Latest / Nightmare Success In and Out / Changing lives for the Justice Impacted after prison- Jay Jordan
Transcript
- 0:01What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
- 0:04Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy. Welcome to the Nightmare Success
- 0:07In and Out podcast, where we explore how to overcome your
- 0:10fears and nightmares that set yourself free.
- 0:13We're going to be exploring this topic with guys that was in
- 0:15Leavenworth with and others who survived their own nightmare.
- 0:20These stories can be inspiring, sometimes.
- 0:22Sad. There's some humor, but
- 0:25hopefully you can come away with a nugget of something that'll
- 0:27help you knock down some of the prisons you built up in your own
- 0:30mind. It's where you come for what
- 0:38happens when your worst fear becomes your reality.
- 0:40How do you adapt, survive. Overcome.
- 0:42Set yourself free. OK, so if you're all playing the
- 0:45board game at home, we did a part one here with Jay Jordan.
- 0:50So if you haven't heard part one with Jay Jordan, you got to
- 0:53check it out. And it's the first time I've
- 0:55done a part one and two. But I really thought we needed
- 0:57to do it because there's so much that happens in Jay's life up
- 1:02until the time he's in solitary confinement for two years and
- 1:05then all the re entry stuff that Jay does after he gets out.
- 1:09I want to reintroduce again because Jay Jordan has been out
- 1:16of prison since about 2012, I think.
- 1:19But man, he has done nothing but just being a doer since he got
- 1:23out. He doesn't just talk about
- 1:25problems, he goes out and solves them.
- 1:26And what I mean by that, he's he's the Co founder of Time
- 1:29Done. And time done is all about man.
- 1:31When you get out, it should be over.
- 1:33That should be your end date. It should be over.
- 1:36You don't, you shouldn't be living a life sentence for the
- 1:39rest of your life because you did your time.
- 1:42So he's doing all kinds of good stuff with time done and he's
- 1:46got a passion behind. He's also CEO of Alliance for
- 1:49Safety and Justice where he's passed over 100 new laws in the
- 1:54last 10 years, 100 new laws. I mean that that that is that is
- 1:59incredible. I mean, I don't even know where
- 2:01to start from, but one of the things that he just got passed
- 2:03in California is all about, if you don't reoffend, I think it's
- 2:06three or four years. You can get your record sealed
- 2:09and it's affected hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of
- 2:13people. But and it needs to be all over
- 2:15the nation. It's it's such a important
- 2:17thing. And how he got it done.
- 2:19He's going to talk about because I don't know how you get these
- 2:21things done. It's all about re entering.
- 2:24He's affecting justice, impacted people getting back into
- 2:28society, being able to live their lives once they've done
- 2:30their time. If you want to go follow this
- 2:34guy I, you know last I looked he's got like over 1,000,000
- 2:37followers on Instagram. This at Mr. J Jordan check him
- 2:41out. He's always got something going
- 2:43on. He's always working out.
- 2:45The guy's in pretty good shape. He's in pretty good shape.
- 2:49Before we jump into all that, I want to recognize our show
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- 3:36All right, Jay Jordan, we're back.
- 3:38We are back. OK, so when we left, when we
- 3:43left, we were talking about a Jay Jordan that had been in
- 3:47solitary for two years and there was a spark that was lit for
- 3:52you. And it it, it changed the way
- 3:55that you saw the world and it was more about who am I and what
- 4:01can I be. And you discovered that all of
- 4:04it was inside you. All you needed to do was feed it
- 4:07and you started feeding and just delving in and and sucking up
- 4:14information of history and politics and movements and all
- 4:18these things along with business and business plans and giving
- 4:22people stock tips and all this stuff.
- 4:24And your mom's sending rims and rims and rims information and
- 4:27you're just turning into this wizard in the cell.
- 4:30So that's where we left off. So Jay, what happens?
- 4:35What happens? Once you start doing that, yeah,
- 4:38yeah, yeah. Part one was definitely like the
- 4:40origin story. I think Part 2 here is going to
- 4:42be about, like, what we did with everything that we learned.
- 4:46So mind you, I had two strikes and I was in the hole in the
- 4:55solitary department. I was found guilty of an
- 4:58administrative infraction inside prison and they put me in the
- 5:04hole. Well, as you, as you explain,
- 5:07Jay, you entered into a world where there was a war going on
- 5:11in prison and and that's wars aren't good, but they're really
- 5:15not good in prison. Yeah, they're definitely not
- 5:18good in prison because you can't run from them.
- 5:21There's no draft dodge and there's no I don't want to sign.
- 5:23There's nowhere to go. Yeah, you were.
- 5:25You were in it whether you like it or not.
- 5:27And if it's a race war, which a lot of them are, you, you don't
- 5:30even have to be involved at all. You are in it.
- 5:33You go to that yard. If you're white, black, Latino,
- 5:35whatever you are, you're butt up against other factions, You have
- 5:38no choice. And so for folks on the streets
- 5:40who don't really understand how prison works and how riots work
- 5:45is a lot of them, especially in California and a lot of other
- 5:48states, it's race based and you don't, you don't choose to, you
- 5:52know, go in there and not talk to a different race.
- 5:56That's just the way it is. And so if problem happens
- 5:58between races you you're going to be involved by the nature of
- 6:03just color your skin. So that's prison is very
- 6:05primitive in that in that regard, a lot of other regards.
- 6:08So I got caught up in that went to the shoe because the prison I
- 6:14was at was, you know, it was a Level 3 but it was a you know
- 6:17rocking and roll and I I went to the shoe for two years solitary.
- 6:24A textbook shoe is a is an acronym for a segregated housing
- 6:28unit is where you do your long term segregation.
- 6:32And that's where I went and I was in there and you know, mind
- 6:35you I have two strikes. And so not understanding or not,
- 6:38you know, knowing if I was going to get struck out because of
- 6:41what happened because they can strike you out while in prison
- 6:44and. Then what happens, Jay?
- 6:46Let everybody know what that what What does it mean when you
- 6:48get 3 strikes? Yeah, it means you got life, 25
- 6:51years of life, right? So I went in there with with
- 6:53seven years and here I am now facing life inside prison for
- 6:58something I did didn't really do.
- 7:00I didn't. I wasn't.
- 7:01I didn't do anything. Somebody else did something and
- 7:03I wouldn't. Get a name in it and we might
- 7:05explain because it for those who who might not have caught it on
- 7:08the first part. One, your plea deal gave you two
- 7:12strikes. You really should have gotten
- 7:14one strike because of the plea deal.
- 7:15They gave you two strikes so that you got less time.
- 7:18If you would have taken one strike, you would have gotten
- 7:20bit more or less double the time.
- 7:21So you you you manufactured an extra strike.
- 7:25Which is insane, right? You would think that you know a
- 7:29crime and then the time corresponding with that.
- 7:32Just a song, you know, a sidebar for people who don't understand
- 7:35where we get these timeless, they are pulled out of the air,
- 7:40right? It's like there's no type.
- 7:42Oh, robbery should be 40. Someone should serve four years
- 7:46for robbery because after four years a robber is somehow
- 7:50rehabilitated if there's no social science tied to the list
- 7:54of time someone has to do because of the crime.
- 7:58Well, I'll give you, I'll give you an example, Jay, because my
- 8:02crime was in the financial world and so we were in a family
- 8:06business. And once they deemed this
- 8:08enterprises wrong, then they can take wire fraud, they can take
- 8:12mail fraud, they can take money laundering.
- 8:17All they do is stack them. So however many times you've
- 8:19been in business for 30 years, how many times you put something
- 8:21in the mail? A lot.
- 8:23How many times you make a wire or a wire transfer?
- 8:25A lot if you bought anything because they deemed it a lot.
- 8:31When I when I was trying to figure out what I was going to
- 8:33do with my life, I I drunkenly got a bottle of vodka out and
- 8:40started looking at my charges. I was looking at 922 years or I
- 8:46could plea. So they stack those things so
- 8:50much into a world, whether you're talking about state or
- 8:53federal, that you know, you talk about why did 97% of the people
- 8:58plea when they're indicted. There's a lot of reasons and
- 9:02there's a, you know, chapter, verse book.
- 9:05It's not personal. They get what they want out of
- 9:08the deal and there are people that go to court and the trial
- 9:12and they don't seem to be very successful either.
- 9:16Yeah, yeah. Especially in the fairs, man.
- 9:18The fairs have the 99 point. Nine one of one of the guys
- 9:22Jason Rochelbach was on and he said it's kind of like the your,
- 9:25your, your beer softball league gets to play the LA Dodgers.
- 9:30You're not going to win. You're not going to win, man.
- 9:33You're not going to win it. So that's that's, I was in that
- 9:36position I had in the 30, but it was just like, hey, we're going
- 9:39to give you if you go to trial, you get 38 years of life.
- 9:42So just just look at the time difference.
- 9:44If I lose in trial 38 years to life, right?
- 9:48But if you take this deal, you take 13 years with one strike or
- 9:53we'll give you 2 strikes and seven years.
- 9:56That didn't make any sense to me.
- 9:57And that is kind of the underlying reason why a lot of
- 10:01people want to reform the system because they're like it's not
- 10:04rooted in any truth or fact or social science or evidence,
- 10:08empirical knowledge or evidence that the time you're giving
- 10:11people actually translates into, you know, lack of criminality or
- 10:15low recidivism rate. It does not at all.
- 10:18So here I am in the hole, two strikes based on the third one.
- 10:24And like you said, you know, I had a revelation because my
- 10:28neighbor knocked on the door and asked me what knocked on my wall
- 10:31and asked me who I was. I couldn't really answer the
- 10:33question. I went into this whole process
- 10:35of becoming very introspective and questioning everything.
- 10:39You know, I was kind of like Buddha hopping over the wall and
- 10:42trying to figure out you know, who I am in the world now.
- 10:44That was my journey. My journey was, you know, not
- 10:47external but more internal. And you know everything that
- 10:51I've ever been told. I begin to question out every
- 10:54question that, you know, I've I've had about the world I began
- 10:57to try to find an answer to. And you know, I was finding
- 11:00answers, finding answers by cross referencing.
- 11:03Thanks to my mother who sent me reams of information off the
- 11:06Internet. I would, you know, I had an
- 11:08appetite for knowledge and that appetite was literally locked up
- 11:12for years and years and years. And it was kind of locked away
- 11:17because I was just had this idea that I had to be this thing that
- 11:20the world was telling me I needed to be and I was telling
- 11:23myself I need to be. And I realized that none of that
- 11:26was true. I didn't have to be a crip.
- 11:27I didn't have to be this tough gang banging guy.
- 11:30I didn't have to be so aggressive and so, you know,
- 11:33kind of misogynistic and kind of all these things.
- 11:35Like I didn't have to be that, you know, And when I realized
- 11:38that it was the weight off my shoulders and I became like this
- 11:42academic researcher, you know, I just wanted to know everything.
- 11:46And and I created a plan. I said, hey, I'm getting out
- 11:49because I had found out that, you know, I didn't.
- 11:51They didn't file charges. And so I knew I was going home
- 11:55eventually and I had to create a plan and I had these ideas to
- 12:01and make money. I said hey, I can't get out and
- 12:03not make money because that was the reason why I got myself in
- 12:06here in the 1st place. I felt like I needed to make
- 12:08money before I moved out of Stockton and I ended up robbing
- 12:11somebody and you know, it didn't work out well.
- 12:14So I said I need money, I need some way to sustain myself.
- 12:17And I've created a plan. You know, I was going to sell
- 12:21real estate. I was going to sell insurance,
- 12:23life insurance, because I've seen a lot of people dying from
- 12:26where I'm from in Stockton, CA. And, you know, I've seen all
- 12:29these. My mom used to send me all these
- 12:31different things, The folks dying and all these.
- 12:33You can tell me, oh, we're paying for flights and we're
- 12:35paying for funerals. And I'm like, people don't have
- 12:37life insurance. I said great, I can sell people
- 12:40life insurance. I can provide life insurance.
- 12:42I want to sell real estate because at the time I was in
- 12:45there, mind you, it was a real estate crisis.
