April 19, 2024 • 15 mins
Dee Dee Gatson of Q.U.E.E.N.S Butterfly House works with previously incarcerated women like herself, and has been hoping for this action by the Unicameral -- even if she won't benefit from it for several years.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Scott Vorgiz. I want to startthe program here though with someone who is
in a unique situation, but notunique in her situation. There are several
people who messed up, they werepunished for it, they paid their debt
to society, and lingering over themis the lack of being able to vote
(00:24):
and Nebraska's legislature no property tax relief, but they restored voting rights for felons.
And I want to introduce you tod D. Gatson, who's been
working a lot looking at this issue. D D joins us. Now,
good morning, d D, goodmorning. How are you guys? Wonderful?
Thank you very much for doing this. Do you want to tell us
(00:46):
your story? And I'll only interruptyou thirteen or fourteen times, no problem.
So my name is Demitriz Getz andpeople call me d D. And
I am formally incarcerated. I havebeen to prison, but since going to
prison, I have started my ownorganization called Queen's Butterfly House. It is
(01:08):
a safe house for women and theirchildren who are returning from incarceration. I've
seen the gap that was necessary,that was necessary for women transitioning from prison
to our society, our communities.Here there was no housing. There was
(01:29):
a big shortage when it came toplacing them back with their children so that
that can become productive citizens of ourcommunity. And I took many, many,
many mental health classes to make surethat I could provide a safe space
for women to holistically become better mothers, parents, sisters, aunts, and
(01:53):
to become most importantly, community members, vested community members. That's why I
fight so hard for our voting rights. How rude is it when someone asks,
after you told them that you wereincarcerated, what'd you do? Oh
my gosh, I get that questionall the time. You don't look like
you're incarcerated. Well, what arewe supposed to look like? You know?
(02:15):
And I think that when people askwhy were you incarcerated? Really that
doesn't matter why I was incarcerated.What matters is what did I do with
that incarceration. That's what's the importantthing. When you go incarceration, The
punishment is what the judge gave you. When you go to incarceration, That's
why it's called correctional sinners. You'retrying to correct whatever it was that you
(02:39):
did to go there to become abetter person. When when you're released,
fair enough and I thought I'd askthe question while not asking the question,
and the phrasing it is. Howrude is it when someone asks I'm not
asking? I think obviously people arecurious because and there's a question I am
asking. Do you do you thinkNebraska's and you've had a chance to talk
(03:02):
with a lot of different women whoare formally incarcerated, do you think that
Nebraska's justice system here, prison system, jail system is rehabilitative enough to be
able to release someone back out intosociety and have someone walk out and go,
well, that's all behind me.Now, I learned my lesson.
(03:25):
I got exactly what I needed hereduring this time I was incarcerated, and
now I'm ready to rejoin my life. Or are people just walking out of
there going I've learned how to bean even better criminal than I was when
I got in there. When aperson goes into incarceration, if they are
(03:46):
truly trying to rehabilitate themselves, thereis no doubt in my mind that they
can come out and say I wantto be a better person. There are
many mental health classes, there aremany positive classes. There are many substance
abuse classes that are taken inside ofthe facilities that will build them up so
(04:09):
that they have many tools in theirtoolbox. That doesn't mean that it stops
there. What it means is thatthey have these tools in their toolboxes to
reference to the resources to build abetter support system so that they can come
out and say, yes, Iwant to be a better person. No
one goes in the prison and saysand then comes out and says, hey,
(04:30):
I'm a better I think I couldbe a better criminal. Absolutely not.
How can you go in and comeout and say I'm a better criminal.
Everybody in there is in there becausethey did something wrong. So you
didn't learn nothing in there. Youdidn't learn how to be a better criminal
there. You're just gonna come outhere and get caught again. Well,
I don't know that anyone. Idon't know that everyone has the ability to
think in those abstract terms. Butthat's a good point. We unfortunately have
(04:56):
a pretty high riscivism rate here inNebraska. But what you're doing with the
Queen's Butterfly House and welcoming women whosay, look, I don't want to
be that person anymore. Help me. How do you help them? By
the way, with this organization Queen'sButterfly House. Oh, there are so
many ways that we help an individual. We actually start while they're incarcerated still
(05:20):
and we gather information, which iswhat I call the re entry matrix.
