- Don't just assume,
because like people are in prison
that they're bad people, that's not right.
A lot of people are here that further themselves.
- Me, me, talk to me.
I'm not that monster that you think I am.
- We forget about people and we hold them off,
and we put them in cages, and we put them in boxes,
or we give them labels
and then we treat 'em like they're less than,
just being compassionate
is how everything can shift, for everybody.
- The United States incarcerates more of it's own people
than any other country in the world.
And on any given day, nearly 60 thousand of those people
are incarcerated youth.
We also have the highest recidivism rate.
Recidivism is the likelihood at which
a formerly incarcerated person will re-offend.
In the U.S. if you're an adult
and you've been to prison once,
there is a 76% chance that you'll go back.
And for young people, that rate can be even higher.
Many discuss the need for a solution
to young people being stuck in this cycle,
but oftentimes the young people that they're trying to help,
are left out of the conversation.
This season of Gateways, join me in hearing from young men,
who have first hand experience in the prison system.
And find out how one program
is helping to pull youth out of this cycle.
First, I'm visiting a group home for incarcerated youth,
to speak with two young men,
who are finishing they're sentences there.
So how long you been in this one?
- Um, for like about a month now.
- Okay, so do you wanna show us to your room?
- Yeah. - Sweet.
- My name's Hose, I'm 19 years old
and I was 15 years old when I first got incarcerated.
- Do you sleep on the top or the bottom?
- My beds up there but at night I pull it down here,
'cause I have a fear of heights,
so I'm afraid to roll off the top.
- Okay that's fair .
- Yeah
- So I sleep on the ground.
- Yeah - yeah oh my god.
- So growing up we were poor, we lived in poverty.
Obviously went to the food banks had EBT cards, all that.
Living with my mom, it was a struggle 'cause like,
her boyfriend was always spending the money,
he was a gambler.
That's kind of why I resorted to start making money,
you know, 'cause I wanted to,
like I hated seeing my family struggle,
like I hated seeing them struggling every month
just to make ends meet you know
and like it hurt me to see 'em going to food banks
and stuff like that, like that really got to me.
- We're trying to get in,
so we can play like baseball,
or something just, play sports.
- Yeah, other than basketball?
- Yeah. I mean it's nice here.
My name is Kolo I am 19 years old.
I was 16 when I went to Greenhill.
That's every award that I have gotten.
- What?
This is all the awards you've gotten?
♪ Greenhill student of the month. ♪
- The financial thing that's the key,
that's what really makes the majority of us
do our crimes, really it's due to lack of funds.
- How do you think you can pull kids out of that?
'cause I feel like so many people
are just so caught up in it
and lost in it, and you can't see,
like you said, like you can't see
past your street or your block.
- I guess funding our communities and helping, like,
kids that don't got, like just say clothes
or don't have food or don't have something.
And help them so they won't feel obligated
to go on the streets and do what they do.
That's usually what it is; people tryin' to take care
of their parents, tryin'to take care of themselves
- Yeah - who end up
doing the robberies, who's,
end up shooting each other over,
you know trying to get money and stuff.
- It's just, you're talking about a cycle you know,
it's like if someone's born poor, it's not like,
you're a kid you can't bring yourself out of poverty,
- Right, you can't. - if your parents are poor,
you're gonna be poor and so you're gonna,
they're tryin to make ends meet
and then you're gonna have to try and make ends meet.
And it's just. - Right.
We can never catch up.
- Yeah, 'cause you're starting off so far behind.
- Right.
- When I was sitting in my cell,
I remember I was given my court documents,
like I was hearing stories about other people
who had the same exact charge as me.
Like the same kid, who had the same charge,
he ended up getting like 44 years for it.
And then I was trippin' because when I saw my court papers,
it said I could receive life imprisonment,
plus a 500 thousand dollar fine.
- And you were 15?
- Yeah, I was 15.
- Many youth at the Touchstone Group Home
were previously incarcerated at Greenhill,
A juvenile detention facility in Chehalis, Washington.
So first can I ask you to like introduce yourself?
- My name is Erin.
- I'm DeAnte Moore-Lions.
- My name is Jacob Carmichael.
- My name's Michael.
- I'm 19 years old.
- I'm 18.
- I'm currently 20 years old.
- I'm 18 and when I first got locked up, I was 14.
- I was 15 years old when I got incarcerated.
- Did you come straight to Greenhill?
- No. - Where did you go?
- I was in a, I was in my juvenile.
- Were you waiting on your sentence here?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- My juvenile-- - Can you explain that?
'Cause a lot of people don't know that like,
people spend a lot of time just waiting
to get their sentence.
- Hmm so for my court process I had to wait there
for almost like two and a half years.
- They would keep you in your cell for 23 hours a day,
you'd come out for an hour,
you get your shower, and then you can play cards
with one of the COs or whatever.
- It was just like an isolated unit.
You didn't get to talk to anybody,
unless you were talking out your cell.
Sometimes I'd be in there for 23 hours,
except for when I went to school,
I was on my own for 22 hours.
- That was just to find out what my sentence was
and there was like other processes that I went through,
like a declination hearing.
- A declination hearing is when you go before a judge,
and your lawyer and your prosecutor
and maybe a couple doctors.
They tell you that you have been doing adult things
and so you are seen as an adult,
which that doesn't make any sense,
because your brain hasn't fully developed 'til you're 25,
so how can a 14, 15 year old be seen as an adult.
