Turning Point

JAY JORDAN> 600,000 people are coming home from prison and jails every single year in this country.

TERRANCE FERRELL> Most of the people who raised me were in and out of prison.

AMY BARCH> People talk about generational trauma, generational cycles of incarceration.

It truly is the men that we're working with.

IRA> I haven't accomplished anything.

I haven't succeeded no where I just made bad decisions.

TERRANCE FERRELL> I had to figure out how to do right all while having these guys pulling on me to go back in the street.

DEON> All right, I'm going to group y'all up, and we're going to do role plays.

BLUE> It helps the guys to actually take a real life experience and walk through it.

WINARD> Man, I feel like quitting this stupid job.

They ain't paying me enough anyway, man.

STEVE> This place right here, making it possible for me.

Showing me that I don't have to go back in the streets.

REP. KAMBRELL GARVIN> They're learning good work ethic, learning how to create a product.

They're learning skills that are transferable to any job.

AMY BARCH> I really, truly feel like I have the best job in the entire world.

AHMON> They believe in me.

They push me.

TERRANCE BROWN> When you have somebody rooting for you, it gives you that extra boost.

Major funding for "Turning Point".

is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

For almost 50 years, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina has been the partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations, the ETV Endowment is committed to telling transformative stories and proud to sponsor "Turning Point".

TERRANCE FERRELL> The First time I ran from the police, I was seven or eight years old.

At 13 or 14 I get arrested for distribution of cocaine.

Juvenile.

(gate buzzes and closes) DEON> My charges were drugs and guns, trafficking both.

JAMAL> I was out there selling drugs.

I got charged with second grade burglary as my first felony.

BLUE> I went to prison for homicide.

I took somebody's life.

JUICE (MARK)> I was approached about a robbery.

And that robbery turned into a homicide.

TERRANCE FERRELL> I used to go as a visitor to see my family, and then one day, here I am going as an adult, as an inmate.

I remember that ride.

I was on the bus.

You're going in the gate now.

This time you're going inside the institution, you know.

(gate slams) Getting off the bus.

I'm going through what they went through.

A part of me have it like, welcome home.

(crickets chirping) (digital typing sound) (crickets chirping) CHIEF GREG MULLEN> In Charleston, there is a lot of generational poverty.

Seeing the same people over and over and over again, the repeat offenders.

I just really felt like there had to be some opportunities for us to break that cycle.

BLUE> The hardest part is being able to get out and maintain it for two or three years.

If you can reach that point, it doesn't get easier.

It just says you've increased your chances that you will stay out.

JAY JORDAN> We spend billions and billions of dollars responding to crime and punishing people, and very little amount of money goes into preventing crime from happening or ensuring that when people get out, they're successful.

BRYAN STIRLING> 85% of the folks that come to prison in South Carolina get out in under five years.

90% get out in under ten.

These folks are getting out, and they need to be better than when they came in.

Those folks that have been in here for a long time come back at a higher rate.

The violent folks, the folks that you don't want going back out with no skills, no hope, no place to stay and no future.

(inaudible conversations) JUDGE RICHARD GERGEL> I had a matter in front of me involving a young man preparing basically to go back to federal prison.

He wrote me a letter and he said, "I am fully responsible for all that I have done."

I made an inquiry, "What had prompted this reflection?"

And he advised me that it was an angel called Amy.

And he says, "It's a woman who teaches a program at the detention center by the name of Amy Barch.

I got a summons from a federal judge, Judge Richard Gergel.

And so I think I'm in trouble.

JUDGE GERGEL> A woman with a t-shirt and blue jeans comes in.

AMY> "Amy, nice to meet you."

He's, like, pumping my hand.

And he said, "I just wanted to meet the lady behind "all the conversation in my courtroom."

JUDGE GERGEL> She explained to me she was running a program at the jail, making very modest income, and that she mostly worked as a waitress.

She had come to the conclusion that the primary problem was that these defendants had criminal thinking.

They had grown up on the street, that basically they didn't see any other way.

They didn't accept any responsibility for what they did, and they did not have empathy for others.

But she was convinced you could teach empathy.

AMY BARCH> He said, "I really feel like "South Carolina is ready for something more "and I can't fundraise for you, right.

"Like, but I can do everything in my power "to try to help you be successful "if this is something that you think "you would be willing to do."

JUDGE GERGEL> I helped her put a board together of business folks in town.

Her drive, her passion, her energy behind this.

It was just contagious.

BILL FINN> Okay.

AMY> Kim's going to do an update on the finances for the end of the year.

