1
00:00:00,899 --> 00:00:02,270
One evening,

2
00:00:02,294 --> 00:00:06,644
after watching the nightly news
with my then-five-year-old son,

3
00:00:06,668 --> 00:00:10,792
he asked me a question I thought
I would have a ton of time to answer.

4
00:00:11,555 --> 00:00:15,634
I thought the complicated questions
typically came at eight or nine years old,

5
00:00:16,888 --> 00:00:20,776
but my son looked me in the eyes
while I was tucking him in,

6
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:24,240
and with a very straight face he asked me,

7
00:00:24,264 --> 00:00:26,875
"Daddy, why did you go to jail?"

8
00:00:29,590 --> 00:00:31,830
My wife and I often
thought about this moment.

9
00:00:32,403 --> 00:00:35,233
We knew this question was coming,

10
00:00:35,257 --> 00:00:36,910
and we wanted to handle it well.

11
00:00:37,763 --> 00:00:40,054
But that night,
I had a question to answer.

12
00:00:40,672 --> 00:00:45,873
So I decided to tell my son
how I ended up going to prison

13
00:00:45,897 --> 00:00:49,012
when I was just a 15-year-old kid.

14
00:00:50,958 --> 00:00:53,445
This picture was taken
when I was 14 years old.

15
00:00:54,007 --> 00:00:55,287
That's my mom,

16
00:00:55,311 --> 00:00:56,475
my sister,

17
00:00:56,499 --> 00:00:58,706
and that cute little baby,
that's my niece.

18
00:00:59,341 --> 00:01:01,287
She's 23 now,

19
00:01:01,311 --> 00:01:04,765
and it drives me crazy every time
I think about how old I'm getting.

20
00:01:04,789 --> 00:01:06,169
(Laughter)

21
00:01:06,645 --> 00:01:09,083
This was the last photo that I took

22
00:01:09,107 --> 00:01:13,205
just a few weeks before I made
the worst decision of my life.

23
00:01:14,874 --> 00:01:16,360
A friend of mine and I,

24
00:01:17,185 --> 00:01:19,876
we approached a man sleeping in his car,

25
00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:21,608
pulled out a gun,

26
00:01:21,632 --> 00:01:23,781
demanded the keys to his car

27
00:01:23,805 --> 00:01:25,123
and sped off.

28
00:01:26,177 --> 00:01:29,315
That decision landed me
in front of a judge,

29
00:01:29,339 --> 00:01:32,820
with my mom and my sister
standing just a few feet behind me,

30
00:01:32,844 --> 00:01:34,664
as they listened to me get sentenced

31
00:01:34,688 --> 00:01:38,884
to eight years in adult
maximum security prison.

32
00:01:41,234 --> 00:01:44,055
This is the next family photo
that I took with my mom.

33
00:01:44,079 --> 00:01:48,174
But this time, it was taken
in the prison visiting room.

34
00:01:49,032 --> 00:01:51,047
Now don't let the waterfalls and the trees

35
00:01:51,071 --> 00:01:53,282
and all that stuff
in the background fool you.

36
00:01:53,306 --> 00:01:54,323
(Laughter)

37
00:01:54,347 --> 00:01:57,435
This was one of the hardest
times of my life.

38
00:01:58,288 --> 00:02:02,750
In fact, for the first two years,
I battled depression

39
00:02:02,774 --> 00:02:05,568
by living in denial
about my prison sentence.

40
00:02:06,631 --> 00:02:09,028
I would commonly say things
to my mom like,

41
00:02:09,052 --> 00:02:11,336
"I mean, Ma, I know you don't think

42
00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:15,170
that this judge is really
going to keep us here through Christmas."

43
00:02:15,194 --> 00:02:17,522
And then, "... Valentine's Day."

44
00:02:17,546 --> 00:02:20,118
And then, "... the last day of school."

45
00:02:20,142 --> 00:02:22,408
And then, "... the first day of school."

46
00:02:22,987 --> 00:02:24,554
And on and on.

47
00:02:25,082 --> 00:02:28,762
I promised my mom that one day,

48
00:02:28,786 --> 00:02:32,104
someone would see
that I was drowning in those cells,

49
00:02:32,128 --> 00:02:36,699
that someone would tell us
that we could breathe again

50
00:02:36,723 --> 00:02:39,804
because they just wanted
to teach me a hard lesson.

