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 92
TRUST THE PROCESS OF YOUR PATH
Throughout this 2nd full season, one of the go-to themes has been to chat with various Sheriffs about their jails and the communities they have watch over. In case you’re not aware, there are approximately 3100 Sheriffs’ across the United States and a similar amount of jails. Also if you’re not aware, the various tiers of incarceration are Jail, State/Private, & Federal. While each Sheriff runs his or her jail slightly differently, they all answer to their communities, the people who elected them. Note: This is not the case in the State and Federal carceral system. In this, Episode #92, and the last episode of 2024, we revisit both Sheriff Nick Cocchi of Hampden County, Massachusetts, and Sheriff Patrick Cahillane of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Both are avid supporters of The Hustler Files show, but more importantly, innovative and forward-thinking when it comes to not only rehabilitating their jail population but doing the right thing for their fellow citizens. Episode #93 will be the first episode of 2025!
The Hustler Files Ep 91
TAKE UP ONE IDEA, MAKE THAT ONE IDEA YOUR LIFE
In April of 2023, Episode #11, we first chatted with Economist and Author Jeff Korzenik. His book, Untapped Talent, had been recently released, and we were excited to hear about how a well-known, National U.S. Economist, became involved in the fair chance hiring movement. Since then, Jeff has been crisscrossing the U.S. making a case for hiring justice-impacted individuals, one speaking engagement at a time. From well-known business schools such as MIT and Wharton to large-scale organizations such as Goodwill, Jeff brings factual and concerning information about the current state of the labor shortage. He also shares the compelling stories of employers and employees who have succeeded in the fair chance hiring model. As Jeff says, ‘the structural labor shortage is an “all hands on deck” problem with no single solution’, and as such, he will continue to spread the fair chance hiring message to overcome the workforce issues plaguing U.S. employers.
The Hustler Files Ep 90
WE DO CRAZY
In Episode 89 we became acquainted with Sheriff Karl Leonard of Chesterfield County, Virginia. We circled back with the Sheriff to meet his Behavioral and Mental Health Division Director, Kerri Rhodes. Kerri is no stranger to the tragedy of addiction, and in looking for a way to heal herself, she found a pathway at the Sheriff’s HARP program by helping incarcerated individuals with addictions and introducing a coping and healing mechanism called Trauma Tapping. According to Kerri, Trauma Tapping is based on acupuncture and works with the 12 energy meridians in the body. As a clinician, Kerri is the first to admit that she was highly skeptical of how Trauma Tapping could help people to break free from long-standing addiction, and emotional and psychological barriers. With training and consistent effort, Kerri started to see the positive results of this untraditional treatment not just with the incarcerated individuals, but even the correction officers and other members of the Sheriffs’ staff. Standing by their, ‘we do crazy’ mantra, Kerri launched a series of Trauma Tapping videos for Tik Tok Tuesdays. It wasn’t long before these videos garnered millions more views, but also attracted the attention of Bunnie, wife of country music artist, Jelly Roll. Once Jelly Roll started following the Trauma Tapping videos that were posted, weekly, millions more opted in to watch this unique and evidence-based treatment. In 2023 Jelly Roll made his first in-person visit to the Chesterfield County jail, asking to ‘meet the tapping lady’. He returned again in the Fall of 2024, while touring, and made a one-of-a-kind grand gesture, that impacted more than the men behind the wall.
The Hustler Files Ep 89
BELIEVING THERE ARE GOOD PEOPLE BEHIND BARS
You have to love a person who has spent 43 years in a career and when asked ‘When are you retiring’ their response is, ‘When I don’t have anything else to learn’. Sheriff Karl Leonard of Chesterfield, Virginia, is that person. For his entire career, he’s been a public servant; from a military career to the Chesterfield Police Department to the Pentagon and now the Sheriff of Chesterfield County, and despite all he’s experienced, he continues to understand the human condition and find ways to be progressive to help those under his watch. His transparency in taking over the Sheriff’s office is refreshing, as he’s the first to admit that there was no Sheriff’s instruction book. When his jail was inundated, daily, with locals, addicted to Heroin he trusted his instincts and felt that a higher power was guiding him. This led to the creation of the HARP program, a peer mentor-run program that over the last eight years has successfully helped 3500 people, overcome not just Heroin but other drug or alcohol addictions. As Sheriff Leonard says, ‘There’s a lot of good people behind bars, and there are bad people too, that deserve to spend their lives there, but that’s a small percentage of incarcerated people, and when you learn about (the good people) and their life and the challenges they grew up in, since birth, these are good people with bad circumstances presented to them…’
The Hustler Files Ep 88
FEAR HAS NO END DATE
Sadly domestic violence is a 365-day-a-year issue, but the more survivors step forward, ask for help, and share their stories, the more aware society becomes of this ongoing epidemic. Liz Dineen, CEO of the Western Massachusetts YWCA, has been one of many organizations across the country to take up the protection sword to help women and men, of domestic violence. In conjunction with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office, a recent media campaign drew hundreds of calls and walk-ins, to her YWCA facility. Every story of domestic violence is unacceptable, and many survivors wish to keep their stories secret out of fear of retaliation, but also out of embarrassment and shame. This was the case with Stephanie of Idaho. Her story is one of beatings, kidnapping, starvation, broken bones, and being stabbed repeatedly with a chisel, to within a literal fraction of her femoral artery. Stephanie’s story is chilling, but her bravery in sharing her abuse is to be applauded! For 13 1/2 years she has rebuilt her life while her abuser has been serving a 15-year prison sentence. But despite her new lease on life, and a 100-year protection order from the courts, Stephanie is terrified of what might lie ahead.
