Addiction hosted this panel during its annual convention in washington. This is 1 10. Good morning again, everyone. My watch says 11 20. Were going to go ahead and get started. My name is Curtis Taylor and im a person in long term recovery. I have not used alcohol or any other drug in almost 15 years now. [ cheers and applause ] please understand that is strictly by gods grace and mercy. Like marty walker, i take no credit whatsoever for all the good things god is doing in my life today. This particular panel is what my passion is many my life is dedicated to what we call reentry. Im dedicated to helping men and women transition from incarceration in a successful manner such that they never ever ever go back to prison. Thats what i get paid to do today. Imagine that. Over three quarters of the oxford house population has done some jail or prison time. I think only the senators aide has not. 70 of people in jails or prisons are addicted to alcohol or drugs. Every year thousands of them reenter society. Half of those individuals will commit another crime and be headed right back to conviction and reentry into incarceration. Those who enter in oxford house following an incarceration, tend to master long term recovery. And crime freebie hav yore. In some states, oxford house has developed relationships with Reentry Programs, to prevent those leaving incarceration, to go straight into an oxford house. This panel will discuss how to encourage this. Oxford house residents who come into an oxford house are exposed to a participatory democracy, rather than Institutional Authority they are elected to leadership positions most residents rise to the occasion, this kind of real Life Training is rare for individuals reentering society. The value of oxford house as transitional residents and practical ways to facilitate individuals into an oxford house. Before i introduce our panel. I want to make sure everyone has silenced their cell phone. Everyone has had that last minute discussion they need to have, so we can all show together each panel member our utmost respect today. Our first panel member is stacy hatfield, who is oxford house outreach in Washington State. Im a woman in long term recovery, what that means for me is that i havent had the need to use since september 21st, 2006. I live in spokane, washington. Id like to start off by saying in the early 2000s, this great guy named tony perkins started the incarceration committee. And we are a little more politically correct today, we call it the Reentry Program. He started this off of when it first started it started with 500 would get them into a house and that would be their application fee and toward their ees of whatever house they were in. We have the Voucher Program, the doc Voucher Program. In Washington State we have this excellent relationship with Washington Department of corrections, they see that moving into an oxford house is more beneficial if we can get them into an oxford house than housing them for 150 a day. We have a pretty large Reentry Program almost all 250 of our hou houses are preapproved addresses, there are most houses participate. Not all houses do, but for the most part they do. In my area, the houses that participate, we have a reentry chairperson. She will get all of the applications that are coming to our area in Eastern Washington shell get these applications there regular application and then about 5 for pages of questions. A lot of the questions that are on the interview, basically. They seb send that sevenpage application to her, and she will go over those and do phone interviews with the counselor present, with the inmate and herself we do a house interview, for most of the houses that participate in our Reentry Program. They are okay knowing she does a thorough interview, and weve talked to the counselor, and we know what kind of programming theyre doing inside and we know what infractions they have. Were not sending somebody to just the preapproved address. Somebody who wants to get out of jail and prison and just get some place to live. She does that pretty well. They the reinterview when the person gets to the house. Some houses theyll take all of the paperwork she will fill out. And go to the house. That house will want to accept them that way. Sometimes if that doesnt always work, they get there, and the house doesnt like that person, then they just will stay there until they interview it at another house. Theyre accepted in the Reentry Program. Their house just may change. Very rarely does that happen . On occasion it will be something theyll get there and something will be they may know of a guy from something, or they there might be some kind of reason to transfer that person. Mostly, thats about all i would say that these guys are going to go into more detail about it. I wanted to explain the Voucher Program mostly for us, it is we are pressed to have this. And we have a pretty large turnout. And it fills our houses with guys from prison. Thats all i have. Stacy is being extremely modest. What we need to embrace and acknowledge is the fact that every single Reentry Program for oxford house in america is modelled after Washington State s the only thing we cant model is that Voucher Program. They hold pretty tightly to those Purse Strings in other states. I was joking with our next presenter about some of the language we use to define ourselves, this criminal Justice Initiative type thing. In a way, some of it is funny, i know this next presenter, theres no judgment in his heart. He means no harm whatsoever. At