thank you all when I was trying to
figure out exactly what I wanted to say
I was thinking to myself that maybe I
should tell them about my 10 year career
in music where I was on such albums as
is doc and hell is hot from DMX or the
rush hour soundtrack or the blade
soundtrack well maybe I should talk
about being one of the superintendent’s
who actually built the Columbia Firefly
baseball stadium up the street but then
I thought my purpose is not tied to my
success so my actual story begins with
me walking out of a federal prison in
2005 and returning here to Columbia
South Carolina I wish I could tell a
story that said I did what I did because
I was homeless so I did but I did
because we lived in a really bad
community I made choices and the choices
that I made landed me an
all-expense-paid vacation to the Federal
Bureau of Prisons NIACC Lewisburg when I
returned home I was told it’s impossible
it’s impossible to get a job it’s
impossible to have a felony and working
in this community it would be impossible
to find programs that would assist me in
getting where I needed to be so why am I
here today not just on the stage but in
a place where every day my story tells
itself where it explains to people that
your image the view of what you think a
formerly incarcerated person should be
is different
I have now began my own nonprofit
organization just one month after my
brother was fatally wounded and killed
in Augsburg South Carolina in the
lifestyle that once consumed me
I made the decision to return to prisons
and teach others what I felt like I had
not learned I felt as though there are
three different factors that can assist
an individual what you call successful
reentry one of those three things starts
with what the prison system can do as I
spent my time in the prison system I
felt like I was just waiting I was just
waiting for my story to go along I was
just waiting for me to get home but I
didn’t really take advantage of
everything that I could have so now as I
returned to prisons you would think that
these gentlemen would be and females
would be rough tough characters that you
might see in movies and you would think
that we were being there teaching them
simply how to get a job and what to do
when they get home as far as employment
but I can remember in my last days while
I was incarcerated the only thing I
could think of is well my family accept
me back where’s the right place to
return to
what will I do when I get home and what
will life be like now that I have a
felony a lot of people might not see
this as a issue that impacts them and I
can understand that if you’ve never been
incarcerated you might think that it
doesn’t impact you but let me first
start by saying twenty-one thousand
dollars a year is spent on each
individual that’s incarcerated with tax
dollars that is an indirect impact on
you one in twenty eight
children have a parent that is
incarcerated and being that this is a
school just think of it that every one
individual in every classroom has a
parent that has been directly impacted
by the prison system I had the honor of
being able to go to a program called ICC
Lewisburg which is the intensive
confinement Center and in that program
they addressed the mental health issues
that are associated with the decisions
that are made when you end up
incarcerated to help you think about the
thinking and the choices that you made
but also to address the trauma of having
your freedom stripped away a lot of
these programs are focused on jobs
focused on homes but a lot of them don’t
consider the fact that an individual has
to change his complete way of thinking
in order to survive in that environment
I’ve now been home 13 years and I’ve
spent the last four speaking in prisons
and assisting others with reentry and
last time I went I found myself leaving
men in correctional facility here in
Columbia South Carolina and I usually
walk up to the gate and there’s a button
that you press in the guard lets you out
but this time I press the button and I
look nothing and I press the button
again in nothing and anxiety in a panic
that I felt as if that I had been locked
in the cage again and was not going to
be able to get out imagine that for
someone who has been concentrated for
five 10 15 years so I’m asking
for all of you to look at this in a
different way when I returned home it
took an individual named dr. Lewis Lin
to see the criminal history on my
background and come have a discussion
with me about what he saw and offered me
a job that job became the springboard
for what became Who I am today I’ve had
the opportunity to build my nonprofit to
the point where we are known now for a
back-to-school event that we do once a
year for the last three years at the
Columbia fireflies baseball stadium
where we give backpacks to over 1,500
kids with school supplies every year we
also do a partnership with adventure
where we provide Christmas for
disadvantaged kids in the community
where we give away over 600 Christmas
gifts and provide an educational
experience for all the children that
Christmas every year I’m not asking you
to make a dr. Lynn size decision today
I’m simply asking you to think about
what would be different if I changed my
view on formerly incarcerated people
just to open your mind to the idea that
people actually deserve a second chance
what I’m asking is in this room there
are employers who have the opportunity
to sit with an individual and give him
an opportunity to have a job and move
forward with his life there are program
managers that have the opportunity to
share your program because people don’t
fail because of lack of desire but they
fail for lack of knowledge for me myself
if I would have known another option I
would have chose and a lot of time
people came to me and said
you should do something different you’re
going down this path this is what’s
going to happen to you but nobody ever
said to me here’s another way let me
show you a different way for the
families as much as you may want to you
can’t change an individual all you can
do is provide an environment to allow
them to change and to the children of
anybody who may be incarcerated or
formerly incarcerated you will be the
most important part of the changes in
their life for me the major thing was
the word impossible and the only thing
that I can think of when I saw it was
the only difference between impossible
impossible is I am and that just doesn’t
just mean I am the difference between
what’s possible and possible but
everybody here is the difference between
what’s possible and not possible we’ve
had a lot of speakers on this stage
today and not all of them have spoken
about incarceration and I know that my
path might be a little bit different but
I’m only asking that you look at me and
what I’ve been able to accomplish and
keep in your mind and in your heart
what’s possible for another individual thank you
