Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Day In The Life of a Prisoner Serving Life

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Day In The Life of a Prisoner Serving Life · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: My name is Jose Flores. All the guys call me Holzer.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I'm here for on robbery and extortion with multiple enhancements,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: gun enhancements, gang enhancements, and I started with eighty six
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: years to life. Basically, if you've got a case that
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: carries ten years, they can add another ten for a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: gun enhancement, life for a gang enhancement, and then they
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: double you up because of a strike. You're looking at
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: sixty seventy years on a case that normally carries ten years.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Usually what I hope for when I come to breakfast
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: is that we have cinnamon rolls. That's what we have today,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: cinnamon rolls.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Yes, hey, overall the food here is two out of
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: seven is good.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: So now the gate's opening. We're about to go into
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: education and go time Florida thirty seven. No monica, missus
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: O'Brien clerk. Oh yes, okay, well sorry, how good one
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: you do? This is our classroom. If you're not making mistakes,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you're not learning right. And which is very encouraging because
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: when I was in school, I wouldn't raise my hand
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: or I you know, hide and hope they wouldn't call
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: on me because I was scared to give the wrong
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: answer and be made fun of. You know guy's thing,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Oh he's stupid, you know. So I wish I would
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: have had an environment like this when I was going
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to school.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: Education is the best way for them to transform their lives.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: They need to have something to focus on to reshape
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: and rebuild their lives. And that is why I chose
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: mister Flores. He has been a very positive inclusion in
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: my class, and my students are truly inspired by mister Flores.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: She gave me that second chance and her first chance actually,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: and so I'm very thankful for that.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I want you to go to Building one
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: to client fork and then distribute the package.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I'm the teacher, assistant, tutor mentor. For me, it's my
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: way of paying back what I've done wrong. You know,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: our victims is not just the people we harm directly
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and their families. It's the communities. It's even the taxpayers
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: who have to pay for us to be here. So
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: for me to ask to be paid, I feel like,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm just I can't do it. This is
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: every day, you know. For me, it feels like it
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: just feels positive, it feels productive, like everybody out here
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: is on their way to do some kind of a
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: job or assignment. You know, you know, I never had
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a job when I was out there. I never had responsibilities.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I never paid bills. I never did nothing that gave
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: me structure. I have to wake up in the mornings,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: be ready, come here, and I have discipline now. I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: have structure now, and that in itself is valuable. And
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I think all of us, every guy you see here,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: they take their job serious. So, m oh, you're late.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: You're gonna be in trouble. How you doing? He came
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: from Pelican Bay. Also, he's been programming. You know what's
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: funny is And when I was in Pelican Bay, right,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: these guys are like die hard you know, hardcore officers there, right,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And you just see their attitude over there. All the
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: officers are always just miserable and mad. Right, And I'm thinking,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I dude, you get to go home every day.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: You can do anything you.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Want every day. RYI to stay, go here, go hit
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: a strip joint, whatever you want.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: You can even call in and say hey, I quit
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and go on vacation for a year. Right, And they're miserable.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: You see us who've been in cages for decades and
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: got life sentences and were like happier than them, Like dude,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you know. So that's when I say, man, you see
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: so many people out there who technically are physically free,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: but they're mentally in jail, right, because you see.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: You don't have to be in jail a lot to
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: go mentally are jail.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: That's what you make of it.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: You're doing your time in terms of you you know.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, myself, I don't look at it as a prison.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So I look at that as my as my study,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: my office, right, living in a college campus. That's all
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: what you make of it, right, It's perspective. It's like, uh,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: look at a five block how many lifers and outwops
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: got it out?
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I said, how do you think they got out? Because
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: they changed the system, they changed the course, they changed
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the judges, the officers, the teachers, or they changed themselves.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Man's that's a fact. Like as saying earlier, life is
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: ten percent what happens to me ninety percent how I
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: react to it.
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: I can see where you're at compre to others.
• 5:40
  Speaker 7: Oh, you know when we never got.