51
00:02:40,869 --> 00:02:43,451
But one day, as I'm walking around
the prison rec yard

52
00:02:43,475 --> 00:02:44,964
with my friend Danny B,

53
00:02:44,988 --> 00:02:47,511
I asked him, "How long
have you been here?"

54
00:02:48,163 --> 00:02:51,795
He told me that he had
already served 31 years.

55
00:02:53,386 --> 00:02:55,119
My palms immediately got sweaty,

56
00:02:56,090 --> 00:02:58,393
heart dropped down to my toes,

57
00:02:58,417 --> 00:03:00,874
and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

58
00:03:00,898 --> 00:03:02,979
Because that's the moment when I realized

59
00:03:03,003 --> 00:03:05,954
that I would have to serve
all eight of my years.

60
00:03:07,401 --> 00:03:12,083
Now, the story of going
to prison as a teenager

61
00:03:12,107 --> 00:03:13,877
is not an uncommon one.

62
00:03:13,901 --> 00:03:15,893
But for my family,

63
00:03:15,917 --> 00:03:19,467
this was the most tragic thing
that had happened in our lives.

64
00:03:20,284 --> 00:03:21,907
I missed my family terribly.

65
00:03:22,863 --> 00:03:24,662
And just like every other teenager,

66
00:03:24,686 --> 00:03:28,249
I just wanted to open up gifts
on Christmas morning

67
00:03:28,273 --> 00:03:30,740
and graduate from high school
with my friends.

68
00:03:32,692 --> 00:03:35,597
And because of the intense
security in prisons,

69
00:03:35,621 --> 00:03:37,374
internet access is limited.

70
00:03:38,216 --> 00:03:40,268
There's no easy emailing,

71
00:03:40,292 --> 00:03:42,034
no texting

72
00:03:42,058 --> 00:03:44,206
and definitely no social media.

73
00:03:45,178 --> 00:03:51,799
This means that the meaningful moments
like prom night or college graduation

74
00:03:51,823 --> 00:03:56,406
or the tons of free content
that you and I digest every day

75
00:03:56,430 --> 00:04:03,301
very seldom gets shared with the cousin,
sibling or best friend in prison.

76
00:04:04,936 --> 00:04:06,432
I became very dark.

77
00:04:08,107 --> 00:04:11,462
My childhood and the dreams of it,
they disappeared.

78
00:04:12,688 --> 00:04:17,242
And those slamming steel doors
clanking shut every night

79
00:04:17,266 --> 00:04:19,265
in the prison housing unit,

80
00:04:19,289 --> 00:04:21,077
they forced me to grow up fast.

81
00:04:22,696 --> 00:04:24,649
I can tell you firsthand

82
00:04:24,673 --> 00:04:28,163
that there is something
about the violent cards of prison

83
00:04:28,187 --> 00:04:29,977
that completely cripple hope.

84
00:04:31,458 --> 00:04:33,707
I even tried to push my mom away,

85
00:04:33,731 --> 00:04:37,756
because I didn't want her to be subject
to the collect calls

86
00:04:37,780 --> 00:04:41,136
or the eight-hour drives
for the one-hour visits,

87
00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:43,118
those horrible body cavity searches

88
00:04:43,142 --> 00:04:46,181
that she would experience
coming into the prison visiting room.

89
00:04:46,841 --> 00:04:51,391
But as many of you parents
here know tonight,

90
00:04:51,415 --> 00:04:53,735
you can't stop a mother's love.

91
00:04:53,759 --> 00:04:55,598
(Laughter)

92
00:04:55,622 --> 00:04:57,014
So what did my mom do?

93
00:04:57,705 --> 00:05:00,698
She made a promise while sitting
in a prison visiting room.

94
00:05:01,650 --> 00:05:05,614
She promised she would write me a letter

95
00:05:05,638 --> 00:05:07,073
or send me a picture

96
00:05:07,097 --> 00:05:11,628
every day from that day forward
until I came home.

97
00:05:13,445 --> 00:05:16,604
I had six years left to do on a sentence,

98
00:05:16,628 --> 00:05:20,424
our lives were completely
crumbling around us,

99
00:05:20,448 --> 00:05:22,861
and here comes this happy-go-lucky lady

100
00:05:22,885 --> 00:05:26,021
prancing into a prison visiting room
like I'm in summer camp,

101
00:05:26,045 --> 00:05:28,580
with a new plan to send me
a bunch of pictures.

