Michael Moore
- resident of rose street
- came from MCTC
- last sentence was 15 which was reduced to 5 years.
- had six major incarcerations, earliest was 16/17.
- grew up in baltimore
- street life played a big role in that process.
- started out like everybody else, not understanding what life was about
- got into drugs, started smoking marijuana
- "never knew nothing about rose street"
- first incarceration was drug dealing
- being young i didn't understand what the system was, they didn't have programs in place in 78/79.
- my first real encounter with being away from prison was strange and new experience.
- didn't look like going to jail like it was something that was happening to your life
- justified the negative lifestyle by saying that we were trying to achieve certain goals
- in drug dealing i could have bought a car at a young age, bought a house, throwing money around a young ladies, party with friends
- the system didn't make me better, i came home the same way as I got out, and things also hadn't changed in the environment he left.
- same thing was going on - smoking, drinking, sniffing glue,
- I'm 48 years old now, and I just came home from prison
- lost my mother and 2001 I lost my father. Once you lose the head of household, the family starts moving apart, everybody got their own family, and they got their own priorities.
- my three sons are old now, but i missed out the major part of their childhood. My oldest son was about 7.
- My first sentence was for possession of a handgun and possession of marijuana. The second one was for possession with intent to distribute. The third was assault and attempt to murder. The fourth was for theft, and that time I had a drug habit, and when you have a drug habit you have to do whatever you had to do. The last one was for armed robbery. My father died in summer of 2001.
- father was from south carolina, and he was farm raised. And in the farm they had no time to be in school, and my grandfather thought that being on the farm was more important than going to school, and he never really learnt how to read or write, so he stagnated.
- He had an accident with one of his eyes. At the time caucasian doctors wouldn't give you the full attention that they gave to caucasian patients. So they cut his eye out but during the operation they cut the nerves to his ear, and he became deaf in both ears and blind in one eye. As time went on he always made it a point to spend quality time with us - his children. He was also running around and doing a couple of other things with other women.
- He also believed in some of those south carolina ol' taboos, he believed in roots and all that type of stuff. Somebody convinced him that someone on my mothers' side of the family had put some kind of root on him. All of this stuff I saw at a young age and I got confused about what I should be doing and where I was going.
- I met my children's mother in 1981 - we stayed together about 8 years, and had three children.
- My father had tried to take up the slack as far as doing what a father was supposed to do. His not being able to read or write, that really him back quite a lot - he worked as a trash collector. I could remember him always coming back around 2.30 and he would take us out in the county and we would cut lawns for people in the suburbs. And that was how he was telling us this was what we were supposed to do, we weren't supposed to go out and steal. He saw the negative that was trying to get a hold of me and my brother.
- Upto that last stage, by the time me and my wife had separated because of me going in and out of the system, but my dad tried to make sure that I had always a place to go. When he died in 2001, I felt like I was kind of dumped, because I was still doing the same old things I was doing, I was doing drugs, you don't just use them because you just want them and they make you feel good. You use that type of drugs like heroin because you actually needed them and you have withdrawal symptoms, you get sick and you can't function or even sit down and relate.
- I spent about 40 months down at MCTC - it was supposed to be little bit shorter. Although it was armed robbery but it was my first real crime of violence. I had two co-defendants - one of them was one of my older brothers and the other was my brother in law who used to work at this place. He basically said that all of us were getting high, and the individual who was working at the place. It was a staged robbery and we were supposed to go there, we were supposed to get the money from the manager, she was supposed to give the money from Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All that happened but when I pulled up the car in the parking lot, an Anne Arundel county officer who was driving past when he saw us.
- He used a racial profiling technique, he said since he saw three black males he got suspicious. So he went down to the highway and turned back. When he came back me and my brother had disappeared, and my brother in law was still in the back of the car, because he didn't want to be seen in the store. The officer rode through the block and couldn't see anything in the store. He came back to the front, and he ran the license plate to see if anything was wrong. He was supposed to go by then, and said his antennas were still up. He took it upon himself to go to the third lot. All the time my brother in law was in the back of the car. but when the officer left, he panicked and ran across the street, and the officer saw him but never came out.
- My brother and I came out and we drove the car out, and we saw my brother in law running down the highway, and we were like why did he get out of the back seat. The officer saw us and that was the end of that.
- The judge saw my record - my criminal history is 62 encounters with law enforcement, but I had 6 major incarceration. Everything over 6 months or longer was considered a major incarceration. He saw that we had narcotics in our possession at that time, and I guess at that time it must have been God, because when prayers go up blessings come down. At the time I was praying for some way to get out of my drug cycle without getting into methodon or something like that.
- Methodon is a detox, which is about a 3-31 day process, some people feel as though they are not strong enough to keep off the chain, and you get addicted to it. After you been on it for a period of time, it deteriorates you physically with a whole lot of problems.
- The judge explained to me that at my age and record, I didn't really deserve any leniency. He said that he would give me 15 years but I'll suspend all but 5 and give him a $725 fine, but I'll also bring him back and turn it into a long-term in-house drug treatment. It was a contract.
- April 9 2003, I had enough time in so that the judge acknowledged that the contract was fulfilled. I had been working in heat and airconditioning job and for those things you earn extra credit and days. So instead of 60 months I did 40 months. My attorney also did an effective representation towards the end of the commitment. ((details of the contract etc)).
- By the time I was released I was tired, because everytime I was released I was coming home to tear down the community, I came home to say that I could go out on the streets, stand on the corner. The longest time I ever worked was working for the Baltimore city authority. That was the only time I ever stepped up to the plate and took responsibility. But then I dropped the ball, and I began to be scared of my responsibilities. And I realized that I had to bring up the kids. I started doing little things and started justifying them thinking that I was doing it for "us". And she had been doing a regular job etc.
- Now I can see the process has been positive only because of the help I've got from Mr.Walker, Mr.Clayton.
- I only met them when I came home. When I was within 30 days of mandatory release, and I didn't want to be burdened by my brothers and sisters. A lot of people don't want to admit that they were homeless.
- I spoke to a social worker, and she looked at my case and she had a working knowledge of Rose street because she had recommended some other guys. And she called up Mr.C's wife, saying that she had a real good man who may be an asset to the program.
- I had also contacted a few other places but they said they could have me in a couple of days after I was released but i didn't want to stay out in the streets for those few days because that would have changed the whole scenario.
- Unfortunately I got out on a Saturday a weekend but she told me what to do when I got out, I felt like a big burden had been lifted off my head.