the end of the day, i have a lot of titles. None of them is an exoffender, my name is not exoffender, as a matter of fact i offend people every day. I wondered if you all were going to get that. Reentry coordinator, a procedure, a basketball coach a son. Thats who and what i am for today. My past will not dictate my present nor my future. With that, im going to give you mr. Ivory wilson who has a lot of alphabets behind his name. Im not even go to try to decipher those. Hes a very important gentleman, and hes the Program Manager, the office of Behavioral Health and department of health and Human Services in louisiana. Like curtis mentioned, im a Program Manager with the office of Behavioral Health in louisiana. Weve been contracting with oxford house for years. I want to give you this disclaimer. We operate within these silos. Antiquated language was being used to describe incarcerated people. If its offensive, there is no ill intent. I grew up in new orleans, and i just never got caught. So that being said. Ill go over some objectives, the Reentry Program realigns with the objectives you have outlined within the reentry m model. Later, ill describe some of the barriers that prevent individuals from maintaining absence from drugs and alcohol, being able to stay out of institutions and prevent them from being incarcerated. Second objective is the value of oxford house, the transition of residents. I heard lori mention earlier, she stayed in oxford house for seven years. She got a. I dont think we do enough for oxford house in our state. Ill show you how were attempting to meet the needs of oxford house in our state. The next one is transitioning individuals who are free from institutions. Whats a better way to describe that, besides using that nasty o word. What did you use, offender . Returning citizen. I promise you, i want to use this crazy language moving forward . Ill give you a backdrop on oxford house in louisiana. Not as large as washington and north carolina. Currently we have a total of 110 houses. We have 69 mens houses. One particular house, i managed the federal funds. Women who have chemical dependent histories. A total of 10 facilities. To implement the continuing care and treatment. We have 16 womens and childrens homes. The total of 809 bids, i cant explain to you how that fits into full continuum in those states. I cant impress upon you how important those bids are, in if our continuum of care. There are 509 mens beds. As a breakdown of how many total womens bids we have, a total number of women and childrens bedses. This is some of the data laurie gave to me prior to the conference. 98 of oxford house residents, have a state or parish level at some point in time. Once you see these shocking numbers from louisiana in terms of prison incarceration rates. Its probably more than 90 , and maybe underestimated. So the average incarceration time has been 16 months. And of the total number of individuals that actually took the survey within those 110 houses, 81 or 444 residents took that survey which attributed to this data. So judging from the data privacy its not doing much. Theres a new federal program. There are a couple bullets, a lot of language that im not interested in. Bipartisan Group Provides Law Enforcement community members, legislators, state organization like the office of health which i work for. Changing an impact in the criminal Justice System in louisiana. Post katrina we have 4. 8 people in the state of louisiana, were the size of metropolitan dallas or Something Like that. This number is going to shock you. I hope you had something to keep you calm before you came in, before you started looking at these numbers. Louisiana has a total prison population of 839,000 people. 4. 6 Million People in the whole state. We have almost 40,000 people who are incarcerated. Thats shocking. 84 some incarcerated. Some type of illness and substances at the time theyre incarcerated for. Ive never been incarcerated. All under the influence of illicit drugs at the time. The data suggested theres 84 i visited the prison institutions. The National Average is somewhere around 78, 79. They always do it big. We exceeded that number. Of those individuals who are incarcerated. That exceeds the 30 . We show up in louisiana. This is even more shocking the amount of money we spend as a sta state. The individuals suffer from Mental Health and Substance Abuse disorders. We spend a little more than 400 million. State and federal funds recorded. Take a look at what another state spends on their budget. 700 million on keeping people incarcerated. You have a situation in the state where the d. A. s office, you have moss cuters, you have judges going around saying, we have to be tougher on crime, we have to lock them up. The department of justice released the data report, i think 20152016. Indicated less than 35 of the individuals who were incarcerated were there for violent or heinous crimes. Its so important, once you have regained your status back in society, its important you have rerj sistered to vote. They are roonting and raving how bad people are. Its our priority to get everyone into treatment. Some of these same lawmakers who add to this enormous amount of money we spend on the criminal Justice System. Let me just get away from that topic. Stay out of trouble for that. At a rate nearly double the National Average second and third highest states. Anyone from oklahoma . We beat you on that. Louisiana sends people to prison for nonviolent offenses at 1. 