And then, we, I,... BILL FINN> I said, "But, Amy, you've got to realize that there's a lot you have to do that's beyond the classroom, AMY> Going from zero to enough money to actually support yourself is very, very difficult.

JUDGE GERGEL> She was literally working all day, and then she would waitress at night.

JUSTIN EVANS> Not taking any money from this program, she was trying to get started.

She was pregnant, waiting tables to pay bills.

AMY> I quit my waiting table job when I was six months pregnant.

Winard and I always talk about that pregnant waitress story.

I like that story.

AMY> (laughs) Yeah.

I know you do.

WINARD> You know, changing lives, saving lives around here.

AMY> See!

WINARD> Saving lives.

That's what we're doing.

GREG MULLEN>I was a police chief in Charleston, South Carolina.

I think it's important for a police chief to look at what is happening in a community from a holistic standpoint.

If you only look at it from the enforcement perspective, then you're missing a complete side of what we are trying to accomplish.

JUDGE GERGEL> Chief Mullen was a very important early supporter because he gave her credibility in the law enforcement community.

CHIEF MULLEN> I had, had lots of people come to me as the chief of police and have great ideas and want money, and I would always say, well, you go and put a plan together and bring that plan back to me and we'll, and we'll talk about it.

You never saw anybody after that except for Amy.

(wind whistling) (street traffic) BLUE> You've heard the tales, being on the streets of what happens in prison.

But it was always in the back of my mind of somebody is going to try me.

JAY JORDAN> Imagine if you ever been in a fight in high school, the time right before the fight leading up to the fight, that fear you have, take that feeling, times it by ten and then put it into a controlled environment.

That happens every single day, and that's prison.

You got to stay strong all the time because everybody preys on the weak.

JAY JORDAN> Days go by slow, in prison.

While their colleagues are going off to college, they're going to prison.

They don't have the same experience of integrating socially and economically into the world.

You know, people are in prison just trying to survive.

MALIK> When I was in prison, a lot of my time was spent exercising, helped me get through the time.

It's what I did for so long.

AHMON> I was in prison twice.

First time I was 17.

JEFF> I was in prison for 16 and a half years.

DEON> Sentenced to 25 years in prison.

JUICE> I've actually been in jail 40 years.

BLUE> It was hard getting up day in and day out, knowing that you've got to do 20 years of never having an opportunity to pick your own clothes, for someone to tell you when to get up, when to lay down, what to do, how to do it.

JUICE> Over my period of incarceration, I become less, less talkative.

They wouldn't put people in the cell with me because I was non-communicative.

TERRANCE FERRELL> Sometimes I look at my life honestly and I look at even from my juvenile days, and I felt like I just been in and out of jail all my life.

That's how it feels.

AMY BARCH> I grew up in Eureka, California, where it is perpetually foggy.

And we lived at the very top of a high hill that overlooked the Pacific Ocean.

I have, like, really wonderful memories of playing in the Redwood National Forest.

I just had a very stable, loving childhood.

I knew at a young age that I was going to take a nontraditional career path.

(Door creaks open) Good morning.

Good morning.

You ready to get up?

AMY'S DAUGHTER> Yeah.

AMY> Okay.

Come on.

I thought I might go to school to be a social worker.

I had to choose an internship.

I decided to go to the county jail, and that experience completely changed my life.

Do you know what I do for work?

AMY'S DAUGHTER> You help people that are in jail.

AMY> Mmm hmm.

At least we've got that down.

(laughs) All right.

You said you wanted this instead of a juice, right?

AMY'S DAUGHTER> Yeah.

AMY> You want that.

There's so much stuff today.

AMY'S DAUGHTER> Yeah.

AMY> When I moved to Charleston, my first thought was just.

I'm just going to volunteer in the county jail.

CHIEF MULLEN> There wasn't great programing around, so she just started showing up at the jail.

What I like most about Amy, Barch is that she saw a problem and attempted to solve the problem.

AMY> I think doing what I do professionally helps me be a better mom.

And then I think being a mom helps me do what I do professionally.

I have worked really hard to help her be the most successful that she can in life, or do whatever I can to help her along her journey in life, and I feel the same way about the guys.

All right.

I love you.

(music ends) (wind whistles) WINARD> I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina.

A lot of people hear about its beautiful, But it wasn't so beautiful for me and my brothers.

We were poor.

We lived without light and water for five years straight.

So me and my brother, at the age of ten, we were kicking in people's doors for food.

MONICA BHATT> If you're growing up in an environment where you might be exposed to a lot of violence, kind of on the streets, you might learn how to act in ways that seem really maladaptive, but actually are really adaptive for your environment.

