Oahu. Ive been involved with oxford house since i moved in on may 20th, 1992. Been employed by this fine establishment since february 1993. It is its no small task to be up here, and wed like to welcome our panelists and starting with dan hahn from oxford house, state coordinator from oklahoma. [ applause ] the illustrious Kurtis Taylor, oxford house alumni. And michael mckeogh, oxford house alumni, outreach in florida. Our newest state, were anxious to hear all your stuff. Jason wilson, oxford house resident and reentry coordinator, North Carolina. Jesse what did i say . Jes jesse. And ann cleveland, oxford house alumni, virginia. Over threequarters of oxford house population has done some jail time or prison time. In america today, approximately 60 of those in jail or prisons are addicted to alcohol and or drugs. Each year, thousands of those who are incarcerated reenter society. However, within one year of reentry, about half those individuals will commit another crime and head to conviction and reentry into incarceration. The experience of those who enter oxford house following incarceration or Drug Court Intervention is usually longterm recovery and crimefree behavior. In some states, oxford house has developed relationships with programs that permit those leaving incarceration to go straight to an oxford house. Other residents come to oxford house at the recommendation of drug courts and or parole officers. You have found that clients tend to do well if they live in an oxford house. Not only does such intervention motivate clients to begin to master the recovery process, it also saves taxpayers the cost of incarceration and recidivism. Residents who enter oxford house from incarceration are exposed to participatory democracy rather than institutional authority. Theyre elected to leadership positions and undertake shared responsibility for the operation of the house. Most residents rise to the occasion. This kind of reallife training is rare for most individuals reentering society. The panel will discuss the need for the postincarceration recovery opportunities, practical ways to facilitate getting individuals leaving incarceration into an oxford house, how oxford houses can help drug Court Clients achieve longterm sobriety, and meet the expectation of drug courts and how oxford house living facilities facilitates and transitions to longterm crimefree recovery for most residents. The panelists are all experienced in the field from the inside and the outside. Our first speaker will be mr. Dan hahn. You got ten minutes. Good morning, my names dan. Im an alcoholic. Been clean and sober since july 18th of 2007. [ applause ] and i was incredibly, incredibly lucky to stumble into an oxford house. Can we all agree on that . Im going to talk a little bit about reentry and, you know, when you discuss reentry, ive been involved with it a long time and how i ended up there is constant cycling in and out of the system. With a plan to do Something Different and every time, back in prison. And i was able to find recovery in an oxford house, and i lived in an area years ago that we didnt really have any direction on how to get people out of prison, and if theres or reentry is not just prison. Reentry is folks that are reentering society, whether its in any capacity. From homelessness. Whatever area it is, if its a homeless shelter that you have a relationship with, getting people back into society. It takes a village. Takes all of us pitching in together to understand that theres folks that need our help and its not because they dont have money or clothes on their back. We dont want them because they dont fit us. Were going to lift them up and thats what my life has centered around, my passion, lifting people up and getting them in a position and giving them something they never thought possible. Living in a home, you know, getting into an environment where they can practice a Stable Program of recovery right away. Thats done by example. So coming out of prison, theres a lot of things we dont have. We may, you know, i work in oklahoma today and most of the guys that we get that come out have nothing more than a walmart sack. And so how how do we accept foe folks like that into an oxford house and point them toward success . Its giving them a hand up and realizing that most all of us, whether weve been incarcerated or not, have committed felonies whether we were convicted for them or not. Some of us just got caught. It took me it took me 25 years to realize that im just not a very good criminal. Right . And through that process, i you know, oxford house is a prime place to work with drug courts, incarceration, homelessness, but what it takes is some basic things. I work a lot in the oxford House Community and houses will say things like, well, he doesnt have any money. Well, okay. In order i teach houses all the time. Build yourself up some money and hold people accountable. Folks move into our houses, i work with people out of incarceration all the time and ill sit down with them and just tell them what theyre about to experience. Heres whats okay in oxford house. I think we can all agree on this. Its perfectly okay to do your chore. Thats its okay. We like that. Right . And we like you to put a money order in the box. We like you to be employed. Right . We like you to be employed. And were not we like you to work a program or recovery of your understanding. Okay . And those are nonnegotiable. What i see often is folks move into our homes and theyre not explained clearly whats expected of them because the people that are explaining it to them have either not been there or donts up. So its our job to get out and teach people what it takes to live in an oxford house. We defserve a Second Chance as the formerly incarcerated. Okay . The key component is is that oxford house is not a shelter for abstinence. Its a home for recovery. Okay . [ applause ] we are not there to provide somebody a place to live until something gets better. Were there to provide them a place to work a program of recovery. So some things that folks can do to help reentry in their area is building relationships with your local probation and parole. Giving them tours of the houses. Showing them what it is that we do and then what we require. Its not a place to lay your head. Its a place to get better. Okay . And throughout the drug courts, all of those things, i just feel like our primary focus sometimes gets a little bit muddled. We just need to focus on those basic things. Those basic things. Work a program of recovery, do the basic things that it takes to live in our homes. So i dont have a whole lot more today. I want to turn it over and i appreciate it, thank you. [ applause ] thank you, dan. Our next speaker is no stranger from the inside or the out, and please welcome Kurtis Taylor. [ applause ] thank you, joe. Was that your polite way of saying im a convict . Man. You know, i get to speak at a lot of places, and i got to say that having the opportunity to speak at an oxford house World Convention is the highlight. Its one of the highlights of my life because, see, right here, im