- 12:47And I saw the crisis. I was going crazy.
- 12:50I'm like, it's an opportunity, right?
- 12:52You know, you make money in a down mark.
- 12:54You don't make money in an up mark.
- 12:55You make money in a down mark. So I think it's the perfect
- 12:58opportunity for me to hop in and tell people you need to buy,
- 13:01buy, buy now for prices to shoot up.
- 13:03And I wanted to sell used cars. Always had a passion for taking
- 13:07the old and fixing it up and you know, selling it to someone
- 13:12else. I wanted to do these three
- 13:13things and I wanted to do it out of a Barber shop because in the
- 13:17prison I I couldn't, you know, I wasn't programming, I was
- 13:20politicking, right. So I used to cut hair and that's
- 13:26how I'm going to do this. And I had a literally down to
- 13:29the budget. I wrote out budgets and you know
- 13:31I was I had my, I had I had the whole thing set up and I sent
- 13:35all this stuff to my sister just in case they they would come in
- 13:39here and take it. I didn't want them to take it.
- 13:41So I sent her all this stuff and I said hey, you know let's start
- 13:44a vending machine company. She's like what are you talking
- 13:46about? I'm like and and all this
- 13:48supreme correspondence and I said I have money in my book.
- 13:51I'll send you the money and you know, let's start a vending
- 13:54machine company. But when I got alcohol, we
- 13:57started the we started the vending machine company.
- 13:58While you were in prison. While I was in there.
- 14:01And so this, this was the beginning of me having agency
- 14:05over my situation. Before, I didn't have agency
- 14:08because I was listening to everything else people were
- 14:12telling me. I was in my own head about
- 14:14external forces when I became, when I had agency over my body
- 14:18and my thoughts. I'm like, oh, I can do anything,
- 14:20you know, No one can stop me. So we, I I started with one.
- 14:26I found this guy Leo, and through through the classifieds,
- 14:30he was selling vending machines. And I remember talking to Leo on
- 14:35a freeway. I'm on the prison phone on the
- 14:37freeway, My sister's on the phone.
- 14:39And I'm like, hey, man, you have to hurry up.
- 14:41I just want the guy to hear my voice and you can take it from
- 14:43here. So I called Leo and you know, on
- 14:46freeway, I had like 30 to 45 seconds before.
- 14:50This is a collect call from prison.
- 14:52So I'm like, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, hey, Leo, this is Jay.
- 14:56I'm on a boat right now, but I want you to hear my voice.
- 15:00I want to buy your machine. My sister's going to take the
- 15:02premier, really appreciate you. And I'll hang up, right?
- 15:05And Leo tells my sister the vending machine, you know, and
- 15:10that was the first one. And he she placed it at my
- 15:13brother's place of business, which is a concrete plant way
- 15:16out in the boonies. So they have to use the vending
- 15:19machine because in stocking it gets really really hot.
- 15:21And I was selling $0.50 sodas. This was back in O nine O 10
- 15:25right 2010. I was selling $0.50 sodas, ice
- 15:29cold sodas, grape sodas, strawberry sodas, Imagine.
- 15:32It was so good And the machines to sell out all the time and I
- 15:36have to tell my sister to keep up with the book.
- 15:38So that was, that was machine #1.
- 15:41I bought another machine after I'm saving up the money from
- 15:44that machine and I bought, I thought I had two machines.
- 15:48So I'm like, you know what, this is going to be a thing when I
- 15:50get out. And I finally got a hold of, you
- 15:54know, a cell phone because in prison they had cell phones.
- 15:56So I'm calling Leo from a three O 5 number, which is Miami and
- 16:00he's in the Bay Area. He was in, he was in Livermore
- 16:03and he's like, it's a three O 5 number.
- 16:04Jay, where are you? And I'm like long vacation.
- 16:10Well, I promise you, in about a year we'll meet up.
- 16:13Yeah, Yeah. I think I bought 3 machines.
- 16:16Two or three machines from Leo while incorporated.
- 16:20And these and these machines are placed.
- 16:22And the day I get out, I am. I'm ready.
- 16:26I'm ready. I had all my plans.
- 16:29I had everything set up in my head, at least what I was going
- 16:33to do. I knew exactly where to go to
- 16:35file for my short five things. You know the classes, the real
- 16:38estate classes, right? I knew I had to go to
- 16:41cosmetology school to get my Barber license.
- 16:43I knew all of that and the 1st place I went before I even went
- 16:48home, Rick before I even went home.
- 16:50I went to big hurt shop. He was my long time Barber and
- 16:55I'm like, I'm going straight to the money.
- 16:56I'm going straight forward. I don't want to go even go home
- 16:59first. I'm in a detour.
- 17:01Two big hurt shop. Big hurt like.
- 17:03Jay, what are you doing? I thought you were in prison.
- 17:05I'm like, you know, I'm out cut my hair.
- 17:07So I'm in the chair and I'm talking 1,000,000 miles a
- 17:10minute. I'm like, hurt.
- 17:12I got a plan and I got out when I was 26.
- 17:15I'm like hurt. I got a plan.
- 17:16I'm gonna sell insurance and real estate and used cars.
- 17:19We're doing all of a Barber shop.
- 17:20And what I need from you is I need you to hire me.
- 17:24Just give me a chair. He's like, yeah, for sure.
- 17:26He's like anything anything he said.
- 17:27Wait a minute. You got feminine man.
- 17:29You can't get your Barber license.
- 17:31And I'm like, what are you talking about?
- 17:32He's like, you cannot get your cosmetology license with a
- 17:35felony. And I'm like, that doesn't make
- 17:37any sense. That doesn't make any sense.
- 17:39And that was my first kind of gut punch.
- 17:42It was like, oh, this is going to be different.
- 17:44This is going to be. This is going to be different.
- 17:47Yeah. Yeah.
- 17:48And so when I have pictures of me going home and eating and my
- 17:53all my family was there and, you know, one of my mentors, Billy
- 17:57Johnson, was there. And there's a look on my face.
- 18:02And I remember that moment where I'm eating and I'm like this.
- 18:06The word big Hurt was telling me was bringing through my head.
- 18:09And everyone else is having fun. They're like, oh, my God, he's
- 18:11home. They're talking a joyous event.
- 18:14You know, it's like the baby of the family's home after so many
- 18:17years. Yeah, almost a decade.
- 18:19And I'm just thinking what Big Hurt says, You got felonies.
- 18:22You got felonies. I'm like, this is bothering me.
- 18:24This is really, really bothering me.
- 18:26So I'm. I go through the motions and I
- 18:28couldn't really enjoy myself. I mean, I'm happy.
- 18:31I couldn't really improve myself because I'm like, I'm more
- 18:33excited about proving everyone that believed in me right and
- 18:36proving everyone that didn't believe in me wrong.
- 18:39So those are my two goals. Like, I'm going to, I'm going to
- 18:42do this. And I was my main cheerleader.
- 18:44I'm like, you know what? I'm going to prove myself right?
- 18:47That I'm not this person that, you know, Everyone said I was,
- 18:50you know, and I remember the first thing in the morning, I
- 18:54got me a phone and this was when I left.
- 18:56We had Metro PCs phones. It wasn't, you know, and I had,
- 19:00you know, I had access to a phone every now and then in
- 19:03prison. So I kind of knew the evolution,
- 19:05but it wasn't like we had, you know, getting out.
- 19:09So I get a phone and I get on the Internet, Get on the
- 19:12Internet, and I'm like, can I get a insurance license with a
- 19:17felony? Boom, second gut punch.
- 19:22Real estate license. Boom, third gut punch.
- 19:25Used car boom, 4th gut punch and I'm like, OK, what am I going to
- 19:30do right if I can't? I spent the last two or three
- 19:35years having a huge plan to really show value and inject
- 19:42value into my community by doing these things, by bringing value
- 19:46in other people's lives. People need life insurance.
- 19:48I can provide that. I can be that bridge.
- 19:50People need to buy homes. I want to make sure that folks
- 19:53ride this way up because prices are low.
- 19:56I want all the people I know that have money and jobs.
- 19:58You buy real estate. I want to help facilitate that.
- 20:00Be a bridge, right? I want to bring joy by cutting
- 20:04people's hair. Every guy knows before you walk
- 20:07into the barbershop and after you walk out of the barbershop,
- 20:09those are two different guys, right?
- 20:12Walking in, walking out two different guys.
- 20:14I want to be a part of that transformation.
- 20:17None of that was true. Second day I was up.
- 20:19None of it was true. So what do I do?
- 20:22I said OK, you know, it's there's a saying that says.
- 20:28Go for the 1 bird in the hand instead of two in the Bush,
- 20:31right? And the one bird I had in my
- 20:33hand was my vending machine. So I went back my old pen and
- 20:37piece of paper and I started writing down.
- 20:40Vending machines were secondary for me.
- 20:41It was a prison thing. It wasn't really like my main it
- 20:44wasn't on. Your big business.
- 20:47Plan, right. So I said, you know what, now
- 20:49let's move all this other stuff. I'm not going to cry about it.
- 20:51I'm going to go big on vending machines.
- 20:53I'm going bull on vending machines.
- 20:55I became very bullish on vending machines.
- 20:57And my dad's like, So what are you going to do?
- 20:59And you know, I tell my dad what happened and I never show.
- 21:03I made it a point to never show my family when I was down.
- 21:07I've always been like, insanely optimistic, like insanely
- 21:10optimistic. And so I was like, hey dad,
- 21:14remember the plan I've been telling you about?
- 21:16We can't do the plan. Well, I got another plan.
- 21:18He's like, OK And he's been a really supportive throughout
- 21:21this whole process of me with these big lofty goals.
- 21:25And he's like, go for it, son. So I went for it.
- 21:28And he's like, just go bullish on vending machine to my sister.
- 21:32I'm sitting there trying to figure out, you know, what is my
- 21:35big bet? How can I swing?
- 21:38How can I slingshot to, like, massive adoption of vending
- 21:42machine. Yeah, right.
- 21:46And so I go with my sister, I'm in the car with her and she's
- 21:49like, come to CrossFit with me. She's like, you're in Chase,
- 21:51come to CrossFit. I don't know anything about
- 21:53CrossFit, that out to the CrossFit community.
- 21:55They are insane. It is a cult.
- 21:58It is a cult. CrossFit is a cult.
- 22:00I am convinced. So I go to, I go to Gabe, he has
- 22:05two O 9 CrossFit and I walk in there and they are doing
- 22:10dumbbells and kettle balls and snatches and hanging from upside
- 22:16down doing some handstand push ups.
- 22:19I'm like what is this place? They're practicing for the
- 22:21circus. So, you know, I walk in there
- 22:25and I'm like, I'm not doing this.
- 22:26This is too crazy. I'm neurotic, but I'm not that
- 22:28neurotic. And they're like, eating this
- 22:30weird food and drinking coconut. I never even heard of coconut
- 22:34water. I'm like coconut water.
- 22:36I'm like, how much did that stuff cost for like, 5 bucks?
- 22:39I'm like, are you kidding me? So you know me.
- 22:41I go back and do my research. What is the bulk price of
- 22:44coconut water? Right.
- 22:45What is the bulk price of what? What is their their diet called?
- 22:52Paleo, right? What is the Paleo product?
- 22:53Yeah, the Paleo product and both price the margins on that stuff.
- 22:58It's huge, right? We're talking about I can get a
- 23:01case of coconut water for like 2 bucks a unit and they're selling
- 23:06for $5. That is insane profit margin.
- 23:09I'm like CrossFit. I Google how many CrossFit gyms
- 23:12are there in California? There are dozens of CrossFit
- 23:15400. I'm like, here we go, here goes
- 23:18the scale. I go to game.
- 23:20I said game, you need a vending machine in here.
- 23:22And I made all these concessions, which I learned a
- 23:24lot about making concessions on the front end because you're
- 23:27excited about business opportunities.
