Voices of the System
Voices of the System delves into the injustices within the criminal justice system, spotlighting real stories of both individuals who've faced its harsh realities and professionals who have taken initiative in creating a more just system. Through poignant narratives, it exposes systemic flaws and advocates for change, fostering understanding and empathy. Join us as we shed light on the humanity lost in the system, striving for a more equitable and compassionate future.
Voices of the System
The Convicted Comeback Story: Kristin Kline on Reclaiming Your Power Behind Bars
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In this episode of Voices of the System, we sit down with Kristin Kline, founder of Convicted Comeback, an organization dedicated to empowering incarcerated women through fitness, mindset, and personal growth. What began as a simple idea has grown into a powerful movement helping women rediscover their strength, both physically and mentally.
Kristin shares the inspiration behind Convicted Comeback, the challenges of bringing programming into correctional facilities, and the deeply human moments that continue to drive her mission forward.
This conversation explores the impact of second chances, the importance of support and community, and what it truly means to take ownership of your story. It’s a powerful reminder that transformation is possible anywhere.
Welcome to Voices of the System. I'm Laurie Jubileer, a criminal defense and civil rights attorney serving the Philadelphia area, as well as the owner of Jubileer Law in L City. Through candidate conversations with people personally impacted by the criminal justice system, like former and currently incarcerated individuals, advocates, and reform leaders, we can learn from their stories of injustice and find hope for a brighter future. Thank you for joining me on this journey to facilitate positive change in our system. When we listen, we learn. Let's raise awareness together. Today's guest is Kristen Klein, who runs an organization called Convicted Comeback from Arizona. Kristen, welcome to the podcast. We are so glad to have you, and I'm very excited about the conversation that we are going to have tonight.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for having me. I'm excited too.
SPEAKER_00Sure. So, Kristen, could you tell the listeners a little bit about your background and the organization that you started a couple years ago? What convicted comeback is and how it came about.
SPEAKER_02So I am formally incarcerated. I did just under three years in the Arizona State Prison. And this is following years of addiction and chaos, as I like to call it, that ended me up in what I call a state of being a loser. I just couldn't keep anything together. And I was a disaster and a tyrant to society and my family and my friends, and burned every bridge possible. Typical addict behavior, all stemming from childhood trauma and never healing it. And so then eventually, what happens? It erupts, and I ended up in prison. I decided to take that long, treacherous journey and turn it into something worthwhile. I felt that I had reached a point where I knew I needed to give back. So I created an organization called Convicted Comeback so that I could go back inside and teach people who I left behind what I had learned since doing my time and how my life had changed in the process.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful. Can I just go back when you were serving your time? What were you convicted of? And what were you sentenced for? And where did you serve that sentence?
SPEAKER_02So I was convicted of armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, and I pled down to burglary first degree. And I was blessed enough to have family that could afford an attorney. And so I got three years. And then were you supervised afterwards? I was, yes. I went straight into parole and I believe it was eight months-ish.
SPEAKER_00How was your experience when you were inside the prison? It sounds like you made a transformation, what I'm hearing. And did that occur inside the prison at some point while you were serving your sons?
SPEAKER_02Yes. It wasn't always set to be in that direction. I definitely didn't expect to change or see any different. I just wanted to do my time, whatever that meant. I was going to figure it out. And, you know, there's a whole lot of different culture and code inside prison, depending on where you're located. And so you kind of have to learn to adapt. And it's just something very different than life, uh, outside normie life, as we call it. And um, I was learning my way, you know, and so I didn't expect transition. I didn't expect change. That just happened.
SPEAKER_00Did you meet connect with certain people there that supported you? Or did you go through something inside yourself to want to make yourself better and start a different, you know, a new life?
