 Good morning. First of all, thank you for allowing me to be here. Thank you for allowing me to take up some of your time and some of your day to talk about my experiences inside the penal systems of America, to talk about some of the biases that come along with being a fellow in America, and to talk about some of the generational curses that we all live with, whether we know it or not. A lot of people believe that incarceration is due to poor decision making on a personal individual's life. I'm here to shed some light on that. Though that's part of the truth, it's not the whole story. But before I get too deep into this, I want to first, some of you people are, and so you're the minds of tomorrow. You're the futures. So you're going to be the ones to make a lot of the changes that are going to be necessary to undo something that's turned into something wrong. Although there's a penalty for everything that we do, if you break the law, you must pay a price. This is true. But incarceration, massive incarceration, has taken on a whole another form. And only by thinking, only by changes of thinkers can this system turn around and do what it was meant to do. But before I go any further into that, I want to apologize, first of all, to the younger people in this room. I take a responsibility as an African-American male for perpetuating a lot of the stereotypes and a lot of the angst of American society. It was due to my actions. It was due to the things that I did that changed my... That allowed some of these stereotypes to go forward. I didn't do anything to change it because I was an underwriter. I was ignorant. There's an old saying that says, if you know better, you'll do better. And so it's with that thought in mind that I go forward and try to share some life on some things that happened in my life. I apologize to you because it was inactivity on my part. It was thoughtlessness on my part. And others like me coming behind me and that were before me that perpetuated this incarceration scenario that we're trying to de-incarceration. That's what this whole thing is about. So with that said, I want to first show you this book. This book is by a man named Milton Mickey Moore. Milton Mickey Moore is my uncle. He's a drug kingpin. You might be more aware of him. There was an adaptation made on the story of his life. Hollywood, a director by the name of Spike Lee, bought my uncle's story. And he turned it into a movie called New Jack City. Some of you might have heard of that movie or seen that movie. That is based on the life story of my uncle Mickey Moore who now, this is him in his heyday, this is him on the back here. He's a preacher now, but he just did 25 years in a federal pen. What I want to talk to you about is systemic, systemic incarceration. Incarceration is the United States of America is the only country in the world that incarcerates mass amounts of its population. We outnumber Russia everywhere. We outnumber everywhere. China, no one incarcerates as many of their American, of their citizens as the United States of America does. And we are the leading nation in capitalism. We run the world, basically. But we incarcerate the majority of our citizens. And a lot of the citizens that make up our incarceration are people of color. That's not, this is not, I don't want to perpetuate a black or white thing. I'm just talking about the facts. People of color make up the percentage, the largest percentage of incarcerated Americans in the United States. Now, this goes back to something that is way beyond our understanding sometimes. A lot of this incarceration started happening because of generational curses. I know that sounds religious. It sounds like I'm getting into a religious thing there. And it kind of is. It's generational curses. A lot of people made bad decisions, but they made bad decisions based on the things that they were taught by their fathers. My dad was incarcerated. My uncles had been incarcerated. My grandmother had 12 sons. All of my uncles were incarcerated. Everybody that I learned from was incarcerated. Everybody that I grew up around was incarcerated. I am one of seven of the first African American male that were charged as an adult in 1979. I got charged at the age of 15 as an adult. My first time being incarcerated, I was charged as an adult and sentenced to a life term which as an adult in the California system means until the age of 21. From 15, I was held in the California youth system until I turned 17. At 17, I was sent to San Quentin. San Quentin, if you don't know, is one of the worst penal systems in the world. I don't want to give you any gory stories. I don't want to tell war stories. But it's one of the places that, for me at the age of 17, still in development, I thought I was grown. I thought I was in charge of things. I was selling drugs. I had already been shot at that time. So life, this was part of the process. Unfortunately, for my way of thinking, this is how you got some of your stripes in the hood. You had to go do time. And you had to do your time as a stand-up guy. You had to do the time and not tell on nobody. You had to ride it out. You weren't going to be sexually molested. You wasn't going to do any of that thing. And when you came home, those were bragging rights. Those were how you got your stripes. So I was ready to do my time until I got to San Quentin and found out that it was a world, a subculture inside a world. It was a whole different way of thinking, acting, and feeling. I had to learn how to smother my feelings. I had to learn how to smother my thinking. My development was arrested when I went to San Quentin because I had to take off humanity and put on beast mode. I was going to survive by any means necessary. And so I spent the next two and a half years of my life surviving. Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, my uncles, I had a few uncles that were at San Quentin. So I already had a covering somewhat over me. But I was still involved with things that were. I wouldn't wish it on anybody else. But I say that to say that I learned that I followed in the footsteps of those that came before me. I followed in the footsteps of people that didn't have or felt like they didn't have any other option but the streets. Felt like they didn't have any other opportunities but the streets. We went from slavery to apartheid to all these different things to incarceration. And so this started a cycle in my life of in and out of the penitentiary system, in and out of the system. I've been on paper now I'm 54 years old. I've been on paper since 1979. Fortunately now I'm involved in a program and I'm involved in a stage where at the end of this year I'll be released for paper for the first time in my life as an adult. So the things I'm talking to you about really do make a difference. Being involved in decarceration, being involved this time around in the system, this got out in January 3rd of 2018 was my first time being released after 10 years. I just walked off a 10 year bid and it was during that incarceration that I had made up my mind I'd had enough. I'd had enough. And so a lot of the things that I was involved in I started to put those things to the side because I felt like something had to be different. I was living at a level that was beneath myself and I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was going on. Now for me religion played a big part in my turning things around. You know I had come to a point my wife who was here with me this morning I had come to a part and to a stage where I had to ask God what's this really all about? What's really going on? You may have heard this old song you keep in the game but you got all the rules missing. Well I was deeply involved in this and I was perpetuating this stereotype that was detrimental to not only myself but my community and everybody around me I have nieces and nephews I have grandsons, I have daughters that are growing up in the system that is against them but it's against them because of what I did. It's things that I did. I came up here in 1986 for the first time my uncle sent a crew up here and what I mean by a crew is I was part of a group called the Crips and we came up here for the first time in 1986 and there were 27 of us. So we came up here and we spread drugs and we did everything that we did in the state of Washington some of you are too young to remember but it made a lot of news and it was all over the broadcast and it changed the culture of Washington state. We brought this game mentality here and it just changed the environment and at first I thought it was the thing to do it's what we were doing we were going and populating other areas and spreading our poison, spreading our mentality to other areas and I thought that that was the thing to do it's so easy to spread poison it's so easy to spread hatred but it's really hard I'm finding now to spread awareness it's really hard to spread hope but it's something that I feel I'm called to do it's something I feel like I have to do because I've spent the majority of my life I've spent all of my adult life in incarceration from two life sentences that got overturned to the last time that I did time I was facing another life sentence and it was at that time by the grace of God that a life sentence was spared me that I decided this time I can't do this anymore I owe too much to my community I owe too much to my wife and family I owe too much to myself to keep doing this and so that's part of the reason that I'm here today to help spread some light and show you some of the downfalls of incarceration because of incarceration I can't get a regular job because of having the I call it the scarlet letter called a felony because of having the felony on my record or several just having that title fell keeps me out of the job pool it keeps me out of levels of education where I can't apply for grants and fasts because of a felony record it keeps me out of housing it keeps me out of several different programs and this is another form of slavery it's another form and the funny part is it's not just designed for black people this time around Lewis put this thing on we did time together when I first started in the 79 you didn't see Caucasians in the prison system if you did they were bikers they were hell angels they were guys that this was a choice this was the life they lived but you didn't see average white Americans in the prison system when I left this time when I left last year the prison system there were more whites than blacks in the institution that I was in and they were just spun off of incarceration I would see families and mothers and grandmothers come to visit their white kids their sons in these institutions and they were just blown away that they were in this environment and it wasn't about a black and white thing I'm not talking about a black and white thing please don't get that misunderstood I'm talking about incarceration becoming the animal that it's become today incarceration doesn't care what your color is you just present another number it doesn't matter what your nationality is what your background is if you get caught up in the system you just feed the furnace you're just fodder for the furnace incarceration keeps you out of so many things I've not been able to get jobs in regular places I just tried to get a job at