3 times the rate of neighboring states. I get into some information a little later about this, but it was a study done. And they examined the incarceration time frame for individuals in cook county, illinois, to individuals being incarcerated. Similar charges, in both states, two guys, one in louisiana, similar charges. Possession of crack cocaine, crack paraphernalia, a crack pipe and all that stuff. This guy in louisiana hes incarcerated for three years for that particular charge. The guy in cook county, illinois is 2 1 2, 3 months. Its disparaging, i give you some information later that shows that the department of corrections as well as our office was committed to changing that whole dynamic. Heres the golden objective initiative. The primary objective, the Louisiana Department initiative is to inform and educate offenders on the rate of Services Offered through the office of Behavioral Health. With that, were going to have an individual. Its going to be on the oxford house contract also. Dont get stuck on a name, because kathleen and laurie may change it tomorrow. That person will connect individuals being released from doc facilities, for substance abu abuse. Whenever these guys are being released, a lot of times, theyre released into areas with high potential to recommit. We help identify those people. The program i was talking about, its called the pre, i sit on the Behavioral Health subcommittee. Laurie, you also sit on one of the committees. St. Tammany, right. The department was awarded a huge amount of money to reform criminal justice in louisiana. They partnered with a number of different agencies, state agencies. That universities, to establish a way of identify iing individuals theyre also looking at ways to enhance the Current System of reform. Thats not the greatest. The criminal justice liaison, funded through sap refunds. They will work in conjunction with obh and the department of corrections. The goal of this position is to link institutions, neighbors, friends. The statewide oxford house and oba services, thus reducing recidivism. For a long time. Through katrina, they lost a revolving fund. Weve been talking to kathleen and laurie. Paul and everybody else will be looking to get people more money. Its difficult. I take onus for that. Theres a new process you could probably give a flying crap about. Were just getting familiar with it. The role of the liaison, i have to give you a couple of those you want. Substance treatment facilities, a lot of these responsibilities, ill be showing as well. Some of it may not agree or either conform with the oxford house model. In louisiana. These are some of the other responsibilities the new position would intail. Some of the key barriers we face in louisiana. Inadequate housing. One of the biggest issues were having is that besides inadequate housing, theres a problem with being able to place sex offenders, its an extremely sensitive pop wlags. Some have Substance Abuse disorders, Mental Health disorders. Its the elephant in the room. They also need adequate houses. At least 88 of individuals have Substance Abuse disorders. Thats one of the issues that continues to contribute to recidivism. Employment issues. Some of the legislation has been passed in the state. Even though we have this dubious hon ir, they are making some attempts. They passed more legislation in this past session. Its going to prevent these judges and das from giving people who have sicknesses and illnesses these excessive amount s consolidate property crimes. What that equates to, starting in november, individuals who are being given excessive sentences. Especially Mental Health disorders. In a nutshell. They have to get together with the d. A. s and judges and everything. Theyre going to roll back a certain percentage of that time. I cant remember how much they said. Its going to be a significant amount of time. Theyre going to get this bill rolled back. Which is really good, for those who have Substance Abuse disorders. Weapons offenses, senate bill 139 is going to streamline and simplify release processes. Expand programs proven to reduce recidivism. I think by your slogan here. That the department of corrections loves laurie. I cant tell you how many times you go to presentations, trainings, whatever the case would be. I come up here with all these slides and data, they dont want to hear all that. Wheres that girl from oxford. They have a Prison Welfare fund were looking at. These are key terms, forgive me for using them. This is where we are in louisiana. I spoke with one of the deputy secretaries before she went out on medical leave. Were looking at ways to use that Prison Welfare fund to help individuals being released. And if theyre transitioning to oxford house, theyre looking to paying up to maybe two weeks for that first move in fees. Its something. Thats good news. Yeah. Theyre also looking at senate bill 249, in order to pay and modify. You have people who get out of these institutions, theyve been locked up forever. And so dont have a lot of resources, family members, things of that nature. Theyre expecting to play these exorbitant amounts of fees. The legislature woke up and said, that doesnt make sense. This female gets out of jail, and you expect them to pay these fees. The next thing theyre going to do is what . Whats the first thing theyre going to do . Violate, reoffend. You know, i mean, its logical from my standpoint. That guys not locked up, they struck down this particular bill they were probowsing to increase the probation fees. Go figure that. These are some of the additional