at home. This is my family. [ applause ] yeah. Whats up, justin . My man. So, my name is Kurtis Taylor, and im a person in longterm recovery. And what that means for me is that i have not used alcohol or any other substance in over 16 years now. Yeah. [ applause ] i found this thing called recovery. I found this thing called oxford house by gods grace and mercy way back in 1996. You do the quick math, youre like, what you just said, its only been roughly 16 years. Well, i had a little more research to do. But you know, i did the math earlier this morning, right, so since 1996, ive been in sustained recovery all but about eight, maybe nine months out of that. Thats 23 years. And only eight to nine months of that was i not engaged fully in recovery. That in and of itself speaks volumes because, see, once this oxford house thing gets in your blood, the streets will never be the same. Youll never be the same. So, the last time that the disease of Substance Use disorder exhibited itself in my life, or should i say, i exhibited the symptoms of this particular illness, i found myself facing two felony charges. Now, id been in the county jail. I grew up in the county jail. Lets just put it like that. But id never been in the department of corrections, in prison. Well, this time, there was no way for any to avoid a prison senten sentence. And i went to prison theres more to that story, but we dont have time for it. I went on into prison and i came home may 25th, 2004, with absolutely nothing. I didnt even have a change of underwear. I was wearing the white uniform that the kitchen workers from the prison wore because i did not have a change of clothes. Lo and behold, Kathleen Gibson, your wonderful chief operating officer from oxford house, was in the parking lot of that prison that day. I had no idea she even knew that it was my release date, but she did. Shed been keeping up with me. And she was there and i walked over to her truck, i said, what are you doing here . She said, look, my husband her husband is keith, yall know keith my husband and i, weve been talking about you and praying about you, and we decided that youre going to come and stay with us for a few days. Dont worry about nothing, come on, get in the truck, its going to be all right. [ applause ] so, so dan talked about what the things that we dont have coming home from prison. Thats a long list. I didnt have anything. Fortunately, a dear friend of mine helped support me and provide me with some of these things, but one of the most important things that she and keith and their beautiful little daughter, lexie, provided me with was understanding. They werent judging me. They invited me and welcomed me, a convicted felon fresh out of prison, into their home and they fed me and they clothed me and they loved me. And i spent a few days, i dont know, maybe a week or so there, and then kathleen set me up an interview at oxford house cross link and oxford house cross link had been giving her a fit for about 18 months and so she was strategically placing me in oxford house cross link to help fix it. So i went from there to the kind of, you know, speaking to people about my prison experience, and kathleen and i developed this thing called a reentry coordinator. We created a position out of thin air and all of a sudden i had a job with oxford house. How about that . [ applause ] and and so what i need to say is that, like, okay, so while i was in prison, i saw so many people, so many men, so many polaroid pictures of mens children, and i couldnt help but think to myself, whats happening with those kids while were all locked up in this cage . And so god began to instill in my heart this passion because, see, how many thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people are coming home from prison every day that dont have a Kathleen Gibson in the parking lot . How many of those people never heard of oxford house . See, its plain and simple, right . Back in, what, 1971 i think it was, this man named Richard Nixon declared war. He declared a war on drugs. Now, what he was really doing was declaring a war on people. He was declaring a war on an illness, excuse me, a people suffering from an illness, and they got together and they said, okay, i got lets do it like this. Were going to take these people suffering from Substance Use disorder, were going to give them enough rope to hang themselves and let them commit various crimes and as soon as they do, were going to jump on them and were going to cuff them and were going to lock them up in a cage like an ani l animal. In the meantime, were going to make sure that there is absolutely no treatment available to these people. No help. And to make sure that this big moneymaking machine that we call mass incarceration, to make sure that it continues to be viable, were going to label these folks. Were going to call them felons. Were going to call them exconvicts. See, its real easy to dis criminate against, to judge system, to justify your discriminatory behavior when you put a label on somebody. You know, thats why on certain news channels you hear that word, illegals and things of that nature. It makes it real easy to cast these folks off into the garbage and forget these are actual living, breathing, human beings just like you and i. Let me ask you a question. How many yall been arrested . Let me ask you another question. How many yall been to prison . All those hands. Right . Oh, let me put my hand up. Right . Now, im in longterm recovery now, for a long time. Right . Im a businessowner. Im a freaking executive director of the Alcohol Drug Council of North Carolina. [ applause ] i was the very first, as far as i know, the very first on a National Level paid reentry coordinator for oxford house. The very first. [ applause ] during my years with oxford house, i opened some 40odd new oxford houses and i helped place somewhere around, i dont know, a thousand people. Somewhere around there, right, justin . And thats just me. Right . All your hands went up. Obviously, youre not in prison today. Youre not youre not using today. So each and every last one of you that put your hand up, you have a different story to tell about yourself today. Youre doing incredible things in your community. We just dont have time to hear all about it, right . But i guarantee you that not one of us will stand up here and say that going to prison is what eventually helped us achieve recovery. Now, may have been an excellent Treatment Program in that prison or Something Like that, but you shouldnt have to go to prison to get good treatment. Locking me up like an animal, caging me up like an animal, taking away all of my dignity, all of my human rights, dressing me as some raggedy old orange jumpsuit, making he wear flipflops and making me strip buck naked and strip search me every time i come back off the road squad swinging a bush ax while you make millions off the backs of incarcerated americans. American incarcerated more people than any civilized country in the world. I think we heard earlier today 4 of the worlds population, 25 or more of the worlds prison population. Its