to Hudson lak dot com. We got a
• 59:42
  van service. You get free lunch um and we're going out to advocate for
• 59:46
  the brothers and sisters who have felony and mister meeting convictions on to trying to
• 59:52
  get those removed from their records so that they can have access to housing and
• 59:58
  education and moointment without being discriminated against. So dot all, I got,
• 1:00:04
  I got it, hurts dot org. Okay, person and tell them you're
• 1:00:07
  interested in going to the clean Slay Thatt May thirty first Clean Slate And I
• 1:00:15
  think the brother Alara Quinte says something about their doing something downtown the mall Chambership.
• 1:00:20
  Tomorrow they're having a rally in front of the Mayor's off as a City
• 1:00:23
  Hall on Chamber Street in City Hall Park and they're gonna be advocating for the
• 1:00:29
  mayors to now bring programming back to rikers Allen. The rally is going to
• 1:00:32
  be from once or four. Anybody that's willing can come out and join.
• 1:00:37
  I will be out there in person, and if you want to pull up
• 1:00:39
  and you want to ask any questions or anything, fee free to ask YEP.
• 1:00:44
  One pm to four Yes tomorrow, City Hall Park, right by Chamber
• 1:00:50
  Street off the sixth strom, like he says, since this platform is very
• 1:00:54
  important for us to be able to speak to people and to be able to
• 1:00:58
  reach out and let people know what's going on and tell them the truth.
• 1:01:01
  That's what it's about the truth and nothing but the truth, the whole truth.
• 1:01:08
  Ryking the Street, one pm, so four okay, Clean Slate at
• 1:01:15
  Clean Slate at Okay. I want to thank you guys for coming and run
• 1:01:22
  the show. Of course, you guys are welcome to always come back because
• 1:01:27
  we always are on the fourth This is the third foot. This is the
• 1:01:31
  fourth Thursday, the fourth Thursday of the month. Every third fourth Thursday of
• 1:01:36
  the month from eight to nine we are live on the podcast The War,
• 1:01:40
  The War Magazine. So I am so happy that you guys came on the
• 1:01:45
  show today. UM. Definitely we are going to put this up on the
• 1:01:49
  website as well, about UM the Clean Slate at That'smate thirty first tomorrow.
• 1:01:57
  It's wonderful at UM you all part from the forum to bring for the mayor.
• 1:02:06
  So I'm definitely I'm gonna put that UM up on the website tonight when
• 1:02:10
  I get off the get off the UM. The live broadcast with you guys.
• 1:02:15
  But I want to thank you guys so much of being a part of
• 1:02:17
  the war. You guys never disappoint me. I thank you so much,
• 1:02:20
  and I just want to correct Pam UM. Pam is on every third UM
• 1:02:25
  thirsdayday with the women of the Wall, UM every time leave me on here.
• 1:02:38
  What you guys are doing, UM. I appreciate what you are doing,
• 1:02:44
  UM from the bottom of my heart. I thank Pam all the time
• 1:02:47
  for what she does. But I thank you guys for coming on here tonight
• 1:02:52
  and sharing and pulling out and allowing individuals to see UM that you are the
• 1:02:57
  change that you want to see in this world. So I think, thank
• 1:03:00
  you guys. I applied to you. My hats are off to you,
• 1:03:01
  guys. And if there's anything that I can do, I'm here in South
• 1:03:06
  Carolina. If there's anything that I can do to assist on your journey,
• 1:03:10
  I am definitely here to support UM. I am passionate just like Pam about
• 1:03:17
  UM the wrongly and overly incarcerated UM. So my hats are off to you,
• 1:03:24
  guys. I thank you for your advocacy in what you're doing. UM.
• 1:03:30
  Keep being the change that you desire to see in this world. Absolutely
• 1:03:34
  absolutely, Yeah, Angie is really UM, She's really she. UM is
• 1:03:40
  connected with a lot of the gentlemen that's in Texas that are incarcerated. And
• 1:03:46
  that's why she was like to Texas is very corrupt because she's helping a couple
• 1:03:52
  of gentlemen out there, UM with some of the things that they're doing out
• 1:03:55
  there, but like the death penalty and different things like that they're in for
• 1:04:00
  and you know, she's doing her thing out there with them. And UM
• 1:04:03
  definitely UM. Septem of the first to November the thirty, if we start
• 1:04:09
  in another prayer visual for people that's incarcerated, men and women were having a
• 1:04:15
  prayer visual from five am in the morning. We do this all the time
• 1:04:20
  five am for the next ninety day, started September the first. UM,
• 1:04:26
  we want God to you know, make a change. And I also understand
• 1:04:30
  that UM the governor UM what's her name, Kathy Hope, it's still sign
• 1:04:34
  it off on a lot of the clemency. So you guys had um like
• 1:04:40
  put her on a spot so she has to be held accountable for doing that,
• 1:04:44
  which is a good thing too. But our show is now rapping out.
