Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting and some strong language

FOOTSTEPS JOGGING, RAPID HEARTBEAT

CELL DOOR SLAMS SHUT

My father always said to me,

he said, "God helps those who help themselves."

I think you can help yourself by living a good and healthy life.

Love and respect yourself and others.

You first have to have respect and love for yourself.

If you don't love yourself, how are you going to love your neighbour?

BUZZING

METAL CLANKS

I feel that I've been pretty fortunate in my life.

Steven, how are you doing?

You know, a lot of guys haven't had the advantages I've had.

They've had a tough time and been in tough situations

and they've made mistakes.

Typically, I don't question any of the inmates about their crimes.

If they want to discuss them with me,

I'll discuss them with them.

It really doesn't matter much to me what they've done in the past.

What matters to me is what are they doing now

and what are they going to do in the future?

We all make mistakes and we hopefully learn

from our mistakes and go forward.

FAINT, INDISTINCT CHATTER

CHATTER GETS LOUDER

One of the first things that they tell you in prison

is put your feelings in an envelope and mail that home.

You can get them when you get there.

I wasn't Christopher Scull.

I was T-24369.

I was my number.

8105! 8105!

Knowing you're going to be locked up for the rest of your life,

you've got to have ways to cope.

Yard crew, head over to checkpoint.

Yard crew, head over to checkpoint. Do so now.

forward

Distractions only slow you

forward

Distractions only slow you

Up is where I'm shooting

He's the one to pull me through it

We have a running group here at San Quentin, the 1,000 Mile Club.

On the yard is one of the few places where you don't have to wear clothes

that say "prisoner" on them. You can wear your own clothes,

and you can dress just like anybody else in society.

But it allows you to feel like you're doing something normal,

that you're doing something that's not prison.

It's also comprised of coaches.

They are marathon runners that want to come in and share

their experience about running.

Named the club the 1,000 Mile Club.

The idea was to have the inmates run 1,000 miles

while they were at San Quentin.

I have a fairly extensive running background.

I've run 78 marathons,

38 ultra-marathons, including a 100-mile race,

and I was a competitive runner up until age 60.

And I enjoy coaching running.

Listen up, everybody!

We've got the half-marathon in 32 days.

Then 35 days after that, we've got the two-hour run.

35 days after that, we have a three-hour run.

And then you have six weeks, 42 days, the marathon.

November 17th.

Woo! Yeah, baby!

Now things start getting a little bit tougher. Two, one, go!

We train the runners starting at shorter distances...

Three minutes down, three to go!

..and then as the year goes on, we build up to a marathon.

Three to go! SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY

If you look at statistics, less than 1% of the population

have finished a marathon.

So if you can go out and you can finish a 26.2 mile marathon,

you're doing pretty good.

The thought of running 26.2 miles

in or out of prison is incredibly intimidating, but for a lot

of people, it's the journey

of actually getting there, getting to the starting line

and having the confidence that, "Yeah, I can do this."

My goal is to run under three hours, maybe qualify for Boston here.

Be the first one to do that.

I started running to stay focused on my main goals and that's to get

out, have my freedom. But while I'm here,

stay focused on staying right, doing the right things.

And the board, because I know that I had to go to the board

and I've seen so many people after being denied five, six, seven

years, they get stressed out.

And somebody that I knew that became a good friend

of mine, that worked at PLA with me, he ended up killing himself.

I know it's stressful and people handle things differently,

and I won't let that happen to me.

INDISTINCT SPEAKING OVER LOUDSPEAKER

This is my first major conviction, my first time getting time.

I got it all at once. A double life sentence.

I'm never supposed to go home.

But instead of letting that anger eat me, I decided to put

in something positive and not let these people think they're right

about me. Not let my son grow up thinking that his dad is a loser.

I'm hoping to survive the marathon on Friday.

If you guys have seven hours, you might just see that happen.

HE LAUGHS

You've got a squad's notice, man. I keep forgetting to give you...

Recent arrival.

The last time I was here was '90, and I did not parole a better

person back there, and they didn't have programmes.

First thing I learned was how to make alcohol,

how to make weapons, how to slam narcotics.

I mean, I told myself I'll never teach that to none of these kids.

Even some of the melees and the riots in here had nothing

on how I felt after that marathon.

What started me running was I don't like sitting at tables

talking about prison stuff.

You hear the same stories, but it's just a different phase.

I've been running for a year and a half. I've got 2,500 miles in.

I lost over 55 pounds. And here I am.

I want under a four-hour marathon. That's all I want.

Yard crew, head over to checkpoint!

Yard crew, head over to checkpoint! Do so now.

INDISTINCT SPEAKING OVER RADIO

Today is marathon day in San Quentin.

It's the culmination of a year's progress.

This is what we do at the 1,000 Mile Club.

We work from a benchmark mile

up in January, right on up to 26 miles in November.

This is the only day that we actually demand the track,

kind of sort of by proxy.

But there are guys out here who probably wouldn't be on the yard,

just because somebody they know is running.

They come out and support. It's a good time.

My goal today is to complete the marathon.

But the thing is, when I'm at six miles, Markelle's finished.

So I want to see if I can... LAUGHTER

Yeah, most people are halfway done by the time Markelle's done.

Perfect day. Sunny. Perfect day. You couldn't get a better day.

Oh, did Frank put the cones out? Did he come in early? Yeah.

Frank did? Yeah. Did you know that they...?

Shoes that are donated don't belong to us.

They belong to the state, so they're stored in these lockers.

We got to give them ID in order to get the shoes.

And when we're finished, we got to return them.

Hey, how are you? Jim! Y'all ready? Great, ready.

The shoes look ready! The shoe...

At least the shoes are ready.

Buenos dias!

Let's get our shoes on

and let's get ready to run.

INDISTINCT CHATTER Good luck today. Good luck.

Markelle is the fastest man in the club by leaps and bounds.

The only thing is whether or not he's going to break three hours.

A lot of guys, they've gotten to the halfway point.

They've gotten to the three-quarters point, but they haven't done

the whole 26.2. For them, today is another crack at it.

Three minutes! We're going in three minutes!

We start in three minutes!

Hey, Jim. How you doing? How you doing? Good to see you.

Three minutes! And you're in the community...

Change comes from within, as frustrating as it is... No.

Change comes from doing stuff. Change comes from within.

What are any of us going to do on a national level?

Who knows? Who knows? This... Locally.

Things for me will happen locally, if I can get my hands

on and just sort of work...

That's actually where the biggest changes need to happen

and where the most change is needed. I agree.

Because federal laws don't really reach us like that.

I'm going to put the banner up.

Am I centre? Am I centre? Hey, Tone. Am I centre? Yep.

The San Quentin Marathon is 105 laps.

The track itself entails the whole yard.

We have our uphill turns and downhill slopes.

We have gravel. We're on pavement. We're on dirt.

It's more of an endurance run than a race.

If we can keep the track clear, this should be a very good day

for the club. This is a good day for us.