- 23:30And he was like, yeah, sure, put one in here first one, I said,
- 23:32will you introduce me to all the CrossFit gyms And that, you
- 23:36know, he's like, yeah, introduced me to like three or
- 23:38four, got those contracts and then I got good.
- 23:43I said, well, I don't have the money to buy the machines, but
- 23:46what if I get the contracts right and then find a business
- 23:50partner to fund the machine? If I get the contract, can I
- 23:54have the contract right and I can show them all about sales?
- 23:56Yep. I start getting contract left
- 24:00and right, up and down the state of California and it became we
- 24:05scaled from 4 machines to 102 in like 8 months.
- 24:10Wow. Yeah.
- 24:10So we got, I got some work and I got I end up getting a business
- 24:13partner and he said, hey man, if you get, you keep getting these
- 24:18contracts, I'll put up the money because this is, this is golden.
- 24:21And Leo was telling me, Jay, build your route and then sell
- 24:25the route, right. So if your machine makes 1000
- 24:29bucks a month, that's 12,000 a year, you can double it.
- 24:31That one machine you can sell for $24,000 a year, if you have
- 24:36100 machines, that's what you can sell the route for.
- 24:39And I'm like, I'm doing the math.
- 24:41Here goes my big bet. Right Here goes my scale.
- 24:44And me and my business partner built that business.
- 24:47But simultaneously, when I was doing that, I had to find a
- 24:52regular job because my parole officer didn't care about the
- 24:55vending machines. He's like, that's not real.
- 24:56I'm like, it is real. Look at this guy.
- 24:58The money, these dollars head up.
- 25:03Yeah. And he says, no, you you need to
- 25:05you need to go to school or get a job.
- 25:07So I signed up to be an alcohol and substance abuse counselor.
- 25:11This accelerated course, about 12 week course God half with the
- 25:15court didn't really like it, didn't really like the deficit
- 25:17based framing they were using. It was all around like you know,
- 25:22the things I didn't want to do. It was more singular.
- 25:24I I wanted to fix problems. My mind has always been like
- 25:28kind of an alchemist. I want to turn something, you
- 25:31know, regular or bad into something good and it just
- 25:35wasn't for me. And then I had to get a job job
- 25:37but no one would hire me. Like literally no one would hire
- 25:41me with a felony. I went to a temp agency and
- 25:44started to work in his warehouse during the during the swing
- 25:48shifts. So from 6:00 PM to 2:00 in the
- 25:51morning I would work my job and then I would wake up at 6:00 AM,
- 25:56seven AM workout and then go do my vending machine and then go
- 26:00to work. So I was like busy.
- 26:02But then I got pulled into community work by default.
- 26:08One of my dad's closest colleagues, Billy Johnson, who
- 26:12was an ex Skinhead, he had a big old swastika on the back of his
- 26:16head. You know, he grew his hair out.
- 26:18He was old. Call him Papa Bill.
- 26:19He was an old shot caller. He'd befriended my dad.
- 26:23And, you know, he was like, hey, can you, you know, show my son
- 26:26the ropes about community work when you get out.
- 26:28And he's like, yeah. So he, you know, I used to talk
- 26:30to him a lot about around. I used to tell him about me
- 26:33being discouraged. And he was the only one that I
- 26:35would let on, like, hey, I'm getting a little bit disturbed,
- 26:38you know, And he would be like, I don't give a fuck, You know
- 26:41what I mean? You know, like you, you go for
- 26:44it. Like, you know, you go for it.
- 26:46Don't let that stop you, you know, at all.
- 26:48And he used to give me the motivation he just passed, but
- 26:51he used to give me the motivation to keep going.
- 26:53And he pulled me into this thing called beyond incarceration.
- 26:58So I'm doing the vending machine.
- 26:59I'm working, you know, the swing ship in a freezer at Trader
- 27:03Joe's warehouse, you know, way out there in the boonies in
- 27:05Stockton. And then I'm pulled into this
- 27:08beyond incarceration where I'm going to talk to kids about, you
- 27:12know, the gateway drugs and you know, like prison.
- 27:15And you know that really exposed me to kind of the systematic
- 27:19stuff that I got into later on because I was standing next to
- 27:25like the chief of police and sheriffs and DAS and they had
- 27:28live screen of people in Folsom prison and wardens and I'm like,
- 27:32yo, I've never, I thought I'd escape these people.
- 27:35I got it. I.
- 27:36Understand right beside. Them.
- 27:38Yeah, I just read it right back too.
- 27:39I'm like, but it was good because they they looked at me
- 27:43different. You know, they they they looked
- 27:45at me different. And all throughout my time in
- 27:48prison, you know, some people like some, a lot of the guards
- 27:51would call me Jordan. Jordan, But you know a few
- 27:54guards who saw that Sparkly called me by my name Jay and I
- 27:58knew like, OK, I was that's. Unusual too, yeah.
- 28:02Did you get called by your first name?
- 28:04Yeah, I still have my peace of humanity and none of my
- 28:07lifeline. Like, no, you're still a human.
- 28:09And some people, you could do that in private because they
- 28:11knew, you know, they should tell me you're going to do some stuff
- 28:14when you get out. I don't know what it is, but
- 28:15you're different. You're going to do some stuff.
- 28:17And you know, things like that brought me back when the DA was
- 28:21like, hey Jay, you know, Tory verbal, she was an ADA at the
- 28:24time. And Judge Blaviano, you know,
- 28:28Chief Eric Jones all really poured into me.
- 28:31You know, they were like, hey, we're happy to be standing right
- 28:34by side you and do this work and talk to these kids.
- 28:37Thank you for doing this work. And I used to be like, I don't
- 28:39want to be around these people. Y'all are cops, Y'all put me in
- 28:42jail. But as time went on, you know as
- 28:45time went on I began to shed that and you know really took my
- 28:49own self accountability and start to listen, you know, and
- 28:52say well tell me about your job. You know tell me like how hard
- 28:55it is to be the chief of police. I I never talked to a cop at all
- 28:59right. Tell me about your job.
- 29:00And I sat down with chief Jones for the first time.
- 29:02He said he he he told me, hey I've been doing it for 20-30
- 29:05years and I never knew what giving someone a felony actually
- 29:09does. So until I talk to you and he
- 29:12and he, like, did this whole essay, the chief who listened
- 29:15and like one of the catalyst for him changing his mind was
- 29:18talking to me about my issues. And you know, like everyone I,
- 29:21I, I would meet in that sector, would actually give me an
- 29:24opportunity to go a little bit further into my development.
- 29:29You know, because what I realized was I was only, I was
- 29:34beholden to my own cultural persuasion and I didn't see the
- 29:38other side. So I didn't understand that I
- 29:40had the agency and I had the expertise to help influence
- 29:45policy in a way that they couldn't because they've never
- 29:48been on my side. Right.
- 29:49And. And even though.
- 29:51Yeah, And and even though they were around people, like,
- 29:54usually folks like me didn't engage in a way that could help
- 29:58transform policy. So I, I took a leap and I said,
- 30:01wait a minute, I can help. I can actually help you change
- 30:04some of your policies that don't make any sense, right.
- 30:07Instead of going to a church with a gun on, take the damn gun
- 30:10off. You can badge off.
- 30:12You're a regular person. I guarantee people will talk to
- 30:14you and you'll gain insights about how much people don't like
- 30:17sheep, right? And he would do that and it
- 30:19would change the trajectory of the conversation.
- 30:23And I got a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper.
- 30:25That's the time. In 20/12/2013 in Stockton, a lot
- 30:29of people were dying, kids were dying.
- 30:31And you know, I said I talked to my nephew at the time and we
- 30:36were in the house and I said go to the park, man, why don't you
- 30:38go to the park? He's like, man, I want to go to
- 30:40the park. It's dangerous.
- 30:42That's what we're going to change that.
- 30:44And I remember I got a call that same week.
- 30:47One of my closest friends, Sonny, his brother, was shot in
- 30:50the head and murdered. His only brother shot like four
- 30:53times in the head. And I said, OK, I got to do
- 30:58something. It it clicked enough that I
- 31:01can't have my legacy be ice cold.
- 31:04Grape soda for $0.50 and paleo bar, right?
- 31:08I called my business partner. I said, hey, well, what would
- 31:10you give me if you bought me out?
- 31:11I mean, what would you give me to buy me out of the business?
- 31:13He's like, no, no, no, no, no, You, you're the one actually
- 31:16driving it. I'm just financing.
- 31:17I'm like, no, I'm out. I got to, I got to do this if
- 31:21you. And for those who know me, when
- 31:23I put my mind to something, there's no stopping, you know?
- 31:26And he bought me out. And I started network mentoring.
- 31:31I didn't know what I was doing. It was a nonprofit.
- 31:33And I said I'm going to do politics and community work
- 31:36until I fix the problem and stopping.
- 31:38And for the next two years I dedicated my life and all every
- 31:44fit I had to building this thing called 1st, 50 which was a youth
- 31:50mentoring program that taught kids civic right, like spread up
- 31:55civics. And we used to do it with
- 31:57academia and then applied, right.
- 32:00So we used to teach them about automotive technicians.
- 32:04So we used to have somebody come in there on Friday talk about
- 32:06how to change the tire, how to change you know oil what
- 32:10situation where you might need to do this.
- 32:14We and then they and then the next day we could bring them to
- 32:17a shop and they would do it. And we did this for a lot of
- 32:21different things like, you know a community garden.
- 32:25We did this with elder homes. Like what does it mean to why do
- 32:28we have a system to where you know the older folks go to a
- 32:32home and what does that mean? I'm going to show you what a
- 32:33home looks like, right. And it changed the perception
- 32:36of, you know, kind of the city, right.
- 32:39They didn't understand what utilities were and police
- 32:42departments were and how it was funded.
- 32:44And we taught them all of that. And over the course of two years
- 32:48of doing them, actually about a year and a half, we started with
- 32:52about 70 kids. That got down to like 30 really
- 32:55hardcore kids. We we did it at my dad's church
- 32:58because even though the parents and the teachers and the
- 33:03principal really wanted me at Franklin High School, which is a
- 33:07high school in Stockton and E Stockton, they really wanted me
- 33:09there. School board president told me
- 33:13that because I had felony, I volunteered.
- 33:15So you know, again didn't stop us.
- 33:19All the parents were like let's do it at your dad's church,
- 33:21right. So we did that at my dad's
- 33:22church and you know, we had kids with below one point O GPA.
- 33:27We had kids with four point O GPA in this group.
- 33:30We had Latinos, we had blacks, we had, we had everybody.
- 33:34And at the end of the program I was broke.
- 33:37But they graduated a lot, and every single one of them went to
- 33:40college. Which was unreal.
- 33:42I read about this, Jay and I and and I know you're not going to
- 33:46say this, but I'm going to tell you spent your last $100 on a
- 33:50graduation gift from one of your kids.
- 33:53Yeah, yeah. My last I was with, I was.
- 33:56I was overdraft after that, you know, I was with.
- 34:00I mean that's all land man. And and the other thing I don't
- 34:03want to I don't want to to to just Slough over all those kids
- 34:08really went on to college and so so you gave them the tools they
- 34:13needed to get to that next step which had to be just.
- 34:16I don't know how that fills somebody up but I know my
- 34:19daughter's a teacher my youngest daughter and and the the
- 34:22feedback she gets from being a good teacher that whatever that
- 34:25is, that's an intangible thing. But man, that that's something,
- 34:28doesn't it? Yeah, yeah.
- 34:30They're like, they became my family.
- 34:32Like they became my dad, gave me a truck.
- 34:37It was a S10, right? And you know, he was like, you
- 34:42know, keep this truck clean, keep it clean, don't wreck it.
- 34:48And I ended up putting a bunch of paint in the back because we
- 34:50used to paint trash cans to beautify parks around Stockton.
- 34:54It was things like that. And it became like this.
- 34:56When you saw the truck, the truck had paint all over it, and
- 34:59the kids would paint and put their handprints on the car.
- 35:01And none of that mattered because they were experiencing
- 35:04joy in Stockton in a way that they hadn't before.
