good afternoon
you know 2.3 million Americans are
locked up right now inside our jails and
prisons 70 million Americans Americans
have a criminal background if you are a
male and you were born in 2001 or after
trending says one out of 17 white males
has a likelihood of going to prison
one in six Hispanics have a likelihood
of going to prison and one in three
African American males have the
likelihood of going to prison let me
take you on my journey in 1995 I was
given a 20-year prison sentence for
distribution of cocaine the state of
South Carolina no longer considered me
Gerry Blasingame they called me inmate
number nineteen eighty-one fifty-three I
was born a statistic born out of wedlock
the most vivid memory I have of my
mother is one night she was arguing with
a boyfriend and I was in the next room
and I looked around pal pal two shots
rang out now let me take you on the
journey what happens to a little boy who
suffers from PTSD five years old my
mother is dead to take away the pain I
indulged at nine years old in
pornography and later into alcohol I
managed to get through high school ended
up getting a two-year scholarship to
college to study architectural
engineering this was in the height of
the crack epidemic
so I soon find myself
drugs cocaine I came home from school
one day when I was in college in the
friend of mine who was selling drugs for
me poured a bag of money out on my bed
and said this is how much money you made
today was ten thousand dollars well I
said looks like my career’s architech is
over I was a pretty good chemist and I
began to cook up crack cocaine for the
local drug dealers here in Greenville I
was making $20,000 a week as a 20 year
old well twenty thousand dollars a week
two more years in school as an architect
hmm it was hard to give up the first
time I was arrested I got a 15 year
sentence and spending the nine months in
five years probation I served four
months on that sentence six months after
I was released guess what I got arrested
again so let me tell you what happens
when you’re caught up in the drug game
and you’re caught up in poverty it’s
like a rat race my bond was $150,000 my
attorney charged me $20,000 so now I’m
having to get in the street to raise
money to continue up this rat race
anyway the second time I was out on bail
and they revoked my bond and they locked
me up until I went to court
the judge sentenced me to 20 years when
I got to the Department of Corrections I
thought I was gonna die I saw all the
brown and black me like man I said what
are you doing here and why are you here
and they were like well this is my third
time being in prison this is my fourth
time being in prison I couldn’t find a
job when I get out of I couldn’t find a
house when I got out and I knew that I
was gonna be in that situation I made a
growing up as a kid I hated God I didn’t
think God existed what kind of God would
allow a little boy’s mother to be
murdered and I never
my dad but I took a I took a choice I
begin to read the Bible and I gave my
life to a higher power and I put faith
in place and I began to read and I began
to study and I began to journal you know
when you’re in prison there is no hope
and when I would get up in the morning
and I would study and I would prayed
I remember saying hope is the thing
that’s on the inside of me that says no
that says yes when everybody else saying
no is saying yes where is hope what a
thing that was locked up on the inside
of me was allowing me to unlock others I
was teaching guys in prison to read and
write and I began to study and I begin
to pen the vision of what I’m doing now
because I knew that one day I was going
to be out every day for three and a half
years I made one confession I will not
be here long I put my faith in something
else March of 1999 I was paroled on a
20-year prison sentence I served three
and a half years on a 20-year prison
sentence my wife married me a year
before I got out one thing I realize
that there is something that we have to
do to help people that are in prison and
what I come up with
I made academic for here housing
employment education affirmation and
advocacy you know that 27 percent of all
men who are
the night they were arrested they were
homeless 67% said that they had been
homeless within the last three years and
we look at all these people out here and
we say they ought to get a job well it’s
hard to get a job where you have a
criminal background very hard do you
know there are 48,000 collateral
consequences things that bar you from
housing and jobs and education and
licenses once you have a criminal
background employment statistics say
that after a person is released from
prison the first year 60% are still
unemployed because of their criminal
backgrounds in 2004 I was given a pardon
by the South Carolina Department of
Corrections I served five years on
eleven years parole and I apply for a
pardon and they gave me a pardon thank
you God but guess what it was still hard
for me to get a job because our pardon
is not expungeable in the state of South
Carolina
go figure what does a pardon me you’re
forgiven I forgive you but oh yeah I
don’t forgive you affirmation while I
was in prison I had some professors from
Clemson University to write me a pen pal
me and 20 years later I still have those
loving relationships in my life right
now
it is so important because as someone
mentioned earlier I heard in there talk
over 60% of people in prison have a
mental health issue can you imagine
being locked up taken away from your
family and taken away from your job or