This is a holiday for us.

All right! I want all the runners...

Left-batters!

Brad's where? Where are you, Brad?

Yeah, I'm right here. I'm counting for you.

Hey, buddy. How you doing? I'm pretty good.

You're going to run it?

He's got Butchie.

OK. Melody! Melody! You got... Here's Jerry.

Jerry says he's not running. Oh, you're not running.

He wants to count. Oh, OK. That's all right.

The inmates in prison don't have a lot of options.

When I'm training runners on the outside to run a marathon,

we do a lot of long runs and trail runs, and it's a lot

more interesting and a lot easier to do.

The runners at San Quentin are running lap after lap after lap.

All right. Everybody that's running,

we've been doing this for a year now, so we should be ready.

Pace yourself.

It's game time.

OK, we're going in ten, nine, eight...

Good luck to everybody. ..seven, six, five, four...

May the force be with you. ..three, two, one...

Go! CHEERING

The San Quentin marathon is way harder

than any of the hardest hilly marathons I ran outside of here.

I don't want to even call it a track, because it's a loop

with six 90-degree turns in it.

That's hard. And plus, you're running in an environment

where there's a couple of thousand other people out in the yard

and you've kind of got to move around them.

I mean, most of the guys are very, very respectful, but...

You're doing great.

Is there a better punishment than running?

That's every other sport's punishment.

"Go run ten laps", or whatever, right?

All right now, New York.

Yes, sir. Stay with it.

Looking good!

I have run the marathon before.

I've been hurt here and there the last couple of years.

This is probably the toughest corner of the course

to navigate right here.

Most of the traffic on a Friday morning, on the hourly unlocks,

traffic is going counterclockwise from where we're racing.

If you're not part of the race,

you're kind of oblivious to what's going on around you,

and we're trying to stop collisions here on the corner.

Basically, that's what we do right here.

I'm basically a traffic cop here.

When you have a race this long, once you get physically tired,

you start to get mentally tired.

And if one of these guys bumps you and knocks you off your line

then you're more subject to quit.

Watch your line, fellas. Watch your line.

Swing wide!

Hey, fellas, bad place to hold a conversation, please!

They're working hard.

Nowhere else in competitive running

do you have to run on an obstacle course.

Good run! Stay with it, Eddie. Come on, Larry.

Yard down!

Yard down!

Oh, man. The yard's down.

I needed this rest like five miles in.

HE LAUGHS

Something happened somewhere in the prison.

Here we go. We got to sit, no matter where we're at.

Most of the time, it's not serious.

But if it's real long, it's something serious.

Probably maybe it's a medical alarm right now,

so we just got to wait until they resume it.

So probably take five, ten, 15 minutes.

Depends. Up to an hour.

So we just got to wait until they say it's clear.

It's not a good start.

One thing you learn about prison,

the menu is subject to change!

And everything else...

Without notification. Without prior notification.

It looks like a long one. Man. I'll have a seat.

Ah!

Shucks.

I'm curious to see, like, how a guy like Markelle

would run in the street.

He runs, like, 3.21.

I wonder, like, how much faster would he be in the street,

where it wasn't just the same old track?

If geese weren't in the way, you didn't have to get up

and get down, get up and get down - if it was under normal conditions.

Like, what would our times be?

I'm curious to see what that would be like.

When I was a junior in the PE class,

I was running with a backpack on full of books,

and I was beating some of the guys that were running.

The track coach seen that and asked me to join the track team.

My junior year, I ran the 880,

the mile, the 4x400.

I was offered a scholarship.

The biggest one was UNLV for track.

Then I had Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge

offer scholarships for track.

I didn't understand what I was offered and what I had,

so I didn't take advantage of the opportunity

like I should have.

The self doubt and, you know,

am I going to be able to live up to that expectation

of what was offered to me?

I ended up dropping out, from partying and drinking and stuff.

So that's where the downward spiral started.

This dude can run all day. HE LAUGHS

Day and night. He already run all night. Yeah.

Markelle, what's going on? How you doing?

What's up with it, man? How y'all doing?

How you doing? I'm all right.

I wasn't feeling good inside, you know?

I was sad, depressed, angry.

So all my feelings that I had bottled up inside of me,

I hid that in drinking.

I was working through the registry,

and I was also working in the convalescent hospital,

nursing, taking care of patients.

Separated from my wife.

Living with another female,

and relationship got bad after a year

of us being together,

and stuff got violent.

We started being abusive towards each other,

and she ended up getting pregnant and...

Um...

And, one day, after working and drinking,

I assaulted her while she was pregnant

and she had to go to the hospital and have a C-section.

She was seven months pregnant.

Had the baby three days later, after she went to the hospital,

I called the police, turned myself in.

They said my son was OK, but...

..the baby ended up dying 28 days later of an infection.

Went to trial and got a second degree murder, so...

So I did that, and now I'm paying for it.

Markelle, er, he went to the parole board.

He got denied, but I think he'll make the next one.

So, he will... He will have a shot to do that, God willing.

I think a lot of us will get that chance.

Even me.

I started with a 55 to life,

but now I go to parole board in 13 years instead of never,

and I think it's going to get shortened even more.

So, we'll see.

Gotta stay in shape in the meantime, though,

so you can have a decent quality of life on the other side.

So it's been going for almost...seven minutes now.

Sometimes it might be a half hour long. Yeah.

Clear! Oh, there we go.

All right! Back at it.

Off to the races!

We've got you.

Come on. All right! Yes, sir.

I got you. I'll check in! That's all right, I got you, brother.

Hey. Looking good. Way to go.

We have a pretty good strong field here as far as finishing.

Everybody may not run 100% of the 26 miles.

You may have some walk episodes.

OK, we've been doing 30 minutes of running time, guys.

All right, Steve?

If I had to pick one that might not finish today,

I think it just might be New York on time constraints.

So, my name is Rahsaan.

I'm named after a jazz musician named Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Another one? Cool kids are doing it. You'll feel better. Come on!

And all my life, no-one's ever got my name right,

or hardly ever got my name right,

so I answer to anything starting with a "Ra" sound,

like Rasheen, Rashawn, Rayshawn, Raheem.

As long as you're in the neighbourhood,

I feel like you're talking about me in a positive way, I'll answer.

New York City! New York, yeah!

Woo woo woo!

I gotta go, dawg. I gotta get back to work!

MUSIC INTRO

This song for everybody that kept doing

what they was supposed to be doing, didn't fold under pressure.

Shout out to anybody that did that.

I recognised a while ago that my voice is free.

I can reach the world through words.

My family's all the way in New York, so I don't get visits.

But they can see my change through my writing,

and they can see I can be a success.

Even from prison, I can be a successful writer.

Dying a loser, like, wasting my life - it's my greatest fear,

and it's inspired a passion for me to do whatever I can,

even from here.

Even if I never go home,

to be the best me I can be,

and have some kind of positive contribution to society.

So, I'm a staff writer for San Quentin News.

That's one of my jobs.