• 5:41
  Speaker 8: A chance to talk before. No, I just see you
• 5:43
  Speaker 8: passing by, Oh, yeah, and I never got a chance
• 5:45
  Speaker 8: to really talk to you.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: OK, thank you, Matt. Mom and dad came here from Mexico.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: They worked in different factories that would constantly get raided.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: There was days they we didn't have money, you know,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: no food or no hot water or power in our home.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Throughout elllementary, I was I was always bullied. I felt
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: like stupid, worthless, and just I gave up on myself
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: right like I hated school, hated life. I hated myself.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: When I got to junior in high school, I joined
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: a gang so I wouldn't be bullied anymore. And it worked.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: The bullying stopped. But then at thirteen years old, I
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: went to juvenile hall and I've been in and out
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: of the system ever since, you know, up until getting
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: into college. It's like everything's changed. Right, Hopefully people see
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: what this can do, what it's doing. I just want
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: this smile. You're on camera. We come in, I got
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: some assignments for some of the students. We're entering one block.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: So now now we're in prison. So this is how
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the regular buildings are and as you could tell, all
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the doors are closed. All the guys are in prison.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna see Androtti right here at one thirty nine.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: What's up bart Man?
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: How you doing?
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Man? What are you up to?
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Man?
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Good? Good? Did you read this thing from Ms Monica?
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Actually you got a couple of minutes. Sure, I'm gonna
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: see if we can pop you out real quick. I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: didn't bring my laptop, but I wanted to go over
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: with you for what I got to do for doctor Wong. Okay,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: so let me see it's part that can uh get
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: on drive it for two minutes. Most officers when they
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: when I come, they know that I work in education,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: so when I need to speak to somebody, they know
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: it's like legitimate. They're actually very supportive of our growth,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: you know, our transformation. It depends on us too. If
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: we mess it up, then we mess it up. You
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: lose that credibility, You lose that trust. You got to
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: keep that that communication and trust. Are doing art. This
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: is our that's all our on draughting. He's doing a master's.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: He's got two more courses three a few more to
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: get his masters for a business.
• 8:37
  Speaker 8: So we're discussing with doctor Wong's class communication forty three
• 8:42
  Speaker 8: forty exactly. You're on it.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's thank you, man, so we can apply those consols.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: That's perfect. Yes, yes, yes, he reconvene in the morning.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you, art, thank you. He's guys are a lot younger,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: their minds are a lot sharper. Hey, they're schooling me, man.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be getting through without them.
• 9:05
  Speaker 8: Now that younger generations are teaching the elders, you know,
• 9:08
  Speaker 8: the teacher can become the student going forward.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I'm excited. He's that tangible example and excutting.
• 9:14
  Speaker 8: A lot of a lot of hope to a lot
• 9:15
  Speaker 8: of people. They're all talking about the CALC program now.
• 9:19
  Speaker 8: Before it was kind of like an obscure topic. So
• 9:22
  Speaker 8: now he's making it more tangible. So that's how I
• 9:25
  Speaker 8: see it's.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: And that's what I want to do. Man, that's what
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: he's doing.
• 9:29
  Speaker 8: He's making people, making people ask questions.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I'll see okay, I'll see you. I didn't think I
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: was going to live past eighteen. I was attending a
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: lot of funerals. A lot of my friends were dying young,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and I thought, you know what, when I'm laying in
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the coffin, I want to have the gang on my face,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: What I mean.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I thought it would look cool. I had romanticized the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: whole idea of how I wanted my funeral to be.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Instead of planning all a high school graduate or what
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: college or what career they want to have, we're planning
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: our funerals. The goal, like I said, it's always make
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: it out the hood.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Make it out the hood.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: That's always the goal. You know, why don't we make
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the goal. Let's change the hood. Let's fix the hood,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: you know, That's what I want to do. We make
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: it out, and then what we leave all these people
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: behind and then they come into these systems and do
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: life sentences and go through all this. No, I want
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: to change that. I want to prevent that. I care
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: about them. That's my people, and I will always tell them, hey,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I am you.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I am you.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you a secret. Man. I forget that I
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: have these tattoos, right like, I've had them for over
