10thirtysix

(gentle music) - Hello, I'm Portia Young.

Next on "10thirtysix", we'll discuss the issue of trauma and youth incarceration.

Plus, (tractor buzzing) rice, you may be serving it for Thanksgiving.

Find out how it might soon become a cash crop in Wisconsin.

And (symphonic music) the MSO's Music Director shares how growing up in East Germany has impacted his American dream.

(gentle music) Incarceration of youth offenders is considered necessary for public protection, but research shows it's not always effective in terms of cost or outcome.

Earlier this year, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter, James Causey, wrote about childhood trauma and youth incarceration in his series, "Life Correction, the Marlin Dixon Story."

That led to a "Listen MKE" discussion this past summer, featuring James, Marlin, and investigative reporter, Tessa Duvall, who did some work on this topic for the Florida Times Union.

James Causey and Marlin Dixon join me now to talk about this topic, showcased in a forum that will air next week here on Milwaukee PBS.

Thank you so much for being here.

- Thanks for having us.

- Thank you.

- Well, James, I'm gonna first start with you.

What prompted these reports that led to that forum held this summer?

And explain briefly how you were able to get Marlin involved.

- Well, yeah, so I got contacted by a woman by the name of Vicki Conte who had got in contact with Marlin roughly two years before he was released.

And she told me about this story that she thought I would be interested in.

And she- it has so many different elements to it.

It was a element of youth, being sorta outta control, the death of a man on the city's northwest side, but, also, how we incarcerate our youth for long periods of time and then leave them on extended supervision for, like, forever.

And I just felt that we needed to do something about that.

And I was able to contact Marlin.

I sent him a message, or a letter, and he read it in jail, and he got back in contact with me, and we developed a correspondence that way.

- Okay.

So Marlin, how did you get involved?

And, first, what led to your incarceration?

- What led to my incarceration was, you know, I lived, you know, 20th and Brown and like, you know, growing up in the, you know, ghetto, and I was there with 17 other individuals that was involved and, you know, things, you know, spurred outta, you know, control that night.

And, as a result of that, I end up getting 18 years and 22 years extended supervision.

And, what led to them, you know, events, was it was kids, you know, young kids like myself out there, no direction.

Parents, either you have one parent or you have none.

Rarely did I see both parents in a house with none of my friends.

And, so, you know, your mom work and, you know, your dad dead, or he in prison, you know, you bound to get off into the streets.

And that's what ended up happening to me, unfortunately, as a young teenager.

And that led to me being convicted of a first-degree reckless homicide.

- So why'd you get involved in the forum and partnering with James?

- My friend, Vicki Conte, that he speaks of that he knows about, she was- she reached out to me, and I used to talk to her all the time about my experience 'cause she was very curious to know, like, what happened to me over the years while I was in prison.

She used to kind of like speak to me as if I was still a kid 'cause when she finally, you know, we met each other, I was an adult, so she- but she she knew me as a young kid, young youth going in, so I end up telling her my experiences, and I exchanged some stories and stuff with her and then she was like "Do you ever think about speaking out about these things?"

And I told her that, "Absolutely."

And, then, she, you know, got me in contact with James, and, from there, we got the ball rolling to talk about it.

- How old were you?

- 14.

- 14?

- Yeah.

- All right.

So James, in your reporting, do you think we are even doing enough to address the, I think, epidemic of childhood trauma?

- No.

- Children in crisis?

- No.

We're not doing it.

We're not doing nearly enough.

We're not doing enough to address childhood trauma, adult trauma, any kind of trauma.

It's funny because what happened to Marlin back in 2002, what he was involved in, trauma wasn't even talked about.

Nobody mentioned trauma or anything like that.

When it was mentioned, it was usually directed towards people coming outta military, soldiers who was in combat and things like that, but nobody talked about the trauma that youth like Marlin would see every day, seeing shootings, hearing sirens all the time and violence, and living in violent conditions.

And that has an impact on you.

And Marlin will even tell you that he was a angry young man at the time, and it led to some of the decisions that he made.

But we need to address it more, and we're not doing nearly enough to address it.

- Well, we are not- perhaps, not doing enough, like you say, but there are some things that are moving the needle.