TERRANCE FERRELL> My father was never in my life.

I found out my father died when I was maybe in the third grade.

I went to his funeral.

That was the first and last time I ever saw that guy.

JAMAL> I've strayed down the wrong path.

Dealing with friends and all the older guys in the neighborhood.

I was blaming people, and I wasn't, I didn't take a lot of accountability of my actions.

JOEY> As a child, things was pretty rough at home.

I moved out of my house in high school in the 11th grade.

I got married pretty quick, you know.

I figured I'd find that security and, had a child very early.

Next thing you know, I'm in over my head.

Drugs took over everything.

I lost my good job.

It's just a, rapid downfall from there.

MONICA BHATT> Think about walking down the street and someone threatens you.

You have to sort of be threatening back.

And that is a survival skill that you might learn.

Now, if you use that same skill in a school based environment towards your teacher, that's not going to be really helpful or effective.

IRA> My first arrest was in 1998.

I was in school.

I got into a fight with another student and I ended up hitting a teacher.

I just made bad decisions.

I haven't accomplished anything, I haven't succeeded no where.

It was not worth it.

I lost my mom.

When I was seven, she got stabbed in her upper torso, like, 40 times.

Then I stayed with my step grandmother.

(soft footsteps) And she used to drink.

Try to whip me sometimes.

She'll be drunk to the point where she didn't feed me.

(cat meows) The house was full of cats.

Bad smell, which mean it came out on me.

That caused other kids to say I smelled weird.

I couldn't go outside.

Locked in the basement.

(wind whistles) (traffic sounds) TERRANCE FERRELL> I could hear my grandma say, you're going to see a big church, and then you going to make that left.

There's a road in Columbia called Broad River Road.

I felt like that road.

has been a major part of my life.

That's the road that's always led me to prison.

Not only as an inmate, but as a visitor.

Most of the people who raised me were in and out of prison.

My mom, my uncles and step uncles, my cousins, they all went to prison.

(music fades) AMY> People talk about generational change, generational trauma, generational cycles of incarceration.

It truly is the men that we're working with.

TERRANCE FERRELL> I grew up in a rough neighborhood.

Our community was just drug infested.

CHIEF MULLEN> The small children that lived in these neighborhoods would see it as normal that people would go to prison for several years, and they would come back.

They would be right back into what they were doing before.

AMY> Terrence is just one of the most special people I've ever met.

What he's been through in life and who he is as a person.

One of his challenges is to reconcile his life with what it could have been.

(wind whistles softly) (gate buzzes) PROGRAM STUDENT> My first day getting out of prison.

It felt unreal.

BLUE> Walking out, knowing like hey, I get a second chance.

JAY JORDAN> Imagine if you didn't have a house and a job.

Where would you be at?

Oh, you would be homeless.

JUSTIN EVANS> We had a guy that came out with nothing.

Released from federal prison had nothing.

And you go, Okay, let's go to the social security office.

Well, you need your ID and birth certificate to get your social.

Oh, okay.

Let's go to the DMV.

Well, you need your social and your birth certificate to get your ID.

Let's get your birth certificate.

Well, you need your social and your ID to get your birth certificate.

So it was like, well, what do we do?

JOEY> When you get locked up?

You stop at that age and not know what's going on, on the outside.

You don't, you don't know how things has progressed.

JIMMY> A lot had changed.

Cell phones were everywhere.

JAY JORDAN> You go in and there's that phone that you take off the wall and call, and you come out and there's an iPhone that you are using your face to unlock.

I mean, how to I dial out?

I didn't know anything.

Then they said, the Internet is on here.

Facebook, Instagram.

I'm like, what is all that?

WINARD> Oh, the G.P.S., cameras.

JOEY> It was just overwhelming.

Everything is moving so fast.

Because in prison, you don't never see nothing move fast.

When you get out.

Now it's all up to you.

What you're going to eat for lunch?

JEFF> The prices for food, cigarettes, gas.

AMY> I think the real world hits fast.

Bills need to be paid.

Relationships are not the same.

Technology has changed.

TERRANCE FERRELL> The first day they put me in front of a computer (sighs) I don't know.

I didn't know what I was doing, I'm going to be honest.

JOEY> You got to get your mind back to thinking, because your mind really shuts off in prison.

AMY> Even if you tell yourself it's going to be different, there's no way to understand exactly how.

we try to position ourselves as like a landing pad for people recognizing almost before they do, that it's not, it probably is not going to be a soft landing.

AHMON> I didn't know what a job interview was.