I gather all the information in theways that they feel they could be best
supported, whether it be financially whichis jobs, employment, housing, family
reunifications, some with mental health andsome with substance abuse. So when they
(05:42):
come to the house, not onlydo I have that re entry matrix,
but I have their history. It'sa discharge plan that I received from the
Department of Corrections that helped me tosay, Okay, what other resources that
I don't have in house? CanI then outsource them too, So we
do part you're with the Community Allianceso that they can get mental health,
(06:04):
so they can get mental health assistance, so they can get medication assistance.
Charles Drew Health Center actually really helpsa lot because it's a sliding fee scale
and sometimes down to nothing, sothat they can get their physical health together.
Then of course we look at placeslike Heartland Family Services so that we
(06:28):
can begin to work with them aswell as dhhs to reunify them with their
children, even if they're in fostercare or with their families, you know,
and then they take many parenting classesa in a One of my favorite
classes that I actually teach myself iscalled seven Habits of a Highly Effective Person.
(06:48):
Many women don't think, how aretheir habits to be in a highly
effective person? Well, and oneof my favorites of the habits is that
do you wake up in the morningthinking about the end of the day.
Many people don't. They think Igotta do this, this, this,
this, and they calm down fromthe beginning to the end. But if
you wake up in the morning andyou come to the end, you say
(07:12):
you begin with the end of mind. You begin your day knowing I'm gonna
achieve everything I want to achieve bythe end of this day when I lay
my head back down on this pillow. Beginning with the end of mind just
gives you a positive outlook on lifeand say, I'm going to begin this
day positively because I'm gonna achieve everythingI'm setting out to chieve today, whether
it be searching for a job,finishing your resume, just getting your child
(07:36):
to school. Beginning with the endof mind gives women, you know,
a positive outlook. Teaches in positiveself thought so maybe I should take I
should take down the poster in myoffice says never do today, what you
can put off till tomorrow. Isthat a bad idea? Oh, I
(07:57):
would take that post of that.I want to bring us back here to
our topic here as we're talking withDemetrius D. D. Gatson with us
here on news radio eleven ten kfabas you talk with these women formerly incarcerated,
including some who were in there forfelony convictions, and they were saying,
look, I got separated from myfamily, I lost my job,
(08:20):
I can't go take cupcakes in mykids' school, you know, things like
that. How many of them say, and I can't vote for two years
in Nebraska because the waiting period afterthe end of a sentence, including parole
was and you can't vote for twoyears. Is this something that was bothering
people in Nebraska? Actually, itwas bothering a lot of individuals to the
(08:43):
fact that when you think about it, our votes actually affect us not just
as people, but it sets usas mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters.
So people think, if you thinkabout our opportunity detas right for our
children in the schools, women say, well, how am I supposed to
(09:05):
have a voice in what's happening toany money that's going into my child school.
If someone donates to my child school, however that goes what I don't
have anything to say because I can'tvote about it. So they think about
others, not necessarily voting for themselves, but how does this affect their families?
(09:26):
So women think a lot about that. They think about the taxess they're
going to have to pay when theygo to the grocery store to buy food.
They think about how is it affectingthen when they buy cars if the
property taxes go up, how're theygonna affect me with my rent? Is
my landlord not going to raise myrent? But without having a voice in
(09:48):
our democratic process, what you know, what can they do? So I
see this in a lot of womenand means that are incarcerated because people think
when you're in there, you don'tstudy anything. That's all they're doing is
watching the news, studying the laws, pay attention to what's happening in the
(10:09):
communities that they came from, andhow can they help or what can they
do? You finished your voting anything, You finish your sentence In twenty eighteen
and Nebraska, you are having votingrights restored two years after completing your sentence
and two years after completing your parole. In your case, you wouldn't complete
(10:33):
parole until twenty twenty eight. Twoyears after that you don't get a chance
to vote until twenty thirty. Andyou know, so now with this bill
LB twenty that just became law yesterday, you can vote in next month's primary.
