SOLUTIONS FROM THE YARD

Episode 11 : Our Children & The Homelessness Crisis

Our Juneteenth 2023 episode discusses our youth and the homelessness crisis. The hosts, led by Charles Hopkins, discuss how interactions with the juvenile justice system and family trauma coincide with homelessness. The gentlemen go further into the problem of young people and homelessness to discuss mental health, responsibility, and healing in solving this issue. This is a conversation you don't want to miss!

Episode 10 : Homelessness & Mental Health: What’s The Deal?

This episode explores the relationship of homelessness to experiencing mental health issues. The hosts explore poverty, generational trauma, and other factors as a stimulus for mental illness and its impact on the community. "Forced poverty" is also discussed, and how this idea gives way to traumas.

Episode 9 : 007 License To Discriminate: Part 2

This .episode continues discussing DC inmates’ treatment and discrimination under the Federal Board of Prisons. The gentlemen open with the progress of BOP prisoners compared to DC inmates housed in federal facilities and the evident setbacks these men and women face as 007s. Glaring disparities abound as the hosts discuss the inaccessibility to programs and other rehabilitative activities offered in these facilities and potential results such as recidivism, showcase the warehousing versus rehabilitation of DC prisoners and combat successful reentry journeys.

Episode 8 : 007 : License to Discriminate: Part 1

This episode opens with a slight breakdown of the letter from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton to the new Director of the Federal Board of Prisons and moves into how federal guidelines adversely affect DC inmates, discrimination & mismanagement of DC inmates in sentencing management and the fallout of closing Lorton prison. This is not an episode you want to miss!

Episode 7 : I’m Boxed Up : Supervision & Home Confinement

On this episode, the gentlemen discuss recent probation restrictions that stipulate unemployment as a reason to be put on "the box". The discussion centers around home confinement, probation, the local government agency's role in moving a parolee forward, and alternatives to supervision...

Episode 6 : For Prison Consumption Only: What’s On The Menu?

Today the gentlemen discuss bad prison food. More than just the taste and quality, the gents talk about the disparity between what's on the menu vs. what is served, inadequate portions, staff and inmate food choices, and unhealthy options more readily available than nutritious ones. They also mention how bad prison food can cause poor health in the inmate population, starting a cycle of unhealthy behaviors that linger after release.

Episode 5 : Reentry : Trusting the Process - Part 2

The gentlemen continue their talk about reentry journeys and in part 2 discuss the positive side of their journey and how they did the work of getting back to their communities. Discussion highlights the trust factor of returning citizens with organizations, "reentry pimps", credible help, learning new skills, peer groups, and more.

Episode 4 : Reentry : Trusting the Process - Part 1

Here we talk about our reentry journeys, none of which are the same. You must take back your identity when you're on your reentry journey.  This episode finds the  gentlemen speaking on their journeys upon release and navigating the first steps of returning to the community.

Episode 3 : Discussion on Trauma Part 2

The second installment of our Trauma series explores triggers of trauma, how past experiences lead to PTSD symptoms, how to identify these, and how to manage them.   

Episode 2 : Discussion on Trauma Part 1

“I got trauma.” Each of our hosts, led by Michael Dickerson El, share what trauma means to them and how trauma has manifested in their lives due to their time while incarcerated. This episode is the first of two in which our hosts discuss how any of the three types of trauma - acute, chronic, or complex - manifests itself in their current lives.