Didn't know how to fill out a job application, I would just go to a place ask if they're hiring.

JIMMY> Me, being locked up from the age of 18.

And I got out when I was 32.

I didn't have a work history or nothing.

And all the employers wanted to know why there was such a break in work history.

So it was kind of hard to explain that.

JEFF> The first thing they do is a background check, and my background wasn't squeaky clean.

So, you know.

AMY> Oftentimes people will get a job offer from a company, but then when they run the background check, they'll pull it.

That's a pretty common theme that we hear.

(door slams) (car engine starts) CHIEF GREG MULLEN> I mean, I'm a big fan of Amy.

I mean, I think Amy is a wonderful person.

And when she first told me, she said, the only people I want to deal with is violent criminals.

I thought, wow, this is going to be very interesting.

AMY> I still remember telling Greg Mullen, like, I don't know how I'm going to get anybody employed.

I tried everything I'd run to everybody.

I thought it was going to be easy.

It's not.

I thought I was going to be able to pitch it, like leave a van.

We'll drive everybody to your construction site or to your landscaping team.

Like nobody wants to hire these guys.

Greg Mullen said it's time for you to meet Joe Riley, the mayor.

The mayor and I just got each other instantly.

I was telling him, listen, I think Charleston really needs a community reentry initiative combining, you know, therapeutic services and work.

And I still remember he picked up his phone.

He called the HR director.

I just want you to work it out where you can hire all of her men this year.

All of our guys.

And that one phone call.

That was like, one of the biggest gifts that anybody ever gave me.

I remember Chief Mullen asking me, how many people do you think are going to make it?

And in all honesty, all sincerity.

I said all of them.

I mean, almost none of them made it.

JAY JORDAN> I don't see success as American citizen, as someone getting out, not going back to prison, but living in poverty.

Post-conviction poverty is real.

BRYAN STIRLING> First month's rent, you got to pay a deposit.

If it's $500, that might as well be $1 million dollars, if all you have is $35 in your pocket.

(digital typing sound) If you're going to rehabilitate them, that means that they are going to come out.

If that's our mission, then we have to give them the tools to succeed.

Or again, you have that revolving door.

JAY JORDAN> People returning home from incarceration are not a monolith.

There's the spectrum of experiences that you got to take into consideration.

JUSTIN EVANS> They're going to get released and put into conditions that without something, they're going to go back.

BILL FINN> I mean, I drove by that prison every day for 20 years.

Occasionally I'd see somebody walking out, obviously free and carrying a plastic bag with a few personal belongings, waiting for the bus.

And I wondered myself, I wonder whether they're ready for this world.

MONICA BHATT> Any one of us who have ever tried to change a habit or behavior.

know that it is enormously difficult because you get kind of pulled back in if you, you know, see this friend again, or if you're in the same environment again.

TERRANCE FERRELL> The same day I got out of prison after three years, I got off the bus and already had somebody waiting on me to give me drugs and I started hustling.

I got right back in the street the same day.

WINARD> My mind was still in the street, coming home to three daughters.

I felt like I got to make it happen for them.

And all I knew was the way I knew before I went in.

And that's fast money.

TERRANCE FERRELL> To come out here, I had to figure out how to do right, all while having these guys, including family members, pulling on me to go back in the street.

AMY> It was really crushing to see the guys get out and sort of dash all of my hopes and dreams for them.

It made me really..

I have to look at the, bedrock foundation beliefs that, you know, led me to do the volunteering for years and put, you know, my entire life into this, which was, can people really change?

Is this really possible?

And when you start questioning that, yeah, you want to quit.

I wanted to quit.

I think at the time, one of the reasons I didn't quit was because so many people had invested in me.

I felt a real sense of obligation.

But my secret hope was that we would just lose all of our funding, and then I wouldn't actually have to quit.

It would, you know, be this external force that, you know, nobody would look bad upon me, that I quit because we just couldn't get funding.

(inaudible conversations) JUDGE GERGEL> One of the most notable things she does is that she pays the men to be in her program.

(indiscernible conversations) AMY> The print shop is really just a way for us to provide a financial resource for somebody to give them more support for longer.

It doesn't have to be t-shirts, but the t-shirts and printing has really given us like a window into helping the guys figure out how to be successful at work.

(indiscernible conversations) CHIEF MULLEN> I can get you a job, but if I don't help you understand what it means to go to work every day, and to be there on time and, you know, be prepared and not go off the handle at your boss.

if they say something that you don't like or you feel like they're disrespecting you, then you're not going to be able to hold that job.