What would you say is working right now?

What programs are working?

- Well, Sharlen Moore and Reggie Moore, who are well known in Milwaukee, they started a program called, "Urban Underground," which not only it- the way it was described to me, it doesn't just take youth and, like, give 'em basketball or something like that to do.

What it does is it builds up their self-esteem and teaches them who they are.

And we need more programs like that.

Instead of trying to hide kids and things like that because we don't want to understand them, we need to build up their self-esteem and teach them that- how to be leaders.

And those type of programs work.

Unfortunately, we don't have enough of those kind of programs or their funding to put behind them or, so they say.

- Mm-hmm.

Priorities, right?

- Yes.

- So Marlin, you've made this remarkable transition.

What's been- I guess, what's the thing that you think has been the most successful in your journey, and what are some things where you maybe would change or do differently?

- Well, I guess the success so far is that, you know, I'm not incarcerated, you know, because the thing is is that, you know, I'm three times more likely to, you know, go back for anything.

Any big thing, little thing, I'm liable to go back for, but I've been out two years now, and that's a success in it's own.

But it's been hard.

It haven't been easy because of the type of scrutiny that I'm under due to my extended supervision rules.

They have it to where, you know, I have to not only be responsible for myself, but I gotta be responsible for others.

So I have to watch out who may have a gun, who may be a felon, who may be a gang member, because if I'm associated with them at any moment of time that's a violation to my rules, and I could be sent back to prison just off that alone.

- So James, the last question: What has the response been for city officials and from other community advocates to the reporting that you've been doing?

- Well, I wish the response would've been better.

I'm still a little disappointed in that because Marlin is like one of thousands of people on this long extended supervision list, and I don't see the legislator or legislative branch doing anything to change that.

I don't really see any politicians really standing up and and pushing for that.

And this needs to come on a bipartisan-type deal where the Dems and the Republicans need to agree that we have to get people on the pathway to success.

And the way you do that is not leave a person on extended supervision for like 22 years.

- Thank you James, for your reporting.

And, Marlin Dixon, thank you so much for sharing your story - Thank you.

- and for being here on "10thirtysix."

There is so much more discussion on this issue in a special that will air on Milwaukee PBS.

"Listen MKE, Youth Incarceration Dilemma," November 21st at 9:00 PM here on Milwaukee PBS Channel 10.

"Listen MKE" has been a partnership with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WUWM Milwaukee's NPR, Milwaukee PBS, and the Milwaukee Public Library.

A Marquette professor is looking to make rice Wisconsin's next big cash crop.

But the rice farm is also a means of preserving life and culture.

Producer Alexandria Mack takes us to the Mequon Nature Preserve.

(crickets chirping) (peaceful music) - [Alexandria] There's an old saying that goes, "If you give someone rice, they'll eat for the day.

But if you teach someone to grow rice, they'll eat for life."

- My day job is to do research and teaching.

- [Alexandria] Michael Schlappi is a Marquette Professor of Biological Sciences, but when he is not teaching, he's growing rice.

- Part of my research was about- it's about rice.

So I have a rice project.

I'm a geneticist and a molecular biologist, and I try to understand the genetic pathways that lead some rice to be more cold tolerant than others.

- [Alexandria] Much of the rice in the US is grown in warm, dry climate states like Arkansas, California, and Texas.

But with growing droughts, the water needed for successful growth could become an issue in coming years.

- Our prediction is most people predict that maybe in 10, maybe in 20 years, there won't be any more rice grown in Arkansas because there's simply no water, there's no groundwater, or no rice in California.

But Wisconsin has plenty of water still, right?

But the problem is cold, right?

The cold spring.

So I married those two things.

In general, rice is a very cold-sensitive plant.

But, in doing so, I transferred some of the research in my lab to the outside of Marquette.

I built some rooftop, small paddies, and I tested things that I learned in the inside to the outside to see if some of those plants that I screened that were cold tolerant inside were also cold tolerant outside.

And, by doing so, by planting early, I realized that some rice variety that I tested, I tested hundreds of variety, can grow in Wisconsin.

You can plant them early.

They survived the spring.