SPEAKER_02The thing with prison, and it's it's hard because I now, you know, run programs inside. And so I care very much about the programming inside for those that are incarcerated, right? Because as one, I know what it takes. We're stubborn, we're hard-headed. We we want control and power, and we don't understand normal talk. Um, we want to hear it from people who have done the walk. And prison and jail are hell on earth. Everything is a shock, and everything about it is wrong, and it hits you in the face, and you have no choice but to accept it, and there's nowhere to turn. So it's do or die and go time. It's hard. And while you're learning your way, what you don't realize is you're becoming institutionalized and it's shaping you. But the culture that is shaping you is not good, and so nothing good is coming out of that time spent. And so it was one special person on this Media Max unit who was a counselor, so worked for the state. I didn't come from such a horrible background. I was around a lot of you know, adults and I understood respect. And I had never seen such disrespect coming from other adults as I had seen in corrections. And so to see one that is a gentleman and kind is rare and valuable. And he said to me, What are you doing? You're not a gangster. You should be trying to reclass. And don't listen to everything they're all saying, just do better. And so I tried to take it up because the word on the yard was you didn't want to do better. You didn't want to reclash, you wanted to stay right where you were because that was what was safe, you know, which was medium max, lifers is what I was surrounded by. And um, he wouldn't write those tickets. So he said, see ya, I reclass to minimum. And in minimum, I found who I ended up marrying, my wife, Megan. And she changed my perspective on some things. I was open to change because somebody instilled hope.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00That's the story. I love that. I and I believe that because I have experienced it through my clients, the same thing where the, like you say with the adults, the people that are in the correctional facility, which I don't think is correction, like make you worse facility, punishment facility, make people worse. A couple of times I get this really nice counselor that's, oh, you want to talk to so and so? I'll help. Most of the time it's the opposite. Like I I advocate for clients in the prison. They hire me sometimes just to be their advocate. Whenever we bring up some things, I see that they get retaliated against, punished worse. It's so hard to watch. And I love your story because that's the way it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_02I think I'm just very lucky to have the education and the athleticism and everything instilled in me that came from my childhood and growing up, even though there was so much turmoil and trauma and chaos. But being sober and clean with no choice but to focus and settle with self with vast time, right? You have two choices do your time or learn. And so I chose to learn. And I didn't even know what that meant or what it was going to grow into. I think I was just bored, you know. And for the first time in prison, I felt still. And I needed that because never healing from trauma, you are in a state of on the go, you know, protection. It's it's just this feral state that you're in because you never know what's going to happen. And when you get there, it's already happened. So you just, you know, relax and settle in. But I saw a lot of settling in. And I'm talking cards and and then it turns into gambling and fighting. And I had done that for a while, but once you hit minimum, it was a different tone. And I wanted a different tone. Secretively, that's the thing, is I think a lot of us we want different, we just don't know how to get it. And I never realized that that's what it was, you know. And who better to teach you than somebody who's done it themselves?
SPEAKER_00Right. And when you say reached a minimum, does that mean the three years? Is that what you mean by that? You reached your time so that you could be paroled.
SPEAKER_02Well, when you first hit the prison, you are classed by your charge. And so I was medium max, even though my full sentence was three years, because of my crime, I was put in with dangerous max lifers. And I mean, I had to just get comfortable. And so I found my way and I had my ups and downs, and that's taken me away. I mean, it's valuable now because those are those are my people, my lifers. That's why I created convicted comeback to go back to them, you know. But reclassing, you go down a minimum. So it's women that have five years or less and they work a retention job. So they have this incentive to I'm getting out, I'm gonna have money, and my family's right around the corner. And so I finally hit that and that state of mind, and it was a different crowd of people. There wasn't fighting everywhere you looked, you know.
SPEAKER_00So you were surrounded by other women who were in a similar situation, meaning that they they were gonna be leaving soon, be released soon.
SPEAKER_02I think that instead of living on a yard and thinking of how to survive, they're finally in a pliable state to where they want to be taught. So they just need the proper programming, right?
SPEAKER_00You know, and was there programming there at any point? No, there was not.