Safeway just to see how it would go and Safeway sent me back a response we thank you for applying but you can't work for us or any of our associates they gave me a list of their associates that a notification would go out to let them know if I applied I couldn't be hired I'm not supposed to work with the public but by the grace of God I was able to start something with my church I am now the director of life change house I help guys coming out of incarceration I help guys coming out of the drug system I help guys coming out of treatment facilities I help guys coming out of mental facilities to have housing I don't know if you've paid attention or if you've been looking but homelessness is a mass problem in the United States right now and a lot of that stems from mental illness and drug addiction but the answer to it has been incarceration rate and when you get out you've got nothing to go to and so unless we get a different idea unless we have a different theory a new way of approaching this this only grows here in Kent on the way in there's a man down here on the road with a sign asking for handouts that is becoming a norm it's so normal now we drive by it and we don't even pay attention to it because it's become the norm but this all stems from incarceration trust me he's had incarceration in his past we have to change our thinking about this we have to change the way we approach this I'm part of life change housing we help men coming out but I also as a fellow I go back into treatment facilities and speak in treatment facilities I'm in the process of going back into the prisons and if you ever told me 10 years ago that I would be voluntarily going back into prison to help other men I told you you was crazy I would have sworn up and down something was going you must be getting hot but it's what I do now it's the joy of my life it's what brings me satisfaction because we have to think different we have to do better in order to have better and so this is why in decarceration this program and everything concerned with this program please get the knowledge please get the information as you young people coming up getting these educations you can make the difference you can turn things around people of color we can make the difference we don't have to live this way and that's part of what I'm trying to do especially going back into the prisons I want to change the mindset in the thinking of how especially as an African American male I want to change the thinking of how we look in the system it's no longer thinking oh the man put me here no bad choices put me here but where do those bad choices come from it comes from generational curses generational thinking generational arrested development we haven't learned to think beyond our walls we haven't learned to think outside the box and unless one of us goes back and starts banging the drum I feel like the Lewis and Clark I have to show there's a new world there's a new way there's a new way of thinking and a new way of understanding and that's what decarceration is all about it's trying to help us think different about the system Jay Inslee is very open to helping turn around recidivism Dan Sattleberg who came out of Norm Maylin's office is very open about changing decarceration, changing the system they sit in positions of power but unless we have a message to take to them unless we have an answer people are so accustomed to having an African American community we're so accustomed to banging the drum about the wrongs but we don't have answers about how to make it right well my first answer is we must educate ourselves about the wrongs how we're thinking how we're looking at things another way of thinking jobs aren't for suckers excuse my French or English jobs aren't for squares the Bible says if a man doesn't work he doesn't eat that hasn't changed throughout history we have to work to earn way we have to work to take care of our families we have the largest number in the African American community of fatherlessness we have to stop having babies with different women all over the place I'm getting on my bandwagon right there but these are some of the things we have to think about going in we have to learn how to take responsibility for our actions but in order to learn how to take responsibility for our actions we have to figure out what responsibility really is as I began to learn doing my incarceration what responsibility really is I started making different decisions and choices about what I say yes to I can't say yes to everything because there are effects there are causes and effects I can only say yes to things that are positive and that bring about positivity if it's negative I can't say yes to it I had to put down the game mentality I told you earlier that I came up here with 26 guys I was the 27 guys I was the 27 I was the 27 of us only three of us are still alive 24 of my friends that I grew up with that I ran with died violent deaths in the streets they died from natural causes they died violent deaths the other two are incarcerated with life sentences they'll never get out so I'm the only one of the 27 that's out here with this message with this story but my two friends that are incarcerated I keep in touch with them and they said man go and tell them go and let them know don't come this way this isn't for us so my prayer and my desire is to bring about change to how we think we can change the system but in order to change the system we must first change ourselves we have to change our thinking so I get education I reach out to DOC it's funny because I work with DOC all the time now I get calls from DOC hey we got guys that need to get out into a different