102
00:05:28,604 --> 00:05:30,367
(Laughter)

103
00:05:31,843 --> 00:05:33,374
Such an interesting time.

104
00:05:35,105 --> 00:05:36,789
Little did I know,

105
00:05:36,813 --> 00:05:40,041
it would be my mom's letters
that saved my life.

106
00:05:41,473 --> 00:05:45,016
My mom would take pictures
of a cheeseburger

107
00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,371
or a mattress at a department store --

108
00:05:47,395 --> 00:05:49,733
(Laughter)

109
00:05:49,757 --> 00:05:52,082
and she would send them
to me along with a letter

110
00:05:52,106 --> 00:05:56,802
with a promise that one day
I would enjoy a fat, juicy burger

111
00:05:56,826 --> 00:05:58,853
or sleep on a comfortable bed.

112
00:05:58,877 --> 00:06:02,380
My mom assured me
that there was life after prison.

113
00:06:04,290 --> 00:06:09,130
In fact, my best friends
began living vicariously

114
00:06:09,154 --> 00:06:11,086
through my mom's letters and photos --

115
00:06:11,110 --> 00:06:12,984
(Laughter)

116
00:06:13,008 --> 00:06:18,326
giving an entire prison unit a glimpse
into what was happening in the world.

117
00:06:19,072 --> 00:06:24,437
After eight years of nightmares
of prison never ending,

118
00:06:25,682 --> 00:06:27,924
being dehumanized,

119
00:06:27,948 --> 00:06:30,017
strip-searched,

120
00:06:30,041 --> 00:06:35,382
watching people get wheeled
down the prison walkway in body bags,

121
00:06:35,406 --> 00:06:37,418
I was finally released.

122
00:06:37,977 --> 00:06:39,698
And I bet you can't guess

123
00:06:39,722 --> 00:06:43,720
who was there to pick me up
that cold morning in February.

124
00:06:43,744 --> 00:06:45,502
(Laughter)

125
00:06:45,526 --> 00:06:46,677
OK, you guessed it --

126
00:06:46,701 --> 00:06:47,734
(Laughter)

127
00:06:47,758 --> 00:06:49,635
my sister and my mom.

128
00:06:52,062 --> 00:06:56,091
The years that we prayed for
were finally in front of us,

129
00:06:56,836 --> 00:07:00,401
and the pain of living
behind bars was behind us.

130
00:07:01,150 --> 00:07:02,704
Or so we thought.

131
00:07:03,519 --> 00:07:07,580
Like me, most people in prison
are coming home one day.

132
00:07:08,405 --> 00:07:10,232
And unlike me,

133
00:07:10,256 --> 00:07:15,782
many don't have the consistent support
during and after incarceration that I had.

134
00:07:16,977 --> 00:07:19,092
The struggle is real,

135
00:07:19,116 --> 00:07:22,540
and even I struggled to find a job
when I came home.

136
00:07:23,576 --> 00:07:26,713
Each application that I filled out --

137
00:07:26,737 --> 00:07:33,088
from grocery stores to mortgage companies
to fashion retail --

138
00:07:33,112 --> 00:07:36,386
they all included the same question,

139
00:07:37,579 --> 00:07:40,131
glowing, pulsating,

140
00:07:40,155 --> 00:07:42,405
waiting for me to add my check:

141
00:07:43,248 --> 00:07:46,009
"Have you ever been
convicted of a felony?"

142
00:07:47,446 --> 00:07:49,685
Now, to be honest,

143
00:07:49,709 --> 00:07:52,144
I knew that this moment was coming.

144
00:07:52,168 --> 00:07:54,145
I knew I would have to face this issue.

145
00:07:54,585 --> 00:07:59,478
So I leveraged the mental toughness
that I built while going through prison.

146
00:08:00,171 --> 00:08:03,606
But after being declined for over 40 jobs,

147
00:08:03,630 --> 00:08:05,858
even I began to feel deflated.

148
00:08:06,859 --> 00:08:10,485
I thought that I would get my life back

149
00:08:10,509 --> 00:08:14,461
and that all those things were behind me
and things would start looking up.

150
00:08:15,358 --> 00:08:19,054
But that decision that I made
when I was a 15-year-old kid

151
00:08:19,078 --> 00:08:22,815
continued to haunt me
even up until that moment.

152
00:08:24,221 --> 00:08:25,474
But while on a job hunt,

153
00:08:26,326 --> 00:08:31,156
one day, I ran across an application
that asked the question,

154
00:08:32,466 --> 00:08:35,088
but this time it was worded
a little differently.

