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“From Life Sentence to Leader: Yusef Wiley’s 100% Turnaround” · Nightmare Success In and Out

0:00
I got a letter from my dad, man. And you know, and I didn't get
0:03
letters from my dad. I mostly got letters from my
0:05
mom. So when I got the letter from my
0:07
dad, that was like, wow, I'm looking at the envelope.
0:10
It took me a minute to open. I was like, wow, Pops literally
0:14
wrote me. And when I opened up the letter,
0:16
it was still like a resistance of opening it.
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I finally opened it up before I opened my eyes and looked at the
0:22
page, you know, at the top he said, I love you.
0:25
First thing he said, I love you, Your, your, your mom and I, we
0:29
love you. But he said if you don't stop,
0:33
whatever it is you're doing in there, we don't know if we'll be
0:37
alive when you get out of there. Bing right there.
0:41
Soon as I heard those words, the light bulb came on and they
0:45
changed me completely. What happens when your worst
0:50
fear becomes your reality? Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy.
0:53
Welcome to the Nightmare Success In and Out podcast where we
0:56
explore how to overcome your fears and nightmares that set
1:00
yourself free. We're going to be exploring this
1:02
topic with guys that was in Leavenworth with and others who
1:05
survived their own nightmare. These stories can be inspiring,
1:09
sometimes sad, there's some humor, but hopefully you can
1:13
come away with a nugget of something that'll help you knock
1:16
down some of the prisons you built up in your own mind.
1:20
All right, welcome back. I'm our success.
1:22
And now listeners, this is where you come from.
1:24
What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
1:26
How do you adapt, survive, overcome?
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Set yourself free, folks, don't forget to follow.
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Hit that subscribe button. Like it up, share it out.
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It really helps the show and I appreciate it.
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So who are we talking to today on nightmare success?
1:40
What we're talking to Yousef Wiley and and I'll tell you what
1:44
this guy, I I love everything he's doing.
1:48
It's, it's all about post release and pre release for for
1:54
rehabilitation and re entry. It's, it's so needed and he's
1:57
really done a job. He's a keynote speaker.
2:02
He's an author of If I, if I knew then, which I love that
2:06
title. Love the title of that book.
2:09
He's the founder of Timeless, which is a it's a nonprofit re
2:13
entry and housing organization that powers formerly
2:15
incarcerated individuals to rebuild their lives through
2:18
leadership, mentorship and purpose.
2:21
Youssef's own journey from incarceration to community
2:24
leader is one of redemption, resilience, backed by over 25
2:28
years of advocacy and program developed within the
2:31
California's justice system. And this guy went to prison at
2:36
21 years old. He, he was in for 22 years, got
2:42
out at the age of 43 and he started doing all this and
2:45
hasn't wasted any time once he got out.
2:48
And I just, I can't wait to jump into his story.
2:51
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story. Youssef, how are you doing?
4:19
I'm doing great, man. How you doing, Brett?
4:21
I'm doing great. We, we, we, we kind of used us
4:25
on the, on the West Coast and I'm here in Central.
4:28
So we finally got, we, we met up, we, we made it.
4:31
So I'm glad we were able to connect.
4:34
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
4:36
So Yousef, you know, it's your story is fascinating to me for a
4:44
lot of different reasons. But before this nightmare landed
4:49
on you, back when you were 21, I know that you had early, like at
4:54
13 years old, you, you, you'd already gotten in the system.
4:57
Can you tell us a little bit about what your life was South
5:01
Central growing up in that time? Oh yeah.
5:05
So you know, at 13 years old, we're talking about the 80's,
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the mid 80s in in South Central Los Angeles when that was
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actually. A time when the gangs became
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really well known nationally, probably even internationally,
5:25
especially in South Central Los Angeles.
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It was a lot of fear and people were hearing about the gangs.
5:32
And you know, myself, growing up in that era, growing up in a
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community where gangs existed, I found myself in that same web.
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So having two working parents, I had two working parents, didn't
5:49
really prevent many of us from falling into those traps of that
5:54
street life. And it was almost like a
5:57
necessary thing to do you. You wanted to either be the
6:02
predator or the prey. It was one of those type of
6:04
situations. If your appearance wasn't well
6:09
off enough to move you away from it or send you to a private
6:13
school outside of the community, that was it.
6:16
You were stuck there. That was going to be your life.
6:20
And you had to choose your friends wisely.
6:24
So it was tough at 13, you know, trying to navigate.
6:29
That you soft, Did you as a family, Did you have brothers
6:33
and sisters and all that that was growing?
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Up. Yeah, you know, I'm the baby,
6:37
actually, I'm my family. I'm the I'm the youngest of of
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of five. Older brother, brother, brother
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being the oldest, by the time I was 13 he was already moved on,
6:50
got married, moved away and my my remaining three sisters were
6:56
still there graduating from high school already and moving on as
7:02
well. So most of my siblings got out
7:06
of there, with the exception of maybe one who moved like across
7:11
the street from my parents house.
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She was the only one that kind of stayed by and but she worked
7:19
with my father. She worked at my father's
7:21
company. So he kind of gnashed her up
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pretty quickly when I was just getting introduced to the the
7:28
culture, the subculture of gangs and violence that was happening
7:32
in South Central Los Angeles. Yeah, there was a there was a
7:35
movie, I think Boys in the Hood, that was like around 1990.
7:39
Yeah, that was later, a little later.
7:42
They had the movie before that, which was Colors.
7:45
That was like the first really controversial movie that
7:50
highlighted the Crips and the Bloods in South Central Los
7:54
Angeles, which was predominantly, you know, the
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African American gangs, even though there was a little bit of
8:01
the Latino gangs, that was highlighted in that movie as
8:03
well. So that was a very difficult
8:07
time for many young people. Oh, that was growing up, yeah.
8:11
Yeah, you were I, I was born in 60.
8:14
I was born in 67. I think you were born in 69.
8:16
So we're we're close to the same age.
