- [Lisa Ling] With just an hour left,
the dance is in full swing.
While most of the fathers and daughters are on the floor,
(man and woman laughing)
one pair hangs back.
- [Aziz] Trying to get her to dance.
"No, I wanna stay with you."
"Go play with the little girls."
"No, I wanna stay with you."
Seemed like she was
trying to hold on and...
just spend as much time with me as she can.
(gentle keyboard music)
- [Lisa] For a brief moment,
these 13 men can forget where they are
and what they've done to get here.
(audience clapping)
- That was a clip from CNN's "This Is Life" with Lisa Ling,
and that episode was called "Fatherless Towns".
It airs tomorrow.
I gotta tell you folks...
It's worth the look.
You really got to see it;
but joining us now is Aziz,
one of the dads in the show along with his family,
his 8-year-old daughter, Deondra, and his wife, Tia.
Hi, ladies. How you doing?
(audience clapping)
I saw her. She did.
She waved a little bit.
She tryin' to play me right now,
but I'll have them all laughing after awhile, don't worry.
Aziz, how's it feel to be with your family?
- Man, I'm blessed, Steve.
I've been gone for 17 months.
They went through struggles.
It was hard on them.
You know...
Now that I'm home, you know...
It's easier for them.
I get to spend time with my kids.
And the neighborhood that we stay in,
it's like it ain't...
livable.
So now I feel safe with me being home with them.
I'm able to take care of a lotta my bills because
three days out of jail
I got blessed with a job as a painter.
So I was able to put the TV back on
so we can sit in the house, look at cable and stuff,
keep them from outside, you know?
And it's just a blessing, man, you know.
It's a true blessing.
- Did you think the program changed you?
- Oh yes.
One thing they showed me that I wasn't alone
because at 13, my father died.
So it was like family of 14 so
I felt as though I had to help my mother
best way I knew how, so...
I strayed away
cause I ain't had no role model
other than homeless people, drug dealers, drug users.
So I gravitated towards them
from 13 all the way up to 53 now, you know.
Being a convict,
I felt as though that whatever happened in life,
so be it. Let it happen.
I felt as though nobody really cared.
Nobody never gave me a chance.
I never had no opportunity or nothing
until the program came along, and...
They showed me that
it was important for me to stay out on the street
with my family.
They gave me a reason to live.
They helped me with my self-esteem,
my anger, how to be a productive member of society,
you know, and I feel proud.
Very proud.
- [Steve] Yeah man, and you should.
- And Aziz's story is so similar
to so many thousands of men who are languishing
inside American prisons and
no matter how hard so many of these men try
and want to become productive members of society
when they get out,
so often they have to go back to impoverished,
really dangerous, drug-infested situations
like the place where Aziz and his family live now.
I mean, it's a dangerous place
as you'll see in our show and
I have to hand it to Aziz and his whole family
for being able to stick together
and his desire
to wanna finally change things for his family.
It's really remarkable.
- Deondre? - Yes?
- Are you happy that dad is home?
- Yes I'm really happy because we watch TV together.
We watch SpongeBob.
(audience laughing)
- Y'all watch SpongeBob?
(audience laughing)
Look man,
getting back out into society and working,
that's a blessing after three days
when most guys never get an opportunity.
- And you know Steve we are a country
that takes punishment very, very seriously
which is why we have
so many millions of people locked up
in jails and prisons, but-
- More than any other country.
- China's a distant second
and so many people in prison and jail have kids
and so we have to ask ourselves,
especially when we have so many nonviolent offenders inside,
who are we really punishing?
Our objective is to try and punish,
you know, the offender but...
the impact that one missing man has on his entire family
and generations to come is astronomical.
- Well, does every nonviolent drug-related offense
require jail or does it require treatment?
Does it require jail or does it require a program?
You create this program with these 14
or how many or so men.
Enrich men, and you got this now.
We could have done without the jail time
and saved you a lot of taxpayer monies with programs.
At one point in time
we gotta think about rehabilitating people
and giving human beings a second chance.
You know, we're doing ourselves a real injustice here.
Now Aziz,
I know that your wife's been holding down the family
but we know you guys could use some help here.
So I'm a spokesperson now for a company called Greendot
and we gon' give your family $5,000
on a Greendot reloadable prepaid card.
This is it right here, man.
And that'll help you out.
(audience clapping)
Let me give you a personal thing;
what I think
maybe you should consider doing with this $5,000.
I would take this as an opportunity to move.
You got a job, man.
You out there painting.
Take your family, get them out the hood,
just move them to a safer place
'cause it really struck me
something as simple as getting the cable TV turned on
so they could just watch TV and stay in the house
so they don't go outside in the unsafe condition.
The average person don't even have to worry about that.
Just a safer place where your kids can just
go outside somewhere, man,
in a double-unit dwelling man,
and just take this money, man
and turn yourself around.
Your little girl is feeling you, man.
I'm feeling you.
I was crying so hard watching the show, man.
You can't watch this without being emotional.
Not if you a human being.
You just can't.
And I respect you so much, man,
for climbing back up and pulling yourself together, man.
(audience clapping)
I appreciate you, bro.
Appreciate you coming up out that hole
trying to get it right, you dig?
A lot of brothers like you, man.
I know a lot of them, but you really took it serious,
making something out yourself, man.
God bless you, brother.
Stay straight, man.
Get it right.
Go back and teach some people what you learned.
All right, I wanna say thanks to Aziz, Deondre, and Tia.
- Thank you, man.
- Fo' sho.
Thank you for sharing your story
and a special thanks to Lisa Ling.
Catch this episode of "This Is Life" with Lisa Ling
tomorrow night at 9:00/8:00 Central on CNN
and for more information on Greendot,
head over to SteveHarveyTV.com.