two ex-cons with a simple mission - picking up inmates on the day they are released from prison

[Liberal_in_LA]

Two men were sitting in a parked car, waiting to pick someone up. Carlos Cervantes was in the driver’s seat. He was 30, with glassy green eyes — quiet by nature, but with a loaded, restrained intensity about him. He had picked up Roby So at home in Los Angeles around 3 o’clock that morning, and they’d made it here, to this empty parking lot in front of the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, on the outskirts of San Diego, just after 6. Now, the sun was rising over the bare, brown mountains in the windshield. A hummingbird zipped around an air-conditioning unit outside. Already, they’d been waiting close to an hour.

___
Eventually, Dale Hammock appeared. Hammock was 65, white, his head shaved completely bald, both arms wrapped in black tattoos. He wore sweat shorts, a white T-shirt, canvas slip-ons and white socks pulled up near his knees. All his clothes were bright and brand-new. As he approached Carlos and Roby, he thrust his chest toward them as far as it would go. Inside, this might have signaled strength and authority, but out here, it looked bizarre, as if he had some kind of back deformity.

Carlos shouted, ‘‘Welcome home, Mr. Hammock!’’ Roby shouted, ‘‘How are you feeling, Mr. Hammock?’’ They introduced themselves and hurried to collect his few possessions — a brown paper bag and a pair of work boots — moving as if they’d done this exchange dozens of times, which they had, while Hammock stood between them, looking stunned.

Carlos handed Hammock the key and asked if he wanted to pop the trunk. But the key wasn’t a key; it was a button. After squinting at it for a second, Hammock handed it back and said, ‘‘I wouldn’t know what to do with that.’’

He’d been in prison for 21 years.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/magazine/you-just-got-out-of-prison-now-what.html

[pinto]

1. Great, great story. Thanks for the post. (nt)

[Mnemosyne]

2. These men are doing a really wonderful thing. Hope it spreads. nt

[procon]

3. That was a good read, difficult, but I'm glad I read it.

I never knew. I never even thought about how hard it must be to return to 'normal' life from prison. Thanks for posting this, I learned from it. And thanks to Obama for bring attention to this issue.

[freshwest]

5. I'd heard about this a little. And grateful Obama is leading the way. He spoke @NAACP on it. n/t

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. What an incredibly inspiring and hopeful story and a very special read! Thank you for

bringing it to us, Liberal_in_LA!

To Carlos, Roby, and all who make this program possible, salute!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. We don't do rehabilitation. We take lives. Sometimes all of it.

[daredtowork]

7. Simple and flexible

At this point so much big money has been caught up in "help" that you see NONPROFIT experts making in excess of 100k salaries, massive poverty bureaucracies are fighting over how to allocate the money at high levels, and private developers are stampeding for a taste of that taxpayer HUD pork since "public housing" so obviously failed. The only question now is which relatively privileged person gegs to turn on the spigot of public money while the GOP continues to fight to cut pennies from extremely poor folk.

The worst part of this has been that making the big bucks involves consolidation and centralization. Very few people are even bothering with what the poor actually need these days. It's always too complicated or inefficient. Real needs are often specific and off-center. Actually customizizing programs to meet them would save money. ( Though it might cut some 100k salaries). Gratz to these guys for seeing a real need and meeting it. Go street team!

[OneGrassRoot]

9. Good article speaking to this...

Resilience Is Futile: How Well-Meaning Nonprofits Perpetuate Poverty

"If there’s one thing that people in poverty, children in foster care, and recent immigrants already have in abundance, it’s the knowledge of how to be tough.

<snip>

These people, my colleagues, traveled the world—Australia, Africa, and throughout the U.S.—speaking on panels and at conferences about their innovative new approaches to increasing resilience. Making money off poverty was their vocation. They were compensated for these studies, creating a career out of their ludicrous idea of “resilience,” that the circumstances of these people’s lives were somehow a result of their poor choices or ill behaviors."

http://jezebel.com/resilience-is-futile-how-well-meaning-nonprofits-perpe-1716461384?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

[daredtowork]

12. YES!!!!!

[monmouth4]

8. What an inspiring read. Many thanks for posting....n/t

[malaise]

10. You really find amazing links

Thanks for this

[AwakeAtLast]

11. I hope they go National

What a wonderful pair! I hope they are able to expand. A very worthy endeavor.

Thanksgiving posting this!

[riderinthestorm]

13. "Brooks was here"

Big, Big, BIG K&R!!!

This is an absolutely incredible story!

[Brother Buzz]

14. The day I get out of prison, my own brother picks me up in a police car.

[flying rabbit]

15. Damn good read.