We just got our website up - sanquentinnews.com.

Our online analytics show that almost every country goes online

to check out San Quentin News.

Somebody from somewhere, everywhere.

Also a contributing writer for the Marshall Project.

Every once in a while I write Life Inside stories

and shoot it there.

I'm also a consultant for Amazon, working on a project with them.

One of my favourite things

is the co-founder of Prison Renaissance.

We're trying to build bridges to get over these walls.

I grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York.

It's a community with 21 different housing projects.

I saw myself getting killed, but I didn't see myself getting life.

This is considered Brownsville, Brooklyn.

It's probably one of the worst neighbourhoods in New York City.

Mike Tyson is from this neighbourhood.

You know, poverty stricken, crime stricken,

drug addicts all over here.

A lot of shooting.

We're right in front of Atlantic Towers, 216 Rockaway Avenue.

Me and Rahsaan was pretty much born and raised here.

Most of the time, there'd probably be, like, drugs selling over here.

There's probably, like, 40, 50 people

standing in front of the building.

You might, in the morning time, guys, winos all across the street.

The environment, kind of,

is what created Rahsaan to go where he went.

Because when Rahsaan would come out the neighbourhood,

Rahsaan didn't look like nobody in the neighbourhood.

Rahsaan was a computer wiz.

There was no other kid in this whole building that had a Commodore 64

and was creating his own video games.

He was like 12 years old at that point.

He was like a white kid growing up in an all-black neighbourhood.

And they called him White Boy.

And they took advantage of him,

and it was like they would punish him for 200 years of slavery.

They were taking it out on him.

I know Rahsaan had a lot going for him.

He was always an A student.

He didn't like it. He was like, "Don't put me in that school

"because I don't want to be in a special class.

"I don't want to be..."

He did not want to be recognised

as someone, you know, above the rest.

He was a victim for so long that just one day,

he just said he didn't want to be a victim no more.

One day, me and him were standing outside.

There was a guy like, "Give up your jewellery!"

You know, "Give up everything",

and he went to rob us.

And the guy began shooting.

And in the process of the guy shooting,

pulling away, I ended up getting shot.

He got hit in both legs.

I took it dramatically, like he died.

I couldn't forgive myself for it,

and I couldn't forgive that guy for it. I just wanted to get him.

I run to the projects nearby.

I go to a drug dealer there that I hung out with sometimes

in clubs, and I ask him for a gun and he's like,

"Come on, man. What you gonna do with a gun? You ain't like that."

And I said, "He shot my brother. Give me the gun."

And he looked at me and he took me serious,

and he gave me a gun.

And, for the first time in my life, I used it.

I ran up on him and shot him three times.

He lived, but I ended up arrested for it.

I only served three days on Rikers Island.

The case was dismissed at the grand jury

because he had seven cases out on him for robbing people

and shooting people in my neighbourhood,

and he just... He didn't testify against me.

Watch your line, please! Thank you.

Swing wide.

Come on, you're doing good!

Here at San Quentin, you kind of break a lot of rules

and regulations that you were brought up into in the system.

As far as mingling and mixing with other races.

Geographically, we basically have African Americans over here.

You have what you would call

the Mexican Americans in this corner.

Most of the Muslim segregation, this is where they populate.

The northern Mexicans are down in this corner.

You have the Native American sweat lodge where they populate,

and, for the most part,

far corner, you have the whites and the others,

and everybody has their own basic area...

Track! Let them up the lane, please!

Mostly it's prison politics.

Most of these guys have come in and they fall into

the racism aspect of prison,

and you kind of go with party lines... Looking good!

Looking good!

Oh, that's fast.

Pretty fast!

As you get older,

you basically start to form your own identity again.

None of us are the same person we were 20 years ago.

Tommy...

Tommy has a swastika tattooed on his arm,

but I'm probably one of Tommy's biggest fans.

If you're going to reintegrate back into society,

that's what you need to be - a stand up guy.

So, want to do one more? Yeah. OK.

Which one would you circle?

Er, circle the common... Right.

That would be metals.

And then underline that. Brilliant. Got it, buddy.

Cool. Thanks, buddy.

You're always a big help. Any time.

Cool.

I test Wednesday on my reading language arts - RLA.

And if I pass that, I've got one more after that,

that's maths, so hopefully I'll have my GED no later than January.

Fourth grade was pretty much it for me because I flunked.

And then after that, my teachers back then they just passed me

from grade to grade.

School was never important for me, to tell you the truth.

A bunch of BS is what I believed in.

It's weird how you get caught up

in the prison politics and the beliefs.

Even my wife, she knew me right when I got in my gang,

and she came up to me and she's like, Palmdale Peckerwoods?

But she went, "Palmdale Peckerpunk!".

And I was like, "Oh!" I wanted to get her!

There's a lot of times over the last 13 years

I wanted to give up on Marion and I

because I don't feel right.

Because I say, "You deserve a person out there,

"not somebody in prison."

She's like, "I don't care. I'm with you,

"and that's all there is to it."

Do we have it at 750?

That was the idea, to get away, huh?

You gotta wait for me!

These are the shoes that Tommy made for me.

I love these shoes.

And you'll notice it says 26.2.

And on the back side, right here,

is the "I love you" sign for sign language.

Now these are two bobble heads that he made of us.

And on the side of his head, it says "Ma and Pa tried".

I look really good.

I love the bobble heads,

and they're made out of newspaper, soap and water.

And we entered it in the fair,

and I have the paperwork on that, actually.

Tommy Wickerd.

For Christmas, I sent Tommy a letter and I wrote, "Ask me".

I was like, no, she doesn't want me to get married.

I was like, "Marion, I'm probably never coming home."

She's like, "I don't care. I'm with you, no matter what."

Everybody got a radio and a chair,

I was on the phone in the cell, and we got married over the phone.

And when we got married, Marcelle at the time said,

"Hey, they're married!" So you hear all the bars go "de-de-de"!

"That's right, Tommy!"

We became husband and wife, and we've been that ever since.

And I adopted Tommy II

after his mom died.

Being a wife from somebody that's incarcerated is extremely difficult,

because all you have is the telephone.

You watch a TV show together.

He's in prison, I'm at home.

You sit down in front of the TV at the same time,

and you watch the show together.

We watched The OC.

Oh, my gosh. The OC was our show

that we watched while we were growing to love each other.

It was wild.

I have the... I have the DVD still unopened,

so if he does get to come home,

we're going to watch The OC together.

You go to a visiting room and you sit there and you hold hands

and you walk around, eat vending food together,

play card games,

talk.

And that's your life as the wife of someone that's incarcerated.

Now, when they moved Tommy to San Quentin,

Tommy thought our relationship would actually end.

Because San Quentin is 375 miles away from our home.

He was on the bus with this guy and he said,

"Ask for family visits",

and we got them.

You have 46 hours together.

You get to watch TV together,

you cook together, you shower together, you clean together,

you do whatever comes to mind together.