8:17
I I. Yeah, I remember all the. 80s
8:19
stuff with it was crazy wild. Yes, it was.
8:24
We're talking about during the Reagan period, you know, you had
8:27
the Contras and the Oliver North's.
8:31
Yeah, that was happening during that time.
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A lot of stuff was going on in the in the country at that time
8:37
as well. So.
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So what you know, was saying, you know, the all that going on
8:42
with the Crips and bloods and everything, what was school, any
8:46
part of that equation? Like?
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Did you guys go to school and, and was that a, a place that you
8:55
went or like an escape or anything like that?
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No, actually it was more so. In especially in the 80s in
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South Central Los Angeles, many of the, the programs that
9:07
existed at one time began to get defunded.
9:12
You know, a lot of the music programs, even some of the other
9:15
alternative sports programs, like prior to that time period
9:19
we had tennis, we used to actually play tennis in South
9:23
Central Los Angeles and those, a lot of those sports was
9:27
defunded. A lot of people don't talk about
9:29
this, but a lot of programs were defunded and at the same time,
9:34
simultaneously, we had the big drug cartel scenario come into
9:43
play where cocaine was being introduced into the African
9:49
American minority communities in the form of crack cocaine, in
9:53
the form of rocks we call rocks. We used to refer to it as rock
9:58
cocaine or crack cocaine, a new drug, which was a, which was a
10:03
cheaper form of powder cocaine. And that literally flooded in
10:09
the community around that same time period, which for us it
10:14
introduced, oh, a opportunity to make money fast money on the
10:19
school campus. It, it began there.
10:21
It literally began there. And people began selling drugs,
10:26
people. We noticed friends coming to
10:29
school dressed differently, nice clothes, even driving, you know,
10:34
like by the time we got to middle school, maybe 9th grade,
10:36
8th grade, you have folks already driving cars to school.
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And it was like, what's going on?
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So everybody wanted a piece of that.
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And that's what created another level of the gangs.
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That's when the gangs begin to seize that opportunity and grow.
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And the gangs begin to grow. Depending on what neighborhood
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you lived in. You had the Crips in this school
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district, you had the Bloods in this school district, or the
11:03
same school district, but different area, different
11:06
neighborhoods. And it just took off from there.
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Yeah, and the sentences got really long too.
11:13
Yeah. Is that how they were putting
11:14
people in in prison? So when when the when the
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Nightmare landed on you at 21, what happened?
11:21
So the nightmare landed on me, and at the age of 21, by this
11:26
time, a lot has happened. Assault rifles was introduced
11:31
into the community. Like around 8680, yeah, 8586, we
11:37
started seeing assault rifles for the first time, AK-40
11:42
sevens, AR fifteens, right? And so that made guys like us
11:47
that was growing up in the middle of that feeling more in
11:50
power, like we, we were something to reckon with.
11:53
And, and it just created more chaos because people, more
11:56
people started dying, people that we grew up with, you know,
12:00
from elementary school playing in the sandbox.
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We're now, you know, hardcore gang members just like myself.
12:07
And when they start to die, it created an emotional situation
12:14
where we wouldn't show it, but it was showed in the violence
12:18
and things like that because these were people that we knew
12:21
that were being killed. And do you?
12:24
Have any close calls yourself a? Lot of close calls myself, in
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fact, so close to where in two or three different occasions
12:34
where my parents house was shot up and two of the times they
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worked, when they worked home, they were at work and another
12:42
time they were home in the middle of the night when it
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happened. And you know, that didn't do
12:49
anything for me. It wasn't a wake up call when it
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should have been, but it was more of anger built up in me to
12:56
retaliate and things like that. That was the world we were in.
13:00
And and then another time where, you know, at a gas station and
13:06
at A at a a fast food joint out in the parking lot, people
13:11
driving by, that's when drive by shootings.
13:14
You can that was the headlines. You turn on the TV drive by
13:18
shooting, drive by shooting. That's what was happening back
13:20
in the 80s. And and you know, a lot of close
13:24
calls, literally bullets passing my face.
13:28
I can hear it or feel it past my face and many close calls and
13:35
yeah. And by 21, well actually 19
13:41
caught a case, serious case, drive by shooting case where got
13:46
into a big shootout and end up getting caught up in that and
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was arrested in a high speed chase.
13:58
And later on, by the age of 21, that is when the hammer came
14:02
down from the judge and I was sentenced to life in prison in
14:06
the state of California. And like you said earlier, the
14:08
laws, many of the laws that changed by then, you know, we're
14:12
talking about the Nancy Reagan era of say no to drugs.
14:17
Right. Drugs, right?
14:19
So and that was mainly targeting our communities.
14:22
It was, it was, you know, that the minority communities, it
14:26
really targeted our communities and what?
14:30
And with that type of charge, what was the charge that you had
14:32
that would have set you away from, you know?
14:35
So I was originally they charged me with a first degree murder,
14:41
homicide, and four counts of attempted murder and it was
14:47
reduced over time. Going through trial.
14:51
I end up taking a plea agreement with the district attorney's
14:54
office for a lesser charge. So they reduced it to 2nd degree
14:59
because they seen it was, they knew it was a gang war, It was a
15:01
back and forth scenario. Wasn't like, you know, they
15:04
couldn't really hold the first degree charge.
15:07
So that's how it ended up becoming second degree, but it
15:10
still carried a life sentence. So.
15:13
Well, I, I, you know, thinking about that at that age, yes, a
15:19
lot of kids at that age are going to college and, and they
15:24
really haven't gotten their life figured out yet.
15:26
They're they're just doing what all the other kids are doing in
15:29
school. You right, are looking at going
15:33
to an adult big time prison for life.
15:36
What, like what was going through your mind you saw at
15:40
that time? Man, I mean, it was scary, you
15:43
know, even though I couldn't show that fear, right, because
15:47
of who I was and what I was representing at the time.
15:52
But I felt like it was more fear that I had for my family, for my
15:58
parents, you know, because they raised me, right?
