Prison Reform

Apr 17

“I was in college when I started. I was going to school and working at a print shop. There was a drug point outside of my apartment building. I played basketball with the guy who ran it. He told me: ‘I’ve got one night open, and I’m going to offer it to you first.’ My shift was on Friday, 6pm to 6am. We sold weed, heroin, and crack. I made $500 that first night. I was nineteen. My girlfriend wasn’t sure about it, but I bought her some high heels with the money, and I promised her I’d keep working at the print shop. After a few weeks, Saturday and Sunday opened up too. Then Wednesday. I started making 2k, then 3k, then 5k per week. I went to register for my next semester of college, but the line was too long, so I never went back. I didn’t have to wake up at 7 AM anymore. I could wake up whenever I wanted. The money made me feel powerful. People would stop talking when I began to talk. I could give an old lady $100 to pay her light bill. I could give kids $50 to go to the movies. The guy who first offered me the job had a house, and kids, and cars, and a motorcycle. He’d been working for twenty years with no problem. I thought: ‘Why can’t that be me?’”

“It wasn’t really a gang. There aren’t Bloods or Crips in Puerto Rico. It was a neighborhood thing. There were no colors. There was no initiation. We just grew up together. I had two cousins and two brother-in- laws who were in the organization. There were ranks: watchers, dealers, runners, leaders, enforcers. But the ranks didn’t really get in the way of the relationships. We all played basketball together. We threw block parties for the whole neighborhood. It was like a family. There was only one entrance and one exit to our neighborhood. The houses were all close together. There were no lawns. On the night it ended, I could hear the doors breaking down all around me. Helicopters were overhead. I kept getting calls saying: ‘They got this person, they got that person, they got your cousin.’ I just sat in the middle of the living room, smoking a cigarette. Suddenly I heard a bunch of footsteps coming up the stairs. I heard the sound of a power saw and sparks started coming off my door. I went to open the door but I got hit with a flashbang, and eight guys rushed in. They got everyone that night. They didn’t even bring us to a jail. They brought us to a basketball stadium.”

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“I’ve been teaching the GED course for 21 years. I’ve helped over 300 students get their certificates.”

“I met Donald when I was twenty-six. He pursued me relentlessly.”

“I’m sixty-two now. I have three more years. I sold heroin. A lot of it.”

“I knew a person who worked for an insurance company. I’d give her some money and then she’d give me all the information I needed to open fake credit lines.”

“I was convicted of distributing a large amount of crack cocaine.”

“I was in college when I started. I was going to school and working at a print shop.”

“I’ve organized a lot of programs in prison. One of the classes I started is called Creative Parenting.”

“My dad couldn’t handle me. My mother was an alcoholic so he raised us on his own.”

“I was a good student. I did football, karate, basketball, all sorts of activities.”

“I got caught up in a little something. I’ve got twenty days left.”

“I’ve got a daughter out there. I’ve been gone for 23 years now. It’s really hurt her.”

“I thought it was a bomb at first. It pushed the building, so I was thrown against the wall.”

“I was alone with four kids. My mother was sick.”

“My father died when I was six. He drowned on a fishing trip.”

“I was working at a nightclub in Honduras, making $4 a night, and some guy tells me that I can make $6,000 in twelve days just by working on a boat.”

“My childhood ended early. I was sexually abused by two family members until the age of eleven.”

“He’s a beautiful person. He always tells me: ‘We’ve got to find a way to win by losing.’”

“My mom was a single mom and there were nine of us. All of the kids worked in the fields.”

“This is my fifth time in prison. Every crime I’ve committed has come from my addiction.”

“I was studying landscape architecture at Penn State and dealing drugs on the side.”

Adam Parks https://apollocreativeco.com