Chris with his internship supervisor, Jessica Sandoval, Director of Communications & Outreach at the Campaign for Youth Justice
Don't Miss "Hear Us Out! 2008," the 5th Annual Free Minds Poetry
Reading - TUESDAY JULY 15 at 7pm
at Gala Theatre at Tivoli Square.
Click here for details...
Success Stories
Chris
As a young boy growing up in Washington, DC, Chris looked up to the drug dealers and hustlers that ran his neighborhood. He saw the flash of money, nice cars and jewelry that selling drugs brought the older teens on the block in stark contrast to the poverty that surrounded him. While other boys idolized NBA star Michael Jordan, Chris had what he calls “street dreams.” He wanted to follow in the footsteps of infamous DC drug lord, Rayful Edmonds so that he could afford nice things and provide for his family.
While he enjoyed school, he now realizes that he attended for all of the wrong reasons. “I went to school two, maybe three times a week,” says Chris. “And even then, it was usually just for half a day at a time in order to see my friends and have fun. I never even considered going to school just to learn.”
At the age of twelve, Chris was already behind bars on burglary charges. He would serve time at DC’s juvenile detention facility two more times before the age of 16. It was shortly after his 16th birthday that Chris was arrested and charged as an adult for assault with a deadly weapon, and sentenced to more than two years in adult jail. “Getting locked up there was a gut punch!” Chris says now.
Even so, Chris looks at his incarceration as a blessing that may have saved his life. “Around my way lots of people were getting killed and still are,” he says. “Meeting Kelli and Tara and being in Free Minds helped me change my life…They thought I was better than the streets and I finally started to believe it.” Chris began to read voraciously after joining the book club. His favorite book was Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land, the true story of Brown’s troubled childhood in Harlem. “I could just really relate to that man’s story,” he says. “I started telling everyone I knew about that book!”
On top of the assigned books, Chris requested everything from “How to Learn American Sign Language,” to computer guides, and wildlife books. He also began to express himself through poetry. “I’d never really done anything like this until I started to write poems for y’all. I just sat and wrote and it stuck. I could sit all day and make a good poem. It was better than just sitting getting angry in my cell!” One poem in particular, entitled The Calling describes the transformation that Chris has experienced.
While he was incarcerated at the DC Jail, and later in North Dakota, Chris obtained his GED and began to love school and come up with a new plan for his life. After his release in January 2008, Chris obtained a paid internship with the Campaign for Youth Justice, a nonprofit organization that advocates for a change in laws nationally that allow juveniles to be charged and incarcerated in adult prisons. He has spoken in front of various policymakers, including the DC City Council about his personal experience.
Chris is currently employed fulltime and is enrolling in college to become an information technology specialist.
To read about the successes of other Free Minds graduates, click here.