DBI’s Journey Honored! Esther Dillard Wins Big at the 2025 Gracie's Awards

The Black Information Network's Esther Dillard won her second Gracies Award for an inspiring news feature spotlighting Daughters Beyond Incarceration (DBI) — a powerful non-profit organization based in Louisiana. DBI works to reconnect girls with their incarcerated parents, offering emotional support and mentorship to children impacted by mass incarceration.

This award-winning story captures the emotional journey of Dominique Johnson, the founder of DBI, and the life-changing impact the program has on children of incarcerated parents. Through weekend prison visits, educational workshops, and healing circles, DBI is helping young girls redefine their identity, rise above trauma, and thrive despite family incarceration.

From prison visitation rooms to graduation milestones, this feature explores how DBI fosters resilience, hope, and leadership in girls affected by the criminal justice system. Esther Dillard's storytelling sheds light on systemic challenges and the importance of prison reform and youth mentorship.

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Transcript

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For Dominique Johnson, celebrations like birthdays and holidays have always been a bit bittersweet. My father is on his 42nd year of a life sentence. He, he's been in prison my entire life. So I grew up in prison. I've spent many birthdays, holidays, celebrations, you name it, I've spent them behind bars. And so much so did I have people that I have like prison uncles. And so the world in which I know it was always centered around incarcerating black men. Dominique was in a college program that challenged her to build a non profit organization. And while mentoring two young girls, she had an epiphany. Because their dad and my dad was housed in the same institution. We lived less than 10 minutes apart. And there was no way that I could navigate life knowing that I know how to overcome the obstacles that I face and not share with other people. And so the organization that we were with, they took that opportunity to raise millions of dollars off of our story and gave US$50 gift cards. She and her father decided they would start their own organization and make an impact. And right before the pandemic, she made a unique conn. I was sentenced to 14 years in prison. I did 10 years and five months. For those who live in the New Orleans, Louisiana region, this last name Hankton, came with a family history connected to crime. Something anyone who turns on the news like WVUE can hear. The cousin of drug kingpintelli Hankton was found dead in his prison dorm early this morning. It was back in 2016, the DA's Office of the Eastern District of Louisiana announced that 32 year old Troy Hankton pled guilty to conspiracy to possess firearms. He was sentenced to serve 168 months behind bars. His case file says he was one of many involved in the Hankton group, a criminal racketeering enterprise involved in murder, bribery, money laundering and drug trafficking. And although Hankton officially pled guilty to purchasing a handgun and shooting a man sitting in his car at a red rooster about four years before his indictment, Troy says things on the outside were not as cut and dry as they seemed. When everything happened after college, I won some money. I won $86,000 in a casino in Harris Casino. So, you know, perception change. I went from just a regular guy to a lot of people looked at me as like I was a drug dealer or something like that. So because everything changed instantly and most people don't see that change that fast. So you know, the perception change and my last name in New Orleans, it has a reputation of negativity, crime and violence. So at that moment, I started embracing that. I became something that I wasn't. I embraced that. I got into an incident where I got into a shooting. I was legal to carry a gun. It was my own gun. I got into a situation and I didn't stay on the scene. So my family got into all type of incidents where they start getting into. They going to jail for violence and things of that nature. And in 2011, it was four years and seven months later, I was indicted. Troy says being separated from his daughters Trania and Jerrion was heartbreaking. And so connecting with Dominique Johnson and her nonprofit daughters beyond incarceration was a godsend. Me being the father that I am, you know, I was always in my kid's life. I was always there. Now knowing that I'm going to be gone for such a long period of time, it's like the worst feeling. It's one of the worst things like in the world. One of the worst feelings, knowing that you can't be there when your kids need you the most. Well, it was very different because like, they used to have like father daughter dances or like far as they even said school and like, you know, you used to see all the other kids with their dads and you just wish your dad was there. I. It really was difficult, but at the same time, it wasn't that difficult, but because I still had another parent that I could look up to, but I just wished I could have had my dad for like, father daughter dances and stuff. What about how did the program help you? The program helped because, like, they built bonds with us and they listened to everything that we had been through and they actually, like, they heard us out. The program helped because it's like you had other girls and mentors to cope with and so like, you could talk about your problems with them and you all, y'all already was related to each other without getting judged. Dominique Johnson says the