What caused the transformation? Did anyone say anything
- the whole time I was locked up, when you're locked up when you pray for something, you can't expect God to remove the defects in your character. You have to do some leg and hand work. You have to focus on not using drugs no more. A lot of individuals I have seen werent' ready to change.
- There's as many drugs inside jail as outside. Or you can ask someone to bring a package for you.
- I was tempted and tested the whole time. I had cell buddies who were dealing drugs but I refused and they understood, because i told them I'm not living like that no more. I'm going home and I'm going to do the right thing and live life on my terms. I had gotten real active in NA so that I could be around more people that was thinking the way I was thinking. There's some that's doing what they're suposed to do and some that's doing what they wanna do. And when you're doing what you want to do, you not going to be able to do what you're supposed to do because you can't use today and then go tomorrow and say I'm still clean because I only used it one time. If you used one time you dirty ain't nothing in between! And I don't care how long you been clean.
- I can't look down on somebody who's using drugs because when they're ready they'll come back over. But sometimes God uses people places and things in order to get your attention. And jail was just his way of getting my attention.

You knew other men who were into drugs but they weren't doing things they needed to do?
- Some of them were basically afraid to step up to the plate and accept responsibility. They'd get on the phone and get money sent to them, and they'd get money to impress guys inside prison to show that this was the way they were living on the streets. But if you're doing that good on the streets you ain't going to wind up in prison. So evidently you weren't doing that good on the streets! Because now you can't do something wrong and say it's the right way to do it. Ain't no right way to do something wrong.
- When you do negative the end results are going to be negative, and when you do positive things the end results are going to be positive things. That's something that took me 48 years to basically acknowledge that. I thank God for the blessings everyday because I played Russian roulette for over 27 years, as far as an act of addiction. I don't have the AIDS virus, I'm healthy, ain't none of my bones messed up, and I'm physically in a position where I can hold a job.
- I still have enough time to work long enough so that i can be comfortable.
- I didn't expect to see or get the kind of response that I'm getting now. Right now where we at, Mr.Walker stresses to us everyday we're in an empowerment zone.
- We can get education programs, get our GED (graduate education diploma) home ownership programs, they'll match your savings by $2 for every $ $1. At the time I didn't have all this information.
- At that time if you go on Guilford avenue, which is the parole and probation office, and they say well I don't care what's happening with you not working to get it but you owe xx amount of money, and we don't care how you get it and next time you come up here we're going to violate you. So the person gets scared.
- But I'm fortunate to have a parole officer, who understands what I'm going through, and acknowledged that I went through the process this time, and he said that a lot of guys wouldn't have done that - they would have tried to take advantage of the system. I was fully conscious of my sentence and I made sure that the judge and I understood each other and what we were saying.

- Now the system is designed to keep people locked up and inside jail. I was an active drug addict and there's an 85-90% chance that I'd be inside jail if I don't do what I'm supposed to do on parole. So it's so crowded that they let you have 3-4 chances before you get arrested. But till then they give you many chances.
- Young guys get sentenced like 50-60 years, and they'll do something to make a point like stab someone. And then they're given huge sentences.

- Now they have more programs - they took a lot of college programs, try to encourage prisoners to work in shops, or take the GED. Now they prep you before you actually come home, they all insist that you start doing these kinds of jobs.
