Episode #166 w/ Dejohn Huffman

Dejohn Huffman’s story begins in Brownsville’s Van Dyke Houses, where survival often meant the streets chose your path. While his siblings went into the military and law enforcement, Dejohn’s road led to his first prison sentence at just 16. By 20, he was facing two devastating moments the tragic loss of his son’s mother and a robbery-homicide he did not commit.

 Instead of letting those blows destroy him, Dejohn used them as fuel to transform his life. Today, he is the author of Raising My Inner Male: 12 Steps Toward Uncaged Freedom, a powerful guide for healing, conscious masculinity, and breaking destructive cycles.

 As Program Developer for Project Echo, a Cure Violence initiative, Dejohn builds programs for justice-impacted youth that focus on emotional, intellectual, and economic growth. He’s a proud Bard Prison Initiative alumnus with over 174 college credits, an Adjunct Lecturer at Parsons School of Design, and former Program Manager at Second Chance Studios.

From the system to the classroom, from the streets to national stages, Dejohn Huffman proves that survival stories can become success stories and that no matter where you start, you are the narrator of your own ending.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Himself.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be hope a south darks a over your mouth,

(01:04):
regulous clear, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Whatever you already knows, your boy pistol pete walking back
to the dog in the yarchd Today we got Dean
John Healthman in the building from Brooklyn, New York, Brownsville. Uh.
The brother came from a broken home, like a lot
of us, affected by crack addiction. Why you know, his

(01:49):
only plan was to survive at that point, and why
a lot of his brothers also was going through air
force on me law enforcement. The brother one was going
to jail one April flus Day for allegedly shooting his

(02:10):
baby moms.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
And he went to jail. And with that being said,
let's just get right to it.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Man, you already know your boy pistol pe dog in
the yard. Up. What you already know your boy pistol
p walking back the dog in the yard. Today we
got the Sean in the building. And you can see
we got Ton b x O Day in the building.
And with that being said, you already know, let's get

(02:36):
into this.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
What up? Many, lovely man, lovely brother.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Brother, good, be peaceful man.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
How you been man? Right now? It's been a good
experience for me. You know, been home for most five years. Now, Okay,
came out in twenty twenty, just before the pandemic. Once
I got out in January. In March eighteenth, the whole
city was shut down. I did. I wound up doing
twenty six point nine years and then come out in
the whole city lockdown. So you went. I went from

(03:05):
one prison to another prison, so to speak. But overall,
it's been a great experience. Man.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Five years, man, I mean, you've been doing good. That's
what it's about. Staying home. Uh, tell us a little
bit about yourself for those that you know, for the
audiences that don't know you, Uh, a little bit about
you know, you from Brownsville, Brooklyn, that is correct, shout
out to Brooklyn.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Dirty Brownsville what they used to call it back in
the day. You know, we're gonna we're gonna rearrange that.
We're gonna cat that up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Okay, we're gonna get We're gonna.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Clear, We're gonna call it clean Brownsville.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, we're gonna be just redistributed.
You know what I'm saying. Some of those titles that's
been there, you know.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Okay, up a little bit, just a little bit about yourself, uh,
your upbringing. You know, you know where you're from. You know,
you had your mom's your dad in your house or
you know, single single parents. You know, just a little
bit siblings, a little bit about yourself, so we could
know definitely.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
So back in like nineteen seventy six, my parents moved
from Fulton Street over to Brownsville. So I was like
four years old. My parents got married. We moved to
Boundswell because the house burned down. You know, being in
the project for the first time. You know, in four
years old, you don't really see much. You don't know
what's going on. Your parents doing good. You think it's
a good thing. Fast forward to like nineteen eighty two

(04:26):
almost you know, I say, I was maybe like around
ten twelve years old. Parents started. My dad was an
old Army veteran and my mom's you know, she was
just a regular you know, housemaid stuff like that. They
wound up getting together and next thing, you know, they
graduated too, which was dope at the time.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Right.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
My dad army veterans, so he caught a habit. So
in like eighty two he's caught a habit, like eighty four,
eighty five, you know, base came around. My parents were
some of the first base heads in Brownsville, and from
that we had a spiral. You know, it's five siblings.
It's three sisters, two brothers, and one is my little brother.

(05:06):
And it seemed like from that point forward our life
took a turn for the worst. You know, it wasn't
one of them type of situations where we didn't see
the de escalation of the household. We got a chance
to experience it because my dad had four cars all
of that when we was younger, and next thing, you know,
he had no cars, were on foot, were on bicycles.
We dropped me around on bicycles and stuff like that.

(05:26):
So the escalation came fast. And then fast forward to
like eighty nine. I'm say eighty seven. I went to
job Corps because I got kicked out of school. Let
me let me I do gotta tell you a little
about my education was joined. I made it to the
ninth race. I'm the second oldest. I'm the second oldest sibling.
My sister's eleven months older than me. And my first

(05:49):
experience in high school didn't last long. I went to Wingate.
You know, I wasn't from the Caribbean. I'm from the
United you know, America, and they hit me with the
Yankee boy Yankee boys, so I want to definitely the
kids out in school. They kicked me out first week.
They sent me over to Maxwell Maxwell. Dudes was fighting
on the stairs and then was pushed him up the stairs.

(06:10):
So I grabbed the dude, slung him forward and pulled
myself backwards. He wound up telling the people I jumped
him and stuff like that. They kicked me out of school,
so they want up sending me the read direction and
you know read direction. It's back in Brownsville, so I'm
you know, readirection. I'm going there for about a week
and a half. And you know, if nobody ever been
to eight hundred school back then, they had some real

(06:30):
crazy stuff going on eight hundred schools. So I lasted
for like two weeks in eight hundred schools. So school
was over with that in the ninth grade, maybe like
around four weeks, maybe like four weeks in the ninth grade.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
You got into it and he got kicked out again
and got.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Kicked out and that was it. And next you know,
I started doing what everybody else doing around the hood,
you know, trying to figure out how'm to win, and
being in the household where everybody hungry, your siblings sitting
there crying, sitting on the floor looking at you like, yo,
where I'm gonna eat? Yo, I'm hungry, and your parents
in the room, you know, geeking. I was like, nah,
I gotta do something. So I started watching the kids

(07:02):
in the neighborhood, seeing what they were doing, how they
was working their stuff, and you know, they were snatching
bags and stuff like that of picking avenue, and I
wound up coming up snatching my first bag, you know,
Duce had some sneakers and stuff. Took it to the
janitor and the building. He gave me forty five dollars
for some pumas and I was able to feed them
for like around two weeks. And I think I think
that catalyst right there was the thing that you know

(07:23):
made crime, Okay, you know, it made it so I
didn't feel bad about doing the stuff that I did.
And I think it was approximate two years later after
I did curry on my first crime, that they took
my siblings from me. So you know, I started off
when I was like twelve. They took my siblings when
I was like fourteen, fourteen and a half on. Yeah,

(07:47):
it was, it was, it was, it was. They scattered
them everywhere. You know how at the time it was BCW.
Now they call it ACS. So they took my siblings
and basically scattered them everywhere. And for me, you know,
my life could have changed at that point. I had
I had a mentor, had to have somebody to guide me.
But my mentors were my uncle, hustling, family members in

(08:11):
the community hustling, and the crackad pops, you know in
a crackead mom, So that those were my mentors. And
it didn't take long before the escalation of of of
robberies slash hustling. The robberies wasn't my thing too tough.
I wasn't really the type of person that run down

(08:32):
on people, but hustling was something I was comfortable with.
And then browns were hustling. You had to be that dude,
you know what I'm saying, Like, if you in Brownsville,
you hustling and you ain't ready to sling them rocks
and we needed them. You know that firearm, you know
you basically you know what I'm saying, gonna get eight up.
So I wound up getting like maybe like eleven dudes
up under me. You know. We was in four nineteen
Blake Avenue. We was on the eighth floor. I had

(08:52):
like about eleven eleven of the uths with me and
a couple of older dudes.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
You were outside for real, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
I mean, you know, we was hustle, you know. So
you know, even though I was one of the youngest,
I was one of the most, you know, the boldest
in that particular area, you know, because I already experienced
so much more than them, because of the crackhead household
and the fast forward it to like my first arrest,

(09:19):
you know, like I was sixteen, I wound to do
gave me an opportunity to take some drugs out to DC.
And I think I was sixteen at the time. I
already been hustling, small hustling, buying eight balls and stuff
like that off the street, you know, and getting my
little ones and twos, And I would say I was

(09:40):
I was afraid to take that trip, but because of
what I experienced, it emboldened me to not care. So
I wound up taking a load to DC and hustling
and got locked up the first day I was there
with everything. They had this stuff in the tennis balls
and I'm out there. They don't know, nobody, don't know nothing.
It was like it was almost like a setup, almost
like a setup, like they knew like what I had,

(10:01):
where I was.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Going, and they knew the Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah, So I wonder if the dude that brought me
there had something with the police. I'll give you one
and you let me rock, you know, because that's what
it felt like. And I wound up doing eight months
and a juvenile detention center and close to Beaumont up
in d C. Up in New York, I mean up
in d C. And by yourself. Yeah, yeah, I had

(10:27):
no I have my grandma, my grandmoms came to see
me one time while I was there, you know, and
I appreciated that. But it was no family because of them,
am Am, the pops, crackhead. Other family members are not
really president in our lives, or they would have. They
would have never took my chip, I said, my children,
but it was my brother and sisters.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, would have took your siblings.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
Yeah. And fast forward, I'm gonna say I was eighteen
at the time I got a knock on my neighbor's
doing and I gotta I gotta tell you that's because
this is a serious part of what happened to me.
I don't know if you're familiar with the hip hop cop, yeah, right, alright,

(11:10):
So in nineteen ninety one, the hip hop cop wasn't
really nobody. He was just a regular detective, right, And
he wind up needing to close a case that happened
in Brevoid. I'm in Brownsville. I don't know nothing about Brevoid,
never been to Brevoid, Like, I'm a Brownsville kid, Like.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
He was a different Prevoys.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
And stock bethor Sivensant, So I don't know nothing about it.
So he needed to close the case. So he basically
came up with this scheme that it was. They said
five people came up in the projects on a motorcycles
laying dudes down or whatever the case may be, and
a bullet went from inside the projects across on Buffalo

(11:50):
on Fulton through a metal security gate and a plexiglass
and hits some guy in the store on the shoulder,
and the guy supposedly died. And Derek Parker said he
would scouted the neighborhood. After two weeks, he supposedly came
up with two witnesses. A right, and the process of
them coming up with these two witnesses. One of them
said he didn't know nobody or he never experienced them,
never ran, but he experienced the robberies supposedly happened in

(12:13):
the projects. The other one, they went to five different precincts,
five or four different precincts looking for suspects, because they
said the dudes went across Atlantic and left going towards
Brownsville or whatever the case may be. So he took
this guy to several precints and when they got to
the I want to say, the seventy third precinct, the

(12:35):
guy picked me out of a Porto ray, supposedly with
Derek Park in the room. Fast forward two years later. Right,
they didn't pick me up. Supposed he was a Warner
card out for me. They came to the neighborhood one time.
I heard and one of the people neighborhood told me
about they were looking for me, whatever the case may be.

(12:56):
I brushed it off. I was like, man, I ain't
do nothing. I don't know, I don't know nothing about
no breevoy y'all bugging it out. That's that's something I
should have never done. I should have never ignored. Yes, yes,
I should have never ignored it because it was serious
and he really really had a plan and I'm not
gonna make it along alone, drawing.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Out talking about eight yes, just you know, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
And so fast forward two years later. I'm in the
Bronx because I'm not in Brooklyn no more, because I
don't want to deal with I'm like, yo, listen, these
niggas playing games. I'm going to the Bronx. I'm in the Bronx.
Everything going right. I'm living my life. I'm hustling whatever,
you know, I'm making my money. And I used to
keep two guns in the house all the time, all

(13:38):
the time from Brownsville. This is what we do. We
keep guns on us. We this is this, This is
what I grew up from twelve years old. I got
my first gun when I was twelve, not to not
to go back. My godfather is powerful. I don't know
if y'all know who Ark Bark and powerful is the
future in Brownsville. My godfather was powerful and powerful. Game
my first gun, it was it was a it was
a six shot thirty two. You break it in half,

(14:00):
you put the shells in it, you put it together.
I was literally twelve going on thirteen when he gave
this to me. Right, so you got a real gun. Yes,
that's a fact. So I'm up in the Bronx now
living with my lady. Were cool. I got two guns
in the house, and every time before I go to
bed at night, I usually take the fire arms apart,

(14:22):
not the fire but the shells. I used to take
the shells out of it. This one night, I want
to go pick my brother up from the train station,
and just to my surprise, right, I didn't do what
I normally do, which is unload the fire arm when
I came back in the house because it was late.

(14:43):
Not being known to me as April fools. There were
playing aple fools. They do my girl playing aple fools.
They joke, I'm playing aple fools. They joke everything going smooth.
The morning time she wakes me up playing the aple fools.
They joke acting like we getting robbed. Wake wake up,
wake up, wake up? Dead's sleep? I wake up? Yo,
listen what's going on? So we go back and forth.
She say, ah, it's a joke. She laughing. I'm like,

(15:06):
all right, give me this yo. You don't play with
this bow it goes off. How do you respond to
how would you like me to respond? Mmmm? See series
listening to us? Ain't that something? How do you respond

(15:26):
to something like that and that moment? How do you
comprehend that someone that you love is shot and you've
been taught all your life to avoid the police, don't
deal with the police, don't don't show any level of

(15:47):
communication with the police. Is the last people you call?
How do I call them? How do I pick up
the phone and say, this is what just happened me?
I panic, I don't know what to do, you know,
to make a long story short, I wound up doing
something I should have never done, which is I removed

(16:08):
her from this place to somewhere else, and I should
have never done that. Fear. Fear is something that you
can't control, you know, when something happens that dramatic and
you don't know what to do, and you'd never been
taught what to do in a situation like that.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
You was taught different.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
You know, you're taught enough to call the cops, to
run away from the police, to the last person that
you would tell them that, you know, right, that's a fact,
the whole opposite. Yes, yes, and you was what I
told you was?

Speaker 4 (16:39):
I was. I had just turned twenty.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Maybe you're a young kid, maybe a young brother. Man,
it's twenty years old.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
Yeah, sixth grade.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Off.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
The gun went off, and I just sat there and.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Just held us away.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
She passed away, and I held her for almost probably ours. Man,
just didn't know what to do, just sat there, you know,
And eventually, you know, they came and got me, you know,
and then they found out. You know what I'm saying,
that I removed it. You know what I'm saying years
later because I never I never, I never could explain

(17:15):
to them what happened because they already had charged me
with a robbery homicide that I didn't commit. So now
I have a robbery homicide that I didn't commit. And
now you're trying to You're not trying. You're gonna. You're
gonna give me the rest of my life in prison,
because now you got that and this, Now that's gonna
justify you're giving me.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
They're putting the story together.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Right, You're gonna it's gonna justify you giving me twenty
five a life or something I didn't do. And so
before I get to the end of that, I have
to say I went to jail. They wound up convicting
me of the robbery homicide and gave me twenty five
the life for that.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
So you so you was a drill.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yes, I want to try because I never did. I
never I wasn't guilty of a robbery homicide. I didn't
do it. Years later they came and I got a lawyer,
and a lawyer was able to represent me some a
friend of mine, a female friend, Phillis Jamison. I will
never forget her. She's a phenomenal person. She asked me

(18:13):
what do I want to do, and do I want
to tell my truth? And I told her, yes, I
want to tell my truth. She would and have got
me a lawyer, right, And when she got the lawyer,
I was able to then go to court and come
forward and tell what happened with my son's mother and
the process of that. They wound up giving me seven

(18:35):
and a half years for that because it was my firearm.
So they gave me a man sword of two because
it was my firearm, and it gave me seven and
a half years for that current consecutive. It was concurrent.
It was concurrent.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
And for those that they don't know what concurrent means,
the young Brother's out there, break it down.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
Concurrent means that the seven happened, the seven and a
half years goes in the twenty five, the twenty five,
the life superseds to seven and a half, So you
go twenty five. But if anybody know it something about
the system. When you have a case. Inside the case,
when you go to the pro board, they just give
you two years all the way out, you're never gonna
come out. Basically, that's the plan give when they do that,

(19:17):
when they make a concurrent like that. So, to make
a long story short, I was still fighting for my
innocence for the case that they gave me twenty five
to life for. But I didn't know how to fight
the case. I didn't know nobody and brevoid. Who do
I talk to? Who do I turn to? One day,
I'm in the yard telling my story, and I know
the show is not about the cases, right, but if

(19:39):
you don't mind, I would like to elaborate on it.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
This is okay, this will change your life. Yes, so
it's very important.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Okay, So while I'm in the yard. I'm telling gods
about my innocence about the case. And one of the
guys came forward and he was like, Yo, I live
over there. I know everybody over there. I ain't never
hear nothing about no robbery or none of that stuff
you're talking about over there. I don't know anything about that.
And I'm like, you don't know nothing about no robbery.

(20:08):
I'm telling you this happened in nineteen ninety one. He's like, listen,
I know the person you're talking about, and I can
name names right now because I don't care. I'm ounder sick.
They don't they don't want this to come out right
because they're trying to use what happened with me and
my son's mother as a reason why they don't want
to expose Derek Parker.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Right.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
They've been covering for this guy for a minute. You know,
I got to keep him one hundred. You know, this
is this has been something I've been dealing with for
a long time. To make a long story short, the
guy told me he knew what happened, or basically, he
knew the person's involved in my case, and he wanted
to get me in contact with him. I said, no,

(20:50):
you can get in contact with a lawyer. I don't
want to have no interactions with this guy because they're
going to say I did something or I take it.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
You're trying to get right exactly.

Speaker 4 (21:01):
So make a long story short, I wound up contacting
the lawyer I was at the time, I was contacting
every innocent project I was contacting. They had crew the
convict review you and it down in the DA's office
and Keim Thompson was taking my case at the time
before he passed away, and it was supposed it was

(21:22):
supposed to really go somewhere because he'd seen my information,
He's seen everything. He was like, listen, we need to
really look into this. The next thing I know, the
lawyer went there, found the dude, and the dude came
clean after twenty four years. Twenty four years, this did
or the Affidavid in my behalf. I have the affid
David in my phone if you need to see it. Right,

(21:45):
He explained what happened. He'xplained that Derek Parker right basically
showed him my photo. You know, basically, you know this
is the guy right here. You're gonna pick right and
the guy came forward during that time. But when I
got out, the guy ran because he had other cases

(22:08):
that he was being used in, and because he was
being used in other cases, he don't want to be
exposed as someone who's putting people in jail. You know.
I don't want to say snitching, because if you're lying,
how is it snitching? If you're lying. I mean, it's
like you're just lying, you know. But I guess it's

(22:30):
one of the same, you know. So he didn't want
to come forward for the other cases he did, like
in Connecticut and Delaware. You know, he's done other things
like this. And I had two lawyers, which was mister
earl Ward and Richard Emery. They called earl Ward the
super super lawyer. I'm from Brinkinghof and brinking Off and
they was fighting for my case and they still, you
know what I'm saying to this day, keep in contact

(22:51):
with me and we go back and forth. But you
got to have the witness, and the witness is afraid
to come forward because he don't want to be exposed anymore.
Parker started talking about me on one podcast or something
like that, and he kind of like slipped it in
there and then went to the left because the DA
and Home was on him. So he figured he would,
you know, start trying to you know, you know, diminish

(23:13):
me and make me smaller in the eyes of the public,
so that you know what he did, yeah, and the
eyes of loss. So what he did, you know, what
I'm saying wouldn't come into fruition. So while I was
in jail, I told myself, right, I went in with
a sixth grade reading level and a seventh grade math level,
and I knew at that time that I was I
thought that my physicalness, you know, because I was, you know,

(23:35):
on top of my game, that I could I could
beat prison through physicality. And come to find out, I
was at the low part of the totem pole in
it because I didn't have the intellectual properties to deal
with some of the smart people in there. So they
was running circles around me. And I told myself, if

(23:57):
I really really, really intended to get out of jail,
I had to equip myself with some tools. I wound
up getting my ged the first thing. I took like
six guys with me and we started studying. I wound
up getting my ged in jail. That was so you know,

(24:19):
empowering because for one, I didn't even know I was smart.
You know, nobody ever told me I was smart, and
nobody even give an impression that I could actually think
outside of the norm. And once I started studying, I
noticed that I had a propensity to be academically in
kind and I didn't know that, which the other guys

(24:40):
in the room with me did the same thing. So
I said, this is not a one off, it's opportunity.
And because I was such a you know, a physical figure,
people followed me to a degree when it came to that,
so we were able to level up academically. And then
I heard about they had a college and another jail,

(25:03):
and I know they took out the colleges in nineteen
ninety five, so I'm like, ain't no damn college where
y'all got a college from? And then it was like,
listen over in Eastern. They got a college over there,
So I signed up. I wound up going to Eastern
And this was the second cohort coming up in two
thousand three, and I applied for it, and out of

(25:24):
the population were twelve hundred people, they probably interviewed close
to three hundred people, three hundred and something people. They
broke it down to a hundred. I made it in
a hundred. They broke it down to seventy five. I
made in seventy five. They went to twenty five. I
made it into twenty five and they only took fifteen
out of that. So at all those people, I made
it the second cohort with fifteen people. I was one
of the people they they picked, and that was the

(25:48):
first time I cried in jail when they picked me,
because I didn't believe that I had the goods, you know,
to compete with somebod these You have some very savvy
academic minds in prison, and people downplay it as if
as if everybody in is dumb. Everybody in jail is

(26:10):
not dumb. You have some very smart men in there,
very smart, and it was a battle. It was a
battle because you don't have the tools to learn how
to study, and you're still dealing with the prison life.
And that's two worlds that that's hard to mesh because

(26:33):
they're not used to you talking in a certain way,
and you're not used to them scrutinizing you and analyzing
you for going to school. So I had to balance
it for a while and then when I got a
handle on it, I was able to excel and I
wound up taking a liking to computer science while I
was in there, and I wound up studying all the

(26:55):
way up to data structures and algorithms. I went up
to CAP too in math, and I started building apps
and web pages on an old Doss computer when they
had the big stupid boxes and stuff like that while
I was in there, and I got really good at it,
and I built games and everything while I was in there,
And even with the police on my back, the police
like looking over our shoulders to make sure we wasn't

(27:16):
doing it. We had ways to hide information and stuff
like that on the computers. I want to learn the Linux,
and I wund up getting good at it, so I
was able to hide my stuff they couldn't find it.
We had little boxes in there, you know what I'm saying,
Little virtual machines that we had, you know, And we
used to push them to the side and learn. I
learned computer science while I was in there. Fast forward.

(27:36):
After the guy signed the Affidavid went to the DA's office.
The DA and them told me, yo, listen, don't say nothing.
My board was coming up so I went to my
first board. I didn't say nothing to the board. I
just held it down because I'm thinking they getting ready
to get me out of prison. I'm thinking this is overweight.
They found out. You know, they know what's going on.
I'm getting ready to get out of prison. Different I

(27:59):
went to board. They gave me two more years. Right,
and I'm sitting there, I'm per forming. I'm mad, you know.
I'm right to D's office. Listen, I did what you said.
You told me. I don't say nothing to the parole board.
I didn't say anything. I need you to expedicite what
we're gonna do so I can get out of here.
Make a long story short. They kept gave me the
run around. I never wound up getting out through that.

(28:22):
So when I went back to the parole board the
second time, I bought all the letters. I was getting
back and forth from the D's office when they told me,
I have a case. Is valid, we're looking at it.
Just give us some time. I gave them the AFFI David.
I gave them everything, and I explained to them. I
showed them the paperwork, what happened with my son's mother
and everything. They let me out, they let me out

(28:44):
of prison.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Because that must have been tough for you know.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
We talk about how you went inside, you know, the
changes that you went through, you know and all that,
but I mean we ain't really get to talk about
how you felt, you know, just being in prison for
kids moms, like dealing.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
With it, just being in jail for that.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, you know, the family looking at you here, your
kids probably looking at you. Yeah, everything is just weird
because it's a weird situation.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
It really is.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
It really honest, because I mean, magic, you know, you're
in jail for your baby moms ship. That's like when
you know, even to us, it's like when you know,
when we first got the information that you son, I
was like, damn, you know, it must have been.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Really tough, you know, just to be dealing with that ship.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
I was.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
I was just jail with somebody to do. That bothered
me for a long time, you know what I'm saying.
So that really fucked me up.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
It affected me so I could just imagine yeah, me,
but you you know what you went through like, you know,
like you're human.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
Yeah, I'm gonna speak. I'd love to speak to that.
So for starters, right, you never get over that pain.
You never ever ever forget get the experience of your
loved one passing away in your arms. There's no way
to describe that. There's no way to alleviate that pain,

(30:13):
or to alleviate the pain of the family. You know,
you let everyone down. You're supposed to protect this person,
right and because of a joke, because they're playing a prank,
they lose their life and you're not strong enough or
you don't have the tools to comprehend that. You're supposed

(30:34):
to go into a different survival mode right and protect them. Instead,
you protect your own self because of fear. There's nothing
that can can destroy you or put you in a
place of lethargicness like fear and being in prison with that.

(30:58):
You know you're innocent of this, but you always gotta
deal with the fact that someone you love passed away
because of your firearm being in the house. If I
never had that firearm in the house, this would have
never transpired. That's one thing I could never get around.
It was my firearm, you know. And when you're in

(31:18):
prison with that, you know you're innocent, you know this
was an accident. Nothing there's nothing that you can do
to change the accident. But it's something you can do
to change your innocence because the pieces are still there
for you to do it. With the accident, there's no

(31:39):
pieces you can pick up the fix. Only thing you
could do is try your best to become something great
for this person, for yourself, for my son. I didn't
get an opportunity to speak to my son until I
came home. I mean see him verbally. I spoke to
him in jail once or twice. Okay, yeah, I spoke

(32:01):
to him in jail once or twice, and again through
my friend. She went out her way to try to
make sure I had a relationship with him, and I
knew that for him, it was so emotional because his
family members would never be able to comprehend anytime him

(32:24):
having any relationship with me, because the right because of that,
that's their that's their loved one, no matter whether it
was accident or not. Still that's right. It's my fault,
and and and I can't atone for that with the
family members. You know, there's no way to get around that.
The only thing you could do is become a better person,

(32:47):
show through your actions that that their their feelings of you.
Right is not in vain, meaning that I can understand
your pain. Let me do everything I can in my
power to show you that I'm not the person you

(33:08):
think I am or that he betrayed me to be.
And it started with my son. It started with me
trying to connect with him, trying to show him that
you have a dad that has prepared himself. You don't
have a dad that went in jail and became an animal.
And I can assure you. I walked to the edge

(33:29):
of the biss while I was in there, and I
had an opportunity. I had to look down at the
edge of the bis and I had to say to myself,
do I drop down on all fours and become an animal?
Or do I stand up on two feet and become
a man? And for me, when I turned away from
the edge of the bist, I started walking back towards
civilization in my mind, and I seen ants, and I
seen rodents, and I seen tumbleweeds, and I started seeing

(33:52):
grass and I started running back. And when I came
back to the reality, I still was in a prison
cell cause I heard that noise and that's what woke
me up out of my catatonic state. But From that
point forward, I knew that I was not an animal.
I wasn't what everybody tried to portray me to be.
I was nothing, none, to be above. My accident happened

(34:13):
and I failed the test, but I had the opportunity
to correct my actions going forward. So the biggest part
was connecting with my son. And so you came home
and connected with him. I came home immediately, immediately and

(34:35):
found him and talked to him and told him what happened,
showed him the paperwork, this is what happened, this is
what's going on. So you don't have to think about
whatever they told you happened. Let me show you so
you can read it yourself. And from that we developed

(34:56):
a nice bond. And he's thirty two now, my son. Yeah,
I'm fifty three. I look a little young, but I'm
fifty three years old, and it's come from me working
out and stuff while I was in prison. I took
very good care of myself. I studied anatomy for seven years,
so I kind of like, you know, know how you
know what I'm saying. Nutrition and stuff like that works

(35:16):
on a different level. But my relationship with him is
is really, really, really deepened, you know, and we respect
and enjoy each other now, you know. And he told
me something that I will never forget. He said, I
didn't know what type of man you would be, but

(35:39):
I'm grateful for the man you become, and I won't
never forget that, you know. And he tells me all
the time to be proud of me for what I've
been doing since I've been out of jail.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
That should be a great feeling.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
It is, have that relationship with him and all that
it is. It is because you know, it just ain't
start right. Yes, it started very wrong. But the good
thing is that you have the opportunity to make it right. Yes, yes,
I'm saying, because as long as you got life, you're
living and good. So well, tell me a few things
about the few things you have done. When you was
in college you talked about all right, what you worked on,

(36:16):
those that you accomplished while you was in CAUSAT.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
I got my prior legal certificate. I was in there.
I did substance abuse counseling for those that had narcotics,
you know what I'm saying. And I did not a
lot of narcotics intervention with a lot of the guys
in there, I did peer counseling for HIV people that
had HIV. I went in there and basically catered to
you know what I'm saying, their lifestyle and try to
show them different ways, you know what I'm saying, to

(36:40):
protect themselves even while they're in the stages of you
know what I'm saying, being positive for HIV. Also, while
I was in there, I want up accumulate one hundred
and seventy four college credits.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Okay, I wrote.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
A book called Our Sons and Daughters, which is coming
out in approximately two months. Okay, it's a drama suspense.
Thank you? Was the druma suspense?

Speaker 2 (37:04):
Hopefully we get a copy. We could put it up there.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
With totally totally totals. Also, I wrote a book since
I've been home right detailing my educational walked through while
I was in prison and how the best techniques to use.
Is called twelve Steps on Caage Freedom. It's called Raising
my NML twelve Steps becausewards Cage Freedom, which I have
right here. I do have a copy for you, for you,

(37:28):
I got a copy for you, all right, I got
a copy before you guys appreciate it. And for me
it was walking everyone through when you don't think you
have the tools because you never even tried, you know,
and then when you try and you apply yourself, you
see that you have more than anybody could think. And

(37:50):
while I was in there, you know, after I built,
I built the game also for kids that I got
to tell you about this game that I built, right,
they wouldn't let me take it out. The game was
based upon learning, teaching the kids about vegetable fruits and
bananas and stuff like that, right, and it's the Garden Maze.
I call it Garden Maze. The caveat of game is

(38:11):
for every point you make or every point you get,
it equates to some type of financial income called vedgecoms
that you could use in any kiosks and across in
New York City right on any green garden cart, right,
and you can take that And basically it's like a
little credit card you get for kids from eight to
fourteen year olds that they can go any bodega, any

(38:33):
store and buy fruits and vegetables by playing a game.
Because they're gonna use screen time anyway. So if you're
gonna use screen time, then why not use screen time
to get a healthy eating, especially during a pandemic when
everybody was eating everything and just just destroying themselves. I
really wanted to redo the game. I wanted to rebuild it,
so I had an opportunity to present it at a
public health fare just recently. I have a prototype and

(38:56):
a template of the game. But my passion is in
computer science. Right now, I'm taking a course in Generator AI.
It's three hundred and something people in the class. I'm
in the top ten percent of the class. AI is
big right now, and it's something that I'm really really
super on because of my computer science background is helping me.

(39:17):
I can honestly say that if we don't catch up
with AI, and we don't catch up with learning how
to teach our kids to segue into this field, we
lost as a race. I'm being honest with you. People
don't got to respect it when I'm saying it, but
I'm telling you it's the truth. They just put five
hundred billion dollars into AI. On April fifteenth. Google put

(39:38):
an addition with three hundred billion into it, and the
EU's euro just put addition of two hundred billion. That's
a trillion dollars. Just put it into it within the
last four months five months tops, right, and we're we're
not paying attention to it. This thing is like when
the Internet came out back in the nineties. Right when

(39:58):
the Internet came back in the nineties, and everybody was
onto it, right, those that actually did something about it,
actually were able to prosper and learn and grow. Now
we're at a stage where it's happening again. And if
we don't catch up and we don't do the things
that we need to do, we're gonna we're gonna totally
be on a lower part of the total pole like

(40:19):
we are right now. So I've been teaching classes. I've
been teaching students at a spot that I was working for,
which project Echo. I was a program developer there. I
have built numerous programs since I've been home already, and
one of them was the chat GPT, teaching students how
to use chat gibt not just for papers in schoolwork,
but using it, how to automate it for your emails,

(40:41):
automated for Canbell, automated for all these different platforms that's
out there, so that you can enhance you know what
I'm saying, you're worth. And I've been teaching these kids.
I make these kids build web pages and three sessions
literally in three sessions, using chat, GBT and replet dot com.
And I make them build web pages based upon community needs,

(41:01):
something they think that the community may need. And I've
been doing that now for the last two years. Before that,
I was working at Second Chance Studios with Cars Mante
and I was their program manager there and I had
a cohort of fifteen people and we was paying them
twenty five dollars an hour for thirty five hours a week.

(41:24):
Orf of donated funds from different institutions like san and
Shultsamen and stuff like that. And my job was to
usher them into digital media marketing podcasts and short films
and documentaries. And several of them got hired at different
cinematographer spots, and one of two of them got hired
at MTV. And so you know, I didn't come out

(41:51):
to play games. I didn't come out to sit down
or to be comfortable. I came out here so that
nobody would have to survive what I survived that and
in my presence, if I can help it, facts and that.
And before that, my first job out of jail was
working for the New York City helping hospitals where I

(42:12):
had to a minister to all the COVID. I was
a public health advisor to right Contact Tracer and they
gave me the job and initially took the job for me.
I had to get the DA's office to write a
letter on my behalf and my lawyer's allowed to write
a letter on my behalf so that I can get
the job, because you know, they don't take anyone that
has felonies, you know, so I had you know that

(42:33):
that that itself, you know, what I'm saying speaks volumes
to how much they believe in, you know, yeah, my work.
And they didn't have to write those letters on my behalf,
you know, and do either rarely. It's a great thing
that you got that done, yes and when, and so
you know, I had the opportunity to also work for

(42:56):
the New School Art of Design. I was an adjunct
lecturer professor. When I came out after eight months, I
was actually teaching and in the college and I was
teaching technology and bell Hook's book is It Transgression to Learning?
And we was we was combining too, so they can

(43:18):
get the cultural ethnical part of our culture along with technology,
which we was using P five JS and I'm not
gonna get into the technical side about it, but it's
a different platform of processing that you can build things on. Gotcha.
And it was a diverse group from all over the
world Indonesia, Pakistan, China, Korea. You know, I had a

(43:42):
diverse group of students.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
And to this day, I'm still in contact with most
of them. So now you know, I just I'm just
ready to level up. And for me, the biggest thing
is virtual reality. And I have to say it's you guys,
and I hope that you know on your platform that
you can find people to champion this. They took secondary

(44:06):
education out of schools, right, which is vocational training. These
kids have figured it out. Once you put them in
a pandemic for twenty four months and let them know
that they didn't have to go to school, right, that
they can use their phone all day long and smoke
weed all day long for twenty four months. And now
you're telling them after that, right, they have to go

(44:26):
to school for eight hours to get day and be babysitted.
These kids are like, no, thank you, I pass. So
we have to be more innovative and more savvy and
how we attack their mental state. When it comes to education.
One of them is agree. One of them is bring
back vocational training, and you can do it through metaquests.

(44:51):
The problem is I partner with a company called transfer
r right, but they want almost eight thousand to nine
thousand dollars per VR, which is the program to teach
electric vehicles, which is EV cosmetology, construction, welding, plumbing, robotics, nursing.

(45:14):
They can learn all of this stuff through virtual virtual
machines and then you transition them into hands on liaisons
that can actually, you know what I'm saying, give them
the last level of training they need. And no one
wants to sponsor that because for them it's it's too

(45:39):
high of a price. You mean to tell me, no
one can talk to someone in Google or in one
of these so that we can get some level of
of I don't want to say I don't want to
say help because that's a bad word to use. But
can we get a level playing field so that we're
not paying seven eight thousand dollars for one medaquest. They

(46:03):
want to charge me twenty seven twenty seven thousand dollars
for three of them. I well don't get don't get
me wrong. I can train three kids four times a day,
but it shouldn't be like that. Why we can't get
this cost down so that I can train ten to
twelve kids three to four times a day. I got you,

(46:26):
and so that's you know where I'm at with it
when it comes to what I'm doing right now, and.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
You focus, man, Yes, yes, years, yes, yes, anything you
want to ask them? Aut I want to ask you
in regards to UH prisoner reform.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
I think this is needed.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
It's not only needed, man, it's our community. Those are
our sons, uncles, brothers, fathers, and they're turning them them
into animals. Like literally, they may come in rough around edges,
forty percent may come around rough around edges, right, But

(47:10):
when you got almost fifty percent of the population is
taking medication right, and then you're putting them in beside
people that are trying to do right or trying to
change their lives around, what type of outcome do you expect?
If you've ever seen a medication line in prison, right,
it looked like like someone's giving away free lunch.

Speaker 5 (47:32):
I just want to jump in there, because yes, you
said you spoke about your reform when you were in prison,
different things that you were able to do with yourselves.
One of the things is two different things. You have
self accountability and then you have self blame. Yes, right,
So when we hold ourselves accountable in many instances, we

(47:52):
begin to do the introspective analysis and some of the
things that we have going on, and as a side effect,
we take control of you know what lies in front
of us.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
Right, So you spoke to.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
How you went and you took the ged, how you
went in this program, and you and you went through
the admissions process and you were part of three hundred
and one hundred and seventy five, then twenty and so
on and so forth.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
Right, So we.

Speaker 5 (48:23):
Want to be careful about in one instance, given an
example of an individual who took agency over their success.
While at the same time, then we begin indict in
individuals in DCCs for putting people on medication lines. So

(48:44):
there's a delicate balance that you have to toe. And
I want to make sure that you're able to explain
what you're saying so you don't come across on the
platform as if you're contradicting yourself. Okay, So again we
want to speak about how you could take your agency
right and then allow yourself to become successful while at
the same time you can find yourselves struggling with depression, suicide,

(49:10):
and you know, average childhood experiences that creep up on
you inside of that set of circumstances because you have
so much time to just think as opposed to you know,
kind of you know, get around individuals that can assist you.
Because sometimes people get on medication and that medication allow
them to recover from whatever it is that they're struggling with.
Right then they find themselves in GD class on inside

(49:30):
of some kind of college program or some kind of
vocational program. So they are different ways that you could
balance that out. But one of the things we like
to talk about here on Dog in the Yard is
how individuals had that beacon moment, that moment of awakening,
got it right. So we know that there is a
lot of problems in many of the prison systems, you know,
whether it's in New York City jails, whether it's in

(49:52):
New York State prisons or other state prisons or federal prisons.
You know, to add that in, right, But what we
also want to be to think about is how we
give young people the tools on the inside, because whether
we like it or not, individuals on the inside get
to get to watch the dog in the yard and
whatever way they do right. And the young people on

(50:12):
the outside who are actually struggling right now with the
School of Prisons pipeline, right, we want to give them
the tools so that they don't make it to prison.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Right.

Speaker 5 (50:21):
We want to talk about some of those things that
you did, got it right, and maybe just give us
one one thing that allowed you to not end up
on that line because they're gonna give you the drugs,
you know what I'm saying, and so many different individuals
are trying to expect. So if you could give us
one thing right that you did right, then kind of
attach it to how prison reform, because you said you're

(50:43):
with prison reform, how prison reform can enhance that or
open up the opportunities for individuals to be able to
have access to maybe something that you did or something
you know somebody else did, and then bring us to
society and tell us what you did out here.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
That was awesome, that was awesome. Thank you for that.
You know that. That's why we hear Yes, I think
the beacon for me was knowing that I was going
to be in prison for a long time if I
didn't level up intellectually, right and for a lot of
people that I encountered, they wanted to level up. You know,

(51:19):
a lot of guys. You know, I would say the
majority guys that I spoke to, they're fearful of education.
They fear going into the education and looking bad or
feeling like they're inadequate with people watching them. They don't
want to stutter in class, they don't want to mispronounce words.
They don't want to be in a place where people

(51:40):
are going to judge them, to think that they're not smart.
And that was one of the reasons why I wrote
the book. Right here, The reason why I wrote this
book right here is a twelve step guide of all
those inadequacies and everything that I experienced while I was
in there trying to level up intellectually and all my
fears and everything that I felt was wrong with the
educational system. While I was in jail, right I had

(52:02):
an opportunity to walk through it and explain to them
that you can. You can. You can think that you're
not capable, but if you try, you will find out
that you are. And it's breaking into them and let
them know. It's okay to get a word wrong. It's

(52:24):
okay to have people chuckle at you if you mispronounce something.
It's okay to not know how to do math. Fact,
but try what's the remedy themedy when it gets hard?
What do you do? I have a workbook. I have
a workbook coming out for this as well. That's free
as well. This one is not free. This is twelve

(52:45):
ninety nine. The workbook is going to be free this listen.
I will pay people in jail if I could to
read this book right here. I'm being honest with you.

Speaker 5 (52:54):
So let me challenge you. Because I asked you what
do they do? You didn't tell me what do they do? Remember,
like I said, young guys are looking at this right
They need a tool. They need a tool, So I'm
giving them the tool. Make sure, so I'm gonna stop.
I'm gonna stop you again. Okay, help me. You know,
I'm gonna help you out because this is what we do. Right.
So what I did right when I entered you know,

(53:18):
when I started to facilitating transitional services and art and
ASAT and and facilitating the YAP, the youth assistance progress
and then I got into college, is that when things
got hard, identified individuals in the community that I can
go to the acts to help me.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Right.

Speaker 5 (53:35):
So right, so when the word was when the word
was difficult for me, you know, I went over and
I said, Yo, bro, listen, Yo, this calculus problem, this
function it was not difficult. I was up last night
for a long time trying to figure it out and
I can't get the answer to it.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
Yo. Can you sit with me for hours? So we
could kind of go over this. That's what I did.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
And as a side effect, as I tell people all
the time, be extone, they having on board of advisors.
So it was this crash time. It was like, I
don't like the way this feel We're gonna get right.
How shim got a board of advisors? This don't feel good?
So you know what I'm doing calling Pete? Your Pete,
y'all know you've been doing the podcast thing for a minute.
You're bro, Can you kind of explain that to me

(54:19):
because this is a little complicated and I can't wrap
my mind around it. And then Pete be like, Yo,
I got you. I'm busy right now, but I'm gonna
call you back in like an hour and we're gonna
go over that.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
So that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (54:29):
So it's about, like you know, as community organizers and
community and public health professionals, we're about building communities. But
building community is rooted in health communication. How do we
communicate with one another in a way to say that
I'm hurting, I like confused.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
Without a doubt.

Speaker 5 (54:47):
No, I'm throwing it back to you, but I want
to give you a little bit of context to what
I was thinking about because I know you doing it right.

Speaker 4 (54:52):
I know you did it.

Speaker 5 (54:53):
I know you're doing it, So I just wanted to
give you an opportunity to talk to it.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
Well. One of the things that I like what you said,
what is the transition for the mental Where do they
where do they get these mentors from or when do
they get these people that can they can access? Right?
One thing we do know that they have those chaos
now in there.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Right.

Speaker 4 (55:12):
One of the things I would love to see right
is a cadure of people selling up for volunteer work
right that they can call or talk to online for mentorship, right,
Like if they're looking for mentorship, that they can go
back and forth with online that people could just sign
up a whole list of people that can sign up
online and that they can they can actually utilize this

(55:35):
wealth of talent out here to help them transition into
their educational you know, feels that they like. But you
have a kiosk there and if there's so if they're
assigned a mentor or assign someone that can assist them
right through there, that would be super super dope because
when I'm out here and I need somebody, right, I

(55:56):
can just go online to different mentorship groups and find
someone that can help me. Like even with my Generative
AI class that I'm taking right now, when I don't
know something, I go on to Slack or something like that,
and I'm able to find a group and I can
ask them, Yo, listen, I'm struggling with these packages right here.
I can't put them together and I'm not getting my results.
They'll come in and just chime in and just tell
me they don't have access to that, so they're gonna

(56:20):
use what they say. Security is a reason why, right,
they shouldn't have this platform. But at some point you
know how to secure the platform, because they secure every
other platform that comes out, so they can secure that
platform if need be right, they can vet whoever volunteers
and still have a good caduret of people that they

(56:40):
can they can go to so that they don't have
to feel awkward about going to their peers in jail
that may judge them. But to see the thing about
it is right.

Speaker 5 (56:49):
In every instance and like so like for me, as
I was studying and I was looking at level myself
up in the workout when I want to lift heavy, Like,
I knew bros that was lifting heavy, So.

Speaker 4 (57:02):
I went like, Yo, can I get down with that workout?
Got it? They became my mentors, right, get my bench
up to full five or whatever it might have been.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
Right when I wanted the ball a little bit better,
I knew the dude that had the crazy crossover and
the dunk in the jail, Yo, Bro, I know y'all
be out there playing balls, y'all. I want to come
out with y'all facts, right, Yo, I know y'all doing
crazy pull ups.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
I'm trying to come out and get on the pull
up ball with y'all.

Speaker 5 (57:24):
Like, So that's what I'm speaking about, right, Like, just
thinking about ways that individuals could tap into communities right
around us, right, individuals that's on the outside, right, the
young guys that's on the outside that don't want the
street life no more, don't don't want to be battling
with the ops.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
Right, where do you go?

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Right?

Speaker 5 (57:39):
Tap into the guy in the hood that you see
he going to work every day. Yo, listen, bro, I
know you go back and forth to work every day.
Ye Can I just ask you a question?

Speaker 4 (57:47):
Right? Tap in?

Speaker 5 (57:48):
So all the resources a sitting right around us, and
then we begin once we build up that confidence in
that trust because we in a lot of instances inside
the communities we come from, we begin to lose trust.
So when we begin to trust the people that are
around us, that who we see doing the right thing,
then we can have that greater amount of trust too

(58:08):
where we're able to tap into different platforms for other
types of mentors.

Speaker 4 (58:12):
Right, and we have to get passed.

Speaker 5 (58:13):
So it's about what's the title of your book, raising
our NML trust. It's about raising your in a mail,
It's about building your level your emotional intelligence. Understanding that
saying you don't know is a part of being mature, right,
because every mature individual need to know what he knows
and need to know what he don't know, because when

(58:35):
you know what you don't know, you know when it's
time to start asking questions to people who know.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
So it's just.

Speaker 5 (58:41):
About tapping into our community, the communities we have right
around us, and building that trust, having that level of
resiliency in you. And if you don't have resilience in you,
you know that individuals in your community who are winning
are the individuals you need to be looking at.

Speaker 4 (58:56):
You need to be tapping into. Raise your n mail.

Speaker 5 (58:59):
Come on, boy dyon here now, tell us about what
you did since you've been out here.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
Broee man, listen, man, I I don't know what I
I don't think what I haven't done. Then you know
what I haven't done. Busy, Yes, super busy. I've been
cohorter after cohort of children, adults, kids, just enlightening them,
mentoring them, taking them to the next stage, and taking

(59:24):
them to the next level in life, just basically giving
them a well rounded approach of how to level up.
Like when it comes to like I L I deal
with a lot of justice impacted youth and like I
have built workbooks for them, DJ and engineering events and promotions.

(59:45):
Computer science, I wanna say, computer science and chat EBT
because they both wanted the same. So I actually teach
courses in computer science as well, where you teach your
man at Project Echo and right now I got I'm
not at the god Squad right now, I teach YEP,
which is the Summer Youth Employment Program. So I got
like maybe like sixty seventy kids that I'm actually assistant

(01:00:06):
right now over there at Project Echo. Maybe like around
thirty forty kids over there that I was assistant through.
You know, I'm with CMSs. I was dealing with crisis
Mangument system in New York City dealing I deal with
a lot of gangs. So basically I don't try to
tell them to stop being a gang banger. What I

(01:00:27):
explained to them is you're next up. And if you're
next up, right, what does it look like under your tutelage?
How are you going to level them up? I said,
When gangs started, back in the days, it started because
they was trying to protect the community. They were trying
to get financial prosperity for their communities. I said, what

(01:00:50):
does the gang look like under you when you when
you give them the green, like when it's your turn
to run it? Do you want them being gophers. Do
you want them to be run around under your boot
or do you want them to be thinkers and entrepreneurs
that can actually help the community and help you grow
whatever it is you're trying to do, because you're next up.

(01:01:12):
And when I explain to them that, and I explain
to them that I'm not trying to take them from
where they're at, I'm trying to help them develop what
they're doing, I have a different connection and a different
bond with them when that happens, because the light bulb
goes off in their head and now they start seeing Yo, wow,
I do got four or five dudes up under me?
What am I teaching them? What am I giving them? Right?

(01:01:34):
So I prepare them to give something other than orders?

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Gotcha? Gotcha? Yo?

Speaker 5 (01:01:43):
Listen, A mayor d Yard leaves it prison reform right.
He's a product of the prison environment, a positive product
of the prison environment. Now he's back at community giving
it up to the youth, participating.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (01:02:00):
You're wrote his book raising your in the mail, he
got work books, he got series. He's doing the work. Yo, Djon,
tell him how to get in contact with you, bro.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
You can contact me at Dijon Huffman one at gmail
dot com, or you can go online is Dijon Underscore
Man and you can get my book on Amazon. It's
called Raising my NML twelve Step towards Uncaged Freedom. And
I also do consultancy when it comes to chat, GBT

(01:02:29):
or any AI. So contact me and my number is
three four seven six seven one five three and that
is my business number. You can call any time.

Speaker 5 (01:02:39):
Yo BX tone dog in the yard and passes my
big bro pistol pete talk to up man.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
With that being said, many you know we added here
salute to you by dog.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
Yo dog in the yard.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
This is what we do. This is what this platform is.
Fight is about, and that's what we do. With that
being said, we out of here. Man bless us, what up?

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
What up?

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
You already knows your boy pistol p walking back to
Dog in the yard. First and foremost, I want to
thank d John Healthman for coming through. Shout out to Brooklyn.
D John is out here doing greatness. I mean, he's
already changing lives.

Speaker 4 (01:03:20):
I was.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
I'm happy that he was able to come on the platform,
was able to express how he felt about his situation.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
That as far as.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
Him and his baby moms and what he went to
jail for the and all that he was able to
express that and put that past him. Now he's out
here doing greatness, encouraging the youth. He's also an author
of Raising My Inner Mail. You know what I'm saying.
You can also cop that on Amazon, is out there,
on on on your platforms.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Listen, man, this is what it's about.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
Man, It's about giving these brothers and sister the voice
they never had, you know what I'm saying. And I
feel happy with that. And with that being said, you
already know is your boy pistol p dog.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
In the yard.

Speaker 6 (01:04:11):
Kao up he was flying. We're alive, shelf shining, were alive.

Speaker 4 (01:04:25):
You self shut