programs. In louisiana, life means life. That means you die there. Theres no going home when you die, no going to your own private funeral. Theres a huge plot of land, they bury you in a wood box. These life sentences. Anybody who cant be reh rehabilita rehabilitated. Those individuals times will not be considered. The data report suggests most people are not violent people. Thats also good news. The life is under the influence of methamphetamine at the time they killed. Its a serious act. Its not down2k3wr5ided. You bring in that fact, the person being under the influence of some type of volatile illness. It weighs into their Decision Making process. Depends how they look at things. Were just going to look at ones that are more important. This is pretty good right here. House bill 519. They can reestablish occupational licenses. If you were a truck driver before, whatever the case might be. Theyre going to help expedite the process, you can get back gainfully employed. Thats a good one. 680, you have people that got locked up, they have kids. When they get out. That cost is constantly rising. They did wrong, they committed a crime. I get all that. He gets out of jail, he has this exorbitant amount of Child Support to pay. Hes going to reoffend. One of the ideas were talking about in that particular bill is to suspend the payments. Not to remove them from the responsibility. Theyre incarcerated, getting drug treatments, helping them set them up with classes, once they get out, theyll be able to pay those responsibilities. This applies to individuals being released, our neighbors, friends, new citizens. Theyre going to lift the ban on applying for snap benefits. I dont think a you raised your hands. I mean you need a helping hand when they get out, right . Theyre going to open up the ability for those guys to apply for snap. Thats good. These are some of the services we have in our office. Oxford house is in there as well. Substance abuse treatment. Individuals being released. Treatment services, compulsive Gambling Services and so forth. Theres a huge initiative, we apply for through the care act. The comprehensive Addiction Recovery act that was awarded nationwide. We received funding in the form of the str grant. Thats the state targeted response to mat. State targeted response to the opiod and heroin overdose epidemic. Our state is going to receive 8. 1 million for two years. Some of that money is going to go to doc. Its a huge initiative were collaborating with the department of corrections. Were going to establish one female and one male facility. Addicted to heroin, prescription opiods. Theyre going to set up a program in which these individuals probably nine months to a year once theyre in the process of being released from the Reentry Programs, theyll get involved in m. A. T. Programs. Doc will collaborate with the department of probation and parole. Its also going to be a pure support model which is important. Thats an Important Initiative that were embarking upon to kind of help change the climate of the environment of encarceration in our state. With that being said. I had a brother that whos a chronic alcoholic. And you know, he moved into a new housing area. Been addicted to alcohol probably 40 years of his life, and he had an accident one night, he fell down a flight of stairs, living in a housing project. Broke his neck and succumbed to those injuries. And it this thing about being able to connect with people who have chemical dependencies. Its not hard, everyone has one in their family. When i lost my brother, it was difficult, and, you know, oxford house is a great organization. If i could have ever gotten connected to one of those programs. Fortunately what were doing in our state, it will be enhanced services. Help restore them back to their best individual functioning level. Thanks for your time. Lets have another round of applause for mr. Wilson. I think its always incredible to me, when state staff get behind our organization in the way that they do and they embrace your journey and my journey in the way that they do. Thank you so much. Next up, we have mr. Dan hahn, who is the oxford house state coordinator for oklahoma. Good morning, afternoon, everybody. My name is dan and im an alcoholic. Hi, dan. Also a drug addict. Im going to do the best i can today, i have to see that power point. I want to talk a little bit about what we do in oklahoma. Its pretty special, because its done all by the residents. The residents our state is in a serious budget crunch like everyone else. Department of corrections is upside down and its really tough. We put through education, have our residents really supporting this movement with reentry, and were having really good outcomes. Its return to society is the name of my power point. Im going to stick to it. I love reentry so much, it would be 2 00 by the time i shut up. I put a power point together to keep me on track. Go ahead and get this started. Were going to talk about educating the department of corrections. How to apply. The process of acceptance, new member needs which are really important. Transferring to other houses which is something we do in oklahoma. And outcomes and successes. Educating doc in oklahoma, thats been very, very important. We have a limited resources, the department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse has a really Good Department for outreach. We added two new outreach workers. I share a common bond with curtis, i get to practice my passion now. Work on reentry, and do what i love. The reason