- 35:08I mean, Stockton was a scary place, but when we got together,
- 35:11it wasn't scary at all. And they used to come to the
- 35:13church every Thursday, Friday, sometimes Wednesday.
- 35:16And I would just be there and they would come and hang out.
- 35:18And it became a place of just, you know, having a good time and
- 35:23really important to the kids. And I felt like that was my
- 35:25contribution to ensure that they didn't go down the road.
- 35:28I went down where even though a lot of these kids had two
- 35:32parents, I saw myself in them, where both parents were working.
- 35:35And they were forced to like, you know, kind of they were
- 35:38latchkey kids like I was. So I didn't want the society to
- 35:42tell them that they were less than.
- 35:45And a lot of these kids, the society would just feed them
- 35:47down and teachers would say stuff.
- 35:49And I would be like, hell, no, You are powerful.
- 35:52You're going to change the world.
- 35:53You are magic. You're going to go to college.
- 35:56You're going to get good grades. You know why?
- 35:57I'm not going to let you fail at all.
- 35:59And you know, I pour my heart into it.
- 36:02And you know, when I saw Remember the graduation, I sat
- 36:06all the way in the top. I didn't want to like it was
- 36:08their moment and no one knew like that was it?
- 36:12Everyone used to ask me, well, you're going to do the 2nd
- 36:15cohort. And I'm like, this is this, it's
- 36:16all I got. Like, I don't have no more
- 36:18money, you know, at all. And it was going around, it was
- 36:23it was approaching my parole day, like with my, my parole
- 36:28index, you know, 2015. And my dad told me when I got
- 36:31out, he said, hey, I'll, I'll give you 3 years.
- 36:34I'll give you 3 years. And I'm retiring to Oklahoma and
- 36:38I'm like, hi all it is three years.
- 36:41And it was approaching that and then I was, I was scared.
- 36:46I was broke because I put all my money there and I got a job
- 36:52working as a field director for Gerry Mcnerney's RE election
- 36:57campaign, Congressman Gerry McNerney Congressional District
- 37:009. Because, you know, if you Google
- 37:02up at the time, we were always in the news.
- 37:04We were always bringing people out.
- 37:05We had hundreds of volunteers for a lot of our stuff.
- 37:09We were doing a a lot of stuff in stock.
- 37:11And at the time, and, you know, I, I, I tried to find a
- 37:18conventional job, you know, with the city, with nonprofits, and
- 37:22everyone was like, no, we'll work with you, but we won't hire
- 37:26you, right. Which was insane to me because
- 37:29here I am, you know, side by side with all these agencies and
- 37:33nonprofits and the government, and they're praising me, You
- 37:37know, saying, Jay, you're doing such a good job, but they
- 37:39wouldn't hire me, right? So I'm good enough to work
- 37:43alongside you, but I'm not good enough for you to hire.
- 37:48And McNerney took a chance on me and he hired me.
- 37:51And I was the 1st and probably only person on parole in America
- 37:56running a congressional field campaign.
- 37:59And we won by the largest margin ever.
- 38:03And that was, you know, kind of like you know much about him
- 38:06when he. Gave you that shot, Jay.
- 38:10Yeah, so McNerney, he gave me. So what we used to do at 1st 50
- 38:15is we used to get certificates. Well, we got a lot of
- 38:20certificates from like every level of government based on the
- 38:24work and the reason we used to ask for these certificates not
- 38:28for the program, but we used to ask for 47 or 50, however many
- 38:32kids we had at the program at that time and we used to give
- 38:35them certificates. And so, you know, these kids
- 38:39walked away not only with the knowledge and the love, right,
- 38:43but a stack of certificates from all these governments, you know,
- 38:47all these level of governments. And so I used to work with
- 38:49Mcgurney a lot of times and give him a lot of publicity.
- 38:53So he knew, you know, if you know anything about politics,
- 38:56the field campaign is about bringing people to the work.
- 38:59And at that time it was a a a safe blue seat.
- 39:05So he thought that all he needed was volunteers.
- 39:08And we got you know I came in and I did a lot of volunteer
- 39:11work our brought up a bunch of volunteers to his campaign and
- 39:15we won. And I was in November of 2014
- 39:19and mind you my dad said hey when you get off parole I'm,
- 39:22I'm, I'm moving and January was approaching in 2015.
- 39:26So this was the date I got out January 19th, 2012, January
- 39:3019th, 20/20/15. I paroled my dad left in
- 39:34December and he was like, you have the house for January to
- 39:37yourself and then son, you're on your own.
- 39:40You've done well in Stockton. And I, you know, I remember my
- 39:44last shot was to try to get a job with the city because that's
- 39:49the city was like, hey, you know, we'll give you a job, you
- 39:54know, And they didn't say that in writing, but they were like,
- 39:57we really would love to work with you.
- 39:59It'd be great. Like you working for the city,
- 40:01right. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 40:02So I always thought they were going to hire me and you know,
- 40:06January came and. You know, I, I reached out to
- 40:10the city manager and I was like, hey man, you know, getting off
- 40:13parole would love for you to come and talk to me or I would
- 40:17love to come and talk to you about actual job.
- 40:19And he said, man, it's going to be too politically difficult to
- 40:22get you hired here. And I'm like, wow, OK, never.
- 40:26Got. Punch Yeah, that was that was a
- 40:28hard one And so I was faced with like either getting a
- 40:33conventional job after doing all this stuff for years.
- 40:37I seemed over a lot. We did a lot of working for
- 40:40years really you know did a renaissance in in Stockton where
- 40:45it was just different the and. He had no results.
- 40:49Yeah, the energy was different in soccer and I decided to
- 40:54leave. So I packed up my car.
- 40:57I had two boxes, you know, didn't really have any clothes.
- 41:01I wasn't a clothes guy. I didn't have no money to buy
- 41:03clothes. Then I I had a couple of suits
- 41:06my the ties my dad gave me. I had some dress shoes with
- 41:10holes in them. I I didn't even I had like 2
- 41:12pair of dress socks. But most of the socks I used to
- 41:14wear with athletic socks, with my dress shoes, I had a couple
- 41:18of overcoats. You know, I made some jackets
- 41:22and put it in the car and I had a pack of Newports and usually I
- 41:29used to smoke a camel crush. I said, you know what?
- 41:31I'm going to smoke Newports all the way to LA.
- 41:34And I didn't. My, my granny and my oldest
- 41:36sister lived in LA. My granny lived in a living
- 41:39facility with my sister, which was her caretaker.
- 41:42And so I couldn't stay there. If I'm like, you know what, I
- 41:44could stay there for one night. But, you know, my girlfriend at
- 41:47the time moved to LA. And I said, you know what?
- 41:49This is my only, this is let's do it.
- 41:52And you know, I moved to LA with like my last paycheck from
- 41:59McNerney, which is like 2500 bucks.
- 42:02And I didn't know anybody well. And I moved to LA and I remember
- 42:07the day I got there, I had spent 500 bucks just like all out
- 42:12party. And I'm like, you know, I'm
- 42:13going to, I'm going to, you know, be with my sister.
- 42:16Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I'm like, you know, we're going to,
- 42:18I'm going to have some fun. I just went on this crazy
- 42:21three-year run in Stockton. I was depressed as hell.
- 42:25No one knew, but I didn't have anywhere to stay.
- 42:28And you know, for the past three months, you know, I I went from,
- 42:32you know, staying a night at my girl's house.
- 42:34I don't want her to know that I was didn't have anywhere to go
- 42:38to my granny. I used to sneak in my granny's
- 42:39house and sneak out before the the front desk and see me, you
- 42:43know, out the back, out out the back door, hop the gate into the
- 42:47alleyway and run to my car. And that lasted like 3 months.
- 42:52What I think is interesting about that is I've read some
- 42:54things on homelessness and and a lot of people aren't aware that
- 42:58are even close around that are people that you know, don't
- 43:02know, you know. It's.
- 43:03It's one of those things that people can get almost get away
- 43:08with for a certain amount of time without people knowing that
- 43:10they don't have a place to go. Yeah, traditional homelessness.
- 43:15Yeah, I was. I was.
- 43:17I was. I was traditional homeless for a
- 43:20while, you know, for three months, sleeping in my car,
- 43:23solid. And I had money to rent an
- 43:27apartment, but no one would rent to me because a lot of the
- 43:31apartments were managed by property management companies
- 43:34that did background checks. And so, you know, I just
- 43:37couldn't find employment, couldn't find jobs.
- 43:40My money was going down. Let's count it down.
- 43:42My car got repossessed like two or three times.
- 43:45You know, luckily my dad sent me.
- 43:46Money was like, hey, man, I thought that you didn't pay your
- 43:48car. Now you know, here you go and
- 43:51go, go get my car out. You know, 'cause I didn't have a
- 43:54car. I didn't have a place to stay.
- 43:56And I went to this organization, LA Voice, and I talked to the
- 44:02executive director, Zach Hoover. And Zach was, he's this Harvard
- 44:08grad out of Indiana, really smart, sharp guy.
- 44:13And it was organizing community organized.
- 44:16And I knew and understand the concept of community organizing
- 44:18inherently, but I wasn't classically trained at that
- 44:21moment. And but I did a lot of
- 44:24community. You had been doing that?
- 44:26Yeah. I did a lot of community
- 44:27organizers even before I knew what it was.
- 44:29Yeah. I mean.
- 44:29All the stuff you were doing, the park.
- 44:31Was good organizing. Yeah.
- 44:33And I said, hey, you don't know me, but I'm gonna tell you my
- 44:38story and I'm homeless and give me an opportunity.
- 44:46Give me an opportunity part time.
- 44:50They said I'll pay you 15 bucks an hour.
- 44:52If they pay me 19, you got me. And he paid me 19 bucks an hour
- 44:57and connected me and he said hey, we have a bunch of black
- 45:01churches in South Los Angeles and LA Voice was a part of the
- 45:05Pico network is people improving community to organize and it's
- 45:09one of the largest faith-based organizing networks in the
- 45:11country. And you know they have a whole
- 45:16ideology. Olinsky Train kind of Obama went
- 45:20through Olinsky Train organizing, you know, kind of
- 45:24rooted in the organizing circle and principle around the power
- 45:27of the relationship of building deep relationships with people
- 45:30and surfacing self-interest and then taking those self interests
- 45:33and needs and then, you know, ensuring that society answers
- 45:37those self interests of the people.
- 45:39Really, really deep, deep organizing strategy and
- 45:42methodology. And they wanted to bring black
- 45:45churches into the fold in South Los Angeles.
- 45:48And so, you know my dad, the past it was I was like this is,
- 45:51this is serendipitous right here.
- 45:53So I go and start knocking on doors and come to find out I was
- 45:57good at talking to people about, you know, self-interest and gain
- 46:02some really deep relationships in Los Angeles.
- 46:06Conversations and relationships. Well, relationships I still have
- 46:09today and got really, really good at it.
- 46:14So much so that that could not not hire me full time.
- 46:18He was stuck. He was like, OK, I got to hire
- 46:20this guy and like two more months of me being homeless
- 46:26after he gave me the Parkside position.
- 46:28So about five months where I was just like literally going from
- 46:31place to place to place. And I I got my first check and I
- 46:34said, you know what? I'm going to go as far as as
- 46:36possible. I got to find me a a place to
- 46:39go, you know, because I can't keep driving to South Los
- 46:42Angeles, you know, and then sleeping in my car to Walmart.
- 46:46Just not safe, right. Just so I can go talk with
- 46:49clergy, you know, to see if they want to join, you know, Pico.
- 46:53And so I went to North Hollywood and I found this little itty
- 46:59bitty apartment building like 8 units.
- 47:02And I went there and it said the manager on site.
- 47:06And I'm like, yes, I mean it's probably owned, it's not brand
- 47:09by property management company and I'm not going to.
- 47:12And I saw a roaches and I'm like, you know what?
- 47:13I don't care at this point. I'm, I'm going to be happy.
- 47:16Yeah. And I locked on it and I'm like,
- 47:19listen, I will pay you two months in advance all the money
- 47:23I have. I just need a place to live.