16:01
It wasn't anything that they neglected to do or didn't do, or
16:06
they tried their best what they based on what they knew how to
16:11
raise. Young teenagers, but that, that
16:16
was my biggest. Fear was that.
16:17
How would my my my parents endure this?
16:22
Yeah. You know, nervous breakdown,
16:25
heart attack, those are the things that I was on my mind.
16:28
So yeah. And at that time, I went when
16:31
you're when you're presented something like that, that
16:33
they're just basically saying you're done.
16:35
Yeah, this is this is your, this is your sentence, you're done.
16:38
Did you have any hope in your mind that that somehow, some
16:43
way, something was going to change or work out for you?
16:46
That it wasn't going to be that you were just discarded and done
16:50
at that age? You know, you're right about
16:54
that. I mean, that's a really good.
16:57
I like that you brought that up even before I reached the prison
17:02
system because, you know, after the courts, I was went to the
17:05
jail system first the county jail.
17:08
And during the time I was at the county jail waiting to go to
17:11
prison, I, I got up in the middle of the night and I woke
17:16
up my cellmates and everything. And I, and they was like, what's
17:20
going on? Why was I couldn't sleep man?
17:22
And, and they like man, I know you going to you on your way.
17:28
They were still going in trial and things like that.
17:30
So I woke him up and I told him, I said, I don't think I actually
17:35
said God. I said, I don't think God is
17:37
done with me. I said, I, I just don't, I, I
17:41
literally was like, I had my finger here.
17:44
I was like, I just don't think God is done with me, you know?
17:49
I said. Even though I got that sentence,
17:52
I don't see it, you know? You had some hope there.
17:56
Yeah, it was hope. I had hope.
17:58
Which is it's just a huge thing. I mean, you and I both been in
18:01
prison. If somebody loses hope, that's
18:05
it. I mean, yeah, that's it.
18:06
And then and we see those people in prison, you know, that that
18:09
have lost hope. They look different.
18:11
They act different. And they, you know, they've,
18:14
they've given themselves, if they hit the rock bottom and
18:16
didn't step out of it when you stepped into prison, Yousuf,
18:19
what how did you enter that unknown world?
18:25
Yeah, so so would have been a Max.
18:27
Would have been a maximum, yeah. I saw I originally up, I went to
18:33
Folsom. I went to old Folsom at the
18:35
time, which was the one of the few maximum security prisons at
18:39
the time, notorious for violence, prison gangs and all
18:43
that stuff. So I, I ended up there and it
18:46
was a very spooky looking place too.
18:48
So when I pulled up and seen that that big wall that was
18:52
built, actually built by the Japanese years ago, that was a
18:57
very old prison with like castle grayscale type doors and went in
19:05
there and I told myself, I said, wait a minute, this is how I'm
19:10
going to survive my reputation. So I went in there as a big
19:14
talker because I figured if I go in there saying this is where I
19:19
come from, explaining look, this is where I come from.
19:22
This was. What?
19:22
I was like your warrior shield? Yeah.
19:25
Exactly. I said this is what I was doing
19:27
outside and it worked. I mean, it, is it, it, it was,
19:31
it was the protection because I was young, like you said, and,
19:35
and it actually worked. And a lot of the older guys that
19:38
were there that been there a very long time already, they
19:41
wanted to hear about it. They wanted to hear the stories.
19:43
They wanted to hear who I knew and things of that nature.
19:47
So that's how I survived. And after that went on for like
19:51
maybe the first few weeks of being at that prison, I figured
19:55
that would be how I would survive.
19:58
Just keep that shield up like you said.
20:01
And and I survived, while in the back of my head I knew I knew I
20:06
could die in there as well. Sure, at any point and you know,
20:11
there there's you know, people count time all kinds of
20:14
different ways in prison and. Yes.
20:17
I know that you had a time period there were you were in
20:21
solitary confinement. I don't know how how long you
20:24
were in before that. Yes, yeah.
20:27
So that happened. Shoot, actually shortly after I
20:32
ended up in Folsom. I believe it happened maybe,
20:35
maybe two or three years after I started my sentence.
20:40
I ended up in solitary confinement because of an
20:44
assault on a prison guard, on the correctional guard.
20:48
And again, that was me being tough guy and wanting to show
20:54
up, you know, in a certain way because I would witness
20:58
something that was happening between a prison guard and
21:01
another inmate being attacked or being accused of something.
21:05
And I was like, I was like a witness where I knew he didn't
21:08
do anything wrong. So when I intervened and said
21:12
something to the guards, they turned their attention to me and
21:17
said, you stay out of this or you're next type of thing.
21:20
And I and I was like, that's gold.
21:23
That's rumble, right? And, and that's how I ended up
21:26
in solitary confinement. And I almost got shot by the
21:30
what the prison guard that was in the watchtower during that
21:33
time. And I almost blacked out because
21:36
I heard people. It was like a dim, like a echo
21:41
of someone people yelling get down, calling me by my name and
21:48
saying they've they're pointing the gun at me.
21:50
They was telling me they're going to shoot, they're going to
21:52
shoot. I kept hearing that ringing and
21:56
I finally snapped out of it and got down, got, you know, assumed
21:59
position on the ground. Once I once I kind of snapped
22:03
out of it, but it was like everyone told me I was literally
22:06
that close to being killed by the prison guard.
22:10
Man, a guy with 9 lives. Yeah.
22:13
Right, you, you head off to solitary.
22:15
I don't how long were how long were you in there for that?
22:18
A year I was in there for about. A that is a long, I have not
22:22
talked well, I guess I have I talked to Kyle Ki Lawson that
22:25
was in for 13 years. So right that that can change
22:29
somebody. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
22:31
It, it was, I was on there and, and, and it was, so that's what
22:38
I began wearing glasses too. I don't have them on right now,
22:41
but I took them off of this because I had to go there.
