All week on WNYC, we've been hearing about the 6,000 or so federal inmates being released from prison. Many of these men and women (but mostly men) will be returning to their families and communities for the first time in decades and they’ll face numerous challenges as they make new lives for themselves. To get an idea of what’s ahead, WNYC — in partnership with the Marshall Project — spoke to five former prisoners at the Castle. That’s the nickname for a building in West Harlem owned by the Fortune Society, where formerly incarcerated individuals receive housing and other supportive services.
Many of the men we talked to were convicted of drug possession. One was convicted on a gun charge. Another went to prison for manslaughter. They all served between 15 years and 34 years, often from the time they were teenagers. We wanted to know, what advice do they have for the recently released?
"I always see bars. I did three state terms. If I go in again, it‘s a possibility I won’t ever come out. I will get life. I don’t think I can do life. Not, I don’t think. I know I can’t do life. There’s no temptation right now."
— Saquan Dubose, 34
"Today, my support team as far as my family is concerned: everyone who has been with me on this past three-year journey. Watched me fight cancer and win, watching me now dealing with the cancer ... I’m just. I’m not going back....I got a bucket list now. I want to swim with the dolphins, I want to go to Hawaii, I want to go to Vegas. I want to go to Hollywood. I definitely want to swim with the dolphins, though."
— Ervin "Easy" Hunt, 61
"Temptation was always there....The hardest thing to get used to was not reverting back to what I used to do....I did go back to it for a while. You know, but something triggered in me and I said, 'Naw, this is not worth it. It’s not worth going back to jail again.' You know, after doing 25 years off and on...I just got sick and tired of it."
— Frederick Lebron, 63
"If you don’t do anything, you don’t apply yourself while incarcerated as far like strengthening your family ties, you’ll gain nothing when you come home and you’ll have nothing to look for. So if you don’t do anything about it while you’re in there, it’s very hard to do something about it once you come home."
—René Peterson, 63
"My advice to anybody that come out, please, do not think about relationships, or starting a family until you get yourself together, get established, find you a church or a community base or organization. A place you can go to where people who have been incarcerated, went through what you went through and they can just share....As opposed to coming out here, getting involved with some girl, having careless sex, ending up bringing a child into play. And then you just dealing with all these issues, whether it’s child support, this or that because you know, we’re not ready for that."
—Edgar Simpson, 49