And it's like living a real life.

It's... It's like really being a couple.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!

What's making this family visit so special

is Tommy II, our son, is flying in from Nebraska,

and he's going in for his first family visit with his dad, ever.

So he's only ever had visits with his dad

in regular visiting rooms where you have

correctional officers watching you.

Other families, other inmates.

I've got a couple memories of him outside, but not much.

We used to wake up two o'clock in the morning,

line up our car outside the prison before the prison opened its gates.

They opened their gates at seven.

We drove in, filled out our paperwork,

went through processing, and got to see him by, like 9:30.

Somebody will come ask me something simple, maybe,

like, "change my oil in my car".

People change their oil all the time.

I don't know how to do that.

My dad didn't show me that.

He can't show me that in the visiting room.

Like, everyone's like, "Oh, you don't know how to do this?"

"OK, who showed you that when you were a kid?"

"Oh, my dad."

"OK." Like, how am I going to learn that?

I can't.

So everything that I've learned,

I've either taught myself, or YouTube.

YouTube's been my dad.

I taught myself how to change a tyre.

I taught myself how to climb trees,

and I taught myself...

..how to catch and throw a football.

Just...

I want to ask him why.

Like, what the fuck's your problem?

That's it.

I just...

I just want to know.

Because it's not easy.

It's not easy for me.

And I know, yeah, I'm tough...

Everything.

There's no reason that he's in there for as long as he is.

That's all his choice.

I can understand the law's the law,

but I have the right to be mad at my dad.

No-one's going to take that from me.

I know he feels sorry, but tell me then.

I share my feelings. Why can't a grown man share his, to his son?

It's like he's scared to cry.

I've only seen tears in his eyes twice.

He's like, "Can't let people see me cry.

"I can't let these COs see me cry."

And now there's nobody.

I better see some damn tears in his eyes.

Or I'm gonna make some.

Hey, Siri.

Driving directions to San Quentin State Prison.

One possibility is San Quentin State Prison on Main Street

in San Quentin. Do you want that one?

Yes.

Starting route to San Quentin State Prison.

People turn away from people when they're incarcerated.

And if you don't have anybody to show you that your dad is cool,

or your mom is cool,

then how do you learn to accept them?

Are you ready?

We're not allowed to take suitcases into the prison.

It has to be bags that have soft sides.

Bags that you can't put any contraband in.

You have to have the suitcases for the airport,

these for here.

It's a lot of work.

It's all worth it!

I feel like a pack mule.

I am a pack mule.

I could actually be

or just happy being me

that had more pull than the sea

I'm looking more like the streets

and then buy into your dreams

Push pawns to some queens

Who wanna practise medicine?

They can never be defeated.

I wanna tell you about it

Hey, Vincent! Here we go.

Hey, Sergio. Way to go!

Looking good, man. Hey, Steve.

Take that deep breath and relax.

All right, Tommy!

Tommy! Tommy!

Don't give in, buddy.

Get some... Get some fluids in you.

All right? I don't know. Got you.

Markelle's well out.

Well out there, but he's not running as fast as he ran last year

when he set the record.

So hopefully he picks it up, and...

..runs a faster time, but we'll see.

Keep drinking, Markelle!

Good work. You're more than halfway done!

Yeah. That's smart. If he can get some...

I mean, they're at a huge disadvantage in terms of

running the same course every day,

and nutrition and sleep,

and having control of a lot of different variables,

that they just don't have control of,

but they do a great job,

taking their athletics seriously.

17 miles, Markelle! 17 now.

A big part of the thousand mile club too is the outside volunteers.

They really make us feel like we're part of the community.

Hello. Good evening.

How are you? Good.

What you got going on today?

We are going to do some running.

Wow, you guys are always running.

There's an old Indian saying, right?

He who doesn't feel like he's part of the tribe

acts as if he doesn't have any relatives,

and Franklin will make that impossible to not feel like

you're part of the tribe, especially Frank.

He comes in on Fridays and every other Monday.

I haven't seen my mom since I've been incarcerated.

So, it's been 16 years now,

almost 17 years.

So that's what I appreciate a lot

from people from the outside spending time with me.

That's actually how I consider having my visits.

That's what I consider family.

This doesn't happen in every prison.

You've got to remember, all I did was hang around gang members

and do drugs and sell drugs and hurt people.

Now I'm around coaches that are just like...

like my mom and dad growing up - good people, and it's...

I had to...

ALARM SOUNDS There's an alarm, so....

HE GROANS

Well...

..they have a lot of programmes here

and you got a lot of outside people here, but this is still prison.

Um, it gets violent.

So, um...

There's a lot of stuff I can't really talk about

because I'm in prison and I still have to live here.

Um...

But, um...

with the time that remain

running through my veins

To survive in a level four prison, you've got to really be tough.

You know what I mean?

A certain image.

There was violence a lot every day.

You have to participate in a riot, or your own peers

will remove you from the yard.

When I was at Ironwood Prison, it was in 2011

there was a 400 man riot.

I was strongly advised to choose a side,

so I chose a side with the Asians and Filipinos

because I'm half Filipino.

The other race took offence to the person exercising

in their area and it started...

It's like a fire that starts off.

The people are fighting groups of five, groups of 20, groups of 40.

And then it would... You can see it move.

It's almost like a... Almost like a virus.

with the time that remain

I got running through my veins

with the time that remain

So your own peers will challenge you,

will...test you

to see if you're able to stay with them.

I call this a big project.

You just can't leave yet.

with the time that remain

running through my veins

Good job, Chris.

All right, Chris. Nice going.

Good work, you guys. You want a drink?

Skull! Ready to go, Steve?

We're probably somewhere around the midway point of the race right now.

Guys are looking good.

Markelle looks awesome.

He's got a nice stride going.

Jonathan Chiu, I'm gonna put my money there on the dark horse.

Him and Steve Reese.

Let's go, Markelle! Watch your runners in the lane, fellas.

Let 'em through.

So I've run this race, I've run a marathon on the streets,

and it's really hard to run around for four hours in a circle.

It's like being on a hamster wheel on a track this small.

It's an almost out-of-body experience.

but I won't let it get to me

In San Quentin, you run in these circles.

And you have to trick your mind

to believe that you're somewhere else.

Four hours of running, you can go stir crazy

if you're not thinking about something other than running.

In my mind, I was just focused on that

I was actually out somewhere in society running.

I would block the walls out, the gun towers,

and just go into a zone.

It felt that much closer to freedom,

that much closer to being with family or friends or just...

It just took everything away.

When I came to prison, I thought about really just ending it all.

I mean, because there's no point.

I mean, I'm doing 50 years of life,

and I didn't see a point being in prison.

I mean, I could have just...would have just taken the easy way out

and just kill myself.

When I saw the reality of prison and I saw everybody around me,

I mean, these guys can do it.

I was like, there must be a way just to survive this.

I do think about my crime a lot.

So in a sense, it's like...

..kind of penance. You know, penance for my crime.

