“Let me tell you the story of the sick and broken addict, who, despite the statistics and regardless of the challenges, got clean and inspired hope in the addict that had none.” – Unknown
I grew up with a pretty normal life for most people in my situation. My mother worked hard. My father walked out on us when I was 4 years old. He was an addict/alcoholic. I was abused by my mother’s husband, mentally, physically, and emotionally, from the time I was 6 until 11 years old. The person closest to me was my grandfather, and he passed away when I was 11. That was the first time I saw death strike. I was also diagnosed with ADHD at 11 and put on Ritalin and Adderall. I feel that being on stimulants and amphetamines at such a young age may have contributed to my addiction.
I was always mature for my age and hung out with older kids. I started smoking weed, drinking, and using ecstasy at 15. I witnessed my first murder leaving a football game also at 15. I saw friends overdose and get killed all throughout high school. This led me to face death head-on and, rather than be afraid, I chose to live the fast life. I knew it could strike at any moment. So, I lived by the live fast, die young motto. At around that same time, my mother abandoned me for another man, and I was forced to go live with my father. He worked construction 12-16 hour shifts and then went to the bar until 2 a.m. There was no supervision, and no food in the house. There were times when my stepbrother and I had to fend for ourselves to get food. I ran the streets, yet still managed to put myself through high school. My father passed away my senior year. Once again, I saw death strike.
By my early 20s, I was partying at clubs and bars almost every night. That lifestyle quickly escalated into regular cocaine use. Over time, the drug use took over completely. My life had no real direction — just a cycle of streets, jail, and survival. I was arrested several times for minor drug-related charges, constantly in and out of jail, and always on probation. The addiction spiraled until I was using worse drugs, including opiates like fentanyl, and at times I was homeless, unable to keep a steady job, disconnected from my family, and left with only a distant relationship with my daughter.
Unfortunately, the justice system offered no real support. Jail didn’t provide access to mental health or substance use treatment. Probation supervision felt more punitive than rehabilitative, and there were few to no resources in my community focused on reentry or recovery. Back then, rehab wasn’t talked about the way it is now — it wasn’t offered, and it wasn’t accessible. Instead of being met with care or a pathway forward, I was thrown deeper into a system that only worsened the problem.
Drugs and fentanyl hit my town so hard that most of the kids I grew up with are dead, strung out, or in prison. This disease doesn’t discriminate by age, race, creed, or socio-economic background. It took everyone,— from the ones who grew up privileged with bright futures ahead of them to the troubled ones who grew up in poverty with no future in sight. Now, while none of the trauma I experienced caused me to live the lifestyle I lived, not knowing how to react to it did.
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” — Charles R. Swindoll
In 2018, I went to state prison for a drug charge and was sentenced to 12-30 months. While in there, I really wanted to change my life. I tried to take up trades and courses and do programs to rehabilitate into a productive member of society. However, I was told that there were 2-3 year waiting lists, and I “wouldn’t have enough time” to get into these programs. I was released on parole. I tried to find resources when I got out, yet there was little to none in my area. I was denied every decent job I applied to because of my record. When I finally found work, the job I worked at, most of my co-workers were using drugs. Eventually, I fell back into the streets and old ways, and I started using and selling again.
In 2021, I was federally indicted for drug charges and locked up again. This time, I was in county prison in federal holding. I signed into the only drug treatment program they had, which wasn’t enough for the level of care I needed due to it being only 30-minute sessions every 2 weeks. I had my counselor give me extra work to do on my own. I studied anything knowledgeable and of interest and exercised. I started to heal my mind, body, and spirit. My counselor recommended inpatient rehab due to me not getting enough treatment. In the federal system for Middle DIstrict Pa, you usually wait 3 years in holding at the county jail until sentenced. Unfortunately, you’re just sitting stagnant being punished and not corrected or rehabilitated.
I was approved for rehab. I took every program I could in there. I took parenting classes, moral reconation therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy classes. I was community leader 3 times and then graduated into a halfway house treatment facility, then into a recovery/sober living house, where I became a house manager. While in rehab, the government was recommending that I be returned to prison after rehab. However, when I spoke up to the judge and explained my story, my vision, and how I was never given the treatment or proper resources to become a productive member of society, and that if given the chance to prove to the courts, my family, and the community that a man such as myself can change, I will not fail. She gave me a chance to continue treatment on pretrial supervised release. I still have so much more to accomplish. This is why second chances are so important, and we need to reevaluate the existing justice system, who we are actually sending to prison, and alternatives to prison such as rehabilitation programs and evidence-based treatments.