whatever you were doing even if you
didn’t have some type of mental mental
health issue that would give me one but
look at me
I had undiagnosed PTSD didn’t even
but I had hope mentoring is a big part
of our program it’s a huge part every
guy on our program gets a mentor for one
year advocacy I have a good friend Glen
Martin who who started an organization
in New York and this is one of his
quotes those who are closest to the
problem are closest to the resources but
furthest from the power I want to tell
you something
Greenville County gets over a thousand
people a year that come back to our
community every year from being
incarcerated we spent over five hundred
million dollars a year a half a billion
dollars a year to incarcerate our
citizens they are coming out ninety
percent of the people who are in prison
are getting released and if we don’t
educate and provide housing they’re
going to continue to go back that one in
three that I was talking about a black
man and we call young black men
predators but we’re not giving these
young black men an opportunity that’s
crazy
we are people to the prison system does
not rehabilitation there I know I’m
telling you nothing if I had not have
depended on my faith in people and in
people who are riding me and mentoring
me I would still be in prison right now
I had a 20 year sentence one last thing
we have got to do a better job to
receive people back I don’t know where
you worked what you do but that dreaded
checkbox when a person goes into a
interview room and they sit down and
they see the dreaded checkbox have you
ever been convicted of a felony
most people just quit I had a guy my
program he filled out 60 applications
before he got a job so what are we doing
we started a recycling business about
eight years ago this is the plastic
bottle we care more about this bottle
than we do a human being look around the
city of green that you see recycling
bins everywhere but look at the men and
women who have criminal backgrounds so
we’ve created jobs for men we created
social enterprise
if I had not have created a job for
myself 19 years ago I would be
unemployed right now not only am i
creating jobs myself but I’ve created
jobs for over 700 men in the last 20
we’ve helped over 5,000 men in the men
and women in the last 20 years to
transition back into society with no
government funding four years ago we
created a business a recycling business
when we reclaim a houses we tear down
old houses by hand we reclaim the lumber
and we make reclaimed wood furniture
we’re reclaiming lives as we reclaim
things that would rather be in the
landfill so do me a favor when you see
us on the street don’t call us ex-cons
don’t call us X felons don’t call us
criminals I’m a neighbor I’m a father
I’m a husband I am a man [Applause]
you know 2.3 million Americans are
locked up right now inside our jails and
prisons 70 million Americans Americans
have a criminal background if you are a
male and you were born in 2001 or after
trending says one out of 17 white males
has a likelihood of going to prison
one in six Hispanics have a likelihood
of going to prison and one in three
African American males have the
likelihood of going to prison let me
take you on my journey in 1995 I was
given a 20-year prison sentence for
distribution of cocaine the state of
South Carolina no longer considered me
Gerry Blasingame they called me inmate
number nineteen eighty-one fifty-three I
was born a statistic born out of wedlock
the most vivid memory I have of my
mother is one night she was arguing with
a boyfriend and I was in the next room
and I looked around pal pal two shots
rang out now let me take you on the
journey what happens to a little boy who
suffers from PTSD five years old my
mother is dead to take away the pain I
indulged at nine years old in
pornography and later into alcohol I
managed to get through high school ended
up getting a two-year scholarship to
college to study architectural
engineering this was in the height of
the crack epidemic
so I soon find myself
drugs cocaine I came home from school
one day when I was in college in the
friend of mine who was selling drugs for
me poured a bag of money out on my bed
and said this is how much money you made
today was ten thousand dollars well I
said looks like my career’s architech is
over I was a pretty good chemist and I
began to cook up crack cocaine for the
local drug dealers here in Greenville I
was making $20,000 a week as a 20 year
old well twenty thousand dollars a week
two more years in school as an architect
hmm it was hard to give up the first
time I was arrested I got a 15 year
sentence and spending the nine months in
five years probation I served four
months on that sentence six months after
I was released guess what I got arrested
again so let me tell you what happens
when you’re caught up in the drug game
and you’re caught up in poverty it’s
like a rat race my bond was $150,000 my
attorney charged me $20,000 so now I’m
having to get in the street to raise
money to continue up this rat race
anyway the second time I was out on bail
and they revoked my bond and they locked
me up until I went to court
the judge sentenced me to 20 years when
I got to the Department of Corrections I
thought I was gonna die I saw all the
brown and black me like man I said what
are you doing here and why are you here
and they were like well this is my third
time being in prison this is my fourth
time being in prison I couldn’t find a
job when I get out of I couldn’t find a
house when I got out and I knew that I
was gonna be in that situation I made a
