TAMPA, Fla. — "When you spent over 34 years in incarceration, a lot of things have changed," said James Anderson.
Anderson was convicted of first-degree murder. He's now out on parole, left to navigate a completely different world than the one he left behind.
"Not everybody's gonna choose to open up their arms for somebody that has a very serious charge like I had a very, very rough past," he said.
He's going through the Abe Brown Ministries InspHire Re-Entry program.
"My transition back into society will be one that will be successful because of the help that I'm getting," he said.
President and CEO Robert Blunt explains all that the program has to offer.
"We assist returning citizens with housing, transportation. There's six weeks of training, professional development training. Afterward, they go into our employment services department, where we will help to match them with gainful employment opportunities. All of this is undergirded with 12 months of case management as well. Those case managers are helping our clients to identify their short-term goals, their long-term goals, and then assisting them, obviously, with their immediate needs," Blunt explained.
Abe Brown Ministries was launched in 1977 as a prison ministry.
In 2014, they launched InspHire.
"At the end of the day, I can get you a job today. But if you don't know where you're going to sleep at night, you don't have transportation, you're struggling with substance abuse, or you have some mental health issues you're struggling with or even co-occurring issues, you're not going to keep that job very long," he added.
On April 12th, Abe Brown took the harsh reality of returning citizens to the people working daily in our criminal justice system.
At the State Attorney's Office, the simulator puts those workers through the tough decisions that are usually made.
"What they discovered is that this is very challenging, especially when left to yourself to navigate these systems of services, right? And so it really boils down to a matter of survival. If I remove your education, I remove your income, I take away your housing, and you have no transportation, and you don't have access to health care real quick, you're gonna go into survival mode, 'I have to live to fight another day.' And I think that's where many returning citizens find themselves," Blunt said.
The best way to reintegrate into society is to have someone there to see you and help.
James Anderson said that's what Abe Brown is doing for him and what he wants to do for others eventually.
"I have a very good story to tell of how I went down that road to gun violence, that negative influence that I allowed in my life as a teenager, and then a young man. And there are a number of individuals that are in that cycle right now that I'm going to be trying to reach out to try to help them to get out of that cycle," he said.
Anderson said he's in the process of writing a book about his journey as he embarks on being there for others before they turn to violence or after the consequences of their actions have been set.
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