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We need to change the culture
in our jails and prisons,
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especially for young inmates.
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New York State is one
of only two in the U.S.
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that automatically arrests
and tries 16- to 17-year old as adults.
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This culture of violence
takes these young people
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and puts them in a hostile environment,
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and the correctional officers pretty much
allow anything and everything to go on.
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There's not really much
for these young people to do
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to actually enhance their talent
and actually rehabilitate them.
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Until we can raise the age
of criminal responsibility to 18,
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we need to focus on changing
the daily lives of these young people.
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I know firsthand.
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Before I ever turned 18,
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I spent approximately
400 days on Rikers Island,
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and to add to that
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I spent almost 300 days
in solitary confinement,
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and let me tell you this:
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screaming at the top of your lungs
all day on your cell door
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or screaming at the top
of your lungs out the window,
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it gets tiring.
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Since there's not much for you to do
while you're in there,
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you start pacing
back and forth in your cell,
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you start talking to yourself,
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your thoughts start running wild,
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and then your thoughts
become your own worst enemy.
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Jails are actually supposed
to rehabilitate a person,
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not cause him or her
to become more angry,
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frustrated, and feel more hopeless.
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Since there's not a discharge plan
put in place for these young people,
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they pretty much
reenter society with nothing.
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And there's not really much for them to do
to keep them from recidivating.
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But it all starts with the COs.
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It's very easy for some people
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to look at these correctional officers
as the good guys
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and the inmates as the bad guys,
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or vice versa for some,
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but it's a little more than that.
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See, these COs are normal,
everyday people.
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They come from the same neighborhoods
as the population they serve.
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They're just normal people.
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They're not robots, and there's
nothing special about them.
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They do pretty much everything
anybody else in society does.
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The male COs want to talk
and flirt with the female COs.
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They play the little high school
kid games with each other.
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They politic with each other.
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And the female COs gossip to each other.
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So I spent numerous amounts of time
with numerous amounts of COs,
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and let me tell you about
this one in particular named Monroe.
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One day he pulled me
in between the A and B doors
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which separates the north
and south side of our housing unit.
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He pulled me there because I had
a physical altercation
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with another young man in my housing unit,
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and he felt, since there was
a female officer working on the floor,
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that I violated his shift.
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So he punched me in my chest.
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He kind of knocked the wind out of me.
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I wasn't impulsive.
I didn't react right away,
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because I know this is their house,
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I have no wins.
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All he has to do is pull his pin
and backup will come immediately.
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So I just gave him a look in his eyes
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and I guess he saw that anger
and frustration just burning,
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and he said to me,
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"Your eyes is going to get you
in a lot of trouble,
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because you're looking
like you want to fight."
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So he commenced
to taking off his utility belt,
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he took off his shirt and his badge,
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and he said, "We could fight."
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So I asked him, "You gonna hold it down?"
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Now, that's a term that's commonly used
on Rikers Island meaning that you're not
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going to say anything to anybody,
and you're not going to report it.
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He said, "Yeah, I'm gonna hold it down.
You gonna hold it down?"
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I didn't even respond.
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I just punched him right in his face,
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and we began fighting
right then and there.
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Towards the end of the fight,
he slammed me up against the wall,
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so while we were tussled up,
he said to me, "You good?"
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as if he got the best of me,
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but in my mind, I know
I got the best of him,
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so I replied very cocky,
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"Oh, I'm good, you good?"
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He said, "Yeah, I'm good,
I'm good."
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We let go, he shook my hand,
said he gained me my respect,
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gave me a cigarette and sent me on my way.
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Believe it or not, you come across
some COs on Rikers Island
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that'll fight you one on one.
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They feel that they understand how it is,
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and they feel that I'm going
to meet you where you're at.
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Since this is how you commonly
handle your disputes,
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we can handle it in that manner.
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I walk away from it like a man,
you walk away from it like a man,
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and that's it.
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Some COs feel that they jelling with you.
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This is why they have that mentality
and that attitude
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and they go by that concept.
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In some instances, we're in it
together with the COs.
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However, institutions need to give
these correctional officers
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proper trainings on how to properly deal
with the adolescent population,
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and they also need to give them
proper training on how to deal
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with the mental health population as well.
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These COs play a big factor
in these young peoples' lives
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for x amount of time until a disposition
is reached on their case.
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So why not try to mentor
these young people while they're there?
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Why not try to give them some type
of insight to make a change,
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so once they reenter back into society,
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they're doing something positive?
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A second big thing
to help our teens in jails
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is better programming.
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When I was on Rikers Island,
the huge thing was solitary confinement.
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Solitary confinement
was originally designed
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to break a person mentally,
physically, and emotionally.
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That's what it was designed for.