The first job that gave me a chance, a clean energy company, then promoted me district manager, where I was one of the top producers in the nation, and my team was one of the top-producing teams. I helped found Productive Offenders of Society Foundation, from the
ground up, which focuses on empowering Justice impacted individuals to contribute their unique talents to society, eliminating barriers for formerly incarcerated individuals, increasing public safety by providing rehabilitation and treatment-based alternatives to incarceration, and providing structured living in recovery and transitional houses. I worked as a voter specialist doing non-partisan voter registration during election season. I educated all types of people on their voting rights and often went to colleges to educate students and the younger generation on the importance of voting.
All that was what I’ve accomplished, in just under a year, through rehabilitation and treatment. But there’`s more, I’m heavily involved in building and strengthening my community. Now I am 4 years clean, sober and crime free. Every day, I do my best to give back and help other recovering addicts such as myself. I help train people at work to become successful on the job and in life (many who are going through tough times, in recovery, reentering society, or experiencing housing issues.) All while helping the environment and helping save people money.
“The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates
In 2023, I was a part of the strategic planning for the creation of the Lehigh County Reentry Coalition and was appointed to the Executive Committee as one of the two justice-impacted individuals serving on the board. I was also involved in the Community Resources and Community Education Subcommittee and the Community Event Planning Subcommittee. I was voted onto the Lehigh County Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board, and I participate in the Northampton County Reentry Coalition, along with the Pennsylvania Reentry Council.
When I saw that there were no events being held in the Lehigh Valley for April’s Second Chance Month in 2023, I brought other organizations together to throw an event in Allentown called the “Second Chance Month Reentry and Recovery Event.” We provided music, fun, and organizations attended with information to connect justice-impacted individuals with valuable resources.
I also helped organize the 2024 Reentry Coalition Launch — “A Celebration of Second Chances,” where I was honored to be the guest speaker and share my story. I volunteer at the Lehigh County Jail and speak to participants of the LEAP Program, where I share my story and mentor them on successful reentry. I co-operate a recovery house in the Lehigh Valley, and to date, we’ve served over 70 individuals in their journey to recovery.
I often travel to the D.C. Capitol and Harrisburg for reentry initiatives, advocating for policy change. I helped create a trauma group for men with Bloom for Women Org called Sonshine and Arise Men’s Trauma Group. I advocate at city council meetings for human rights and reentry issues. For Second Chance month 2025 I helped organize the “Response & Repair: Higher Education, Corrections and Solidarity Conference” , along with the Lehigh County Reentry Coalitions Annual Celebration of Second Chances: Pardons a Pathway Forward event. I was a guest speaker on the expert panel for the topic “Navigating a Healing Path Beyond Reentry” at the PA Reentry Council’s inaugural public health event — “Trauma, Resilience & Reentry: Time to Thrive!” — at both Northampton County and Lehigh County events.
If I am forced to be away from home now, I have not only my fiancé and daughter depending on me to support them and help guide them through life’s journey, but also many recovering addicts, co-workers, and my community as well.
Even though I proved to the courts the advantages that treatment has over incarceration, my charges carried mandatory minimum sentences. The judge, bound by outdated sentencing guidelines, wasn’t able to consider any human factors — not the progress I made, not the parsimony principle that considers factors like a danger to society and risk of reoffending, and not the fact that real lives were depending on me. It didn’t matter that I had a young daughter relying on me, that my community was being impacted by my work and relied on my guidance, or that dozens of returning citizens and people in recovery needed my continued support.
Instead, the court followed rigid sentencing laws that were created in the 1980s — laws that have long proven to be ineffective and harmful. And so, despite everything I had done to change my life and help others, I was sentenced to confinement in a federal prison camp.
This is the reality of a broken system — one still controlled by draconian laws that tear apart families, devastate communities, and waste taxpayer dollars. The same system that punished drug use and addiction with incarceration instead of investing in treatment, recovery, and public safety solutions. A system that continues to treat people like me as throwaways, even after we’ve proven we can not only recover, but help others recover too.
If I am granted clemency, I will continue to fight for those who are dedicated to change and deserving of a second chance. I will continue to mentor and show them the way. The work I’ve done in the community speaks to the truth of my rehabilitation and commitment to change. I believe in the power of second chances, and I will continue to work relentlessly to help others in their journey toward recovery and reintegration into society.
“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.