not hard to figure out. So Richard Nixon, he declared a war on drugs. Well, my names Kurtis Taylor, and im officially declaring a war against mass incarceration. [ applause ] me and my oxford house family, we declare war against stigma. We declare a war against discrimination. We refuse to sit back and watch our brothers and sisters continue to be caged up like wild animals, treated like dogs. A person suffering from Substance Use disorder, they need help. They need treatment. They need detox. They need residential. They need inpatient. Outpatient. They, of course, need oxford house. They need a doggone job. How are you going to call me a convicted felon then say you cant get no we cant hire you because you got a felony, we cant rent this apartment to you because you got a felony. My son dont care nothing about me having no felony. He hungry. He needs something to eat. [ applause ] you know, addiction can be a real dark place. When i was a little kid, some of you probably had the same experience, i remember being afraid of the dark at some point. And the thing that i recognized is that the very second that you flipped on that light switch, the dark ran away. And the light took over. Well, i consider mass incarceration and the way we treat each other as a society as a darkness, and im proud to stand up here this morning and say that oxford house is that light. [ applause ] oxford house is that light. So to my oxford house family, yall know i wouldnt stand up here and not remind you folks, dont you dare look down your nose and judge your brother or sister. Dont you dare sit up in the house and not answer that doggone telephone. Dont you dare sit up in that house and vote no at an interview because, oh, he got convicted of a b and e and we dont want no thieves in our house. Who you think they are . Dan already said you might not have got caught, but you didnt plenty. Even if it was driving a 5,000pound vehicle drunk as a skunk, thats a crime. So dont get it twisted. Youre not better than me. You not better than anybody. And guess what, im not better than you. None of us are. Were all imperfect human beings trying to do the best that we can on a daily basis. So lets cut out this nonsense. Lets shut down the prison system. Lets close it. Lets close it. [ applause ] lets take some of that money and fix some of these raggedy streets in washington, d. C. Im sure im over my time, but, i mean, theres so much more that i could say, man, but, you know, this reentry thing is powerful. Its powerful. My life today is dedicated to making sure that the next man and the next woman have the same opportunities that ive been given because i fully understand that if i got everything i deserved, i couldnt handle it. I would bust hell wide open long time ago. Its gods grace and mercy that im standing here today. So as a result, im obligated, im committed, im dedicated to turning around and making sure that im being a Kathleen Gibson for somebody. Ask yourself, who are you being Kathleen Gibson for today . Who are you helping . Who are you making sure got a nice change of clothes or can get a haircut to get ready to go to that next Job Interview . Who are you doing that for . Or are you so caught up on facebook or worrying about meeting your next baby mama that you aint got time, that you aint got time . You know, man, yall are beautiful, by the way. Oxford house is an incredible thing. I thank paul molloy, kathleen, john fox, for giving me an opportunity to work for such an Incredible Organization for so many years. I thank you guys for your continued support. As my journey continues, the one thing ill leave you with, if this convicted felon i know ive been arrested over 60someodd times in my life. I can remember getting out of jail, out of the county jail in the morning and being back that night. Yeah. So, if i can go through all that, and on may 11th, 2019, graduate from Shaw University summa cum laude with my bachelors in social work [ applause ] if i can become executive director of an agency, if i can most importantly be a father to my beautiful daughter and my wonderful son, you can, too. Thank you. [ applause ] very powerful. And the beauty of oxford house, just so you know, is that kurtis and i probably stand on opposite ends of the spectrum on our floss sphilosophy of what const fair and liberal punishment. But the one thing that we both agree on is the light of oxford house. And, you know, i tell this to guys when i go to house meetings and theres problems, where else in our lifetime have we ever sat at a table and discussed issues in a calm manner, you know, some heavyweight issues, but no ones getting loud, no ones screaming, no one gets slapped. Everybody, you know, is behaving themselves. But oxford house taught me that. It taught us that. That we can communicate and we can share ideas and you dont have to agree with everyone, but certainly you have to respect everyones point of view. And powerful, kurtis. Powerful. Our next our next speaker will be mr. Michael mckeogh from outreach florida. [ applause ] hello. This is a great honor to be able to speak here. I dont know how im going to follow that, though. Ive been clean and sorer sinbe july 15th, 2016. [ applause ] i moved into an oxford house in hattiesburg, mississippi, and i had a trash bag and a moving fee. Thats it. The guys brought me into the house and very early on i started seeing people getting their lives together. I started seeing people getting their kids back. I saw people get college degrees. I saw people get good jobs and cars. And just getting things back in life. And early on, i was really on the fence about my recovery. I didnt know that this is what i wanted to do with the rest of my life. I didnt know if i wanted to use again. But i started going to meetings with these guys. I started just really getting involved with the whole accountability of the houses and the chapter and eventually go on to work with the regional association. And it just motivated me so much. It was exactly what i needed after serving 7 1 2 years in prison. I was formally known as 155593 in the Mississippi Department of corrections and today i work for oxford house as a senior Outreach Coordinator for florida. [ applause ] it was a huge fluke of how i got into an oxford house. The case manager i was working with didnt noah where to send me. I was asking my different Halfway Houses in the area. Shes like, you do not want to go to any those are not for you, michael, dont go there. One day i was at a Community Work center, i came back in from work, she said, i heard about this place called oxford house. I dont know what it is, but we can do an interview. D i did the interview over the phone with the guys just sitting in their office. They accepted me. I didnt know what i was going to walk into. I didnt know what to expect, but it worked. I got in the house. I got out of prison. Made my parole and got in. And i think that the biggest holdup is that the different case managers, transition specialists, these people dont know about oxford house. If they did, could you imagine the amount of peoples lives that we could