Summary(0:11) Being incarcerated from 1999-2009 -- (0:27) Working in criminal justice and advocacy since returning home -- (2:29) Learning how to advocate for himself and fellow inmates inside prison -- (2:51) Working at the transitional services center in a medium security prison in upstate New York -- (3:47) Working to improve transitional services for fellow inmates from the inside -- (5:18) Creating the ʺBridging the Gap” program -- (6:24) ʺTech Fridaysʺ and experiential dialogues with Vassar College students -- (7:00) Officer raid on the classrooms -- (8:00) Society’s over-reliance on the justice system and ability to dismiss entire swaths of people -- (9:12) Correlation between poverty, social welfare issues, and incarceration -- (10:42) The need for people with direct experience of the justice system to be making the policy and legislation decisions about it -- (12:47) Founding Caribbean/African Unity to focus on deportation information while inside prison -- (14:02) Volunteering with Families for Freedom to advocate for families caught in the deportation complex -- (15:28) Belief that the preparation for release begins when you enter prison -- (15:54) Building your network of support before release -- (17:20) Importance of volunteering and creating the H.O.L.L.A program -- (19:08) Advice for those who do not have experience of the justice system to interact with those who do -- (19:37) Need to address underlying causes of crime and incarceration -- (20:28) The link between what is happening in prisons to what is happening in communities.
NoteAudio interview conducted on November 17, 2016, by Carmen Lopez in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection.
SubjectImprisonment ; Criminal law ; Justice ; Immigration ; Deportation ; Social advocacy ; Prisoners--Employment ; Prisons--New York (State) ; ; Social justice ; Violence ; Firearms ; Criminal liability ; Trump, Donald, 1946- ; Mass media ; Legislation ; Community policing ; Corrections ; Trinidad ; Humility ; Social capital (Sociology) ; Psychic trauma ; Poverty ; Public welfare
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TitleOral history interview conducted with Marlon Peterson on 2016 November 17.