BLUE> Still going to be the guy that doesn't deal well with the supervisor, doesn't respond well to criticism.

Doesn't respond well to a coworker not carrying his load.

JUICE> I was a good worker.

However, I had personality issues or clashes with coworkers.

Consequently, I got terminated from two jobs.

Somebody told me, when I got here, you should have went and told the manager.

And the reason why I didn't go tell the manager, because I had this prison rule in my head about not being a snitch.

That last termination caused me to go to the Gervais Street Bridge.

I was ready to jump off.

I never seen that many police cars in my life.

They told me there wasn't ...

I wasn't getting locked up.

I wasn't in trouble or anything.

And if I came back across, they would try to help me.

And I'm in between jobs at the time, and I seen this poster, the Turn90 poster So I said I'mma go up here and see what this is about.

BLUE> Just like everyone else preparing to be released, I thought I had all my ducks in a row.

But the day I was leaving, a lot of the opportunities that people promised and said they would be there, weren't there.

So the only option I had left was a flier that had Turn90's number on it.

TERRANCE BROWN> I went to the halfway house and I met a gentleman there who was basically bragging about the program.

BLUE> I gave them a call.

And this was on a Friday.

They set the interview up for me on a Monday, and I was working with them on a Tuesday AMY> Soon as somebody calls us, we're screening that person and we're making sure that, that person is the right fit for what we're doing here and that we're able and willing to say no when it's not.

JUSTIN EVANS> When most guys first meet me, it's always the same kind of rhythm, which is, I'm not a bad guy, man.

I was like, and I was like, I know, like, I've been here for eight years.

I've yet to meet a bad person.

AMY> Hey, y'all.

BLUE> When I first met Amy, I was thinking, who is this little White woman?

How can she help me, Black guy, coming out of prison?

AMY> Hey, buddy.

How you doing?

Hi.

How you doing?

REP. GARVIN> Oftentimes, we see people who have what's called a White savior complex.

And that is this White person trying to help these Black people who need help.

I don't think Amy Barch has that.

I think Amy Barch is sincere in her approach, in wanting to genuinely help.

WINARD> Amy was an angel when I first came in, like she had open arms.

Did you know that they filmed me this morning when I was working out in my living room?

WINARD> You was working out?

No, I didn't know.

JUICE> When I first met her, she knew my name, though she had never seen me before.

JOEY> And she says, "Good morning, Joey."

And I looked at her and I said, 'You know my name?

', you know, because I hadn't even met her, hadn't even spoke to her, nothing.

JIMMY> It gave me the sense that she at least sat down and looked over my situation.

AHMON> Growing up, I didn't really feel that I matter to anybody.

IRA> Discarded, you know, pushed away to the side, overlooked.

AHMON> Just a little attention just makes me feel that I'm important to somebody.

MARSHALL> This is my first day, and I'm going to give it all I got.

MALIK> If something not looking right or you got a question, don't be afraid to just stop.

Bring it to my attention.

MARSHALL> I'm 24, and I'm not going back to jail.

MALIK> Ira, you got your on heat pressing quality control.

Marshall, I got you floating.

MARSHALL> I'm going to change some things.

Wake up with a positive attitude.

Practice on repeating that every day.

DEON> Why is managing these mistakes so important?

The thing is, when we make mistakes after mistakes after mistakes, they get worse, right?

And they can become illegal and lead us back to a criminal lifestyle.

Right?

MONICA BHATT> Cognitive behavioral therapy is the process by which you connect your feelings, your thoughts, and your actions.

And we all do this all the time in our daily lives.

So think about a time when, you wanted to change your behavior.

So you wanted to go to the gym more.

You might think, oh, I don't actually want to go to the gym because I don't feel like it, because I think I'm going to get judged when I'm there.

And so I'm not going to go.

That's sort of, a thought process or a behavioral chain that's going on in our heads all the time.

And so cognitive behavioral therapy is a process by which you are trying to explicitly connect your thoughts, feelings and actions.

And usually the goal of doing this is to change behaviors.

WINARD> Feelings.

I'm feeling upset, disappointed.

Thoughts.

Man, I feel like quitting this stupid job.

They ain't paying me enough anyway, man.

I should slap the .

out my boss, for this .

DEON> We got to think it through before we take action.

So what do we do for a thinking step?

Boom!

Putting our hands on our head.

Why are we doing this?

To show everyone else in the classroom that we thinking and... TERRANCE FERRELL> You can't get out of jail and keep having... thinking the same way and expecting a different outcome.

JUICE> Most of us, we don't stop and think, we just react.

