Video Transcript: Inside-Out Prisoner Re-entry and Community Engagement

Ramona Massey - evening everyone, let's try that again. I just been waiting to say that Good evening, everyone. My heart is overwhelming as we look  around at what this center was created for. But first of all, just say  Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. You are welcome. Here. You all  look so beautiful. My name is Ramona. I'm one of the people who works  apart with a part of the center, and this evening, tonight is all about you. So for showing up, why don't you give yourselves a round of applause?  Worked for the Sheriff's Department for 29 years. 29 years, what's hard to  deal with is the five generations of incarceration that I've seen. I know  great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and to me, it's very  disheartening to see our children go from juvenile hall to the county jail to  state prison to the graveyard. So what we're trying to do is break this  generational curse, to break this cycle one life at a time. And what it  involves right now is the community.  

Theo - If you think about the state of our country, what's going on in San  Francisco is going on everywhere, and everybody's looking for some  tangible solutions. And  

Ramona Massey - basically there is a core group of us who work together,  when I say us, my colleagues, who we often brainstorm on how to think  outside the box, how to do other things. And one of my colleagues who I  respect, he came to us, and we've done similar models of this, but nothing  ever on this degree. And he said, we need to do something from the inside  out. I have inside, you have the outside. How do we hook this up?  

Floyd Johnson - When I come up with an idea, I have to go to these three  individuals to help me develop that idea. So we came up with the idea of  inside out, and we knew that we wanted to work with them on the inside  and follow them to the outside and give them that continued support before we even got started, though, however, we didn't want to just sit down and  just get put ideas on paper and say, This is what the population need.  What we did is we put together a focus group of inmates, right? A focus  group of inmates, and ask and ask them, hey, when you leave this place.  What are the things that you need? 

Dr. Martin Jones - Many of them are not going to be in jail or prison for the rest of their lives. They're going to be returning to the community, and who  knows, they may be your neighbor or my neighbor. So then why not equip 

them with some type of skills that they can transfer into the community  with? We do a total approach. We do from housing to education to  employment to daily individual sessions with each of our men as they are  being released. And now that we're going and we're expanding ourselves  to women, it's going to be the same thing, even with women, meaning  Constant Contact, Constant Contact, Constant Contact, or it doesn't  appear that you're doing too well today. What's the matter? Let's sit down  and talk about never too busy to listen. Never too busy to sit and talk.  

Michael Hennessey - Well when, when a person has been in jail or prison, they're cut off from the real world. They're cut off from society for anywhere from months to years. And usually they've lost their job if they if they had  one, they may have lost the place that they live if they had one. And they  really need to take care of these things when they get back out, if we  expect them not to go back to a life of crime. And so people need  assistance in housing finding housing. They need assistance in completing their education, oftentimes in substance abuse treatment, and certainly in  job training or finding a job. Because unless we provide services, we as a  society, or we as a community, provide services to people, then we can  generally expect that they're going to turn to the underground economy  and sell drugs to survive. 

Al Waters - I had gone to a conference in which someone said I. Uh, that  the use of programs is also a great security tool. And it finally clicked for  me that we could manage the jails better if we had a set of programs that  were going on at that time, and we introduced programs at the maximum  security jail without any funding. We got community based organizations to do it, and we changed the culture there. We made it a lot more quieter.  There were less crimes committed in the jails, assaults on staff, assaults  on inmates, on inmates. And at the same time, we were able to introduce  some educational programs, some substance abuse programs and  violence prevention programs that proved to be helpful to people  

Michael Hennessey - in most cases, in my County's case, and in the case  of our state prison system, money can be reallocated from incarceration to  program services. It costs us three to $4,000 per person, compared to  putting a person back in jail, which is $30-40,000 when they go back for six to nine months. So we should use the time we have with them in jail to  create programs that may help them, and we should be providing support 

for them when they get out. It's in all of our best interests, because by  helping them, fewer of us are likely to become victims of future crime.  

Floyd Johnson - So the way that we wanted the program to look, we  wanted to make sure that the prisoners had access to all the resources  and all the programs of the sheriff's department that would address their  needs. So the kind of way they would look is that we have the prisoners.  We know what their needs are, and they would come from County Jail #5,  which is the men's facility. The prisoners would come from County Jail #8,  which is the women's facility. And then they would come into inside out.  Then they would go into the community, and they were you, we would use  all the resources that are in our community to help address their needs. So one of the ways that we keep this program going is to make sure that we  all meet once a week. We can sit down and talk about where we need to  take this program, because the program is in a continual process of  development once we start talking about individual clients and individual  client needs, this gives us ideas of what other programs, what other  community based organizations we need to reach out to, to kind of bring  into this loop  

Martin Molina - talking about that they need to join, something that they  don't have to create. I told them the day they get here to meet you guys. I  said that hour, that's the magical hour, that's either going to be the  bewitching hour where your whole continent is going to change, or that's  going to be where we see something genuine in your spirit. You still want  to pursue a life of transformation.  

Floyd Johnson - So what we did is we basically identified certain  community based organizations, we approached them to see if they would  be interested in serving on our advisory board. And we we have about 12  people on the advisory board from various organizations, and we meet  once, we try to meet at least once a quarter, and when we meet, we talk  about what we've done in inside out, how it's developed, how each one of  those community organizations can assist us in helping to further develop  the program.  