You can vote in the general electionin November. So like, how
(10:54):
does that work? Do you dothe Trump flag on your house or do
you put a sign in the yardone with no flags, no signs?
Right? Actually, I'm gonna tellyou so. Me personally, I won't
be able to vote till twenty twentyeight. You have to be completed,
completely done with your probation or parole. I won't complete that until twenty twenty
(11:15):
eight. Me fighting for voting rights, the restoration of voting rights for felons,
was not for me. Yes,it helps me, but it's not
for me. It is for theindividuals that came before me and those that
come after me that are released withno supervisions, that complete their super that
have already completed their supervisions, andthink that they can't vote at all.
(11:39):
Many people get out and think theycan't vote at all. Period. Ever,
again, they don't even know aboutthe two year waiting period. When
you begin to educate individuals, heyyou know you gotta wait two years,
oh years and two years after yourparole, two years after your probation,
two years after your release. Oh. They don't know that. So then
(12:00):
they get to thinking, Okay,I'm gonna make sure that I do everything
I can do so that in twoyears I can vote. Well, now
with them not having to wait,they're ready. This is what I don't
like, This is what I don'tlike, This is what can help my
family. They begin to write thoseletters to their senators, be more vested
in their community. So then whenthose primaries come up and those elections like
(12:22):
the one the primary we're gonna havein November, they're ready. They're studying,
they know what they want, theyknow what party they want to follow,
whether it be Republican or Democrats.They are very vested in what's going
to go on in their community.I want to be able to be that
voice for individuals, even though Ican't do it. I want to educate
(12:43):
individuals whose shoes. I want towalk in so that they know this is
what your rights are, but theycan start using them as a citizen,
as an American citizen. My mistake, you still have to wait until completing
that parole and they're still uptill.So now you can vote in twenty twenty
eight. You don't have to waittwo years. It basically eliminates that two
years waiting period. But you're right. A lot of people thought that,
(13:07):
you know, once you're felon,that you can't vote in Nebraska. They
didn't know about the two years.And you're helping this conversations, helping people
realize that that's up. As soonas your sentence, as soon as your
parole is up, you have votingrights restored at that moment. So last
question here for you, d Dan. I'm really enjoying this conversation and getting
(13:30):
the chance to hear your perspective.When you hear people say, well,
geez, if you want to beable to vote and participate in our representative
republic, stop breaking the law.You know when people kind of dismiss and
say things like that, what areyour thoughts? Well, people think that
(13:50):
you break them off just because you'reinherently a bad person. Absolutely not.
No one wants to be known fortheir what they did for their worst day.
No one wants them to be knownfor that. And just because you
committed a crime, does that reallytake away you being a citizen? Does
that take away one's right, they'relegitimate right to be a citizen. And
(14:15):
to be a citizen you do,you get all these rights. You get
the right to vote, you getthe right to freedom of speech, you
get the right to freedom of press. When you take things away from a
person, I'm telling them you're nota citizen anymore. Just because I committed
(14:35):
that sellony, that means absolutely nothing. There's crimes of passion, there's crimes
of belongings. And what people needto realize is they have paid their debt
to society and inherently people are goodpeople. But what they need is support
and understanding. And with April beingSecond Chances Month, let's give everyone a
(14:58):
second sh convicted of a felony ornot. You can learn more about Breakfast.
You can learn more about Queen's ButterflyHouse online. I found him on
Facebook. Do you do have awebsite? What is it? It is
www dot queens butterfly House dot comdot org, queens Butterflyhouse dot org.
(15:22):
D D. Demetrius D. D. Gatson, thank you very much for
what you're doing for these women.Thank you very much for sharing your story,
your perspective with us this morning.I appreciate the time. Thank you
for having me. You have agreat day. Scott Byes mornings nine to
eleven, Our News Radio eleven tenKFAB
Scott Vorgiz. I want to startthe program here though with someone who is
in a unique situation, but notunique in her situation. There are several
people who messed up, they werepunished for it, they paid their debt
to society, and lingering over themis the lack of being able to vote
(00:24):
and Nebraska's legislature no property tax relief, but they restored voting rights for felons.
And I want to introduce you tod D. Gatson, who's been
working a lot looking at this issue. D D joins us. Now,
good morning, d D, goodmorning. How are you guys? Wonderful?
Thank you very much for doing this. Do you want to tell us
(00:46):
your story? And I'll only interruptyou thirteen or fourteen times, no problem.
So my name is Demitriz Getz andpeople call me d D. And
I am formally incarcerated. I havebeen to prison, but since going to
prison, I have started my ownorganization called Queen's Butterfly House. It is
(01:08):
a safe house for women and theirchildren who are returning from incarceration. I've
seen the gap that was necessary,that was necessary for women transitioning from prison
to our society, our communities.Here there was no housing. There was
(01:29):
a big shortage when it came toplacing them back with their children so that
that can become productive citizens of ourcommunity. And I took many, many,
many mental health classes to make surethat I could provide a safe space
for women to holistically become better mothers, parents, sisters, aunts, and
(01:53):
to become most importantly, community members, vested community members. That's why I
fight so hard for our voting rights. How rude is it when someone asks,
after you told them that you wereincarcerated, what'd you do? Oh
my gosh, I get that questionall the time. You don't look like
you're incarcerated. Well, what arewe supposed to look like? You know?
(02:15):
And I think that when people askwhy were you incarcerated? Really that
doesn't matter why I was incarcerated.What matters is what did I do with
that incarceration. That's what's the importantthing. When you go incarceration, The
punishment is what the judge gave you. When you go to incarceration, That's
why it's called correctional sinners. You'retrying to correct whatever it was that you
(02:39):
did to go there to become abetter person. When when you're released,
fair enough and I thought I'd askthe question while not asking the question,
and the phrasing it is. Howrude is it when someone asks I'm not
asking? I think obviously people arecurious because and there's a question I am
asking. Do you do you thinkNebraska's and you've had a chance to talk
(03:02):
with a lot of different women whoare formally incarcerated, do you think that
Nebraska's justice system here, prison system, jail system is rehabilitative enough to be
able to release someone back out intosociety and have someone walk out and go,
well, that's all behind me.Now, I learned my lesson.
(03:25):
I got exactly what I needed hereduring this time I was incarcerated, and
now I'm ready to rejoin my life. Or are people just walking out of
there going I've learned how to bean even better criminal than I was when
I got in there. When aperson goes into incarceration, if they are
(03:46):
truly trying to rehabilitate themselves, thereis no doubt in my mind that they
can come out and say I wantto be a better person. There are
many mental health classes, there aremany positive classes. There are many substance
abuse classes that are taken inside ofthe facilities that will build them up so
(04:09):
that they have many tools in theirtoolbox. That doesn't mean that it stops
there. What it means is thatthey have these tools in their toolboxes to
reference to the resources to build abetter support system so that they can come
out and say, yes, Iwant to be a better person. No
one goes in the prison and saysand then comes out and says, hey,
(04:30):
I'm a better I think I couldbe a better criminal. Absolutely not.
How can you go in and comeout and say I'm a better criminal.
Everybody in there is in there becausethey did something wrong. So you
didn't learn nothing in there. Youdidn't learn how to be a better criminal
there. You're just gonna come outhere and get caught again. Well,
I don't know that anyone. Idon't know that everyone has the ability to
think in those abstract terms. Butthat's a good point. We unfortunately have
(04:56):
a pretty high riscivism rate here inNebraska. But what you're doing with the
Queen's Butterfly House and welcoming women whosay, look, I don't want to
be that person anymore. Help me. How do you help them? By
the way, with this organization Queen'sButterfly House. Oh, there are so
many ways that we help an individual. We actually start while they're incarcerated still
(05:20):
and we gather information, which iswhat I call the re entry matrix.