• 1:04:48
  We like five minutes over time. But I want to thank you guys
• 1:04:50
  for coming on if you had UM please, if you want to hold on
• 1:04:56
  something, if you guys, hold on a second. Um, somebody's asking
• 1:05:03
  some questions about for you guys. UM, I just sent them the link
• 1:05:08
  to what you just asked me. UM. If you guys, definitely I
• 1:05:13
  want you guys to come back on the show again. But UM, whatever
• 1:05:17
  you guys are doing, please let me know in advance so I can start
• 1:05:20
  advertising on the website like the you know, the rallies, the whatever things
• 1:05:28
  you guys, the petitions you need to sign, any of everything that is
• 1:05:31
  needed. Let us know so we can start talking about it on the different
• 1:05:34
  shows. Because Angie is the UM, she's ahead of the whole the Crew
• 1:05:41
  podcast. This is her baby, so she has so many like slots available
• 1:05:45
  or whatever, um for people to do shows a different things that nature and
• 1:05:50
  Angie, can you tell them real quick like we are, um, all
• 1:05:57
  of the platforms that this is gonna be on, UM really quick. She's
• 1:06:00
  still in Yeah, yeah, it's our heart radio. It's what else edgy,
• 1:06:08
  Um, yeah, so we are on our heart radio Spotify, UM
• 1:06:14
  platform called you forty two? Um who we everywhere you stream at UM because
• 1:06:26
  I streamed through speaker dot com. But we're up streaming live right now through
• 1:06:30
  YouTube, UM, Facebook and LinkedIn and UM immediately after we go live,
• 1:06:35
  our upload to our heart UM, UM days, your UM, Google,
• 1:06:44
  Podcasts, UM, Spotify, UM, wherever else. It's it's about ten
• 1:06:51
  or eleven different platforms that UM we will be screamed to UM that people will
• 1:06:57
  have the opportunity to see the video or either here's the audio. UM.
• 1:07:01
  So yeah, sounds like a planer. Yeah, And it's crazy because UM,
• 1:07:09
  somebody one of the and and the thing is so funny because uh,
• 1:07:13
  the CEOs at Sing Sing you would be surprised on how many of them really
• 1:07:19
  follow me. And it's so funny because they'll say things and I'm like,
• 1:07:24
  the only way you would know that if you follow me, So they will
• 1:07:28
  say things. They follow, so they know and they do follow what you
• 1:07:33
  guys are saying and what you guys are doing, which is great. So
• 1:07:38
  they know that you guys are out here making a difference. They see him,
• 1:07:42
  they see me and him together, They're gonna be like, oh boy,
• 1:07:45
  yeah they follow they so you know they know I'm I'm I'm shooting it.
• 1:07:49
  A bit. So to me, it's like you don't. I would
• 1:07:54
  love to talk to a larger broad audience in South Carolina if I would get
• 1:07:58
  an opportunity, Angie. So if you can put me on, I'll be
• 1:08:00
  happy to be a guest, to be able to talk about different things in
• 1:08:02
  New York City and be able to kind of see the comparing contrasts the way
• 1:08:06
  South Carolina does the thing too. Definitely in taxis supercause she said they,
• 1:08:13
  Oh my god, she's been helping. What is the gentleman name that you're
• 1:08:16
  helping, Angie? Well, Texas has broken the Guinness Book of World records.
• 1:08:20
  They have the longest tenured person with a sentence. He is now doing
• 1:08:27
  forty years on death row and he has not been executed. Yeah, I'll
• 1:08:32
  say forty years. Forty years he has been on death row and he has
• 1:08:36
  not been executed. Right, Well, mister Drummond, Mister Drummond has done
• 1:08:42
  thirty three years and he just got passed over for parole again. They outset
• 1:08:46
  him for another year, so he'll be back up next year for parole.
• 1:08:53
  But he's been It's crazy because these people, he this man has a fifty
• 1:08:59
  five million down a lawsuit against UM, the attorney general, and he has
• 1:09:05
  one hundred million dollars lawsuit against these people. It's just like these people have
• 1:09:11
  His lawyer became the assistant district attorney, went on to later become a judge
• 1:09:19
  in the Court of Appeals. So it's just like every time he come up
• 1:09:24
  for something, they are blocking him and and and it's just like they have
• 1:09:28
  blocked him out of the judicial system. No matter what what they what they
• 1:09:32
  do say, they have blocked this man out. For one your systems watching,
• 1:09:38
  you have to realize that money, that's not their money. So they
• 1:09:42
  really don't care about the money. They're willing, they're willing to UM.
