 what's going on everyone welcome to another video now I just thought I'd make this video to talk about what's happened over the last few days I had a very amazing experience and I needed to share it with you all so a few days ago I was invited by two people who work at a juvenile justice center so juvenile remand center where they keep teenage offenders before they are sentenced to jail so it's just it's a youth prison basically and I was invited to talk there I did five consecutive speeches there so I want to talk to you about how that felt for me I mean the last time I seen prison gates was when I was being released about four years ago and it just to be outside of that place walking in it brought all those memories back to me and it was a very it was very nerve-wracking for me to walk back through those gates back into the system because I want to leave that part of myself behind me so yeah it was a very very bizarre and a very surreal experience walking back in through there as a visitor and that's what I said to the the prisoners I mean I said this is very strange for me to be walking back in here as a visitor because I'm used to being in your position before I started my talks I had sort of a briefing about some of the you know some of the guys some of the kids they're not they're not small kids that were big you know big kids big 18 year olds that some of them so as a 18 year old in Australia a class as an adult you know a bit of a briefing to tell me that some of this these guys they're they're hard cases you know that there's there's fights there's it's a prison you know it's a prison setting I already had this it's sort of a bit of a bit of nerves at how how people would take what I have to say obviously I went in there as someone who's gonna share their transformation inspire them and that was supposed to be the base of my talk sort of the backbone of my talk and obviously part of my story is being a vegan activist so that's what I wanted to interweave into it I had to do it very cleverly the first group so I got told that yeah the first group is going to be the hardest they are there that they're probably the hardest so it's good to get them out the way first the difference between me talking to a bunch of you know offenders youth detainees is that I'm gonna drop my guard a bit in the way that I'm not gonna have I can swear well I felt like I wanted to swear I felt like I wanted to talk in their language so the old me came out a lot more the way I conducted myself was in a way that they know that I've been where they're at so I'm one of them so my stories were a lot more graphic okay so I didn't hold back I really really spoke from my heart you know and they knew they knew that people in that world they can tell they can work you out pretty quickly they're very street smart they can look at you and say has he been there yeah he's been there you know I mean and that's and they knew that I that the life I come from was legit the way they they reacted to my talk the two ladies that brought me in their their vegans Izzy and Grace they said that they it's hard to hold their their focus for more than 10 minutes I mean they just that it's all over the shop and I had them hanging on my every word okay I had them hanging on my every word now after they'd heard my story okay my my story and pulling myself away from gangs and drugs and prison the place that they're in right now then I talked about veganism and I talked about veganism in a way that they would understand I said how many people have got dogs here if someone were to hurt your dog you probably want to smash their face in right probably not the way that I would go about talking about it with other with with a normal demographic in society but these are a very particular group of people so I spoke to them in the language they would understand and they yeah yeah of course of course and I said well that's all veganism is except it's not a dog getting hurt it's a pig getting stabbed in the throat or getting pushed into a gas chamber and I think like pigs are innocent like we would live in a society that defends children okay someone hurts a kid yeah hey you know you want to sort them out for it but these pigs these cows these chickens these lambs they are innocent innocent beings that we're slaughtering and when I was talking about it someone from the back put his hand up and he goes I respect that bro and I was like wow wow there's a bunch of hardened teenagers in here some of them look like they've been in the juvie system for a while you can tell the by the ones that are a bit more hard you know a bit more hardened by their condition their conditions in jail their environment what's what it's like life on the streets and they said I respect you as a vegan I respect that philosophy of veganism now to me that is huge that is huge and they wanted to know questions I want to know what gang I was in I'm not gonna divulge the information but they wanted to question I said is there any questions you have about animals and bang they had them lions what about protein yeah but they'll put it for us to eat a and then I could go through it with them talk to him on their level about you know the dairy the dairy industry and they were very very interested and it was it was amazing it was amazing now with the first group at the end of it they all come up each one of them and shook my hand and said respect bro thanks for coming in blocked that and it was just an amazing experience now I had four more talks after that for more so if the first best one went well I was like oh no we've got the second one and the third one and the fourth group and the fifth group and it was just like wow what are these prisoners gonna be like are they gonna take the message on but every single group took it on fantastically the third group was very was probably the toughest very loud and soon as they walked in oh what what gang are you from oh yeah what are you vegan I you know so very loud and I was just I held my own and I said you know I'll get to all your questions but just listen to my story the thing that I want to drive home is that going back into these into the system that and telling my story it really signifies that that part of my past is gone I wouldn't have been able to do this one year out one year two years out of the game three years out of that game but I think now it's that far part of my past now I've got that confidence and the courage to be able to go back in and say hey I'm out for good and this is my story I know I know by looking at those kids I planted some seeds in their minds now they might not just oh well I'm gonna do a transformation but they might get to a point in their life one day where they feel like I've had enough and I remember that Joey go come in here and he had enough that day and he changed his whole life so I wanted them to know that no matter where you're at you know you can change your life to knowing how far gone I was anyone can do it it was just a very very significant moment in my life to walk back in through those walls and talk to these guys and I think if anyone's gonna get through them it's gonna be me I'm just I was great so grateful for the opportunity I just felt like you know like if I died tomorrow would I be happy with the legacy I left behind I mean when I was doing all that stuff in the gangs and in the drugs and you know hurting people around me hurting myself if I died then that's the legacy I would have left behind you know what I mean but now now what do I leave behind I'll leave behind my story I'll leave behind my stance against animal cruelty and slavery you know that that's what I leave behind who I am and I hope some of these guys can take something from it so I just wanted to share that with you all thanks so much for all your support thank you to my patreon's thank you to just everyone generally supporting me lately it's been overwhelming and I just wanted to share that with you because it really is a monumentous moment for me coming from where I come from having a gun in my mouth wanting to escape my reality that badly just you know to end it all but if I'd ended it that day I would never have had a chance to give back the way that I have so life's funny that way life is funny that way all the all the situations in my past have led me to here now and now I've got this golden opportunity to give back and hopefully change some people's lives forever and even though I had pain in my heart I was hopeless from the start