- The deck is stacked against you but you certainly have to be ready to change your lifestyle. That ain't the way life works.
- You have to life on life's terms, not yours.

What do you think makes men change their mind?
- Seeing how the system works, a lot of the men are afraid to fail. They're scared that if they start doing the programs, and get in the mindsets - and they come out see that home boy who's they were hustling with, or getting high with. If that home boy is still doing the same things, if he still doing what he's doing, he's going to do more to get him back with them. They say man, you got these trades up under your belt, you got your GEDs, don't even hang out here with us, you got your college credits. You going to try and sit behind a desk somewhere. They're afraid to accept their own responsibilities so what's happening is that people automatically sit and ask some questions. What're you going to do when you come home, what kind of plan do you have? I wanna know what kind of plan you have. You're going to need a job, you're going to need someplace to stay. If somebody tell you after a week that you got to get out, you're going to get discouraged, and you're going to start to rob somebody, you'll start using drugs again, then you going to wind up right back here again, and you're gonna make us feel like it's all our fault that things didn't go right for you. Because people trying to make you actually be a man.
- But what I think will help them - it's going to have to be a whole lot more of things that are happening right now. Because these guys are opening up their hearts and houses to them and trying to help them mature. That you can't lie cheat or steal, because Mr.Walker is going to give me the shirt off his back if he thinks I need it. And I just met him last month! It's not the system that's holding the individuals back, it's the individuals.
- It was a crazy coincidence that God put me here with them, and they're already doing something about the homicide issue.
- Being old enough to acknowledge what politicians say and do, it has a lot to do with how society at large is today.
- I know that before Mayor O'Malley was elected, he had made some idle promises about the way he would combat and attack the homicide issue. He did the complete opposite - he pulled a lot of the extra officers from the task force showing an extra presence in the neighborhood. Because police was always close by, they had gun squads, the auto theft task force. So after O'Malley did that the homicide escalated back up again. But Mr.Walker and we all are doing walking and not protesting protesting, but stressing our concern that everybody else in baltimore city may not be focussing or paying attention, but we're going to step to the plate. But we ain't leaving. But since 2 and 2.5 weeks ago we are seeing more police here and are making a small difference here.
- But the kids and elders are coming out and saying that they appreciate the work that we are doing. They think we are doing community service on parole or probation, but we tell them we doing it voluntarily.  We want the child to realize that they have to live another way to live life properly.
- I think it's gonna take a whole lot of participation and lot more organizations to help us do what Mr.Walker and Mr.Clayton are doing. What we're trying to do is to get some inmates, and I'm asking them to basically write a letter to the kids to make them think. Give them some more support and better way to be stronger. To plant a seed and see where that goes. When prayers go up, blessings come down.
 - We might break the 300 mark this year, but next year I hope that we never even get close to the 300 mark. And I hope after that it never even goes beyond 1. Because one is really too many, you know? We ain't just talking about losing 3,4,500,000 - even the loss of one youth is a loss to our community, because that ain't the way the world is supposed to work.
- I'm real comfortable where I'm at, what I'm doing. If any individual applied to their self the same thing that I got, which is freedom , from the chains of the negative lifestyle. I talk a lot to that type of individuals. The newcomer is the most important, because we really want to bring them over to where we at. You can't just try to keep telling them or pushing them - you got to leave them with a clear message.