SPEAKER_02That was that was ridiculous. Now, I will give kudos to our state director right now. So I've been out five years, he's made huge milestones. When I hit the prison yard, my mom said, I'm gonna get you my both my parents were teachers, and they said, We're gonna get you enrolled in college, which I had already done twice and I'd left multiple times, and I was a good student, so they didn't want to waste anything, whatever that means. So they enrolled me in school, and you would think it happens quickly, but it doesn't. It took almost a year to finally get my first school packet in prison, and then it was via mail. So I'd get something, I'd send it back. I'm not gonna get it back proofread before the next one's due, and I got to get it in the mail. So I was in that weird spot, and then right when I was getting out, it was a tail end of COVID, and they received tablets. So school now is on tablets, but I missed it.
SPEAKER_00That's great. So, did you get a any kind of degree or towards college or just took some classes?
SPEAKER_02I just was able to take some classes, get some basic ones out of the way that I could while I was there. Um, I did finish my college once I got out. I was a double major business, finance, and exercise science. I took a peer support program that was not technically an official program, but a woman peer wanted to lead a class. And I took it in exchange for her to be in my fitness class. And that was one class that I actually started to to heal and change in. But I took a second chance class that the prison put on, and I remember them telling us after we inter we fake, mocked, interviewed, well, that was fabulous, but unfortunately, due to your crime, you're gonna have a really hard time finding anything. And so I was like, Okay, so that's what you're leaving me with? What does that mean? Like, I'm gonna be in my late 30s, I've got children, I need a little bit more than that, you know? And so I didn't get that. That was basically how it was left. I knew how to write a resume, and and what was I supposed to put on that resume? I have no background, no history, and I just got out of prison. You know, it's wasn't gonna help me. And so it was brutal to swallow, it was hard to swallow.
SPEAKER_00I bet. Yeah. So besides the education classes that you're talking about, was there any other programs to help you transition to help you with your addiction and staying sober?
SPEAKER_02If you got somebody that was committed, they might bring in CA or AA or something like that inside. Typically, classes that you see coming in are volunteer-based, run through a religious type entity. You're talking just five years ago, but now inside the women's prison, it's very different. You know, they've partnered with colleges that come in and do tutoring, they have the dog program, they have CDL uh licensing, you know, um, dress for success, which gets you, you know, dressed and ready for the the new world, and they discuss hygiene and women's care, you know, and cooking. So now there are lots of things, but that's where we came into play because the thing that was missing was anything physical, you know. There's yoga, there's yoga. I've heard of yoga in prisons. We're not yoga. I do bring yoga. We are partnered with yoga, but we're so much more than yoga, and I wanted to bring movement and mobility and physical aspect to the prison.
SPEAKER_00So I did. Awesome. So I'd love to hear about the organization. And then the other question is because I know here sometimes there's it's very difficult for volunteers to come into the prison, at least here in Pennsylvania. It sounds like that's not an issue for you right now, but how how you are welcomed in and how and how they accept the program and how it's been thriving.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that was very interesting and um very surreal the first time I walked back inside the prison. I bet. Um I it's it's been a journey just this last, it's been, you know, a little over a year, and it's a constant battle because the system is very political. So everything depends on the wind and how somebody feels, and you know, everything kind of trickles downhill. So when things are stressful at the top in the director's office, then they have to kind of crack down at the prison grounds level. So when there's chaos at the men's prison, it always affects a women's prison. When there's a fight or a riot, they're gonna put things on lockdown, which means they're gonna kick out all the programs. So um, you know, the first to go tend to be us. So, and they don't know what to think about us because Convicted Comeback is a felon-funded, felon-founded, felon-run program. We are a 501c3 and we are a bunch of felons, mostly that go back inside the prison and coach fitness and mindset.
SPEAKER_00Wow. When did you found it? Like when did it come into being?
SPEAKER_02So we were official the beginning of 2024, and our programs were official and accepted to run their first course in November of 2024.
SPEAKER_00Are there other people beside yourself in who run convicted comeback? And exactly what do you do in the prisons and outside the prisons?