figure out exactly what I wanted to say
I was thinking to myself that maybe I
should tell them about my 10 year career
in music where I was on such albums as
is doc and hell is hot from DMX or the
rush hour soundtrack or the blade
soundtrack well maybe I should talk
about being one of the superintendent’s
who actually built the Columbia Firefly
baseball stadium up the street but then
I thought my purpose is not tied to my
success so my actual story begins with
me walking out of a federal prison in
2005 and returning here to Columbia
South Carolina I wish I could tell a
story that said I did what I did because
I was homeless so I did but I did
because we lived in a really bad
community I made choices and the choices
that I made landed me an
all-expense-paid vacation to the Federal
Bureau of Prisons NIACC Lewisburg when I
returned home I was told it’s impossible
it’s impossible to get a job it’s
impossible to have a felony and working
in this community it would be impossible
to find programs that would assist me in
getting where I needed to be so why am I
here today not just on the stage but in
a place where every day my story tells
itself where it explains to people that
your image the view of what you think a
formerly incarcerated person should be
is different
I have now began my own nonprofit
organization just one month after my
brother was fatally wounded and killed
in Augsburg South Carolina in the
lifestyle that once consumed me
I made the decision to return to prisons
and teach others what I felt like I had
not learned I felt as though there are
three different factors that can assist
an individual what you call successful
reentry one of those three things starts
with what the prison system can do as I
spent my time in the prison system I
felt like I was just waiting I was just
waiting for my story to go along I was
just waiting for me to get home but I
didn’t really take advantage of
everything that I could have so now as I
returned to prisons you would think that
these gentlemen would be and females
would be rough tough characters that you
might see in movies and you would think
that we were being there teaching them
simply how to get a job and what to do
when they get home as far as employment
but I can remember in my last days while
I was incarcerated the only thing I
could think of is well my family accept
me back where’s the right place to
return to
what will I do when I get home and what
will life be like now that I have a
felony a lot of people might not see
this as a issue that impacts them and I
can understand that if you’ve never been
incarcerated you might think that it
doesn’t impact you but let me first
start by saying twenty-one thousand
dollars a year is spent on each
individual that’s incarcerated with tax
dollars that is an indirect impact on
you one in twenty eight
children have a parent that is
incarcerated and being that this is a
school just think of it that every one
individual in every classroom has a
parent that has been directly impacted
by the prison system I had the honor of
being able to go to a program called ICC
Lewisburg which is the intensive
confinement Center and in that program
they addressed the mental health issues
that are associated with the decisions
that are made when you end up
incarcerated to help you think about the
thinking and the choices that you made
but also to address the trauma of having
your freedom stripped away a lot of
these programs are focused on jobs
focused on homes but a lot of them don’t
consider the fact that an individual has
to change his complete way of thinking
in order to survive in that environment
I’ve now been home 13 years and I’ve
spent the last four speaking in prisons
and assisting others with reentry and
last time I went I found myself leaving
men in correctional facility here in
Columbia South Carolina and I usually
walk up to the gate and there’s a button
that you press in the guard lets you out
but this time I press the button and I
look nothing and I press the button
again in nothing and anxiety in a panic
that I felt as if that I had been locked
in the cage again and was not going to
be able to get out imagine that for
someone who has been concentrated for
five 10 15 years so I’m asking
for all of you to look at this in a
different way when I returned home it
took an individual named dr. Lewis Lin
to see the criminal history on my
background and come have a discussion
with me about what he saw and offered me
a job that job became the springboard
for what became Who I am today I’ve had
the opportunity to build my nonprofit to
the point where we are known now for a
back-to-school event that we do once a
year for the last three years at the
Columbia fireflies baseball stadium
where we give backpacks to over 1,500
kids with school supplies every year we
also do a partnership with adventure
where we provide Christmas for
disadvantaged kids in the community
where we give away over 600 Christmas
gifts and provide an educational
experience for all the children that
Christmas every year I’m not asking you
to make a dr. Lynn size decision today
I’m simply asking you to think about
what would be different if I changed my
view on formerly incarcerated people
just to open your mind to the idea that
people actually deserve a second chance
what I’m asking is in this room there
are employers who have the opportunity
to sit with an individual and give him
an opportunity to have a job and move
forward with his life there are program
managers that have the opportunity to
share your program because people don’t
fail because of lack of desire but they
fail for lack of knowledge for me myself
if I would have known another option I
would have chose and a lot of time
people came to me and said
you should do something different you’re
going down this path this is what’s
going to happen to you but nobody ever
said to me here’s another way let me
show you a different way for the
families as much as you may want to you
can’t change an individual all you can
do is provide an environment to allow
them to change and to the children of
anybody who may be incarcerated or
formerly incarcerated you will be the
most important part of the changes in
their life for me the major thing was
the word impossible and the only thing
that I can think of when I saw it was
the only difference between impossible
impossible is I am and that just doesn’t
just mean I am the difference between
what’s possible and possible but
everybody here is the difference between
what’s possible and not possible we’ve
had a lot of speakers on this stage
today and not all of them have spoken
about incarceration and I know that my
path might be a little bit different but
I’m only asking that you look at me and
what I’ve been able to accomplish and
keep in your mind and in your heart
what’s possible for another individual thank you
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