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