SPEAKER_02Yes. So um originally it was just myself and my wife. Um, we were running things and we were just doing it in our spare time, usually the evenings, the weekends. It went wonderfully. Um, and you know, there's multiple units in the women's prison, and then there's thousands, there's over 3,000 women in our state prison. So once we started, it was like, oh, well, we need to help this person and we need to help this person. And so we're only two people. And she um has her own story, but she also did seven years, um, just under seven years in prison and learned all the prison trades she could, um, plumbing, HVAC, maintenance. And she now works HVAC. And so she works HVAC, takes care of us financially. And I stepped away from cleaning, I had a cleaning um company to run this nonprofit full-time. Because as you know, nonprofits are not um paid. And so we are grant funded, donation funded, and looking to partner in a bigger way. Right now, we're trying to partner in the medical field because we take movement and mobility of various kinds inside the prison. So when I was doing my time, I worked out all the time. That's kind of a normal thing for the men's prison, not for the women's prison, but I was an athlete, a big athlete. And so I kind of needed to spend my time on the yard training, and that's what I did. And women liked it. So before I left, I ran a boot camp. It was quite successful. 75 out of like 420 women joined for six weeks. And what they felt and what I felt seeing them was beyond words. So I knew that that was what I wanted to do. It just took me a few years to figure out what that even meant. And then lo and behold, I am coaching boot camps inside the women's prison, tailored to reconstruct your mindset while you are learning all about yourself face down on that pavement, is the way that I like to say it, because I am prison built. That's our slogan. And you are you're different when you come back from prison, you know, and so we might as well utilize that for what it is. And if we lean into, you know, our weaknesses, they can become our strengths. And that's what I coach people, but I couldn't stop there. So uh there was a lot of populations. There's prenatal, postnatal, there's senior citizens, um, which also runs into disabled or PT. And so I just kept creating more and more classes so that we could adapt for more and more people. Um, so I am in the prison weekly and then I'm in the prison monthly for different programs. And then you know what comes next is expanding. So I started recruiting people, felons mostly, a few that are honorary, but it takes a very special person to volunteer to go inside a prison to release the stigma of prison.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And to know that once you're there, you're in their house and that's their space, and you're you're there as their guest. And I don't want anybody to get that twisted because um you can't go in there marching around like it's your place because that's what the cops do, and we're not cops.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. When you just described your expansion about um with disabled, prenatal, postnatal. Are you referring to programs inside the prison as well? All of these are in the prison. All of them are in the prison. So these are just different populations that you can cater to.
SPEAKER_02We realize that you've got your general population, various ages. They're, you know, some have done fire crews, some of them, you know, they're a lot more mobile than others. And then you've got some that maybe they were homeless, maybe they did drugs their whole life, maybe they're an amputee and they're not that old, senior status, but they can't move around that well. So I created specific aerobics classes for them so that they weren't left out because it was boot camp. I don't want somebody to be intimidated by fitness, I want them to be intrigued.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Before you found a convicted comeback and started all these movement programs, did you have training or did you do it all on your own?
SPEAKER_02Before I went to prison, I wanted to be a mortician. And so I had worked on cadavers for a while. And so I was somewhat familiar, but a lot of things, you know, weren't the same up here. And so I had to go back to school, which was hard at my age, COVID after prison. That was a whole journey in itself. But I completed it. And um, along the way, I just kept putting myself in uncomfortable situations because I realized the growth that came out of it. The main niche behind my fitness programs is the mindset portion. Your mind is a muscle just like everything else. And if you work it, it will grow. So we should be doing that in prison. And that's what the state should be wanting for us. The community should be wanting for us because you want them to come out better people, not worse. And that's what's happening. So you know, like I love it.
SPEAKER_00It just seems to make sense for me. It makes sense to me too, that that this this is a program that's gonna help people support people, and and like you say, come out better and help their mental health and physical health. I love it. Since you had been an inmate, did you have any obstacles in being able to come back into the prison since you were formerly incarcerated? Was that an issue?
SPEAKER_02What is interesting now did not occur two and a half years ago when I was trying to get in the prison. So now, if you have appropriate documentation from your parole or probation officer and the organization that you are volunteering with, they will allow you to come back in and work inside the prison as an on paper parolee. Blows my mind. I could not. They told us we had to wait two years off paper. That was what the saying was. And so I waited the two years. I'm off paper. I presented. And the people that I was talking to at the time, they were familiar with me. And I just honestly, I think it was the universe. I just everything happened at the right time because they were looking to bring in a program to make their new position solid. And I happened to be there at the right time. But at the same your other question, the first time that something went wrong, we were who they blamed. And only because we were the felons.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's sad. Yeah. So we were kicked out. Yeah. Oh, you were.
