Hear from Free Minds member Keonte. Despite being one of our younger members at only 21 years old, Keonte has done a lot of thinking about big questions, from his personal values and life goals to the sort of legacy he wants to leave behind for generations to come. Our conversation reveals the importance of groundedness and perspective, and demonstrates the outsize positive impact this young man is already making, and will no doubt continue to make, on those around him.
To be resilient is to be able to withstand or recover from very difficult conditions. I can’t think of any Free Minds member who has demonstrated more resilience than Charles. At the age of 20, Charles was charged and convicted of a crime he did not commit. Charles is now a leader in our reentry community, who helps to co-facilitate our weekly “Build Up” book club sessions when he’s not working. I recently met up to speak with Charles in a quiet basement lobby of the Martin Luther King DC Public Library, where he has now worked for two years, about how he maintains his resilience in the face of challenges.
Discipline, determination, and attention to detail: three values that have made all the difference in the success of Free Minds member Deontae’s work in quality assurance and his prospective career as a therapist. I had a chance to connect with Deontae and get to know more about his work life as a junior supervisor at a meal kit and food delivery company, a job he obtained shortly after he returned home in October 2023. Deontae’s strength of character and purpose truly shined through our interview as he gave insight into his leadership role and future plans.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with member Jamal and talk about why he joined the Free Minds “Changemakers” team, a group of members working to change the criminal legal system through the passage of laws and changing the narrative around incarceration and violence. His work stresses the importance of interactions with everyone in the community, creating spaces for growth and addressing the need for prolonged, tangible guidance to foster positive change.
I came home in 2019, after being incarcerated for 24 years. I didn’t know how to monetize my skill sets, which were mostly soft skills since I hadn’t been able to take a lot of classes or earn certifications. I felt like I was coming home with nothing and had nobody who would finance me, so I had to get to work. I kept beating myself up about not having the things of other people my age. Eventually, I just had to embrace being at the bottom. The biggest challenge was having to adjust, adapt, and build all at once. I began working with different organizations, taking classes, and leveraging resources. Eventually, my Free Minds coach referred me to the Building Futures Construction Pre-Apprenticeship Training program, where I earned certifications and got a job offer in the trades.
“It’s a great responsibility, but I think all of those years that I was in those cells, this is what I was really meant to do. I always wanted to give back to the community.” said Shannon, Free Minds’ Advocacy & Leadership Development Specialist. When he came home, Shannon became an active Poet Ambassador, where he used his talent for storytelling and poetry to educate the community on the root causes of youth violence and incarceration. He was then selected to be the Congressman John Lewis Fellow, a 6-month paid position for Free Minds members to build on their professional and leadership skills.
An interview with Free Minds member Antwan, by Zoe, Free Minds Intern. This interview was originally published in Volume 11, Issue 2 of the Free Minds Connect.
Antwan: I always played football and had a passion for football. Always. Even throughout my incarceration, I played football. So, when I came home I had a son who was seven at the time when I came home. We tried basketball, but he wasn’t too big at basketball. We gave football a try. We went to the field and saw a lot of other little kids playing with the school. When I picked him up from school I saw them there. So my son joined the team. My son would have bad moments at practice, but whenever I was there he had an excellent practice. So I started to stay on the field more and more. A lot of the other kids would adapt to how I was coaching my son. So I started to coach them too. After one season, all of the parents wanted me to be the head coach. So, I became the head coach.
Free Minds member JoJo was arrested at the age of 16 and served five years. He was released in 2015. He is the Co-founder of #WeFitDC, a company dedicated to closing the health and wellness gap in the District, and shining light on native DMV wellness professionals. He is currently a fellow at the Georgetown Pivot Program, a one-year business and entrepreneurship program created specifically for formerly incarcerated individuals at the Georgetown University School of Business. Recently, Kelli sat down for a conversation with JoJo about his life and his life’s work.
Free Minds member Carlos served 25 years of a 35 years-to-life sentence. In 2020, he was resentenced under the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA). Because he was not a US citizen though, rather than returning home to DC, he was deported to his native country—a place he hadn’t seen in 33 years! Kelli caught up with Carlos over Zoom to talk about his experience.
For most seniors, graduation and prom are some of the most stressful moments of a high school career, but for Jordan, it was making a call to a disappointed mother…