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: twenty some years, so I forget I have them up
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: until when I look in the mirror it's like, oh crap, right.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: But I think a lot of it, no matter how
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: one looks, has to do with your personality as well,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Because even when I was on the streets, I'd be
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: at the supermarket standing in line to pay for stuff,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and like there's families, they are little kids, and even
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: their friendly towards me, like hey, what's up, you know,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: like you they were like all scared, like oh my goodness. Right,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: So I think I think our ara has a lot
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: to do with it, Like just the vibes, you know,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: they don't bother me much no more. I just figured, Okay,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I got to prove myself. So you know, even if
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I didn't have the tattoos, at the end of the day,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: just my rap sheet alone, felonies and everything else, that's
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that's a that's a problem. You know, you're trying and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: go hire, get hired for a job, Your rap sheets
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a problem. Tattoos are no tattoos are you try and
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: get housing? Having a felony on your record is a problem.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Control two block. I went to a parole consultation hearing.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: The commissioner told me, with your history, your rap sheet
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and the way you look, you're the last person that
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: whatever get out, should ever get out or could ever
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: get out. And when you get out, you're a testament
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: for others. It's the same one you've already done. And
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I've been thinking about that ever since. That's why I
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: want to go for that Masters and that PhD just
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: be ready Monday. Just show the guys. Hey, dude, you know,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: like I said, be the change you wish to see.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I say we go to five earlier that we're just
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the day was just beginning, but right now it should
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: be more active. Here we go a fine block. Look
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: at the difference from this building right you look around,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: All the cell doors are open as opposed to the
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: other blocks we just went into. So that's the privilege
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: of being in this block. Here, it's just a whole
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: different vibe. Man, everybody here is doing something. I realized
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: that that's the privilege I earned tink about what eighteen
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: years to earn it, but I got it. Christian, what's
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: up man? Here's one of my mentors. Remember I was
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: mentioning how I don't know how to work a laptop.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: I didn't know how to do none of that.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: This is who.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Somebody else has got called suitable. Let's go see. Okay,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I hear clapping. Let's see what happened? Oh is that Edwin?
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: Edwin?
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: That's why?
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: And when coom here man, he just got felt suitable
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: Less than an hour ago.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: That timing to get let me catch you.
• 14:14
  Speaker 9: I wouldn't be able to do this without any other
• 14:15
  Speaker 9: guys here, you know. And that's what I'm appreciated about
• 14:19
  Speaker 9: this and this journey that I'm in because I know
• 14:21
  Speaker 9: I haven't done it by myself. And I'm grateful for
• 14:24
  Speaker 9: everything that i have here and all the opportunities that
• 14:26
  Speaker 9: I've been offered at this institution, at this family that
• 14:29
  Speaker 9: i have here.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm thankful, Thank you. Man Hey, I got my
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: arm around him. I could feel his heart beating right
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: here out of his shoulder. I lie, I feel it.
• 14:40
  Speaker 10: So by first week of April, I'll be home my
• 14:44
  Speaker 10: wife and son, and for me, my next step is
• 14:47
  Speaker 10: to give away what I have learned through this process
• 14:49
  Speaker 10: of change and this process of transformation to the next man, know,
• 14:53
  Speaker 10: in order for them to find out pathway. If I
• 14:54
  Speaker 10: could change one person, I mean, that would be my purpose.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, you are purpose. We ain't capture no moments like
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: this in the other blocks. That's the difference in this
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: block where we had Jack oh wait wait, wait, hold on,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: hold on, hold on, hold on, before we even do that,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: come here Jack. Jack finally is the one that got
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: me in here. He had at walk Life without the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: possibility of parole. He's supposed to die in one of
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: these cages, right, thirty nine years. He just got paroled.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: He's got found suitable after thirty nine years. Jack, take
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: it away, man, this.
• 15:27
  Speaker 11: Isn't the first thing they tell you. When you have
• 15:29
  Speaker 11: life without it, you're here to die.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Does serves as.
• 15:31
  Speaker 11: Much time as possible and then die. I was used
• 15:33
  Speaker 11: to the chaos and the madness and all that. But
• 15:36
  Speaker 11: then when we got here, they're like, it didn't matter
• 15:37
  Speaker 11: if I had life without it was like, you get
• 15:39
  Speaker 11: a chance now. We don't care what your sentence was, man,
• 15:43
  Speaker 11: all we want to know is what are you willing
• 15:45
  Speaker 11: to do now? And that's when I started participating and
• 15:49
  Speaker 11: watching all the dogs. I mean they brought they brought
• 15:52
  Speaker 11: dogs into a prison, you know, and we were like,
• 15:54
  Speaker 11: I hadn't touched the dog in more than thirty years.