WINARD> What do you think you could have done differently instead of borrowing money from somebody, that you know, you got to owe back?

STUDENT> Go get a job.

WINARD> Go look for a job, yourself?

BLUE> I wanted to have the structure.

I wanted to gain understanding on being a better person.

And when I heard about Turn90 at the time or what was explained, I felt that would have been more therapeutic for me.

WINARD> So today we're going to be learning a new skill to handle a problem that causes you to have a strong emotional response.

These type of problems... IRA> This folder right here is our class work.

This is what we do every day.

And these are some of our lessons.

And this lesson right here is dealing with identifying your personality traits, and my personality trait really was aggression, because that's the environment that I was just, I just left.

You had to be aggressive.

(indiscernible speech) I'm hoping that Turn90 can help me change that to really control that aggression, because that's my number one problem right there, my aggression.

So,... (sighs) yeah.

DEON> So, in a minute I'mma (going to) group y'all up and we're going to do role plays.

WINARD> (imitates phone ringing sound) Hey man.

How you doing bro?

BLUE> Role playing helps the guys to actually take a real life experience that they may have had or may eventually have to have and walk through it.

TB (TERRENCE BROWN)> The problem is I owe him money.

He threatening me.

WINARD> So you owe somebody some money?

Somebody at work?

TB> In the street.

WINARD> Y'all ready?

Action then.

(foreboding music) TB> I'll put an .09 in your hand.

STUDENT 2> Yes.

Pay attention to your physical sensations, your feelings and thoughts.

My physical sensation is right now heart racing.

I'm feeling like, damn boy, you got a lot of peer pressure on you right now.

I'm feeling anxious right now.

My thoughts right now are like, Boy, go ahead and take that nine, because you can do some things.

JUICE> If you stop and think and just go over the consequences of what potentially can happen, it may cause you, or should cause you to make a different decision.

MONICA BHATT> We have amassed a lot of evidence that these kinds of programs, and in particular, cognitive behavioral therapy, seems to be really effective at reducing violence.

TERRANCE FERRELL> What really drew me in was when I started learning a little bit about myself.

(machine whirs) I've been in a reentry program before.

I've been in one prior to Turn90.

Night and day, and I say the night and day because of the CBT.

See, the other one I was in and they were just about getting you a job.

If I don't fix the way I'm thinking, I'm not going to have that job long.

AMY> We recognize that just having a few hours of class a day just isn't enough for people.

We need more time with them and they need more time with us, and in a place that feels safe and secure.

They need more opportunities to practice living and thinking differently.

MALIK> What helped me is every day in class, being able to come up with different ways to deal with the situations that might arise.

TB (TERRANCE BROWN)> I'm feeling anxious.

I'm feeling nervous.

I'm feeling angry.

MALIK> The hour and 30 minutes of the CBT every morning, the role plays.

JEFF> I'mma (going to) put, ran a red light.

DEON> Ran a red light.

Alright.

MALIK> It helps.

JEFF> Yeah, I made a mistake, wasn't paying attention.

MALIK> I'm going to go over the expectations.

Everybody got to have their Turn90 uniform shirt on.

You can't be on your cell phone.

If you need to know what time it is, this is the time right here.

BLUE> I'm coming to work, but I'm getting an opportunity to still practice the things that I need to be a better person.

MALIK> When the wings are not correct, then this is what you get.

And this right here is spoiled, so we can't give it to 'em.

So we got to reorder.

So... AMY> The minimum amount of time that somebody can be at Turn90 and be eligible for employment is 16 weeks.

They've been able to be consistent for a significant period of time.

They're here every day.

They're on time.

They have a good attitude.

They're following directions.

And we think that they are ready to move on to other employment.

BLUE> I don't know who taught how to load a shirt, but you're doing a real good job.

Okay, that's what I wanted to hear right there.

AMY> Blue was the first program graduate that I ever hired.

BLUE> Slide that over here for me.

AMY> He really understood the gravity of his position here.

TERRANCE FERRELL> I stopped by and I saw Blue.

and I saw a familiar face.

That's what kept me there, when I came to the door.

I said, well, maybe this program work.

MONICA BHATT> There's this idea in violence prevention programs that credible messengers are really important.

A credible messenger is somebody who has walked in your shoes.

So the idea is that I'm much more likely to believe you to do what you say, if you are someone who I trust, and the easiest way to build trust is to be part of the same community.

TB> Here... you're able to be yourself unjudged because you're around peers.

You're around people that has also got out of prison.

(laughing) STUDENT> Stop asking questions.

WINARD> The guys look at me as a brother, somebody that's helping them change their lives.