I, like... I kind of feel like,

OK, I caused so much suffering and pain in my victim

and my victim's family that, you know...

Some of that pain is, you know...

Excuse me.

But I deserve some suffering as well, so.

That's part of it.

Excuse me.

They are there for a reason.

I don't get a lot of stories about,

like, "I shouldn't be here", you know?

But it's more that, you know, behind every person there,

there really is something.

And there is a story and there is a circumstance

that brought them there,

but at the same time, you know, they're just like you and me.

21 miles, Markelle. 21 miles!

Five and a quarter to go.

Come on, Markelle!

I've been with re-entry for four years.

I've been with Markelle for about a year now.

Markelle has been to the board twice.

Both denied.

The most recent one this summer, he was denied.

They gave him a three year denial.

So... Which is... Which is good.

You could get a seven year denial.

Um, there are a lot of variables now that are playing out

in California, that he might be called in early.

Did you guys watch Warriors in here?

Oh, yeah. I'm glad they won.

Why should they let me out?

Because I've changed. I'm a better person.

I'm not the same person that committed that crime

17 years ago.

Given the opportunity, um...

..to be released, er...

I'll be responsible and accountable.

And I have people that I can

help hold me to being accountable for my actions.

I know that I can't drink ever again,

because if I drink, I will die.

If I don't end up back in prison.

And, er, I can't waste 17 years of sobriety.

You're going to the board on October 12th, which is good news.

You gave me your relapse plan.

And I was able to type it up for you.

You were mentioning earlier that you got your psych report back.

This is a copy of it. Yeah.

So, there's a lot of information that's covered here -

pretty much your whole life.

But essentially the most important part is the last page,

where it's based on the analysis.

You are a low risk of reoffending

and a low risk of violence.

Yeah. So, that's as good as it gets.

Mm-hm. That's fabulous.

That's a great indicator.

So you're way ahead of most other guys.

I got to be. OK.

I know one thing. I'm not going to try to do things on my own no more.

I'm gonna use that support system.

That's one thing I can say. We can't do it on our own.

I tried to do that on my own, and it failed.

I failed tremendously.

A 15 and life sentence because I tried doing everything on my own.

So, get help,

instead of holding it in.

Because if you hold it in, that's when...

..you explode.

And sometimes when you explode, if you don't kill yourself

or hurt yourself, you're gonna hurt somebody else.

That's not good, so...

Of course, I still have a little bit of fear.

Because a little bit of fear keeps you in check.

It's like, balance you out.

But for the most part, I have a new way to live.

Two laps to go! Two laps to go!

25.75.

You got this, Markelle.

I know it hurts like hell. Come on!

I had a stepfather that was very abusive.

That was a nightmare in itself.

He used drugs, drank, cocaine.

Found out later on he had a third grade education,

and my mom did everything for him.

26 miles!

One inside lap...

No, you got to go around - inside.

Being abused by my stepfather

growing up, since I was like seven years old,

sleeping in closets,

whupped, being punched on. And the drugs.

I done seen that.

Watching my mom get slapped around.

And I had a family that liked to fight.

You know, they...beat each other up all the time.

So, I mean, I've been around violence all my life.

Yeah, Markelle!

Bring it on in, Markelle!

You can stop running right around there.

Nice work.

You got it! First finisher!

CHEERING

All right, Steve, I got it.

Have a seat.

23.25.

Three left.

The champ!

14.75!

Keep going, Troy. You're good.

that I'm tryin' to get in

I promise my mind I'm the vision

Lookin' good! Lookin' good!

Good job, Darren.

19.5! 19.5!

Great, Tommy!

Being a parent in prison, and a husband,

that's harder than being a gang member or a drug addict.

I would love to be out there to help my mom and dad

but, more than likely, I won't be there to help my mom and dad,

and I'll be lucky if I get to help my wife.

And I'll be really lucky if I get to be out there with my grandkids

because all my kids, they're growing now.

I missed all that because of my dumb choices.

That's pain, it's not anger. I'm not mad at nothing any more.

And if I get a little irritated, I'll go out and I'll run.

Tommy's running under an eight minute pace,

was kind of his goal,

which, if he does that, he'll be happy.

Right when we got there, we got inside,

put everything where it needed to be, and then he took his shirt off

and, like, I haven't seen him without a shirt on,

only in pictures, and it was kind of surprising,

so I was like, OK, took my shirt off,

and then we kind of walked up to him and just picked him up

and dropped him on the couch. HE LAUGHS

And it was just... It was just cool.

I've never been able to do that before.

He straight took the words out of my mouth.

I didn't even bring it up and he told me. He's like, "I'm sorry.

"I wish I was there to teach you all these things."

He brought all that up before I did.

So it was very satisfying just to know

that I'm not the only one thinking about it.

He thinks about that on a daily, he said,

and it was just really cool to hear it from him, so I'm happy.

Very happy.

Have fun, OK? You, too. Thanks for everything.

I'll see you soon. I love you, Mom.

Be good. You, too. Stay out of trouble. I will.

Shoot, that's the wrong way to do that.

Crap!

Come on, you know how to do this!

Marian and I were a team and she's had her work cut out with me,

getting me back on track as a good person, as a husband,

as a positive male role model, period,

because I was messed up from the life that I was living for so long.

I mean, 18 years old to, what, 35...

..I didn't care about too much.

SIREN

I went out drunk one night, drinking with a couple of buddies,

and one thing led to another,

we drove through the store doors because the store was closed.

They hit the doors, boom!

I was like, "What the heck?!", and I booked.

I came back. That's where I messed up.

As soon as I came back I was a part of it, and I took all the Funyuns.

They gave me a commercial burglary and forever my life was changed.

I worked for LA County and we would teach the county inmates.

Rehab.

I never thought that he would be one of the workers, or the inmate.

I just... Just never did.

But when he turned 18...

..he seen another life and he went for it.

Because all his whole... His younger life, he wanted to be a Sheriff.

1985, LA County Jail. I was just a long-haired country boy.

I don't know if you guys know how tight

country boys wear their clothes, but it's pretty tight.

Well, in jail, in prison, you don't want your clothes tight, erm, so...

There was this older Mexican guy and he's like, "Hey, homes,

"you want to trade jumpsuits?" I was like, "Heck yeah! Here you go, bro."

I squeeze in his jumpsuit thinking I'm all country boy'd back, right?

I remember walking through the chow line and everybody's looking at me

cos I had long hair, my little wings on the side.

I mean, this is 1985. I'm just 18.

And I remember the guys walking through the chow line,

they were the biggest dudes I've ever seen in my life.

They had muscles on top of muscles.

And I remember when I got my tray, this big old dude said,

"You're the finest thing that's been through here in a long time."

I just looked at him, like, "Whoa, dude."

He came out and he had this "Peckerwood" on him.

He'd joined the Peckerwoods.

I says, "Tommy, you know what you're doing?"

And he had a swastika on his calf.

He's still got it.

I says, "You know what this stands for?"