- 47:25And he said sure, I'm like and ah man, I went back to my car
- 47:32and I cried and I cried. I cried my first time crying for
- 47:35a while. And I cried.
- 47:37I said, oh man, this is this. I'm going to make it.
- 47:40I'm finally going to make it. This is this, this is it.
- 47:43And I stayed in that. It was a one bedroom apartment
- 47:46and I picked that thing up. Then I put little traps.
- 47:49I didn't, you know, I I knew how to like, you know, put little
- 47:52traps around so the Rotary won't come in my house and yeah, yeah,
- 47:58stay next door. And I had good neighbors.
- 48:00So then my my neighbors were clean.
- 48:03We were clean. So we were good up top.
- 48:05And you know, they didn't speak a little English.
- 48:07I didn't speak a little Spanish, but we got along.
- 48:09They used to feed me all the time because for whatever
- 48:12reason, they knew that I was like on a mission.
- 48:14They could bring me food and their kids used to like knock on
- 48:17my door, bring you a little candy, like you know, give the
- 48:19kids candy. And I built a little community
- 48:22there. And you know, I got 7 months
- 48:25into my work and in in in LA and just really build the community
- 48:31in LA quickly. When I finally got my feet under
- 48:34me, it was just like, OK, yeah, Rock and rolling.
- 48:39Yeah. And I was and I was meeting
- 48:40people doing the same stuff I was doing in socket, just making
- 48:44my rounds and making sure people knew my name and knew what I was
- 48:47about and adding value to their lives.
- 48:49And you know, and the clergy I was working with, what's the
- 48:54Zakkin said, you got to hire this guy.
- 48:56You got to hire this guy. You have to hire this guy.
- 48:58So he hired me and he paid me $47,000.
- 49:02That was my first. This is 2015.
- 49:04This was, this was not years ago.
- 49:07So he paid me 47, five, man. And I worked my tail off for
- 49:13like the next five months of the year end.
- 49:15And I met this guy, Robert Brooks.
- 49:21You don't know Robert Brooks. Google Robert Brooks.
- 49:23He's a, he's a, he's a he was definitely a a silent genius.
- 49:28One of my mentors, one of my, a friend, one of my brothers, you
- 49:31know, I'm always in debt to Robert.
- 49:33Robert has changed the lives of so many people and he's
- 49:37extremely humble about it. And he, he asked me that I met,
- 49:43I met him at A at the California Endowment.
- 49:49It's this philanthropic institution.
- 49:52And I met him and he was trying to organize a fair for people
- 50:00with records to change their records.
- 50:02They had just passed this law, Prop 47, which allowed certain
- 50:05people with certain crimes to reduce those felony, Felicity,
- 50:09like drug crimes and all that type of stuff.
- 50:12And so he, he like, let's do a fair, you know, And I'm like,
- 50:16what is it? What the hell does this guy cook
- 50:17you to a fair, like with bears wheels and clowns and stuff?
- 50:20That's not going to happen. That's not going to work.
- 50:22And so it's my first time meeting Robert.
- 50:24He was like an unconventional thinker like that.
- 50:27And so I'm like, we got to meet this guy.
- 50:30This guy is a little off, but he's talking about gold and
- 50:33clowns and criminals. Like, what the fuck is he
- 50:36called? So they're for criminals.
- 50:38Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll meet him.
- 50:41And he's like, where do you see yourself in 10 years?
- 50:45And I'm like one of those questions like, you know, Rasta
- 50:48back in the hole asked me and I felt like that I'm like, you can
- 50:52be life changing right here. These are life changing because
- 50:55usually life like life altering events start with a question
- 50:58that you can't really answer. And then you go on and I said,
- 51:02you know, I want to, I want to make over.
- 51:04I didn't tell them what I wanted to make.
- 51:06I said I wanted to help myself and others get out of this cycle
- 51:10that we're in. And I didn't have a name for it.
- 51:13I just like this weird cycle where I can't do anything in my
- 51:19debt, but like like this ever, never ending debt that I'm
- 51:22paying. And he said, well, what do you
- 51:24want to make? I want to make over $100,000.
- 51:26At the time, I thought that was like a.
- 51:28Lot of money. Well, I mean, a lot of people
- 51:30say that's the six figure, you know.
- 51:32Yeah, yeah. And like $100,000.
- 51:35And so he's like, all right, all right, all right.
- 51:38And he says, I'll be in touch. I'm like, this is a waste of my
- 51:44time, right? This guy wasting my time.
- 51:47I don't hear from him. And then he comes back like a
- 51:50month later and he says, hey man, so we got this position.
- 51:55You've been crushing it. And I'm like, what do you mean
- 51:57like in Stockton, you know, LA, you just been crushing it.
- 52:00People are talking about you. People are talking about you.
- 52:02I'm like, what? People are talking about me.
- 52:04You're like, yeah, man, you're doing a good job.
- 52:07That's my first time realizing that when you are righteous and
- 52:13authentic and walking in your purpose, right, and are focused
- 52:18on being the best self you could be, your name will be in rooms
- 52:23you've never answered right In good ways and bad ways, right.
- 52:29And my neighbors in rooms I've never even been in, in the mouth
- 52:33and the ears of people that I've never even met, right, In a
- 52:37favorable way. And I didn't know that I was
- 52:40like, yeah, people are talking about you, man.
- 52:42You've done a lot of good work, and you have to position.
- 52:45And I'm like, all right, well, what is it?
- 52:47He's like, well, and he made it up.
- 52:50I found it later on. He was like network network
- 52:54manager, managing their statewide network organization,
- 52:58California for Safety and Justice.
- 53:01And I'm like, OK, what are you going to pay me, $97,000?
- 53:05No, 92.5. And he said with a lot of room
- 53:08for growth. And I'm like, a lot of room for
- 53:09growth. What are you talking about?
- 53:10He's like a lot. But Robert saw something in me
- 53:13that I didn't see myself. And this was, yeah, this was the
- 53:17beginning of 2016. You know, this is the, like, end
- 53:20of 2015, beginning of 2016. And I'm like, let's do it.
- 53:23I had a conversation with Zach. Zach was like, really, really
- 53:26kind of sad. He was like my best organizing
- 53:28what he's in. And I'm like, I don't know what
- 53:30organizing means, but I've been trained a lot under Zach.
- 53:34And Mike Mcbraw taught me a lot. And then Pico really gave me a
- 53:38crash course. And yeah.
- 53:39It's kind of like your foundation.
- 53:41Yeah yeah, the science of organizing.
- 53:43I knew the art art art lived in but the science I was really
- 53:47taught by Pico in that one year just like intense training and I
- 53:53started with Californians for Safety and Justice and it was it
- 53:58was 20/15/2016 as network men and network manager it was a it
- 54:04was like the lowest position you can have any organization and
- 54:09man in the next seven years I've I've I've been retired so I'm no
- 54:19longer the worker been Alliance for Safety now Alliance for
- 54:23Safety and Justice. I've retired last year, but in
- 54:26seven years, let me just run down some stuff that you're
- 54:28Yeah. Let's do that.
- 54:30So started out Network Network Manager and then we started this
- 54:38thing called Second Chance, the second chances program where you
- 54:44know, I, he kept his promise and let me work on getting free.
- 54:49And he said, you know, hey man, if you want to get free, you
- 54:52work towards getting free. And I'm like, I don't even know
- 54:55where to start. He said, well, you know, we want
- 54:58you to be the Second chances program director.
- 55:00And I'm like and he split me a piece of paper and it was an
- 55:04idea where we would change the laws in California.
- 55:07And I'm like, I've never changed the law ever in my life, but I'm
- 55:10going to learn how to. And the first thing we did was
- 55:17we we actually, there was a, there was a ballot initiative
- 55:21that they threw me into and said, hey, we want you to run
- 55:23the community side of this ballot initiative.
- 55:26And I'm like, how do I even do that?
- 55:28And you're like, you'll figure it out.
- 55:31And I figured it out. And we won that ballot
- 55:34initiative, Prop 57, which gave people an opportunity inside
- 55:38prison to earn time off by going to college and going to drug and
- 55:42alcohol classes and going to be able classes, right?
- 55:45Like you got like a month off if you finished something.
- 55:47But that's changed. Like people that, you know what
- 55:51I mean? Get their life together and do
- 55:53some good stuff, right. I wish I would have had that
- 55:54when I was in there. And it was it, it it was huge.
- 55:59It was massive because it helped California reduce its prison
- 56:04population. And at the time, California was
- 56:06still under receivership because it was so overcrowded that one
- 56:10person would die every single week from a preventable medical
- 56:13condition. And so, So the US Supreme Court
- 56:17was like, lower your prison population because people are
- 56:19dying and California couldn't do it.
- 56:22So Californians for Safety and Justice and a whole host of
- 56:25organizations stepped in and said, well, we need to tweak
- 56:28some of these laws that were keeping people in prison half
- 56:31the time they should be in prison.
- 56:33If you steal a ham sandwich, you shouldn't be in prison for five
- 56:37years. Maybe you should be in prison or
- 56:39jail for like a couple of months, but then you should get
- 56:42job training so you can go buy yourself, you know, a ham
- 56:46sandwich. It just makes sense.
- 56:48And when you do that, people don't come back.
- 56:50And so California jumped into work to start passing these
- 56:54laws. And California for Safety and
- 56:56Justice was leading the charge and the massive ballot
- 57:00initiative that shift the culture and the operation of how
- 57:05prisons and and policing work in California.
- 57:08And I was like smack dab in the middle of this and I didn't
- 57:11realize that I was helping to drive a massive culture shift in
- 57:16California towards and and like when when you're in it, Brit,
- 57:23you're in it Right now I'm looking back.
- 57:25I'm like, wow. Oh, it's amazing.
- 57:27When you look at it on paper, it's unbelievable what happened.
- 57:30Yeah, yeah, So, So we led the charge.
- 57:34I LED the community side on Prop 57, and then they made me second
- 57:38chance. Program director and I pulled
- 57:39together all of the people that have that I knew about, 27 folks
- 57:45that were directly involved with either sending someone to
- 57:48prison, arresting someone so they can go to jail, processing
- 57:53them, all of it. So we have police, probation,
- 57:58people who ran organizations that were that were formally
- 58:01incarcerated themselves, folks who just got out, behavioral
- 58:05health, the health sector, public defenders, all in the
- 58:10room at the Anthony Foundation for six months, every single
- 58:14month. So for one day out of the month,
- 58:17we would come together and pour over all the research that you
- 58:20find, you know, basically pointing to why people with
- 58:23records had problems with these collateral consequences.
- 58:27Communicating. They should be communicating
- 58:29100%. And so we did this participatory
- 58:31research process, right. And people thought we were
- 58:34crazy. They're like, yeah, you got, you
- 58:36got the police with like, Karen Stewart, who they're like, do
- 58:39you know what I mean? You can meet parents like, you
- 58:42know, parents. You would not think parents
- 58:44would be in a room with the police, right?
- 58:45But we were. And when we first started,
- 58:48Brett, this is so beautiful. Rest Amity Foundation.
- 58:50I pull all these people together.
- 58:52Chief Jones, one of them, right. And he flew up from, we flew
- 58:55everybody from all around California into this room.
- 58:59And the first day I get up there and I say we're going to figure
- 59:03this thing out and we're going to free a lot of people in
- 59:06California. That's our promise, right?
- 59:10That's my promise. And I'm like, I'm going to tell
- 59:12you why Terrance tell your story.
- 59:14So Terrance gets up there, and Terrance is like, I broke the
- 59:18cycle. I have a master's degree from UC
- 59:23Riverside and I can't get housing because of a drug
- 59:28conviction in the 90s. The people are like, what?
- 59:32What? So the deputy chief from Oxnard
- 59:38Eric, his name is Eric too, shoots his hand up.
- 59:43And I'm like, oh man, this is a bad idea.
- 59:47All the staff that I was working with is like, oh Jay, you didn't
- 59:50stepped in it now and he gets up without even calling on him.
