Ex-con in South LA pushes for re-entry facility
 

Charles Russell swears by the power of God and vocational training.

After a rough upbringing in South Central Los Angeles and 20 years in and out of state prison, the 51-year-old Greenfield resident credits his current life with wife, children and his own home to finding religion and learning a trade during his last stint at the California Correctional Center in Susanville.

When he walked out of there 14 years ago, he had a job, a house waiting for him and the determination to not go back.

"Before I got out, for two and a half years I kept going to church," Russell said. "I learned how to love myself. I decided to come home and be responsible. I've been able to turn my life around."

Now Russell is one of the members of Monterey County's religious community advocating for the opening of a 500-bed re-entry facility in Salinas, a project that comes with an $80 million grant to help refurbish the county jail.

The so-called re-entry facility is a project of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation aimed at reducing the 70 percent recidivism rate in the state and the severe overcrowding in the prison system. It has encountered many detractors, mostly residents of the Salinas neighborhood where the new detention center would be built.

But it also has its supporters, mostly former inmates and their families who want to break the seemingly never-ending prison cycle.

"The main thing is that it's going to bring families back together," Russell

said. "When a husband takes anger management classes, the wife takes anger management, and now the husband has a job and spiritual resources," he is going to have another chance, Russell said.

Vocational training is actually Russell's fourth chance at life. Two of them came when he recovered after overdosing twice on Angel Dust, or PCP. Another time, he was able to fend off an attacker who wanted to kill him with a meat cleaver. His fourth chance came when he was trained as a meat cutter in Susanville.

One of Russell's earliest recollections is of his father, a former Marine, severely abusing his mother.

"Ever since I was 4 years old, I saw my dad beat my mom," he said. "Probably I used to hurt people because I thought that's what you're supposed to do. But that ain't love."

The lack of respect that surrounded him prevented him from learning how to love himself, he said, so he went on abusing his body — and committing crimes against people — every time he was out of jail. He was sentenced different times for selling drugs, stealing a car, shooting at another man.

While completing a six-year sentence at Susanville for assault with a deadly weapon, his pastor tried to convince him Jesus loved him.

"I didn't know what love was," he said. "I asked him to pray for me, to teach me how to love myself."

At Susanville, he signed up for meat cutting training. There was nothing else he wanted to do: no carpentry, no masonry, no plumbing, no auto mechanics. He calls it a sign from God that he got into the overcrowded classes after a few weeks' wait.

"When I got out, I was able to go through the rest of my training," he said. "They buy your work tools, your work clothes, they give you bus passes, they pay your wages for 90 days to prove you can do the job. They taught me how to interview, how to write a résumé, how to carry myself in an interview. After 90 days they kept me and I worked there for four years."

As a general rule, inmates only get $200 and a bus ticket to their county of last residency when they get out of prison.

"People are scared to get out," Russell said. "They know they burned their bridges before they went in. They probably stole from their parents."

For the past 14 years, Russell has raised a family, paid his bills and even purchased a home. He also gives back to men who are in a situation reminiscent of his past, trying to steer them back to the right path.

"It feels so good being a productive member of society, being able to help those in need," he said.

Claudia Meléndez Salinas can be reached at 753-6755 or cmelendez@montereyherald.com.