SPEAKER_02And brutally, just like but short of escorted off, cold. Programs, everything. Girls left, ghosted, nothing. It took two and a half months of sitting and waiting to get on the director's calendar and explaining things and a phone call, and I was back in the next Monday.
SPEAKER_00Oh, wow. What what exactly happened if you can tell us? I'm just curious to cause them to say that's it, you're out of here.
SPEAKER_02Girls in our class that are in other classes. And they had asked us to come and look in this classroom to see what she had been building in her coding class on the computer because she did it in our honor. And the instructor had let us in. And so we just go in there and you know, I mean, I know there's rules, we've been there, but the instructor let us in. He works there. Anyways, we were not supposed to be in that place at that time. Somebody higher should have approved it. The girl was not even supposed to be in that class. So what happened when it was all brought to light? They blamed us. Oh, so they asked the officer to leave quietly. They discharged the girl and then they fired us in our program.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm glad you got to go back. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02Me too.
SPEAKER_00I don't know how Arizona works, but um, are there like county prisons and state prisons in Pennsylvania? We have county ones for people that are pretrial or serving short periods of sentences and state prisons for longer sentences. And do they have that there or are they all the same?
SPEAKER_02We just have a couple federal. I think that everybody else, if you're female, you're coming here. Here meaning Perryville is the women's state prison here in. I say Phoenix, but you know, Phoenix is our big big city. So technically it's Goodyear, Arizona. Perryville prison is the state prison here for women. Oh, yeah. Multiple male, multiple males.
SPEAKER_00So do we here? We have in Pennsylvania, like it's called Muncie, SCI Muncie, all women. And there might be another one that's smaller, but everything else is all men. It's the same type of thing. So that's where you go, is to that Perryville one. Okay. Have you followed any of the women of that when they've been like released to see how they're doing and how do you have friendships developed and things like that? Yes.
SPEAKER_02The biggest thing about convicted comeback is community, and that wasn't the intention. The intention truly was to be back inside with some of the girls that I knew I couldn't access otherwise to help lift their spirits because they're going to be there a long time and run fitness classes. Then it grew into this whole growing with these women while they make these huge changes inside prison. Then they get released and we connect with them and follow them along their journey outside, not just them, but their family members. Because these the majority of these women are women that have been counted out. They're five, six time felons, you know, people are like, uh, they're gonna be right back. And we are somehow able to instill just enough hope that says you're not coming back. And so far it's happened.
SPEAKER_00So, yes, community. That is awesome. And how do you follow them after they're released? How do they find you again? Or is that part of the program inside to tell them that you're available outside?
SPEAKER_02Unfortunately, all of this takes funding and we haven't had any yet.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Community, you know, fundraising. It's been it's been very tiny. And so um, but I'm hanging on, it's gonna happen. The right, the right people will see um the value behind this because this isn't just us, this needs to be nationwide, and we're now in a place where we realize how sick and unhealthy people are, and we can ignore those that are incarcerated, but they eventually get out and we should want better and it's expected of us. So we need to start changing that, and I'm here to help deliver that. And so I figured if we create a whole bunch of coaches, so I am a certified personal trainer. Um, Megan is also a certified personal trainer and a nutritionist, and we have partnered with ISSA, which is national national certification in um science and medicine. And then we can certify others under us. This was a huge thing for us to add. One, we created comeback coaches. So those that do certify under us are official comeback coaches. We have a few women that have done this, so now we they will turn around and continue coaching in the prison because we're expanding and I'm not able to be there all the time. But that is what we take into the male's prison because what they they they can coach themselves. What they need is an avenue when they get out. So nobody cares if your face is tatted and you've done 20 years, if you look fit and you know how to coach and talk to people, people want to hire you. So go be a fitness coach, you know, and we can offer that and very discounted. Um, so that's something else we want to pitch into the prisons, you know, because that that helps the recidivism.