I gather all the information in theways that they feel they could be best
supported, whether it be financially whichis jobs, employment, housing, family
reunifications, some with mental health andsome with substance abuse. So when they
(05:42):
come to the house, not onlydo I have that re entry matrix,
but I have their history. It'sa discharge plan that I received from the
Department of Corrections that helped me tosay, Okay, what other resources that
I don't have in house? CanI then outsource them too, So we
do part you're with the Community Allianceso that they can get mental health,
(06:04):
so they can get mental health assistance, so they can get medication assistance.
Charles Drew Health Center actually really helpsa lot because it's a sliding fee scale
and sometimes down to nothing, sothat they can get their physical health together.
Then of course we look at placeslike Heartland Family Services so that we
(06:28):
can begin to work with them aswell as dhhs to reunify them with their
children, even if they're in fostercare or with their families, you know,
and then they take many parenting classesa in a One of my favorite
classes that I actually teach myself iscalled seven Habits of a Highly Effective Person.
(06:48):
Many women don't think, how aretheir habits to be in a highly
effective person? Well, and oneof my favorites of the habits is that
do you wake up in the morningthinking about the end of the day.
Many people don't. They think Igotta do this, this, this,
this, and they calm down fromthe beginning to the end. But if
you wake up in the morning andyou come to the end, you say
(07:12):
you begin with the end of mind. You begin your day knowing I'm gonna
achieve everything I want to achieve bythe end of this day when I lay
my head back down on this pillow. Beginning with the end of mind just
gives you a positive outlook on lifeand say, I'm going to begin this
day positively because I'm gonna achieve everythingI'm setting out to chieve today, whether
it be searching for a job,finishing your resume, just getting your child
(07:36):
to school. Beginning with the endof mind gives women, you know,
a positive outlook. Teaches in positiveself thought so maybe I should take I
should take down the poster in myoffice says never do today, what you
can put off till tomorrow. Isthat a bad idea? Oh, I
(07:57):
would take that post of that.I want to bring us back here to
our topic here as we're talking withDemetrius D. D. Gatson with us
here on news radio eleven ten kfabas you talk with these women formerly incarcerated,
including some who were in there forfelony convictions, and they were saying,
look, I got separated from myfamily, I lost my job,
(08:20):
I can't go take cupcakes in mykids' school, you know, things like
that. How many of them say, and I can't vote for two years
in Nebraska because the waiting period afterthe end of a sentence, including parole
was and you can't vote for twoyears. Is this something that was bothering
people in Nebraska? Actually, itwas bothering a lot of individuals to the
(08:43):
fact that when you think about it, our votes actually affect us not just
as people, but it sets usas mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters.
So people think, if you thinkabout our opportunity detas right for our
children in the schools, women say, well, how am I supposed to
(09:05):
have a voice in what's happening toany money that's going into my child school.
If someone donates to my child school, however that goes what I don't
have anything to say because I can'tvote about it. So they think about
others, not necessarily voting for themselves, but how does this affect their families?
(09:26):
So women think a lot about that. They think about the taxess they're
going to have to pay when theygo to the grocery store to buy food.
They think about how is it affectingthen when they buy cars if the
property taxes go up, how're theygonna affect me with my rent? Is
my landlord not going to raise myrent? But without having a voice in
(09:48):
our democratic process, what you know, what can they do? So I
see this in a lot of womenand means that are incarcerated because people think
when you're in there, you don'tstudy anything. That's all they're doing is
watching the news, studying the laws, pay attention to what's happening in the
(10:09):
communities that they came from, andhow can they help or what can they
do? You finished your voting anything, You finish your sentence In twenty eighteen
and Nebraska, you are having votingrights restored two years after completing your sentence
and two years after completing your parole. In your case, you wouldn't complete
(10:33):
parole until twenty twenty eight. Twoyears after that you don't get a chance
to vote until twenty thirty. Andyou know, so now with this bill
LB twenty that just became law yesterday, you can vote in next month's primary.