He says, "They're good people, Dad." I says, "No, they're not."

Well, about a week later, him and his homies

are going down the boulevard, and there's these three blacks,

they all jump out and start beating up on these blacks,

and Tommy says, "What the hell are you guys doing?!"

He gets out and helps the blacks.

He's naive. He didn't know what a Peckerwood was and he joined them.

Don't be stupid, Tom. I mean, he... He was...

He led a sheltered life until he left here,

and then it was like...

A Mexican guy that I live with said, "Tommy, you should cut your hair."

There's only one kind of haircut you're going to get in a county jail

with a shaving razor, and that's bald, so everybody

thought I was a skinhead, so I was fighting everybody anyway.

Because of my fights and my behaviour, they housed me

with some of the most dangerous LA gang members there are

and I learned that gang mentality, and I brought it up to my hometown

and I was involved with gangs ever since.

Six months I was in jail, I got out,

I got a job working for the Iron Workers Union, section slate 509.

The next thing you know, they asked me, "Hey, can you weld?"

So I did a couple beads for them and they're like,

"We're sending you to school. We're going to get you certified."

Well, there was a couple of guys there that was doing speed

and I started doing speed, and the next thing you know I quit

and said, "I'm going to make more money making...or selling drugs"...

..and then I went to jail right after that for strong-armed robbery.

Prison didn't make me a better person.

It taught me everything that I needed to be a criminal, an outlaw.

Your cousin Kenny's getting married in three weeks.

Man, is that right? Yep.

Is he still with that same gal? Yeah, same gal.

They've been together, what, 17, 18 years.

Right. Yeah, that's a long time. Yeah.

We won't go down that road.

Want to talk to your mom? Yeah.

OK.

Love you, love you, love you. Love you, love you, love you.

Hi, hon.

Hello, Mom. How are you?

This call and your telephone number will be monitored and recorded.

We know. SHE LAUGHS

Well, the guy that I ended up killing

was my homeboy Tim Carter,

the father of my stepson.

So, erm... Because he had shot at me prior, too,

and it's like, man, this dude's really trying to play for keeps,

and I told him, we made up.

And then that night, he was up there in the house cooking drugs, and...

..I walked in and I was going to take his drugs, that's all I wanted,

but when he pulled the gun on me and he grazed the right side of my head

with the...with the...

..with the gun, and I took the gun and now he's dead.

It was just a terrible night.

As soon as it happened, I knew my life was done.

That's why I just told 'em,

"Get me anything without a life sentence. I'm guilty."

And I've never been to a trial.

I've always took a deal. Five times I took a deal because I'm guilty.

I mean, I'm not going to waste the state's money

and sit in a county jail.

Just give me... Give me the deal.

They came back and said, "Plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter."

OK, cool. That's 11 years.

No, but you're a three-striker, so they strike that strike.

That 11 turns into 22.

Then you get five years for each prior prison term. That's 15 more.

And ten for the gun and ten for the gang.

So it's a total of 46 years of enhancements on that charge.

All I had to do is just keep going to work and going home,

but, no, I had to go over to that house that night

to come up one more time.

I mean, did I really win the fight that night?

Did I really win, to grow old and die in prison?

I've been sober and gang-free for 15 years now,

so I'm off to a good start.

My wife pushes me to believe that I'm going to be out

before calendars. That's her exact words.

So, hopefully, honey. HE CHUCKLES

2053 is my EPRD - earliest possible release date.

I'll be 86 years old, but if I keep running I'll be all right.

You've got to stay positive.

21.5! 21.5!

You got it! You got it!

Tommy, way to go!

You got it! You got it!

Have some water, Eddie. Thank you. Good job.

Six-twelve.

I've got you, Al.

One more lap. Look, he's picking it up.

Nice!

You look good, man. New York! New York!

Selling drugs, for me, came late in the game. Like, when I was 25, 26.

I just felt angry. Like, doing everything right and being picked on

or being a victim to the world. I feel like, just put my foot down.

And, for me, putting my foot down meant...

..this righteous anger that was unproductive,

and I started feeling like I wasn't going to make it in society

in another way because I didn't see hope.

In the year 2000, here in California,

I took part in what was a drug deal.

The guys, they didn't bring money, they brought guns.

And I shouldn't have been there, I shouldn't have had a gun,

I should have said, "You can just have the bag",

but, when they said, "Robbery!", I lost it and I reacted in violence.

I killed one man, I put another man in critical.

This happened in broad daylight in a parking lot, so I endangered

anybody that could have been walking by at the time

because I couldn't let it go, I couldn't let them

take something from me - my ego, my pride,

so I'm here because I'm convicted of murder.

An older guy that I was in Calipatria with named Samir,

he saw my anger and he said, "Youngster, there's nobody

"you can beat up that's going to get you out of prison.

"In fact, that's going to make it worse."

And so when I started thinking about that, I realised,

"Damn, I'm throwing my life away over anger."

When I had this revelation, it was in Calipatria.

a level four prison, there were no groups, there were no therapy.

All they had was Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha.

So I started going to all the religious services, just trying

to find a direction, and 55 to life back then, the Governor,

life meant life - there wasn't all this mass incarceration hope

we have now. It meant you was never going home.

So I started being good not for a Parole Board or to go home,

but maybe to make it to heaven. And still I don't want to

make the system think they were right about me.

I want to show that I was a better person than you thought I was

and I want to show my mother I'm a better son

and you didn't waste your time.

All his life, pretty much, he worked a job.

He was a working guy, went to school, a regular person.

Hey, G, I need a copy of Message To My Younger Self.

You need a copy of it? Yeah. All right. All right? That's good?

I think just the problem-solving techniques he used was wrong

and I think that he knows that but he's never going to get a chance...

..to be free...

..to really redo his story,

so now he's trying to live his story in prison.

And then you go...

..but people just still see that he's in prison.

Very good to see you, man.

What?! See? What?! See? What's up, man?

San Quentin is the only prison that has a Society

of Professional Journalists chapter in it at all,

and today we're going to show off some projects that we made,

basically cross training.

Like, for instance, I'm a writer

and today you're going to see two videos I produced.

Other guys that are audio journalists are now doing videos,

some of them are doing writing, and we did art installations.

We didn't know what that was a year ago, right?

If I had a chance to talk to my young self,

I would tell my young self that Big Daddy Kane is not your daddy

and what he's teaching you is how to get the respect of a loser.

The way you get power is not from something outside yourself,

it's something that God already gave you,

and that's what I would tell my young self.

15 to life is for second degree murder,

five-and-a-half years is for attempted voluntary manslaughter

for the guy that survived,

additional 25 to life for the use of a gun

and another ten years for the use of a gun

that great bodily injury on the other guy.

So it's 20 years for the crime

and 35 years extra in gun enhancements.

I think he's going to finish.

I think we might be here until the afternoon, but that's fine.

We've got all day.

If you're running a marathon or if you've got a life sentence,

it's too overwhelming to think about how much farther you've got to go.