• 15:59
  Speaker 11: For the first time in decades, man, I could actually
• 16:02
  Speaker 11: feel something good now. In prison, you're taught when you hate,
• 16:06
  Speaker 11: you get angry, all the all the negative things. When
• 16:10
  Speaker 11: you're around a dog, you know. I had a puppy
• 16:12
  Speaker 11: climb into my lap and it was like different. It
• 16:16
  Speaker 11: was like I get to feel again for the first
• 16:18
  Speaker 11: time since I was a child. Man, I like fell
• 16:20
  Speaker 11: in love with something. You know, you don't do that
• 16:23
  Speaker 11: in prison. I was finally had a chance to do
• 16:27
  Speaker 11: something to give back. These dogs are going to a
• 16:29
  Speaker 11: family now, you know, and they're writing us and telling
• 16:32
  Speaker 11: us how much they love their dogs. We're doing something
• 16:36
  Speaker 11: right now. Well, then other people notice, then the warden notice,
• 16:40
  Speaker 11: then Sacramento notice, then the Governor's office notice, you know.
• 16:43
  Speaker 11: And then one day they called me over and they said, man, look,
• 16:46
  Speaker 11: you know, we're interviewing you for a possible commutation. Less
• 16:49
  Speaker 11: than a year later, they called me back over and said,
• 16:52
  Speaker 11: we're going to commute your sense from life without to
• 16:54
  Speaker 11: life with and if the board approves you, you can
• 16:57
  Speaker 11: go home. And now, after thirty nine years in prison,
• 17:01
  Speaker 11: I'm gonna get to go home.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Look at the stories we're catching here. As soon as
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: we walked in, we see one guy because he just
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: got found suitable. We got this guy thirty nine years
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: to lad You see the dot.
• 17:11
  Speaker 11: I mean, we have eleven people in this program with
• 17:14
  Speaker 11: paroles waiting to go home right now. We have a
• 17:17
  Speaker 11: reciticism rate in the program of SERRA. We've had approximately
• 17:21
  Speaker 11: ninety to one hundred different people that have had earned
• 17:25
  Speaker 11: paroles in this program. None of them have come back.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: None.
• 17:29
  Speaker 11: Thirty three people have had their senses commuted, they've all
• 17:32
  Speaker 11: gone home. None of them have come back.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And then we got a bunch of cow State LA
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: students that have been commuted and out. So that just
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: shows you what's going on at this facility. Dude, we
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: can make a strong argument here for doing this in
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: more of the prisons. Then we got this guy.
• 17:50
  Speaker 11: This is Anthony Sneath. Anthony Sneed's been in prison for
• 17:54
  Speaker 11: what thirty years?
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Thirty four years.
• 17:57
  Speaker 11: Once you tell us about Ramble and what you're doing.
• 18:00
  Speaker 12: If you can see Ramboy, the poor bloody German shepherd.
• 18:03
  Speaker 12: He he's the prettiest dog in the program. He's adopted already,
• 18:08
  Speaker 12: He's on his sixth week and he leaves next week.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Rambod coming out out.
• 18:15
  Speaker 12: Good boy down.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Sick, Yes, good boy.
• 18:21
  Speaker 12: Some of these dogs is runaway dogs. They're picked up
• 18:25
  Speaker 12: off the street and when they adopt these dogs, they
• 18:28
  Speaker 12: have a couple of choices. One of the choices to
• 18:31
  Speaker 12: take the dog going with it or send them to
• 18:34
  Speaker 12: us for six extra weeks for the dogs can be
• 18:36
  Speaker 12: trained in that six weeks period we trained the dog
• 18:41
  Speaker 12: a number of commands and that's six weeks. The owners
• 18:45
  Speaker 12: come pick them up from the past for life shelter.
• 18:48
  Speaker 12: But other than that, yeah, they come from the shelter
• 18:50
  Speaker 12: if we save them. But I think the dogs save us.
• 18:54
  Speaker 12: I don't really believe we saved the dog. For the
• 18:56
  Speaker 12: most part.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: The dogs may save us, you know.
• 19:00
  Speaker 12: And I'm just happy to be part of the program
• 19:02
  Speaker 12: because it saved my life.