We should also ask Mr.Maurice about his experiences.
- Name is David xxx
- Currently released from a ten year sentence. Release date was December 18 1999.
- Been in the pen since the 1970s. All my charges between drug, burglary, attempted murder, stuff like that. I've never been convicted of any rape or child molesting, nothing of that stuff. It was violent charges. Today I am a chained person.
- Grew up in West baltimore, park heights area. but you might see me anywhere. South, East, Northwest baltimore.
- Prison, it used to be fun one time. You could just go to jail on a Monday and get out of jail on Tuesday. Today you go and you get eighteen months!
- They work you longer and pay less. The sentences are actually longer. You might get five years but you might only do 40 months. I even did 27 months on a five year sentence once. I made parole on lockup! I had done all the things, programs that they had asked for, and more.
- The jail is not like it used to be. You got guys here, the cribs, the blood. You got guys who'll force you to have sex with them, or they're guys who'll let you have sex with them for tobacco. All these things taking place right now.
- If you're going to go to jail now, I'd rather stay out of it.
- This is one of the best programs here. I knew Mr.C from the penitentiary.
- I explained to him when I was released and he said Come on.
- My mother asked me where I want to go. I said I want to be in company of those
- I'm still working on my attitude. You can't work on it all at one time, you have to do one step at a time.

How did you change?
- Becuase I didn't want to go back to prison. I didn't want to go back doing all that whole nonsense. I was going up to NY, Philly, Delaware, getting a wholesale package, come back down put it on the corner. I'm hurting my people. When we put the drugs out there, we're hurting our people, because we all is family. So I wouldn't feel right nobody else. I got cousins, uncles, I looked at them one day. This man he was so sick, the other one is in a wheelchair. They used to smoke crack. They looked so bad. It hurts me right even now. Somedays I get tears in my eyes, when I think about them.
- When I was released I told my mom, I'm not going back into prison. My mind was made up.
- My whole thing is being out of prison. You can't hold or hug or kiss your mother in the visiting room. You can't meet your kids. Now they tell me I can't touch my own family. Atrocities on family day.
- Jail is no more fun.