• 1:09:46
  They're willing, they're willing to They don't they don't care about that money because
• 1:09:50
  they're not paying for that money. It's the taxpayers money. So the taxpayers
• 1:09:54
  have the voice. They're discussed with this idea that the depart some of the
• 1:10:00
  corruptions continues to continues to perpetuate this behavior that results in these astronomical lawsuits that
• 1:10:11
  the taxpayers are paying for because it's not they just rushing it under the rug.
• 1:10:15
  And it goes from one one and it's like they just hidden they pattern
• 1:10:20
  the people on the hand that's doing the wrong stuff and just letting them go
• 1:10:26
  on about their way. You you, you got and and it's you.
• 1:10:29
  You google corruption in the state of Texas and you watch what comes up.
• 1:10:34
  You see what comes up, and you wonder why if this is coming up
• 1:10:39
  and you see this, why nobody's doing nothing about it, and why the
• 1:10:42
  people that live in the state of Texas are not speaking up. You got
• 1:10:46
  more people that don't live in the state of Texas more concerned about the state
• 1:10:50
  of Texas than the people that live in the state of Texas. Well,
• 1:10:55
  you got people, now you you you you got, I got And it's
• 1:11:00
  like every time one of them people called me from down there, you got
• 1:11:02
  people want to get on the phone to tell me about that case, want
• 1:11:05
  to tell me this, want to tell me that when you got a whole
• 1:11:12
  twenty people telling you that they were convicted by a all white jury. But
• 1:11:16
  they say, a jury of my peers, my peers. If it was
• 1:11:20
  me, my peers would not be all white. My parents are not all
• 1:11:25
  white. So how has they allowing that and and and saying that's justice and
• 1:11:29
  saying that's fair. It's like, what's going on in Mississippi House build that
• 1:11:34
  ten twenty, that that that's a bunch of crap. That's what I got
• 1:11:45
  a court system for for for the whites and a court system for the blacks.
• 1:11:49
  And you say that's not racist, and that and and that's not bias.
• 1:11:57
  I think I think recently I've read that they say that this wan segregation
• 1:12:00
  now than there was before. UM. So when you think about many of
• 1:12:03
  the ideas that's being perpetuated in society with regards to UM, with regards to
• 1:12:12
  equity and and and how people get treated. You know, we've we've always
• 1:12:17
  known that for them there's there's there's a form of criminal justice, and for
• 1:12:21
  us there's a whole different form of criminal injustice. UM. You know Backs
• 1:12:27
  in versus Kentucky. That's the United States Supreme Court case that you're talking about
• 1:12:30
  that says that you supposed there's there's not supposed to be no all white jury
• 1:12:35
  or no all black jury or no all jury is supposed to be mixed up
• 1:12:42
  of of of of people that come from that particular community. But what happens
• 1:12:46
  is that if I'm getting going on in the state of Texas, and it's
• 1:12:49
  been going on for the last three decades, and they have been allowing it
• 1:12:54
  because they say they they are not under the US constitution, their own their
• 1:12:58
  own state constitution constitution, so they don't have to bide by what the United
• 1:13:03
  States. If somebody has to challenge it all the way up, that's the
• 1:13:08
  problem. If nobody give everybody that seems to be challenging it, they they
• 1:13:15
  they getting knocked down. They it seemed like everybody's going against them. I
• 1:13:18
  mean, I'm for the lights of me, I don't I don't get it,
• 1:13:21
  but I'm about to get into it, and I'm about to see this
• 1:13:25
  is like, this is something new to me. This is something new to
• 1:13:29
  me. But I can't and I don't see how people I allow their loves
• 1:13:34
  wants to be incarcerated like that, and you don't speak up? How can
• 1:13:40
  you allow this? Like I heard you talking about food and how y'all y'all
• 1:13:45
  advocated for food. You know how they treat these people. They put their
• 1:13:48
  food in brown paper sacks, don't even wrap it up, isn't nothing.
• 1:13:53
  They give them a piece of chicken and just throw it in the bad and
• 1:13:56
  then they'll come by and they'll drop it outside their door and and and and
• 1:14:00
  and that's child time. And then they do something what they call a drive
• 1:14:03
  by where they go in, they go in, get their food and they
• 1:14:06
  come and then they got to take it back to their selves. Yeah,
• 1:14:10
  they walk right back out where all kind of all kind of stuff. Like
• 1:14:13
  if if they regulate the food for school and and and the government is fun
• 1:14:19
  to that, then why can't the government require them to regulate the food that
• 1:14:23
  they feed the prisoners. They're not they're not they are human too. There's
• 1:14:30
  there's no unity. There's no unity on our part inside the prison system as
• 1:14:34
  well. That's number one, right. Number two is we're not politically active
• 1:14:40
  inside these prisons. We don't reach out and utilize and gallanize our families to
• 1:14:45
  go out and vote. You got the gangs in the prison that separate everything.