22:43
But that's actually when I started wearing glasses because
22:49
it was always dark in there. And I, and I then that's the
22:52
only time I began reading. I started reading during the
22:55
time I was in solitary confinement studying reading.
23:01
And my eyes, I noticed my eyes started getting pretty bad from
23:05
reading in the dark or use the little light that.
23:08
Little. Light that come out of the
23:09
ceiling. It was rough and I like I said,
23:13
I was there for about a year so and I, it was on my, it was on
23:18
me. I, I should have only been there
23:20
maybe 3 months Max, but I kept getting into it with the guards
23:25
in there. Plus they knew I was there for
23:27
attacking one of their own. So they would harass me sometime
23:31
about that. So that's what extended my stay
23:35
inside solitary confinement. So is this a time period,
23:41
Yousef, that you have this kind of reckoning with yourself?
23:46
Yes, personal reckoning. Yes, I did.
23:49
I think maybe six months almost into being there, five to six
23:55
months into being there, because doing those back and forth with
24:01
the guards inside solitary confinement, they denied all my
24:05
visitation. I didn't.
24:06
I didn't have visitation. So you just cut off from the
24:09
world. I was just literally cut off.
24:11
So somehow, someway their letters were getting to because
24:17
I was hearing that my letters wasn't coming either.
24:20
Yeah. And I don't know, I think
24:21
someone told me that they're they they, they saw them
24:26
throwing letters in the trash or something like that.
24:28
They probably were mine. Letters slipped in from my dad.
24:34
I got a letter from my dad, man. And you know, and I didn't get
24:38
letters from my dad. I mostly got letters from my
24:40
mom. So when I got the letter from my
24:43
dad, that was like, wow, I'm looking at the envelope.
24:46
It took me a minute to open. I was like, wow, Pops literally
24:50
wrote me. And when I opened up the letter,
24:53
it was still like a resistance of opening it.
24:57
I finally opened it up before I opened my eyes and looked at the
25:00
page, You know, at the top. He said, I love you first thing.
25:04
He said I love you. Your, your, your mom and I, we
25:08
love you. But he said, if you don't stop,
25:13
whatever it is you're doing in there, we don't know if we'll be
25:18
alive when you get out of there. Bing right there.
25:25
Soon as I heard those words, the light bulb came on and they
25:31
changed me completely, you know, And it was interesting because
25:37
it was such a drastic shift in my mindset at that moment.
25:43
Yeah. And I don't know, it's, it's
25:45
almost, it's a definitely a miracle at work.
25:50
Well, and it's the other thing that's tough about that is you
25:55
had been a certain guy in prison.
25:57
Yeah. And when you got released out of
25:59
prison and you have a mindset change, you kind of got to stop
26:03
hanging with the same people and.
26:05
And exactly and. Be a different type of guy.
26:09
How was that? Yeah, because I once I got out
26:13
of the solitary confinement, right before I got out of
26:17
solitary compartment, they gave me my glasses.
26:19
I, I went, they would, they did the medical, the eye exam while
26:22
I was there inside solitary compartment and issued me some
26:25
glasses. And so I got, I looked it
26:29
different because I had glasses and you know, I, I, I shaved a
26:34
little better, you know, I looked it different and my pants
26:39
were pulled up and I was looking pants tucked in.
26:44
They were looking at me. Folks was looking at me who knew
26:47
me from my past and everything were just watching.
26:50
They didn't know what just think.
26:52
And then when I spoke for the first time, because, because
26:55
I've been there for a long time and people knew I'd been in
26:58
solitary confinement a long time.
27:01
They're like, what's going on, man?
27:03
And I told them immediately I said it all that other, I said,
27:07
it's over. I just, I did like this.
27:09
I was like, I'm done, you know, and it was like, wow, OK.
27:17
And what do you mean by that? Right.
27:18
So I, I, I had other business to handle that day because I just
27:23
was released from solitary confinement.
27:24
So I, I, I, I went and handled that business with the
27:28
administration or whatever. And then I came back to him when
27:32
they were lifting weights. You know, that was before they
27:34
took a lot of the weights out of the maximum security prisons.
27:37
And I walked over there and I literally walked in the middle
27:40
of the group of guys that I ran in the gangs with and told them
27:45
that I was done with the gangs. I said, look, you know, I told
27:50
them that my faith, I told them that I, I started reading the
27:53
Holy Quran while I was in solitary confinement.
27:56
The Bible. I was, I said, I read
27:57
everything. I said I've chosen to become a
28:00
Muslim. And that's the path that I'm
28:04
going to start following at this moment and at this time.
28:08
And that's it. I'm done.
28:09
Alright. And one of them, one of the big
28:11
shot callers told me, he said, he said, you know what man?
28:16
You know, you did yours. You, you, you know, you got your
28:20
stripes. Almost like you can retire,
28:24
right? Go ahead.
28:24
You're done. You're done, done with.
28:26
Your retirement here. Yeah, yeah.
28:28
Which can I mean it can turn the other way too, I mean.
28:30
It could have turned the other way, but I think 1.
28:32
Person. Yeah, I think once he spoke, he
28:35
had the highest rank, yeah, at in the group.
28:38
And I think once they heard him say that, everybody else kind of
28:41
like took a deep breath in, OK. And then they started embracing
28:45
me, hugging me, and, you know, and I walked away and that was
28:49
it. You know Yousef, you still had
28:54
years Yes and and I mean. I still had a lot of years to
28:58
do. Yeah.
28:59
So how did you start biting? How did I navigate that Right?
29:03
Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of time and
29:05
you don't know that you're getting out, you know?
29:08
Is I mean. You did 22 years, but I mean, at
29:10
that time you didn't know how long it was going to be.
29:13
Well, I think that immediately the first thing I started doing
29:17
is going back to school. So the the prison offered some
29:20
programs. So I was busy all the time.
29:23
So the times that we had like leisure, whether it was leisure
29:26
time on the yard, whether it was, you know, we had to go to
29:29
do some kind of activity in the prison, I filled my time with
29:33
that. I literally filled my time with
29:35
either going to school, studying for my GED, taking some college
29:39
courses, doing a trade. I just kept myself busy for the
29:44
remaining years that I was there.