You just do one step at a time, one day at a time, one hour at a time,

and just try to be productive every single day.

Hey, this is 15 miles.

Hang in there.

Over the years, I've become a little bit more attuned

into our current prison system,

and I'm frankly pretty appalled

when I read that, erm...

..the United States has 5% of the world's population

and 25% of the prison population.

And I think there are a lot of guys

in prison that really...

..don't belong there.

Well done, Rahsaan!

131, now! We're on 131!

The last six miles of a marathon are super intense experiences,

so when you share that experience with a bunch of people,

it leaves its mark

and it changes who you are.

Walk right back in the lane. Everybody going through.

Let's go, fellas. It's going to be a long day.

What's up? Yes, sir. How you doing? We're getting 40...

I'll be back, man. All right.

They're coming down right now. Don't let 'em get down in my line.

I'll be right back.

Hey. Welcome, everybody. I'm glad you could make it

to the American Sign Language class here in San Quentin.

In order to talk to my brother I had to know sign language,

so I grew up with sign language, so I wrote a proposal up

and sent it to the AW, and they were like, "No way, dude,

"you're not teaching sign language

"in a level four maximum security prison.

"That's how you guys communicate in the hall."

The next weekend, with my brother on a visit,

they see me talking to him in sign language,

they're like, "Send that proposal back

"and we're going to get this approved."

Five years later, 16 guys on the yard learned sign language,

from all backgrounds. This is a very diverse group.

As you can see, I like diversity.

And not only can we learn sign language to work with at risk youth,

the deaf children or the deaf community,

if you learn this and you get certified,

that's $75 to $100 an hour just as a translator.

You apply yourself and get this under your belt,

you'll be ready to be certified as soon as you get out of here.

Football. You've got to remember all that.

And then tennis. It's basically the movement of the sport, so...

Running.

And then one, two, three. Runner. And then personalise it.

Runner. I am a runner. OK.

I... I... Am... Am... A...

A...

Runner.Runner.

All right, Tommy, this is where all that work pays off.

One inside lap! All right, Larry. One inside lap!

That was a good lap, Larry. Nice work.

Second place, Eddie Herena.

03:37:20.

Third place, Chris Scull.

03:42:25.

Super proud of you. Give it to me, man.

Fourth place, Vincente Gomez.

03:42:41.

Fifth place, Tommy Wickerd.

03:46:16.

Sixth place, Jonathan Chiu.

One second behind.

03:46:17.

When you're around a runner, the last thing you're going to do is,

"I want to go mess this up"

or, "I want to put something foul in my body."

There's none of that. It's all positive stuff.

OK, here comes Sergio, seventh place finisher.

Running in San Quentin really saved me.

Big dog, we did it, dog!

It just changed my life forever.

Woo!

That was a nice finish from you and Chiu.

That was a great move.

It's a good day, dog. It's a good day.

Eighth place, Steve Brooks. Yes, Steve!

Four hours and 12 seconds.

Ninth place, Jon Levin.

04:03:06.

Tenth place, Larry Ford.

04:06:25.

Larry becomes our first fifth-time finisher.

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to be in this day, in this race,

and enjoy this beautiful day that you give to us to run

and the strength that you give to us. Thank you, Lord.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Yes, thank you.

Woo!

Let's go, Al! Come on, Al! Right now.

This is the 11th place,

Al Yaseng.

Tommy, you were... You were the most focused one out there.

You were, like, game face. Right. Not, like, smiling. It's good.

OK, number 12 finisher, Lee Goins.

Timbuktu. Timbuk!

All right, good job.

Nice job.

You can stop! That's it! You're done!

Lee, you're done!

Yeah!

Man.

Told y'all I'm from New Orleans. Woo...

Good job. I don't know what happened to this.

Good job, good job. All right.

Well, we've had 12 marathon finishers so far.

Now I just want Rahsaan to finish.

HE LAUGHS

So, my training sucked.

Erm, it started off great.

I was doing... I was doing this, I was determined,

and then we had that three-week lockdown,

and then there was the smoke inhalation from Napa.

The poor air quality days.

And then there's my own cold.

So my training... My training fell off.

But even at best, I only run, maybe... At best I run twice a week.

At best.

Erm, and maybe that's not enough to do the Markelle,

so I have to work on that.

But it's just so hard. I'm in college, I work,

I just finished Guiding Rage Into Power, which is a self-help group.

I just do so much. I'm in creative writing, the policy workshop.

I got so much going on. And then there's only limited times

you can shower, so it's just hard to navigate all that.

Two miles to go. Just keep it up.

No-one said it was going to be easy.

You're doing great. Just hang in there.

I applied to Governor for commutation of my sentence,

and what that would do, if the Governor is so inclined,

it would give me a time cut.

So, right now, about 55 to life sentence,

and he can reduce that as much as he wants.

When I got here, I got into a restorative justice group.

Hearing victims, you realise what you did to that person's family,

you realise what you did to them people.

You realise the ramifications -

how many people care about somebody else. The ripple effect.

And when you see the impact, it just changes it,

because until then, violence almost feels cartoonish.

Because you might fire some shots and then you run

and you never see what you did.

You never see the victims at the funeral, you never see the ambulance

pumping and doing all the stuff that they need to do

and you are able to ignore it in your mind.

But when you face the victims and look at those tears

and know what you did and know that you did it to your family, too.

You know, on the one hand, at a place like San Quentin,

getting up close and personal like we have over all this time,

like, you see the success of it.

It's like, OK, you know what? These guys are reformed.

Like, they're ready to go out into society.

Like, I would feel comfortable

having people here in my living room.

So that is a case of, like, successful rehabilitation.

But most of these guys, or a lot of them,

will never get out or won't get out until they're 80 or 90 years old.

So, then, what's the point of that?

What's the benefit to the society of holding people in prison?

When I take a step back and I think of why every ghetto in America

has these same elements, what's going on?

And I think it's just something way bigger than individual free will

or individual choices. I think that the invisible walls,

the frustration from all the invisible walls blocking you in.

Somebody's beating you up and you can't see who's doing it.

They're doing it from way up in the penthouse

or the White House or whatever,

and I think that it makes people act some kind of way.

Now that I've let go of that anger, good opportunities come to me.

When you're angry all the time, you create... You attract negativity.

People feed off that. It just brings rain clouds.

But when you're happy, man, even when something bad happens,

you find a silver lining and you're still smiling.

I'm supposed to be miserable.

You're entering the final lap here!

I'm supposed to be a failure.

I'm supposed to give up. I'm supposed to die in here.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Go! Go! Go!

06:12:23. Welcome to the alumni, son!

You're a marathon runner!

I got the record, coach. The longest time.

06:12:23. Is that the longest time? That's the longest time.

Woo! For all the people that come in last, I did this for us!

He also set a record. 13th finisher, and that's a record.

That's a record? First-ever. We've never had more than 12 before.

Woo! 13th finisher!

Great job. Great job, Rahsaan.