- 59:54And he says in my 20 years he says the same thing she don't
- 59:58said to me years earlier. In my 20 years of law
- 1:00:02enforcement, I never knew that me giving you a felony would
- 1:00:08result in this. He said we used to high 5 when
- 1:00:12we used to catch somebody and give them a felony and sack the
- 1:00:14target. We didn't know what we were
- 1:00:16doing. No one knows this stuff.
- 1:00:20And I'm like, oh man, here we go, we are in it, we are in it
- 1:00:23now. And for six months we we cried
- 1:00:27together, we argue, we laughed, we ate good food and we became
- 1:00:33close and like we produced research project called
- 1:00:38Repairing the Road to Redemption in California.
- 1:00:42And the four buckets were who were people with records.
- 1:00:45So there are 70 to 100 million people in America with some sort
- 1:00:49of Rep. Prices a lot of people when you
- 1:00:51just say. Right.
- 1:00:52Yeah, it's one. Million people, we got 3. 130
- 1:00:55million people in the United States, like it's a lot of
- 1:00:58people and they face what is called, well, about 90%.
- 1:01:03So nine out of ten of those folks already served their time.
- 1:01:06If it's out of average of five to seven years and you know, the
- 1:01:08date of Rick, like if you've been out average of five years,
- 1:01:13you are just as likely to commit a crime as someone that never
- 1:01:16committed a crime ever. Meaning you are not going to
- 1:01:19commit another crime. But even still, you face 40,000
- 1:01:24legal restrictions that kick on after you serve your time.
- 1:01:29These things lock people out of entire sectors like healthcare,
- 1:01:34insurance, real estate. Yes, and all the things, all the
- 1:01:37things you got hit in the gut. With all the things I got hit, I
- 1:01:40got hit in the gut with and was more surprising when we found
- 1:01:43out is that because of the housing regulation, people are
- 1:01:47forced to live in the same area. Segregation segregates that
- 1:01:52population to that population. Post conviction redlining,
- 1:01:55right. You get red line to a certain
- 1:01:58area you know and and and the people who don't who aren't red
- 1:02:03lined to those areas are either are either staying with someone
- 1:02:06aren't on the lease or they you know bought their own house
- 1:02:10right. Right.
- 1:02:11And the mass majority of folks are either staying with someone
- 1:02:15or not on the lease, right. Right.
- 1:02:17And then the folks who are on the lease who have agency, you
- 1:02:20know, even they bought their own house, they found a spot where
- 1:02:23that didn't do background checks or and that, and that's just the
- 1:02:27reality of the of the situation in America.
- 1:02:30And So what ends up happening is because the majority of folks
- 1:02:34are not everybody, a lot of us are thriving and we're kicking
- 1:02:37butt, right. And we have to take concessions
- 1:02:41a lot, right. Because, you know, you're not.
- 1:02:45I locked up and got into the nonprofit sector, in a part of
- 1:02:50the nonprofit sector where my experience was actually a plus
- 1:02:55and not a negative right. And.
- 1:02:58And a lot of people aren't. So they are underpaid and
- 1:03:01they're underappreciated, right. And they're taking jobs that,
- 1:03:05you know, are paying low wages. But they're working, right?
- 1:03:09Hey, they. Call it a felony discount.
- 1:03:10You know this guy's we could pay him less.
- 1:03:13I. Think he takes less and they're
- 1:03:15going to like these hard labour jobs.
- 1:03:17People like, Oh yeah, I work in construction.
- 1:03:20I got a job. One of the guys I know, he
- 1:03:23worked construction. This guy travels 2 hours, 2 1/2
- 1:03:26hours to work 2 1/2 hours back and he's won the high rise on a
- 1:03:30beam, right? He's like, yo, at least I'll
- 1:03:32make $100,000 and I'm like, dude, you know what I mean?
- 1:03:35Like that's that's what we have to do and we do it and we're
- 1:03:38thriving. And so people with records
- 1:03:40aren't for, we're not in poverty.
- 1:03:42We're just stuck with this never ending debt that gets in our way
- 1:03:47almost every single time we try to elevate.
- 1:03:50And we still, even though these 40,000 legal restrictions exist,
- 1:03:54we still go above and beyond and still hop over those hurdles and
- 1:03:58still are successful. We're not crying.
- 1:04:00We're not moaning about it. We're not asking for handouts.
- 1:04:03We're saying get out of our way. And that's what we found in this
- 1:04:06report. But we said, well, how do we
- 1:04:07make it easier for folks who have served their time, paid
- 1:04:11their debts to go home with their life and take care of
- 1:04:14themselves and their families? That's all we wanted to do.
- 1:04:17That's all I wanted to do. We're just like, I just want to
- 1:04:19be able to live in a of an apartment that doesn't have
- 1:04:22roaches. Correct.
- 1:04:23And that's what we asked for and get it.
- 1:04:25That's it. And we found out that the
- 1:04:28expungement apparatus, our record change apparatus in
- 1:04:32California, the whole system was crazy.
- 1:04:36It was nonsensical, it was costly and we would have to
- 1:04:41reverse engineer the entire thing.
- 1:04:44And that's what we came up with. So we had like 5 or 6
- 1:04:47recommendations. Repairing the Road to Redemption
- 1:04:50report, if you Google it, Repairing the Road to Redemption
- 1:04:52in California, you can download it off the Time done website or
- 1:04:56the Californian for Safety and Justice website.
- 1:04:59Right now you know it has the 27 co-authors on there.
- 1:05:05Christine Caramaggi was the main researcher on the project.
- 1:05:08She did an amazing job. The Raven group helped pull
- 1:05:11folks together. We had a really good research
- 1:05:13team and writing team, and the main policy person on it was
- 1:05:18John Cutler. He's like, my, I love John
- 1:05:20Cutler. And I remember after repairing
- 1:05:23the Road to Redemption report, we're like, OK, well, how do we
- 1:05:25get this out of here? How do we get this into the
- 1:05:28masses? And I said, well, we have to
- 1:05:29operationalize this. You have to really start a
- 1:05:31campaign. And we started to talk to people
- 1:05:35about second chances. And what we realized is that
- 1:05:37term rubs people the wrong way, right.
- 1:05:41If you talk to more kind of, I don't think conservative, but
- 1:05:45more folks who are like pull yourself up by your bootstraps,
- 1:05:49they're like, well, how many chances do you want to give
- 1:05:51people? And then you talk to the other
- 1:05:53people, like the more liberal leaning folks and they're like
- 1:05:57people never had a first chance, right.
- 1:05:59So we're like, yeah, so I'm like, I'm like, well, we are not
- 1:06:05going to call this second chances and we're trying to
- 1:06:10figure out what to call it. And I don't know who came up
- 1:06:14with the term, but it was like time done.
- 1:06:17And I said I love time. Done it was.
- 1:06:19Time. Because it, you know, it's
- 1:06:20whenever you come up with a good word or phrase like that, it it
- 1:06:24actually says what it is, you know, you know, time done means
- 1:06:27I'm done. I'm ready to move on.
- 1:06:29I want to live my life. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:06:32And so it the tag line was, when will my sentence end?
- 1:06:38And I'm like, well, how do we launch this thing?
- 1:06:41How do we tell people that we're going to actually go, How do we
- 1:06:45tell people that we're actually going to go and change all these
- 1:06:48laws, Right. And well, what about a concert?
- 1:06:53So we're like, OK, let's do a concert at the Glute Theatre in
- 1:06:59Los Angeles. And the only way you get in is
- 1:07:02that you got to have some sort of record, never been done
- 1:07:06before. So I was like, OK, Jay, go
- 1:07:08ahead. And I remember we had a
- 1:07:10headliner, it was TI this place seats.
- 1:07:14Like how many people? 6000 people.
- 1:07:18I mean, you pack it. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:07:21So we packed it. We had a headliner TI.
- 1:07:24The headliner pulled out. So concert number, formerly
- 1:07:29incarcerated people. We're going to announce that
- 1:07:32we're going to change the expungement process in
- 1:07:34California and free everybody, right?
- 1:07:37And we had a headliner, TI. We had the flyer printed.
- 1:07:41We're ready to go. We had the date, October 21st,
- 1:07:442018, 7:00. We're rocking and rolling three
- 1:07:48weeks before the concert. TI pulls out.
- 1:07:51Everyone's freaking out, right? I pick up the phone.
- 1:07:55I call my man Joe Paul. I'm like, Joe Paul.
- 1:07:57I need a headliner. He's like, what about Nipsey
- 1:08:00Hussle? I'm like, let's do it.
- 1:08:03He called Nipsey's brother Black Sam.
- 1:08:05Black Sam's like, tell me about it.
- 1:08:08We tell Black Sam what it is. He's like, here goes what it's
- 1:08:11going to cost the benefit concert.
- 1:08:12We'll give you a discount. We're like, let's go, Nipsey's
- 1:08:16out a headliner. We get tie dollar sign, We get
- 1:08:19Guapa like, we get Ebro. We get, yes, your team.
- 1:08:22We have a crazy lineup. We get the Greater Dion Baptist
- 1:08:25Church Choir. We're rocking and rolling.
- 1:08:28You know, tickets are sold out. The day happened once, like 2
- 1:08:32weeks before. I'm like, we need something big.
- 1:08:35We need a statement. We need something that's going
- 1:08:37to tell the story of these 40,000 laws.
- 1:08:41Because every time that we talk about these 40,000 collateral
- 1:08:44consequences, people's eyes glaze over and they don't know
- 1:08:48what the hell we're talking about.
- 1:08:50So I'm like, let's just write them all on one big wall.
- 1:08:54This is the time where Trump was talking about building the wall.
- 1:08:58I'm like, let's build our own wall and write the actual code
- 1:09:02section, Penal Code, Section 12345.
- 1:09:06Felons can't adopt. I want that shit written out all
- 1:09:09over this wall. The the event manager comes back
- 1:09:12and says the wall's going to be 70 feet long, 30 feet high.
- 1:09:16It's going to cost you about 40 to $50,000 to deal.
- 1:09:21And I'm like, I go to my boss. I'm like, hey, this is going to
- 1:09:25be a hit. Let's put it in the budget.
- 1:09:27They're like, OK, Jay, let's do it.
- 1:09:30We built the massive wall. Put it right in front of the
- 1:09:34Greek Theater. You can literally read the code
- 1:09:38sections. Go up there and read.
- 1:09:40If you have a felony, you can't do this.
- 1:09:42You know health, Health and safety code 2345.
- 1:09:46You can't work in healthcare like these.
- 1:09:48Written all over the wall. People walk up and they see
- 1:09:52this. They start crying because they
- 1:09:54finally are being seen. People are finally, folks are
- 1:09:59finally able to have their story told in a way that it's not just
- 1:10:05them anymore. That you know how you've been
- 1:10:08saying, hey man, I see this little green guy every night and
- 1:10:11people are laughing at you until they see the little green guy.
- 1:10:14There he is. That's what it was.
- 1:10:15People are like, oh, that's me right there.
- 1:10:20So without people start pouring in, you know, folks are taking
- 1:10:23pictures with the wall. I mean, if you Google the wall
- 1:10:26of consequences, hashtag, time done, you're going to see this
- 1:10:29basketball, right? And so.
- 1:10:32You took it up. I mean, I'm jumping ahead of it.
- 1:10:33But you also took it up and and brought the lawmakers out to see
- 1:10:36this, Yeah. Exactly.
- 1:10:38Exactly right. And so there's walls there.
- 1:10:41We're at the Greek Theater. It's my time.
- 1:10:44They're like they get up there and make the big statement.
- 1:10:47I am scared usually. I don't get nervous in front of
- 1:10:50me. I can't.
- 1:10:50Imagine. You nervous?
- 1:10:51Yeah. I walk out and there's about
- 1:10:53like 4000 people out there scattered.
- 1:10:55Everyone's screaming. They're ready for the headline
- 1:10:57of the They just saw Ty Dolla. Fine, He killed it.
- 1:10:59They're ready for Nipsey. I get up there.
- 1:11:02I'm supposed to announce Nipsey, but I'm also supposed to talk
- 1:11:05about time done and what our goals are.
