ah in elementary school, the teachers called me that problem kid. so i was labeled early. i ended up getting kicked out of school. i was 1617 and 18 though should have been my graduation high school years. but at stan, i'm on the streets. selling crap. gang bang and bacon that i was going to make to see 21.

i would get dressed and all ready ride the bus to the hill just to walk around and wait for a group of blues to approach me 1st, i would try to fight it tagged eisen. i walk in the middle and then i'd pull out that day and, and watch up scatter when i oh, you know, watch a wound like roaches. then i got addicted to be in fear. my mom was here trying to be the disciplinarian and the bread winner. but she didn't have no help. i rebelled against her, but it wasn't her fault. we were in this together and that's what i should have

known then lou, my mom was my 1st law. up until the mid eighty's, when crack became the reason to be for her, it was okay. but she had an addiction. it grew monstrous. her addiction to crack, so proceeded everything, her dignity, her ability to reason her desire to be a mother. it was one of the things that broke me. i didn't like the life that i was living, but somehow i felt hopeless to change it. i felt like i was just being carried on this wave of circumstance. not being able to have a job, not being able to be the person that i thought that i could be. i just couldn't

seem to get to her. i remember a few days before being incarcerated, crying out to god and knowing how trapped i felt knowing how limited my options were. and i just wanted out of that life. i didn't sat on the corner. i didn't do drive by, but i had a boyfriend. i did, and i and fool myself into thinking that if i just stayed on the fringes of that lifestyle, that i couldn't get caught up. it wasn't true. when we started round enough angel suspects and i was on my boyfriend, was one. 0 my protestations of innocence. it is fell on deaf ears. there must be no doubt. about who side were all people who commit crimes should be caught convicted and punished. their savings will be used to put a 100000 police officers on the street. a 20 percent increase. it will be used to

build prisons to keep a 100000 violent criminals off the street. you will be put away and put away for good 3 strikes and you are. in 1993 washington state was the 1st state in the nation to implement the 3 strike policy and make it ok to put people in prison and throw away the key. there are many people who have rehabilitated their lives, who could be contributing to our young people to our families, and that door has been slam shut in washington state. we are still one of only 16 states that does not have the parole system. what's interesting about washington state is really reflective of what's interesting about the whole country. this country is based on beer. when you have a country that is based on or that has grown out of colonization and slavery, people all rest easy. that's why everyone needs to be armed in this country to

protect what they have. because what they have was stolen may not talk about it may not admit it, but it's there. whether you are on the rad or on the blue. whatever side it is, no one fleece easily in this country than to jerome. mister speaker, i simply want to say legislators have an inherent conflict of interest. the number one object of the legislature is to get reelected with how do you get reelected to really easy ponder, podium and sam, tough on crime of the children who have been killed. the victims of bile, the public is fed up in that means more prison time. we have a greater percentage of our population in prison right now than any society in the history of western civilization. and we have this high and mighty attitude about ourselves. i want you to imagine that as much as $60.00 to $0.70 out of every tax

dollar in my county goes toward criminal justice. it is a horrendous waste of resources. if you don't care about people, it's a horrendous waste of resources on the private washing. it's very, very easy to instigate deer. that's what happened with 3 strikes because the base of the threat then became young, black and brown. men. we need to take these people on. they are often connected to big drug cartels. they are not just gangs of kids anymore. they are often the kinds of kids that are called super predatory. no conscience, no empathy. we can talk about why they ended up that way, but 1st we have to bring them to heal. and the president is asked the f b i to launch a very concerted effort against gangs everywhere. john and i were to go to the f. b i task force ever form in a task force or gangs. we mel with the drugs are privately,

as you go around the country, you see communities everywhere, people who are no longer going to hide in their houses. this is our hill. all we wanted to know is don't buy your jacks. if you all up or lake, we don't come here, you got to take a stand, but are willing with leadership and with involvement, lease direction, lease. will it take to the streets? you want to know while we're having success with our federal task force because they set him up all over the country and not all of them are kicking like we were. and he wanted to know why john and i knew the gang members from work on the street . and so we kind of knew who they should be targeting ah, the police starting to in more sweeps, they would just get the kids and bound him up for whatever little reason they could if they could get him on a sentence and give them the long keep them from ever coming that is to play

