 Good morning. I wish you had the pleasure of standing where I'm standing right now because I have to tell you something This is what the face of victory looks like and it's awfully gorgeous. Let me hear you. Let me hear you Did we win? It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming, but even as we rightfully celebrate all of our victories We know there's still work to do And that's why I've come before you today with my friend, my colleague, my beloved Ife Tayo Harvey Tonight, 500,000 people are going to be in prison for a drug law violation 109 of them in the federal system alone and We rarely we sometimes say numbers but not the human consequence the real world experience Of what happens when we disrupt and disassemble families and communities? Ife Tayo Harvey came to us. We were so blessed and fortunate this summer to work in our media offices in New York and She wound up talking about something. She'd never even talked about with her family About her own experience. I'm not going to say anymore But I want you because she'll say it more beautifully that I ever could I'm going to ask you to join me in welcoming this beautiful young woman 21 Smith college students a senior a major in African and history African studies in history and Whose great truth is going to mean our freedom? Thank you, Asha so see My name is Ife Tayo Harvey. I entered with the Drug Policy Alliance this summer I'm originally from Charleston, South Carolina and So here's I'm here to talk about my experience of having a parent incarcerated for a great portion of my childhood I grew up in the family of seven children and I was known as being the really quiet and shy one. I really kept myself and Didn't really make much noise, but you know, I think I'm I think I'm done with that phase in my life I'm tired of being quiet And I am tired because I learned that being quiet like following up all that anger and frustration it It turns into pain and that hurts so Yeah, let me I Also want to remind you guys that like Asha said most of the victims of the drug war aren't here with us today They're in prisons or in foster homes. They're in hospital beds or on the path to rehabilitation My dad his name is Sextor Harvey he immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s He was working as a migrant worker in Orlando, Florida So while he was there he was propositioned by an undercover cop to sell cocaine and As a new immigrant who's seeking to financially support his family back at home he accepted After being arrested and put in jail he paid Bell and he skipped town Ten years later Okay Ten years later my dad was arrested and convicted of cocaine trafficking and sentenced to 15 years in prison He was he's only served eight years, and he was deported back to Jamaica and for me while he was in prison, you know, I Always hoped that I would have that like conventional father daughter relationship like Dr. Huck's bull had on the Cosby show with all of his kids But it took me until like my my freshman year of college to actually realize that that was never gonna happen But I also understood that that was okay, like it was okay for me to not have that typical relationship and I also learned that Rebuilding a broken relationship is possible. It's not easy by any means, but it's definitely possible So that helped me learn like how to value people even with their shortcomings I want to tell you guys about my mom and my family back in South Carolina So my mom has seven kids five from her previous marriage and me and my younger brother with my father and After my dad went to prison my mom was stuck to raise seven kids by herself and I just made a few you can probably guess that's not really easy I really admire my mom deeply for holding our family together and You know sometimes I wonder like how in the world did she do it? I asked her once and Like how did you raise this without going crazy and she said reef her? Oh But I think it could also be the fact that I have five older siblings who kind of acted as a second Parent to my mom and without them I wouldn't be here So today my dad he works and lives in Jamaica He's like a driver mechanic sometimes electrician and but even then he can barely Afford to support me and my brother financially because of the high variance between the American and Jamaican economy I The last time I saw my dad. I was 16 years old I was working part-time in high school to buy a passport and a plane ticket and I Didn't get to stay in Jamaica for a really long time, but I don't regret visiting I got to be reunited with my dad for the first time in 10 years I Met my paternal grandparents and some of my cousins and I got to see the country where half of my family is from While I was there my dad he apologized for compromising our relationship and our family But at that point I had already forgiven him For me making sense of my dad's absence it It meant forgiveness But I want to emphasize that Forgiving is not easy. It's a process I'm still overcoming it. Obviously I I Forgave my dad for the implications of his absence No basketball games no No marching man competitions no graduations I Forgave him for my struggle Through depression and shame I've also forgave him for not being a positive Role model to my younger brother My younger brother is 19 years old He's been arrested multiple times from there on a possession and so Sometimes I wonder Who can he talk to for him to understand that the criminal justice system doesn't work for people like me But I I don't know I don't have all the answers But I'm gonna I'm gonna keep looking and until I find the answers. I'm gonna keep telling my story Listening to everyone else's. Thank you consequences No world consequences But you know another consequence is that as our own power We know that we know we have the power to change laws And if there's anybody in this room today Who's had their life Disrupted or otherwise dismantled because they went to prison. Let me hear you You're heard in this room today, and if you've ever loved someone if you've had a family member Who's been in prison? Let me hear you today Let me hear you. I can't hear you if you've ever been horrified That people were sent to prison Simply for what they put in their body not for the harm they caused anybody else. Let me hear you this morning Administration here us we're gonna let him hear us because when Eric Holder stood before the American Bar Association in August and said that the laws needed to be challenged. We're here to challenge them today anybody with me on that 420 And yet thousands of people are sitting in prison. Fathers are reported because it's now one of us So when we text 420 420 right now And we're gonna send that message to Obama so they're on the screen you're gonna text parting to 420 420 Which is given to us courtesy of Travis Maurer It has a couple of other steps in there, but I'm not that tech savvy or whatever so there's something So I'm gonna get you as far as they can And you're gonna text the word pardon to 420 420 and we gonna say set the captains free If you didn't say set the captains I can't hear you