155
00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:37,734
This time, the question asked:

156
00:08:37,758 --> 00:08:42,287
"Have you been convicted of a felony
within the last seven years?"

157
00:08:43,382 --> 00:08:45,746
Now, after doing an eight-year
prison sentence --

158
00:08:45,770 --> 00:08:47,564
(Laughter)

159
00:08:47,588 --> 00:08:53,088
I could honestly say that my conviction
was over seven years ago.

160
00:08:54,315 --> 00:08:57,993
I was able to answer that question
with an honest "no,"

161
00:08:58,844 --> 00:09:01,966
and finally, I landed my first job.

162
00:09:02,868 --> 00:09:06,773
(Applause)

163
00:09:08,130 --> 00:09:10,895
I was the guy who mixed paint
at the paint store.

164
00:09:11,626 --> 00:09:14,127
And eventually, customers
would come into the store,

165
00:09:14,151 --> 00:09:15,575
and they would ask me,

166
00:09:15,599 --> 00:09:18,743
"Hey Marcus, how much do you charge
to paint my kitchen?"

167
00:09:19,657 --> 00:09:24,100
"Well, Ms. Johnson,
we don't paint kitchens,

168
00:09:24,124 --> 00:09:26,836
we sell you the paint
so you can paint your own kitchen."

169
00:09:26,860 --> 00:09:28,099
(Laughter)

170
00:09:28,535 --> 00:09:32,450
A light bulb went off,
and I launched a painting company

171
00:09:32,474 --> 00:09:37,022
that became the conduit
between the customers in the paint store

172
00:09:37,046 --> 00:09:39,454
and the painters
who needed consistent work.

173
00:09:41,007 --> 00:09:42,860
After a year or so,

174
00:09:42,884 --> 00:09:45,559
I left that paint store,

175
00:09:46,570 --> 00:09:48,944
we grew our contracting company,

176
00:09:48,968 --> 00:09:54,412
and since then, I have hired
tons of other returning citizens.

177
00:09:54,436 --> 00:09:58,342
(Applause)

178
00:10:00,813 --> 00:10:03,254
I stand today with a felony,

179
00:10:04,095 --> 00:10:08,372
and just like millions of others
around the country

180
00:10:08,396 --> 00:10:12,195
who also have that "F" on their chest
that represents felony,

181
00:10:13,671 --> 00:10:17,651
just as my mom promised me many years ago,

182
00:10:17,675 --> 00:10:21,332
I wanted to show them
that there was still life after prison.

183
00:10:22,911 --> 00:10:25,377
I started living my best life,

184
00:10:26,577 --> 00:10:29,146
and I couldn't believe
that I was living on a cloud.

185
00:10:30,036 --> 00:10:33,564
But my friends, the same ones
I grew up with in those cells,

186
00:10:33,588 --> 00:10:39,474
they would call me and constantly ask for
pictures of this new life I was living.

187
00:10:40,361 --> 00:10:42,384
If I traveled, they wanted pictures.

188
00:10:42,907 --> 00:10:45,609
When I got married, they wanted pictures.

189
00:10:46,381 --> 00:10:51,142
But I didn't have the time
or the bandwidth to sit and write a letter

190
00:10:51,166 --> 00:10:52,975
or print pictures from my phone.

191
00:10:53,748 --> 00:10:55,652
I would commonly tell them,

192
00:10:55,676 --> 00:11:00,495
"Dude, if I could just text you,
my life would be so much easier."

193
00:11:01,744 --> 00:11:05,864
And after searching the app stores
for a solution to this problem

194
00:11:05,888 --> 00:11:08,093
and not being able to find one,

195
00:11:08,117 --> 00:11:10,004
we launched Flikshop.

196
00:11:12,410 --> 00:11:16,071
(Applause)

197
00:11:18,098 --> 00:11:19,862
I kid you not --

198
00:11:19,886 --> 00:11:24,700
did you know that
the prison phone business

199
00:11:24,724 --> 00:11:27,520
created a billion-dollar industry?

200
00:11:28,593 --> 00:11:31,374
Some of these businesses are predatory,

201
00:11:31,398 --> 00:11:35,558
and so we knew we had to figure out
how to disrupt this space.

