- In downtown Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge Craig Mitchell
spends his working hours handing down criminal sentences.
But in his free time he's helping to give second chances
to some of the very men and women he sends to prison
through the simple act of running.
His incredible journey
is featured in the powerful new documentary,
Skid Row Marathon.
Y'all take a look.
(gentle music)
- My involvement with the running club gives me the ability
to impact lives in a way that I cannot as a judge.
- This is what I use to call home.
Climbing in and out of a hole on a regular basis
likes it's perfectly normal.
- Got arrested, I got out of jail
and then I just drank as much as I could, hoping to die.
- One horrendous act does not define a person
in his or her entirety.
Not everybody succeeds.
- I knew I had felt about the passion when I was running.
Get ready to rock and roll.
Here we go the midnight crunch.
- Do I believe in a second chance?
Sure I do.
(audience cheering)
- Please welcome founder of the Skid Row running club
Judge Craig Mitchell.
(cheering and clapping)
So take us back, before you were a judge
what were you a teacher, is that what you did?
- I was a teacher for 17 years
in south central Los Angeles.
- So that's where the patience comes in.
You have to have patience as a teacher.
- You do and it really taught me to appreciate everybody.
So many people look at people with certain stereotypical
assumptions that they make.
But when you are with young people for six, seven,
eight, ten hours a day, you understand
that every human being has tremendous potential
and as a teacher the wonderful thing about teaching,
I didn't plan on staying in teaching for 17 years,
but I found it to be so meaningful
that I couldn't pull myself away.
To be able to advance the potential of human beings,
there's no more worthy enterprise.
- I'm sure where that's where this all started for you
in your heart, with this whole concept
of just advocating for second chances for people
for convicts, so people that really
society might lose hope in and you don't.
- And there's some people that come into my court house
or in my courtroom,
you know okay, they may be a of a certain racial identity
certain socio-economic background.
I can look at a piece of paper that tells me
their criminal record, but there's more.
And it is my obligation to figure out,
who is this person and can I do something of benefit
to this person rather than simply sending them to prison
because that's too easy.
- How did you come up with the idea of the running club?
And why did you think running would aid them
in getting better?
- Well drawing on my own experience
I'd run for many years.
- [Madeleine] Thank you.
- I'd run for many years before I ended up
on Skid Row at the Midnight Mission
and I understood how vital it was for my own mental health,
far more than my physical health, okay?
And for my mental health and so
when I went to Skid Row and I saw people
who were attempting to maintain their sobriety
deal with serious addiction, deal with homelessness,
what do you need to be successful in that endeavor?
You need some mental fortitude, okay?
And you need a sense of community
and if anybody has been around runners,
they're really nice people.
- Yeah all those endorphins.
- Okay but they are, they're content, they're happy, okay?
And so to bring that running experience
both for the mental health and the sense of community
I knew it would be a good fit.
- It's beautiful.
Are you guys runners?
Do you all run?
- I love running,
and I'm with you and a big part of my sobriety
was always what working out did for me mentally
and it's not about how it makes me look or any of it.
Legitimately it's just a mood elevator for sure.
- And I've done some research.
There have been a lot of academic studies
that indicate that the dopamine that is released
when you run okay, is critical in suppressing
an individuals desire to take drugs.
- Let me ask you a quick question.
At what point in a run do you think
that dopamine starts hitting ya?
- Or do you think it's different for every chemist--
like all your body?
- When I do it, there's that barrier
where you're exhausted, exhausted, exhausted
then you get that kind of breakthrough
and you feel fine. - I would say the first
mile or two.
- Yeah?
Interesting.
- Pretty quick.
- So you're saying I just have to get past the mile.
Okay
- [Craig] Just one mile come on.
- That's what I filtered out.
Just get past the mile girl.
- There you go.
There you go.
- So the producer of the documentary Skid Row Marathon
Gabby Hayes is actually in our audience, hi.
- Hi guys.
- So what drew you to this story?
- I'm a runner myself and I live downtown Los Angeles
for five, six years and I couldn't believe
how many homeless people were in the streets
in along the sidewalks, in boxes,
you see it. - It's alarming, yeah.
- It's really so bad
and I felt really helpless.
I didn't know what can you do?
You give them water or maybe give them food.
But then I read an article about Judge Mitchell
who started the running club on Skid Row
and I thought, maybe that's a good idea,
maybe I can do something,
and we just started running with them
for like four, six weeks and slowly but surely
they warmed up and we gained their trust
and four years later, the documentary is finished.
- Oh my gosh, thank you so much Gabby.
The documentary is wonderful.
He's all about helping addicts the homeless
and criminals turn their lives around.
That includes people like our next guests
Rebecca and Raphael.
Just listen to their stories.
- We are all hopeless, die hard alcoholic drug addicts
and we are the least person
that you would think would be running or doing anything
with their lives.
- I had a weapon
and I started shooting at them
and I seen them both fall right there in the driveway.
- I have created so much wreckage
because of my drinking and drug use.
- I've lived more than half of my life in places like this
where they tell you when you can eat.
When you can use the restroom.
I'm an alien to your world.
This is all a turnaround for me in my life.
I took somebody's life.
I feel that as long as I'm breathing
there's not enough that I could do for the life that I took.
- We can stop this cycle now you know
and it's such a big deal being here.
(dramatic music)
- So Rebecca and Raphael are joining us.
Give it up for them.
So Rebecca you were an addict for years.
How did you get clean, what was the final thing
that helped you do you think?
- Such a long story.
I started drinking and smoking pot when I was a teenager
and when I was 20 I was dating someone
who was a heroin addict.
- Wow. - Yeah, I was curious.