Hustler Files Ep 88
FEAR HAS NO END DATE
Sadly domestic violence is a 365-day-a-year issue, but the more survivors step forward, ask for help, and share their stories, the more aware society becomes of this ongoing epidemic. Liz Dineen, CEO of the Western Massachusetts YWCA, has been one of many organizations across the country to take up the protection sword to help women and men, of domestic violence. In conjunction with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office, a recent media campaign drew hundreds of calls and walk-ins, to her YWCA facility. Every story of domestic violence is unacceptable, and many survivors wish to keep their stories secret out of fear of retaliation, but also out of embarrassment and shame. This was the case with Stephanie of Idaho. Her story is one of beatings, kidnapping, starvation, broken bones, and being stabbed repeatedly with a chisel, to within a literal fraction of her femoral artery. Stephanie’s story is chilling, but her bravery in sharing her abuse is to be applauded! For 13 1/2 years she has rebuilt her life while her abuser has been serving a 15-year prison sentence. But despite her new lease on life, and a 100-year protection order from the courts, Stephanie is terrified of what might lie ahead.
The Hustler Files Ep 87
EARN & LEARN APPRENTICESHIP AT CATALYST
Over the last couple of decades, tech companies and tech-minded entrepreneurs have been developing various ways to assist incarcerated and justice-involved individuals with job training both behind the wall and upon returning to the community. Checkr, a California-based background tech company, has been leading the charge for more employers, like those they work with, to become more socially responsible in the fair chance hiring movement by bridging the gap between employers, needing employees, and justice-involved individuals learning a trade and earning a living wage. To that means, Checkr has launched CATALYST, a 12-month, 2,000 hours, apprenticeship program to offer justice-involved individuals with real-life learning, in a variety of career pathways, and that includes a formal credential from the US Department of Labor, upon completion of their apprenticeship. CATALYST was piloted, in-house, at Checkr for a full year, before launching the roll-out with a handful of employers who believe in this valuable, often-overlooked talent pool. Checkr has committed o$1M over the next two years to expand CATALYST, and Christina Louie Dyer, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility has been tapped to oversee this life-changing initiative.
The Hustler Files Ep 86
LOVE IN A BACKPACK IS LIKE A WARM HUG
When you leave jail, there isn’t much you take with you, so to receive a backpack filled with shampoo, conditioner, socks, female hygiene items, snacks, water, and other items can feel, as one formerly incarcerated individual, like Christmas. Most ideas to help less fortunate, others, have the commonality of being hatched at a kitchen table, and LOVE In A Backpack is no different. When St. John’s Episcopal Church member, Susan Todd’s daughter, Nell, was assessing the needs of those leaving incarceration, a backpack filled with necessary items and a personalized letter of encouragement, seemed to fill the bill. Since its inception, LOVE In A Backpack has supplied over 600 backpacks to incarcerated women, leaving jail, in Western Massachusetts. According to Jenny Wildermuth, Outreach Coordinator at St. John’s, there is ALWAYS a need for more backpacks and backpack-filling events. They also encourage other churches and congregations across the US to replicate their mission of LOVE and HOPE.
The Hustler Files Ep 85
THE 13TH AMENDMENT, LEGAL SLAVERY & PROPOSITION 6
Here in 2024, the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution still states; “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”. This year, on the California ballot, was Proposition 6, a ‘yes’ vote would amend the California Constitution and prohibit the state from punishing incarcerated individuals with involuntary work assignments AND from disciplining those who refuse to work. Prop 6 didn’t pass and so slave labor may continue within the California prison system. Nicolas Tirado, of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, spent 11 years in various California prisons, working at jobs that would have no transferrable skills, back in the community, and making $.86 a day, PRE tax and restitution. His recent online op-ed, in Teen Vogue, was an eye opening article about ending “modern-day slavery” and well worth the read.
The Hustler Files Ep 84
SENTENCED TO LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE, BUT SHE DIDN’T DO THE CRIME
Unfortunately the cycle of domestic abuse can be handed down, from generation to generation, and it is an inheritance that can prove deadly. Such was the case for Kelly Savage-Rodriguez. Kelly grew up in an abusive family, and her mother was constantly, in the criminal justice system. Kelly herself was in a domestic violence situation when sadly she lost her 4 year old son, at the hands of her then husband. While Kelly’s husband was sentenced to LWOP – Life Without Parole, Kelly herself was charged, at the time, with the California failure to protect law. Kelly served 23 years behind the wall and she also lost her baby daughter to her ex-husbands family. But Kelly wasn’t going to quit fighting for her release, and in November of 2018 had her LWOP sentence commuted by then California Governor Brown. Through all of Kelly’s pain, she used her time in prison to not only improve herself, but help others, including taking on a role with the California Coalition of Women Prisoners, as a Drop LWOP Coordinator. Kelly is still in that role today, but fortunately outside the wall.