29:47
And then finally, yeah, that was my escape.
29:51
And then when I was on the yard, I was working out, I was jogging
29:55
I and I pretty much worked out by myself, mostly because people
29:58
couldn't keep up with me. I was a beast, as they say, when
30:02
it came down to exercise. So, so I, that wasn't a problem.
30:06
So I, but I, but nobody really jogged the way I did.
30:09
I've read jogged miles and they, they couldn't handle that.
30:12
They just like to pump the iron, but they couldn't jog right.
30:15
Skinny legs. So I was the one that was
30:19
hitting the track right. And so that kept me busy.
30:22
So I think the last, I would say the last maybe 10 years or so of
30:28
my incarceration is when I started thinking of
30:30
organizational building. I started thinking on a
30:33
different business level, like what can I do as a business
30:36
person once I'm eventually released from this place?
30:39
If if I'm released from this place, right.
30:42
And that's where I shifted to now, inviting those same people
30:46
back into my circle, saying, look, this is what we need to do
30:49
if we want to ever get out of prison.
30:53
Well, because I mean, you probably would not have ever
30:56
have thought that way except for the fact that you, you decide
31:00
you just get to read everything, study everything and all of a
31:02
sudden his world comes into your play of business and, and impact
31:08
and game changing. And, and so how did, how did you
31:15
or when did you think that there was an opportunity for you to
31:18
get out of there? I think it was like maybe the
31:22
final because we went through some governors, so the the the
31:28
public there was a lot of like, so we were in the tourist for
31:31
the three strikes mandate like in 90. 4.
31:34
And then in that started shifting a bit.
31:38
Then when we got Gray Davis, it came in, and then Arnold
31:44
Schwarzenegger. We had those governors, all of
31:48
those got between Pete Wilson, Governor Gray Davis and Governor
31:54
Arnold Schwarzenegger. We weren't getting up.
31:57
Lifers were not getting out of prison, you know, no matter
32:00
what. So even if the Board of Parole
32:01
hearings said you were suitable, they turn no longer a threat.
32:06
The governor would turn it down once it got to his desk.
32:09
So once Jerry Brown became the governor, one of the statements
32:18
that he made upon becoming governor was that he would allow
32:21
the board of prison hearings to do their job.
32:23
He would allow the commissioners, the parole
32:25
commissioners to do their job. And if they're saying that
32:29
somebody is suitable for parole and doesn't, you know, meet the
32:32
criteria of being rejected or of threat to public safety, that
32:37
he's going to let them out. There was no reason, unless
32:39
there was some unusual circumstance that he find to
32:43
rescind it. And that's what happened.
32:47
And I, before that statement was even made, I told the fellas, we
32:53
have to rehabilitate ourselves. I was already on that.
32:56
I was already on that track. I was already telling folks,
32:59
look, the Title 15 of the California Department of
33:03
Correction and Rehabilitation talks about rehabilitation for
33:07
people that are serving life sentences.
33:09
Why are we not follow that? That was always my argument even
33:12
though other people argument was just trying to find a loophole
33:15
in their case to get out of prison.
33:17
You were going. Down.
33:18
That was never my thing. Yeah.
33:21
And I was like, well, OK, we could fight to get out, find the
33:25
go to court, see if the. Courts any injustice, that's
33:29
fine. Do that.
33:30
But still do this. Yeah.
33:34
And I was the only one doing it. I was the only one literally at
33:38
the time, really pushing that message and creating the
33:42
program. That's the reason I became very
33:44
known as like the self help guru, you know, 'cause I was the
33:48
one saying let's go to these programs, let's do anger
33:52
management, let's do this. Then I started creating my own,
33:55
which later became Timeless, my organization.
33:58
I said, well, let's do this self help workshop, let's do this.
34:02
I just created this. Let's do this.
34:04
All while you were in prison. All while I was in prison.
34:08
Yeah. And what did the guys did?
34:10
You get the guys to get along and do and say what?
34:12
Why not? Yeah.
34:14
It started off with about 20 guys, mostly African American,
34:19
but there was a few, you know, our Asian brothers and a couple
34:25
of white guys, you know, started trickling in there.
34:29
And then later, once they seen that, I was able to produce
34:33
certificates and get a captain, an official administrator at the
34:37
prison, sign off on it. There's a, oh, man, we might as
34:39
well get it. So then they started coming.
34:42
Then they became a waiting list, you know, because they would
34:47
only allow us to have 50 people in the room at a time.
34:50
So that was like the Max. And we became very known for
34:55
providing those workshops. I was pretty much the
34:58
facilitator until I started training other people on how to
35:02
facilitate because I wanted to expand it to the.
35:04
Can't expand unless you you you delegate it.
35:07
That's right. Yeah.
35:08
Exactly, you know, it's, it's real similar.
35:09
I, I had divine G on here. There was OK, they had sing sing
35:14
and they actually made a movie. Yes.
35:17
And the guy that played him was up for best actor.
35:20
But your story and his story's somewhat similar to this fact
35:24
that they the reason why they created that theater was, you
35:29
know, for those guys to come together and, and to feel like
35:33
they were somehow in some way making a difference.
35:36
And and obviously you said if you were clearly making a
35:41
difference in a dark place and that had to, that had to kind of
35:46
inspire you to continue to step and forward with it.
35:50
Yeah, yeah. I would tell them that I said
35:53
even if I don't get out after I go to my parole hearing, don't
35:58
stop. I said that doesn't, that
36:00
doesn't. If that doesn't have anything to
36:02
do with you, we're all individually going before the
36:05
board. So whatever you take.
36:06
What? The Cos and everybody thinking
36:08
about this, I mean, you, you got a you got a group of people of
36:11
50 plus that are part of this deal here.
36:13
What what's what's the word on on inside the yard?
36:17
Oh man, we just talked about this.
