felony inc podcast

Los Angeles based 70 Million Jobs was founded by Richard Bronson, formerly of New York. You know, the home field of Wall Street? Where the Wall Street Wolf story took place? Well, Richard was a partner in that company and lived the crazy life for some time. He then left, moved to Florida and started his own company, another financial services company that grew to $100 Million with over 500 employees. But the same Wall Street greed was there and a lot of things Richard did were illegal. The...

Interconnected and interdependent is how George Galvis, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, sees the world his organization is building. He takes a view of history where he broadens the context of events and particularly the versions of history. It inspires him to move forward working with young people with experiences similar to his. As early as three years old, George remembers fearing domestic violence and his mother's life; his father at maximum rage and his mother turning...

Want to take the guesswork out of your next big surprise party? Then have an all-day spa delivered to your home, hotel room - basically anywhere - by Pamper Perfect Mobile Spa. But that's just one of the side businesses for dynamo Allison Garret, a motivational speaker and life coach. Born to teenage parents and put up for adoption immediately, what was supposed to be a short term stay with adoptive parents turned into long term. Then her birth mother died of leukemia at 19 when Allison was...

Artist, organizer, advocate and speaker, Aimee Wissman is a machine. An Ohio native, Aimee had a lot of instability growing up and those insecurities led to a heroin addiction at age 16 that lasted about 10 years. She did, however, manage to graduate high school and get a couple of years of college. But bad relationships and bad choices put her in the prison system. Aimee tried to get treatment before that, but the typical system of expensive treatments, no insurance, yaddah yaddah made it...

Founded in 1971 by Morris Dees, an Alabama lawyer and businessman, Morris saw an obligation to stand up for the disenfranchised. He sold a successful book publishing company and started a law practice to give them a voice. Jackie Aranda Osorno is a staff attorney at the law center. A self-described "Latinx queer woman", Jackie immigrated from Mexico and experienced legal systems that categorized and pigeon-holed people by stereotypes. After graduating from law school, she went to Southern...

No, not an ice cream flavor, Cheri Garcia is a vibrant personality, really more of a machine. Absolutely not from a broken home or the typical tough background, she was the ideal kid. On the cheerleading team, pitcher for the softball team, anchor for the school newspaper - the ideal kid. So what happened? She decided to try meth with the promise to lose weight. That did happen, but so did her interest in all the good things she was doing. As an addict, people stop caring about their former...

Brian Stanley is a Court Advocate for the East Harlem, New York City, for Avenues for Justice. Which means, he helps save young lives by giving youth who have been caught up in crime a second chance to straighten out their lives for the good. And the results are impressive. Through "AFJ" as they call it, young adults receive drug rehabilitation, education, counseling and job training to create a path to a successful life on the outside. And their results are impressive. AFJ has been at it...

A middle school dropout, James Monteiro left his mother's house, moved in with a woman 10 years his senior and was "exposed to things no 15-year old should be exposed to". That experience set James up to spend the next 20 years or his life incarcerated up and down the east coast. Upon release, he only had his 8th grade education to fall back on and that led him back to prison, a repeating cycle. His last incarceration of 10 years made him think he never wanted to go back and he began working...

Damien Linnane's first book, "Scared," is a reflection of his unusual background. From inner-western Sydney, Australia, Damien's father met his mother, a social worker, while in prison for robbery. His parent's relationship was rough, leaving Damien caught in the middle. This dynamic, combined with Damien's experiences of child abuse, manifested as anger issues leading to the violent incidents that put him in prison. Although sentences in Australia tend to be lighter than those in the US,...

Focusing on the Austin, Texas community, the Austin Justice Coalition supports, teaches and advocates for black, brown and poor people by influencing local government and creating policy. Originally from Houston, Chas Moore, who heads the Coalition, moved to Austin because of sports. His brush with the law happened in high school, where he was caught up in a bad crowd and an incident gave him a record. But with that record and the subsequent stigma of being an ex-felon, Chas became a strong...

