(singing) i just can't wait to meet you, sweet child you're on the way,

i'm filled with expectation, and you're growing everyday... (instrumental)

welcome back. we're talking with free minds book club and writing workshop, the number one winner of news 4's 21st century solutions grant this year. doing some wonderful things with teenaged boys, and marcus bullock, your company is perspectives premier contractors. your specialty is painting. what i want to hear from you is how you got there. >> very interesting story. when i was released from prison -- >> why were you in prison? >> so, i was arrested for a

carjacking, attempted robbery, and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. i was 15 years old, about a week after my 15th birthday, a friend of mine, he and i end up carjacking a man in the middle of december, right before christmas. we were sentenced both to 23 years to life. my judge suspended 15 of those years of my sentence and i ended up serving eight years in prison, in an adult prison at 15 years old. >> while you were in there, were you reading and writing? >> that became the latter part of me being in prison. the first part, you know, being a kid in prison, growing up in prison is a little challenging, to say the least. you know, a set of challenges, different set of challenges. not typical for an adolescent, but growing up through there you have to figure out a way to escape. you have to figure out the ways, the means to exposing yourself something different than the bars you see every day.

books became my outlet. >> so you became a painter, and you started a business. how did that happen? >> well, interesting story, i never actually became a painter. what happened was, i was working at a paint store after i was released mixing paint. i'm the guy you come in, you want a nice color blue to paint your kitchen, i was the guy you'd talk to. i just mixed the paint, then i would meet people, you would come into the store and say, marcus, how much does it cost to paint your kitchen? we don't paint your kitchen, we sell the paint so you can paint your kitchen. then i'd meet the painters, contractors, oh, my goodness, there's no work out here. i became the conduit between you and the painter. since then we grew a painting company now 11 years running now to a full fledged construction. >> entrepreneur came out and excelled. >> yes, ma'am. >> tell me, doug, what you're

doing at perspective now. you've got a job. >> i'm a contractor. we do contracting, residential, really i'm a helping hand, i haven't went to school to get certified and everything, but every day i learn something new, every day i look forward to learning something new and i'm appreciative of the chance i was given. >> working towards certification? >> i'm going to go to school in the talks, but lately a lot of work on the table so i was waiting for things to even out when we get a little free time. i'm going to try to go to school. >> so being in the workshop actually led you to working with marcus. >> yes. because two days out of the week you have the chance to get on the job experience and i took advantage of that training and they liked me, said i worked hard. >> marcus and his business is representative of what you're doing with business ownersnd how they are helping to

rehabilitate and change these young men's lives. >> yeah, it has to be real on the job, as doug said, three days a week it's classroom exceptions that marcus and the other trainers do on all kinds of job readiness skills and the two days you're on the job so you get real-time feedback from the work site supervisor saying, look, this is what you're great at and this is where you need to improve. and studies show that works the best with young adults. it's how they learn. it's like immediate feedback, here you go and we'll help you with it. we're not going to say you can't do the job, you're cut out. no, we're going to guide you and mentor you. they are amazing, they love these guys, they care about them, they want to see them succeed. they were there before them, they are now giving back and now doug does that for our new guys coming up behind him. he's going to share with them how it works. so it's this brotherhood that's super critical to making it. >> so, marcus' company is a painting contractor.

what are some of the other specialties that the businesses? >> so construction is a big one, because as doug said, when our guys are incarcerated, they are so young, they haven't had a job before because they are youth charged as adults, so things entry level, landscaping, cleaning, construction, but then we encourage them and with our help to get those advanced certifications and move up, so we have electricians, we have auto mechanics, we have guys going to college, we have a really nice group of senior members that are in the work force. >> all right. we've got to take a break. we'll continue talking about free minds book club and writing workshop right after this. stay with us. here in vineland, home of progresso, we figured out how to get rich ingredients like bacon into 22 light soups, so if you want 100 calories or less per serving without giving up rich flavor

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welcome back this morning. we're talking about free minds book club and writing workshop,

and this is really a sort of training ground, would you say, for life? you're training young men and you're teaching them to become contractors, you're helping them learn job skills. but the reason they stick with you is because they can relate to you. >> yeah, i mean, we want to be able to help catapult these guys to the next level. we act as the springboard, per se, and we know that it's very challenging for these guys. it was challenging for me to be able to come home to find a job. and not just to find a job, but to find a job as a young, as a black man with a felony on his record and not having any job experience. these are major obstacles for a lot of our guys, and we want to be able to continue to be that catapult for them to be able to become the new dougs. >> is he sort of like a big brother for you, doug? >> yeah, any time i know i can call marcus for advice on anything, no limitations what i can call this guy and ask him

for. i'm appreciative for that. >> work, personal life, family, anything? >> anything. >> how important is that? >> real important. real important. i haven't needed no help lately, i'm happy. i don't think nothing could make me or deter me from my path i'm on. >> i'm sorry, he is extremely modest. doug is one of our -- he's been with the company for a few months now and he's one of our premier employees and that's the one thing most other small businesses don't have an opportunity to engage with people like doug. he has the most to lose coming from out of a prison cell, coming off probation, coming out of a halfway house, he has a lot to lose. so he works like it. what happens is allows us to build infrastructure in our organization that everyone else in the company piggybacks off. >> recidivism is a big problem, one of the major problems, d.c.