(indiscernible conversation) JUSTIN EVANS> Most of our staff are guys who came through the program, now they're in leadership roles.

DEON> You got the opportunity to get out, walk around, get you some coffee, do whatever you got to do.

Make sure you stay up.

They hold me accountable because I teach the skills that means I have to live the skills.

MALIK> It's very important to set examples.

I work hard, I want them to work hard.

I know they can do it.

I'm just trying to be there to help them bring it out of them.

BLUE> They would critique me and I would take that into, "Oh, I did not like it.

Inside.

I was like, ugggghhhh!

But then I realized it was just them letting me know there's some things you're good at.

Here's some areas where you're not performing as well.

What do you think you could do to get something different?

MALIK> Now we going to practice printing the same image, just lining up the wings correct, until it come out, until everybody know how to do it right.

REP. GARVIN> They're learning good work ethic.

They're learning how to talk to customers.

They're learning how to create a product.

They're learning skills that are transferable to any job.

MALIK> I tell them all the time, this is a business.

It's not personal.

This is business.

Marshall, you came in a program last year.

Yeah, I've been knowing Marshall.

This is actually like his, uh maybe second or third time in a program.

This time I think, he's back.

He ready this time.

But,... yeah.

(machine whirs) BRYAN STIRLING> Good morning.

I'm Bryan Stirling.

I'm the director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

We're here to share some good news today.

South Carolina has the lowest recidivism rate in the country.

I manage 21 prisons.

I have a staff of 5000 or so.

I'm currently the longest serving director in the country.

When I took over, the population was 24,000.

We've closed seven prisons.

We have the lowest recidivism rate in the country.

Recidivism was about 32%.

Now it's about 17%.

Why should taxpayers care?

Well, it's less money out of their pockets for public safety, and it can be diverted to other things and other needs.

JAY JORDAN> I don't want to pay for your failure.

So I'm going to do everything possible to ensure you're successful and it's cheaper.

REP. CHRIS MURPHY> The state, we appropriated during three consecutive budget cycles, $667,000.

That translates into a savings from the state standpoint, anywhere from a million to upwards of $5 million dollars.

REP. GARVIN> We have seen really tremendous support from both sides of the aisle.

I've worked with Representative Chris Murphy on securing over $1 million in funding for Turn90.

REP. MURPHY> On the state level, it makes budget sense because we're saving money and those dollars can be spent elsewhere.

(digital typing sound) CHIEF MULLEN> It just started growing.

People started to see that this is a potential game changer.

I started funding her out of the police budget every year, along with some city funds as well.

TERRANCE BROWN> Sometimes we all need that extra push.

We might not feel confident within ourselves, but when you have somebody rooting for you on your side, it gives you that extra boost.

JUSTIN EVANS> It's a level of support that most people have never felt TERRANCE FERRELL> What they're really doing, is really giving these guys hope.

WINARD> Amy believed in me.

Justin believed in me.

The guys be seeing me doing good and they be like, "Hey, we can do the same thing."

JOEY> When I came to Turn90, it was just right off the rip.

I felt family.

(laughing) STUDENT> Get it in.

Get it in.

Get it in.

AHMON> Turn90 has been the biggest support I ever had in my life.

They believe in me.

They pushed me.

The environment feels like a family that I never had.

STUDENT> Come on, give me some.

(laughing) Here we go.

(laughing) BLUE> I want to hear from the back of the class on this side.

STUDENT> Problem solver.

BLUE> Problem solver.

REP. GARVIN> If a state as ruby red as South Carolina can invest in a program like Turn90, there's no question in my mind that this program can be duplicated throughout the United States.

BRYAN STIRLING> I do think it can go national.

I've had Amy come and talk to other directors, and they're very interested.

(indiscernible conversation) CHIEF MULLEN> She really has the opportunity to not only change things in South Carolina.

This has the ability to change things across the country.

BLUE> We're not necessarily saying deal with the problem itself, but you're still dealing with the aggression.

What can you do to calm yourself?

REP. GARVIN> These men have had to adapt, make different choices and figure out a way forward, and they have, regardless of whether they have a scarlet letter called a felony.

We reach our potential by investing in these men and telling them that they, too, are a part of our community.

At the end of the day, all of us are worthy of forgiveness.

JUDGE GERGEL> I've been told by one employer, I don't hire convicted felons.

I hire Turn90 graduates.

REP. MURPHY> By giving these individuals an opportunity, they come into our workforce, they contribute to society.

They help to contribute to the tax base.

They really act as a force multiplier.