How was it no more fun?
- All kinds of sexual misconduct. I didn't want to put up with none of that. You'd be surprised at what is going on.
- I got tired of seeing stuff like that. I got tired to someone tell me when to spend me money, what to wear.
- When I got home, I got my own things here. Here I get by one day at a time.
- The new guys in prison, we call them millenium guys. The whole prison is messed up. I was in a little group called Scare. We'd try to scare them, take 2-3 to a corner, talk to them upstairs.
- I learnt a lot in these 9 years.
- I see dudes whine, complain. I tell them you take your shit somewhere else. Just respect me the way I respect you. One time I had this homosexual in my apartment right? It must be in my mind, and I thought the homosexual is looking right at me, I moved the TV over to my side. I told him I don't get down like that.
- I made the right decision by coming here. There are other programs that claim to be like this. If you in here, you better stay here. These guys know what's going on 24/7. They're working all the time.
- You got no time here for thinking negative. It's like a loose link in a chain, the chain starts sagging.

Do you have men here who eventually can't get out of their negative ways?
- Since I've been here for about a month and more. There are some guys that want to stay here and do these things, but Mr.Walker and Mr.C make it clear that you never burn any bridges here, and you can only go out of your own violition.
- There are some guys who fall straight back into the same old vicious cycle. They can't look one of us in the eye, they feel guilty. We only tell them you're welcome back when you're ready to do the right thing.
- There are a lot of other programs but there's a recovery house and a transitional house. They have different functions. In a recovery house the judge is forcing you to go there instead of going into jail. The transitional process is voluntary - the door is always open. The only requirement is that you respect yourself so that you can respect others. As long as you acknowledge and honor the curfew in the night out here.
- They give you a lot of benefits out here. If you in a recovery house, they might have the same things in position, but they don't even acknowledge to the individuals that they can be helped by what they have. They have to give you passes to go out. Here we don't need passes. If we want to go out we just sign up.
- The books can be used in the court, because they offer a way of keeping track. It ain't like that here but it's not like that in the recovery house.
- It's a lot more trust and a lot more freedom.
- In a recovery house you got a blackout. You can't have money in your pocket, they don't give you nothing. You can be fined 75 dollars. Here the fine is only 10 dollars.

I totally agree that giving trust and a lot more freedom is good, but at the same time people can always use that same trust and exploit.
Moore:
- We gonna always have some people who are not ready, or are frustrated. If there's a system where it's mandatory to make up your bed, or you have to be at a certain time, you get fined money for it. Sometimes they get frustrated but it's because of these regulations but it's because of their fault. If you do what you're supposed to do you don't have to pay a penalty.
- Sometimes that makes it a little bit uncomfortable for the guys that are following rules and regulations because they don't get penalized by money but they get penalized by trust.
Maurice: When one do it, it affects everybody.
[Moore]: Everyone is penalized for something like this but till the investigation is complete nobody can move. Doesn't matter where we at, but we will have this kind of situation. You still have to go ahead and have some trust.
- If pull up your car in a lot and someone broke your window. You can't look at everybody with hatred just because you don't know who broke it. Just because it's a colored person you hate every colored person. But we do these things. Sometimes we take it out on our people for things like that. And we try to make amends and declare that we've done something wrong. That's what I'm working on within myself. It's not being able to make amends but making amends with the God and so that those that I have violated can see or feel someday that I have made amends. Whether one day, ten years or at my funeral, I hope that they see that this man has made amends.

[Walker] It's an awesome experience to see the men who come back with a desire to live. You don't care what the person has done in the past, we believe that everybody deserves a second chance. And society has a way of bringing about distaste and mistrust. And they say that these particular people can never be trusted. I wish that I could see them not after but in prison where all the roots of the transformation is taking place. One of the most difficult things before change come about, if the individual hasn't dealt with himself in a self-examination point of view, if that process is not done, what happens is that we have a small percentage that falls short. We have a 85-90% success rate. For the other few percent, the self-examination process hasn't been born in the mind of the individual. Self-awareness has to have a part in that beginning process.

Do you see them beginning to change?
- yeah because I've been there. I was unbalanced myself. So I can actually visualize and understand that process through men that understand that process. We have great similarities that come to change. The same environment that speak to them speaks to everyone from an equal stand point. So if it's time for me to go eat, it's time for the whole population to eat. So that environment is given to everyone in an equal way, so it allows us to share that experience and understanding. But it's great to see that process.