36:19
It's funny, a few of the guys that are here with me now at the
36:22
organization, we were laughing about that because they really
36:26
was trying to undermine it a little bit.
36:28
At first. They would, they would say, oh,
36:30
they, they up to something. It's got to be something going
36:32
on, right? Scheming.
36:34
Yeah. Yeah, they would.
36:36
Search our bags and search, search us when we go in and out
36:39
of there. They would they would just mess
36:41
with us a little bit until they just got tired.
36:44
They like these guys are the real deal.
36:46
You know, it's nothing we can say anymore because the wardens
36:50
are now coming to the facility and they stay in their office
36:54
somewhere up front. But they started coming to the
36:58
yards and seeing it and saying, man, this dude is on the
37:01
something. Right going on.
37:03
Yeah. And that really blew up the
37:06
reputation which to this day it has expanded to many
37:11
institutions in the state of California.
37:13
Yeah, I know. That's what I was reading about.
37:14
I mean, it's a real movement. So when you went up, you would
37:22
have been how many years? But how many parole hearings did
37:27
you go through, Yousef, until you were you got to that one
37:30
parole hearing where things worked?
37:33
Yeah. So under, under Pi think I went,
37:36
I know I went once on the Pete Wilson as the governor and and I
37:41
went under the other two maybe as well.
37:45
But I was denied maybe three times before I actually got the
37:50
one that I that released me. So yeah, I went three times
37:55
prior to and was denied so. Did you feel like that last one
38:01
that you went to with all the things that you had been doing?
38:04
Did you think in the back of your mind one of these has got
38:08
to work? Yes, I did.
38:12
And you know, I by this time I had an attorney because the
38:17
people that I did, the support that I had galvanized over the
38:20
years from people that I've helped over the years that's
38:23
gotten out and doing well. And they're talking about me and
38:27
they telling their family, their friends about me.
38:29
And so I got a lot of support on our side now.
38:32
You know, it's Los Angeles area as well as the Bay Area.
38:35
And they like, you know, what's up with this guy?
38:38
We need to help this guy. So they pay for an attorney and
38:42
to go to the parole board with me to make sure I get a fair
38:45
shake. And the attorney even told me
38:48
like, look, I don't even think you need me.
38:52
She say I think you're going to do well.
38:53
And, and so I went in there and I literally almost passed out
38:59
when they told me I was suitable for parole.
39:02
I can't imagine. I just can't imagine.
39:05
I mean, do you see that stuff in the movies?
39:06
You know, I've seen Shawshank Redemption probably, yeah, 12
39:10
times. But yeah.
39:13
And what we, what did you think? What, what?
39:16
Because the time period that in the time period that something
39:19
like that happens because that's different than being in federal
39:22
prison because, you know, you have an out date and all that.
39:25
So when you get that parole approval, Aaron, what happens?
39:29
Like how long does that process take once they say you're good
39:33
to go? The process is it takes about,
39:42
so it takes about four months, four or five months.
39:48
So in those four or five. Months.
39:50
Five months. That's when everybody.
39:53
'S going to say in those four or five months you suffer what,
39:57
Getting back out into society. You went in as a kid, 21 years
40:01
old. You're coming out at 43 years
40:03
old. You haven't been out in society
40:07
for a long time. Mm hmm.
40:10
What goes through a guy's mind with that?
40:16
It's almost like you don't know. You literally don't know what
40:18
you're walking into. It's like you could try to
40:21
imagine what the world might look like when you get out, but
40:24
it's no way that you can imagine it because it's been too long.
40:29
Even though you might have access to ATV while you're
40:32
inside and you see commercials and things like that, but
40:37
nothing prepares you for it, nor do you, nor does your mind has
40:42
enough power to imagine what it can be.
40:45
It's like you don't know what you're walking into.
40:49
It's almost like a a blank canvas that you're walking out
40:52
into a blank canvas and literally in your mind, that's
40:55
the way it's being processed because you don't know what
40:57
you're going to see and how it's going to feel.
40:59
You don't even know what it's going to feel.
41:01
You don't know how your emotions or feeling is going to be.
41:04
You don't even know it. So it's really unusual.
41:08
It's very strange almost. And then the way they the take
41:12
you through the process of waiting to hear the governor
41:15
review because that's the last step of it.
41:19
Your family members are usually the ones that call the capital
41:24
and ask, hey, anything on this person yet.
41:28
And because they, I don't think they call you, they usually tell
41:32
you through your counselor at the prison, but.
41:35
Your family can find out. Before that they can actually
41:38
find out by calling this this the the board.
41:42
In Sacramento so and that's how it happened with me so finally I
41:49
called I figured it was about that time due to hear something
41:53
so I got on the phone I requested a call that I.
41:55
I got on the call and the same people that actually paid for my
41:59
attorney, I called them and and I could tell, I kind of could
42:06
tell because they couldn't hold back the excitement, but they
42:11
tried to and but I still had to hear it.
42:15
And once they said it and they read it, and that was another
42:19
thing that kind of was a telltale sign they read what
42:22
they would, what was stated to them.
42:25
And I said, you're getting out, man.
42:27
You're getting out. Let's take a break there because
42:30
I want when we come back, I want to take and and talk about your
42:35
re entry because you had a plan and you were thinking about how
42:38
that you've been working your plan on the inside.
42:40
So I want to talk about that and how this all came about because
42:44
this show goes into 1100 prisons.
42:46
I want these guys to hear this story about how you did it.
42:49
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For more information, go to prisoners.org.
43:51
That's prisoners.org. OK, so you said if you who picks
43:56
you up like walk me out, what goes on?
44:01
Well, the plan was for my family to pick me up, my parents, my
44:06
fiance, and my sister. So you had kept a relationship
44:15
in prison, So you were walking out to a fiance.
44:19
Yeah, do who I I only reached out to and contacted when I knew
44:24
I was going to be released. So I would ever she was only my
44:27
fiance for those five months that I was, you know, because I
44:31
didn't want to carry a relationship.