They make a flower, like, just right now in August, and then they mature the grain, and they can be harvested by October.

So that window was necessary.

(rice plants shuffling) - [Alexandria] Redstone Rice is Wisconsin's first commercial-scale rice crop.

(tractor buzzing) It just so happens, it's locally grown, harvested, and packaged near the Milwaukee area.

And it's a bigger job than one man in a field can do alone.

(tractor buzzing) - So then I partnered with Fondy.

(tractor buzzing) Fondy has the mission to give access to farmers that usually traditionally don't have access to land.

(peaceful guitar music) (tractor buzzing) And this partnership started in about 2014, I believe.

And, then, in 2015, we moved here to this nature preserve.

And, then, I had, you know, great access to build paddies also through a grant that I received from Marquette University.

- I feel like, like a lot of things, we're at our best when things are happening organically, and we're listening to the community, and this is something that's happened very organically.

You know, starting in the 80s, there was a refugee Hmong population coming, or even earlier than that, to the United States and settling in Milwaukee and very talented farmers who started looking- growing and looking for places to sell.

And they started to sell at the Fondy Farmer's Market and slowly built up the capacity and- to where they are now, where the Hmong community is, like I said, our vendors are probably over 90% Hmong, or identify as Hmong or Hmong-American.

(Blia speaking in foreign language) - [Alexandria] Now, farming at the preserve reminds Blia of her childhood in Laos that set her up for a lifetime of tending to the fields.

(Blia speaking in foreign language) - [Alexandria] In countries around the world, rice farming proves to be more than just a cash crop but a means of preserving life and culture.

- You know, there's obviously an economic component to it, but it's not solely economic.

A big part is cultural, you know.

Many of the farmers, when we're talking out here will tell me how, you know, one of the reasons they farm is to show their kids what it was like for them growing up or to be able to grow the food and bring it home and prepare traditional meals and share it with their kids and now their grandkids.

(plants shuffling) - [Alexandria] For Michael, it's about using Wisconsin's natural resources to give rice a new permanent home.

- My big vision, maybe it's a kind of a crazy vision, is that maybe one of those days, the next decade or two decades, rice cultivation can be more predominant in Wisconsin in an area where we have no issues with water because water is really necessary for high yield in rice.

You can grow rice without flooding, but the yield, in my experience, is much- it's quite reduced, less than 50% of what you get with water.

So that's- you know, I hope that maybe catches on, and, with the help of Hmong farmers and maybe others, that rice will become just like soybean or corn, a crop that can be grown in Wisconsin.

- The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra recently began its second full season in the Bradley Symphony Center.

Music Director, Ken-David Masur, tells us he's living out his American dream inside the MSO's Concert Hall.

The maestro was gracious enough to invite the "10thirtysix" crew into his home to talk about that dream and his early life in East Germany.

(triumphant music) - American dream was something that was so distant but always colored with a certain sweetness.

(bright piano music) I'm Ken-David Masur, Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

(bright piano music continues) I grew up in the town of Leipzig in Germany in the state of Saxony.

It was the second largest city after East Berlin in East Germany.

I was born in 1977, twelve years before the reunification.

My mother is a Japanese musician, singer.

She met my father who is a conductor and who, at the time, was music director or the Kapellmeister, as we call it, of the Gewandhaus, one of the really great traditional orchestras in Germany.

And they met in Rio de Janeiro.

For the most part, I really felt that I was this German kid.

And, then, occasionally, of course, people would point out that perhaps I didn't look as German as they did being half Japanese and was sometimes called things.

But I grew up, otherwise, just like a German boy who loved everything that all of my friends loved.

I was my mother's only child.

And, so, I was constantly trying to find friends, knocking on people's doors, even though I didn't know who would live there I just thought maybe there's somebody there to play with.

And (chuckles) it was a time when you could do that.

The American dream seems something that everything, regardless what it is, must be much better.

Life is better.

Music is better.

Food is better.

Colors are brighter.

(chuckles) And it was after the reunification, of course, that we saw more of what is the idea of the West and watching TV shows that would come over, such as- as a boy, I think one of the first things I remember seeing on TV was the sitcom, "ALF."