- 1:11:07I get up there, I'm shaking, you know, and there's a picture of
- 1:11:10me with everybody in front of me and got their phones out.
- 1:11:13And I'm like, and I'm like, we're going to free everybody in
- 1:11:16California. You're like, yeah.
- 1:11:20Look, I'm fucking my boss's face.
- 1:11:24What are you going to say and? We're going to do it in five.
- 1:11:28Years. I should put a number on it.
- 1:11:31Deadline and. So.
- 1:11:34That's a good way to set a goal. 56000 people giving a deadline.
- 1:11:40I'm like, and who wants to see Nipsey, right?
- 1:11:43And they're like Nip. She comes out.
- 1:11:46Does this set take pictures? We're talking about it.
- 1:11:49It was great. Next day we get a bunch of
- 1:11:53emails. I want to join.
- 1:11:55I want to join. 6000 people Join time.
- 1:11:57Done. That's awesome.
- 1:11:58Overnight, right? And it wasn't just people at the
- 1:12:01concert. It was people who were hearing
- 1:12:03about what we were doing all over the world.
- 1:12:04Like, I want to join Time Done. Let's rock'n'roll.
- 1:12:07I realized we got something. We start getting to work.
- 1:12:11I don't know what we're going to be, how we're going to change
- 1:12:13these walls. So I'm.
- 1:12:15I'm. I'm the next step was to bring
- 1:12:18all the attorneys together who've been working on this for
- 1:12:20years. Me and John Cutler do a tour all
- 1:12:23around California talking to attorneys.
- 1:12:27Eliza Hirsch was a part of it, and she's like awesome human
- 1:12:34being. I love Eliza, Sarah Crawley,
- 1:12:38those two really. Sarah Crawley, Eliza Hirsch and
- 1:12:41John Cutler really held me up during that time because for
- 1:12:44like 8 months we would go around and talk to these, like, record
- 1:12:48change attorneys who would tell us we're crazy and we couldn't
- 1:12:51do it and it was too costly. And who are you?
- 1:12:54And I almost like to fight one of these guys.
- 1:12:56He got really upset and I was telling him we're going to do
- 1:12:58it. And he's like, I've been working
- 1:12:59on this for years and you don't know nothing.
- 1:13:02I'm like, bro, listen, you want to go outside, bro?
- 1:13:04Like, we can actually like, I can show you what I'm capable
- 1:13:07of, right? He took me all out of my cap,
- 1:13:09all of my character. But I was so pissed off at this
- 1:13:12guy. He ended up apologizing when we
- 1:13:14passed it, I bet. So he thought that, you know
- 1:13:18what, I'm just going to draw it out.
- 1:13:21So I did some like, you know, actually drew it out.
- 1:13:24And I drew out what I called the post sentence record matrix.
- 1:13:27I threw out on a piece of paper and I sent it to John Cutler and
- 1:13:31I'm like, John, this is it. This is what this is what it
- 1:13:38should be. And he's like, this is really
- 1:13:41good. Let me chew on this.
- 1:13:43And that became what we called Sunset, which is the concept
- 1:13:47that they talked about prior like, hey, this concept of
- 1:13:50sunsets. And but it didn't really have
- 1:13:52formality. So we drew it out, called the,
- 1:13:54posted this record matrix. I drew it out.
- 1:13:57Don Cutler made it real. In terms of policy, we start to
- 1:13:59like write the policy. I was writing.
- 1:14:01He was writing and we tried it for the first time.
- 1:14:05It was penal. It was Senate Bill 1298.
- 1:14:10We got the fiscal note back, which is how much it's going to
- 1:14:12cost from the from the Appropriations Committee.
- 1:14:15And they told us it was going to cost about a billion dollars of
- 1:14:17some crazy stuff. And we're like, OK, we need to
- 1:14:20like, do some narrative shifting here.
- 1:14:22So we got with Code for America, Yvonne Silva, Milani Aaliyah,
- 1:14:32Those folks really were like, let's do some design thinking.
- 1:14:35They came down to my house in LA We're all Indian style writing
- 1:14:38stuff on the wall, really trying to reverse engineer the entire
- 1:14:42California expungement system from the ground up.
- 1:14:45Literally every single piece of it.
- 1:14:47And I'm like, let's do this, let's do that.
- 1:14:48Had all these ideas and they're like, let's make it human
- 1:14:51centered. And I said, OK, this is what
- 1:14:54we're going to do. We finally set on a really good
- 1:14:56set of policies. We knew what we had to do.
- 1:15:00We knew that, you know, a lot of the Department of Justice didn't
- 1:15:03even know about the system. The court system didn't really
- 1:15:06understand it. No one really understand it but
- 1:15:08us, you know, and then we partnered with George got George
- 1:15:13Gascon and and Max Zabos. Max became like a a force to be
- 1:15:17reckoned with in terms of like really putting the the the foot
- 1:15:22on the pedal and and ensuring that the Department of Justice
- 1:15:26wasn't and inflating numbers in terms of what it was going to
- 1:15:28cost. Code for America newbie
- 1:15:29algorithm. I'm like I knew the process like
- 1:15:32the back of my hand and we went to battle we went to war and I'm
- 1:15:35like the first thing you got to do.
- 1:15:36Y'all if you have to bring this wall to Sacramento.
- 1:15:40I love it. I want people to understand
- 1:15:42because we're going to have a lot of opposition.
- 1:15:45And before we even start, Brent, I'm like, before we even start,
- 1:15:49I want the police chief, I want the sheriff.
- 1:15:53I want the DASI want CHPI want anybody who thinks about
- 1:15:57opposing this on the grounds of the criminality, right, and
- 1:16:01letting criminals run free. I want to explain this to him
- 1:16:04before we even get started. Let's bring the wall here and
- 1:16:07I'll call my guy Craig Craig Weeda from render, from Render
- 1:16:11events. He's like, he's like my guy.
- 1:16:13He says, I'm like Craig, so I want to bring the wall to
- 1:16:19Sacramento. He's like, what do they keep
- 1:16:21talking about? Do you know how much it takes,
- 1:16:23how crazy it was to deal with that thing?
- 1:16:25I'm like, yeah, let's bring it to Sacramento.
- 1:16:27I want to shut down a whole street.
- 1:16:29And so we shut down the street right in front of the Capitol,
- 1:16:33right in front of the state Capitol.
- 1:16:34And we built this massive 70 foot long by 30 foot high wall
- 1:16:39on these big huge Truss. And the Truss were like 4 feet,
- 1:16:425 feet by themselves. So the wall in the being like 40
- 1:16:45feet or 35 to 40 feet high, right And we invited all of the
- 1:16:50potential opposition to our five year campaign we were going to
- 1:16:53have. This was in 2019 and that
- 1:17:00morning they all came out, all of them.
- 1:17:04And I told the story of how we got to the collateral
- 1:17:07consequences and I haven't stand far away and I have this video,
- 1:17:10it's really good video. I'm like stand far away.
- 1:17:12So they couldn't see it. They're like what is all that
- 1:17:14stuff like you have to walk up on it to read the writing.
- 1:17:17So I'm like, I'm talking about, you know, the Hawker verse, the
- 1:17:21state of New York, and the first time the US Supreme Court made a
- 1:17:25decision around post conviction, collateral consequences and
- 1:17:29saying that we are a bad moral character forever so we can
- 1:17:31never be redeemed. It's a Supreme Court case.
- 1:17:34I'm like, I can never be redeemed.
- 1:17:36Come a little closer. Then I went from the macro to
- 1:17:39the micro, talk about my own story, my own hopes and dreams
- 1:17:43that were crushed. Because it's idea that I can
- 1:17:45never be redeemed, ever. In the state of California.
- 1:17:48I can never be whole. I can never be human again.
- 1:17:51Come a little closer and come a little closer until we got,
- 1:17:55until they got to the wall and I said now read it and they read
- 1:17:58it and they're like, this is crazy.
- 1:18:00People can't do all this stuff. I'm like, exactly.
- 1:18:03That's what we're changing. Do not get in our way.
- 1:18:05That's awesome. Took us five years from that
- 1:18:09point. It took us three bills, two
- 1:18:11budget plays, but we changed the entire expungement system in
- 1:18:16California right now. A.
- 1:18:19Single person, every single person brick in the state of
- 1:18:23California have a pathway to expungement.
- 1:18:26If you have a criminal record and you did not go to prison,
- 1:18:29and you have completed probation and you've been out two years
- 1:18:33crime free, California is going to automatically expunge your
- 1:18:36record. If you did go to prison and
- 1:18:38you've been out two years crime free, all you have to do is fill
- 1:18:42out a piece of paper, follow the directions, follow with the
- 1:18:45court, and by and by law, they have to grant your expungement.
- 1:18:50And you were one of the first ones, if not the first ones, to
- 1:18:53actually do that. They didn't know what to do with
- 1:18:55you, Jay. Yeah, I was the first one to
- 1:18:57file for Per. I'm literally was like, yo, I'm
- 1:19:00going to pressure test this. This is something that we did.
- 1:19:03Me a whole lot of other people did.
- 1:19:05I'm going to pressure test this thing.
- 1:19:07I'm going to follow it by myself with the help of Rebecca from
- 1:19:10the public defender's office. Amazing, amazing woman, Eduardo,
- 1:19:16all these people. We walked up to Stockton
- 1:19:19courthouse. We filed our paperwork and we
- 1:19:21went into the court. About three or four months later
- 1:19:24we went into the court and we like some of us like gang
- 1:19:28affiliations, attempted murder. We're like we're not going to
- 1:19:30get our record expunged. And and the judge was a visiting
- 1:19:34judge from Kern County. They called Kern County Hangman
- 1:19:37County. They call Kern County, Hangman
- 1:19:40County. You know what that means?
- 1:19:42They are giving football numbers out when you get convicted.
- 1:19:45There was no way this visiting judge was going to expand all of
- 1:19:49our records. Some had attempted murder and
- 1:19:52gang affiliation. The judge said the first person
- 1:19:56goes up. I'm sweating.
- 1:19:57My dad's there. He's praying.
- 1:19:59My my wife is there. My kids are there.
- 1:20:01We're all like, nervous. The public defender who's been
- 1:20:04helping us is like, we have to continue this.
- 1:20:06This judge is not going to be good to us.
- 1:20:09The judge says DA, do you have any objection to the first case?
- 1:20:12He said the way the law is written and the law is written
- 1:20:15really well, we cannot object based on our own feelings.
- 1:20:20We only can inform the court if this person has any new
- 1:20:23convictions. And I'm here to inform you this
- 1:20:24person has no new convictions, therefore I have no objection.
- 1:20:27And what was it was two years the incentive to to be out, not
- 1:20:30to re offend? Two years.
- 1:20:33Two years. OK, two years and the judge
- 1:20:35expanded one after the next expands all our convictions and
- 1:20:38we were like whoa, what just happened?
- 1:20:41What just happened And literally people started to file all over
- 1:20:46California and folks are getting their are getting their record
- 1:20:48expun the automatic process they've expunged posted 20 to 30
- 1:20:53million records automatically already and they're just getting
- 1:20:56started. And then people with who with
- 1:20:59felonies who did go to prison folks are starting to like filed
- 1:21:03with the court and it's getting crazy and folks are getting
- 1:21:05free. You know, if you have a record.
- 1:21:07Now what does expungement mean? The way we wrote it, Brent, we
- 1:21:11wrote it based on my story to be like to be totally honest, I
- 1:21:16said listen, I can no longer in my right mind continue to pass
- 1:21:21laws and not be free. And we were passing laws left
- 1:21:24and right. You know the organization passed
- 1:21:27100 laws in 10 years. Me, I was responsible for.
- 1:21:32Yeah, yeah, exactly. And and like my tenure, it was
- 1:21:36about, it was about, it was about about 50 laws that I was
- 1:21:42responsible for, right? Or like working alongside and
- 1:21:45raising money and doing a bunch of stuff.
- 1:21:47And so all those laws didn't affect me.
- 1:21:50And so we wrote this because I'm like, I have to get free, you
- 1:21:54know, I have to get free. I'm tired.