• 19:18
  Speaker 13: So one of the things that we have here up
• 19:20
  Speaker 13: on the board, it's something that I like to call
• 19:24
  Speaker 13: the vision board. These are all men who are sentenced
• 19:27
  Speaker 13: to life without the possibility of parole, who were sentenced
• 19:30
  Speaker 13: to die in prison, who have since been released or
• 19:34
  Speaker 13: out there doing fantastic things. I mean, these are guys
• 19:37
  Speaker 13: that I literally went to child with, hang out here,
• 19:41
  Speaker 13: trained dogs together. This board is so inspiring because it's
• 19:48
  Speaker 13: something that's tangible, it's real. It lets me know, like
• 19:51
  Speaker 13: I can go home, we can go home. It's about
• 19:54
  Speaker 13: the decisions I make, It's about who I want to
• 19:57
  Speaker 13: be up in here, and it's just amazing to see
• 20:00
  Speaker 13: some of these guys out there man and with their
• 20:02
  Speaker 13: kids and their families and just living a productive life.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: This is the evidence.
• 20:08
  Speaker 13: This is the proof that it exists, man, and it's possible.
• 20:13
  Speaker 13: And I'm just I'm inspired by this.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 20:15
  Speaker 13: I come in here every single day and I just
• 20:18
  Speaker 13: like to look at this board.
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: I love it.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna give you guys a churm. Myself my
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: work office actually, so this is myself. It's pretty plain. Books. Books,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: That's where I hang my clothes. That's the only photo
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I have up is my mom, my dad, and my brother,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: all three of them that they all passed away from COVID.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Usually the guys come and borrow books, so they're all
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: real good. I read, uh, just for the day every day,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: just mercy the deepest Well. This is Nadine Burke Harris
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: about adverse childhood experiences. That's how I learned the the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: problems I had, how we show up verbaltudo the sentences
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: that create us. And I even have uh kids books.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I I like to read to my nephews and nieces
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: over the phone and right along with Rampage, it's the
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: l A Rams and Ben and Emma's big hit. It's
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: actually by Governor News and uh it's about dyslexia, kids
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: with dyslexia, and I actually got this cause I A,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I actually have some s some form of dyslexia. I
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know it. Also got some photos. This
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: was me and my daughter. This was twenty seventeen Pelican
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Bay was a graduation and this was actually taken four
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: days before I got busted. I was up to no good.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: You could tell my I'm wearing a leather jacket. You
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: see the pocket hanging right there, all bulging, all heavy.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: I had two guns in there and a few extra clips. Right,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I mean that's who I was. I can't I can't
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: deny it. Eddie here, how are you doing so? Mcreter Man?
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: How many? How much? I mean you have?
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: So?
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: I had a fourteen A life savings and I did
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: a total twenty two years.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: So far on that sense, tell him Tell who just
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: got found suitable recently.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: Edwin or myself. Yeah, so I got found suitable early
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: in November. So all works out the way. It's supposed
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: to all be home in March on the next year,
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: and none of us want to be in prison forever
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: for the rest of our lives. The game members, criminals, people,
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: I heard others right, and give you the opportunity. We
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: are gonna make good on those opportunities right and do
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: positive things. And I think that's what you're seeing today
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: is getting a little glimpse of what that looks like
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: when people are giving an opportunity to have education right.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Nobody can say it can't be done because we're seeing it.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: We're gonna go back to Ms. Monica's I'll Sing.
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: You Thank You Guys.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Video. All these guys here have earned their way here
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: because they've been positively programming. They've done college or basically
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: completed all the other courses that the other prisons had
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: to offer. And once you complete everything other prisons have
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: to offer, well, you know, we gotta send you somewhere
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: where there's more, and this is that facility. Usually I
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: go back and take a shower, but I burned back
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: this morning, so I'm set. We're gonna sad back to
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the art world. Nice. Hey, this is Robert Robert Lopez.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: He also came from Palaquan Bay, right and like now,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: he makes glasses. He said, all donated glasses.