doh police. keith play guns only escaped kicking doors and get the search one later . i got you when i got you down in a damn bay in the take that got you on the rules all by yourself in it because you by yourself, you're going to jail, may not have them even been a criminal activity. they just because they were out there, they get them just unloading. if i was walking to the corner store and i saw a house lo further out than i thought, looked nice. so i wanted to walk by in the police saw me, they would say to me, what you do on here. you live around here on the narrative that we keep hearing is that there are people who are entitled to be here. even though folks know that this is not anybody's, it's not their land. so that narrative of being entitled and really protecting that is really what drives a lot. but we as a country don't want to uncover that's too painful. given

a race based country such as we are, the people that really are impacted are the poorest and the black is mm. looking back now i'm able to see every, not happy. i wasn't able to see it, the install wasn't able to avoid the trash. now were set for me, a lot of was weren't, i don't wanna excuse any of the crimes that were committed because there were carm's committee, but some people didn't commit crimes and were just caught up in the friends that they chose. and it wasn't even the friends that they chose, difference with, i grew up with, this is the neighborhood you, they knew these kids, you went to school with these 2 people whose auntie, how she went to eat sunday dinner. and most of us didn't just wake up and say, i want to be a gang member, this is what i'm going to be in life. we just grew into that because this we were exposed to win enable the

last part of my career. i had the best job, it's always to work. and i had ultimate freedom to set my own targets and my own investigations long as i was producing, they left me alone. so i didn't have a lot of supervision by the late ninety's at the heel top area was pretty much cleaned up. mm hm. and aggravated murder. a drama aggravated murder is the highest crime in washington. they changed some law in the hard time for arm crime in 1994 that says if a murder occurred during the discharge of a firearm from a motor vehicle,

then you can be subject to the death penalty or life in prison. if i what i've got since is to 1st to be murder, i probably would ahead 27 years since the murder occurred during the discharge of a fall from a motor vehicle on back 777 years. ah reason that the judge did not have the ability to give them a sentence of less than life without parole. is that the legislature made it an a rating circumstance to do a drive by shooting because he shot impulsively without knowing who was in the other car, but out of a car, only one punishment was appropriate. that law was passed because mostly white legislators viewed it as words for gang members to shoot from

a car. it was a clear reaction to the fear of black and hispanic individuals, a weapon in the commission of the crime. the promise of the criminal justice system is that it rises above raise will be the title of the when i work in washington state state, that is overwhelmingly quite true. when i go into a prison criminal justice system remains broken by the influence of res. ah. when i would say wrong, why don't i just don't mean the rules? yes. to shape out this thing because the attitude and engagement equal betrayal.

when too many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look for common ground. the joggers archipelago home of the jo, san diego garcia, the largest island in the archipelago is now the location of a very large u. s. military base. you get given med, jeez, i to the u. s. government to make a military base and just deported all of the juggle send people from their country . so big caught return back on the island. no, but we are fighting. that's why i'm fact we'll fighting for the right. so i, we do not consider that the right of self determination actually applies to the trickle. since i don't the question,

those self determination of the legal advice we've received is actually the chic options. we're not and all not a people for me, it's done to move on and see what we can do. a full the child said community to return back home. there is no support from the nomination. i commission, i forget united michigan don't care about chug restaurant people ah, with your said humanity, privacy. you're surrounded by middle and human you feel like cattle,

you feel like it's not real? they shoot me down and search. you know, it's a roller coaster on your emotional well being put in a still a by pin fil, with people that you don't know. you never, you don't know what they're there for. what their balance is, a deprivation to your sanchez hard to explain. mm. you're away from everything that you know, i could not conceive of my life taking place within the walls that i saw around me . we're going to give you 3 meals a day. we don't give you a c med lab less to go slab to sleep on. and that's basically it. there is no rehabilitation. there's no repair prison as of