Martin Molina - One of the board members of Pastor Criswell, had  introduced me to the Inside Out program, and when he found out the kind  of work I was doing and what I was involved in. He thought it would be a 

perfect fit to get involved with inside out because of the transitional housing the prisoners that needed to be reconnected with the community. And we  are real community based. We have a program for men that struggle with  substance abuse, and they're able to enter our program that's a year long  program. It's free of charge. What we do and what they're trying to do with  the inside out, and what they've been doing with inside out, it just seemed  like a perfect fit.  

Gerald Criswell - We seem to be like a established, like a brotherhood,  you know, we're like a fellowship and and we have men that are from the  age of in the 80s all the way down to even teenagers, and we all come  together like a family when we go up there and when we seem to  encourage each other. Growing up in San Francisco and in the inner city,  you see a lot of crime and violence. And I have, a lot of my peers. A lot of  them are caught up in in the got caught up in the drug arena. A lot of them  are in and out of jail. I'll never forget one time I was asked to speak in the  at 850 which is a county jail. And I saw a lot of my friends that I hadn't seen in a long time they were in jail, and they were calling my name out, and I  had a I just felt I had an interest to help them, and then looking at the  system and how it is now, and how so many of them are caught up in the  drug culture and they're in and out of jail, I just felt that there was a great  need to reach out to those men. So in growing up in the inner cities, and  now that I've gotten my life together, and I'm trying to do the right thing,  and so I want to help somebody else do the right thing.  

Lloyd Jones - And morning, I've been in, been in two, two penitentiaries in  two different states. I think mentorship is a survival kit, because you, when  you start mentoring people, telling them about your life. You looking at your own life.  

Johnny - Hello. My name is Johnny. Good morning. I live in San Francisco. My school is Willie Brown. How's  

Theo - How's everybody doing? My name is Theo, I go to Notre Dame  University, and I'm from San Francisco as well.  

Lloyd Jones - You have to live the life that you're trying to teach that's  important. And if you love what you're doing, you're gonna do that. And I  love talking to people, you know, because that helps me just as much as it 

helps them. I'm graduating from the streets. I'm Lloyd Jones. I graduated  from the streets. Got my PhD too. I got a question I want to leave with the  youngsters. Have you found out what you want to be in life? Yet, if you  don't, it's a good time to start figuring out what you want to be and head  towards that. Don't let nothing stop you from what you want to be. Nothing, nobody, nobody stop. You head on into whatever you want to be, and you  can do that now. 

Thaddeus Ford - now. Thank you. Pays well. I drove my cab first day  March 19. So from February 19 to March 19. In those three days, I went to  school, graduated. I was in the Walden house Mandela program, in that  you had to get into inside out, because if you're doing a good job in the  Walden house Mandela program, they automatically would ask you to go  to inside out when they asked me I was interested in it, and that's when I  met Dr Jones and Floyd Johnson, I was a part of discover your true self  with Felicia Jones Inside Out Mandela program and a men's mentoring  group. You can't miss no days unless you really have to have a good  excuse, you know. You can't get no write ups, and you have to be a role  model while you're in there, you know. And I did all those things, I also kept a journal. The journal also helped me a lot. You know, if something  happened during the day or whatever happened, good or bad, I write it in  my journal, and through the night, as I'm writing in the journal, I actually  figured out, you know, where I went wrong, or what I did wrong, or what I  did right. So the journal writing really helps me. I still do that on outside too. A guy jumped me in front of the microwave. He was totally wrong, but the  first thing came to my mind was what Dr Jones and Floyd Johnson said,  I'm supposed to be a role model. There's no way I should get into an  argument over the microwave. And as the thought crossed my mind, I just  smiled and said, not a problem. I'll wait. Usually I would have checked him  in a heartbeat, because I would have took that as total disrespect. And  although I could say it was his fault, I would have been totally acting on a  feeling. So I'm learning how to process my feelings, and that's a good  thing. As I'm sitting here going over my day and everything that happened  today, I sit back and as I write, I'm beginning to really work things out for  myself and learning how, how this journal is really helping me. I'm doing  well. I'm driving Monday through Thursday, from 5 to 5-12, hours a day,  doing pretty good.  

George Jurand - I believe that this is this work is my purpose. My first born

son was part of the criminal justice system before he died, and I just feel  that I could surrogate a lot of these young men in this criminal justice  system and mentor them, and that's how this came about for me.  

Singer 1 – Or you will never walk alone. 

Ramona Massey - The goal of the women's event was to have an open  house to showcase programs that we are offering. There were mentors  there as well. And as the networking were going on, they just weren't  talking. They were hooking up these sisters. They were saying, Hey, let me talk to you. They talk a little bit. And next thing I know, I was like, I like to be your mentor.  

Cheryl Dawson - This is Miss Marcie, and she's from Jones United  Methodist Church. She was with me in both the revivals in the jail this year. She was with me for the restorative justice work. She's brought a whole  cadre of women from the community to be mentors here for these sisters.  

Marcie Boyd - It's all a part of the journey that we've been taking together.  Cheryl called me and got me to join her on and it was wonderful seeing  some of the ladies that I had seen in orange jumpsuits here in street  clothes, and to be able to have conversations with them that didn't have a  time limit set on them, and to be able to say that I'm your sister and and  talk about the fact that we're here to love one another as God has loved  us, and let them know that they are supported and that there are people  who care.  

George Jurand - I see from the initial vision. I see it coming to fruition. I  see we started the process on the inside, and now we're able to transition  people on the outside. And I see them staying connected to create that  change, to have somebody to support them through that process of  change.  

Singer 2 - Everyone will change. Nothing stays the same. The young  become the old and mystery do unfold, but that's the way of time. Hey?  Time, everything must change. There are not many things in life, You can  be sure of, everything must change.