growing up as a kid I hated God I didn’t
think God existed what kind of God would
allow a little boy’s mother to be
murdered and I never
my dad but I took a I took a choice I
begin to read the Bible and I gave my
life to a higher power and I put faith
in place and I began to read and I began
to study and I began to journal you know
when you’re in prison there is no hope
and when I would get up in the morning
and I would study and I would prayed
I remember saying hope is the thing
that’s on the inside of me that says no
that says yes when everybody else saying
no is saying yes where is hope what a
thing that was locked up on the inside
of me was allowing me to unlock others I
was teaching guys in prison to read and
write and I began to study and I begin
to pen the vision of what I’m doing now
because I knew that one day I was going
to be out every day for three and a half
years I made one confession I will not
be here long I put my faith in something
else March of 1999 I was paroled on a
20-year prison sentence I served three
and a half years on a 20-year prison
sentence my wife married me a year
before I got out one thing I realize
that there is something that we have to
do to help people that are in prison and
what I come up with
I made academic for here housing
employment education affirmation and
advocacy you know that 27 percent of all
men who are
the night they were arrested they were
homeless 67% said that they had been
homeless within the last three years and
we look at all these people out here and
we say they ought to get a job well it’s
hard to get a job where you have a
criminal background very hard do you
know there are 48,000 collateral
consequences things that bar you from
housing and jobs and education and
licenses once you have a criminal
background employment statistics say
that after a person is released from
prison the first year 60% are still
unemployed because of their criminal
backgrounds in 2004 I was given a pardon
by the South Carolina Department of
Corrections I served five years on
eleven years parole and I apply for a
pardon and they gave me a pardon thank
you God but guess what it was still hard
for me to get a job because our pardon
is not expungeable in the state of South
Carolina
go figure what does a pardon me you’re
forgiven I forgive you but oh yeah I
don’t forgive you affirmation while I
was in prison I had some professors from
Clemson University to write me a pen pal
me and 20 years later I still have those
loving relationships in my life right
now
it is so important because as someone
mentioned earlier I heard in there talk
over 60% of people in prison have a
mental health issue can you imagine
being locked up taken away from your
family and taken away from your job or
whatever you were doing even if you
didn’t have some type of mental mental
health issue that would give me one but
look at me
I had undiagnosed PTSD didn’t even
but I had hope mentoring is a big part
of our program it’s a huge part every
guy on our program gets a mentor for one
year advocacy I have a good friend Glen
Martin who who started an organization
in New York and this is one of his
quotes those who are closest to the
problem are closest to the resources but
furthest from the power I want to tell
you something
Greenville County gets over a thousand
people a year that come back to our
community every year from being
incarcerated we spent over five hundred
million dollars a year a half a billion
dollars a year to incarcerate our
citizens they are coming out ninety
percent of the people who are in prison
are getting released and if we don’t
educate and provide housing they’re
going to continue to go back that one in
three that I was talking about a black
man and we call young black men
predators but we’re not giving these
young black men an opportunity that’s
crazy
we are people to the prison system does
not rehabilitation there I know I’m
telling you nothing if I had not have
depended on my faith in people and in
people who are riding me and mentoring
me I would still be in prison right now
I had a 20 year sentence one last thing
we have got to do a better job to
receive people back I don’t know where
you worked what you do but that dreaded
checkbox when a person goes into a
interview room and they sit down and
they see the dreaded checkbox have you
ever been convicted of a felony
most people just quit I had a guy my
program he filled out 60 applications
before he got a job so what are we doing
we started a recycling business about
eight years ago this is the plastic
bottle we care more about this bottle
than we do a human being look around the
city of green that you see recycling
bins everywhere but look at the men and
women who have criminal backgrounds so
we’ve created jobs for men we created
social enterprise
if I had not have created a job for
myself 19 years ago I would be
unemployed right now not only am i
creating jobs myself but I’ve created
jobs for over 700 men in the last 20
we’ve helped over 5,000 men in the men
and women in the last 20 years to
transition back into society with no
government funding four years ago we
created a business a recycling business
when we reclaim a houses we tear down
old houses by hand we reclaim the lumber
and we make reclaimed wood furniture
we’re reclaiming lives as we reclaim
things that would rather be in the
landfill so do me a favor when you see
us on the street don’t call us ex-cons
don’t call us X felons don’t call us
criminals I’m a neighbor I’m a father
I’m a husband I am a man [Applause]
Please follow and like us: