September 8, 2025 • 58 mins
William Steele, known in the Bronx as G. Child, grew up in the Throggs Neck Projects where the streets shaped his reality. By 13, he was already caught in the school-to-prison pipeline — arrested for gang assault. At 14, it was a drug charge. At 15, police caught him with a Mac-10 submachine gun. And at 16, he faced a murder charge that he eventually beat at trial.
But freedom never lasted long. At just 19 years old, William caught an attempted murder case, blew trial, and was sentenced to 17 years. From Sparford to Horizon, from Rikers to state prison, his life became a cycle of incarceration that lasted 21 years. He spent his teens and 20s locked in, and didn’t come home for good until he was 34.
Prison tried to define him, but William refused to let it. When he walked out, he made a promise to himself: no more looking back. His journey is a raw example of how the system swallows young men whole, but also how resilience, growth, and the will to change can break that cycle.
This episode of Dog in the Yard dives deep into William Steele’s story — the mistakes, the lessons, the survival, and the transformation. From the Bronx projects to the prison yard, and now into a life of purpose, William’s voice is a testament to redemption and the power of never giving up.
But freedom never lasted long. At just 19 years old, William caught an attempted murder case, blew trial, and was sentenced to 17 years. From Sparford to Horizon, from Rikers to state prison, his life became a cycle of incarceration that lasted 21 years. He spent his teens and 20s locked in, and didn’t come home for good until he was 34.
Prison tried to define him, but William refused to let it. When he walked out, he made a promise to himself: no more looking back. His journey is a raw example of how the system swallows young men whole, but also how resilience, growth, and the will to change can break that cycle.
This episode of Dog in the Yard dives deep into William Steele’s story — the mistakes, the lessons, the survival, and the transformation. From the Bronx projects to the prison yard, and now into a life of purpose, William’s voice is a testament to redemption and the power of never giving up.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Himself.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Hope a south darks a over your mouth?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Right?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Less clear?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
That's right?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Whatever? What else? You already know what it is?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Your boy pistol Pete walking back to the dog in
the yard today? We got well steal from the bronx.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
What'star? Went to jail for a body? Did? Seventeen years?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Been in and out of Presen's childhood, spar Fred name it.
He's been all over the place today. He has changed
his life and uh he's here with us. Man. With
that being said, let's get right to it. You already
know your boy pistol Pete dog in the yard? Well still?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
What up? What else? You already know what it is?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Your boy pistol Pete walking back the dog in the
yard today? We got well still in the buildings, straight
from the bronx.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
What else? He's my brother? How you doing for having me?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Man?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Very excited, very excited, appreciate having the opportunity, my brother.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
That's what it is man, what's up man?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
How you been bro feeling great?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Man?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's been home for about four years now, just been
ripping and running in doing the right thing, really really
being a beacon of light and hope for our youth.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Be I love that.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I love that to appreciate that King. So for those uh,
you know Wales from the Bronx, how much time you did, well?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I did a total of twenty one years in and
out of these institutions.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Unfortunately, twenty one years back and forth.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Back and forth. My first arrest I was probably about
thirteen years old for a ganga sol actually Okay, after that, man,
it just continued to progress. It went from ganga saw
to drug chargers to gun chargers and they'll ultimately murder.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
All right, so you're gonna get into that.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Give us a little bit of breakdown about you know,
I know you from the Bronx wearing the Bronx siblings,
your upbringing you know, and and and what led you
to you know, get in trouble and what age you
started you know?
Speaker 4 (03:19):
All right? Yeah, so my name is William Steel from
the Bronx. Uh I'm from uh Throws, the projects. Yeah, man,
it was crazy out there. So yeah, I've probably my
introduction to the streets. Grew up in a two parent household,
five siblings, my pops only one, you know, bringing the
(03:41):
bred home, mom on welfare, you know, doing the best
that she can and yeah, being the middle child, man,
I feel like I needed some attention. My dad was
always at work. You know, he did the best that
he can. A really really hard working man, honest, honest
working man, and just the law of the streets. Man.
I remember my mom, I'm just telling me, you know,
(04:01):
will take out the garbage, and just going to take
out the garbage. Being in the lobby of my building,
ten fifteen dudes playing dice. The moment I come in
the lobby, the older brothers grabbed me up, want me
to shoot the dice, started teaching me how to how
to win money, started betting on my hand. Next thing,
you know, I'm winning. My mom's got to come to
(04:23):
the lobby, grab me up, take me back in the house.
And that was the beginning to the streets right there.
That was my introduction. Man.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
That was there, and you was what thirteen.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Nah, probably that probably happened. I probably had to be
about five six years old. Man, just mom telling you
to take out the garbage, you know, going to the
to the scinerator and the projects, a bunch of dudes
in the lobby. I had a really popular building in
my projects and all the drug dealers all the all
the the what you know, the popping people. That's where
they hung out right in front of my building. So
(04:55):
being as I was a young kid man, they just
took a liking to me automatically the dice in my
hand and started betting on my hand.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I had that you had that hot hand.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
And this luck, you know, taught me. They taught me
that se low and that was the beginning my brother's
starting to earn a living on my own outside of
my parents. Once I saw that, that really opened my eyes.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Man, you went, you went from that, you went to
what else?
Speaker 4 (05:20):
All right? So yeah, so once I learned that I
could make money outside of my parents, and you know,
with the older guys in the block, my neighborhood is
predominantly bloods, you know during that time, so naturally I
fell right into that.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Thirteen years you start getting involved with the gang.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Absolutely absolutely, that was the natural progressive They were the
guys that was in charge. You know, they had a
lock on the drugs. They were the popular fashion.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You know, everybody there was one, there was the ones
outside that.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Absolutely, absolutely absolutely so that was the law I was.
I was definitely attracted to that. Okay, once I learned
that I could be violent, man, and and people began
to to reveal me for those actions that really uh
went to my head, man, and just violent right after
me and just continue violence.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You know, were you were you like in any sort
of like school and all that. I mean, you were
having issues while you was in school, or you were
just getting in trouble after school.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Funny thing, man, I was always really good academically, but again, uh,
you wasn't popular for being smart in school. That wasn't
really a thing. That wasn't a thing. I began to
be notarized. You know, people begin to notice me and
take me serious because they think that I was violent.
So you know that I kind of like capitalized off
that I learned that I could be popular and people
(06:44):
would like me. I would get a lot of attention. Again,
I grew up in a five, five sibling household. I
didn't get a lot of attention. I mean, were you
the oldest I was the middle, the oldest boy, but
the middle of the five. Okay, two older brothers and
two younger brothers, and I was right there in the middle.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So now you're involved with drugs, I mean, now you're
involved with gangs, you got induce to the gang, so
you're really outside.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Definitely out there.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Man.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Again, that was my first criminal charge of gangle saul.
Me and my friends be from with this individual actually
over a girl, and we jumped this dude. He went
and told his mom's. Next day at school, police came
and we were arrested.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Wow, you know, the cycle doesn't stop, it doesn't change.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I hear.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
This is like for centuries of happening where brothers get
in trouble and get into kind of all kind of
altercations and kill each other over a girl.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
This is something that young brothers out there gotta take
in mind that.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Listen, man, you react and you try to hold your
girl down, that she's your girl right there, but you
know at that point, but once you go to jail,
the girl's not gonna be there.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
So that's a lesson that you know. At thirteen, I
wasn't himmn to that lesson as of yet. So right
after the arrest, you know, naturally at thirteen years old,
they give you a slapod the risks. As long as
I was going to school or my parents didn't have
like issues with me, you know, not coming home at
that time. So it was a slap on the risk man.
I got.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, yeah, you was.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You was doing the right thing in school, so you
got you got around that absolutely what they gave you.
Probation twelve months probation ship. You really must have really
DISSI to the kid.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
It was, you know, he you know it was. It
was a bloody, bloody situation. You know, you're not proud
of that.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah, of course, we was young.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
We didn't have any guidance, you know, much like the
young men of today, no education exactly, you know, overly
exposed to violence, and you know we were, we were
all sensitized to that stuff. We thought that was cool,
you know. Again, naturally it began to progress, you know,
I got deeper and deeper into the gangs, began to
sell drugs again. I grew up in a two parent household.
(09:01):
My pops, he worked his ass off to provide for
his family. But I noticed, you know, being the mother's
my friends, that just wasn't enough. You know. We always
had new clothes, you know, the latest Nikes, but my
close friend always had the newest Jordans, and that was
the comparison. That's when I knew that, and I'm poor.
You know, my peoples they could they could afford to
(09:23):
get us new clothes, but they can't afford to get
me the latest brands. And unfortunately, those are the things
that I was attracted to. So I had to figure out,
you know, ways to get it for myself, and that
I did, unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
That I definitely did at thirteen.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
At thirteen, my brother I remember being introduced to selling
selling weed. It was a friend of mine's, his older brother.
He wasn't really in the streets, but he knew that
I was popular in the streets. So he thought that
he could be smart and give me some some work
and have me work for him because he couldn't get
(10:00):
off on his own. So I peeped that and I
just doted him on his work, and I took it
from there. My people taught me how to, you know,
save my money, buy more drugs, and that was always
like the h that was always the goal.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
The more drugs, the routine you have.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
So yeah, at an early age, man, those are the
things that was being drugged into.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, we're talking about this is.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Two thousand and one. My brother two thousand and one.
I was thirteen years old, and that was my introduction
to the bloods.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Wow throughout the time. I mean, so now you got
yourself caught up, you got you got probation for a year,
now what.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
So again, I just it was a slap on the risk.
I continue, you know the program as usually go to school,
duck the law, don't get into any trouble. But that
never works as long as you're living in you know,
you live in the lifestyle of the streets. Trouble was
literally right around the corner. So after after that, that
that arrest, and after I received probation, I probably was
(11:08):
in compliance for probably about four months. Then I got
a violation of probation. Okay, so I went inside a
uh spoff it.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Uh wow, I spoffed.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Yeah, man, that that that right there. See I was
I already had it in my mind that I wanted
to be a tough guy. So no matter how afraid,
I was going to spoff it. And better believe, I
was very afraid.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
It was.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
It was a very notorious place at the time. Yeah,
So yeah, I was afraid, but I took that fear
right right into my pockets and I leveled up, went
inside the house and gang banging. Again, I let it
be known that I, you know what it is that
I reaped. There were some other guys that wrapped the
same thing. And that was the beginning of of the
(11:55):
camaraderie that I that I've built with a lot of
young people that that also went from you know, from
the school to prison pipeline and start. Those relationships were
honed right there.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And Spoffit man, Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, for those that
are those spotfit Sparford is a juvenile detention for for
young brothers and stuff like that. It was located in
the Bronx. It's not located. It's not there no more.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Yeah. They shut it down.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, they shut it down. They got a whole different facilities.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I don't know the name of them, but they got
they got they got them around and Third Avenue and
all that.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Unfortunately, I served time in those as well. Man. When
I say I graduated from you know, the school to
prison pipeline, it was literally a graduation from from Spoffit
literally from school to Spoffit to Horizon then rykans Island.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Horizon is the new one.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
That's the new one right there in the Bronx. My brother. Unfortunately,
I served time and then as well mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And all for the same same thing.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Running the streets. It was a natural progression, like literally
from Ganga saut to selling drugs. When I was what fifteen,
I got caught for selling drugs. Then later at fifteen
I got caught for having a gun. We were groomed to,
you know, go to Broadway, developed relationships with you know,
(13:17):
certain connects, and then when things get thick, we used
to rob the connects. On one of those robberies that
I was going on, car got pulled over and they
found the mac ten in the car. I was fifteen
years old. I had two people with me. They were
from out of town who was driving two older brothers.
They were from out of town, and they ended up
(13:38):
bailing out. Being that I was a juvenile, I couldn't
get bailed, so I ended up holding the charge. They
baled out and never came back to New York. Shit.
So you had a whole absolutely, So what they did
was they just extended my probation. I never slap on
the wrist. So this is why at a young at
such a young age, I didn't take crime and consequences.
(14:00):
That's a serious thing. Every time I got in trouble,
I got a slap on the wrist.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah you was good. Yeah you was that, oh ship.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
And then in my gang, I was being more and
more notorious for it. So that goes to your head
as a young man, as a young kid, I wasn't
a man as a young as a younger, yeah, absolutely,
that went to my head. And unfortunately, man, at such
a young age, man, I became notorious in the Bronx
and even in the juvenile system. And you know, naturally
(14:28):
I graduated to Rikers Island after that gun case.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
So after the after the gun case, you came.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Out, I came out.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
I did good for about You got probation for that.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
They extended my probation, so they gave me like an
extra six months. Bro told me to go to like
alternative high school. I followed those rules. But it was
the law of crime that that kept me going.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah, yeah, you was caught up, Yeah I was.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
It was to be honest, man, Unfortunately, a by fifteen,
I can actually say I was a career criminal already
already at fifteen.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Wow. And that's ship.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's like, we all know that shit didn't go that
shouldn't need you nowhere.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
I just imagine what it did to my family. Man.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Of course, because your family go I was just like
with your pops is telling you like, he's a hardworking man, and.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Now is the problem to man, because I was so
addicted to the streets, so attracted to the things that
was going on in the streets. Man, My dad was
always at odds. You know here what it is is
sure a hard working man. He's never been arrested. He's
doing everything in his power to provide for his family,
to provide for his son, to set up a positive
example for a son. And it just wasn't connected.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, you was like, Dad, this is not cutting it.
You was outside, you was you was already caught up
in the street. You know, the gangs, the money. You know,
you get lost your young kid. You don't really have nobody.
You don't want to hear, you don't want the last
advice you're trying to get from your parents.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I'm saying you.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Definitely go home and be like dad. You know, so
that's not happening. So you know it's only one way.
And so now you're on probation, and you was on
and then you you got what happened.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Now during the juvenile probation, I'm still running the streets,
and unfortunately there was an incident that ensued and another
man lost his life. I happened to be there with
it when it took place. The police knew I was
present when it took place, and they arrested me. You know,
they implemented me to the scene of the crime, and
(16:31):
I thought it. I sat on Regas Island for about
fifteen months, and I was.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Just sitting there, sitting there, your first time on Regazia,
when you went there, croaching that water and all cloching
the bridge. What was just going through your mind? I mean, like,
you know, we're all human, Like how you felt.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
To be honest, man, I was scared to death. And
again it was just like that moment when I went
to spofit. I'm afraid this here's it. I'm going to
a notorious place where the unthinkable happens on a day
to day basis. But I remember taking that fear, tucking
it into my pocket. I remember taking that fear, tucking
it into my pocket and making a conscious decision that,
(17:06):
you know what, I'm not William Steal anymore. I'm gonna
be that notorious God. And my former name is you know,
Gangster Child. A lot of people abbreviated, they called me
g Child for short, but a lot of people know
me as that, as that person. And since I've been
released man, I literally buried that person, buried that. I'm
(17:27):
a firm believer that you know, names, the names that
we carry on has power. My brother, if I call
myself murder because subconsciously, I'm gonna start embodying those characteristics,
you know, and then eventually I'm gonna commit an act
of murder because those are the things that I put
into my mind. So if I call myself, you know, money,
I know a lot of brothers name money, and naturally
(17:49):
they take on the characteristics of chasing money, chasing money,
right because that's that's the energy that they put out.
So if I if I name myself, I give myself
the name powerful, I begin to educate myself, begin to
you know, read powerful books, and I begin to give
off the energy of a powerful man. So you know,
(18:09):
names have power. So once you.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Know that name, you know pristal p.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Even though even if I want to bury or put
it and put it where you can look at it
a different way. You always get that look. Absolutely, you
know what I'm saying. I get that look. You know
a lot of places, Oh that's pistol P. Absolutely, you
know it's like they expect you. That's the guy right there. Absolutely,
that's him. Now knowing that that, you know, the whole
pistol P has been it's been on the shelf, you
(18:35):
know what I mean. It's been quiet, you know what
I mean. But so now you're in jail for a body,
you want to look again.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
So yeah, I remember making that conscious decision that I'm
no longer going to be William Steel. I'm no longer
going to be the person I gotta transfer into the
savage being. And unfortunately, man, my whole time on Rikers
Island as a as a as an adolescent, you know,
during that adolescent, during that time, you know, from sixteen
to eighteen, that time period, if you're incarcerated on Recas Island,
(19:07):
they put you on the ar d C. And they
had a notorious nickname, Adolescents at War. And unfortunately, man,
because I was a career criminal already, I throbbed in
that environment. That's great, roped it And when I think
about it now, man, I be so like devastated that
(19:27):
I was able to transform into that sort of being,
you know. And yeah, I'm really really ashamed of that,
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I mean, you know, we all we all like we
all have our shames and ship, you know, we but
we ain't perfect and and and the transfer, this transformation
is even better, it's greater, you know what I'm saying.
So you know, even though yeah, you wasn't right at
that at that at that moment, you gotta understand you
was a young brother. You ain't getting no no, no, uh,
(19:56):
you ain't had no education. You're running around the streets.
You're down with hangs. You know what I'm saying. You
don't have nobody in your ear positively to tell you, hey,
what you're doing. Grab everybody's neck, and my man, fuck
you're doing. You're about to lose your whole life, man,
with your ship. So you know, I mean, only amount
of times you're gonna crash.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Absolutely, And that's exactly what I did my brother. I
sat on Records Island and I just crashed out. So
you hell, I sat on the right. I sat on
Records Island during that time for about fifteen months. And
while I was fighting that murder case. If you remember,
I was still on probation for the juvenile case, so
and for the gun and exactly so I old DFY
(20:37):
some time. So as I sat on Reconds Island, excuse me,
I went to court. I went to trial and we
were acquitted, myself and my coel defendant. Wow, yeah, we
were quitted. And because our old juvenile time. Uh, they
came and got me the next day. So I didn't
go home from from that uh, from that incident. And
(21:01):
to be honest, man, me not going home right then
and there, with all the lossity that I had in
my heart, that was probably one of the best decisions
because I went to DFY. Actually you know, it wasn't
called d was called Office of Children and Family Services
o CFS. So I went to I went to their
(21:22):
custody and I got a I got an opportunity to
uh to really like decompress, to take all the trauma
of Rikers Island, all the all the things that I've
engaged in, all the negativity. And they removed me from
that environment, which is a madhouse, and they put me
(21:44):
in they put me in a juvenile facility where I
could be a kid. I could literally be a kid.
I didn't have to be gangst the child. I didn't
have to be g child. I could actually take a
breathas say I'm William of it. And I ended up
spending another eight months in that juvenile facility, but it
(22:07):
prepared me to go home. Right, So I already had
my g ED while I was on Records Island. My
brother had helped me obtain that. I remember struggling with
my math. I believe I failed it the first time.
And then I recruited a brother and he helped me
with my math, get myself together, shopping my tools, and
(22:29):
I went on to take the g D and I
passed it.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
That was really that was that was that was That's
how you're supposed to do it.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Absolutely and you had you had, you had a brother
came through. You sht up to the brothers. Charlie b
Charlie Bremman. It definitely helped me.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Charlie Charlie b.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Man.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
That's what that's what it's about, man, absolu education. That's good.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So you can't You came and helped you out and
you got your g ED.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
So I always knew that I wanted to do something
positive with my life. But I was just so enthralled
and you know, this this this, this street lifestyle. I
was so invested in it. I felt like I got
so much return out of it. But the return wasn't
the return that I actually wanted. It wasn't the return
that I need to live my life, you know. So
(23:13):
uh so, Yeah, I ended up doing an additional eight
months after I got acquitted for that crime, and it
prepared me to come home. So when I did come
home in two thousand and six, after after you know,
being acquitted for that for that crime, I went to college.
I got a job. But unfortunately, man, I still was
(23:37):
gang banging. I still had one foot tried. You know,
you just had that heart. But also my responsibility to
my homies got too was in my heart.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah yeah, yeah, you're Lloyd. You're loyal to your all,
understand for sure.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
And again I crashed man, you so so my advice
to to anybody that's listening, Man, if if if you
feel conflicted, if you want to do something better, surround
yourself with better, right, do that first. And if you
think that you can play both sides of the fence,
I promise you, my brother, I promise you, my sister,
(24:13):
whoever's listening, it never turns out good. And I could
personally attest to that because after serving, after being acquitted,
after going to college.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
And after getting that break and coming and you be
the body now you coming home.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
At eighteen years old, I felt like I was invincible. Bro. Yeah,
at that point, you like, they can't touch me, mister untouchable.
You know that negative train of thought that's thinking thinking man.
And another incident occurred, this time it resulted in an
attempted murder, and I want to try again. I sat
(24:55):
on Regazala for three years, this time fighting this case,
and I blew trial or all seven counts. My brother wow,
And I ended up being sentenced to seventeen years. My
first fellow in the conviction seventeen years.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Seventeen years. Then they got rid.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Oh it got real now with what your mom's just
saying with your pops, like you know they're going through
it too, that you not by yourself. You got a
loving family, got your pips that works hard. Your mom's
just home, you know what I mean. You got siblings
and know all that.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Like, so as I'm going in and out of jail, man,
my family, you know, they they they going through these
trials and tribulations. Yeah, alongside me.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
The beautiful thing is that, you know, they they never
turned their back on me. They always encouraged me. And
even while I was going through all these trials in error, man,
my family, everybody's lives was or getting better. My mom
got a job, my pops got raised, my younger brother,
(25:54):
you know, he's doing well in school. But then, excuse me,
but then here I go again with my bullshit. I
get I get re arrested, and you know, I'm the
black sheep of the family.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
So arrest that was the temp murder case is hard
to beat.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, I was. I was able to to. Fortunately, you know,
someone did lose their life, unfortunately, But the fortunate part
was that I wasn't the person that committed that crime.
So justice was served, you know, the truth prevailed, and
(26:39):
that doesn't always happen in the criminal justice system. And
here we go again. You know, I reoffend and this
time I was guilty. This time I was guilty, and
I paid the price. I thought that I could go
to trial. I thought that I could I could lie.
I thought that I could spend the truth, manipulate people,
(27:00):
you know, I thought, all those.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
You're gonna spin it off like you you've been doing it.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I said, young man, that's that's just your mindset. That's
what I tell these brothers out there.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
These brother's mindset be like, yeah, I'm getting over I
got over with this. I got over with that. You're
not getting over with ship. That should all go catch
up with you. Man, all that shit is just gonna
creep back up, and you're gonna pay for that ship man,
you know what I'm saying. And then the problem is
that it's not just yourself. If you got like a
loved ones like you had, your mom's, your dad, you
put them to it. You know what I'm saying, You're
(27:32):
not doing it yourself. We were so selfish at that
at that age that we don't think, we don't we
don't care who were hurting, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
And that's the sad part as well.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
You know what I'm saying, because our parents, you know,
our siblings, they they suffer too.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
They going through that, they're going through the motions. They
don't want they don't want their kids in jail.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Absolute you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
So here you go again. You blue trap. Now, you
got seventeen years.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Seventeen years. I was twenty two years old. So I
was nineteen when I got real arrested, setting that am
for three and I was about twenty two when I
got sentenced. Okay, And I remember, so when you get sentenced,
after you blow trial, and you know, after you go
(28:13):
back to Rykers Island, eventually they send you to a reception,
you go up north, they send you to Downstate correctional facility.
While you're at Downstate Correctional facility, naturally you see your counselor,
and your counselor, you know, tells you or the needs.
You know, by needs do these are things that you
have to do in order to get home. So they
tell you the things that you have to do, and
(28:34):
then they give you your your time computation. Now that's
a sheet of paper that tells you when you're eligible
to go home. And I remember looking at that date.
The current date was twenty ten, and I remember looking
at my conditional release date and it said twenty twenty one.
And here it is. I'm I'm I'm twenty two years old,
(28:59):
and I'm just like, and how the hell am I
going to do all this time and while I did
that big so oh this one, this one, this one,
this was the one my brother I remember, you know,
durn Duram my my other stages of incarceration, I always
(29:25):
had incredible family support. So in a way I could
say that they even enabled me. I can say that
because whenever something bad happened, they were there to rescue me.
They were there to be my safety net. They were
there to always hold me down. You So, Durren, when
I remember, I actually got sentence on my father's birthday.
(29:50):
And if you ever, if you ever, if you know
anything about you know, if you blow trial and you
being sentenced, they sentence you individually for each charge, right,
and they use all of these these these terms, these
legal terms that a layming. You know, someone who's not
familiar with this process, they're not going to understand the
(30:11):
words that's being used. So they use words like concurrent
or consecutive. Right. Right, So as they as their sentence,
as they're sentenceding me to all seven counts robbery in
the second ten years, assault in the first twelve years,
you know, they just going down and I look back
(30:33):
and I see my dad and I could see him
like adding the numbers up. You know, he didn't understand
h concurrent. He didn't know that I understood what was happening.
But I could see the confusion. He was the you know,
the numbers added up to like thirty five years, and
here it is, this is his birthday. So you know,
(30:56):
according to him, he's losing his son on his birthday.
So even to this day, my dad really don't celebrate
his birthday. Yeah. So yeah, so I end up doing
I ended up getting sentenced seventeen years. And during that time, man,
I could say that my family took a step back,
(31:16):
you know, to support me a different way. You know,
I'm gonna make you feel it this time. This time up, Yeah,
this time, I'm not gonna hold your hand through this.
You're gonna be responsible this time. And that's exactly what
took place. And so as I was serving that sentence,
(31:36):
my younger brother he's now coming up in the ranks,
and naturally he's taken you know, he's taking he's taking
my name. People's calling him Little this, and that's going
to his head. So now he's an active gang member.
So now I hear the trials and tribulations that he's
(31:59):
going through and I couldn't be there to support him,
I couldn't be there to guide him. And I could
say that my little brother went through things that I've
never gone through.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Wow, and my walk.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
In the gang life, I could say that, you know,
the people that that I surround myself with, we were
apex predators. Unfortunately right and times has changed great, But
I could say the trials and your relations that my
brother was going through. I could not relate to the
things that he was going through. So it was like
(32:33):
killing me on the inside that I couldn't be there
for him, that I couldn't give him guidance, I couldn't
take his pain away. I couldn't tell you, I couldn't
do any of those things. So another incident occurred. So
while I'm in prison during this time, man, I'm really
I really got to I really took the time to
(32:53):
to make a decision on what's important and what's not important. Right,
I began to I began to mature in ways that
I saw that my community wasn't maturing in the same way.
So I started seeing, uh, a separation coming where my
mindset is elevating and theirs aren't. So now I see
(33:15):
that I'm gonna have to make a decision if if
I'm going to stay a part of this, then I
know that I would I'll be continuing, I'll be stamping
the foolery that they're that they engaged in. And again
here it is, I'm maturing and I want more for
my life. So I begin to be around more positive people,
(33:38):
people who are you know, they doing motivational speaking.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
They was a whole different path.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
They're trying to better, they build it themselves. So I
started to be attracted to that sort of thing rather
than the stuff that's going on in the yard. So
that's when I begin to see that my mind is changing,
my community is changing. It's time to make a decision
that bring you any kind of issues.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
While you was incarcerated, meaning like then you decided you
go a different path, and.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
You was you know, I mean you.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Gang So So I believe for the average person that
would be in the same dilemma that I was in,
I think that their path would be very different from minds.
And I can say that because because I grew up
(34:28):
in the system, from sparfor from from from the jail
to prison pipeline. Because I grew up in that system.
Because I've become notorious in this system, a lot of
people know me, right, and because a lot of people
know me, I have great relationships with people, and I
was able to leverage those relationships. So when I began
(34:50):
to change, those same individuals saw the change as well,
and they loved it. Picuarly, they want to change too, equally,
they want to change they're holding on to, you know,
their reputations. So when they saw what I was doing,
they encouraged it. They encouraged it, they supported it, so
that my retirement was you know, people they gave me
(35:14):
their blessings because I was a notorious person, because I
have great relationships with a lot of other notorious people.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
If they felt like you put enough work so it
turned out to be different for you.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
And also they see that I'm able to encourage other
people to take a different path as well, and they
encourage that as well.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, that's good and that's how it should be. Absolutely,
you know what I'm saying, Because you know, you shouldn't
be I don't think, you know, you should ever be
forced to be down with a gang or anything. I
think I think because you know, I mean, I wouldn't
want to put you down with my gang. If it's
not in it, if it's not in your heart, then
it's not you know, it ain't genuine. But at the
(35:53):
end of the day, you're gonna end up either crashing
out on me or crashing on or you're just not
working out.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
It's gonna go bad for sure.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Yeah, that's for sure. So you know you was able to.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
So you was able to through that transitions. You started
fading away in regards to the gang. You started dealing
with more positivity and you know other brothers that was
getting they right there was they was getting to it absolutely.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
So while I began to change and make those positive
changes in my life, I started seeing that my little
brother was going through He was going through some serious
hardships when it came to the gangster lifestyle, right, this
gang banging lifestyle so much so that it was an
incident that took place in my projects. But Big Melee.
(36:40):
A lot of people were arrested after some people got away.
So I believe it was a Saturday night, right, so
everybody's in the bookings or whatever, right, So the people
that didn't get arrested That next morning, Sunday morning, an
individual knocked on my mother's door, and they said, excuse me, miss,
(37:01):
are you such and such mom? My mother said, yes
I am, and that individual cut my mother across the face.
As a direct result of what just took place to
melee that took place in the projects with that my
younger brother was involved in that melee and as a
result and retaliation, someone went to my mother's house and
(37:26):
and so to my mom's man. So I remember being
up north, you know, calling home and finding out getting
the news, and I just remember being really really angry.
And I also remember thinking to myself, like what's next?
(37:49):
How do I respond to this? And I remember thinking
to myself, damn, how selfish in mind right now? But
that I'm making it about myself. My mother just got cut?
How was she doing? So I set up a visit.
My mom came, came to visit me, still has stables
(38:11):
on her face. And the first thing my mom said
was she said, don't murder anybody when you come home.
M hmm, that's the first thing she said. Now I
didn't say nothing. I just listened for a minute and
(38:32):
just received it processed. And I started thinking to myself
as a person who's done time, as a person who's
who is a repeat offender. There's language amongst people who
who are repeat offenders. One thing we say to ourselves
(38:53):
the moment we get released, I'm never coming back. That's first, right,
But then we give ourselves a an excuse. We tell
ourselves the only way I'm coming back if somebody does
something to my family. Right, Yeah, that's that's like a
universal statement. Go to go to jail and you good card.
(39:14):
That's a that's a universal that's like, no, go to jail,
like I'm mad at you if you go to jail
for that, Like, that's universal for the people the sickness
that that's a sick way to think, right, Like, universally
a lot of people that that that that that's a reoffender.
They have that mindset. So I remember thinking to myself, like,
(39:38):
I'm justified if I want to act on this, right,
But then the brilliance of my mom kicked and she
took that away from me immediately. That was that that
would have been an excuse to do something foolish. I
could go home, after doing all this time, all this
great work that I've been rea, you know, pouring into myself,
(39:59):
I could go home and throw all that shit away
because of my ego, right, because it is an ego thing.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, when this happened to your mother, were you in jail, said,
but you had a long she still had a lot
of time.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
Left, absolutely, about six years left. Okay, had six years left.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah, so you was in there living with that, the
whole kind of shit going through your mind. You know,
I mean, you're not there to to to find out
to help to do anything.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
Yeah, but my mother, she gave me something beautiful that
day though. Man, she gave me. She gave me the
freedom to choose that day.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, she gave me the peace.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
That's peace your mom telling you, yo, don't worry about that, man,
it just let's keep moving.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
Well, she gave me more than anything. Was like, you're
not gonna I'm not going to be the excuse. I'm
not going to be an excuse to do something stupid.
So you can't never do something and say I did
that for my mother. That's what she did. She took
that away from me, Okay, took that away.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
From you know, which.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
It was great because you know, that's that's what that's
what you want, that's what that's that's what your moms want. Anyways,
you don't want something to get caught up. You already
been in jail your whole life, you know, so, I mean.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Even being released. Man, that's always been something that I
struggled with even to this day.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
So you never got to find out who did it.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
You know. There there's whispers of you know, the streets.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
Yeah, naturally, no concrete.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
No. But you know what though, bro, here's more to me,
the most important piece of forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah, of course, the most important, you know, It's just
it's just it's just Alredy said that for the sense
of you know, you knowing like, oh yeah, it was
you know, just to know.
Speaker 4 (41:44):
Naturally you want to do this, man. Yeah, that's my
that's my that's second nature to me.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
That's just that's not even it's in your blood and
brings the animal out of exactly, of course.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
So it takes a lot to restrain. And that's what
I've been doing, man. And it's beautiful, brother, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Yeah, you put that behind you anyway.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Home, She's okay, she's she's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
She said nothing on her face.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Okay, that's what I'm saying. That's what matters. So it
turned out great.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
It turned out incredible. Man.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
You know, rather than you know, it's even.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Happier, my brother, it gets even happier. So since I've
been home, I've really been involved in this community work.
First thing I did was, so you've been I've been
home since twenty twenty one, December second, twenty twenty one, almost.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
For what you've been doing.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Since since I've been home, my brother, I've been working
man changing lives, man of restoring hope with our young people.
I took a job with Exodus Transitional Community. I don't
know if you're familiar with that. They do great work
all throughout New York City, but they're stationed in East Harlem, right.
And I told you while I was inside, I begin
(42:59):
to do like public speaking and motivation you speaking, working
on my craft. So when I came home, I was
afforded the opportunity to become a facilitator. And as a facilitator,
we used to we used to teach young people inside
of an alternative Alternative to incarceration program. So, I don't know,
you know, for those who are not familiar with UH diversion,
(43:22):
Alternative to incarceration is a is a way to to
not go to jail. Man, So you might have a
person who who you know, he never been in trouble before,
and unfortunately something took place, right, And because he's never
been in trouble before, because this this person UH has
(43:47):
you know, has a job, has you know, family support,
maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to remove this
person from his family. Maybe it'd be a better idea
to put them in alternative to incarceration. Right, So instead
of going to jail, they would sentence up a individual
to UH a program for approximately a year or eighteen months,
(44:09):
and during that year or eighteen months, UH, people like
myself would be running programs for them to pretty much
like workshops to to change the way that they maybe
they criminal the year change you know, to provide some
some sort of enrichment to change their lives.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Right, So sort of hope.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
Absolutely, So that's what I did for the first two
years of my freedom. And during that you know.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Since that that was good to get back.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
No, absolutely, man, sin, since I've been working with alternatives
to incarceration, it actually uh opened up many many working
relationships with the UH District Attorney's office, UH, with with
with judges. So now I have district attorneys who whenever
they get uh uh a a young person or an
(44:59):
individual that they leave shouldn't go to jail, they send
them directly to me. They refer them to my program.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Yeah, it's super.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
That's pretty good. And I think you're the perfect guy.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Thank you, man.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
You can't have somebody else. I mean, you the perfect guy.
You went through it, you had your transformation. You mean
you went through some ship man.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
You can relate gang, you can relate, You relate anything because.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
You've been and that's what it's about, man, turning your
pain into your passion.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Yeah, that's what I do. I'm doing the same thing
to my brother. I'm going to right As Island to go.
I go, I go, I go to you know, the
penitentiary up north. You know, wan girl, I think you
know behaving. Uh I interviewed. I even brung dog dog
in the yard, bring it to the to the to
(45:46):
the yard. But I have interview guys like you know, listen,
maybe different. We live in a different time. Brothers just
trying to come home those days not wild. And I
don't know what they think. You know, it's nothing in
jail nothing going on in jail.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
You get a tablet and you go to your room,
and that's ship. And you could just be with your
chavelt for tablet for twenty years.
Speaker 3 (46:05):
It's just not it.
Speaker 4 (46:06):
Yeah, they wanted they want people to be content, you know.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
What I'm saying. So it's a great thing. I love
what you do. I love I love that's that's definitely
like perfect job for you, you know what I'm saying.
And you're doing a great job with it.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
And I was just the beginning that I was just
the beginning. So I started with the alternative conceration and
then we moved on to uh. I got a promotion
to violence interruption, okay, and that was really my passion
considering you know, I got this game back.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
When Yeah, I know a lot of people that way
and that feel.
Speaker 4 (46:40):
And since I've been working that field, man, the gun
violence has decreased tremendously in East Harlem. And it's a
direct it's a direct impact on the work that we do.
Oh So, we were doing violence interruption for about two
years and then the unfortunately when President Trump came into office,
(47:02):
he cut the Department of Justice, he cut their budget,
which in terms, they did at our program, So we
were no longer funded. Okay, so we all lost our jobs,
my whole department. It was probably about five of us.
And instead of you know, just stopped stopping the work
and taking our resume and going somewhere else, we decided
(47:24):
that we're going to continue working with the people that
we've always worked with. Uh, the participants, we're still responsible
to them. A lot of them were caught mandated. So
what do we do under those circumstances? Do we just
don't show up? Do you just allow the young people
to go to jail because they're not having programming because
President Trump decided not to fund us. Now, instead we
(47:45):
continue to work. We showed up every single day and
we started our own now for profit organization.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
That's what we did. That's what's up.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
Do, my brother. We create a way. Man, there's no excuse.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
I mean, you did it when you did it, when
you when your mind is set, when you was your
mindset wasn't there when you was out there in the gutter,
you know what I'm saying, involving no kind of bullshit.
You was pretty successful doing that, so you could be
even more successful doing something positive, you know, with great
energy you know what.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
I'm saying, thank you so much man for the No.
Of course, this is what it's for.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
This play.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
I always say, this platform is here for you, guys,
like this is what we do. We never had a voice.
Now we have a voice, and this is the platform
to be able to give us that voice. So not
only were getting it off our chests at the same
time and we build it, but we be able to
show these brothers out there, any sisters out there, that
all that shit don't add to anything but just just
(48:45):
jail time, suffering, you know, away forever, no family, no woman,
no kids. No, it's not what you want, guys, you
know what I mean. It's always a different way. Absolutely,
it's always a different way.
Speaker 4 (48:58):
And you know what, if you don't know the way,
our job is to provide a way for you, man.
That's our job, man, to show you, to expose you
to different things. That's what me and the brothers here,
that's right, that's right that we do at my risk, kids,
and that's what we're going to continue to do. So
it was the whole New York City. We just got
an office at Mount Vernon in Westchester County. So we're
working man we're working on a new office in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
And all the blessings coming or are.
Speaker 4 (49:22):
We're working with organizations and Yonkers are now one four.
Shout out to the.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Brother John, shout out.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
Shout out to r A b RAP. They doing their
thing out in Austin and that's before and after school program,
the w Y Y m c A they doing their
thing and Yonkers so many services. Man, we out here
for the people. You got people like myself. Man, Like
I said, we lost funding to our program and instead
of going out and getting another job, we just continue
(49:54):
to work. Right now, my whole team is working for
free brother.
Speaker 3 (49:57):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (49:58):
We operated out of pock. It operated out of pocket,
my brother. The work continues with actively looking for Of course,
everything is got to stay with state that that's that's
what these young people and that's.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
What you're gonna get the it is gonna come, sir Gotte,
and just continue to save lives.
Speaker 4 (50:20):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
I wanted to ask you about.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Uh, how do you feel about.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
Prison reform?
Speaker 4 (50:29):
Mhm so naturally man, prison reform. I spent a large
majority of my life in these institutions, and I can't
say that the prison helped me with anything. It was
always guys like myself, guys like you that being together
and decided we want more of ourselves. So we're gonna
(50:51):
provide more programming for ourselves. I feel like, if if
Department of Corrections can allow more people, more credible messages, right, people,
people who've actually done time and went home and made
positive transitions, allow us in the facilities. Now, I believe
(51:11):
that we can inspire hope and then that's gonna naturally
drop the It's people like us that show them you
can be successful. Absolutely, you can be successful, just attainable.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, I just got myself. I've been dealing with UH organization.
It's called Academy of Hope. It's new. Have you ever
heard of Andre Norman? Of course, so Andre Norman started that.
So I'm a part of Andre Norman. It's like none
of us and UH.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
And the job is amazing, man, the work that we
that we that we do. You know, I never.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Thought in my life, brother, that I will ever go
and have that kind of impact on brothers. You know,
when I go back to the prison system of jail
system on right As Island, you know, up north, you know,
you know, people's like wow, Pete, Like whoa you there
and you back in here, and I'm like, yeah, man,
like if you know, in the back of my shirt,
(52:15):
you know, my dog in the yard outfit I got,
I got big letters. Gangsters changed too, absolutely, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (52:22):
And it's like, I think it's important that they see
themselves in us.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah, like you know, don't be a shamed you know
what I'm saying. Like, you know, gangster has changed too.
You know what I'm saying, don't be a shame because
you know, and you more gangster when you pick, when
you when you decide to be more responsible, that's gangster.
Speaker 4 (52:40):
Changing the narrative my brothers. Yeah, I mean when people
look at you in a whole different light.
Speaker 3 (52:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
So you know, prison reformists is something that we always
you know, will always want, you know what I mean,
because like you said, you go to jail if it's
nothing there to really reform you, it's nothing. You gotta
be able to reform yourself. You know, you got to
it and you know, and and that's just the way
it goes, you know, the prison system, well, at least
(53:08):
here in America. You know, it's it's just set you up.
They get you cutting with and that's it. If you
if you leave it up to the system, then you
get lost.
Speaker 4 (53:16):
Yeah, you gotta you gotta play an active role and
you know, making a difference in your life. You have
to be active if you if you rely on the
system or parole to put you in a successful place,
it's just not going to happen. The system is a
set up that way, so you could continue to re offend.
That's what it's set up for. So if we could
put a system in place that prevents that from happening.
(53:39):
And I think that's what we're doing. I think we
put in our own system.
Speaker 2 (53:42):
Of course, I think that we're taking charge.
Speaker 4 (53:44):
Absolutely. We have to remember that. You know, people used
to say when my man come home, I'm gonna put
them on, and that that meant to give you drugs
and guns. And I think what you're what we're doing today,
we're changing the definition of putting our people.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
Putting our people on.
Speaker 4 (54:04):
While they incarcerated, and as long as they qualify themselves,
go get your education, work on your language and how
you present yourself, and then you come home and we
got opportunities for you. I promise you, Marius, kids, we
got you, that's right.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
We got you there you go, So listen, man, what
you're doing? Man, I mean, you can't can't make it up.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (54:30):
It's something that's organic and it's gonna work, you know
what I'm saying. I just know that the platform is
here for you guys. You know, like any given time,
you know you and your guys need to promote something,
I have to do anything that has to do with
with the program or anything wrong.
Speaker 4 (54:44):
Just know that.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
And with that, man, I want to ask you one
thing about what's one of the worst things you've seen
in prison?
Speaker 3 (54:51):
Man? That stood in your mind?
Speaker 2 (54:53):
Like wow, you know, give these guys something that you
know they could think about.
Speaker 4 (54:56):
Man, you know, the worst thing I seen in prison
is how fast that we transgression, transgress against each other.
I've seen I've seen incidents where you know, an individual,
an incarcerated individual, would say something that another incarcerated individual
(55:19):
may deem disrespectful and on just that one encounter that
result in physical violence. But I've seen countless times where
an officer would say those same demeaning words and nothing
would happen. Right, So, I think the worst thing about
prison is the division. I think if we could if
(55:43):
we could decide that. Listen, we're people, man. You look
just like me. I look just like you. Your family background
is similar to minds. We could pull together and we
could come up with a real, a real effective plan
or never come back to prison. Let's put these systems
in place. I think that if we work together, we
(56:04):
could do that. So I think that's the worst thing
about prison. Yeah, the lack of unity.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
I get it. And that's about that.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
That's to this day, that's always been a big problem
in jail.
Speaker 4 (56:18):
Yeah. And I'm not saying, like b violence officers and
that be united.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
Each other instead of fighting.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Because this guy is from Third Avenue when I'm from
Whigs Avenue, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 4 (56:32):
Because he's Hispanic and I'm black.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah, that ship is the craziest ship in the world.
Speaker 4 (56:36):
Man.
Speaker 2 (56:36):
I mean, you know, ignorant is always going to be around.
So it's our job, you know, to like you. You
know what I'm saying to let you know that it
don't make no sense for you to fight anything that
had to do with color because you you're a part
of that. So you know what I mean. You know
that's very ignorant man. You know what I mean, And
a lot of us definitely get caught up with that,
(56:57):
you know, especially as young men.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
You know with no education.
Speaker 4 (57:02):
You know, so further your education, whether it's academically or
just information. Information is power.
Speaker 3 (57:09):
Man, Will Still, Man, Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
Man, Dog y'all Dog in the yard. You already know,
Man Still, keep doing your thing. Appreciate having you. Man.
Speaker 3 (57:17):
Just know the platform is here for you.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
And any given time you guys are ready to come
up here, you already know we're here.
Speaker 4 (57:23):
Appreciation.
Speaker 2 (57:23):
With that being said, you already know it is your boy,
Pistol Peak, Dog in the yard. What what else you
already know what it is your boy, Pistol Peak. Welcome
back to the Dog in the yard. First and foremost,
I want to thank Will Still for coming through. Appreciate
having you, my brother. I love your mindset, your transition.
(57:43):
I mean it's inspiring. Keep doing your thing. I love
what you do. We're on the same journey, which is
to improve and enlighten the youth. And I love everything
you doing, man, and we're here to support you. Like
I said, any given time and you want to come back,
you more than welcome, my brother. Doing greatness and keep
changing lives. That's what it's about. Your boy pissed the
pet dog in the yard.
Speaker 3 (58:10):
Thank god.
Speaker 2 (58:15):
K was flying. We're alive and South Shot. We're alive
and Solf shut
Himself.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Hope a south darks a over your mouth?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Right?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Less clear?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
That's right?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Whatever? What else? You already know what it is?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Your boy pistol Pete walking back to the dog in
the yard today? We got well steal from the bronx.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
What'star? Went to jail for a body? Did? Seventeen years?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Been in and out of Presen's childhood, spar Fred name it.
He's been all over the place today. He has changed
his life and uh he's here with us. Man. With
that being said, let's get right to it. You already
know your boy pistol Pete dog in the yard? Well still?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
What up? What else? You already know what it is?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Your boy pistol Pete walking back the dog in the
yard today? We got well still in the buildings, straight
from the bronx.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
What else? He's my brother? How you doing for having me?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Man?
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Very excited, very excited, appreciate having the opportunity, my brother.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
That's what it is man, what's up man?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
How you been bro feeling great?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Man?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's been home for about four years now, just been
ripping and running in doing the right thing, really really
being a beacon of light and hope for our youth.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Be I love that.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I love that to appreciate that King. So for those uh,
you know Wales from the Bronx, how much time you did, well?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I did a total of twenty one years in and
out of these institutions.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Unfortunately, twenty one years back and forth.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Back and forth. My first arrest I was probably about
thirteen years old for a ganga sol actually Okay, after that, man,
it just continued to progress. It went from ganga saw
to drug chargers to gun chargers and they'll ultimately murder.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
All right, so you're gonna get into that.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Give us a little bit of breakdown about you know,
I know you from the Bronx wearing the Bronx siblings,
your upbringing you know, and and and what led you
to you know, get in trouble and what age you
started you know?
Speaker 4 (03:19):
All right? Yeah, so my name is William Steel from
the Bronx. Uh I'm from uh Throws, the projects. Yeah, man,
it was crazy out there. So yeah, I've probably my
introduction to the streets. Grew up in a two parent household,
five siblings, my pops only one, you know, bringing the
(03:41):
bred home, mom on welfare, you know, doing the best
that she can and yeah, being the middle child, man,
I feel like I needed some attention. My dad was
always at work. You know, he did the best that
he can. A really really hard working man, honest, honest
working man, and just the law of the streets. Man.
I remember my mom, I'm just telling me, you know,
(04:01):
will take out the garbage, and just going to take
out the garbage. Being in the lobby of my building,
ten fifteen dudes playing dice. The moment I come in
the lobby, the older brothers grabbed me up, want me
to shoot the dice, started teaching me how to how
to win money, started betting on my hand. Next thing,
you know, I'm winning. My mom's got to come to
(04:23):
the lobby, grab me up, take me back in the house.
And that was the beginning to the streets right there.
That was my introduction. Man.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
That was there, and you was what thirteen.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Nah, probably that probably happened. I probably had to be
about five six years old. Man, just mom telling you
to take out the garbage, you know, going to the
to the scinerator and the projects, a bunch of dudes
in the lobby. I had a really popular building in
my projects and all the drug dealers all the all
the the what you know, the popping people. That's where
they hung out right in front of my building. So
(04:55):
being as I was a young kid man, they just
took a liking to me automatically the dice in my
hand and started betting on my hand.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I had that you had that hot hand.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
And this luck, you know, taught me. They taught me
that se low and that was the beginning my brother's
starting to earn a living on my own outside of
my parents. Once I saw that, that really opened my eyes.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Man, you went, you went from that, you went to
what else?
Speaker 4 (05:20):
All right? So yeah, so once I learned that I
could make money outside of my parents, and you know,
with the older guys in the block, my neighborhood is
predominantly bloods, you know during that time, so naturally I
fell right into that.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Thirteen years you start getting involved with the gang.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Absolutely absolutely, that was the natural progressive They were the
guys that was in charge. You know, they had a
lock on the drugs. They were the popular fashion.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You know, everybody there was one, there was the ones
outside that.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Absolutely, absolutely absolutely so that was the law I was.
I was definitely attracted to that. Okay, once I learned
that I could be violent, man, and and people began
to to reveal me for those actions that really uh
went to my head, man, and just violent right after
me and just continue violence.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You know, were you were you like in any sort
of like school and all that. I mean, you were
having issues while you was in school, or you were
just getting in trouble after school.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Funny thing, man, I was always really good academically, but again, uh,
you wasn't popular for being smart in school. That wasn't
really a thing. That wasn't a thing. I began to
be notarized. You know, people begin to notice me and
take me serious because they think that I was violent.
So you know that I kind of like capitalized off
that I learned that I could be popular and people
(06:44):
would like me. I would get a lot of attention. Again,
I grew up in a five, five sibling household. I
didn't get a lot of attention. I mean, were you
the oldest I was the middle, the oldest boy, but
the middle of the five. Okay, two older brothers and
two younger brothers, and I was right there in the middle.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So now you're involved with drugs, I mean, now you're
involved with gangs, you got induce to the gang, so
you're really outside.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Definitely out there.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Man.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Again, that was my first criminal charge of gangle saul.
Me and my friends be from with this individual actually
over a girl, and we jumped this dude. He went
and told his mom's. Next day at school, police came
and we were arrested.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Wow, you know, the cycle doesn't stop, it doesn't change.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I hear.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
This is like for centuries of happening where brothers get
in trouble and get into kind of all kind of
altercations and kill each other over a girl.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
This is something that young brothers out there gotta take
in mind that.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Listen, man, you react and you try to hold your
girl down, that she's your girl right there, but you
know at that point, but once you go to jail,
the girl's not gonna be there.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
So that's a lesson that you know. At thirteen, I
wasn't himmn to that lesson as of yet. So right
after the arrest, you know, naturally at thirteen years old,
they give you a slapod the risks. As long as
I was going to school or my parents didn't have
like issues with me, you know, not coming home at
that time. So it was a slap on the risk man.
I got.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, yeah, you was.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You was doing the right thing in school, so you
got you got around that absolutely what they gave you.
Probation twelve months probation ship. You really must have really
DISSI to the kid.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
It was, you know, he you know it was. It
was a bloody, bloody situation. You know, you're not proud
of that.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah, of course, we was young.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
We didn't have any guidance, you know, much like the
young men of today, no education exactly, you know, overly
exposed to violence, and you know we were, we were
all sensitized to that stuff. We thought that was cool,
you know. Again, naturally it began to progress, you know,
I got deeper and deeper into the gangs, began to
sell drugs again. I grew up in a two parent household.
(09:01):
My pops, he worked his ass off to provide for
his family. But I noticed, you know, being the mother's
my friends, that just wasn't enough. You know. We always
had new clothes, you know, the latest Nikes, but my
close friend always had the newest Jordans, and that was
the comparison. That's when I knew that, and I'm poor.
You know, my peoples they could they could afford to
(09:23):
get us new clothes, but they can't afford to get
me the latest brands. And unfortunately, those are the things
that I was attracted to. So I had to figure out,
you know, ways to get it for myself, and that
I did, unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
That I definitely did at thirteen.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
At thirteen, my brother I remember being introduced to selling
selling weed. It was a friend of mine's, his older brother.
He wasn't really in the streets, but he knew that
I was popular in the streets. So he thought that
he could be smart and give me some some work
and have me work for him because he couldn't get
(10:00):
off on his own. So I peeped that and I
just doted him on his work, and I took it
from there. My people taught me how to, you know,
save my money, buy more drugs, and that was always
like the h that was always the goal.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
The more drugs, the routine you have.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
So yeah, at an early age, man, those are the
things that was being drugged into.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, we're talking about this is.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Two thousand and one. My brother two thousand and one.
I was thirteen years old, and that was my introduction
to the bloods.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Wow throughout the time. I mean, so now you got
yourself caught up, you got you got probation for a year,
now what.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
So again, I just it was a slap on the risk.
I continue, you know the program as usually go to school,
duck the law, don't get into any trouble. But that
never works as long as you're living in you know,
you live in the lifestyle of the streets. Trouble was
literally right around the corner. So after after that, that
that arrest, and after I received probation, I probably was
(11:08):
in compliance for probably about four months. Then I got
a violation of probation. Okay, so I went inside a
uh spoff it.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Uh wow, I spoffed.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Yeah, man, that that that right there. See I was
I already had it in my mind that I wanted
to be a tough guy. So no matter how afraid,
I was going to spoff it. And better believe, I
was very afraid.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
It was.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
It was a very notorious place at the time. Yeah,
So yeah, I was afraid, but I took that fear
right right into my pockets and I leveled up, went
inside the house and gang banging. Again, I let it
be known that I, you know what it is that
I reaped. There were some other guys that wrapped the
same thing. And that was the beginning of of the
(11:55):
camaraderie that I that I've built with a lot of
young people that that also went from you know, from
the school to prison pipeline and start. Those relationships were
honed right there.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And Spoffit man, Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, for those that
are those spotfit Sparford is a juvenile detention for for
young brothers and stuff like that. It was located in
the Bronx. It's not located. It's not there no more.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Yeah. They shut it down.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, they shut it down. They got a whole different facilities.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I don't know the name of them, but they got
they got they got them around and Third Avenue and
all that.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Unfortunately, I served time in those as well. Man. When
I say I graduated from you know, the school to
prison pipeline, it was literally a graduation from from Spoffit
literally from school to Spoffit to Horizon then rykans Island.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Horizon is the new one.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
That's the new one right there in the Bronx. My brother. Unfortunately,
I served time and then as well mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And all for the same same thing.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Running the streets. It was a natural progression, like literally
from Ganga saut to selling drugs. When I was what fifteen,
I got caught for selling drugs. Then later at fifteen
I got caught for having a gun. We were groomed to,
you know, go to Broadway, developed relationships with you know,
(13:17):
certain connects, and then when things get thick, we used
to rob the connects. On one of those robberies that
I was going on, car got pulled over and they
found the mac ten in the car. I was fifteen
years old. I had two people with me. They were
from out of town who was driving two older brothers.
They were from out of town, and they ended up
(13:38):
bailing out. Being that I was a juvenile, I couldn't
get bailed, so I ended up holding the charge. They
baled out and never came back to New York. Shit.
So you had a whole absolutely, So what they did
was they just extended my probation. I never slap on
the wrist. So this is why at a young at
such a young age, I didn't take crime and consequences.
(14:00):
That's a serious thing. Every time I got in trouble,
I got a slap on the wrist.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah you was good. Yeah you was that, oh ship.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
And then in my gang, I was being more and
more notorious for it. So that goes to your head
as a young man, as a young kid, I wasn't
a man as a young as a younger, yeah, absolutely,
that went to my head. And unfortunately, man, at such
a young age, man, I became notorious in the Bronx
and even in the juvenile system. And you know, naturally
(14:28):
I graduated to Rikers Island after that gun case.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
So after the after the gun case, you came.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Out, I came out.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
I did good for about You got probation for that.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
They extended my probation, so they gave me like an
extra six months. Bro told me to go to like
alternative high school. I followed those rules. But it was
the law of crime that that kept me going.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah, yeah, you was caught up, Yeah I was.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
It was to be honest, man, Unfortunately, a by fifteen,
I can actually say I was a career criminal already
already at fifteen.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Wow. And that's ship.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's like, we all know that shit didn't go that
shouldn't need you nowhere.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
I just imagine what it did to my family. Man.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Of course, because your family go I was just like
with your pops is telling you like, he's a hardworking man, and.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Now is the problem to man, because I was so
addicted to the streets, so attracted to the things that
was going on in the streets. Man, My dad was
always at odds. You know here what it is is
sure a hard working man. He's never been arrested. He's
doing everything in his power to provide for his family,
to provide for his son, to set up a positive
example for a son. And it just wasn't connected.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, you was like, Dad, this is not cutting it.
You was outside, you was you was already caught up
in the street. You know, the gangs, the money. You know,
you get lost your young kid. You don't really have nobody.
You don't want to hear, you don't want the last
advice you're trying to get from your parents.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I'm saying you.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Definitely go home and be like dad. You know, so
that's not happening. So you know it's only one way.
And so now you're on probation, and you was on
and then you you got what happened.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Now during the juvenile probation, I'm still running the streets,
and unfortunately there was an incident that ensued and another
man lost his life. I happened to be there with
it when it took place. The police knew I was
present when it took place, and they arrested me. You know,
they implemented me to the scene of the crime, and
(16:31):
I thought it. I sat on Regas Island for about
fifteen months, and I was.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Just sitting there, sitting there, your first time on Regazia,
when you went there, croaching that water and all cloching
the bridge. What was just going through your mind? I mean, like,
you know, we're all human, Like how you felt.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
To be honest, man, I was scared to death. And
again it was just like that moment when I went
to spofit. I'm afraid this here's it. I'm going to
a notorious place where the unthinkable happens on a day
to day basis. But I remember taking that fear, tucking
it into my pocket. I remember taking that fear, tucking
it into my pocket and making a conscious decision that,
(17:06):
you know what, I'm not William Steal anymore. I'm gonna
be that notorious God. And my former name is you know,
Gangster Child. A lot of people abbreviated, they called me
g Child for short, but a lot of people know
me as that, as that person. And since I've been
released man, I literally buried that person, buried that. I'm
(17:27):
a firm believer that you know, names, the names that
we carry on has power. My brother, if I call
myself murder because subconsciously, I'm gonna start embodying those characteristics,
you know, and then eventually I'm gonna commit an act
of murder because those are the things that I put
into my mind. So if I call myself, you know, money,
I know a lot of brothers name money, and naturally
(17:49):
they take on the characteristics of chasing money, chasing money,
right because that's that's the energy that they put out.
So if I if I name myself, I give myself
the name powerful, I begin to educate myself, begin to
you know, read powerful books, and I begin to give
off the energy of a powerful man. So you know,
(18:09):
names have power. So once you.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Know that name, you know pristal p.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Even though even if I want to bury or put
it and put it where you can look at it
a different way. You always get that look. Absolutely, you
know what I'm saying. I get that look. You know
a lot of places, Oh that's pistol P. Absolutely, you
know it's like they expect you. That's the guy right there. Absolutely,
that's him. Now knowing that that, you know, the whole
pistol P has been it's been on the shelf, you
(18:35):
know what I mean. It's been quiet, you know what
I mean. But so now you're in jail for a body,
you want to look again.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
So yeah, I remember making that conscious decision that I'm
no longer going to be William Steel. I'm no longer
going to be the person I gotta transfer into the
savage being. And unfortunately, man, my whole time on Rikers
Island as a as a as an adolescent, you know,
during that adolescent, during that time, you know, from sixteen
to eighteen, that time period, if you're incarcerated on Recas Island,
(19:07):
they put you on the ar d C. And they
had a notorious nickname, Adolescents at War. And unfortunately, man,
because I was a career criminal already, I throbbed in
that environment. That's great, roped it And when I think
about it now, man, I be so like devastated that
(19:27):
I was able to transform into that sort of being,
you know. And yeah, I'm really really ashamed of that,
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I mean, you know, we all we all like we
all have our shames and ship, you know, we but
we ain't perfect and and and the transfer, this transformation
is even better, it's greater, you know what I'm saying.
So you know, even though yeah, you wasn't right at
that at that at that moment, you gotta understand you
was a young brother. You ain't getting no no, no, uh,
(19:56):
you ain't had no education. You're running around the streets.
You're down with hangs. You know what I'm saying. You
don't have nobody in your ear positively to tell you, hey,
what you're doing. Grab everybody's neck, and my man, fuck
you're doing. You're about to lose your whole life, man,
with your ship. So you know, I mean, only amount
of times you're gonna crash.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Absolutely, And that's exactly what I did my brother. I
sat on Records Island and I just crashed out. So
you hell, I sat on the right. I sat on
Records Island during that time for about fifteen months. And
while I was fighting that murder case. If you remember,
I was still on probation for the juvenile case, so
and for the gun and exactly so I old DFY
(20:37):
some time. So as I sat on Reconds Island, excuse me,
I went to court. I went to trial and we
were acquitted, myself and my coel defendant. Wow, yeah, we
were quitted. And because our old juvenile time. Uh, they
came and got me the next day. So I didn't
go home from from that uh, from that incident. And
(21:01):
to be honest, man, me not going home right then
and there, with all the lossity that I had in
my heart, that was probably one of the best decisions
because I went to DFY. Actually you know, it wasn't
called d was called Office of Children and Family Services
o CFS. So I went to I went to their
(21:22):
custody and I got a I got an opportunity to
uh to really like decompress, to take all the trauma
of Rikers Island, all the all the things that I've
engaged in, all the negativity. And they removed me from
that environment, which is a madhouse, and they put me
(21:44):
in they put me in a juvenile facility where I
could be a kid. I could literally be a kid.
I didn't have to be gangst the child. I didn't
have to be g child. I could actually take a
breathas say I'm William of it. And I ended up
spending another eight months in that juvenile facility, but it
(22:07):
prepared me to go home. Right, So I already had
my g ED while I was on Records Island. My
brother had helped me obtain that. I remember struggling with
my math. I believe I failed it the first time.
And then I recruited a brother and he helped me
with my math, get myself together, shopping my tools, and
(22:29):
I went on to take the g D and I
passed it.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
That was really that was that was that was That's
how you're supposed to do it.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Absolutely and you had you had, you had a brother
came through. You sht up to the brothers. Charlie b
Charlie Bremman. It definitely helped me.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Charlie Charlie b.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Man.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
That's what that's what it's about, man, absolu education. That's good.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So you can't You came and helped you out and
you got your g ED.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
So I always knew that I wanted to do something
positive with my life. But I was just so enthralled
and you know, this this this, this street lifestyle. I
was so invested in it. I felt like I got
so much return out of it. But the return wasn't
the return that I actually wanted. It wasn't the return
that I need to live my life, you know. So
(23:13):
uh so, Yeah, I ended up doing an additional eight
months after I got acquitted for that crime, and it
prepared me to come home. So when I did come
home in two thousand and six, after after you know,
being acquitted for that for that crime, I went to college.
I got a job. But unfortunately, man, I still was
(23:37):
gang banging. I still had one foot tried. You know,
you just had that heart. But also my responsibility to
my homies got too was in my heart.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah yeah, yeah, you're Lloyd. You're loyal to your all,
understand for sure.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
And again I crashed man, you so so my advice
to to anybody that's listening, Man, if if if you
feel conflicted, if you want to do something better, surround
yourself with better, right, do that first. And if you
think that you can play both sides of the fence,
I promise you, my brother, I promise you, my sister,
(24:13):
whoever's listening, it never turns out good. And I could
personally attest to that because after serving, after being acquitted,
after going to college.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
And after getting that break and coming and you be
the body now you coming home.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
At eighteen years old, I felt like I was invincible. Bro. Yeah,
at that point, you like, they can't touch me, mister untouchable.
You know that negative train of thought that's thinking thinking man.
And another incident occurred, this time it resulted in an
attempted murder, and I want to try again. I sat
(24:55):
on Regazala for three years, this time fighting this case,
and I blew trial or all seven counts. My brother wow,
And I ended up being sentenced to seventeen years. My
first fellow in the conviction seventeen years.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Seventeen years. Then they got rid.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Oh it got real now with what your mom's just
saying with your pops, like you know they're going through
it too, that you not by yourself. You got a
loving family, got your pips that works hard. Your mom's
just home, you know what I mean. You got siblings
and know all that.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Like, so as I'm going in and out of jail, man,
my family, you know, they they they going through these
trials and tribulations. Yeah, alongside me.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
The beautiful thing is that, you know, they they never
turned their back on me. They always encouraged me. And
even while I was going through all these trials in error, man,
my family, everybody's lives was or getting better. My mom
got a job, my pops got raised, my younger brother,
(25:54):
you know, he's doing well in school. But then, excuse me,
but then here I go again with my bullshit. I
get I get re arrested, and you know, I'm the
black sheep of the family.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
So arrest that was the temp murder case is hard
to beat.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, I was. I was able to to. Fortunately, you know,
someone did lose their life, unfortunately, But the fortunate part
was that I wasn't the person that committed that crime.
So justice was served, you know, the truth prevailed, and
(26:39):
that doesn't always happen in the criminal justice system. And
here we go again. You know, I reoffend and this
time I was guilty. This time I was guilty, and
I paid the price. I thought that I could go
to trial. I thought that I could I could lie.
I thought that I could spend the truth, manipulate people,
(27:00):
you know, I thought, all those.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
You're gonna spin it off like you you've been doing it.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I said, young man, that's that's just your mindset. That's
what I tell these brothers out there.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
These brother's mindset be like, yeah, I'm getting over I
got over with this. I got over with that. You're
not getting over with ship. That should all go catch
up with you. Man, all that shit is just gonna
creep back up, and you're gonna pay for that ship man,
you know what I'm saying. And then the problem is
that it's not just yourself. If you got like a
loved ones like you had, your mom's, your dad, you
put them to it. You know what I'm saying, You're
(27:32):
not doing it yourself. We were so selfish at that
at that age that we don't think, we don't we
don't care who were hurting, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
And that's the sad part as well.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
You know what I'm saying, because our parents, you know,
our siblings, they they suffer too.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
They going through that, they're going through the motions. They
don't want they don't want their kids in jail.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Absolute you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
So here you go again. You blue trap. Now, you
got seventeen years.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Seventeen years. I was twenty two years old. So I
was nineteen when I got real arrested, setting that am
for three and I was about twenty two when I
got sentenced. Okay, And I remember, so when you get sentenced,
after you blow trial, and you know, after you go
(28:13):
back to Rykers Island, eventually they send you to a reception,
you go up north, they send you to Downstate correctional facility.
While you're at Downstate Correctional facility, naturally you see your counselor,
and your counselor, you know, tells you or the needs.
You know, by needs do these are things that you
have to do in order to get home. So they
tell you the things that you have to do, and
(28:34):
then they give you your your time computation. Now that's
a sheet of paper that tells you when you're eligible
to go home. And I remember looking at that date.
The current date was twenty ten, and I remember looking
at my conditional release date and it said twenty twenty one.
And here it is. I'm I'm I'm twenty two years old,
(28:59):
and I'm just like, and how the hell am I
going to do all this time and while I did
that big so oh this one, this one, this one,
this was the one my brother I remember, you know,
durn Duram my my other stages of incarceration, I always
(29:25):
had incredible family support. So in a way I could
say that they even enabled me. I can say that
because whenever something bad happened, they were there to rescue me.
They were there to be my safety net. They were
there to always hold me down. You So, Durren, when
I remember, I actually got sentence on my father's birthday.
(29:50):
And if you ever, if you ever, if you know
anything about you know, if you blow trial and you
being sentenced, they sentence you individually for each charge, right,
and they use all of these these these terms, these
legal terms that a layming. You know, someone who's not
familiar with this process, they're not going to understand the
(30:11):
words that's being used. So they use words like concurrent
or consecutive. Right. Right, So as they as their sentence,
as they're sentenceding me to all seven counts robbery in
the second ten years, assault in the first twelve years,
you know, they just going down and I look back
(30:33):
and I see my dad and I could see him
like adding the numbers up. You know, he didn't understand
h concurrent. He didn't know that I understood what was happening.
But I could see the confusion. He was the you know,
the numbers added up to like thirty five years, and
here it is, this is his birthday. So you know,
(30:56):
according to him, he's losing his son on his birthday.
So even to this day, my dad really don't celebrate
his birthday. Yeah. So yeah, so I end up doing
I ended up getting sentenced seventeen years. And during that time, man,
I could say that my family took a step back,
(31:16):
you know, to support me a different way. You know,
I'm gonna make you feel it this time. This time up, Yeah,
this time, I'm not gonna hold your hand through this.
You're gonna be responsible this time. And that's exactly what
took place. And so as I was serving that sentence,
(31:36):
my younger brother he's now coming up in the ranks,
and naturally he's taken you know, he's taking he's taking
my name. People's calling him Little this, and that's going
to his head. So now he's an active gang member.
So now I hear the trials and tribulations that he's
(31:59):
going through and I couldn't be there to support him,
I couldn't be there to guide him. And I could
say that my little brother went through things that I've
never gone through.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Wow, and my walk.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
In the gang life, I could say that, you know,
the people that that I surround myself with, we were
apex predators. Unfortunately right and times has changed great, But
I could say the trials and your relations that my
brother was going through. I could not relate to the
things that he was going through. So it was like
(32:33):
killing me on the inside that I couldn't be there
for him, that I couldn't give him guidance, I couldn't
take his pain away. I couldn't tell you, I couldn't
do any of those things. So another incident occurred. So
while I'm in prison during this time, man, I'm really
I really got to I really took the time to
(32:53):
to make a decision on what's important and what's not important. Right,
I began to I began to mature in ways that
I saw that my community wasn't maturing in the same way.
So I started seeing, uh, a separation coming where my
mindset is elevating and theirs aren't. So now I see
(33:15):
that I'm gonna have to make a decision if if
I'm going to stay a part of this, then I
know that I would I'll be continuing, I'll be stamping
the foolery that they're that they engaged in. And again
here it is, I'm maturing and I want more for
my life. So I begin to be around more positive people,
(33:38):
people who are you know, they doing motivational speaking.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
They was a whole different path.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
They're trying to better, they build it themselves. So I
started to be attracted to that sort of thing rather
than the stuff that's going on in the yard. So
that's when I begin to see that my mind is changing,
my community is changing. It's time to make a decision
that bring you any kind of issues.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
While you was incarcerated, meaning like then you decided you
go a different path, and.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
You was you know, I mean you.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Gang So So I believe for the average person that
would be in the same dilemma that I was in,
I think that their path would be very different from minds.
And I can say that because because I grew up
(34:28):
in the system, from sparfor from from from the jail
to prison pipeline. Because I grew up in that system.
Because I've become notorious in this system, a lot of
people know me, right, and because a lot of people
know me, I have great relationships with people, and I
was able to leverage those relationships. So when I began
(34:50):
to change, those same individuals saw the change as well,
and they loved it. Picuarly, they want to change too, equally,
they want to change they're holding on to, you know,
their reputations. So when they saw what I was doing,
they encouraged it. They encouraged it, they supported it, so
that my retirement was you know, people they gave me
(35:14):
their blessings because I was a notorious person, because I
have great relationships with a lot of other notorious people.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
If they felt like you put enough work so it
turned out to be different for you.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
And also they see that I'm able to encourage other
people to take a different path as well, and they
encourage that as well.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, that's good and that's how it should be. Absolutely,
you know what I'm saying, Because you know, you shouldn't
be I don't think, you know, you should ever be
forced to be down with a gang or anything. I
think I think because you know, I mean, I wouldn't
want to put you down with my gang. If it's
not in it, if it's not in your heart, then
it's not you know, it ain't genuine. But at the
(35:53):
end of the day, you're gonna end up either crashing
out on me or crashing on or you're just not
working out.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
It's gonna go bad for sure.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Yeah, that's for sure. So you know you was able to.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
So you was able to through that transitions. You started
fading away in regards to the gang. You started dealing
with more positivity and you know other brothers that was
getting they right there was they was getting to it absolutely.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
So while I began to change and make those positive
changes in my life, I started seeing that my little
brother was going through He was going through some serious
hardships when it came to the gangster lifestyle, right, this
gang banging lifestyle so much so that it was an
incident that took place in my projects. But Big Melee.
(36:40):
A lot of people were arrested after some people got away.
So I believe it was a Saturday night, right, so
everybody's in the bookings or whatever, right, So the people
that didn't get arrested That next morning, Sunday morning, an
individual knocked on my mother's door, and they said, excuse me, miss,
(37:01):
are you such and such mom? My mother said, yes
I am, and that individual cut my mother across the face.
As a direct result of what just took place to
melee that took place in the projects with that my
younger brother was involved in that melee and as a
result and retaliation, someone went to my mother's house and
(37:26):
and so to my mom's man. So I remember being
up north, you know, calling home and finding out getting
the news, and I just remember being really really angry.
And I also remember thinking to myself, like what's next?
(37:49):
How do I respond to this? And I remember thinking
to myself, damn, how selfish in mind right now? But
that I'm making it about myself. My mother just got cut?
How was she doing? So I set up a visit.
My mom came, came to visit me, still has stables
(38:11):
on her face. And the first thing my mom said
was she said, don't murder anybody when you come home.
M hmm, that's the first thing she said. Now I
didn't say nothing. I just listened for a minute and
(38:32):
just received it processed. And I started thinking to myself
as a person who's done time, as a person who's
who is a repeat offender. There's language amongst people who
who are repeat offenders. One thing we say to ourselves
(38:53):
the moment we get released, I'm never coming back. That's first, right,
But then we give ourselves a an excuse. We tell
ourselves the only way I'm coming back if somebody does
something to my family. Right, Yeah, that's that's like a
universal statement. Go to go to jail and you good card.
(39:14):
That's a that's a universal that's like, no, go to jail,
like I'm mad at you if you go to jail
for that, Like, that's universal for the people the sickness
that that's a sick way to think, right, Like, universally
a lot of people that that that that that's a reoffender.
They have that mindset. So I remember thinking to myself, like,
(39:38):
I'm justified if I want to act on this, right,
But then the brilliance of my mom kicked and she
took that away from me immediately. That was that that
would have been an excuse to do something foolish. I
could go home, after doing all this time, all this
great work that I've been rea, you know, pouring into myself,
(39:59):
I could go home and throw all that shit away
because of my ego, right, because it is an ego thing.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, when this happened to your mother, were you in jail, said,
but you had a long she still had a lot
of time.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
Left, absolutely, about six years left. Okay, had six years left.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah, so you was in there living with that, the
whole kind of shit going through your mind. You know,
I mean, you're not there to to to find out
to help to do anything.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
Yeah, but my mother, she gave me something beautiful that
day though. Man, she gave me. She gave me the
freedom to choose that day.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, she gave me the peace.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
That's peace your mom telling you, yo, don't worry about that, man,
it just let's keep moving.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
Well, she gave me more than anything. Was like, you're
not gonna I'm not going to be the excuse. I'm
not going to be an excuse to do something stupid.
So you can't never do something and say I did
that for my mother. That's what she did. She took
that away from me, Okay, took that away.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
From you know, which.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
It was great because you know, that's that's what that's
what you want, that's what that's that's what your moms want. Anyways,
you don't want something to get caught up. You already
been in jail your whole life, you know, so, I mean.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Even being released. Man, that's always been something that I
struggled with even to this day.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
So you never got to find out who did it.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
You know. There there's whispers of you know, the streets.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
Yeah, naturally, no concrete.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
No. But you know what though, bro, here's more to me,
the most important piece of forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah, of course, the most important, you know, It's just
it's just it's just Alredy said that for the sense
of you know, you knowing like, oh yeah, it was
you know, just to know.
Speaker 4 (41:44):
Naturally you want to do this, man. Yeah, that's my
that's my that's second nature to me.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
That's just that's not even it's in your blood and
brings the animal out of exactly, of course.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
So it takes a lot to restrain. And that's what
I've been doing, man. And it's beautiful, brother, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Yeah, you put that behind you anyway.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Home, She's okay, she's she's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
She said nothing on her face.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Okay, that's what I'm saying. That's what matters. So it
turned out great.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
It turned out incredible. Man.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
You know, rather than you know, it's even.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Happier, my brother, it gets even happier. So since I've
been home, I've really been involved in this community work.
First thing I did was, so you've been I've been
home since twenty twenty one, December second, twenty twenty one, almost.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
For what you've been doing.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Since since I've been home, my brother, I've been working
man changing lives, man of restoring hope with our young people.
I took a job with Exodus Transitional Community. I don't
know if you're familiar with that. They do great work
all throughout New York City, but they're stationed in East Harlem, right.
And I told you while I was inside, I begin
(42:59):
to do like public speaking and motivation you speaking, working
on my craft. So when I came home, I was
afforded the opportunity to become a facilitator. And as a facilitator,
we used to we used to teach young people inside
of an alternative Alternative to incarceration program. So, I don't know,
you know, for those who are not familiar with UH diversion,
(43:22):
Alternative to incarceration is a is a way to to
not go to jail. Man, So you might have a
person who who you know, he never been in trouble before,
and unfortunately something took place, right, And because he's never
been in trouble before, because this this person UH has
(43:47):
you know, has a job, has you know, family support,
maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to remove this
person from his family. Maybe it'd be a better idea
to put them in alternative to incarceration. Right, So instead
of going to jail, they would sentence up a individual
to UH a program for approximately a year or eighteen months,
(44:09):
and during that year or eighteen months, UH, people like
myself would be running programs for them to pretty much
like workshops to to change the way that they maybe
they criminal the year change you know, to provide some
some sort of enrichment to change their lives.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
Right, So sort of hope.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
Absolutely, So that's what I did for the first two
years of my freedom. And during that you know.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Since that that was good to get back.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
No, absolutely, man, sin, since I've been working with alternatives
to incarceration, it actually uh opened up many many working
relationships with the UH District Attorney's office, UH, with with
with judges. So now I have district attorneys who whenever
they get uh uh a a young person or an
(44:59):
individual that they leave shouldn't go to jail, they send
them directly to me. They refer them to my program.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Yeah, it's super.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
That's pretty good. And I think you're the perfect guy.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Thank you, man.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
You can't have somebody else. I mean, you the perfect guy.
You went through it, you had your transformation. You mean
you went through some ship man.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
You can relate gang, you can relate, You relate anything because.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
You've been and that's what it's about, man, turning your
pain into your passion.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Yeah, that's what I do. I'm doing the same thing
to my brother. I'm going to right As Island to go.
I go, I go, I go to you know, the
penitentiary up north. You know, wan girl, I think you
know behaving. Uh I interviewed. I even brung dog dog
in the yard, bring it to the to the to
(45:46):
the yard. But I have interview guys like you know, listen,
maybe different. We live in a different time. Brothers just
trying to come home those days not wild. And I
don't know what they think. You know, it's nothing in
jail nothing going on in jail.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
You get a tablet and you go to your room,
and that's ship. And you could just be with your
chavelt for tablet for twenty years.
Speaker 3 (46:05):
It's just not it.
Speaker 4 (46:06):
Yeah, they wanted they want people to be content, you know.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
What I'm saying. So it's a great thing. I love
what you do. I love I love that's that's definitely
like perfect job for you, you know what I'm saying.
And you're doing a great job with it.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
And I was just the beginning that I was just
the beginning. So I started with the alternative conceration and
then we moved on to uh. I got a promotion
to violence interruption, okay, and that was really my passion
considering you know, I got this game back.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
When Yeah, I know a lot of people that way
and that feel.
Speaker 4 (46:40):
And since I've been working that field, man, the gun
violence has decreased tremendously in East Harlem. And it's a
direct it's a direct impact on the work that we do.
Oh So, we were doing violence interruption for about two
years and then the unfortunately when President Trump came into office,
(47:02):
he cut the Department of Justice, he cut their budget,
which in terms, they did at our program, So we
were no longer funded. Okay, so we all lost our jobs,
my whole department. It was probably about five of us.
And instead of you know, just stopped stopping the work
and taking our resume and going somewhere else, we decided
(47:24):
that we're going to continue working with the people that
we've always worked with. Uh, the participants, we're still responsible
to them. A lot of them were caught mandated. So
what do we do under those circumstances? Do we just
don't show up? Do you just allow the young people
to go to jail because they're not having programming because
President Trump decided not to fund us. Now, instead we
(47:45):
continue to work. We showed up every single day and
we started our own now for profit organization.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
That's what we did. That's what's up.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
Do, my brother. We create a way. Man, there's no excuse.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
I mean, you did it when you did it, when
you when your mind is set, when you was your
mindset wasn't there when you was out there in the gutter,
you know what I'm saying, involving no kind of bullshit.
You was pretty successful doing that, so you could be
even more successful doing something positive, you know, with great
energy you know what.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
I'm saying, thank you so much man for the No.
Of course, this is what it's for.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
This play.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
I always say, this platform is here for you, guys,
like this is what we do. We never had a voice.
Now we have a voice, and this is the platform
to be able to give us that voice. So not
only were getting it off our chests at the same
time and we build it, but we be able to
show these brothers out there, any sisters out there, that
all that shit don't add to anything but just just
(48:45):
jail time, suffering, you know, away forever, no family, no woman,
no kids. No, it's not what you want, guys, you
know what I mean. It's always a different way. Absolutely,
it's always a different way.
Speaker 4 (48:58):
And you know what, if you don't know the way,
our job is to provide a way for you, man.
That's our job, man, to show you, to expose you
to different things. That's what me and the brothers here,
that's right, that's right that we do at my risk, kids,
and that's what we're going to continue to do. So
it was the whole New York City. We just got
an office at Mount Vernon in Westchester County. So we're
working man we're working on a new office in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
And all the blessings coming or are.
Speaker 4 (49:22):
We're working with organizations and Yonkers are now one four.
Shout out to the.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Brother John, shout out.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
Shout out to r A b RAP. They doing their
thing out in Austin and that's before and after school program,
the w Y Y m c A they doing their
thing and Yonkers so many services. Man, we out here
for the people. You got people like myself. Man, Like
I said, we lost funding to our program and instead
of going out and getting another job, we just continue
(49:54):
to work. Right now, my whole team is working for
free brother.
Speaker 3 (49:57):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (49:58):
We operated out of pock. It operated out of pocket,
my brother. The work continues with actively looking for Of course,
everything is got to stay with state that that's that's
what these young people and that's.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
What you're gonna get the it is gonna come, sir Gotte,
and just continue to save lives.
Speaker 4 (50:20):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
I wanted to ask you about.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Uh, how do you feel about.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
Prison reform?
Speaker 4 (50:29):
Mhm so naturally man, prison reform. I spent a large
majority of my life in these institutions, and I can't
say that the prison helped me with anything. It was
always guys like myself, guys like you that being together
and decided we want more of ourselves. So we're gonna
(50:51):
provide more programming for ourselves. I feel like, if if
Department of Corrections can allow more people, more credible messages, right, people,
people who've actually done time and went home and made
positive transitions, allow us in the facilities. Now, I believe
(51:11):
that we can inspire hope and then that's gonna naturally
drop the It's people like us that show them you
can be successful. Absolutely, you can be successful, just attainable.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, I just got myself. I've been dealing with UH organization.
It's called Academy of Hope. It's new. Have you ever
heard of Andre Norman? Of course, so Andre Norman started that.
So I'm a part of Andre Norman. It's like none
of us and UH.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
And the job is amazing, man, the work that we
that we that we do. You know, I never.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Thought in my life, brother, that I will ever go
and have that kind of impact on brothers. You know,
when I go back to the prison system of jail
system on right As Island, you know, up north, you know,
you know, people's like wow, Pete, Like whoa you there
and you back in here, and I'm like, yeah, man,
like if you know, in the back of my shirt,
(52:15):
you know, my dog in the yard outfit I got,
I got big letters. Gangsters changed too, absolutely, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (52:22):
And it's like, I think it's important that they see
themselves in us.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah, like you know, don't be a shamed you know
what I'm saying. Like, you know, gangster has changed too.
You know what I'm saying, don't be a shame because
you know, and you more gangster when you pick, when
you when you decide to be more responsible, that's gangster.
Speaker 4 (52:40):
Changing the narrative my brothers. Yeah, I mean when people
look at you in a whole different light.
Speaker 3 (52:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
So you know, prison reformists is something that we always
you know, will always want, you know what I mean,
because like you said, you go to jail if it's
nothing there to really reform you, it's nothing. You gotta
be able to reform yourself. You know, you got to
it and you know, and and that's just the way
it goes, you know, the prison system, well, at least
(53:08):
here in America. You know, it's it's just set you up.
They get you cutting with and that's it. If you
if you leave it up to the system, then you
get lost.
Speaker 4 (53:16):
Yeah, you gotta you gotta play an active role and
you know, making a difference in your life. You have
to be active if you if you rely on the
system or parole to put you in a successful place,
it's just not going to happen. The system is a
set up that way, so you could continue to re offend.
That's what it's set up for. So if we could
put a system in place that prevents that from happening.
(53:39):
And I think that's what we're doing. I think we
put in our own system.
Speaker 2 (53:42):
Of course, I think that we're taking charge.
Speaker 4 (53:44):
Absolutely. We have to remember that. You know, people used
to say when my man come home, I'm gonna put
them on, and that that meant to give you drugs
and guns. And I think what you're what we're doing today,
we're changing the definition of putting our people.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
Putting our people on.
Speaker 4 (54:04):
While they incarcerated, and as long as they qualify themselves,
go get your education, work on your language and how
you present yourself, and then you come home and we
got opportunities for you. I promise you, Marius, kids, we
got you, that's right.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
We got you there you go, So listen, man, what
you're doing? Man, I mean, you can't can't make it up.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (54:30):
It's something that's organic and it's gonna work, you know
what I'm saying. I just know that the platform is
here for you guys. You know, like any given time,
you know you and your guys need to promote something,
I have to do anything that has to do with
with the program or anything wrong.
Speaker 4 (54:44):
Just know that.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
And with that, man, I want to ask you one
thing about what's one of the worst things you've seen
in prison?
Speaker 3 (54:51):
Man? That stood in your mind?
Speaker 2 (54:53):
Like wow, you know, give these guys something that you
know they could think about.
Speaker 4 (54:56):
Man, you know, the worst thing I seen in prison
is how fast that we transgression, transgress against each other.
I've seen I've seen incidents where you know, an individual,
an incarcerated individual, would say something that another incarcerated individual
(55:19):
may deem disrespectful and on just that one encounter that
result in physical violence. But I've seen countless times where
an officer would say those same demeaning words and nothing
would happen. Right, So, I think the worst thing about
prison is the division. I think if we could if
(55:43):
we could decide that. Listen, we're people, man. You look
just like me. I look just like you. Your family background
is similar to minds. We could pull together and we
could come up with a real, a real effective plan
or never come back to prison. Let's put these systems
in place. I think that if we work together, we
(56:04):
could do that. So I think that's the worst thing
about prison. Yeah, the lack of unity.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
I get it. And that's about that.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
That's to this day, that's always been a big problem
in jail.
Speaker 4 (56:18):
Yeah. And I'm not saying, like b violence officers and
that be united.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
Each other instead of fighting.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Because this guy is from Third Avenue when I'm from
Whigs Avenue, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 4 (56:32):
Because he's Hispanic and I'm black.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah, that ship is the craziest ship in the world.
Speaker 4 (56:36):
Man.
Speaker 2 (56:36):
I mean, you know, ignorant is always going to be around.
So it's our job, you know, to like you. You
know what I'm saying to let you know that it
don't make no sense for you to fight anything that
had to do with color because you you're a part
of that. So you know what I mean. You know
that's very ignorant man. You know what I mean, And
a lot of us definitely get caught up with that,
(56:57):
you know, especially as young men.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
You know with no education.
Speaker 4 (57:02):
You know, so further your education, whether it's academically or
just information. Information is power.
Speaker 3 (57:09):
Man, Will Still, Man, Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
Man, Dog y'all Dog in the yard. You already know,
Man Still, keep doing your thing. Appreciate having you. Man.
Speaker 3 (57:17):
Just know the platform is here for you.
Speaker 2 (57:18):
And any given time you guys are ready to come
up here, you already know we're here.
Speaker 4 (57:23):
Appreciation.
Speaker 2 (57:23):
With that being said, you already know it is your boy,
Pistol Peak, Dog in the yard. What what else you
already know what it is your boy, Pistol Peak. Welcome
back to the Dog in the yard. First and foremost,
I want to thank Will Still for coming through. Appreciate
having you, my brother. I love your mindset, your transition.
(57:43):
I mean it's inspiring. Keep doing your thing. I love
what you do. We're on the same journey, which is
to improve and enlighten the youth. And I love everything
you doing, man, and we're here to support you. Like
I said, any given time and you want to come back,
you more than welcome, my brother. Doing greatness and keep
changing lives. That's what it's about. Your boy pissed the
pet dog in the yard.
Speaker 3 (58:10):
Thank god.
Speaker 2 (58:15):
K was flying. We're alive and South Shot. We're alive
and Solf shut
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