socializing force and total institution does it work? by and large, now people learn to become anti social. it's not designed to help anybody grow office. you should make sure that you understand that you are a prisoner. when you find yourself in contact with them, they tend to look down as a way of not giving you eye contact for a lot of prisoners. it kind of makes them internalize that here. nobody i don't think that as prisoners were treated as people ah, and i why i'm able them handles on use all over. like my slavery. you know me when you get out of it? yeah, it's just so new. i used to be a young new sitting in his room and i used to be talking about stuff that i didn't

have no clue about. you know, i'm saying politics, policies, legislators. i used to hear people speak about these different type of things. i use a hate not knowing institutional writing. i hate watching cnn and see these guys talking about politics and have no clue about what they was talking about. but knowing that these decisions were affecting my life somehow. and i will say that that is kind of one of the things that sent me on my quest. i wanted to learn. i think that the opportunities with the black person is caucus slip my interaction with free people. i'm able to really internalize and i'm not an offender. i'm not a prisoner, i'm just a man who happens to be in prison. one of things at the black prison is caucus says is that they may be absent from community, but they're still a part of community in people constantly outside every single week who cared about us in homes and a let us know that we were still part of the community i always remember, mary,

she said, if we planned on returning back to the community, how we came in here, then we might as well stay in here. mm. mm hm. i was the president of the black was caucus at monroe. i went to the hall for a class a infraction possession of a cell phone because i was life without. it didn't grant me the opportunity to stay at my room. i got ship the column by ah, monroe, the black person office was essentially a large part of everything that was going on. but when i got here that was enough, i basically just reached out to ministration. it was kind of hesitant on allowing us to be able to have the name like prisoners caucus. it was too radical for them. my favorite for something to have black. and

i just reinforced that the black versus congress has a long productive history within the department of corrections with and so eventually it warn them one person's progress on this, you know, we've been able to get going. and so, you know, as we started to have some of our 1st meetings that the idea was now, what is it that we want to see, right? what are the opportunities that we need in order for us to, you know, really stay committed on, improve yourself. you begin to meet people who've been bail longer than you've been alive. people want them since the 7. and so you'll realize that know what, they're really not letting people know how many god got 7 years or more.

but you don't want to be searching or you know, wanted 24 . that's a lot of that's a lot of my father's them all then go does a lot of mist husband does like this. so it's not only do you have to make a commitment, but you have to make a choice. if i still want to continue live in the life that got me here, or i want to try to live in a better life. like we can never become somebody different, but we can be a better version of who we are. i almost immediately upon antimony cloud bay, i found out that a few guys had just started

a program and they call teach. and it's for taken education and creating has to me and come on in college. i've been honest with this kid in the same place. he was on the side, i was on the heels, so we was really rivals back. and when he came, when he came here, i seen him, he with any of the all the b p c. and he went to start a teen program. it came up with the idea. we would like, ok, let's do it. there were several of us were a column bay who had a lot of time to doing present and we weren't being allowed to attend education class. the priority for our education department is those individuals with 7 years or less on their sense. so if you have more than 7 years, which a lot of people do, you don't get a chance to get an education. we wanted to get professors to be able to come out here, but we was too far. so the next thing was to either let each program go to waste

or do we figure out a way to make it flow? so later we came up, we would just teach the class work backwards from here. and then we're just gonna move on. we know that we get teach math, we know that we could teach writing. and so it was more about the skill sets that we already had and being able to just really nurture those and provide those in a classroom setting to a y equals negative a negative is positive. we reached out to a lot of prisoners, right guys we had degrees and all that type of stuff. but then we also quickly came to the realization just because you have a degree doesn't mean that you can teach. eventually we began to find guys who teaching was something that was what we said about creating all syllabus and all curriculum and in all classes with a story changing and shaping people's thinking. and from there, the worst spray when i got here and was