place yeah I can because that's where my mindset is today so I thank you for letting me come and just babble a little bit tell you the story I represent a culture I represent a time that is past but I also represent a future that goes full so I'm just asking you to join with me think about it we must change the system because without change we're doomed and this is not a doomsday message this is a victory message we can change the way things work I'm 54 years old and I'm on a path that I've never been on before but it started with a thought to change and with that I'll open up for any questions no questions I'll pass it on no questions can you hear I came here in 86 no we didn't start in the old town we actually started in Seattle King County on Cherry Street so we came and we took over Cherry Street and it spread to all through the city in the south end at some point it had gotten sold back that detectives were called from California to come help here it also changed the way the court system dealt with people of color people in gang settings added an extra sentence it changed the court system so if you had gang affiliations in 1989 the SRA came on board and the SRA said if you had gang affiliations you got double points if you were from California you got double points if you had crack cocaine as opposed to powder cocaine you got double points so it changed not only the culture of Washington state but it changed the laws and if we could change the laws to the negative with a positive mindset can we change it to the positive so that's what I've been on I came here in 86 and spent kind of roller coaster ride ever since and then I'm buying here two weeks ago have you what do you know about what do you know about the gang people the younger people that may be involved in gang Deondre Jones was the young man that was killed two weeks ago in the south end I am also a partner with a guy named Kevin Lowell who's a teacher at Rainier Beach High School Deondre was one of our guys we have a non-profit called King's Academy where we work with at-risk youth coming out of the central district in the south we try to help them get to colleges we try to help them to finish high school we try to help them get into the court systems a lot of these guys already have felony records so we're trying to prevent them from furthering that and moving in a different direction and it's a sad thing but he's one of the guys that's been lost in this battle it's a fight that we have to continue every day but the gang situation is really if you look at it it stems from followlessness if I don't have a father how am I supposed to learn how to be a man if there's no man to show and all I have is the big homo you know we call it the hood but before that it was called the neighborhood and if you take the neighbor out of the hood you no longer have a couple you no longer have a couple so our theme and our drive is to get the neighbor back into the neighborhood excuse the word I'm about to use but we don't believe in perpetuating the neighborhood we call it nephew come in nephew just to change the thinking if you hear something repetitively it starts to sink in one of the greatest things about happiness in 30 days if you do something repetitively you'll grow a happy family so if you're constantly hearing nephew family if this thing is getting driven in subconsciously it starts to take effect it's hard to shoot somebody when you're calling them nephew when you're calling them family when you're calling them brother so this is part of the drive that we're on this thing is so much bigger I only have a few minutes to share this but you know in the scripture that says there's no sin that has overtaken a man except that which is common to him and as I delve into this thing and as I look a lot of this stuff is common it came from common backgrounds a lot of the guys that we work with the young men from ages 12 to 18 12 to 21 they all have a common background fatherlessness issues families who have been addicted in addiction and incarceration these are the three main components that keep the wheel going and so we're trying to break those things with education we're trying to break them with youth activities we just got a grant to start a boxing program in the Rainier Beach area so we're going to be working with youth this summer trying to turn these things around get them into something positive so we want to get their mind on other things we're trying to raise funds now to start putting together college tours to take some of the young men from the inner city who have never seen anything different let them go see colleges let them go see there is a way out because to see it inspires hope everybody is letting them talk to the young men about college having fun so I'm from South Seattle I live in New York playing in the proletary so a lot of people are people so there need to live in that that's all thank you anyone else you said that it was an individual thing it's a political thing there are applications that go out to get coming especially during election time come and see petition to go out and I had been up for a come and see petition on numerous occasions and I finally got one and it overturned a life sentence for me so that was the first one and then the second one was this by the grace of god the judge the original sentencing judge who gave me a life sentence got sick and couldn't make it in that day and so another judge came in to sentence me and he said I don't know why I'm doing this but I'm going to give you another chance I'm going to give you another chance and that was a wake up call for me because I've been shot I've been shot three different