being, i walks out in 2003 and had nowhere to go. Ill never forget that feeling. Later on, i remember how i felt after i reoffended. No did he ssrespect to the peop returning to society, but we would much rather talk to administration because theyre much more effective in spreading the word. Okay, we dont have an opportunity to always speak to the turnover, the people moving around so we want to really get involved with the administration to let them know about our program and how it works. And that ties in with the partnership. Having contact, informing them, one of our big barriers that we have had in our cities, in oklahoma, is the zero tolerance policy. Because they say what are they going to do if they are evicted . We work with them, they basically have the blessing of the parole officer to say hey, to avoid being in problem this is where you need to be tomorrow because you are evicted because you are using. We have those systems in place, and verifying applications. Which is sex offenders, arson t arsonists, that type of thing that our area participates in upholding. We really work hard at that. Educating doc, so they know where theyre sending people. How to apply, we have a state website in oklahoma, and we in the coming months are going to create, were looking at different websites, a return to society, Something Like that. That is weve looked at different options, well create a separate website, exclusively for reentry. Its simple, you go to the oxford house, ok, and download the washington form. It has changed a little bit. You download that form. Now the case worker does that work and then provide it to the person returning to society. They fill it out and we have a region map that shows the applications, and they direct it to us. The form is sent to the specific houses that are the stopping points for the reentry. Oklahoma right now has three soon to be four with a fifth being a womens house coming really soon. So you know, depending on where the vacancies are, that depends on where the application is going, theyre going to be transferring soon upon arriving. We guarantee them a spot. So we really succeed with this in the metropolitan areas, because normally they have bed space, normally we put them where the lineups are, the process of acceptance is really smooth. This is in oxford house grove in Oklahoma City and they have a laser jet printer that they provided, because we go through a lot of applications. Were soon to go through it, in a meeting room which is later on in the slide. This is a thing we ask them to provide which is a crc card which shows what they have been incarcerated for. We ask them to provide the application. When that comes in, you cant see it. Clearly all the charges are related to drug offenses, and then we use that washington application to get the information were looking for. There is there meeting room right there. At one of the houses in Oklahoma City. So at their business meeting on sunday night at 7 00, the applications are passed around. They go right to that same computer and there is a predone acceptance letter that they forward back to the original email, letting them know whether or not they are accepted into the oklahoma program. These particular houses are able to process these applications rather quickly and really have no vacancy problems ever. The new member needs, we get guys off the bus. They have nothing, they have a pair of sweats, shower shoes, lucky if they have the work boots. And our residents through the chapter stick in through the funds to provide their basic needs. If not, the house does that. A lot of times they dont even have the ability, we get them an id, a social, a card, and we get them prepared to be a couple of weeks in the house. We have houses that are chartered for around 12 men and room in there for a few extra, they can use some of those beds to keep guys moving because the house is viable so its charter for one number, there are a few beds within that number that they can keep people in. We work on again, the identification, the clothes, food, educating them about what theyre involved in. And reassurance, because we dont want to admit it but were scared. We get out, come into the house, we see it all the time, they come out to the first house and they dont want to go to the second. This house is going to be a little more in the neighborhood youre wanting. Its going to be all right and were going to help you with the interview. So the first thing we do is get them on the vacancy sites, and after reassuring them and have them set up their own interview where they want to go. Surrounding through all that is areas across oklahoma that have found the benefit of helping these men and women. Okay . Theyre not judged by it. Weve got a really good system and its done through successes. And that is the outcomes and successes. That picture there is a wall at one of the houses in Oklahoma City. And if you look close enough the house of the year voted by their peers in that area every year since 2014 is that particular house. Okay, the house given to other houses shows up to meetings, helps in any way and does exactly what an oxford house is supposed to do. We have houses all over the state of oklahoma, i had the stigma when i got there is that you couldnt have a houseful of anybody, at the state Treatment Center, you dont want a house with a houseful of anybody, i have places 100 comprised with return to society members, okay . You go in and look at them watching a movie and all of the new guys have ankle monitors on and