David knows first-hand the impacts of mass incarceration, after receiving a life sentence at the age 16. In his words, “being thrown away at 16 years old wasn’t the event. It was an exclamation point” on the consistent messaging he’s been receiving his whole life from systems that failed to see his humanity.

He was released after serving 24 years, following legislative reform of juvenile sentencing standards due to a new understanding of youth brain science.

Today David is 46 years old. He is the Director of Vision and Values at The Black Rose Collective. He works to develop community partnerships with individuals, groups and movements who share an alignment with and affinity for dismantling systems of oppression.

David was in the second cohort of Unlocked Futures’ social entrepreneurs impacted by the criminal injustice system, formed through a partnership with New Profit and John Legend's nonprofit organization FREEAMERICA.

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David knows first-hand the impacts of mass incarceration, after receiving a life sentence at the age 16. In his words, “being thrown away at 16 years old wasn’t the event. It was an exclamation point” on the consistent messaging he’s been receiving his whole life from systems that failed to see his humanity.

He was released after serving 24 years, following legislative reform of juvenile sentencing standards due to a new understanding of youth brain science.

Today David is 46 years old. He is the Director of Vision and Values at The Black Rose Collective. He works to develop community partnerships with individuals, groups and movements who share an alignment with and affinity for dismantling systems of oppression.

David was in the second cohort of Unlocked Futures’ social entrepreneurs impacted by the criminal injustice system, formed through a partnership with New Profit and John Legend's nonprofit organization FREEAMERICA.

Join in on the conversation on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/goodoldlistening/

Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/you_know_me_now_stories/

More stories can be found at https://www.youknowmenow.com/

This is the 3rd and last part of an episode called The Skipping Rock.

In this 3rd part of Casey’s story, we cover some of the most traumatic events of her life. She admits openly that due to the heavy drug use, trauma, and instability during this time, she has gaps in her memory, making it difficult to connect everything together.

Rather than tell this chapter of Casey's life in a chronological order, as we usually try to do, we’ve decided to bring forward events, or moments, that best express what Casey was going through. As a young woman living homeless, heavily addicted and working in the sex trade, she was just trying to survive. Through these events we will continue to explore the idea of choice.

When we left Casey in the last episode, in Part Two, she was heavily addicted to street drugs, so much so that she was no longer able to dance at the strip clubs. This not only robbed her income, it took away her sense of being in community. Now that that was gone, she was trapped in an increasingly vicious cycle of doing drugs to be able to do the sex work, so she could make the money to pay for the drugs, that she was taking to do the sex work.

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More stories and our new Artist Spotlight can be found at https://www.youknowmenow.com/