And, yeah, it was one of my favorite things to watch as a boy.

We thought about imagery from America and, of course, when guests came from America to our home and brought, you know, candy and gifts and things that looked completely different.

I think that what we know from what came from America in terms of also jazz and things that I think my father would sometimes say, you know, here's a recording or an LP of, you know, things like Duke Ellington.

(jazzy piano music) I came to the United States.

We came to New York when I was 13 years old, and I entered school there in New York, the German School of New York.

And it was difficult for me because I remember that when my father got the appointment to be Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, it was not an easy decision.

But when the decision was made, of course, he and my mother wanted to introduce me in a way that would ease me perhaps into this city and into the life that was so different from what I had known.

And, so, as a young teenage boy, they brought me to New York City to live for a couple of weeks across from Lincoln Center in one of those hotels.

And I remember because of jet lag getting out of bed in the middle of the night and it was on Broadway, and, of course, the street was so busy and noisy.

And the next day I said, "I'm not coming here."

(chuckles) I think my mother led this, after my reaction, to not stay in the city, but to move just 30 minutes north of the city where you have more quiet, there's more peace, more nature.

That helped me ease into understanding that American life is more than just the hustle and bustle of New York City.

- [Interviewer] Do you have dual citizenship?

- No, but I'd like to.

I'm a German citizen with a green card, and because I'm now the only non-American citizen in my family I've made plans to become a US citizen.

(symphonic music) For me, the American dream was always something that was a- I think, an idea, a dream, and rooted in imagination, and sort of, also, a little bit of fantasy of what are your, perhaps, your own hopes, even in music, just feeling free to try anything without being judged.

And, during our daily lives, we are concerned with things, we are worried about things, but when we are all in the concert hall together, at least for those two hours, we know that we will have peace.

And I'm realizing that that this is the same for the country, really.

That is the home of the American dream.

That, with the more freedom you're given, the more responsibility and the more challenges also you have with it.

And this is why it's become clear to me that actually our idea to keep up this imagination of what the American dream is about bringing the people together on a personal level in your neighborhood, in the communities that immediately that we are connected with, family, and especially after all the recent events that we had to face, not taking things for granted, especially the things that are closest to you.

I think I've questioned the American dream about Is it really true that we can use the privilege that we've been given about freedom of speech and freedom of thought and of creativity in the right way without hurting one another.

And I think seeing that it's sometimes gone to a much more uncivilized form, I think that every time that happens, and that we witness that, and that I see that, the American dream idea gets shattered and gets damaged in a sense.

And that's when I feel it's much more important to understand that we, on the inside, I think, with a hope of coming together, a level of joy, positivity, and with this feeling that we are all actually blessed to be given this life and blessed to be given family and loved ones and experience that and be able to share that with others that we are responsible for that.

(dramatic symphonic music) - [Interviewer] So part of the American dream is, you know, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, what makes you happy?

- I think simple things.

Having the liberty to create, to do programming that brings voice to people who didn't have a voice perhaps or not enough of a voice, to find out about the huge range of people and of cultures to be able to do that through art and through music.

And much of that has really started here in the United States.

(dramatic symphonic music) I am living the American dream.

I'm living a dream.

I feel that I'm gifted with extraordinary performances, rehearsals, moments of music in the home, with extraordinary musicians, especially here with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in an extraordinary new concert hall, exploring some of the great music that has been written and that has not yet been written and that I can be part of being in the process of being created.

And that is absolutely a dream come true, and I'm very grateful that I can do it here in Milwaukee.

- You heard Ken-David's American Dream.

His wife, pianist Melinda Lee Masur, shares her dream with us as well.

For that story, please go to MilwaukeePBS.org/AmericanDreams.

We would also like to thank the Masur family and the MSO for the additional photographs scene in their stories.

That'll do it for this edition of, "10thirtysix."

Remember, check us out on social media and on our YouTube channel.

November is one of the many times to be grateful as Thanksgiving approaches, and it's another time to remember and thank all of our military veterans.

We leave you with a view from above Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee where thousands of our veterans are now at rest.

(birds chirping) (dog barking) (birds chirping) (dog barking) (birds chirping)