by Ray Sanchez Jr., Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, CA
Not so long ago, a friend of mine earned his parole. I say “earned” because he did not just sit and wait for his time to run out, he actively sought to change himself and enrolled in activities that not only helped to shorten his sentence, but also improve his life.
He did not begin his life, “working hard”, or with a will to “give it back,” as Hank Aaron admonishes us to do. Quite the opposite. He was a young black male, and he was exposed to a hard life in Frisco’s Hunter’s Point, where he eventually became addicted to crack. Born in 1979, he saw the crack, epidemic unfold during his childhood only to have it smother his adolescence.
When I met him over fourteen years ago, he was a stone cold drunk. He didn’t know it at the time, but the way he saw himself did not sync up with who he thought he should be, and he hated himself for it. He self-medicated. He was belligerent, violent. He pushed his friend’s away and embarrassed himself and others with his loss of control.
I know all this because he became my co-facilitator at the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I attended. In the six years we spent at Mule Creek together, I never saw him take a drink or heard of him using. As a matter of fact, he’s one of the positive people in my life that got me to enroll in Folsom Lake College for their social work and Human Services Program.
When they brought a program to our yard to train service dogs for the disabled, he was one of the first to volunteer. His dog, Preston, graduated top of his class. He hurdled through a hard road. His sturdies taught him about why he thought, believed and behaved as he had. With that understanding came the power to change his life. He learned that his short-cuts are what landed him in prisons and in a world hard to grow from that young angry black male, to become an emotionally intelligent mature black man. He EARNED his parole.
My friend’s absence did bring tears of joy. He was grouchy, loud-mouthed, brutally honest, stubborn, funny, opinionated, big-hearted, and loved by many of us who came to know him. We were sad to say goodbye, but happy to see him free. He didn’t waste his opportunity either. He got a job with UPS and spoke with at risk youth about his experiences in the hood and in prison. He gave back to those he once took from. He finally got to a place in life he was always meant to be.
There are no short-cuts in life, yet, his life was cut short. My friend, Maurice Jihad Green, was shot and killed in Hunter’s Point after only two years of freedom. His death breaks my heart and the world is worse off for his passing. All of us who knew him wish his family comfort and extend our love, respect, and condolences.
Ever the advocate, I know he would yell at us to stop killing each other. My Africans, Latinos, Usos, Asians, the persecuted minorities face enough challenges in these times of hate and intolerance. Is it not enough that police are responsible for George Floyd, Oscar Grant, Anthony Ashford, Stephen Clark, Freddie Gray, Tamia Rice, Eric Gardner, Ahmad Aubery, and Brianna Taylor.
Maurice Jihad Green, May God bless and keep them all. Asalaam Alaikum, my muslim brother. I hope we meet again in paradise.