- 1:21:56And I kept going back to that first time sitting in that chair
- 1:21:58where Perk was telling me out of prison.
- 1:22:04Yeah, I said, you know what? I'm going to change it.
- 1:22:06I'm going to change it. It may take me a long time.
- 1:22:08It took me about 10 years to change it, you know, But I
- 1:22:11didn't give up. And I wrote my own tickets.
- 1:22:13And I wrote the tickets for every single person in
- 1:22:15California. And we didn't stop ARC.
- 1:22:19Homeboy Industries joined the fight.
- 1:22:21And people were joining the fight and we were winning and we
- 1:22:23won. And it feels really, really good
- 1:22:25to finally be free. You know, I was there when the
- 1:22:28governor signed the bill. I have pictures of him signing
- 1:22:30it. And I told him what it meant for
- 1:22:32him to sign that I have the actual pin and the law that he
- 1:22:35signed, you know. And after I got free, I decided,
- 1:22:39you know, I'm done. I did it.
- 1:22:42I got free. So.
- 1:22:43It's it's it's unbelievable when you read through it.
- 1:22:45And I, before we, I want to ask you a question about how we can
- 1:22:49get this and connect Dots across the nation before I do.
- 1:22:53I I I forgot I got so inshalled with what you're talking about.
- 1:22:56I forgot to recognize my show sponsor, Neimer Success Podcast
- 1:23:00is sponsored by the White Collar Support Group, the world's first
- 1:23:02support group devoted to people navigating the White Collar
- 1:23:05criminal justice system. I'm a member of the White Collar
- 1:23:07Support Group, and I tell you, this is a bunch of people who
- 1:23:10help each other through the criminal justice journey for
- 1:23:12free. Whether you're just starting
- 1:23:14your journey or you've made it through on the other side, it's
- 1:23:17a great space for you. You can join us on Zoom Monday,
- 1:23:207:00 PM Eastern Time, 4:00 PM in Pacific.
- 1:23:23For information, go to prisonest.org.
- 1:23:26That's prisonest.org. Start here.
- 1:23:30So Jay, after doing all this, you know, one of the great
- 1:23:33things that I get to do sitting in this seat is I get to talk to
- 1:23:36a lot of people that are doing incredibly impactful things.
- 1:23:40But it's in their place. You know, like Michigan's got a
- 1:23:44lot of really cool things and ban the box and the stuff with
- 1:23:46housing, stuff like that. And there's all kinds of
- 1:23:49different places. And what you've done in
- 1:23:50California, what, what do you think it takes for us to create
- 1:23:55the umbrella of the effect of a card carrying AARP?
- 1:23:59But it's ex felons that, that get their rights, whether you
- 1:24:04live in Mississippi or Alabama or California or Michigan.
- 1:24:07What, what does it take? What's it?
- 1:24:09How? How?
- 1:24:10How do we get that voice to be powerful enough to create a
- 1:24:13tidal wave? Yeah, so there are two things.
- 1:24:18There are two organizations right now that are doing
- 1:24:21tremendous work. So one is headed up by Sheena
- 1:24:25Mead. Sheena Mead is a sport.
- 1:24:28She is amazing and she runs the Clean Slate Initiative.
- 1:24:32Yeah, I've heard big money back, big money backs it.
- 1:24:36And they are responsible and will be responsible for
- 1:24:40expansive policies in all 50 states.
- 1:24:42And they're not going to lose. They're literally winning right
- 1:24:45now. So no matter what state you're
- 1:24:47in, they're coming. Your way.
- 1:24:49They're coming. The wave is coming.
- 1:24:51Already started. The wave is coming.
- 1:24:53I mean, you know, look, I was, you know, California is a little
- 1:24:57bit different because you know they had me and Ingrid and you
- 1:25:00had your. Fashion behind it and in a great
- 1:25:03voice, and there's no way not to listen to you and get caught up
- 1:25:06in the excitement and the passion that you have.
- 1:25:10But what's your? What do you think of your next
- 1:25:13step is on your journey? So I'll say it first here.
- 1:25:19You talked about nationally. Yeah, this is happening in
- 1:25:27almost every country in the world.
- 1:25:30Yes, in India, if you have a record, it's difficult for you
- 1:25:35to find a job. In China, if you have a record,
- 1:25:37it's difficult for you to find a job in France, in the UK, in
- 1:25:42South Africa, in in in, in, in in Canada and Australia.
- 1:25:47This is happening to people all around the world. close to 1/2 a
- 1:25:51billion if not more people have records in this world and they
- 1:25:56are not being. The narrative is not being
- 1:25:58connected. We're so focused on the national
- 1:26:01frame, but what is happening is we can't even travel to a lot of
- 1:26:03these countries would be out of, you know, so we can't even go
- 1:26:06and yeah, we can't even go and get right.
- 1:26:10We can't even go on politics and help them.
- 1:26:12So my next move is to pull people together who are working
- 1:26:16on this issue from these major countries and help to develop a
- 1:26:20platform and a plan to put pressure on the UN to bring down
- 1:26:25a revolution. To say this is what on the right
- 1:26:28to be rehabilitated looks like and we should be able to travel
- 1:26:33to different countries. Our senses have to be completed
- 1:26:36after our time is done. And that's my next step is to
- 1:26:39ensure that what we did in California spread all across the
- 1:26:42globe. I love it, Jay.
- 1:26:44I want to know, So you've been on this unbelievable journey.
- 1:26:49I mean, it's like we just watched a movie here in part
- 1:26:51one, Part 2, where you are now in your life.
- 1:26:56What do you think's your biggest take away from this journey
- 1:26:59you've been on listeners out there?
- 1:27:05My biggest take away is value extraction.
- 1:27:10You know this this rule of have like these rules I've I've
- 1:27:14created and when I write the book they're all they're all
- 1:27:17being there. You know the the rule of value
- 1:27:20extraction that no matter what situation you are in, there's a
- 1:27:26value. Because you are in that
- 1:27:29situation, The situation inherently has value.
- 1:27:33You inherently have value, right?
- 1:27:36And I've been able to use that insanely optimistic point of
- 1:27:42view to grab value from the depth of society, which is the
- 1:27:48whole and like, gain tremendous value in the deepest, darkest
- 1:27:53pit you can be in in a given society.
- 1:27:56And if I can extract value out of that, then no matter what
- 1:27:59situation you find yourself in, whether it's being homeless,
- 1:28:03whether it's being addicted, whether it's being jobless,
- 1:28:05whether it's like divorce or losing a loved one, there's an
- 1:28:09insane amount of value in that situation.
- 1:28:12You just have to be still trusting yourself.
- 1:28:15Become introspective, block up all external forces and you will
- 1:28:19find value. And that problem that you're
- 1:28:22facing inherently can transform into an idea that can change the
- 1:28:28world. And I think that's exactly how
- 1:28:30you've handled things from the moment that you got out because
- 1:28:33it if if you would have taken those three gut punches and then
- 1:28:38a fourth gut punch, there's there's two places to go there.
- 1:28:43One, as I'm a victim and I'm going to curl up, I'm going to
- 1:28:46point fingers. I'm going to blame everybody.
- 1:28:48And I give up. Or you take the Jay Jordan
- 1:28:52approach, You're a survivor. You look for solutions.
- 1:28:55You look for where you can be of value and you step forward.
- 1:28:59And it's not easy. It's not going to be easy and
- 1:29:01never was easy. Everything you just talked about
- 1:29:03was none of that was easy. Even the headliner left after
- 1:29:07you guys had the stuff for it. I mean, and you still packed the
- 1:29:09place. So I mean always, even if you're
- 1:29:11doing stuff really, really good, there's stuff that happens and
- 1:29:15you just got to deal with it and you still, you know, you just
- 1:29:18don't give up on it. And that's why I was so drawn to
- 1:29:21your story, Jay, is you had so many things that you didn't know
- 1:29:28and you didn't stop you. You just said how am I going to
- 1:29:30figure it out? Because people get they they
- 1:29:32there were people along your Rd. that believed in you.
- 1:29:35They saw something in you and they said you can figure it out,
- 1:29:37Jay. And you were like, OK, yeah, I
- 1:29:40guess I can figure it out. And you did.
- 1:29:42And I I. That's one of the messages I
- 1:29:44want people to get from this is there's a lot of people out
- 1:29:46there listening. They get stuck.
- 1:29:48You know, they build up prisons in their own mind.
- 1:29:51The biggest thing, and we call this thing nightmare, success,
- 1:29:54because you have to walk through your fears to get to where you
- 1:29:56want to go. Each time you were presented
- 1:29:59with something you didn't know, you didn't stop.
- 1:30:01You just walked into it and you figured it out.
- 1:30:04And you might have not have figured it out the first day,
- 1:30:06but you figured it out. And that's, that's that secret
- 1:30:09sauce to whatever that intangible thing is, to finally
- 1:30:13get something that you, you've added value to, you've made an
- 1:30:17impact with. Because it's not easy to get
- 1:30:19there. It's not easy.
- 1:30:20You just can't. You just don't wake up and say
- 1:30:22I'm changed. I've changed the world.
- 1:30:24It's all good now. It just doesn't work that way.
- 1:30:30But it's good stuff, Jay. And man, I appreciate you being
- 1:30:33on what's, as far as I know, Instagram, Mr., Mr., Jay Jordan,
- 1:30:42anywhere else that people want to help Jay, where should they
- 1:30:44go? Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm very
- 1:30:48responsive. I've always been.
- 1:30:51We used to get hundreds of emails at times down.
- 1:30:54When I worked today as Jay, we used to get hundreds of emails
- 1:30:58and I hate to answer him. I count that as one for me.
- 1:31:04I, I, I direct messaged you, and you responded back to me.
- 1:31:08Yeah, I I get a lot of direct messages.
- 1:31:11Anything that you do. Got this crazy white guy from
- 1:31:15Saint Louis. And I answer him I don't have a
- 1:31:18team. I used to have a team.
- 1:31:20I don't have a team now. So if I don't get back but you
- 1:31:23can hit me up on Mr. J Jordan Felt all the way out Mister to
- 1:31:27AYJYDAN across all platforms. LinkedIn, J&J George, you can go
- 1:31:33to centerforsocialgood.com that's the organization we're
- 1:31:37building to help nonprofits and build the ecosystem.
- 1:31:41So if you have. Time Don's out there.
- 1:31:45Time Don is out there too. Time done is definitely out
- 1:31:46there. Ingrid.
- 1:31:47Archie runs. Time Done now, but I'm retired.
- 1:31:49Amazing Again, you can have time down.
- 1:31:52The greatest beard. I see it right here for all of
- 1:31:54you. I'm.
- 1:31:57Available. I'm ready.
- 1:31:58And if you need support, man, I'm always going to be an
- 1:32:01advocate for people who you know on the other side of the law.
- 1:32:04When don't we get? When don't we doing the book,
- 1:32:05When's the book? Are you working on it?
- 1:32:08It's right now. We're writing it now, like all.
- 1:32:10Right. We're going to be looking for
- 1:32:11that I bet. I bet it's going to have a good
- 1:32:14title too. I can't imagine what would be.
- 1:32:15It would be good. Hey if if anybody else is
- 1:32:18looking for a book out there I've got one.
- 1:32:19Check it out on nightmare success.
- 1:32:21Barnes and Noble man I I love what you guys are doing.
- 1:32:25Leaving reviews on on the Apple that whatever that algorithm
- 1:32:29thing is all about. It really pumps the show.
- 1:32:31Really appreciate that. If you want to know anything
- 1:32:34else going on, check out my website brentcassie.com.
- 1:32:37Spell it wrong. The the cool guys do it with a
- 1:32:39DY Mine's Aty Cassidy, as I used to say when I was writing my
- 1:32:44emails back and forth from Leavenworth.
- 1:32:46Stay strong, I'll do the same. Jay Jordan my man.
- 1:32:50Thanks so much for being on the show part one and two.
- 1:32:53Thanks. For having me, Brett?
- 1:32:56Nightmare. Success in and out.