Re: Turning Lives Around

As a former drug dealer, felony offender and common street criminal who has undergone the rehabilitation process, earned a Juris Doctor degree and now works as a Staff Attorney in the Montgomery County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court, I have a very unique perspective as to the criminal justice system; and more personally, the obstacles that confront inner-city youth. Our hopes are to reduce the numbers of inner- city youth, particularly, African American youth involved in the criminal justice process.

Khalil Osiris my business partner has authored a textbook (The Psychology of Incarceration) and we have developed a curriculum and training model that is receiving national recognition. Khalil Osiris is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Wright State University and co-author of The Psychology of Incarceration: A Distortion of the State of Belonging. Professor Osiris has a Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree from Boston University earned during his 15-year incarceration, was Executive Director of the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform (NARPR), based in Atlanta, Georgia. Professor Osiris is on the Executive Committee of the NuLeadership Policy Group, based at Medgar Evers College in New York City, an organization of former prisoners dedicated to making national policy changes in regard to humanizing the criminal justice system. He is a founder of the Black Herstory Task Force. The Psychology of Incarceration and all its training material are essential for all phases of the rehabilitative process and community RE-building.

Our collective history within the criminal justice system, as well as my experience as a Staff Attorney in the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court and Professor Osiris’ experience in community organizing and academia has led to a particular expertise in the rehabilitative and community RE-building process. We are uniquely qualified to address the complex issues that undoubtedly confront this much needed organization; The Kelsey Grammar Charitable Foundation. Our ultimate objective here is to reduce the number of inner-city youth and adults subjected to the American Criminal Justice process. I am confident that with the proper support we can provide a foundation for each and every inner-city child to rise above the adversity that has become commonplace in their neighborhoods, communities; and most importantly, their families.

One final comment: Our objective in all our work is really quite simple: REDUCE THE NUMBERS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS SUFFERING AS A RESULT OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESS. We are African American Men who have experienced the criminal justice process and now provide instruction and scholarship in that very arena. Imagine that!

For a broader overview of our skills and commitment see:

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/Praise/challenge/tpoint205

A. Scott Washington, Esq.
(937) 369-4064
Anthony_Wash@1stcounsel.com