theyre enjoying the tv that is across the whole wall. They have 7,000 in savings, okay . Their Checking Account balance goes anywhere from 2900 a month down to a low amount when they pay rent. I didnt have the room to put it, but averaged anywhere to 275 a week going into that savings account. Okay . And there you have those gentlemen that all came out of prison that are living in the house are in discussions with myself about opening an oxford house. So its really a cool thing. [ applause ] so there is one of the houses, where theyre enjoying a retreat that the house pays for. You know, it is very possible. Because what i have seen in oklahoma is our services are so lacking that gentlemen and ladies are coming out of prison and they actually have a pretty clear head and they need a chance. And if you catch them before they end up at that drug dealer or in that bad situation when theyre trying to seek housing what a better place to walk into, you know . We make sure they got everything they need. And its becoming more and more important as we move forward in oklahoma. And i am really blessed today, because when i get to go home after this convention, i get to spend a lot of my time working on it and its really what i love. Ive been there. There is an outreach in oklahoma, theyre all working on this. We all are in one capacity or another, but because we have a lot of beds in this situation, were really able to get the system rolling there and what is great is the residents are doing it themselves. So i appreciate your time and thank you. [ applause ] senator dan hahn, all right. Everybody. Lets bring up mr. Hiram. My name is hiram torres, a person in longterm recovery. I have not picked up drugs or drink since august 13th of 2006. And for that im truly grateful. And for those of yall i know a lot of people sitting in this room. For those of you who dont know, ive lived in oxford house for almost eight years, now. It is my passion, and what it turned to and changed to is the Reentry Program. We dont have a Reentry Program in texas but im working on it. And it will happen, it will take a lot of cooperation between all the cities and between all the outreach workers. And all the residents. Its going to take a lot of work, but well get it done. Because the thing is when i came into the oxford house eight years ago i was sent here by my parole officer. I never intended to stay here or have anything to do with oxford, well, here it is eight years later, and i am still here. I can go anywhere i want, be anywhere i want but this is who i want to be. My passion is to see as curtis said earlier, to see men and women that are incarcerated have somewhere to go. Especially in texas, i do this also for my church. I go and speak at youth facilities, churches and stuff, and right now one of the numbers being thrown around is 85 of people that go to jail, county jail or prison will go back. They will commit another crime and go back. They have nowhere to go. You know, theyre not being educated in prison so that is where i think oxford, we can do a great deal with that and help. You know, one of the things that we want to start doing in san antonio, i was talking about our resources there, were going to open a Reentry Program, a reentry house probably later this year. And we got to get you know, it has to start somewhere. You know . It has to start somewhere. And we cant be scared of it or afraid of it. Its there. I mean, as yall have heard through most of the mornings and yall will hear it through most of the day i mean probably 75, 80 of the people who live in oxford house have been incarcerated at one point or auto another. So if all of us didnt have somewhere to go, where would we be . It is to continue the houses, the Reentry Program. Its going to take a lot of help from a lot of people. Its not just on the outreach workerin workers. Its goes down to the residents. We all have to do it because if not there is going to be people just not having anywhere to go. And that is not good. You know, we all for me it was easy you know, its easy to keep doing this. You know . But i mean, you know being a fourtime loser, ive been in prison probably at least one third of my life. And now, to have somewhere to go and to have somewhere that i can be a part of and give back to is very important. And so that goes for all of us you know . The main thing i think is like i said, working together, working together you know and not just texas. You know, working together with oklahoma, working together with washington, you know, working together with louisiana. Like its you know, we got to work together. The whole country. Because there is an epidemic as weve heard article earlier. There is an epidemic on opioids, and also an epidemic as we heard from the gentleman from louisiana, there is an epidemic there is more people being incarcerated than any other country in the world and that is not cool. That is not good. We need to get them back out in society and give them something to do and somewhere to go. And i appreciate yall and ill see yall next year. [ applause ] so i think ivory said it best, lets bring up that pretty girl. Ms. Holtzclaw. Hi, everybody. My name is lori, my sobriety date is december 20th, 2006. Thank you. On december 20th of 2006, i was incarcerated for an aggravated kidnapping charge and a possession with intent to distribute charge. Yeah. Well, let me tell you, so my bond was really high. I had a you know, 460,000 bond. And so i did not tie anybody up and stick them in my trunk. I had my daughter with me that