BRYAN STIRLING> When I talk with employers, that's one of my biggest asks please hire these folks, give them that second chance and sometimes a third chance because they're desperate, desperate to work.

STUDENT> No that's it.... (music fades) (indiscernible conversations) (birds chirping) JUSTIN> All of us here always remember, like that first guy we got really close with, And then he didn't do well.

There have been, a few moments where my wife had to, like, really just, like, get on the floor with me and, like, talk me through it.

So.

AMY> There's a lot of challenges that the guys that we work with are going through.

And when you get into situations where people are not wanting to be here or feel like they're forced to be here, it, it can really change the energy.

BLUE> What do you guys think are some other words we can use overall in describing what a man is?

WINARD> Be trying to say, you need this and I'm going to make you change.

You can't.

You have to let them come.

JUSTIN> I have had guys swear at me, either because they're getting fired or because they were sleeping in class, and I had to pull them out, and now they're really, really angry that because they're like, "I wasn't sleeping.".

I'm like, 'Well, your eyes were closed' 'for like, three minutes'.

People come and go.

Marshall just wasn't where he wanted to be.

And so he moved on.

It was obvious, like you, you don't want to be here.

So why, then why would you be here?

Then, let's just go ahead and call it what it is and, and, like, still support you.

MALIK> My, supervisor in Columbia, Terrance I watched him every day.

I wanted to learn everything.

Everything he knew.

TERRANCE FERRELL> Let me check the board.

I want to see if I can get that out.

JUICE> All right.

AMY> He's just an incredibly talented person.

His first job, his first legal job of his entire life was with us when he was, I think, 41.

TERRANCE FERRELL> She gave me an office first of all.

I have never had an office in my life.

I used to sit in there sometimes like, 'Wow I got office, man.

This is...

I'm behind the desk.

So, this is cool.

MONICA BHATT> Changing your behavior is enormously difficult for anybody.

And you have guys who have experienced enormous amounts of trauma, who oftentimes have done bad things themselves and have a lot of remorse and regret.

And they'll say, I used to harm my community, but now I'm helping my community.

Now I'm able to be the dad that I always wanted to for my kid.

And that's enormously relatable.

TERRANCE FERRELL> What I'm letting my son experience, he get to experience, something I never got to experience, and that's going to a job with his father.

I never got to experience that.

That's really what I want him to see, that his dad gets up every morning, takes him by his job.

We go there first.

(Son laughs) and then I take him to school.

CREE> I want to do it.

I want to do it.

TERRANCE FERRELL> I pick him up every day.

I bring him back to my job, and we shut the place down.

(light clicks off) All right!

(quick footsteps) (upbeat music) AMY> I really, truly feel like I have the best job in the entire world.

No matter what I do here, it's still the best.

AHMON> They give me my first job.

Sometimes, I wear my t-shirt just to show people I got a job.

CHIEF MULLEN> I'll never forget.

One day I was on the corner in the east side of Charleston, which was a really challenging neighborhood, and one of the guys came up.

He said, "Hey, Chief, you know, I got a debit card today.

"I never had a debit card before."

IRA> I was able to find a job.

And I'm working that job right now and it's...I'm loving it.

STEVE> This place right here, making it possible for me, showing me that I don't have to go back in the streets.

Start me a business and save my money up.

MALIK> I took on a part time job at Charleston Music Hall.

I remember one night it was, a Latin group, and I couldn't understand a word they were saying.

But just the feeling of the strings, their voices.

I was rocking and tapping my feet.

I'm just open to all different kind of genres of music now.

(rock music plays) 80s rock.

Opera music.

(opera singer sings) When you can grow and get out of the box, it's amazing.

WINARD> If you can do that much time behind a fence, then you can expand.

I never was hiking.

I never was camping, and I never thought I would.

I love it now.

I feel like I can open myself up to other things, too.

BLUE> I find myself now still dealing with some of the trauma of never having an opportunity to be by myself.

It's always someone there.

(indiscernible conversations) I get a chance to be alone with just me and my music.

When I first got out, I used to, get up in the middle of the night.

It's funny now, but this was my peace of mind.

(Al Green: "Simply Beautiful") And I would drive for about an hour, just riding.

If I gave you my love, And it just gave me the peace of mind to know, like you're no longer back there.

I tell you what I'd do.

I'd expect a whole lot of love out of you.

You got to be good to me.

(song fades into calm music) Major funding for "Turning Point" is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

For almost 50 years, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina has been the partner of South Carolina ETV, and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations, the ETV Endowment is committed to telling transformative stories and proud to sponsor "Turning Point".