TEDx Goes to Prison

Starring Richard Branson, Hill Harper, a congressman, and lots of inspiring convicts.


Somewhere along the line, our justice system lost sight of the fact that prisoners are just people, and that most people are capable of redemption. Yes, there are some who probably should be locked away for life, but I would imagine that’s a small minority. As for the rest, holding them indefinitely does nobody any good. Plenty of prisoners are desperate to change, to get out and make a positive contribution, given the opportunity. But dumping a parolee back onto the streets with no education or prospects or support network or realistic means of earning a living is hardly a second chance.

It wasn’t the big names that made the event special. It was the no-names—the prisoners.

That’s where movie producer Scott Budnick comes in. He’s been volunteering and creating youth education programs in California prisons since long before the Hangover franchise made him a Hollywood player. Last month, his nonprofit Anti-Recidivism Coalition teamed up with the Ford Foundation to host an event that was certainly a first: a TEDx conference inside a state penitentiary, with hundreds in attendance.

Ironwood State Prison resident Steven Duby served as MC for a bill that kicked off with Budnick interviewing Sir Richard Branson about the importance of, yes, second chances. (Branson once spent a day in “prison,” he said, for failing to pay taxes. His mother was able to bail him out by mortgaging her house, Branson added, but not everyone has it so easy.) Among the acts was Illinois therapist and motivational speaker Sean Stephenson (below), who held the prisoners rapt with his tale of overcoming adversity. “When I was born, the doctors told my parents I would be dead within the first 24 hours of my life,” he began. “Thirty-five years later, all those doctors are dead, and I am the only doctor that remains!”

The program included poetry and music, a performance by Jabbawockeez, the winners of MTV’s America’s Greatest Dance Crew, and talks by the likes of CSI: NY actor Hill Harper, astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi, former Secretary of Corrections Matt Cate, and a reform-minded congressman whose retelling of his personal story is pretty moving. He actually kneels on the stage. Watch:

But it wasn’t the big names that made the event special. It was the no-names—the prisoners, and even some guards, who had the courage to share their insights and experiences, sing a Native American healing song, or make an economic case for allowing inmates to take college courses. “The purpose,” Budnick explains via email, “was to bring hope and inspiration to the inmates, to highlight the incredible rehabilitative and college programs at Ironwood Prison, and to show the infinite possibilities in the lives of prisoners if both they and caring, moral members of society invest and believe in their success and transformation.”

Up top, for example, is Rocky Thomas talking about the power of sharing personal stories. Below is Sean Wilson on facing fear. For good measure, I’ve also included a clip of correctional officer Calvin Williams on the importance of being a father, because it’s not often we get to see prison guards as human beings, either.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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