change if every single case manager, transition specialist, knew about oxford house . I just really hope in the future that we can really work contracting in all 50 states, that we can really work having our reentry coordinators and people that have stepped up into a leadership role work with all these people and all these different prisons across the country so that we can solve this problem. Could you imagine the statistic of individuals reentering living in oxford house as opposed to the individuals moving into their grandmas house or their moms house or to some other place for recidivism . I think dr. Kelly said the number of recidivism rates in oxford house is twothirds less than what it is as opposed to a Different Organization a different situation. [ applause ] so i ask you as members of ox in order oxford house to get out there and work with the prison reentry, work with these transition specialists. Work with the parole probation officers. Work with anybody thats going to help these individuals find a place to go after they leave prison. Thank you. Thats all i got. [ applause ] thank you, michael. Our next speaker is the reentry coordinator for the state of North Carolina, mr. Jesse wilson. [ applause ] lot of hope in here. Once upon a time, somebody was telling us he or she aint never going to change. Look at us. Im jesse wilson. Im a man in longterm recovery. What that means for me, i havent had a drink or drug since january 21st of 2018. [ applause ] because of people like Kurtis Taylor and justin that paved the way for me, im able to help people like me. Looking back on my life, when i was a younger man, 8 or 9 years old, i was very mischievous. Ended up drinking at 9 years old. Smoking marijuana pat at 10. Doing cocaine and meth at 13 is. Started selling drugs at 17. Lost my dad to an accidental overdose. I was with him. You know, so i was heading to prison early. When i got to prison, 1409 1409 inmate. Thats who i was. Thats not who i am today. [ applause ] once upon a time, they wouldnt let me see my son. I was a drug dealing maniac. I liked to get violent. Thats who i was. I was a street guy. They wouldnt let me see my son. Now they let me pick him up from school today, you know. [ applause ] of course, there is a process, and i tell you, North Carolina, the prisons love us. They love Kurtis Taylor. They love justin lozier. Now they love me. So, yeah, there is a process. You know, they whenever i receive an email from a case manager, i send the reentry application, fivepage application, goes into great detail, i send the oxford manual, i tell them, have them read this. I will be asking about this. You know, then after i get it back, i conduct my phone interview. Longest phone interview ive had was about, almost two hours long. I get real into, like, im telling you the truth. I get i tell them a piece of my story. You know, i let them know youre not talki ining to somebody beha desk. I know im in a suit now. I tell them, look, im a regular guy thats trying to stay sober, been to prison, worn them brown clothes just like you. I let them know, it doesnt matter what gang you may claim, it dont matter what youve done in your past, it dont matter to me, you know, because gang banging in prison is real. You know. And it doesnt matter to me. I want to see your desire to change. Your willingness to do what it takes to stay clean and sober. Thats what matters to me. When i got out of prison, i went back home, i relapsed that day. Who relapsed the day they walked out of prison . Its real. So, i found oxford house and this guy tried to hug me rifght off the gate and i said, dont hug me. Hes like, do you shake hands . I was like, thats it, though. I was that guy. I was that guy. We was talking about that the other day. These guys love me, man. These guys love me. I did end up going back home and relapsing. I said i got to go back to my real home which is in oxford house. I got to get a real sponsor and work some real steps, you know . And i let them know, like, and a lot of time on my interviews, it sounds really good and im, like i get real with them. Like, im professional with the case managers, but im real with the guys trying to bet into an oxford house. Im like, this sounds really good. If you do this, man, youre heading to the top. But the only person thats going to do it is you. A aint nobody going to do it for you. The things im writing down are things im advocating and telling houses, if you dont do that, youll be held accountable for that. I give them the rundown. I tell them what to expect. Ive done over 130int interviews. Placed real close to 1 shur00 p in 9 months. So [ applause ] i go hard for this because i relapsed whenever i got out of prison, but it doesnt have to happen. You know, i got out of them close to 1 shur00 people i plac got 20 contacts in my phone of people i know thats still around. You know, i try to put them into strong houses to set them up for success, you know . Ive had people say, well, weve done accepted two people, we got burned. I said, that doesnt mean that the third one wont succeed. You know . [ applause ] we was given a chance. [ applause ] we was given a chance. Lets get back. I went all over the state advocating at chapter meetings. You know, following up. You know, talking for people that is behind them walls that aint got a voice for themselves yet. Thats what i do. And i love it, man. You know, i let them guys know, you know, i hear the desire. Theyre afraid to go back to where they came from, you know, because like an old man told me one time, if you continue doing what youve always done, youll continue being who youve been. If you want to become someone youve never begun, you have to begin doing things youve never done. Thats where we come in. [ applause ] had a bag of clothes. Didnt have a change of underwear. When i first got the job, i was getting donations and putting them may trunk and taking them all over the state. A lot of people that im placing told me they dont have no family. They aint got nobody. I said you do now. [ cheers and applause ] this aint a job, to me. I mean, yeah, i get paid for it but [ laughter ] i love what i do. I love what i do. I love sitting down and doing an interview with somebody and letting them know im here to help them. You know, dont get me wrong, i set up over 130 interviews and placed a hundred people. I got deny some people. It aint just for some people. Some people just aint for us at oxford house. Thats unfortunate but its the truth. You know, if youre not showing any willingness and youre not listening to what im saying, then were not going to waste no more time here. Just like i tell people in houses, if youre not serious about the recovery, youre in somebodys bed that is going to be. [ applause ] im just being real. You know, and everybody deserves a chance. I do love reentry. People do change their lives, like all of us here. Thank you, guys. Thats all ive got. [ applause ] thank you, justin. Well have a special our next speaker is Annie Cleveland from oxford virginia. I want you to know that her parents came down here to see her with her