- Yeah, I'm here with London Hughes!
Give it up! (audience applauding)
- Hi, guys!
- My next guest is living proof
that it's never too late to turn your life around.
After spending a total of 30 years behind bars,
he recently graduated college at 63 years old with honors.
Now, he's hoping his story will help inspire others.
Everybody, let's welcome, Joseph!
(audience applauding)
So, congratulations.
I was saying this when you walked out of here a minute ago,
it's inspiring, like, what you're doing,
just telling your story.
But when you see that photo of you standing there
with a degree, like, what do you see?
- Well, my idea that born when I made that photo was
I had never seen nobody make that type of photo, so,
you take the perception, you take that cap away,
you take the degree away, and what do you have?
You don't ever think a guy that's been to prison
and I made it, I did it with honors,
'cause I made straight A's for two semesters in a row.
I made the President's Honor List
and I qualified for the Dean's List
'cause I ended up with a 3.670 GPA.
- [Kelly] Oh, my God! - Wow!
- Last Friday, I was accepted at the domestic program
at Cal State University Long Beach.
- Wow!
Oh my gosh!
So, Joseph, take us back to your previous life.
What did it look like?
- Oh, I lived an ugly life.
I started running around with gangs at an early age
and I started using and abusing drugs and alcohol.
At 18 years old, I got in trouble
and the judge gave me the option.
"You either go to prison, state prison, for two years
or join the military," which I did.
That was a no-brainer.
So I ended up going in the military for four years
and I discharged with honorable discharge.
And, well, I went right back to my neighborhood
and I started doing the same things
and I was only out of the military five months
when I went to a state prison for the first of 40 times.
'Cause that's how many times I've been to prison.
Seven terms and 33 violations, eighties, nineties
and two thousands. - [London] Whoa!
Not once in all that time did anybody ever ask the age.
Also, you got a drug problem
and you want some help?
Nobody.
Nobody not once in all that time.
- I was gonna ask, like, why do you think
you kept going back?
And it's because that, you didn't, no support system.
- No support system, no research, no nothing.
Not in that particular, you know,
they weren't offering any type of rehabilitation.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Right?
So, I ended up calling rehabs, right?
I called, like, six different rehabs.
And I ended up calling The Salvation Army of Anaheim
Adult Rehabilitation Center.
And they said, "Sure, come on in."
And that was in-
- So you called a bunch of places to get help.
- None of them would take me.
- [Kelly] Wow, that, wow! - None of 'em.
The Salvation Army took me in.
Mind you, I'm three months shy of 55 years old
when I entered The Salvation Army.
- Well, Joseph, how did you end up going back to school?
- Well, when in The Salvation Army,
I started, they let me go out
and I started using my discharge, my benefits.
I had never used them before.
In all that time, I had never used them.
And one of the veterans counselors asked me
if I ever thought about going to school.
No.
- I know that we were talking right before we were on air.
And you were like, "This wasn't my intention, you know,
was to be some kind of story for everyone."
You know?
It was for you.
You did it for you, but it is inspiring what you're doing.
- Well, that picture went viral, Kelly.
I sat in my room for an hour
and I cried like a little boy.
All the positive feedback.
My mom, my sister and my brother, my uncle, whatever,
they all wanna go to rehab.
Or, "You motivated me to go back to school."
- Yeah.
- Or, "You motivated me and I cried like a little,"
my mom's been gone since 2006
and she knew she'd never seen me in recovery.
- She didn't see the turnaround?
- I wanna cry.
(inhales and exhales deeply)
If my story inspired somebody
and above everything else,
if my story gives somebody hope, so, be it.
Because all my life, I took, I took, I took,
and I took some more from society.
I really did.
Sometimes, I wasn't nice about it.
But today, I have to give unconditionally
with a loving heart.
You know, I could go through the motion
and just give.
But I do today with a loving heart.
- Yeah.
You know, a lot of people I hear lose hope
in those environments.
There's not a lot of hope, no belief in rehabilitation.
And, this is one of those stories
that really needs to be heard
because, I don't know, I'm with my, to a fault,
you can ask all my friends,
I believe that people can change.
And, I do. - They can change.
- I believe that people can change.
And I feel like the day I stopped believing that,
I, what? (Kelly exhales deeply)
- Oh, babes!
- Everything's fine.
I think the day that you stop believing
that people can change, is kind of the day you die.
- That's true.
I tend to tell people that I'm a late, late, late bloomer.
(Kelly laughs)
- I tell people that with my chest.
(Kelly and London laugh)
I was like, "Look, they're gonna come."
I was like, "I asked God."
Well, we know that you wanna continue on with school
and get your master's.
And so, we were talking about giving you 25,
we're gonna give you $5,000 to help you
keep furthering your education 'cause I believe in you.
And I think it's really important what you're doing.
(audience applauding) All right?
And I'm so sorry I'm crying like a baby.
It's been a rough year, Joseph.
(Kelly laughs)
Oh, God, I'm so sorry.
It's just the day, right?
Here you go.
- Joseph, don't, Joseph.
Oh, wow, I'm crying too.
Oh, this is such an emotional show!
I wasn't expecting this much from this show, Kelly!
- I know.
Oh my gosh.
Joseph, it's time, though.
It's one of the things, I'm telling you.
I believe in you.
We just met and I believe that you can do
so many amazing things.
- Honestly, tears are okay.
- All them years, my mom never gave up hope on me.
Even at my worst, she never gave up hope on me.
- That's a mama.
Oh, I mean that, I'm a mama, so there,
yeah, there will be no time in my life while I'm breathing,
that I give up on either of my children.