working on the school floor, i blew by the teach classroom. and it was the 1st time i ever seen a classroom being taught without an officer and it was prisoners lift enough prisoners. and so when i seen these guys doing that stuff, i had to be part of the money order. for those who have 2 hours within the day, we decided to diversify our board. this way we can attract more students, but also we can understand each other more. so is reaching all corners. it presently with part of me coming on board with this was seeing what you guys were doing and, and wanting to get behind that. i was like, yes, finally, an opportunity for me to go and do something productive that was provided before that inmates created. we've created a support group for positivity in the most unlikely of environment with we've been kidded against one another for so

long. it literally allows a prison to run itself as long as they stay separated, we got to worry about them coming together, becoming knowledgeable to fixing the social issue that end up landing them in prison in the 1st place. ah, the more that we begin to educate ourselves, the more empowered we become, the less manipulated we can be. the less oppressed we can be. now while we're begin, it's realizes that we can get more accomplished together than we can apart. you know, cuz it can, it can essentially at 1st i really didn't want to leave column by because it had things that we were doing of dared i were so powerful in the relationship that we have with administration. i didn't think that we're gonna be able to duplicate some of those things. so i thought to state air in my cuff results. i continue to bill. ready no more was coming up for his time a leave also. ready the more set his mind on shone and i went to my review after

that, where i spoke to my counselor and they asked me when i went to go. when it came time a transfer, they told me shout. so i was happy, i seen were to do more than i was coming and he sent word to say good, i'm glad because i mean having some problems with trying to get to pbc story here. most of the people that live in this county worked is this is not a diverse community. the most diversity they have is behind these barbed wire fences. some days they have a challenge accepting me. so i can only imagine what the challenges would be around a black christmas cocher. the fear that i hear is that all you know, the name as to black prisoners carcases. it's a black gang. we should be fearful of that. people who form ignorant, short sighted opinions about things like that,

haven't taken the opportunity to participate and learn really what is going on there. welcome to watch the corrections that are thank you for being here today. i attended the summer and i was speechless. i listen to the stories that were being told, the things they had to say really resonated with me and drew me in the things that we have been through the things that we have been around. i would worry what others would think it would. i think i go saw that was my concern. i used to think that not the gang bang was assigned a week. i only intended to be there for a few minutes to kind of check and do an introduction, see what it was about. and when i sat down, i did want to get back up to help young people way make some of the same bad decisions that we may also, we hope to be able to reach young people themselves. we believe in them and expect them to influence and add to the will must we solidify the b p. c. here we wanted

to move on to the next thing and start to teach program because this prison as forest prison is, is canada mac of prisons in our stay. this is where every person 1st comes to an issue. every person, if you're transferred from one prison to another prison, you have to come through here. so as we in mit who's gonna be here for a while, we see everybody in the state, they have to cross our pass. i see young guys all the time. come to here whose life i've influenced negative. that's something that i've had to live with, working towards having a positive influence on those generations. now, it gives me a way to undo some of the wrongs that i've done in the past. ah lisa canter. russian

state patrol never. i've side as i phone and the most landscape destination again. i'll slap a group in 55 with. okay, so mine is 25 and speaking with we will van in the european union, the kremlin media machine, the state on russia for date, and c, r t spoke neck, given our video agency, roughly all band on youtube and pinterest. and we put the question, did you think even close with me? so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. it's crazy

confrontation, let it be an arms race is on offense. very dramatic development. only personally and getting to resist idolatry. how that strategy will be successful, very critical time, time to sit down and talk oh, is your media a reflection of reality in the world transformed what will make you feel safer? isolation for community. are you going the right way? where are you being led? somewhere? direct. what is true? what is great? in the world corrupted, you need to descend

a join us in the depths. will remain in the shallows. ah, top headlines and right now he went off to you to national and president putin touches down in mid for discussions with isabella russian counterpart. they are talking to friends from military corporation, bilateral ties and energy to south african president celebrates his re election as the head of the countries ruling party for a 2nd tub. despite a summer field with corruption scandal allegation all the way over in peru. that's been police raise on opposition, policies over 20 people killed and bonding cash at the rallies against the new president who did come to power with all sorts of external support.