daughter. [ cheers and applause ] good morning. My name is Annie Cleveland. Im a woman in longterm recovery. What it means, i havent felt the need to put a mindaltering substance in my body since april of 2013. [ applause ] im super blessed and honored to be here with the panelists. Its hard to follow so im going to tell you a little bit about myself in what ive found works for me. Im one of 13 Washington State outreach workers. Washington state over 300 strong. Yeah so i work in six different counties. I work with six different drug courts and prisons and jails all across Washington State. One of the biggest things ive found is establishing that positive, you know, communication. You can be a liaison between the houses and these entities. You know, and youre there to help change peoples lives. So thats one of the main things i do. Go to those Drug Court Graduations and meet with the compliance officers and sit down with the judges and also sit down with my house mates and my members. I, you know, am present for drug court and graduations. There to support them. Thats some of the things they need. Oxford house drives because of our integrity. It helps participants adhere to policies and stipulations of the program that they are trying to complete. We hold each other accountable. We lead by example. We love people until they can love themselves. [ cheers and applause ] leadership, for me, is among peers is very important in meeting our challenges. Drug court strongly encourages their participants to live in oxford houses because they know they stand a better chance of recovery than any place else. Making it through Drug Court Program is not an easy task, but living with a group of people who understands and are working through their life challenges and support one another is a paramount for success. Im grateful to be a Washington State outreach worker. Im very grateful to help bridge the gap between drug court, parole, and thank you. [ applause ] thank you our next speaker will be ceo of National Association of drug court professionals. Please welcome mr. Carson fox. [ applause ] i come at a disadvantage because you know plenty of people an the panel but you dont know me. You probably wonder why im here and how i got involved. Everyone had a little time to tell a story. Ill tell a short story. Im not in recovery but i was, umm, well, let me ask you this. How many of you played with match boxcars when you were little . Yeah. A hand for the match boxcars i love them so im a long, long way from playing with match boxcars. But when i was a little kid, a friend of mine grew up with them. We played with match boxcars. Thats what we did. And we lived across the street from each other. Kind of similar households. Similar everything. He got involved in alcohol and drugs and i got involved in alcohol when we were both young. For whatever reason, his path was different than my path. He had, honestly, with his family he had more resources than my family had. They tried. They threw every resource at him they could. Im 51 now. He would be 49. My guess is of the 49 years, he spent 20 to 25 in prison. I became later on i became a prosecutor and didnt want to be a lifetime prosecutor. I wanted to be a lawyer. A prosecutor when youre in law school, a lot of lawyers go into prosecution because you get court work. And they asked me to help start a drug court. I started researching what it was and looked like it was helping people and i said sure. Its weird. A lot of my friends after i started doing that. I was like i think i want to make it a career. They are like youre crazy. I think i want to do this. So what im here to ask yall for is help. Annie touched on this, too. Theres about 4,000 treatment courts in the country. We also have veterans courts where veterans come in. They might have alcohol and drug problems or ptsd or traumatic brain injury. Were moving to a place where most of the folks in drug courts or treatment courts in the country theyre not in there for, like, a possession charge. Theyre in there for a charge driven by drugs. Like, my friend i grew up with, before he was arrested, before he was ever arrested the first time, other things happened. My parents woke up in the middle of the night and he was in there bedroom rifling through my moms purse. Because if you remember, for those here around my age, 25 or 30 years ago, when i was kid, that was 40 years ago. In a lot of communities, nobody locked their doors. My parents actually would get mad at us if i had to wash the car and i pulled it into a certain place and washed it but didnt leave the keys in the ignition. They got mad. How you going to find the keys if theyre not in the ignition. Everybody left their keys in the ignition and hes in the house and going through her purse. And well a lot of folks i dealt with as a prosecutor, too, and this is one thing i need your help with. A lot of folks understand what yall understand. And i explain to people. Ill talk to people sometimes and talk to somebody who was working in our field for awhile and not too long ago and said recently i was in a drug court and it was interesting because not a single participate had a drug charge. One person had a drug or alcohol charge and they couldnt understand what i was talking about. And i said theyre all there because drugs and alcohol are issues they have. Its interesting i was interviewed. We had a big conference last summer and last summer my sister came. She came to the conference and she was able to come. She wanted to see what i did. And, you know, my sister is one of those people and maybe all yall have family members she wants to hug every dolphin and would probably stop her car to hug a tree. [ laughter ] but she heard stories of graduates who stood up in front of people and there was a young woman who was a graduate who spoke at our conference. She had 18 felons. They werent drug possessions. She finished drug court and now she runs a treatment facility. And my sister this is what im closing the story. My sister after wards she told me she said she likes what i do but said ill tell you this not understanding the system. I dont know i would have given this person another chance. And what i need yalls help on is that a lot of folks dont understand that. They dont understand that the folks in drug courts in the country, more and more have charges that are not drug and alcohol charges. Theyre charges where they have victims but i can tell you when you talk to people and im not going to ask you to raise your hands. You had to raise your hands for a bunch of stuff today. I can tell you a lot of times the victims people have, people if youre in a drug court, for example, if youre paying restitution to folks, those victims are who . Like in my friends case. Family, neighbors, employers, and friends. And my friends case it was a neighbor and a friend. And its like when karl was talking. People arent disposable. Its thats a message that for that yall can help me with is to get folks to understand that. To get folks to understand that there is folks in the system. Theres folks, for example, that are living in the