Not to place any blame on him but I was curious
and I started using heroin and cocaine.
Immediately I lost everything.
I lost everything and I ended up on the streets
and I lived like that for a number of years.
I entered a 12 step program in July of 2011,
I've been sober ever since.
- Man.
That's great. - Thank you.
- So how did you find out about the program?
You're living on the streets, I'm just curious
to get the word out on that, that's cool.
- I found out about the running program
through the program I was in.
I was in the Midnight Mission which a homeless shelter
in downtown LA and they were supporting a five K
for the Midnight Mission and I wanted to be a part of that.
- And that's when the thing that really helped you change.
- Yeah running has definitely helped me change.
- I think the science has been proven okay
that you're right.
So Raphael you spent almost 30 years in prison.
How did you meet Judge Mitchell?
How did that come about?
- In 2004 I went to a parole board hearing,
my second parole board hearing
and he was the deputy district attorney there
so normally we would expect a district attorney
to go in there and say, "This guy should never go home"
They usually just go in there and say
"Hey nah, don't let this guy go home.
"He doesn't deserve it.
"He did this this"
But Craig said at first, "I read this guy's file
"and at first I thought he should never go home
"but after seeing him here today, seeing the change
"he's done in prison and how he's turned the corner"
he said "I'm not opposing,
"I'm leaving it up to the parole board"
He encouraged parole.
- Wow.
He believed in you.
- I remember my exact words at that parole hearing.
The district attorneys office
does not oppose Raphael's parole, okay?
- That's a big moment for you.
- Three months later I just said
"Man it takes a lot of gall for somebody to do that
"to go out of their, to go against the grain"
- Believe in you.
- And have faith so I sent him a thank you card
and I didn't think he was going to write back
and he wrote.
I didn't get parole
and I went to seven parole board hearings
and seven years later,
we were corresponding for seven years.
- Raphael would write me letters that were probably
15 to 20 pages long, okay?
And we talked about politics about religion, everything
and he and I wouldn't agree on everything, we still don't,
okay?
- Which is okay America.
- Which is okay.
- It's okay.
- And what was great is that Raphael
would seriously ponder my point of view.
I would ponder his and as you say,
we found common ground.
- Yeah it's possible,
possible. - [Craig] It is.
Do I believe in a second chance?
Sure I do and Raphael has just brought that message
home to me.
- Welcome judge Mitchell, Raphael, Mrs Crabrerra.
Raphael I would like to present you
with your discharge card from parole.
Congratulations on successfully completing your parole.
- Thank you it's an honor.
- You're officially a free man.
(laughing)
Good job, okay?
- Thank you.
- I'm back with Rob Lowe and Madeleine Paige
along with the founder of the Skid Row Running Club
Judge Craig Mitchell and two of the club members
Raphael and Rebecca.
So after 29 years in prison and nearly five years on parole
that was the moment Raphael was finally free.
A moment for which judge Mitchell was sure to be
by Raphael's side,
you're like an angel.
In fact judge Mitchel is often by the side of Raphael,
Rebecca and the other members of his running club
so how do you think Raphael and Rebecca
the running club has kind of changed your life
or helped you on a better path?
- Well for me, becoming a heroin addict
I didn't feel beautiful anymore.
I had crossed every line possible
so I had very low self esteem
and what running did was empower me
and it made me feel fierce
and it made me feel beautiful.
- Raphael what about you?
- For me the running club was like a second family.
You're running and all you know
is everyone's wearing tennis shoes and short pants
and everybody's just trying to get to a goal.
No ones asking for your resume.
No ones asking about your history.
No ones asking about what job do you have,
who do you know, where you're from.
No one cares.
Everybody just cares about one thing
and that's reaching the goal.
I have one friend and I'm going, oh my God
you work for Homeland Security?
Oh you're a cop and I was like,
I used to run from cops and now I'm running with these guys.
Yeah, and I didn't know, that's the thing,
I didn't know you know?
- That's what I think is so powerful about this story
because this country is so divide right now
and especially that y'all talking about
you don't agree on everything.
We don't have to agree on everything
but it is nice to at least let someone's opinion
be validated and heard and find some common ground.
- We're such opposite poles, he and I.
Here's a judge.
A criminal court that sends people to prison
and here's an ex-gang member
and here I am and I'm going to his house.
- Yeah.
- And we're having barbecues or fourth of July
and I know his family and he knows my family.
I've said it a million times
this man is somebody special.
- Totally, agree.
So would you all like
I mean an opportunity.
I know you're usually in your work out clothes
running with them but you're all dazzled up
you want to say anything to him?
I want to say stuff to him and I've just met you.
I just think you're a remarkable man
and I was wondering if y'all wanted to say any words or..
- Craig knows, I've said it a million times.
I see him like a father figure.
I've gone to him with personal problems,
medical issues, whenever I go to him,
he always has an answer.
If we have more fathers like him
we would have less people incarcerated,
more people graduating from college
and more people being caring
and there'd be more love in the world.
He's everything and you guys have just touched the iceberg.
And I love you.
(audience clapping)
- Anything you want to say Rebecca?
- Well what you see here is what you get.
He's like this 24 seven and what I want to say to you
and I've told you this personally,
never once have I felt separated from you.
Never once have I felt there was a barrier.
You've always believed in me and you've always made me feel
like I can accomplish the miraculous
and you're always there rooting me on
and I don't know how to say thank you to that.
- You don't have to.
- But I love you.
- You have lived your life in a way
that is so affirming to me.
God bless you.
- Well all y'all can catch Skid Row Marathon
streaming on Amazon and Apple TV.
It's amazing.
We have to have you all back or seriously run for president.