Podcasts: The Hustler Files
The Hustler Files
The Hustler Files – Storytelling That Will Challenge What You Thought You Knew
Join creator and host Lisa Reilly every Saturday morning from 9:32 AM to 10:00 AM, streaming here on WHMP.com, or find us on your favorite podcast platform. Each week, we bring storytelling with grit, purpose, and possibility to break stigmas, reshape narratives, and amplify the voices of justice-involved individuals, advocates, and change-makers. We’ll explore the criminal justice system, addiction recovery, domestic violence, human trafficking, fair-chance employment, and prison reform through powerful storytelling and candid interviews that bring humanity to issues too often overlooked.
Please reach out with questions or comments to thehustlerfiles@outlook.com
The Hustler Files Ep 12
EVEN IN HER DARKEST HOUR
Twenty million Americans struggle with alcohol. For Melissa, it was a triple threat – alcohol, drugs, and anger. From the very young age of 11 till her 37th birthday, Melissa led the worst side of hustling to keep her addictions and adrenaline fed. In her own words, she describes the constant ‘skid bid’ as she calls it, how the tribe she surrounded herself with was literally loving her to death. and how she finally found a way out.
The Hustler Files Ep 11
UNTAPPED TALENT, How 2nd Chance Hiring Works For Your Business And The Community
Author Jeff Korzenik’s day job as a Chief Investment Strategist at one of the largest commercial banks in the U.S. led him to take a deep dive into the realm of the social issues that have been plaguing workforce growth for the better part of two decades. The solution, as he sees it, is to educate CEOs on the value of hiring and training the 19 million who have served time behind the wall or the millions more who have misdemeanors on their records. Untapped Talent provides both the data and the emotion as to why the U.S. workforce has diminished, strategic checkmarks on how it can be changed and, examples of those companies who became successful second-chance hiring employers.
The Hustler Files Ep 10
E-10 – FINANCIAL EDUCATION BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER INCARCERATION
To be a unifying person, you must have acceptance. It is a social responsibility for those who are better educated to give back some to the society in whatever service they can help.” – Tan Cheng Bock. There are just some people who have an inherent calling to volunteer. Marty Lynch, Education Director at non-profit Cambridge Credit Counseling is one such person. Marty has spent the better part of almost 20 years volunteering his time to offer financial education to pre and post-incarcerated individuals as well as those still serving out their time. While most of Marty’s volunteering is with the Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee, Massachusetts, Marty does, on occasion, heed the call to the Federal Courts in Connecticut to assist with the financial education of Parolees and even sometimes the court clerks themselves!
The Hustler Files Ep 9
ROCA INC = ROCK
“There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them.” – Friedrich Nietzsche. ROCA means ROCK and for 35 years they have been a relentless force for 17-24 year olds who have grown up with the stumbling blocks of urban violence and offered stepping stones to disrupt incarceration, poverty, and racism. Through their intervention model of CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Theory, they teach these young people life-saving emotional skills that address their trauma, find hope and drive change. ROCA is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with additional sites in Springfield and Holyoke, MA, Hartford, CT, and Baltimore, Maryland. A recent CBS Sunday Morning feature shares a glimpse into ROCA Baltimore and the value of ROCA, who’s motto is, ‘we’re in your world, we see the challenges you face’. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/in-baltimore-changing-minds-and-saving-lives/
The Hustler Files Ep 8
A BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE HOUSE, PART 2
“When we take the responsibility for cultivating our true self, we break the ties that bind us to the illusions of who and what we falsely think we are.” In part 1 of the interviews with incarcerated individuals finishing up their sentences in the Bridge to the Future House in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, you met Dakota, Matt, Sonny and Eric. In part 2, Eric speaks of how his alcoholism is tied to his self-esteem and self-love, but also how his ability to change is tied to having something bigger than himself to connect to. Future careers, after their time behind the wall is shared as is their final words of wisdom. Advice hard won.
The Hustler Files Ep 7
A BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE HOUSE, PART 1
“Your mind and habits will create either barriers or bridges to a better future” – Dr. Al Siebert. While re-entry programs, 2nd chance hiring, education, and halfway houses are known to lower recidivism rates, it is still, sadly, not the norm. If there is an upside to being jailed in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, it is their 16-bed halfway house with community-based programming and educational opportunities called, most appropriately, The Bridge to the Future House. In part 1 of this two-part story, on location, in the kitchen at the house, incarcerated individuals, Dakota, Matt, Sonny, and Eric, share the stories of what put them behind the wall, and the steps they are taking to become better citizens, parents, and people once they have served their time.
The Hustler Files Ep 6
RAISING THE BAR AND LOWERING RECIDIVISM RATES, ONE DEGREE AT A TIME
The word Partake means ‘to consume’ and for those who become incarcerated, having lost everything will when given the opportunity for educational pursuits, be like sponges, ready and willing to participate as education returns them back some of their dignity. At Partakers dot Org, a College Behind Bars degree program through Boston College, Emerson and Tufts University, and most recently the Partakers Empowerment Program (PEP) in association with Brandeis University has for 25 years, within the State of Massachusetts, offered higher education and community mentoring for re-entry, to bridge the divide between those inside and outside of prison and assist with reducing recidivism.
The Hustler Files Ep 5
MEL & MEREDITH SPRINGFIELD, 2ND CHANCE HEROES
Not all heroes wear capes, masks and carry a shield, but at Meredith Springfield, a Ludlow Massachusetts manufacturing facility for Fortune 100 companies, Owner Mel O’Leary has spent twenty years as a 2nd chance employer! In his relationship with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department, Mel has not only employed a few hundred formerly incarcerated but approximately one-third of those 2nd chance hires have continued to stay on with him and some have even moved into management positions. Joining Mel in the conversation is Luis, an ex-offender for drug conspiracy, who entered Federal prison at the age of 18 and stayed incarcerated for six years. As with all the Meredith Springfield 2nd chance hires, Luis was given the opportunity to work for Mel while finishing up his sentence in the Hampden re-entry program. Listen in to find out how Mel’s 2nd chance hiring has not been in vain.
The Hustler Files Ep 4
THE POWER OF TOGETHER
When Judy Issacson Elias launched the Heroes To Heroes organization in 2010 to help War Zone Veterans who had suffered moral injury she couldn’t have imagined that almost 13 years later she, her staff and her volunteers would have positively impacted 350 veterans and have 750 on a waiting list to join her 18 month program that includes a 10-day biblical journey of faith, to Israel. Seventeen veterans commit suicide every day in the United States and Judy says that to impact veterans suffering from moral injury, is at the core, all about faith.
The Hustler Files Ep 3
THIS ISN’T THE WILD WEST ANYMORE
In days of old the local Sheriff would protect the town and lock up the ‘bad guys’ until the Circuit Judge showed up for a trial and a sentencing. There were no ‘reentry’ programs, support services or opportunities to redeem oneself. Modern times, in most cases has changed the thought process around reform and reentry and thankfully people like Sheriff Patrick J. Cahillane of the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Department believe that the offerings of resources, such as housing, for those he calls ‘de-incarcerated’ are not only needed but life-changing to prevent recidivism.