communities and in part of if yall are familiar with drug court, the idea is you dont send people to prison. More often than not now but folks in drug courts dont have drug charges. They have charges theres some supervision because they have restitution. They might have criminal records that are pages long and youre giving them a chance and trying to get them connected to recovery. Its about connecting these folks to recovery. I need yall to help with that understanding. Because theres a lot of folks when they think about people in recovery and think about people finding recovery, they think about people who have charges. They think about just drug or alcohol charges. They dont think about other charges. It doesnt enter their mind. It needs to enter their mind. Finally, again, a big push weve been making recently is that we found out theres research out there this may or may not surprise you. It looks like, depending on the state youre in in the united states, we talked about the number of folks in prison that in some states over 50 of the people in state prison are there because they were revoked from probation. And the reason most of those folks were revoked is because they had a technical violation. The technical violations most have to do with what . Drugs and alcohol. What is critical for folks to understand and a push were making is that if you have a drug court in your community, and what someone has shown you is they basically need more services and a higher level of care, why put them in prison . Why not offer them more services and a higher level of care . Why are folks why where maybe in some states over 50 percent of the people in prison people who, when the judge first sentenced them, that judge decided youre not a threat to public safety. You can be out in the community. What you need is treatment. When that person relapses and cant make it, at some point in time, down the road, that person is sent to prison. They have done nothing else to show theyre a threat to the community. Why . Why not keep them in the community and give them those more services and give them that extra step they need and thats something were working on. But ku tell you, its a heavy lift. You could be talking about a million folks behind bars who should be in their communities receiving treatment communitybased and still in contact with their families. Thats a heavy lift. Its a heavy lift to get folks to understand that. A lot of people dont. I was surprised my sister didnt understand it. I was surprised with folks, you know, my sister, obviously, has known me for some time. She didnt understand a lot of folks come into drug court have more than drug charges. They have more than alcohol charges. I just need yall to keep keeping up the fight and doing the good work. The guy i know i grew up with, somebody told me when i was back home in the visit in the last couple of years. They asked me about him and said do you think his life would have been different if back then 25 years ago, we had a program like that. I said i dont know. I certainly would hope so. I would like to hope so since this is my lifes work if we had that that he would have had a different path. And our work and my organization is to ensure that as many people as possible are given an opportunity for that different path. So i want to thank you yall for what you do and if anybody has any questions for me, find me, ask me. I work every day of the year. I love the work yall do and keep doing what youre doing. Ill say this, the worst thing ive had to do all week is follow these people. These are fantastic people. [ applause ] [ cheers and applause ] okay. We finished a little earlier. Were going to open it up for questions. If you could line up, please identify yourself with what house or state youre from and what house. Im brittany from houston, texas. So in houston, were trying to integrate reentry really hard now. We think its a great idea. I think people treat reentry the same way they treat mat or march or whatever its called and theyre scared of it. A lot of houses are closed off in houston. Like, oh, no, we dont want to accept that person. Theyre going to its wrong. What is a different approach maybe, like, to offer these homes these houses, like, a reentry person . You know, because people are turned off to the idea of reentry. We have a few reentry Success Stories. Theres one here with us today and, like, so it works. You know, its just a lot of houses are closed off and i want to know if theres a different word we can use than reentry or i dont know if it makes sense to yall. Does anybody want to answer . Weve got several answers for you. Okay. My first inclination to grab a baseball bat and start beating the heck out of them. [ applause ] i dont know, man. We asked how many people in here, you know, spent time incarcerated and the whole room raised their hand. If you went back to the houses, it would be the same result. Its a simple case of people forgetting where they come from. You know, we stumbled into recovery. Get a haircut, take a shower, and get a cheap bottle of cologne and all of a sudden, you know, we forget laying on that prison bunk. We forget when it was time for us to come home. All those prayers and the hoping about wishing and god help me stay clean. God help me find a job. God, please, allow somebody to welcome me somewhere so i can have a sense of belonging. We forget about that. Thats a sickness itself. I guess you can do, man, is keep pushing the message. Keep holding up your corner of the world, so to speak and keep being that example. Texas yall are crazy. You eat a lot together. At those events, the more you can put a reentry Success Story in front, maybe make them the keynote for those events. Make them, you know, get them to start getting elected to a lot of the positions and whatnot and take leadership roles and maybe thatll help turn the tide. One of the things i want to add to that, too, you were asking is there a different name for them. There is. Oxford house resident. [ applause ] the easiest way to classify them differently is they are different. Do they want to stop using drugs and stay stopped and a member that wants to live in the oxford house. Okay. I would like to add to that. Not only with reentry but a lot of times, you know, there will be some houses where someone has an illness or, you know, theyre gay or something and i find that houses that seem to operate with a narrow mind that education will bring it up. And just go there and explain the situation and remind everyone were in recovery. As long as we all start on the same page, were all in recovery, then we can work miracles from there. Let us establish the fact that we are a house built on recovery and all are welcome. Hi. Im from the fort worth, texas area. I also sit on the fort worth inner chapter Reentry Committee at oxford house. Were having an issue in texas with parole approved oxford houses. We need some help getting our houses approved for parole for probation. What is the, you know, what is the essential problem that . We cant get our houses parole approved. You have any . Maybe one