program is designed to give the girls who participate tools she wishes she had when coping with life with a dad who she couldn't see daily outside the prison walls. We work to teach children that you are not your parents mistakes. You are your own person, you have your own identity, you have your own name. You are an individual. And so changing the narrative was a really big step that we needed to take with the Hangton family. And showing people this side of Troy and his children is the way to change that narrative. My ultimate goal is to create youth leaders, but also to make education more equitable for children that have parents in prison. And that means making sure those incarcerated parents have an opportunity to parent from prison. So in prison, I had to learn how to be more friends with my kids. I had to learn to be a mediator between them and their mother. I had to learn to listen to both sides because my baby mother, when I talked to her, my children's mother would always tell me problems that was going on. So I, you know, it's easy just to take her aside and just to get on the kids. But then I'm behind a prison wall on the phone. They don't have to talk to me. They can hang up, they don't have to answer. So I had to, like, be more open minded. So I had to learn to talk to them. So when. When I would hear the problem from the mother, I would talk to them. Before I give an opinion or solution to anything, I want to hear their side. Troy says help from the daughters beyond incarceration helped him get out of prison early. And so these days he spends holidays, birth and special times with his family at home. When the pandemic hit, nine people died instantly. Like, so it was like the most people when the pandemic first started. So they reached out, I think Fox News reached out to talk to Dom, and Dom asked did they have any fathers in that prison. And they did an interview with my kids. So during the interview, I was basically in special housing unit. Through that box. I reached out to some legislators and things like that. So they did research on my case. And when that happened, it started the CARES Act. So with the CARES act, it was free phone calls. So then I was able to call and talk to him. But through that and through the CARES act and new legislation, I was cut. They cut 19 months off my sentence. And the day he came home, he says he'll never forget, you know, it was just a moment and like a moment of joy, a moment of, like I tell people, it's like, you know, getting out of prison is like. It's like taking the last shot of a basketball game and you just waiting on it to go in. You know, your time is right there. You just wait. So it's so much excitement built up into it to where it's as if, like, that moment is just unmatched. Like, for me, it's like. And to see them in the joy and the tears and to see that, it was like. It was a moment that made me realize that how much you mean to your kids and how much they actually really love you. And daughters beyond incarceration is hoping to expand so they can help more children in the region find hope during the holidays and beyond. So, Esther, my program is specifically set up for girls who go and visit their parents over the weekend. And let's think about this. Sunday comes. Sunday is visitation day. You get up early, you get excited, and you go see your loved one incarcerated. But then you have to leave. And it's like you're leaving half of your heart in a place that you don't have access to. All right, Esther, now I want you to go to school, and I want you to sit still for eight hours, and I want you to listen to me, give you directions and instructions. But I don't know what you went through Sunday. I don't know that you cried in the shower, you cried in the bathtub, or you missed your loved one's phone call before getting. Before coming to school. I don't know that, but you need to sit still for 8 hours. My after school program works to heal, to restore, and to support those girls holistically. They're not coming here to get school work done. They're coming here to learn about mass incarceration. They're coming here to identify their traumas, their triggers, and they're coming here to learn how to heal from those. DBI started out with roughly about 10 to 15 girls. And as of today, we have supported over 100 families locally, statewide, we work to support the 94,000 children that are impacted by parental incarceration. And we work to support them through legislation. It's legislation that helps incarcerated parents attend graduations and other milestones in their children's lives in Louisiana. It's a step toward healing that Dominique Johnson knows is important. I got my pamper changed on my dad's lap in the visitation room. My dad fed me lunch on his lap in the prison room. My dad taught me how to color inside the lines in the prison visitation room. My dad learned how to comb my hair inside of the prison visitation room. And mind you, I had a jerry curl. My dad and I had the sex talk inside of a prison visitation room. My dad learned when I got my cycle inside of a prison visitation room. So most milestones that children experience with their parents outside in their homes, we experience inside of prison bars. Every time I broke a track meet record or and I became a state champion, we celebrated inside of the prison visitation room. There was no outside celebration at any point. We were inside locked up, and no child should have to endure that. If you'd like to help with continuing efforts to help children who have incarcerated parents go to dbinola.org I'm Esther Dillard for the Black Information Network.