THE HOUSE OF LIFE – PITTSBURGH
Ex-offenders and law enforcement have come together to create The House of Life non-profit organization – initiating a paradigm shift in how we can cure overincarceration and high recidivism rates through restorative justice.
The Mission
To utilize the expertise of successful returning citizens, law enforcement, and legal professionals to nurture qualifying ex-offenders through The House of life prisoner reentry program in order to prevent high recidivism rates while providing restorative justice.
Restorative Justice
A type of criminal justice that focuses on rehabilitating offenders by repairing the harm done to not only the victims, but also the greater community, while addressing the social circumstances that led to the crime itself.
Letters From Behind
THE WALLS
Writings from and inspired
from the book, “Life Sentences”
If I can save one young man from coming back to prison once they are released, then I feel I’m making a difference….. Also, I want my daughter to remember me as a man who helped people instead of the person that brought me to prison.
The merit of the effort. What’s fair is always easily found if we just look into our hearts and not our heads, our hearts are where all truth exists.
There were times in the past when I use the excuse of POME (Product Of My Environment) to justify my behavior. And trying to overcome that state of mind, I realize that I have a choice, regardless of my environment. I could choose to be a product of my expectations.
One of the main things I do is use the word “we.” That way the person that I’m helping doesn’t feel alone. Most of the time they just need someone to listen to them. So now I spend my day going around talking to people seeing if I can help them. You would be surprised to see how much just talking and listening to someone helps them.
The Story
Once upon a time, there was a prison in Pittsburgh, Pa. called “The Wall.” It’s official name was The State Correctional Institute of Pittsburgh (SCIP) and, at 135 years old, it had a lot of stories to tell before it’s closing in 2017. Mostly stories of fear, pain, despair, and death. But amongst the countless tragic narratives that took place within The Wall, there is also our story. A story of faith, hope, purpose, and restorative justice.
The House of Life was born from a group of inmates inside The Wall that were inspired to meet every Friday morning for teaching, learning, and – the centerpiece – reading their writings to one another. They would read aloud volumes of new and old writings. They called this group “The Elsinore Bennu Think Tank.”* Eventually this led to more people coming together to form an editorial group that began meeting on Sundays outside the prison, resulting in the book, “Life Sentences: Writings From Inside An American Prison – The Elsinore Bennu Think Tank for Restorative Justice”
As all of this was taking place, a man named Lou Gentile began focusing on everything he had learned in his almost 50 years in law enforcement – and what he could personally do to efficiently integrate returning citizens into society. Gentile’s career kicked off in 1972 with the Pennsylvania State Police and, after proving himself as an expert undercover narcotics agent working at an organized crime unit, he eventually rose to positions like Law Enforcement Coordinator with The Pennsylvania States Attorney’s Office, Director of the Bureau of Narcotics in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and owner of CSI Corporate Securities Investigations, Inc. As if his resume wasn’t colorful enough, Gentile got talked into teaching INSIDE THE WALL. In time, the prisoners and “the man who put them there” found common ground and respect for each other under the shared hope for restorative justice.
One fateful day, inside-the-wall-Think-Tank-member-and-author, Richard “Khalifa” Diggs* and Lou Gentile encountered each other at one of the Elsinore Bennu Think Tank meetings. There was an undeniable spark, and the spark ignited as returning citizens Foster Tarver, Taili Thompson, Alexander Lewis, Ricky Lee Olds, Richard Garland, and Robert Wideman joined forces, driven by the same desire to change the paradigm: instead of capitalizing on the weaknesses of those trying to reenter society after prison, let’s capitalize on the strengths of those that have already achieved success as returning citizens! And the foundation was laid for The House of Life….
*Inspired by the work of groups like Shakespeare Behind Bars and Prison Performing Arts, the first thought was to call it the Elsinore Think Tank. Illustrating the folly of revenge, Hamlet seemed to resonate for a group focused on restorative justice. However, in an early meeting, Malakki, one of the inside members, objected, pointing out that Hamlet is an artifact of European culture and Elsinore was a castle, while most our group is of African descent and – at least for him – the prison is nothing like a castle. Malakki offered suggestions for alternative names including “The Bennu” (predecessor to the phoenix from Egyptian mythology.) After some negotiation, we settled on Elsinore Bennu Think Tank (EBTT), as an intercontinental resolution.
*The authors of “Life Sentences: Writings From Inside An American Prison” are 6 men: Robert “Faruq” Wideman, James “Fly” Martin, Richard “Khalifa” Diggs, Ralph “Malakki” Bolden, Oscar Brown, and Clarence “Shawn” Robinson. (RIP Khalifa, who died alone on a hospital floor after a late-diagnosis of cancer, while his family desperately tried to find information about his whereabouts.)