44:33
I get that kind of time that I was doing right.
44:36
And so I didn't walk out. So they told me at the last
44:40
minute, like 2 days or so before I was to go out, they said
44:44
they're not going to allow that to happen.
44:46
And I was like, come to find out, media was calling up there
44:53
wanting to know when I was getting out because they, it was
44:55
going to be a big scene with news and, you know, San
45:00
Francisco Chronicles and San Jose Mercury.
45:04
Was that because of what you had been doing on the inside?
45:08
Yes, because of what I've been doing on the inside.
45:11
And they were looking for somebody like me to interview
45:13
and to follow, but they didn't allow that to happen because for
45:18
whatever reason, the prison officials didn't want that
45:21
attention. And so they put me in a van and
45:25
they transported me halfway to my destination in the parole
45:33
department, picked me up from the other half and took me to a
45:38
transitional living situation that I moved into.
45:42
Once I got there and everybody found out where I was at, nobody
45:46
knew where I was at. It was so like, where is he?
45:50
Where is he? And finally when I got to a
45:54
phone, I was able to call someone and tell them where I
45:56
was located. And then that's when the media
45:59
thing and the cameras came out and they followed my story.
46:04
It was a religious group that actually recorded it did a film.
46:08
And then the paper, San Jose Mercury Bay Area News Group did
46:14
the the story in a, in a paper. So it was, it was very
46:19
interesting that whole situation.
46:22
And so I didn't see my parents or family until maybe a month
46:26
later. Wow, wow.
46:29
Yeah. So re entry, after 22 years,
46:36
you've got a plan because you've been working at it on the inside
46:39
and and now you want to take it both inside and outside.
46:42
How did you start doing that? Well, I hit the ground running,
46:46
as they say. You know, I, I, I studied
46:49
politics and different things while I was inside on how to
46:54
organize people And I, I learned it from the books inside.
46:58
So I said it's time to test it. And so when I got out, I just
47:02
literally would show up at various meetings where there was
47:06
a City Council meeting, where there was a board of supervisor
47:09
meeting. Some government, you know,
47:12
follow the money, as they say, try to find out what's being
47:15
funded and wasn't what's being supported.
47:17
Were there some of the concerns of the community, you know,
47:20
community events? So I just.
47:22
Attended all of those type of things just to get the posts of
47:26
the people to figure. Out what's going?
47:27
On right and I told them what I had and I said my, you know,
47:32
idea is to help people that's come in contact with the
47:35
criminal justice system. So my program is about re entry,
47:39
about supporting people like myself with their time when they
47:43
get out, they have, you know, a hand up, you know, not a hand
47:47
out. So that was that was my, that
47:51
was my sales pitch, but that was my elevator pitch.
47:53
Every time I encounter people and they would invite me even to
47:58
more places to meet people. And so that became, that's what
48:02
my speaking career, my speaking career actually took off because
48:07
of that, because I was being invited to these various places.
48:10
These were my first funders, the very first people that donated
48:13
to me as I was building the nonprofit.
48:16
So the Silicon Valley community caught on really quickly and
48:22
they got put dollars behind it. And that's how my organization
48:26
was built, with their dollars. And they said we don't want
48:30
anything except for you to keep doing what you're doing.
48:33
Yeah. And then and that's what I did.
48:36
So you build a nonprofit and it it, it has all kinds of
48:40
different dimensions to it. It's got education, it's got
48:43
housing. How does that all work together?
48:45
Yeah. So.
48:46
Yeah, just if you could explain it yourself because I think
48:49
it's, it's fascinating. Yeah.
48:52
So the way it works is that, you know, we have this one big
48:55
organization with various components and one being
49:00
workforce development, one being housing, one being family
49:08
reunification, one being education for folks that are re
49:13
entering the community as well as those that are still
49:15
incarcerated. So those are the main.
49:19
Yes, interesting thing you just said about that.
49:20
I had Richard Bronson on who created he was was 70 million
49:25
jobs at one point. And so he did it.
49:28
He did a study and the three components that you just
49:32
mentioned were actually ticked off in that order of jobs,
49:36
housing and community and obviously education comes in
49:40
there. But though, if you don't have
49:42
those three things and community ranks pretty high because you
49:46
know, you have to have a community around you to to help
49:48
support, do and whatever to get back on, but your organization
49:52
seems to have like just landed right on top of those needs.
49:58
Yeah. Yeah.
49:59
And so how, how does it work? Like say I, let's say that I'm
50:04
getting out of prison. I and I'm lucky enough to know
50:10
about your organization. How do I get into it?
50:15
Yeah. So we have a open door policies.
50:18
So you could just as long as you can get to our office or call
50:23
our office, you're going to get put pointed in the right
50:26
direction. So wherever the level of need
50:30
that you're at, whether it's housing, whether it's jobs,
50:33
you're going to be placed in the right office of the person
50:38
that's going to assist you from that point forward, even if you
50:41
still incarcerated. A lot of them write letters to
50:44
us and then we we have a director of inmate services.
50:48
It goes to him and he helps them through the whole process of
50:52
getting out of prison, going to the board, preparing his
50:56
documents before he get out. And then once he get to us, he
51:00
might need a bed and then he end up getting the bed as well in
51:05
that process, Yeah. Man, and it's all over
51:09
California, right? So.
51:14
Our programs are all over California from this, from this
51:18
prison standpoint. Like if you're incarcerated, you
51:20
can access our program once you get out, It's it's LA County.
51:25
So it's the county of Los Angeles.
51:26
So we're scattered throughout the county of LA and LA, if you
51:31
know, LA is a pretty big county. It sure is, yeah.
51:37
And I guess, you know, the other thing about it too, that I, I
51:41
find, you know, just inspiring itself is that you read about
51:46
all this stuff like, you know, how to get a nonprofit together,
51:49
how to organize, how to, how to, you know, put people together to
51:52
give you money. How long did it take you 'cause
51:55
I think it was 2012 when, when you got out.
