I did my hair in singles, and um
I learned how to do this in Green Hill
man I used to trade these, like
I braid your hair for some cup noodles and some chips
or a deodorant or something.
It's my hustle, and I did it on myself man, it took me a few hours, but I got it done.
-This is my friend Christian.
When he was a teenager, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
While he was there, he signed up for Gateways for Incarcerated Youth,
a college class that allows students and incarcerated youth to learn alongside each other, at Green Hill,
a juvenile detention facility in Washington State.
After his release, he enrolled at Evergreen and took Gateways as a full-time student, which is where I met him.
-I'm Christian, aka CJ. I'm from here, I'm from the Central District
and uh, this is Cherry and MLK.
This is really significant to me, everybody from the hood, would come here, because this is the middle of the CD.
This is like a safe haven for everybody.
Right here.
On MLK and Cherry.
I joined a gang 'cause I didn't have a family growin' up,
and, they just offered me that family-ship.
I went to Garfield on 23rd and Cherry, that's my high school,
I didn't graduate there cause I went to Green Hill.
It made me realize that
my life
has just been frozen.
Like, I'm -I'm not experiencing nothing that a regular teenager should experience.
Prom, and, you know actually
graduating with everybody, like class of 2012 and stuff like that.
Um, I got robbed of like, all those stuff, I mean,
like jobs I-
you know, I -I didn't get the, you know, experience at 16, yeah I can work now, you know what I mean?
Wow, I can have a driver's permit, and teach myself how to drive with somebody else's, like those things.
I didn't know what that looked like.
Being free and -and like,
living a whole new lifestyle.
- What does it mean to be free?
-To be free?
Use the bathroom when I want
eat whatever I want, you know I'm saying, talk to whoever I want.
Every time I would see someone from Evergreen come in, it was like,
a extra good, that okay maybe I can get that, or, I can get there.
It helped me,
like realize that there's other things out there, in the world, than, you know, living the criminal lifestyle.
Like being in college has empowered me to be a better person.
If that, like, makes any sense.
Something will confront me, in the institution, like a fight, or something, and I got to avoid it
I'll go back to my room and -and pray to God about it like, "God
I don't know what Imma do, but I'm tryna get out, I'm tryna do better,
you know what I'm saying, just give me the strength to - to say no, and
to
surround myself with other people."
I've met some really spiritual people in there. I've met, like,
really kind-hearted people that want to change.
It's like kind-hearted people,
people that made mistakes just like everybody else, like,
human.
Oh, you make a mistake in the office, or at work, you know what I'm saying, I just made a mistake in life.
Just to treat us, just as you want your children to be treated, or your brother.
We're human.
Just like everybody else,
we just made mistakes.
When I got out the first time? Oh, I got some teriyaki-
you know what I'm saying, I went to the mall, it was like like, oh my god.
I just was like, now I'm free I'ma do everything now,
It's about time like, everything I just wanted to do within those five years, I was tryna make up for it.
-The fall after Christian finished his first sentence,
he enrolled at Evergreen, where he continued his involvement with Gateways from the outside.
Later that winter, he was arrested and sent back to Green Hill for a couple of months.
-You're like, a -a chosen number to be incarcerated again.
And it was like,
an understanding,
that I couldn't fully accept cause I ended up getting locked up again,
when I was in the Gateways class, like, I got sent back from Evergreen, back to Green Hill, and
like, that was always on my mind, like every night, recidivism, like I'm already a number,
picked out, in society, to go back to jail.
It really messed me up.
Like that was the hardest little chunk of time I ever did. I did five years, and then there's six months
I did was, just, crazy to me 'cause I just was already exposed to everything in Gateways.
And I kinda feel scared now 'cause I know people, like, incarcerated people are gonna watch this,
like, I don't have all the answers, and I don't think you will too man, but uh,
I just,
content what I got, and just keep, moving and just pick up.
Anything having to do with school and positive people, 'cause once you get yourself around positive people,
man, you're just gonna to wanna be positive.
I'm enrolled at Central, Seattle Central, I'ma go to school there. I got a job, Dick's Burger Joint right there on Broadway.
Just work and finish my schooling, and get a job that matches my certificate or my degree.
Just want a simple life, like everybody else. Wife, kids, home.
The American Dream, right?