• 24:35
  Speaker 14: People from out there donated, and through this organization, we
• 24:39
  Speaker 14: refobus these glasses, check the prescription and after we're done,
• 24:43
  Speaker 14: we can we box them up, send them back to
• 24:45
  Speaker 14: them and they will distribute them to throbo countries, to
• 24:48
  Speaker 14: people that cannot afford glasses. And that's basically the work
• 24:52
  Speaker 14: we do here. Us in here have very few opportunities
• 24:55
  Speaker 14: to actually do something for people out there. We all
• 24:58
  Speaker 14: wrong people out there and her society, and this is
• 25:01
  Speaker 14: one way for us to kind of give back. And
• 25:03
  Speaker 14: it means a lot to us that we can actually
• 25:05
  Speaker 14: help some people, see like, it's it's very important.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: That's another one of the other reasons this facility is special.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Let's see, Travis, what's up many? What are you working
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: on here?
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 25:20
  Speaker 15: Some butterfly stuff, So I'm some girly for the fans.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, how long are you been working on that?
• 25:27
  Speaker 15: I just started it yesterday actually, So this is healing
• 25:31
  Speaker 15: through arts. We have at any given time fifteen or
• 25:34
  Speaker 15: sixteen resident artists. Carlos Tercero over here is our recently
• 25:40
  Speaker 15: found suitable member of healing through art. So unfortunately for us,
• 25:46
  Speaker 15: he'll be leaving too.
• 25:47
  Speaker 16: Yes in English and Spanish, little matter all right, nos doing.
• 25:55
  Speaker 16: I served fourteen years from the twenty years to life
• 25:57
  Speaker 16: sentence for kidnapping in karjacking, and I joined these are
• 26:01
  Speaker 16: programming August of twenty thirteen. When I joined this, I
• 26:07
  Speaker 16: didn't know how to paint. From there, I use dedicated
• 26:10
  Speaker 16: my time, energy and dreams to learning this skill and paintings.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: It's been healing for me.
• 26:20
  Speaker 16: Therapeutic also has been away for me to support myself financially,
• 26:24
  Speaker 16: I put on my restitution and also through some of
• 26:27
  Speaker 16: my paintings that I donated.
• 26:28
  Speaker 17: I.
• 26:30
  Speaker 16: Contribute to organizations out there and something that I learned
• 26:34
  Speaker 16: to use to express my emotions such as anger, frustrations,
• 26:38
  Speaker 16: and fear, and also to speak about the difficult chapters
• 26:42
  Speaker 16: in my life trauma, you know, sexual abuse, bowling, belittle man,
• 26:48
  Speaker 16: domestic violence and by me talking about this is very
• 26:54
  Speaker 16: shameful subjects helps me to proclaim myself and also connect
• 27:01
  Speaker 16: to my humanity and hopefully open away for other people
• 27:04
  Speaker 16: who are afraid to touch those subjects to connect and
• 27:11
  Speaker 16: empathize and see that there's a way to reclaim yourself,
• 27:14
  Speaker 16: to accept that those things happen, but overcome them in
• 27:18
  Speaker 16: a way that you know that they don't have no
• 27:20
  Speaker 16: more power over you. Life is just one weight ticket.
• 27:27
  Speaker 16: You don't get second chances. So to me, it's like
• 27:29
  Speaker 16: I don't have time to waste time not just for me,
• 27:33
  Speaker 16: but for nobody else.
• 27:37
  Speaker 10: This is some of my words.
• 27:38
  Speaker 16: It is about to me saying knowledge is the key
• 27:41
  Speaker 16: to the universe. This one is a mixed media painting,
• 27:45
  Speaker 16: and basically this is about life without the possibility of parole.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: To me.
• 27:50
  Speaker 16: Once we're wearing blues, this is the personal uniform. You're
• 27:53
  Speaker 16: no longer a human, You're just a number, a body.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: That's very creative. We got like five minutes to class
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: for college, so I guess we got to take off.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize we were in here that long. Thank
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: you everybody, and we'll see you guys again. Yes, we're
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: actually a couple of minutes late. But he won't mind.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: He's always in a good mood. He's everybody's favorite.
• 28:21
  Speaker 15: That's the last if I knew it was here.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you brought your radio on that right on. Oh,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: this is our professor, doctor Afari, Camera Afari. I already
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I already told him that you're our favorite. So this
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: is like the best course I've had yet because we're
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: learning about healing and every one of us from our
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: in here has been through some form of trauma or another.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: And this is what really when you come to prison.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: I think you look at a lot of the guys
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and you think that they don't need punishment, they need healing,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: you know, And we're finally getting that.
