CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Former gang members get 'another chance at life' through Rise Up Industries

San Diego Union-Tribune - 7/12/2020

Angel Ramirez grew up watching family members and friends go through the revolving prison door and believed one day he'd join them.

He was 7 years old when his father took him along on a burglary. He was 10 when he began selling drugs and 12 when he joined a Los Angeles gang.

By 16 Ramirez was serving a seven-year-to-life sentence — with the possibility of parole — for murdering another inmate.

He thought he would never get out.

But on Feb. 10, 2017, at age 57, Ramirez was released after completing 41 years of his sentence, thanks to Senate Bill 260, which granted people sentenced to life in prison as juveniles a shot at parole.

This week, Ramirez was sitting in the offices of a Santee-based nonprofit that serves formerly incarcerated individuals. At 61, Ramirez says he is a changed man, with no plans to return to his former criminal lifestyle, thanks to Rise Up Industries.

"Every day is better than any dream I could ever imagine," said Ramirez, who "graduated" from Rise Up's program in 2018. "I thought myself to be such a horrible person because of the things I did as a gang member. I thought I could never been forgiven."

Rise Up takes former gang members and incarcerated individuals through 18 months of job skills training in Computer Numerical Control — which is

a method for automating control of machine tools using software embedded in a microcomputer attached to the tool. It is commonly in manufacturing for machining metal and plastic parts.

Besides job training, Rise Up provides financial literacy training, tattoo removal and therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Organization leaders say the goal is help participants stay out of prison by giving them skills to earn a sustainable income and services to help them adapt to life outside prison.

The local program is modeled after Homeboy Industries, a larger program in Los Angeles.

Rise Up launched in 2016 and has enrolled 27 people total, including seven who graduated and seven others still in the program. The rest went to other reentry services or left the program. The seven who graduated have jobs and have not returned to prison, said Jonathan Yackley, deputy executive director of Rise Up.

Nationally, recidivism for people leaving prison is highest during their first three years of freedom. In 2018 the U.S. Department of Justice found 83 percent of state prisoners released in 2005 across 30 states, including California, were arrested at least again within nine years of their release.

Three years since he was released from prison, Ramirez is getting ready to start a new job in northern California, building parts for boats and yachts. He's also planning to purchase a home in Tulare and take on responsibilities as a grandfather and mentor to at-risk kids, he said.

One of the biggest obstacles formerly incarcerated individuals face is finding a job, often leading themdown old paths back to prison, said Yackley.

A 2018 report by The Brookings Economic Studies program in Washington, DC. found that before incarceration and after, former prisoners had high rates of unemployment and earned low wages when they were employed.

"In the first full calendar year after their release, only 55 percent have any reported earnings," the report said. "Among those with jobs, their median annual earnings is $10,090 and only 20 percent earn more than $15,000 that year."

Yackley said there are societal biases against those who were formerly incarcerated, though many of Rise Up's participants joined gangs and committed crimes as young kids.

"These aren't adults making calculated decisions to get wealth; they are kids lacking hope, most of them experiencing domestic abuse, looking for a way out and not finding one," Yackley said.

Angel Zapata, 40, joined Rise Up's reentry program in June. He was born and raised in Sherman Heights and joined a gang at 11 as a way to counter verbal and physical abuse he experienced at home.

"I didn't have any coping skills to deal with my frustrations or anger, and I lashed out in violence," Zapata said.

He was sentenced to 19 years to life for second-degree murder when he was 21. He was released in May after serving nearly 19 years.

Transitioning to his new life has been challenging, he said, but Rise Up has helped. Zapata is getting help opening a bank account, obtaining a driver's licence and removing tattoos on the back of his head, neck, arms and hands.

"I still get nervous trying to use a debit card because I'm afraid I'll make a mistake and hold up a line," Zapata said. "There's a lot of anxiety that I deal with, but overall there's a lot of support and that support comes from this program."

Zapata said he is not afraid of relapsing into crime; he is determined to succeed because he has been given "another chance at life."

Josue Felix, 39, is graduating from the program on Friday and will join Rise Up Industries as an instructor.

Felix said he grew up around gangs in Los Angeles and joined one at 12. His family was religious and restricted his activities, he said, so as a youngster he wanted to rebel.

"As a child, I liked that feeling of belonging to something, not knowing what journey I was going to go on," Felix said. "I didn't even know I was being a terror to the community I was living in. It didn't dawn on me because I was a kid."

Felix began selling drugs and participating in burglaries. He went to prison at 18 and was eventually sentenced to 15 years to life.

Now he hopes to become a role model for other people in the program.

"It's been a journey," Felix said. "A lot of bad things had to happen unfortunately for me to be where I'm at today. A lot of people were hurt.... I'm hoping one day, if they can't openly forgive me, that they can look me up ... and see he's doing something good."

___

(c)2020 The San Diego Union-Tribune

Visit The San Diego Union-Tribune at www.sandiegouniontribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.