in the fort worth area. Sorry, we have two. Do you know how they were approved this. By accident . [ laughter ] a happy accident . Theyre saying up here they require licenses. Is that accurate . All the houses in texas have to be individually approved. Thats something each house has to address directly with probation parole. They will not approve a group of houses that is texas rule. If a house wants to get parole approved, they have to deal with it individually. Every single house. And i think they have a lot of stipulations in place that we need to work on. They want to have a Constant Contact in the home. You guys have some obstacles that will be difficult to overcome because of texas law. Its not your guys fault at all. Hawaiis the is same way. We open up a new house or have an existing house and well invite the parole officer to come out and view the property, call the phone number. Well call from the house so they have the number. And have them tour it and then if is sfar to them, and, you know, we, you know, fall into certain categories where, hey, you dont the president next to a school or here or there. Thats on parole. Thats not on oxford house. And, you know, they will approve but they also found they used to just blanket it. But then they had a shot that approach to their clientele and had trouble monitoring those people. So they limited it to about six houses out of 30 that they will send their clients to. Then, you know, its easier to manage on their end. Show them the place and see if that works. Thank you. Good luck. I have two questions. One for curtis and the other gentleman that works for the state. I have three numbers. Im chapter 11 reentry coordinator reentry chairman. So with oxford house, what i realized is as the reentry chairman, we have the different positions. Theres no really coordination with other reentry chairman in other cities or anything like that. Could there be more on exactly what our job what we could be doing. Its a position we have at the meeting. Relate to the area. Yeah. To expand it and help each other out. And with texas we have a Reentry Division part of, you know, the parole. And they only have a presence while youre inside. Theres no presence outside. When 02 released they give you a packet with homeless shelters and thats it. Inside they get you the Social Security card, id, and birth certificate thats it. What is the mission for you in North Carolina. What would a state reentry person can do so mine can help me whenever im in the capital and whenever i advocate more for reentry and people getting out of prison in the state of texas. Thank you. Youre asking what more can you do as a subcommittee. Is that what youre asking . No. With someone who is a reentry coordinator are for a state level you know what exactly i know you mentioned things meeting with other people whenever i see a guy doing that. What is the hard data. You want hard data. What exactly is a reentry coordinator for a state do . . I help assist people out of transition out of incarceration into an oxford house. The subcommittees we have in North Carolina do help with the placements sometimes. They do help advocate. Me personally, yes, i work the whole state but if youre willing to, you know, on your own drive around and advocate and like what was said earlier bring in Success Stories with you just a couple of things weve done in our area is got houses that donated clothes. People from the houses donate their old clothes. Of course, we dont get donations from everywhere because bugs but we started reentry closets for people that is coming out of incarceration with no clothes. We help with that. My subcommittees, our subcommittees they help with placements and help guide me into the right direction of a good house. Stuff like that. Thats really all i really got for the subcommittees. Unless you want to start doing presentations on your own at homeless shelters where people are getting released to. Thats one much my main jobs is making sure somebody has a safe place to transition into and not a homeless shelter. Im sorry. Your name again . Quinton. Quinton, yo. My name is dan. Youre in texas, correct . Yes, sir. The situation that youre in i know the folks that work for oxford house worked tirelessly in a lot of your state and regional leaders have worked tirelessly trying to get the reentry system polished to where its successful to the houses. The best advice i would have for you to try to answer your questions and make your position feel valid, right, is to go out and work with salvation armies, homeless shelters, and focus on people that are starting from zero getting into the houses. Because, again, reentry is not just incarceration. Okay. Anybody that is needing to reenter society. And until texas gets those political things lined out to where oxford house is blanketly approved or even multiple houses approved, just focus on helping those that dont have. We just got, what, you know, our chapter in austin just got parole approved. Come see me after the meeting. Okay. Im from houston, texas. My question is specifically it was suggested that to help with the Reentry Program and efforts were doing is start working with drug court. I want to know the process. Do i literally just walk in and say, hey, judge. Im willing to do. Good luck with that. Yeah. Well as an employee of the county so i kind of can get through back doors but once im in there, who am i looking for . Who am i talking to . You want to talk about it first . Okay. First thing i did, i just introduced myself and i set up conferences. So one of our areas they have a coordinator that is a coordinator of all the courts. Whether its Mental Health court, drug court, family court, they usually have a liaison between the courts that can direct you. And just, you know, because i am we worked with a bunch of different counties. I work with six counties and they have different rules for every county. In some counties, they authorized me to have roi. Because of hipaa and Different Things like that. So theres that open communication, you know, because they would like us to tell them if one of their participates relapsed or moved out of a home or Different Things like that. So we should be able to call them and ask, hey, what did they get sanctioned for . So thats, you know, one of the things i did. And just being involved. We have compliance officers. So those are the people between the counsellors and the court. Liaison system. I introduced myself and some of the officers and some of my counties there is actually officers that come by the house and things. So just introducing yourself. Showing up for the events. You know, celebrating those, you know, graduation markers. You know, moving from, you know, the different phases just making yourself out there. Im going give you my email address. If anybody needs it, take it down. Its cfox allrise. Org. Email me. What i can do theres a coordinator in the houston drug courts. Ill do an introduction. Email and ill do an introduction and follow up on everything you said. Its Relationship Building from there. So, yeah, you can email today