i did not have permission to have by the state of louisiana. So on a decision for that i was waiting on a court date they ended up dropping those charges and i ended up getting released in the middle of the night. I had to transfer to another jail, and then i was released from that jail in the middle of the night. And i didnt have anywhere to go. And i didnt know about oxford house, i never knew about it. But there were these ladies that would come and do a jail minist ministry. So i called the church, thats all i had. I called the church. And this was in july of 2007. And they come and got me and brought me to a hotel room and they let me work between the church and the hotel, and then they helped me they gave me the number to an oxford house and helped me get into the oxford house. So four days later on july 30th, of 2007, i entered the oxford house. So i am going to be taking on the position of the criminal liaison for the state of louisiana for the oxford house. And i say that because i want to bridge that gap. There was a gap there. Whenever i got out of jail i never had done prison time but i have done a lot of jail time, which is you know, the same thing. Its all the same. Youre incarcerated. But i dont want that to happen to somebody else that may not be as determined as i was or as fortunate as i was for this church to help me out. So what were going to be doing with the reentry in louisiana is you know, im going to be going to reentry courts. We have these things called reentry courts, have yall ever heard of that . We have seven of them in louisiana, and its strictly i guess it would be similar to a drug court but its for people coming out of prison, and they have to attend court once a week, or twice a month, im not really sure it varies for different courts. But anyway, so ill be attending these different there are seven reentry courts in the state of louisiana so i will be attending those reentry courts and going into the prison, doing presentations to the inmates to let them know oxford house is available for them. Ill be working with the department of corrections, secretary leblanc. I have been to several doc conventions that they put on. So i could let them know about oxford house and how to get in, the probation and parole conference. I speak at those types of things and then i also set up tables like we have banners and stuff that you can go and hand out brochures and stuff, costs a few hundred bucks, our Association Pays for it. We created a Reentry Association. So we have the state association and we have a reentry chair person for the well, we have a Regional Association because its two states. We have the reentry person for the for the reentry i mean, for the Regional Association. And then that person has created a committee and its called the Louisiana Mississippi Reentry Association. And so what were doing there is were having the chapters pay dues to the Reentry Associations, and we are going to take that money and help ten people per month have the moving fee and part of the first weeks rent to get into the oxford house. So its really its really i am very i love this. We do it all of our self thing. Its one of the most beautiful things about oxford house, because we can and we will if youre determined enough we can and we will. So i want us to help us. I dont want us to have to depend on anybody else. So that was one of the biggest reasons why i wanted to create that so that we could it comes from us. It goes into our accounts. And then it comes back out and goes back into our accounts. So the other part of the Reentry Association is that weve created a reentry resource coordinator is what were calling it, for each chapter, and that person is going to be responsible for working with the Reentry Committee for the association, and then also getting resources, coming up with a resource list, getting donations, closing donations, getting in touch with dressed for success, having the food stamp offices number available. Also the how do we get an id . How do we get you know, a bus pass, stuff like that. Just Little Things that are very difficult for somebody, getting out of jail is a very traumatizing experience. Its a huge change and you dont know what is going to happen and its really scary. One of the biggest things that i remember is, its really bright whenever you come out of the inkari indiai incarceration. And youre used to the darkness, and its really bright. I couldnt imagine for somebody who has done four, six, eight ten years, how traumatic that experience could be and how much fear could be surrounded behind it. And why it would be so easy just to rreoffend and go back to wht you know. And we can provide an environment that is not so uncomfortable for them. So that is what were doing for the reentry for oxford house. One thing i want to focus on is phone interviews. If your house does not do phone interviews, very, very important for people coming out of prison to do a phone interview because they cannot come in to be interviewed. And then of course, helping them get situated like dan said. Its so important to make people feel welcome and comfortable. Ive had people call me before and say you know, nobody really talked to me when i got to oxford house and that is a really completely unacceptable thing. If youre living in the oxford house its your responsibility to make somebody feel welcome. If youre tired of doing that its time for you to move on. So [ applause ] give people a chance. You know, help them. That is what you know i believe that is what were here