• 1:14:50
  So so because I'm blood and I'm crimp and and I'm Vice Lord,
• 1:14:55
  and I'm Latin King and I'm missing, I'm not. So now we can't
• 1:14:59
  get on the st ain't paging, getting nothing to accomplished because we all feel
• 1:15:01
  like we're different and we can't come together for no justified reason. So this
• 1:15:08
  is how they keep us separated, dividing conquer. They do the same thing
• 1:15:11
  with our families. They do the same thing in our communities. They put
• 1:15:15
  a whole bunch of us over here and a whole bunch of us over here.
• 1:15:17
  They give you a little bit more rights and give you less rights.
• 1:15:20
  So now you feel like you got more than I got. So now you're
• 1:15:24
  trying to keep me down, and you got somebody above me that's trying to
• 1:15:27
  keep me down. So it's it's it's it's it's a system. It's by
• 1:15:30
  design. And until we realize and wake up and unite as a people,
• 1:15:38
  for you know, we the people. These people are in these positions because
• 1:15:42
  we allow them to be in these positions exactly exactly. We can go out
• 1:15:45
  and time to vote. We can go out excuse my language, and vote
• 1:15:49
  their asses out. That's what I keep telling folks. We can vote them
• 1:15:55
  what we have to. We have to be the change that we want to
• 1:15:59
  see in this world. We have to do it. So I thank you
• 1:16:01
  for what you're doing. I really do. I thank you for what you're
• 1:16:05
  doing. I am super proud of Pam. Y'all keep doing what y'all doing.
• 1:16:10
  Um, I definitely want to get with you guys and and see how
• 1:16:15
  I can get some assistance, get some help, get some advice to help
• 1:16:18
  these people down here in Texas were up. Okay, Okay, I'll definitely
• 1:16:30
  do that. Okay, Pam, I'm sorry for taking over your show here
• 1:16:32
  you please. We are wrapping it up because I have to stick myself in
• 1:16:38
  the stomach with this insent. But Sheldon, I thank you for coming on.
• 1:16:42
  You're gonna be on again. We're gonna have you on many more days.
• 1:16:46
  We're AFRAIDOM have to jump off really quickly. But I love you guys.
• 1:16:50
  I thank you for being a part of the show. UM again,
• 1:16:54
  I will sending you the link when UM Angie uploads it. I'm gonna definitely
• 1:16:58
  send it to you so you can UM and I also always put it on
• 1:17:02
  the website. And I'm gonna make sure that we go to all of your
• 1:17:06
  to the UM, to the groups that you you know, to the UM,
• 1:17:11
  to the rallies and everything. I want to keep the breast of that
• 1:17:14
  because I definitely want to be an active part of it. So I just
• 1:17:16
  want to thank you guys. We're gonna wrap the show up now. We
• 1:17:20
  thank you guys for being a part of the War Magazine as always please keep
• 1:17:26
  a contact with us. You can go to our website to War Magazine dot
• 1:17:30
  org. Um. Shelter is gonna have his and I'm gonna have his information
• 1:17:32
  up there. UM tell him. Tell him they could go to the Guilty
• 1:17:36
  Project dot org two sis dot tell them Tell them, guys, tell them
• 1:17:41
  you could go to the Guilty Project dot org. Um. I'm the director
• 1:17:45
  of Legislative Policy, and we're working on um, you know, bringing everybody
• 1:17:49
  together like I was speaking about, and just trying to get out there and
• 1:17:54
  voting for change and just coming together and just realizing that, you know,
• 1:17:59
  we are more powerful as a unit then we all separated. Um. You
• 1:18:04
  know, some of the most powerful things are solid. I once heard a
• 1:18:09
  person say, you never hear the sun come out in the morning, but
• 1:18:13
  the sun is the most powerful, the most powerful entity in the universe.
• 1:18:19
  So you know, it's not necessarily about how much noise you can make,
• 1:18:24
  but how much light you can reflect a man. And know what, I'm
• 1:18:28
  gonna leave it out that, Yes, thank you show that. Angie.
• 1:18:31
  We're gonna wrap up the shower. You can play our exit music. I
• 1:18:35
  want to thank you guys again for an amazing show. And I would talking
• 1:18:40
  to y'all. Solf Okay, Hey, this is the Orthopmera of Jada Vic
• 1:19:00
  and Lady T. You are listening to the War Magazine podcast on the Crew
• 1:19:05
  podcast, so stay tuned. This is our show. Enjoy yeah, yeah yeah