police chief cathy laneer has talked about it being responsible for a lot of what we see happening in city streets and neighborhoods now, so stemming recidivism, stopping that trend, is so important, and your program is doing that in a way that others don't. >> right, and what we say with the right support it's possible, but that right support has to be people like marcus and tony and also for our members to realize that they have a wrap around group that can be there at every challenge along the way. i mean, when so many young men come home to nothing, right, the ties are severed from their families, as marcus said, employers don't want to take a chance on them, there's stereotypes, perceptions that they won't be enthusiastic employees, and what we're saying is, no, i'm here to say a positive message that it can work and they are going to be

your best employees. and normally the recidivism rate for our group is anywhere between 70% and 90%. reoffend and return right back to prison, so the hopelessness and the despair. we are at, thanks to our re-entry program, as you say, we're at 10% re-offend or have a probation violation. that's incredible statistic and we know the formula for it now. it's a practical skills, long-term support, consistency, and real opportunities. >> okay. we've got to take another break, but we'll continue our talk about free minds in just a minute.

welcome back. free minds book club and writing club has a book, it's a book of

poems and stories and profiles of mentors and graduates and apprentices like yourself. and you've got some work in here. on page eight you wrote a poem. i want you to read some of it, doug. >> name of the poem is "puddles of war." the sun blocks my thoughts and when it rains they roam free, i'm a victim of circumstance, around people that don't know me. maybe if they went through what i did, things would be different. i thought people was tripping when they said things would get better, they were wearing coats and i was wearing a sweater. refusing things wanted to give, all i wanted was love, trying hard to be a man, but misunderstood for a thug. maybe i will change a few things if i could go back. moms would be smiling instead of crying. yeah, i like that. >> that's beautiful. if i could say that to a man, it's beautiful poetry. how is writing like that changed you, doug? >> i guess it gave me a platform

and released a lot of things i had, because only i knew how to give frustration and anger and violence. when i started writing, made me feel better. >> you're now also a poet ambassador. what do you do as an ambassador? >> well, i guess, my free minds, we have an event called write night where we go into the community and we share work with guys in jail so they could get feedback. i show up there and give people like my first time experience on what free minds is and how to work. guys that are incarcerated and not just things we put together. >> what is it about writing about being in a book like this and having an experience like doug's that helps to rehabilitate? >> well, for the youth that we see, it's real life examples, oh, that's me. i'm not so alone. like doug says, helps you process your own thoughts and

connects you to other people. that's the most important key, somebody reads about doug's poem and go, i had that same feeling. i'm misunderstood as a thug. then they connect and go, i can overcome that. i can surpass that. it's really been surprising to us at free minds. we really did it as a way we thought reading and writing, nice, you know, you need those literacy skills. so much more. it's like taken on this other light of being a way, an avenue for people to gather around and as you say, ultimately reduce recidivism. that's our thing, bring hope and possibilities. >> marcus, is that what you think you've been able to do? is that what you've been able to do for the young men under your tutelage? >> that's what i try to do. i want to be able to -- i tell all the guys they are the before and i'm the after. and i want to be able to try to help get them to a place where they feel comfortable in their own right, you know, do the things they want to do and don't

feel like the prison sentence that you serve is going to be the thing that's going to hold you back from being great. >> doug, would you say any young man who's been through what you've been through, who's come from where you've come from, who's had the hard knocks that you've experienced, can any young man who's watching right now look at you and say i can do that? >> absolutely. i believe all you need is just a little bit of will power. it isn't hard. i don't think nobody likes going to jail. free minds, man, they'll help anybody. bring friends, anybody that needs help. they will help anybody that needs help. i tell anybody, it's the best help you can get when you're in. >> you're the one who made the decision. >> yeah, little bit of will power, just try. just try. that's all you've got to do. >> i think that's the thing,

attitude does always have the attitude, has the curiosity, but even the other guys, he'll say i'll help you want to want to have it. that's the key. >> well, you're doing wonderful work, doug. marcus, congratulations on a successful life and career, and tarah, you're doing wonderful work with free minds book club and writing workshop. thank you so much for being with us and sharing your stories, literally, on "viewpoint." that's our show, thank you for being with us this

what donald trump did was using the property the elderly woman. sdl without imminent domain, you don't have anything. >> the final republican debate, did candidates on the defensive. and a bit chilly, but it will warm up today. storm team 4 has more on that and the chance of snow. more than a million are in fran san francisco for the super bowl. we will have a live report on what you can expect wherever