What prosecutors and incarcerated people can learn from each other | Jarrell Daniels

46,079 views ・ 2019-06-25

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00:12
When I look in the mirror today,
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I see a justice and education scholar at Columbia University,
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a youth mentor, an activist
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and a future New York state senator.
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(Cheering)
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I see all of that
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and a man who spent a quarter of his life in state prison --
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six years, to be exact,
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starting as a teenager on Rikers Island
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for an act that nearly cost a man his life.
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But what got me from there to here
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wasn't the punishment I faced as a teenager in adult prison
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or the harshness of our legal system.
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Instead, it was a learning environment of a classroom
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that introduced me to something I didn't think was possible for me
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or our justice system as a whole.
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A few weeks before my release on parole,
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a counselor encouraged me to enroll in a new college course
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being offered in the prison.
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It was called Inside Criminal Justice.
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That seems pretty straightforward, though, right?
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Well, it turns out,
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the class would be made up of eight incarcerated men
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and eight assistant district attorneys.
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Columbia University psychology professor Geraldine Downey
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and Manhattan Assistant DA Lucy Lang
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co-taught the course,
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and it was the first of its kind.
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I can honestly say
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this wasn't how I imagined starting college.
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My mind was blown from day one.
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I assumed all the prosecutors in the room would be white.
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But I remember walking into the room on the first day of class
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and seeing three black prosecutors
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and thinking to myself,
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"Wow, being a black prosecutor --
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that's a thing!"
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(Laughter)
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By the end of the first session,
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I was all in.
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In fact, a few weeks after my release,
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I found myself doing something I prayed I wouldn't.
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I walked right back into prison.
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But thankfully, this time it was just as a student,
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to join my fellow classmates.
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And this time,
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I got to go home when class was over.
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In the next session, we talked about what had brought each of us
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to this point of our lives
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and into the classroom together.
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I eventually got comfortable enough
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to reveal my truth to everyone in the room
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about where I came from.
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I talked about how my sisters and I watched our mother suffer years of abuse
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at the hands of our stepfather,
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escaping, only to find ourselves living in a shelter.
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I talked about how I swore an oath to my family
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to keep them safe.
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I even explained how I didn't feel like a teenager at 13,
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but more like a soldier on a mission.
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And like any soldier,
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this meant carrying an emotional burden on my shoulders,
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and I hate to say it,
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but a gun on my waist.
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And just a few days after my 17th birthday,
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that mission completely failed.
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As my sister and I were walking to the laundromat,
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a crowd stopped in front of us.
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Two girls out of nowhere attacked my sister.
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Still confused about what was happening, I tried to pull one girl away,
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and just as I did, I felt something brush across my face.
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With my adrenaline rushing,
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I didn't realize a man had leaped out of the crowd and cut me.
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As I felt warm blood ooze down my face,
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and watching him raise his knife toward me again,
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I turned to defend myself and pulled that gun from my waistband
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and squeezed the trigger.
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Thankfully, he didn't lose his life that day.
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My hands shaking and heart racing, I was paralyzed in fear.
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From that moment,
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I felt regret that would never leave me.
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I learned later on they attacked my sister in a case of mistaken identity,
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thinking she was someone else.
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It was terrifying,
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but clear that I wasn't trained, nor was I qualified,
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to be the soldier that I thought I needed to be.
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But in my neighborhood,
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I only felt safe carrying a weapon.
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Now, back in the classroom, after hearing my story,
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the prosecutors could tell I never wanted to hurt anyone.
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I just wanted us to make it home.
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I could literally see the gradual change in each of their faces
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as they heard story after story
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from the other incarcerated men in the room.
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Stories that have trapped many of us
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within the vicious cycle of incarceration,
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that most haven't been able to break free of.
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And sure -- there are people who commit terrible crimes.
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But the stories of these individuals' lives
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before they commit those acts
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were the kinds of stories these prosecutors had never heard.
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And when it was their turn to speak -- the prosecutors --
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I was surprised, too.
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They weren't emotionless drones or robocops,
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preprogrammed to send people to prison.
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They were sons and daughters,
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brothers and sisters.
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But most of all, they were good students.