times I've been in drugs all my life and a wake up call just came like what is this all about I have a praying wife a praying family and it was just a wake up call for me something had to be different something had to be different and that just started the cycle of getting information while I was incarcerated I found out about bridges to life I found out about all the different programs that would help me get back into society in a positive way and to make a difference and once I started delving into those things I saw there's a need for us to go back and say hey we can do better than this so that's what the term means yes so speak about how to just mention when you're incarcerated and start learning about programs when you're younger and you're incarcerated were there educational programs available then what do you see now because we're looking at how people are going to get into capital to get out do you see a better trend now when I first started in the system in 79 there were you could get a college degree in prison there was academia available while incarcerated but around the 80s that phased out there was not enough money and that was one of the first things that was cut so those things phased out of getting educated I would have to say that in the last 10 years in the last decade that's starting to come back it's starting to make a slow return back to the system but I'm telling you it's so necessary it's so necessary if prison is where you have to go to get in touch with education expanding your mind further in your mind then by all means necessary but we got to get education back into the prison system because we got to wake up the thinking of the individuals who are incarcerated and I just want to say to you you know I have a friend Doug who's still incarcerated Doug is a Caucasian male Doug is doing his first bit ever in life at the age he started at the age of 36 and we were walking the yard one day and I spoke to an old friend of mine who I've been doing in the system since the 80's since I started here in Washington state and he was walking with his son and his grandson on the big yard and he said is that a father and son? I said that's a father, a son and a grandson and he said are you kidding me? and I said no I started with him now his son is here and now his son's son is here and he said man that's crazy I said Doug if you don't pay attention if we don't wake this thing up you'll be walking with your son and you'll be walking with your son son because that's the way this thing works it perpetuates it started with tough on drugs and in manufacturing crack cocaine it started in the black community and so they passed all these laws but lo and behold another drug came on the set that pushed crack out of a way called methamphetamines it's also manufacturing and it gets you the same law the same time that it did to black people but now it's affecting white people and so the numbers have grown exponentially the prison system is blowing out of the walls there's not enough room to house all the people that are being incarcerated so we need deferments we need other systems in place at one time in the system in America you wouldn't incarcerate you'd never see a pregnant woman incarcerated you'd never see Purdy five years ago asked for an expansion budget of 2.7 billion dollars I have all the facts in my file cause I keep a lot of facts about incarceration 2.7 billion dollars as an expansion to open a housing facility for pregnant women but if you've chased that back why are they incarcerating pregnant women when they used to be deferment you got a lot of women that get pregnant they're out there getting high they're running a gun and they end up pregnant and they're in the system instead of deferring them now they send them to prisons with their baby they're allowed to live in this dorm and have their child and if you don't have someone a family member or someone that can come get that child within six months you have to put the child up for an adoption you have to adopt your child out there's not a choice or the system does it for you if you chase that back I'm just giving you a little history this is all factual and you can check it out for yourself same sex marriage became a popular thing they even passed a law that you could get married same sex couples were finding it hard to adopt children in the normal system so where were they where were they going to get kids from there wasn't a pool for them now there is more children are adopted out of poverty by same sex couples than anywhere else in the world it all runs to a system just follow the dollar just follow the dollars follow the dollars these children are being adopted out to more same sex couples than anywhere else it's systematic it just flows in a circle but you have to be ready to sit down and open up your mind and see where is this going what are we doing any other questions so back to the place so basically we're doing this like the intervention of people's lives what about if people say what are you talking about what are the alternatives that I see especially in my community I can just mainly speak to my community it's education making people aware a lot of young people are doing things because they don't have they feel they don't have an alternative I have nothing else to do but if I make you aware of your alternative if I make you aware of your opportunities if I show you how to get through some of these systems that have previously been closed off to you a lot of people say it doesn't work and they've never even tried but they got that because their mom said well it didn't work for me so they don't even try it but if we walk them through