This is for my mom, who didn't think I was an athlete.

For everybody who was in a baseball club but never got to play.

For everybody who went out to play basketball

and they told you you had next and you're still waiting.

LAUGHTER

For everybody... LAUGHTER

..that understands that he who is last shall be first sooner or later,

just not today.

Woo! Good job. Yeah! APPLAUSE

Nice work. Thank you.

I want to thank all my coaches... Amen.

..who got me through the last five miles

when I was getting ready to quit. We had our doubts, but you did it.

What was the spread? Man, I got paid, son!

HE LAUGHS

And it's not even count time yet. What time is it?

It's only 2:41pm. We did it.

Woo-wee.

Now I've got to go upstairs. Up all them stairs.

Who's going to get me up them stairs?

I didn't think about the stairs.

Oh, my God, I live on the fifth tier.

I got a lot of that out of the way, though.

It's going to be tough.

That was great. Come here.

Tommy, you good up there?

Congratulations.

Thanks for counting for me. Hey.

Thanks for being there with the water and the nutrients. Yeah.

You happy? Erm, yeah. All right. Still alive, so happy.

All right. So I'm happy. I'm still in prison, so not that happy.

That was fun. Great day. Hey, awesome.

We'll take a month off in December and do it all again next year.

All right, y'all, we love y'all. See you. Bye.

Kind of picked it up there towards the end.

Tommy ran great.

Yeah. Tommy was just hoping to break...

I know, 3:46.

And you know what? Darren ran really well, considering.

And his buddy, Vince, I was surprised he hit 21 miles.

Yeah, that was good, Frank.

Great day.

I was really hoping to break my record or clear three.

I was thinking, OK, if that goal is not reachable,

at least maybe I can get in between my best time

and my second best time.

And I was able to do that and I'm glad I was able to do that, so...

I'll be buckled down on starting to get ready for the Board again.

What they wanted last time, more insight or...

..more time, I'm going to give them all of that

because I do want to run with the coach when I get out.

It's lock up. Off your phones, out of the shower...

THUNDER

Is that him?

You guys, that might be him.

INDISTINCT QUIP

LAUGHTER

Markelle, get out here. CHEERING

Nice hat! Nice hat!

CHEERING Man!

How are you all doing? Man, we've got to get you a better hat.

I love your headgear, man. This is my 1000 Mile Club hat.

OK. Nice. Did you get any sleep last night?

No. No! LAUGHTER

Man. You made it.

Yeah.

Man.

I'm just happy to be out. Happy to be free.

Overwhelmed.

I'm really feeling overwhelmed.

And I'm anxious to just get this all behind me, you know what I mean?

Just to be able to start my new life.

Why don't you try a Tuscany?

A Tuscany? What number is that? I mean...

Right under. Oh, OK. The chicken breast with mushroom...

Almond... OK.

You want potatoes or fries? French fries.

Fries. Got it. Any drink?

Fresh orange juice, fresh cranberry juice... Orange juice.

OK.

Do I look like I just got out of prison?

No. OK, good.

I'm still just trying to learn how to be free.

See, I want to be able to learn how to cook like this.

All in time, my friend.

Re-acclimating myself back into society,

starting over, living life as a civilian.

just taking it day by day, hour by hour,

so I can take it all in.

I think if I just came in and just ran on my own,

I would have never envisioned or even dreamed

of ever trying to run in the Boston Marathon.

One minute!

I'm proud of Markelle and I'm really happy for him.

I know when I got serious about my distance running,

my goal was to qualify for Boston.

It'll be a big deal for Markelle

and it'll be a big deal for all the guys in the club.

I've never been on the East Coast, so the ride on the plane,

everything is going to be a brand-new experience for me

and I'm just going to enjoy the moment.

All right, good luck to you.

Here's a card from the guys at 1000 Mile Club.

Ooh, this is different.

Are you all right there? Yeah.

Everything is different here, man. I'm normally just walking.

My personal best is 3:10.

What I'm trying to do in Boston is...

..break three hours.

Look what I got from Frank right before getting on the plane.

Tommy wrote me some letters.

"It's been an honour to spend three-and-a-half years of my life

"with the fastest man in San Quentin.

"I am so proud of my true brother.

"All of the hurdles he overcame and all of the hard work

"he put into becoming a member of free society.

"While he still has time to be an inspiration

"and prove to all of our 1000 Mile Club coaches

"that all of their time and hard work was not in vain.

"Markelle 'The Gazelle' Taylor is free

"and about to run the Boston Marathon."

STARTING GUN

The 123rd running of the Boston Marathon is under way.

"I love and miss you, brother.

"26.2 to life."

I know that there's a lot of guys that worked just as hard as I did

and wasn't given the opportunity.

But I know it's coming, I know their time is coming,

I really believe that.

You know, they told me that they couldn't wait for me to get out.

They said, "Man, get out, because we know that we're following

"right behind", so whenever there's a lifer getting out,

it gives another guy that's a lifer hope.

So I'm hope for those guys that are left behind.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Let's give it up for Ty again. Come on, Ty. Good job, man.

Well, December, I'll start my 18th year sober and no gang activity.

CHEERING

I lost my Pa in March and my Uncle Bill a year before that,

and the last time they walked out of this visiting room,

they told me, "You're the son and nephew that we raised you to be."

I could talk to the youngsters about how bad gangs and drugs were,

but I couldn't tell them how important education was

when I didn't have it myself.

I can now.

CHEERING

LAUGHTER

but can't come out

some real, some fake

they make a mouse

Thinking dude cool, man

till you see a few things

like they go to 2 Chainz

You are now tuned in to San Quentin's Ear Hustle

from PRX's Radiotopia. I am Rahsaan 'New York' Thomas,

a resident of San Quentin State Prison

serving a life sentence for second degree murder.

for more than one person

I just feel like I am my brother's keeper.

That, erm, if he needs help, I'm going to try to help him.

And I feel like these guys over there,

they need help...

..and they appreciate whatever help they get.

and thinking dumb

and drugs in the slums

to where I'm from

just in different ways

just in a different place

just a different pace

of the mind of the masses

can hear me loud and clearly

I think before I worked on myself in the self-help groups

and the running and all the support that I have,

and me feeling a lot better about myself than I did in my past...

..I'm not going to say I'm 100% cured.

I'm still a work in progress.

for more than one person

so tired of hurting

if we come together

at least that's what we was told

to blow grass and sell dope

when you got to call home

A hope was a joke, man

thinking that's how it go

young brother from the streets

the beast cos the weak can't eat

when they lock us in prison?

in blocks

come for jobs

when will it stop?

know till we make that endeavour

must be severed

of perception

to a higher place

you couldn't reach it

Another one! CHEERING

What the...?

Oh, my God.

Yeah! Yeah!

as my grandfather

then why we still trying?

of seeing my mother crying

I was slowly dying

no, I ain't lying

for selling dope

tell her where's the hope

live a life of crime?

as my grandfather

for my own daughter