202
00:11:37,417 --> 00:11:42,665
Flikshop allows our family members
to take a picture, add some quick text,

203
00:11:43,630 --> 00:11:46,326
press send, and for 99 cents,

204
00:11:46,350 --> 00:11:49,489
we print that picture and text
on a real, tangible postcard

205
00:11:49,513 --> 00:11:55,414
and mail it directly to any person
in any cell anywhere in the country.

206
00:11:56,340 --> 00:12:01,528
(Applause)

207
00:12:03,037 --> 00:12:06,508
There are millions of families
that are becoming torn apart,

208
00:12:06,532 --> 00:12:10,780
simply because they don't have
the time to write a letter,

209
00:12:11,565 --> 00:12:14,396
figure out how to print
a photo from their phone,

210
00:12:14,420 --> 00:12:18,026
make a store run to go buy
a box of envelopes

211
00:12:18,050 --> 00:12:20,989
and then to the post office
to go buy stamps.

212
00:12:21,477 --> 00:12:24,151
We started by connecting 50 families.

213
00:12:24,815 --> 00:12:27,299
And then 100 families.

214
00:12:27,863 --> 00:12:30,508
And then 500 families.

215
00:12:31,338 --> 00:12:34,370
And now, today, I am proud to say

216
00:12:34,394 --> 00:12:38,966
that we've connected over 140,000 families

217
00:12:38,990 --> 00:12:40,195
around the country.

218
00:12:40,219 --> 00:12:44,883
(Applause)

219
00:12:46,735 --> 00:12:51,387
We even commonly receive mail
in my office overflowing my desk

220
00:12:51,411 --> 00:12:52,715
from people in prison

221
00:12:53,533 --> 00:12:54,776
like Jason.

222
00:12:56,296 --> 00:12:59,780
Jason says, "I got about
15 postcards last night

223
00:12:59,804 --> 00:13:01,975
of so many words of motivation

224
00:13:01,999 --> 00:13:04,747
that I had to write to you
and just say thank you."

225
00:13:05,918 --> 00:13:07,836
Or George, who writes,

226
00:13:07,860 --> 00:13:11,900
"Today I received about six postcards
with so much love ...

227
00:13:11,924 --> 00:13:15,139
I do not know where this roof
of love has come from."

228
00:13:15,854 --> 00:13:18,497
I cannot believe how blessed I am

229
00:13:18,521 --> 00:13:21,490
to sometimes be able to meet a child

230
00:13:21,514 --> 00:13:25,273
who sends Flikshop postcards
to their incarcerated parents.

231
00:13:26,491 --> 00:13:31,108
Sometimes, I'm able to even
go to the White House

232
00:13:31,132 --> 00:13:35,747
and address the nation and talk about
the need for criminal justice reform.

233
00:13:36,797 --> 00:13:42,384
And this story is just incredible for me,
because this wasn't always my life.

234
00:13:43,530 --> 00:13:50,286
I remember very vividly living
in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell

235
00:13:50,310 --> 00:13:56,992
with a man that was 22 years old
and there to serve life plus 43 years,

236
00:13:57,016 --> 00:14:00,458
and thinking in my head
while I'm sitting in that bunk

237
00:14:00,482 --> 00:14:03,875
that together, we probably
would die in those cells.

238
00:14:05,462 --> 00:14:09,992
Well, I know that our era
of mass incarceration

239
00:14:10,016 --> 00:14:13,517
and the things that we see on the news
dealing with people going to prison

240
00:14:13,541 --> 00:14:15,504
is a huge societal issue

241
00:14:15,528 --> 00:14:18,571
that we all have
to band together to help solve.

242
00:14:19,224 --> 00:14:21,394
But I am confident

243
00:14:21,418 --> 00:14:26,738
that if we're very intentional
about building family connections

244
00:14:26,762 --> 00:14:29,453
in environments where
they're needed the most,

245
00:14:29,477 --> 00:14:32,719
then this is a big step
in the right direction.

246
00:14:34,154 --> 00:14:37,322
I absolutely love this stage of my life,

247
00:14:37,346 --> 00:14:40,269
this chapter, where
I'm standing right now.

248
00:14:41,031 --> 00:14:44,868
But you know who's having
way more fun than me at this stage?

249
00:14:45,662 --> 00:14:46,832
My mom.

250
00:14:46,856 --> 00:14:47,963
(Laughter)

251
00:14:47,987 --> 00:14:49,777
I love you, Ma. Thank you.

252
00:14:49,801 --> 00:14:53,030
(Applause)