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The U.S. Attorney General
recently released a report
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stating that they're going
to ban solitary confinement
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in New York State for teens.
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One thing that kept me sane while I
was in solitary confinement was reading.
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I tried to education myself
as much as possible.
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I read any and everything
I could get my hands on.
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And aside from that,
I wrote music and short stories.
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Some programs that I feel
would benefit our young people
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are art therapy programs
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for the kids that like to draw
and have that talent,
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and what about the young individuals
that are musically inclined?
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How about a music program for them
that actually teaches them
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how to write and make music?
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Just a thought.
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When adolescents come to Rikers Island,
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C74 RNDC is the building
that they're housed in.
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That's nicknamed "gladiator school,"
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because you'll have a young individual
coming in from the street
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thinking that they're tough,
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being surrounded by a bunch
of other young individuals
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from all of the five boroughs,
and everybody feels that they're tough.
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So now you have a bunch of young gentlemen
poking their chests out
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feeling that I have to prove
I'm equally as tough as you
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or I'm tougher than you, you, and you.
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But let's be honest:
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that culture is very dangerous
and damaging to our young people.
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We need to help institutions
and these teens realize
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that they don't have to lead
the previous lifestyle that they led
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when they were on the street,
that they can actually make a change.
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It's sad to report
that while I was in prison,
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I used to hear dudes
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talking about when they
get released from prison,
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what type of crimes
they're going to commit
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when they get back in the street.
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The conversations used to sound
something like this:
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"Oh, when I hit the street,
my brother got this connection
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for this guy on the third,
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or my man over here
got this connection for the low price.
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Let's exchange information,
and when we hit the town,
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we're going to do it real big."
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I used to hear these conversations
and think to myself, "Wow,
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these dudes are really talking about
going back in the street
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and committing future crimes."
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So I came up with a name for that:
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I called it a go-back-to-jail quick scheme
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because really, how long
is that going to last?
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You get a retirement plan with that?
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Nice little pension? 401k? 403b?
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You get health insurance? Dental?
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(Laughter)
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But I will tell you this:
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being in jail and being in prison,
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I came across some of the most
intelligent, brilliant,
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and talented people
that I would ever meet.
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I've seen individuals
take a potato chip bag
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and turn it into the most
beautiful picture frame.
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I've seen individuals take
the state soap that's provided for free
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and turn them into
the most beautiful sculptures
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that would make Michelangelo
look like a kindergartner.
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At the age of 21, I was in
a maximum security prison
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called Elmira Correctional Facility.
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I just came out the weight shack
from working out,
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and I saw an older gentleman that I knew
standing in the middle of the yard
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just looking up at the sky.
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Mind you, this older gentlemen
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was serving a 33 and a third
to life sentence
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in which he already had served
20 years of that sentence.
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So I walk up to him and I said,
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"Old G, what's going on, man, you good?"
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He looked at me, and he said,
"Yeah, I'm good, young blood."
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I'm like, "So what you looking
up at the sky for, man?
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What's so fascinating up there?"
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He said, "You look up
and you tell me what you see."
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"Clouds." (Laughter)
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He said, "All right.
What else you see?"
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At that time, it was plane passing by.
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I said, "All right, I see an airplane."
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He said, "Exactly,
and what's on that airplane? People.
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Exactly. Now where's that plane
and those people going?"
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"I don't know. You know?
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Please let me know if you do.
Let me get some lottery numbers."
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He said, "You missing
the big picture, young blood.
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That plane with those people
is going somewhere,
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while we're here stuck.
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The big picture is this:
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that plane with those people
going somewhere?
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That's life passing us by
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while we behind these walls, stuck."
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Ever since that day,
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that sparked something in my mind
and made me know I had to make a change.
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Growing up, I was always
a good, smart kid.
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Some people would say
I was a little too smart for my own good.
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I had dreams of becoming
an architect or an archaeologist.
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Currently, I'm working
at the Fortune Society
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which is a reentry program,
and I work with people
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as a case manager
that are at high risk for recidivism.
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So I connect them
with the services that they need
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once they're released from jail and prison
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so they can make a positive transition
back into society.
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If I was to see my 15-year old self today,
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I would sit down and talk to him
and try to educate him
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and I would let him know,
"Listen, this is me. I'm you.
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This is us. We are one.
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Everything you are about to do,
I know what you're gonna do
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before you do it because I already did it,
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and I would encourage him
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not to hang out with x, y, and z people.
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I would tell him not to be
in such-and-such place.
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I would tell him,
keep your behind in school, man,
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because that's where you need to be
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because that's what's going
to get you somewhere in life.
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This is the message
that we should be sharing
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with our young men and young women.
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We shouldn't be treating them as adults
and putting them in cultures of violence
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that are nearly impossible
for them to escape.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)