51:58
How long did it take you to catch some momentum with this
52:01
Youssef to get it going? It took about three years, OK.
52:06
The first three years, I spent most of my time speaking, going
52:09
to churches, Moss, synagogues, you name it.
52:12
I was speaking somewhere. I spoke at colleges, a lot of
52:18
college campuses. That's where I got some of my
52:20
first volunteers, recruits. Yeah, that's where I got some of
52:25
my first board members, you know, city halls.
52:29
You know, and I just spoke, spoke, spoke, spoke, spoke,
52:31
spoke, and that's how I got put it in the right direction.
52:35
In terms of grants. They started telling me, hey,
52:37
this money is coming out for this.
52:39
This money is coming out. This is a government grant or
52:41
this is a government contract. And initially they told me I
52:45
couldn't get business going like that with the government because
52:48
I was still on parole. So I put it.
52:51
In under my father, I told my father, hey, I got to use you
52:54
for a minute until I can get off of.
52:56
Parole, so I had. I made him the head honcho in
53:00
terms of the the funding piece of it and.
53:05
That's how I was. Able to get through and then by
53:07
2015 I got my first government contract, a government contract
53:12
that I still hold today to this day, so.
53:16
Man, your parents through all this, they, they, they have to
53:20
think, wow, I mean. Well, they passed away a couple
53:25
of years ago. You know, both of I lost both of
53:27
my parents a couple of years ago.
53:29
So they got to see though. Yeah.
53:32
The Yousef come out yeah and become this this guy that was
53:37
making these change and making the impact and wow, they got to
53:44
see it though. They got a chance to see it.
53:46
In fact I did. AI did a big gala like type
53:49
event where I was able to honor them and gave them like roses
53:54
and a plaque, a couple of plaques for my parents and you
53:58
know, I got a chance to do them right, you know, in the in the
54:03
room, you know, so and take pictures and it was it was it
54:07
was big. Yeah, I got to tell you, I just
54:09
love it. It's it's kind of like what you
54:11
would want to see on one of those comeback story movies on
54:15
Netflix. It's just the way it all
54:17
evolved, the way it all evolved. And Dad says, I love you, son.
54:21
Do you got to die in there? If you don't get it right clicks
54:24
and you come out and you actually do it.
54:27
You actually and not just you know, I don't want people to
54:29
forget you did so much work on the inside.
54:33
That's where it started. And and I think that, you know,
54:35
so many people think, well, when I get out, when I get out, when
54:39
I get out and and that's not where it starts.
54:42
It starts when I'm in because I got to be right in my mind and
54:46
my mindset when I get out. And you were there, you know,
54:53
looking at this story and I always ask this question to
54:56
people at the end of the every interview.
54:59
What do you think's your biggest take away through all this this
55:04
journey? You said my biggest take away.
55:06
Yeah, Oh man. I think the biggest take away is
55:17
a complete. You have to make a complete 90°
55:23
turn. That is the take away.
55:26
You, you can't do it halfway. You can't do it a little bit.
55:29
Yeah. You have to come to a point in
55:31
your life and say, you know what, I got to do this
55:34
completely. That doesn't mean I'm a still
55:39
have this friend over here on the side.
55:41
I'm still do this little thing over here on the side and then
55:45
the rest of it will be good. No, no, no.
55:47
It has to be a. Complete turn away from it.
55:52
It has to be. That's the only way that it
55:53
works in the way that it's worked for me.
55:56
So it's really good advice because it's so easy to say I'll
55:59
just do a little this over here and then I'll work on that.
56:02
I'll do just a little bit of this and I'll work on that.
56:04
But you're saying it's got to be total commitment, Take it 100%
56:09
purpose driven, mindset change, you know who you hang around,
56:14
how you grow, what you do. It's great advice.
56:18
You said for minutes or anybody who's listening to this, that's
56:22
just great advice. If you want to make a change,
56:24
you got to commit, and the commitment's a total commitment,
56:27
not just a little bit. That's right.
56:30
And then you can do what you did.
56:32
You just kept going with it. What?
56:34
What do you think, Youssef, as far as, I mean, you're into this
56:38
thing now. Where do you see it going?
56:44
Well, I mean, I'm actually happy where we are today.
56:47
But yeah, I do see it going even further.
56:51
And, you know, I, I, I guess when we start providing
56:56
affordable housing ourselves as an agency, being able to be in
56:59
control of that affordable housing piece, then that will be
57:04
another big step for us as an organization.
57:07
Because right now, even though we provide housing, we're not
57:10
able to provide subsidized housing, you know, where they
57:14
can come to us and say, hey, I need apartment.
57:16
And so that's kind of like one of the things we're looking at
57:20
as far as the future of the organization.
57:22
Yeah. And I love it.
57:24
Just keep doing everything you're doing yourself because
57:26
it's absolutely phenomenal. It's really is.
57:30
I want to get a quick shout out to Homestead Financial Home
57:33
mortgage lets me use all the fancy equipment here and the
57:37
lights. And if you got any home mortgage
57:39
needs out there, Greg Aftiav is your guy.
57:41
If you're looking for a book out there, go get the book If if I
57:45
if I knew then and and then pick up my book 9 for success,
57:50
loyalty, betrayal, light behind bars, adapting, finally breaking
57:53
free. Leave me a review on Apple
57:55
whenever you got time. I love reading those.
57:58
If you want to know what I'm doing, go to brentcassidy.com.
58:01
I spell it wrong. I spell it with ATY, not a DY.
58:04
And as I used to say to my people when I was writing my
58:07
emails back and forth from loving where stay strong.
58:09
I'll do the same. Yousef Wiley, man, you, you, I
58:13
think you clearly you've inspired a lot of people and
58:17
that inspiration just grows. It's like a tidal wave.
58:20
And just keep doing it, man. It's good stuff.
58:22
Man appreciate you man. Thank you all.
58:26
Right. I've your success in and out
58:28
right?