or next week or whatever is good for you. Its cfox allrise. Org. Theres no spaces or capitals or anything. Org. Yeah. Im from the state of colorado. I came from reentry. I guess its an important component for me. I guess now i am outreach representative but been working in reentry since i got out of prison almost a year ago. I guess somebody kind of touched on it but we have such an amazing outreach and reentry team in colorado. The thing i find most frustrating is the cooperation and the stigma i guess it we get from the houses. Because theres kind of a backlash. Especially from the houses that are already established. They try to separate reentry. I think the guys are trying to please and get out of the department of constructions come out with the stigma i guess it thats a doc guy and separate hem rather than make him a part of the oxford house. I was trying to figure out how to combat the problem more because of any suggestions you might have. Because ive tried a lot of different approaches but yet it seems to be a constant problem in our area. Youre saying once they get there, theyre still a bit ostracized. To some degree. I mean, theres definitely a level of people who dont want to work with reentry in our state and once they get there i dont want to place somebody that comes out of prison into a house where theres already negative feelings or behaviors because, i mean, were setting them up for failure. Absolutely. Yeah. You yourself having been reentry tell your story. Tell them about yourself. Be the leader. Thats what i did in my area. When i ran into problems like that, i let them know i did seven and a half years in prison and this is where im at in my recovery. This is what ocean ford house has done for me. And to really just encourage them that it doesnt matter where you come from. It doesnt matter. People get caught and some people dont. Its as simple as that. Were all here. Just push kbrours and your story and thatll touch people. We have five minutes. Hello. My name is Peggy Alexander schultz and im from louisville, kentucky. I was one of the many who had their hand raised and im a reentry. I graduated drug court in 2012. After three and a half years and without that supervision and accountability i was high before the dawn of the next day. Fast forward six and a half years later and i caught my first felon in december of 2018. I caught my first pv in january of january of 2019. It helped me get clean but oxford house helped me stay sober. I want to give yall gratitude. Youre changing lives. [ applause ] thank you my name is william from texas. Im one of the north texas reentry chairs and i was just wondering for you might have any sources for, like, federal funding or state funding. Were trying to get together a bunch of resources to create a resource list to where when people come into our houses, we have them, you know, like day one through three. Get your food stamps, go here to get your birth certificate and drivers license. Are there any state and federal sources you might have connections with or links to that might be able to help get some of the stuff for these people . None that im going to no. Listen. Out of texas im using an Organization Called clean cause. They have helped us with first months rent. But thats all, you know, as far as federal and state funding, no. Youre on your own on that. I dont have a clue. Thank you. Sure. One of the things, quick, in North Carolina a lot of houses and chapters contribute monthly into a fund. We call it the reentry fund. Out of that fund, were able to pay the entry fee and a little bit of expense share initially for folks coming home. Really quick. Recently the state of Texas Regional associations created a reentry position on that level. And the question i wanted to ask is, you know, people on the panel if theres any experience on renditions try on the regional role and what role the position can play better to serve, you know, the state and stuff like that. Were still kind of trying to figure it out. You know, what our current reentry chair has been doing is kind of, like, working on her own city and seeing what others are doing but, like, what role can the regional associations play on reentry and working with reentry . Well, you know, thats really, you know, i think curtis, you know, explained it really well. Its like he hymn and kathleen they kind of created this position. You kind of you have to build it and network and kind of make your own schedule. Your own pace. But you also when you have other team members and have to really focus so youre not overlapping eachs other work and you make headway. But you have any . Before i came aboard, i was working in louisiana and theyve recently started a Reentry Association themselves on the past year and a half or so. Its been very successful. I would highly recommend you find some of those people while youre here and talk to them. But its really about getting people to volunteer in their area and meeting as a group bimonthly and just hitting all the bases. Collectively deciding what is best for the entire state. Okay. Thank you. One of the Biggest Challenges is getting the word out. Theres so many people who dont know that oxford house exists or that they have options when they come home. So if were going to be that light that i talked about earlier and run the darkness away, then its up to you and i to volunteer. Go inside the facilities. You know, introduce yourself to case managers and superintendents of facilities and tell them about oxford house. Any opportunity that you get, invite these people to see an oxford house. Thats the most powerful tool that you have. Is to bring somebody into an actual living, breathing oxford house. Once they see that model and hear one or two stories from the individuals that live there, theyre sold. Thank you. Thats all the time we have. I would like you to thank the panel. Thank you for your participation. [ applause ] i think youre see a number of states acted and tried to do certain things i disagree with and see others that jump into the debate and having 50 different states pull us in different directions. Its why we have exercise state commerce clause. Its not something they have the expertise in. Theyre supposed to be governing traffic and my definition, my structure, my analysis of the architecture, there is no basically intrastate traffic on the internet. Between 1914 to 1925. The idea was they that wanted to go out and have fun. They want to demonstrate, hey, guess what. You get in your and do these things, too. They werent going to have to try to light their own campfires. They had the amenities. They had a refrigerated car powered by edison batteries. They could have fresh dairy. They had chefs that would prepare gourmet meals at night. In the morning they would dresh in freshly ironed clothes. They were so famous and america was so grateful to them it doesnt matter. The point was, hey, were out in cars traveling and seeing these things. You can do it, too. Now a discussion on social media and the first amendment. Including whether the amendment bars congress from regulating digital