Arriving from Ethiopia with his parents to the US to make a better life, Five Mualimm-ak's parents found that being black meant a struggle. So they joined community groups for survival and provided services in the Bronx including day care and other necessary services to the neighbors. His mother joined a group that provided assistance to women who had just been released from prison and has since passed. Five grew up outside the "compound" and travelled extensively with his father, who also...

Return guest, Marcus Bullock of Flikshop, in state prison starting at age 15, has a great story. He doesn't make any bones about it, he enjoys what he does. Flikshop connects those incarcerated with their family through a myriad of social media. As he says, "My Tik Tok is talkin'". His company helps share the joy and fun a family is having with their incarcerated loved one by taking photos or stills from video, then printing them on a postcard and sending them. To any person, any prison,...

A black-owned, contemporary soul food restaurant located in Portland, Oregon, Chef James Bradley has brought fame to the restaurant even in these lockdown times, no easy task. Growing up in rural North Carolina with a preacher father, James has retained his love for the south and all his family there. However, his father wanted the family to experience life, and so moved them rather frequently. However, moving to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania turned out to be a shock. After experiencing a culture...

With an "outlandish" resume', Wendy Jason is transforming the world and the justice system with her Justice Arts Coalition, which highlights felons and ex-felons who are artists. With 25 years in social services, Wendy wanted people who grew up thinking they weren't wanted that they were wanted. It's been about bringing voice to those who have been marginalized. Later in life, she began to see how art could be the medium for helping people feel self-worth. Coupling that with her drive to...

Thanks for being our guest again and bringing your inspirational story to us, Eugene Brown! Author of the book, "From Pawns to Kings" and portrayed in the movie, "Life of a King", Eugene spent 18 years in prison for participating in a bank robbery at 20. The game of chess in prison taught him much more than a game, or to think, or to compete. It taught him the moves you make in life will make you a pawn or a King - the choice is yours. He has been making great moves since then and the...

Justice Arts Coalition member, Carole Alden, is currently dodging the fires in Utah. Born in France as part of a military family, Carole moved back to the US as a baby, moved around the western states plus a stint in New Zealand, getting married and settling in Utah. With an artists' bent "from birth", Carole was constantly scanning for all the elements to make something; rocks, sticks, clay. A high school teacher encouraged her to feel she could make a living as an artists and that was the...

Danny Wilson and Tracy Schlapp, musicians, were inspired by Johnny Cash's prison concerts and became determined to bring music and other art forms into Oregon's prison system. And their determination was tested, as a rigid system is not easy to get through. But an ally inside the system helped them navigate the "nos" and solve the security issues. Tracy is a visual artist and was also passionate about seeing the effect of involving inmates in creating art and delving into individual...

Another alumni of FPP, Ashley Dorety was struggling with alcohol and an abusive relationship, was a Mom and going to school, ALL at the same time. It came to a head when she was in a drunk driving accident where her passenger was injured and that led to four years of incarceration, because of the laws surrounding the accident. Her two-year-old daughter also was in the car so that complicated even more. The daughter was considered a victim of the crime and Ashley didn't see her for nine...

A graduate, advocate and outreach volunteer for the Family Preservation Project, Nova Sweet was born in a tepee in Ashland, Oregon, eldest of four children of a single Mom. But she led a dual life. At school, she was a great student, liked by everyone, but in private she like to raise cane. She was tall, six-foot four and was an athlete who played basketball at Louisville; impressive. She continued to put on the straight laced face in school but smoked pot and ran with the fast crowd behind...

Our recurring guest who always has something new, Sean Beers, founder of Portland Product Werks, is an avid fly fisherman, in addition to a Bonzi skier. And now he's taken the lemons from COVID-19 and made a gallon of lemonade. The "secret" is planning ahead, which Sean did indirectly years before. He realized owning a brand three years ago was key and started doing that. With no knowledge of COVID beforehand, when it hit Portland Product Werks had alternatives. That meant putting their...