for. That is what were put on earth for is to help each other. Help each other get through the hard times because were all going through a hard time, trying to stay sober and get our kids back and pay our Child Support. Were struggling trying to do all of this stuff and trying to not kill ourselves in the middle of all of this. So give people a chance. And you know, help them through it. So anyway, thank you all. That is all i got. So i dont have time to share my story with you, that will take a while. But i will say behind that term, a person in longterm recovery there is a whole lot of stuff underneath that phrase right there. I was hopelessly and helplessly addicted to crack cocaine, marijuana and alcohol. I was homeless in the street. I was unemployable. When i say i was homeless, i would turn down somewhere to lay my head down for the night because i had to be on that Street Corner to sell that next dummy, to get that next hit. That is where i had to be. That is what the disease of addiction means to me. Sometimes we come to the big Beautiful Hotels each year, this is our 19th convention and we come to these hotels and we sit in these chairs and listen to folks get up and speak and were like wow, that is incredible, inspiring, theyre really doing some things. But what i want to emphasize to you is that this homeless crack he head, today i have meetings with the department of Public Safety in my state, just me and him. I serve on the Governors Task force for Mental Health and Substance Abuse committee. I chaired more committees than i care to list today, advocating speaking up for people coming home from prison, for people needing a bed and a detox unit, for people that need a bed in a Treatment Center and definitely for somebody that needs a bed in an oxford house. There is nothing special about me. There is everything special about us. When you leave this convention make sure you go home and you be that catalyst in your house that says you dog gone right were going to do phone interviews in here. You be that person that is willing to stand up and say your first and your last name and tell your story. Society, the legislature, state officials, they need to hear your story. They theyneed to know that at t end of the day when theyre looking at these numbers and all of the statistics, that these are actual human beings that theyre talking about. Lives are being affected. Where would my son be today if i was not given an opportunity to return to society and be successful . Where would my daughter be when she needs her daddy . Where will your children be . If you cant do anything else, you can make sure that your oxford house where you live is a welcome environment. That there is an atmosphere of recovery happening in your particular oxford house and you guys are not going to tolerate judging somebody because you know, we know if nobody else on the planet knows that there is nobody in this world any better or any less than anybody else. Nobody. [ applause ] so be that person that is willing to advocate and be a voice for the voiceless. When that reporter from the newspaper wants to do an article about you, say a prayer and give them whatever god puts in your heart. We got to stop hiding in the shadows, we got to help each other. Today, this panel, even myself, this is the power point today. We are the power point. We are what recovery looks like. We are what a returning citizen looks like. Lets give somebody a chance in oxford house. Thank you. [ applause ] i dont believe we have time for any questions, so now well have lunch on our own, enjoy. Congress returns next week facing a number of end of the month deadlines. Reports say the senate will vote on the latest bill to change the health care law. Also the house and senate are expected to take up legislation, reauthorizing funding for a Childrens Program and faa programs, both are set to expire on september 30th. Watch live coverage on cspan, the senate on cspan 2. Ive been on the other end of a phone call from my teen asking for my help because we had received a call from the department of Homeland Security telling us that a 7yearold girl was being sexually abused and that content was being spread on the dark web, and she had been abused and watched it for three years and couldnt find the perpetrator asking us for help. We were the last line of defense, an actor and his foundation were the potential last line of defense. For the past 30 years, the Video Library is your free resource for politics, congress, and washington public affairs. So whether it happened 30 years ago or 30 minutes ago find it in cspans Video Library at cspan. Org. Cspan where history unfolds daily. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. That is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Principal Deputy Director of National Security sue gordon outlined her agencys Top Priorities during intelligence and National Security summit in washington recently. This includes a north Korean Nuclear threat and the iran nuclear deal. The intelligence and National Security alliance and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronic Association hosted this 40minute summit. Thank you, jill. And as sue and i were listening to that introduction we agreed we saved the best for last. And of course, representing formerly, formerly one of the great agencies. Indeed, sue, its perfect to see you again and congratulations. Thank you. On your new position. I think its been a little over a month. It has. So i thought i would be better by now but im working on it