• 29:09
  Speaker 18: We're actually going to do a warm up exercise today.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna.
• 29:14
  Speaker 19: Exclosure to lead a warm up exercise as well.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: No, no, okay, where's k at? I don't know.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know how they go.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna mess it up. Okay, you gotta you gotta
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: lead the exercises for the kick it out, any of them. No,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: we want you to do taxis one. That way we
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: can get our vocal warm ups ready, we got to
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and then we'll do and then I'll do fun I
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: just yell out taxi in different tones and everybody repeats it, right.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: But we'll do the location one. That one's cooler. So
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I'm in Mexico.
• 29:58
  Speaker 18: In Mexico.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Hey, dot see this, this is he's the toxi ya.
• 30:02
  Speaker 16: Hey, okay, ok New York.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, your taxi, Peter h in the valley.
• 30:19
  Speaker 20: A taxi, Uh Christian that will be uh brizil.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Tatis.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Let's go with MARKL. Caliday time here taxi.
• 30:47
  Speaker 20: Check it out, Check it out, check it out.
• 30:52
  Speaker 12: Edward wife is from the count stay la getting now.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: So after that, anything else we do can't be sillier
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: than that.
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: So we're good to God, God, God.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: This is the same energy we have every class. So
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: right now what we're doing is each chapter is a
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: different concept and we have to like explain how the
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: concept works and through like play performance. Everybody.
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: Hey, my name is Edwin, my name is Gussie.
• 31:32
  Speaker 21: This chapter is on hip hopa saving sitting in the
• 31:37
  Speaker 21: nine by six bucks, no metal doors, just automatic balls
• 31:41
  Speaker 21: and concrete walls, living in the system where we constantly
• 31:44
  Speaker 21: put down, so it's hard to stand tall. Plus I'm
• 31:48
  Speaker 21: surrounded by negative influences, drug addicts and cowards.
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: Coward we expect it to strive like that.
• 31:54
  Speaker 21: Animals all we think about it survived.
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: Damn, how did I get here?
• 32:00
  Speaker 21: I'm todler, recip patience standis being wasted. It's so hard
• 32:03
  Speaker 21: to move ahead when we're blinded by hatred. Get the
• 32:06
  Speaker 21: parole forward expects and demands me to persevere. Believe me,
• 32:10
  Speaker 21: my desires of rehabilitation are real, for realistic expectations to
• 32:15
  Speaker 21: manish my hope, misplaced loyalty and dreams. Just start up
• 32:18
  Speaker 21: by don't broken promises.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: So this shit is agive me.
• 32:20
  Speaker 21: So when I hear politicians speak, I hope that they choke.
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: It's whole situation so real. So every day I pinched
• 32:30
  Speaker 6: myself to remolous real, there's an experience there.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, it's not really a question
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: more of I want to comment on that. I related
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: to everything you're saying. We're all in here, so we're
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: going through the same struggle, and often since we don't
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: talk about our issues, you know, we don't hear other
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: people say they're going through the same thing or that.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we feel like, damn, it's just me. It's just me,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: it's just me. But when you hear that, it's like, hey,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: it's not just me. Other people and other people relate
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: to it and it helps us.
• 33:09
  Speaker 19: I've been working with Hotel now for about a year.
• 33:11
  Speaker 19: Takes the whole process of redemption very seriously. You know,
• 33:17
  Speaker 19: it's not a he's not braggadocias you know about what
• 33:22
  Speaker 19: he's doing. He's actually, you know, super humble and at
• 33:25
  Speaker 19: the same time in a way aware of some of
• 33:28
  Speaker 19: the harm that he had done in the past, and
• 33:31
  Speaker 19: also very aware that the importance of this kind of
• 33:34
  Speaker 19: work of resignifying your identity in a new way. They
• 33:40
  Speaker 19: come to this work with a great hunger for ideas.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: There's no way of being combrasas we know.
• 33:48
  Speaker 18: It's a therapy. I think these guys are getting a
• 33:50
  Speaker 18: second chance where they're able to bring in both some
• 33:54
  Speaker 18: of their personal experiences of trauma, but also some goals,
• 33:58
  Speaker 18: some visions that they have for or a different kind
• 34:01
  Speaker 18: of future, and so they take very seriously. And I
• 34:06
  Speaker 18: think I think that book makes uh the education experience
• 34:10
  Speaker 18: in the prison so unique and so powerful.