it if we show them if we're hands on if we have enough people with a renewed mind a renewed way of thinking to come into the colleges to go into the treatment facility and say there's another way then it begins the marching order for a new way of thinking a new way of going then we can come to the table with people like Jay Hensley with people like Dan Satterberg and say listen we've tried this it's working can you shine a light on it and they do, they're willing to listen I found that I came under Norm Maden when I first came to Washington State because there was a three-strikes or outlaw and the three-strikes or outlaw says well if you had three of the same felonies you could get life in prison well there was a system that nobody was thinking about that said that if you came up to King County Courts and you had four misdemeanors it became one felony but the thing was hey listen you would go into court with a guy named Irvin Paul who was a public defender and he said I'll get you out today if you just signed guilty here I'll get you out today and because we were ignorant and we didn't know about the big hammer on the other end we'd sign and get out but I'd be back next week with something else hey come on up here and you want your lane to be in one of his folds because you know he's going to get you out but in time those things just added up they added up and then you stood in front of a judge and he said listen I don't know if you know it or not but you signed off on it you're open to an exceptional sense I'm going to give you life in prison so you've got guys that are doing life in prison right now for shoplifting because you've had numerous shoplifts it's the same crime it's a crime spree you're out we educate unless those of us that have been set free go back and say listen there's some errors here first of all we've got to get you a mindset to stay out of the system if you're going to be involved in the system get involved to change the system don't get involved to be a part of the system so we have to bring this kind of awareness we have to ring the bell and say it's time to wake up you know I don't want to put you on the spot I didn't even get your name there were some staff that walked us in he walked me from the parking lot and he opened the door to let me in but the first thing I noticed is he had a gold badge on the side of his bell and I said okay he's security or he's the police officer but this is the kind of notification coming from the community we all notice certain things even if we don't speak even if we don't speak we notice certain things like are you chatting so he knew we all know but if we don't speak it will never be explained if we don't say we can work in unison we can work together he opened the door and let me in opened the door and let me in that may not seem significant to you but once upon a time he closed the door and locked me out not him but the system the way it was designed the role I had to play in and the role he had to play in but today he opened the door and he let me in and he called me by name I'm sorry I don't have your name but David opened the door and let me in today that to me makes this all worthwhile that to me says this thing works this thing works but I first had to get educated so education can turn this thing around brother was touched by that he got copied with like big kilos of cocaine back in the 80s and yeah, manufacturing and for people I believe like university well it doesn't affect me it doesn't affect you know we ask somebody if we go around the room we ask somebody knows somebody in a family or close to them and just by you coming here and opening you know opening the eyes because I know people I've been in jail myself I've been tied myself like in 95 I ran with gangs and just to see people they never thought you know in jail but it goes with following people you know following making the wrong decision oh just this once and it just you know it gets bigger and bigger and I've seen it you know what it does you have the right point of helping because like I said my brother did like 11 years on that 15 and he did like two years solitary confinement I mean two years he didn't touch anybody you know you know he could yell you know two and a half years by himself he's out now but he'll never be the same and it just goes with the smallest decisions in daily life you know you make oh just this once oh it's just me oh it's just you know the minimizing takes somewhere you know you know God forbid that nothing you know if you continue where you're going and don't follow that you know the cool thing to do the speedy the drinking oh just weed because you know it unfortunately you know can be on the other side and I just thank you for being here and I hope I made a little bit of sense one decision he said in those words one decision all you need to do is get one felony conviction and you're locked out one felony conviction you're locked out part of decarceration is we want to try to get government and officials to understand given a period of time given a period of specific conduct given a period of turnaround can we get that scarlet letter taken off of us so we can get back active in society so we can have voting rights a lot of us are facing the consequences suffering the consequences of laws we can't even vote on decisions we have no say so in we need to get that right back and so that's what part of decarceration is that's what part of coming in and talking to young people about laws who are going to make these decisions in the future if you can have some empathy if you can have an understanding some sympathy for what the system is that's how we change it