- I'm going home in very few days,
honestly I did not wanna go home.
Been here for 20 years.
And it's people like Miss Jo Dee.
She's allowed me to be proud of that now,
when I wasn't before.
- My name Jo Dee Davis and I am the Executive Director
of Healing Broken Circles, which provides space
for healing and learning for peopled touched
by the justice system.
There are about 2400 men in this institution.
Most people have a few of prison and prisoners
that they aren't of value.
I'm told by a lot of people these guys aren't worth it
and yet I look around and I see people learning
and see people taking charge of themselves.
To me it doesn't matter what anybody did,
I'm not about the past, it's who you are right now.
And it's where you wanna go in the future.
I don't think you want the person who came to prison
to come live next to you.
I think that you want them to be better.
- My name is Michael, I'm a lifer, I will probably
never see the streets and I think one of the most
important things I do in here is to encourage
other people who will.
- The men here have histories of trauma and toxic stress
that has effected the way they think.
Research is showing the things that really work
in healing those traumatic effects and they are
things like yoga, writing, and poetry,
dancing and singing and doing theater,
and being silly and improv.
Those guys are creating new ways of thinking and healing.
- You guys know my poetry, I'll give you guys
the option of The Missing or the I Miss You piece,
which will I rock?
- [Group] I Miss You.
- Alright that's what I'll rock.
Name's Dan, I've been at Marion for about 11 years.
I've taken part and been part of every program
I think Jo Dee has done.
- When I met him he had this buzz cut
and he was tough looking, and he's got hatred
written on his neck.
- My daily day was just continuing the kind of activity
that would bring you to prison just did it
inside of prison.
- I looked in his eyes and I thought, you know what,
this thing I see out here is not who's in there.
And we've come a long way since then.
- I got a bone to pick with you.
We were doing this thing, five responses to conflict.
My mom came in for the event and Jo Dee had me lead
and teach and give my mom a different vision of me,
which was huge yeah.
- This space is a space of restoration
and it restores people.
I've done so many programs and learned so much
that I feel that I could go home and be somebody.
- Attendance in the programs effect the way
the men behave and effect the way they treat each other.
- Miss Jo Dee, she reached down into that garbage bin
and took out this piece of trash that someone called Lamar
and allowed me to be so much to so many people.
This is my family and I wanna make sure
that I make them proud in every step of my new journey.
(applause)
- Kindness involves thinking about another person,
kindness involves acting from your heart.
Being kind is an action.