• 34:14
  Speaker 7: And I mean, at one point, I never thought I
• 34:16
  Speaker 7: was even gonna take any college courses. I tried to
• 34:18
  Speaker 7: drop out of eighth grade. And now I've done stuff
• 34:21
  Speaker 7: that I didn't believe I could do. I've definitely changed
• 34:23
  Speaker 7: the narrative and I'm surrounded by people that.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Pushed me to do it. Every day.
• 34:31
  Speaker 11: We work together on a daily basis towards the same
• 34:34
  Speaker 11: common goal. That's something that por to coming here was
• 34:38
  Speaker 11: was unheard of.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Class is over, so now we just head back home Afari.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: See you next Friday. Okay An.
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: I want to say thank you for uh, you know,
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: sharing the day with us being here and UH shout
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: out to my family.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Love you got and when all right, man, would you
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: like to share anything?
• 35:05
  Speaker 13: No matter what your situation is, they're always assisting off
• 35:08
  Speaker 13: the land, secret, find it, pursue it like you're wealthy
• 35:12
  Speaker 13: and it is very important.
• 35:13
  Speaker 21: And you don't matter to everybody out there.
• 35:15
  Speaker 13: And a pike shut out to my family.
• 35:17
  Speaker 20: That's well.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: I love you guys, Thank you guys.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Mark. All right man, anything you'd like to say to
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: people out there, last words or something encouraging of the community.
• 35:28
  Speaker 14: Yeah, definitely, definitely never give up and keep God first.
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: You know with that you can go along ways.
• 35:36
  Speaker 13: God blast.
• 35:38
  Speaker 12: You gotta keep pushing the way we're doing, man, keep
• 35:41
  Speaker 12: doing everything that we're doing.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And this is alreays on de track like to say,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: I to my mom and my loved ones, thank you,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you man. This is probably
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the best day my life.
• 36:01
  Speaker 17: I say this because what we were able to do
• 36:04
  Speaker 17: today tour to the prison and see all the stuff
• 36:07
  Speaker 17: that everybody's doing, and we're gonna be able to show
• 36:11
  Speaker 17: this to the people out there in society.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: It's going to change so many people's perspectives. Who knows
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: what the ripple effect from that will be, right, I mean,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: you know who would believe this. Who wouldn't call this
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: something great? What we're doing right now, right, well, we're
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: going to be able to show the world, right, this
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: is it. We're home, it's eight o'clock, so off to bed.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: What would I tell the younger.
• 37:02
  Speaker 14: Me that.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I man, stay in school, don't join a gang. I
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: wouldn't say that.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: I probably sting.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: There's gonna be hard times, but it's gonna be okay,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: we're gonna get through it, right, because I got through it.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: There was so many times that I wanted to give up.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie right, you know. There was times
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: I literally thought, you know, damn, suicide is probably a
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: better thought, right, a better option.
• 37:43
  Speaker 17: Right.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: I went through times that were that was a thought,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: you know, And obviously I'm glad I never chose that,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: right because I wouldn't be here and the plans I
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: have now what I want to do now, and you know,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: just change the world, right, be a role model and
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: inspire others. I would just say to my younger self,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: hang in there and ask for help if you need help.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: You're going through tough times, talk to people, talk to
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: people who care about you. There's people who care about us,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: you know, a teacher, a coach, anybody who you trust,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: you know, talk to them. That's what I wish I
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: would have done. It's never too late to realize what's
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: important and fight for it. Look at me, I'm like
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: the oldest one in my class, and it's like, why
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: should I bother doing this? Why should I still you know,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: finish college or even want to go after a master's
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: and a PhD by that time. By the time I'm done,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be like fifty years old, right, But
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. I can be a role model and
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: inspire others to do the same, and that'll leave a
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: legacy behind, right, And that's what I want to do,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: is leave a positive legacy. Dream big if if your
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough. And my
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: dream scared the ship out of me. Thank you for everything.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Good Night's just.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Please so.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: This time doing?
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's day there is Moby are about the true?
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Why not when you're not the boar feen f h