SPEAKER_00Right. I agree. Absolutely. Well, I love this that you support the women after they're released.
SPEAKER_02When funding comes in, I'm hoping to be able to long-term track. We'll be able to hire, you know, and we'll have all hands on deck and data to be able to track all of that. Right now, we're lucky to be able to get from all of my people are volunteers. So, you know, to get everybody from their assorted sides of town all the way to the prison in Goodyear, you know, in rush hour traffic. And then we have to try to write everything down on scratch paper and compile it on the computer when we get home. You know, that's how prison programs have to run. Um, and we've got limited time. And so the best we can, I try to get the women to write down journals, surveys, you know, questions daily for my boot camps. We're doing weight, we're doing BMI. For my seniors, we're doing, you know, strength in how many times can you go from sit to stand uh next week? I'm so excited because I'm gonna work on ground control. So starting on the ground and getting up, right? Because that's where a lot of my seniors are and they probably haven't been on the ground for a long time. And so um I love watching the progression and tracking it and and social media, that's huge. We are huge on social media, the community.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, yeah, I follow you. That's right. I love it. I love the idea that at some point, if you can track your success, like to show that the recidivism is lower with these programs, would be great. Does the state, since they I assume the state of Arizona runs these prisons or runs the women's prison, I are you they don't pay you at all for what you do? Is that oh gosh, no?
SPEAKER_02But but I want to create a position because I think I think it should exist. And there is a wonderful woman, Heidi Whipple in the state of California, who oversees all of the state prisons, and that is exactly what she does is health, wellness, and exercise. And I would love to do that. Um, I have all these ideas, but I think that that would be great to coordinate continuing programs and not just there. We're talking juveniles, they need to be in PE classes, they need to be active. Everybody needs to be active. And then when you're on the other side of it, you're talking physical therapy and mobility classes.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, I agree. And I see the opposite of that here. Older the older population who are doing chronic illnesses, and and then it's like fiscally conservative to support these programs because you are preventing future big illnesses, lots of illnesses. I mean, we that's scientifically backed with how movement helps the mind and the body. So, and then if these lifers are in for life and they're just super chronic and they're not exercising, then they're just getting worse and they're not getting the right medical care because at least here they're not. I don't know if they are there, but the medical care is horrendous.
SPEAKER_02Fitness it has this, I don't know, this stigma around it. So I'm really trying to, it's health and wellness, it's mobility, right? Because people see that differently than fitness. They think that's more of a hey, look at me type thing, but that's not what it is. It's move, be healthy, you're saving funding for all sides, plus, you're getting out in a better state. So you you have a chance to live that second life. It is so important for people to see the value in movement. And it's all in how you pitch it, I guess.
SPEAKER_00All of it is a win-win to me. You know, it's safe for the community if people aren't recommitting their crimes and you're not you're keeping them healthy with their bodies and their minds. So the prison hopefully would not spending extra money with their health issues. I mean, it sounds like it should be everywhere. You know, and in like a national thing would be great.
SPEAKER_02I think so too, and that's what I'm hoping. Fingers crossed. The big thing that makes this so special and unique is this truly is a peer-led program. So all of those that are standing in front of you doing the coaching and expressing how to change your life, look at me, I've done it. You can do this too. I love it. It's peer support. So I'm I'm hoping that the medical field sees the value behind that. Um, I don't think it gets better than that.
SPEAKER_00I notice, you know, the people that are in power in in the prisons here, they don't treat the prisoners like human beings. I mean, it's just awful. It's corrupt, there's power issues, there's hiding things, drugs coming. I mean, it's all like there's so many bad things happening and people getting worse for it and not getting the medical care, not getting the exercise. I admire you for what you've done and what you're doing. And I I will spread the word. I love it. I really do. And I love the name of the organization. I think that's super cool. How'd you come up with that?