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They were ambitious and motivated.
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And they believed that they could use the power of law to protect people.
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They were on a mission that I could definitely understand.
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Midway through the course, Nick, a fellow incarcerated student,
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poured out his concern
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that the prosecutors were tiptoeing around the racial bias and discrimination
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within our criminal justice system.
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Now, if you've ever been to prison,
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you would know it's impossible to talk about justice reform
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without talking about race.
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So we silently cheered for Nick
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and were eager to hear the prosecutors' response.
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And no, I don't remember who spoke first,
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but when Chauncey Parker, a senior prosecutor, agreed with Nick
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and said he was committed to ending the mass incarceration of people of color,
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I believed him.
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And I knew we were headed in the right direction.
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We now started to move as a team.
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We started exploring new possibilities
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and uncovering truths about our justice system
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and how real change
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happens for us.
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For me, it wasn't the mandatory programs inside of the prison.
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Instead, it was listening to the advice of elders --
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men who have been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
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These men helped me reframe my mindset around manhood.
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And they instilled in me all of their aspirations and goals,
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in the hopes that I would never return to prison,
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and that I would serve as their ambassador to the free world.
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As I talked, I could see the lights turning on for one prosecutor,
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who said something I thought was obvious:
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that I had transformed despite my incarceration
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and not because of it.
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It was clear these prosecutors hadn't thought much about
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what happens to us after they win a conviction.
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But through the simple process of sitting in a classroom,
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these lawyers started to see that keeping us locked up
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didn't benefit our community
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or us.
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Toward the end of the course, the prosecutors were excited,
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as we talked about our plans for life after being released.
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But they hadn't realized how rough it was actually going to be.
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I can literally still see the shock
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on one of the junior ADA's face when it hit her:
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the temporary ID given to us with our freedom
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displayed that we were just released from prison.
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She hadn't imagined how many barriers this would create for us
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as we reenter society.
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But I could also see her genuine empathy for the choice we had to make
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between coming home to a bed in a shelter
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or a couch in a relative's overcrowded apartment.
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What we learned in the class
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worked its way into concrete policy recommendations.
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We presented our proposals
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to the state Department of Corrections commissioner
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and to the Manhattan DA,
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at our graduation in a packed Columbia auditorium.
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As a team,
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I couldn't have imagined a more memorable way
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to conclude our eight weeks together.
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And just 10 months after coming home from prison,
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I again found myself in a strange room,
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invited by the commissioner of NYPD to share my perspective
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at a policing summit.
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And while speaking,
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I recognized a familiar face in the audience.
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It was the attorney who prosecuted my case.
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Seeing him,
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I thought about our days in the courtroom
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seven years earlier,
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as I listened to him recommend a long prison sentence,
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as if my young life was meaningless
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and had no potential.
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But this time,
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the circumstances were different.
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I shook off my thoughts
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and walked over to shake his hand.
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He looked happy to see me.
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Surprised, but happy.
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He acknowledged how proud he was about being in that room with me,
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and we began a conversation about working together
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to improve the conditions of our community.
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And so today,
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I carry all of these experiences with me,
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as I develop the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council at Columbia University,
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bringing young New Yorkers -- some who have already spent time locked up
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and others who are still enrolled in high school --
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together with city officials.
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And in this classroom,
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everyone will brainstorm ideas
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about improving the lives of our city's most vulnerable youth
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before they get tried within the criminal justice system.
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This is possible if we do the work.
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Our society and justice system has convinced us
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that we can lock up our problems
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and punish our way out of social challenges.
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But that's not real.
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Imagine with me for a second
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a future where no one can become
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a prosecutor,
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a judge,
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a cop
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or even a parole officer
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without first sitting in a classroom
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to learn from and connect with
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the very people whose lives will be in their hands.
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I'm doing my part to promote the power of conversations
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and the need for collaborations.
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It is through education
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that we will arrive at a truth that is inclusive and unites us all
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in the pursuit of justice.
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For me, it was a brand-new conversation
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and a new kind of classroom
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that showed me how both my mindset
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and our criminal justice system
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could be transformed.
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They say the truth shall set you free.
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But I believe
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it's education
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and communication.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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