Prison to Promise

Ep. 29 Lisa Buscemi: Don’t Ever Count Someone Out

Join Lisa Buscemi and me as she discusses her journey through addiction, incarceration, recovery, relapse, and redemption.Today Lisa is the Director of the Jennifer House, a residence in Rochester, New York, providing post-incarceration hope, healing, and vital support to women returning to the community in Rochester, NY.

Ep. 28 Dante Richardson: We Put All This Together and We Had Nothing

Since emerging from prison, Dante Richardson has been bridging the gap between tech, culture, & community. Dante is a Stanford University award-winning Entrepreneur and a Co-founder of Stooty Technologies, a startup helping creative entrepreneurs and businesses in the creative economy manage their creative assets. Stooty is currently a part of the Launch NY venture development firm’s Founders Go Big program in partnership with JP Morgan.Dante specializes in developing and leading companies as a business strategist focusing on sales development, revenue generation, business commercialization, product management, growth hacking, community building, and Web 3.0 implementation for creative and technology-based companies.

Ep. 27 Divine (aka, Victor Lombard): From Crack to Rap to Tech

Divine describes himself as an Innovative Visionary, Leader, Hip-Hop/Rap Recording Artist, Urban Entrepreneur, Inspirational & Motivational Speaker, Social & Criminal Justice Reform Advocate & Activist, and Actor.Please join Divine and me as he walks us through his journey from crack-to-rap-to-tech.

Ep. 26 Jeffrey Korzenik: It’s Business not Charity

Jeffrey Korzenik is a Chief Investment Strategist and Economic Explorer with over 30 years of experience in the Investment and Management Business. He is also a Criminal Justice Reform Advocate who teaches the business community why and how to hire people with criminal backgrounds. Jeffrey highlights how the business community will continue losing out in this discussion if they keep overlooking this hidden talent pool. He says hiring people with criminal backgrounds "is an investment, not a cost; it's business, not charity."

Ep. 25 Dr. Keesha Middlemass: Convicted and Condemed

Dr. Keesha Middlemass is an Associate Professor at Howard University. Dr. MIddlemass' work centers around prisoner reentry, policy analysis, and food insecurity. I invite you to join Dr. Middlemass and me as we talk about the history of State policies and Federal laws that exclude citizenship and human rights of predominately Black men with felony convictions. 

Ep. 24 Daniel Justiniano: Communal Connections: Making a Difference

After his family spent all their money on a defense lawyer, Daniel Justiniano was sentenced to a 16-year prison sentence at 19. However, because of the unity of his community, he won an appeal and gave back three-quarters of his original sentence. As a result, he was released from prison after four years.Today Daniel is the co-founder of ConConnect, where he works as the Director of Operations. At ConConnect, a part of their mission is to help connect returning citizens and justice-impacted people to employment and services and lowering recidivism rates. I invite you to tune into this rich discussion.

Ep. 23 Tabari Zahir: Educate, Rejuvenate, Illuminate

While incarcerated, Tabari Zahir passionately worked within the federal prison system, helping to promote various educational initiatives amongst incarcerated people, such as life skills services, personal coaching, and secular and spiritual curriculums. In addition, Zahir helped to operationalize these curriculums by personally teaching while at the same time working with chaplains and program directors. He continues similar work today, counseling the formerly-incarcerated population and facilitating their societal success by connecting them to varied reentry services. In addition, he is a Registered Alcohol and Drug Technician (RADT-CA) in California.In 2019, Zahir entered a Master’s of social work program to professionalize his advocacy work amongst the justice-impacted. He has also published his Master’s thesis entitled: “Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Recidivism: Perceptions of Key Justice Stakeholders in Southern California.”Today, Zahir is a registered associate clinical social worker (ACSW) and intends to continue working with the justice-impacted population as a mental health and substance abuse professional.The story of Zahir’s journey is inspirational and a true reflection of what it means to go from prison to promise. You don’t want to miss it. 

Ep. 22 Carlos Christian: Turn the Penitentary on its Head and Stand the Community on its Feet

Carlos Christian served a 10-year prison sentence. He was in prison between the ages of 19 to 29 years old; He has been out for 11 years. Under Carlos' leadership as the president and founder of The Starts Within Organization, he is on a mission to show incarcerated people what they can become if they are willing to put in the work on developing themselves and restoring the community by restoring the family structure!Carlos' story of redemption and defying the odds has been the main ingredient he uses to inspire others, especially people with criminal backgrounds, to reach deeper and strive to elevate to a higher level within themselves and to know it is up to the individual; it Starts Within!

Ep. 21 Sean Oliver: Decisions Like Doors Take You Places

Sean was released from prison after serving 27 years. Freedom has provided new opportunities for Sean to continue his mission to help others. He works as an At-Risk Youth Supervisor at Jail to Jobs, an organization dedicated to helping youthful offenders through counseling and connecting them with quality, full-time employment.

Ep. 20 Halim Flowers: Transcendence of Adversity

In 1997, as a minor, Halim Flowers was arrested and wrongfully sentenced to two life sentences in Washington, DC. His experiences aired on HBO in the Emmy award-winning documentary Thug Life in DC;  In 2019, he got out of prison under a new juvenile lifer resentencing law. Halim describes himself as "a manufacturer of culture." For two decades, Halim forged and galvanized his skills and talents as a visual artist, spoken word performer, businessman, and author of 11 published non-fiction works in the pressure cooker of prison.In this episode, Halim and I talk about how, despite being handed two life sentences, he leaned into his humanity, transcended prison and its expectations, and developed the audacity to have hope and the will and desire to fight to reclaim his life.This episode is a must-listen to episode.