PRISON REFORM & With EXPO’s Jerome Dillard
Our lives’ paths are often created not out of youthful intention, but shaped by life experiences and laid out as we go. We use our backgrounds and our collective awareness to forge a way ahead, and hopefully leave our community a little bit better than we found it. Jerome Dillard, State Director of EX- Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO), found his as a result of a tumultuous youth. “I was a hustler. I grew up around hustlers, and that was my norm. Having an opportunity to take the time to change P\ OLIH DQG WKLQN GL;HUHQWO\ DQG OLYH
GL;HUHQWO\ ZDV D SURFHVV IRU PH LQ P\ ÀUVWÀYH\HDUVRXW RISULVRQ $IWHUWKDW I started volunteering to educate the community around mass incarceration and the impact that it was having.” Mr. Dillard talks openly about how his experiences shaped his world view. “What would impact on me was the number of young, predominantly $IULFDQ$PHULFDQPHQFRPLQJLQWRWKDW SULVRQ$W WKH WLPH LWZDV WKHPLGV right in the height of the war on drugs and tough on crime. I witnessed busload after busload of young men coming in ZLWK\HDUVIRUGUXJVµ
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