And so if the court so chooses
then they can automatically charge you as an adult.
- So, court, I have to say is like
one of the scariest things I've been through.
And I was 14 so I was like, I didn't have any knowledge
of court, any way, shape or form.
I actually cried until the hearing.
just because like, under the table,
they have like six questions they have to ask themselves.
And they take votes, one of the questions,
the only one I remember was like,
'Is he a risk to the community?'
and he was like 'yes'.
- How did it feel for him to say
that you were a risk to the community.
- Okay, so when he said that in my 14 year old mind,
I was like "what?"
I try to forget it just because like
nothing good came out of court for me.
- I was the last one who actually had a declination hearing
and afterwards they were just like you know what,
if you're 15 and you commit a crime,
that is really violent and we think that you're an adult,
we just gonna auto-decline you.
- How does that feel to be 16 years old
and sentenced with an adult sentence.
- It made me feel like,
like this is real, this is real life, this is not a game
I'm getting sent to a county for grown men.
- Did you feel really supported
by your family before you got locked up?
- I think my family always supported me
but the thing that got in the way between us
was pretty much myself and just my actions.
I've been locked up for almost four years,
it'll be the fourth year this year.
Kinda feel bad about myself because like,
when my parents don't come visit me,
I'm like "why didn't you guys come visit me?"
and then like I look at people
who don't get a visit for years.
Like whenever my family visits now
I'm just like this is a blessing
because a lot of people don't get
that type of family support.
- What's your mom like, what's her name?
- My mom is Deyana Moore, she's perfect. I love her dearly.
She comes up here to see me,
so sometimes she come up here with watery eyes
that'll make me feel kind of, you know bad,
but .
- Are you named after her?
- Yeah
- It's like, it sounds familiar.
- DeAnte, Deyana. Yeah.
- What's the hardest part about being away
from your family for so long?
- Just knowing that you know,
they come to visit me every two weeks and
they just, no matter what I do they still love me.
- Yeah.
- That's really special.
- It means a lot.
- We make mistakes when we're young
I don't think that should have to deal with
our mistakes until we're like 50 and getting out.
'Cause some people are locked up from when they're kids
until they're 50 years old.
- And by then it's already almost like
too late to really try to do anything.
Your life is gone, it only takes one to two years
to rehabilitate yourself, honestly.
- Yeah.
- I'd probably define rehabilitation as just like
something you would have to do for yourself.
I don't think staff from either of the facilities
that I was in really was like okay ima help you
and you're gonna be successful one day.
Because I'm locked up it s like anybody that works here,
can talk to me however they want.
And so they do talk to me however they want.
I think part of the reason why
staff are kind like making it hard for residents here
is because, staff who are here isn't really that diverse.
- I want a counselor that looks like me,
you know that actually been through
the same things I've been through.
So that's a real tight bond,
it's just a different type of feeling.
We need more counselors that you know are diverse.
- That represent you, - Yeah.
- and you feel reflected in, yeah.
If you could have access to anything
to help you be more prepared to get out,
what would you ask for?
- I think more mentors.
Like just more people who have been through it,
I feel like that's the, like one of the things
that could really prepare me for when I get out.
- Do you feel ready?
- No.
- No? - No, honestly.
- So, what's it like
now that you're not in Greenhill anymore,
what's that transition like?
- It started off rocky, 'cause you know,
doing three years at Greenhill.
Being like with no warning at all I just got released
out of it. - yeah.
- And it was the most weirdest thing.
- When I first came to the group home,
I started trippin' out like I had this,
almost like an anxiety attack?
Like when I first got on a computer or like, you know
held a phone or whatever, like, it was just like,
yeah like I felt out of,
like out of the norm, just like, lost.
- Right just 'cause it was really unfamiliar?
- Yeah, like how much technology upgraded,
compare to when I was on the outs,
like before I got locked up.
- Are there any moments where you've been like in public
or just like, like was anything really shocking to you?
- My first day I went to a store
and I almost lost my mind 'cause it was just too much.
Too much people and stuff.
- So like the first time I went to the mall,
like I did have an anxiety attack.
'cause like I saw so many people
and like so many things going on around me,
like it just didn't feel normal to me
so we actually ended up having to leave
so that way I could like pull myself back together.
- All the guys we've heard from so far are connected
through Gateways, a program that brings together
Evergreen State College students and incarcerated youth
to learn alongside each other in a college class
and through mentorship opportunities.
Talib Williams is the current director of the program.
- It's tough to give a 14 year old no freedom,
and then at 19,
you're like here you go, enjoy life.
They didn't have any social connection
with the free world at all.
Recidivism comes into play when you don't give
any incarcerated individual the transition that they need
to slowly re-enter a free world.
You also don't give them the tools that they need
to survive in a free world.
- The premise of Gateways can work in any capacity.
It's just about giving people a chance.
- These guys are still at a point where we can do something
that'll have a lasting impact.
- It allows like for the greatest
educational opportunity, probably ever.
In that classroom setting we were free.
- Hey. Thanks for watching.
To hear more about this program that's helped so many guys,
like Erin and DeAnte and Hose,
you can click the link here.
And if you remember Gateways from season one
and you wanna help it continue,
you can click the link in the description to donate.
Donations collected through the Evergreen State College
Foundation help to support the future of Gateways.