So you can probably tell what stage a man is when he comes over.
- You can see what level the individual is on. You can see from two standpoints. Mr.Clayton, he's been a correctional officer, so he can see it. By me being an ex-felon, I can see it. When these men see someone walking through the door, they can see it.

What do see in them?
- The level that an individual is on, and the true desire to live. Change can identify with change the same way that man can identify with man. It's the same way that healing can identify with healing. I been through the healing process myself, and so I can see it in others too. It's an awesome transformation. I like to have seen that transformation inside within prison. That's how we all be going through this transformation process.

Anubha: Do you think the system there helps in that process? Is it geared towards this process?
Walker: I think it's unaware of the elements that it carries. The design of the prison is not for self-deliverance. Even though it's designed to hurt you or free you, what happens is that they have a component of employment, which is a part of the healing process when he comes home to get a job. Even though he's working for 85c a day, he's beginning to feel good about himself. Because it's something he always wanted to do anyway, be responsible and have a job. So living is not a concern but you come out here and you revert back to what you're doing before. We were blessed because there's some people that don't eat at all. For one that have no family, no place to eat, those elements for prison can be used outside when they get out. All these things are essential for livelihood. These components that they have, they look at it from, these are what we're suppposed to do. But I don't believe they look at it truly from the point of view of responsibilities, and from the point of view of realizing the prisoners. They house us, they put us in a warehouse. So I already know that they not looking through the eyes of luxury, they look at it from the eyes of punishment.

The same elements are needed in our community. For instance you got a man who doesn't know about the programs. He ain't got nowhere to live, no money to eat, no shelter, ain't got no job. And has no ID, and it's only an inside ID. So he's in a situation of what am I going to do. So he doesn't have the knowledge of resources of where to go, what to do. So it's by the grace of God that somebody foudn out about our program and instituted a booklet about us. But for that individual, he's automatically going back to the streets and then back to prison.

Mr.Maurice shows me the ID, which is valid only for 45 days.
Walker: They should tell you in the beginning - this is trash. We get them drivers license, their social security number, everything to get them into citizenship. They can't even vote.

Message to the students
Mr.Moore: To the students slacking off, it's imperative that the students stay focused on what's going on with life itself. Right now everything is done by numbers on paper. You can be presented with a piece of paper that's saying that's it's a specific thing that's done by certain numbers, and then you have individuals who sign off saying that these numbers are accurate. If you actually had a working knowledge of what's happened, you could see that as oh, it's something to decieve the individual who's supposed to be a first class citizen. So being a student of anywhere from a masters to bachelors to a doctoral degree, you have to basically stay very focused and do exactly not what you feel but you know what the god he understands what you feel. I say that because we have a police commissioner, the mayor who fell short, governors that fell short, we also have presidents that fell short. We all can still fall short regardless of how smart you are. If you don't use your education and that knowledge in a proper way, you're going to be a part of that statistic that said that I was at the top of my game with the paper process, but I fell short on the spiritual process, and that made my flesh weak and I submitted to another thing that caused me to go to some place else where I never should have been. So although this commissioner didn't get the sentence I would have got - he is not in prison but he's in a resort. The state system is a warehousing system but the federal system has like country clubs. Because you are out of a certain mould, you're going to be around that certain mould. That's the message that I wanna leave with the students. Just stay focused and realize that.... When we talk about society at large, about politics and about justice. There's three different functions that they serve. Try to be a part of the solution but not a part of the problem. They have to make the change. So in 2020 it's going to be about them and not about us.

Mr.Maurice: I would just say don't pick it up, stay focused, and keep a prayer. People and things can make you go behind the wall. You can't do one good thing and one bad, you gotta do all of them good. All of them gotta be good. Stay focused, watch your friends, keep a prayer.

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