You can vote in the general electionin November. So like, how
(10:54):
does that work? Do you dothe Trump flag on your house or do
you put a sign in the yardone with no flags, no signs?
Right? Actually, I'm gonna tellyou so. Me personally, I won't
be able to vote till twenty twentyeight. You have to be completed,
completely done with your probation or parole. I won't complete that until twenty twenty
(11:15):
eight. Me fighting for voting rights, the restoration of voting rights for felons,
was not for me. Yes,it helps me, but it's not
for me. It is for theindividuals that came before me and those that
come after me that are released withno supervisions, that complete their super that
have already completed their supervisions, andthink that they can't vote at all.
(11:39):
Many people get out and think theycan't vote at all. Period. Ever,
again, they don't even know aboutthe two year waiting period. When
you begin to educate individuals, heyyou know you gotta wait two years,
oh years and two years after yourparole, two years after your probation,
two years after your release. Oh. They don't know that. So then
(12:00):
they get to thinking, Okay,I'm gonna make sure that I do everything
I can do so that in twoyears I can vote. Well, now
with them not having to wait,they're ready. This is what I don't
like, This is what I don'tlike, This is what can help my
family. They begin to write thoseletters to their senators, be more vested
in their community. So then whenthose primaries come up and those elections like
(12:22):
the one the primary we're gonna havein November, they're ready. They're studying,
they know what they want, theyknow what party they want to follow,
whether it be Republican or Democrats.They are very vested in what's going
to go on in their community.I want to be able to be that
voice for individuals, even though Ican't do it. I want to educate
(12:43):
individuals whose shoes. I want towalk in so that they know this is
what your rights are, but theycan start using them as a citizen,
as an American citizen. My mistake, you still have to wait until completing
that parole and they're still uptill.So now you can vote in twenty twenty
eight. You don't have to waittwo years. It basically eliminates that two
years waiting period. But you're right. A lot of people thought that,
(13:07):
you know, once you're felon,that you can't vote in Nebraska. They
didn't know about the two years.And you're helping this conversations, helping people
realize that that's up. As soonas your sentence, as soon as your
parole is up, you have votingrights restored at that moment. So last
question here for you, d Dan. I'm really enjoying this conversation and getting
(13:30):
the chance to hear your perspective.When you hear people say, well,
geez, if you want to beable to vote and participate in our representative
republic, stop breaking the law.You know when people kind of dismiss and
say things like that, what areyour thoughts? Well, people think that
(13:50):
you break them off just because you'reinherently a bad person. Absolutely not.
No one wants to be known fortheir what they did for their worst day.
No one wants them to be knownfor that. And just because you
committed a crime, does that reallytake away you being a citizen? Does
that take away one's right, they'relegitimate right to be a citizen. And
(14:15):
to be a citizen you do,you get all these rights. You get
the right to vote, you getthe right to freedom of speech, you
get the right to freedom of press. When you take things away from a
person, I'm telling them you're nota citizen anymore. Just because I committed
(14:35):
that sellony, that means absolutely nothing. There's crimes of passion, there's crimes
of belongings. And what people needto realize is they have paid their debt
to society and inherently people are goodpeople. But what they need is support
and understanding. And with April beingSecond Chances Month, let's give everyone a
(14:58):
second sh convicted of a felony ornot. You can learn more about Breakfast.
You can learn more about Queen's ButterflyHouse online. I found him on
Facebook. Do you do have awebsite? What is it? It is
www dot queens butterfly House dot comdot org, queens Butterflyhouse dot org.
(15:22):
D D. Demetrius D. D. Gatson, thank you very much for
what you're doing for these women.Thank you very much for sharing your story,
your perspective with us this morning.I appreciate the time. Thank you
for having me. You have agreat day. Scott Byes mornings nine to
eleven, Our News Radio eleven tenKFAB
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