SPEAKER_02Um, I just wanted something that was a little hard, but said it perfectly. And I went back and forth because I I didn't want to stick in the past, right? So I don't want to constantly be calling myself a felon and a convict. Um, now that I've healed, I can say it. And it doesn't hold meaning behind it. I just accept it for what it is because I know what I've done with it. And so I utilize it. Um I it's the comeback.
SPEAKER_00You know, and I have another question. You know, when you were in prison, you had been found convicted of a robbery. And I believe you said it was a gunpoint robbery. Um, and correct me if I'm wrong, and you said it was a three-year sentence. And and here in Pennsylvania, the people that are convicted of that would get like at least three times the time. And they in here they have a minimum and a maximum and mandatories. So, like a gunpoint robbery might be like 10 to 20 or something, and you don't guarantee to get out of 10. It's up to the parole board, and they they make up any reason they can to keep you in. It sounds like you got a fair sentence and and look what you got back into the community in a pretty decent amount of time. In your system, if you don't thrive and you you get, I guess, violations and misconducts, would your sentence become longer?
SPEAKER_02I hate when I have to tell people how much time I got because for my crime, I should have gotten more time. The people that had my crimes got much more time. People with non-violent, non-dangerous drug crimes got double, triple more time. I had a good attorney, and that just goes to show you. Wow. So that's all I can say, you know. And I I I feel like at least I something that I heard and I say all the time, I use, and um, I want it to show big time in my life is I took a lot because, like I said, I am a recovering loser. I'm I am a recovered loser. When you come from such a scummy being and you take from everybody, because that's what addicts do. Addicts are scummy people, you know. Um, there are some people that aren't, but the majority, they are so broken that they lose the conscience of care. And so you take from people that you would never take from, and you do things that you would never do, and you don't care and you don't look back. And then all of a sudden, when you're sober up, you realize, oh my gosh, I did those things and I hurt those people. And sometimes those people are already gone. So you don't get to fix it, you know. So the ones that hold on, the ones that come back and they forgive, and you get to heal with that's what I mean when I say, you know, like accepting being a recovering loser, being a recovered loser. I know it's harsh, but I don't like the word loser. You're not a loser. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. Um, but and I also hate calling people addicts and alcoholics because I do think that you can change from that. I think that you shouldn't put any of those old titles on you because today I would not choose drugs. The world could fall apart around me, and I would not choose drugs because for the first time in my life I love myself. And that's what's missing when you choose drugs. You don't love yourself. When you love yourself, you don't choose them because you want better for you. You've got goals.
SPEAKER_00I love that. That's awesome. Congratulations. I just love your story and love what you've what you've done with your life. I just want to say that.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. I appreciate that. I love that. And I am so grateful that you've allowed me to share because networking and the value in sharing in community is so important. You know, I know that a lot of our older generations grew up where we were hush-hush about things, and then we all thought that we were suffering alone. And that's really a sad world to live in. And so the more we talk, the more we release the power from those things and that trauma, and we stand together stronger as a community. And so that's what I want out of Convicted Comeback. So you can find me always at convictedcomeback.com. But I am very active on my social medias, every platform, uh, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. I am Convicted Comeback or Coach Zero Excuses. That is my personal platform.
SPEAKER_00Love it.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_00My hope is, and I I love this conversation that you will be able to expand to other states and places because it sounds like you're doing wonderful things, transforming lives. I it sounds like it's fantastic, especially when they come out and need some support. You don't get it from the government. So you're creating that, and I think it's it's just beautiful. And I I love it because that's the way our system is supposed to run. And unfortunately, it doesn't always or often run that way. It's the opposite. So I it's very inspiring and enlightening to see you know what you've done and how you've enhanced lives and made them better. And I just uh I applaud you again for it. I love I love what you do. So thank you.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for seeing me.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I do, and thank you for being our guest today. It's been an absolute pleasure to speak with you and learn about what you do, and I wish you the very best in the future and keep doing what you're doing. And I'm anxious to I'll follow you and see uh what's going on, and I wish you all the best. Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of Voices of the System. If you liked this episode, please be sure to subscribe. For more information on the podcasts and how to get involved in criminal justice reform. Follow us on our socials at Voices of the System.