Aug 20, 2008 10:49 pm US/Eastern
Inmates Send Teens Strong Message From Behind Bars
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Nine prisoners participated in the video, "Voices From Behind the Wall," which sends a powerful message to kids and teenagers that prison is not the place to end up.
WBZ
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Darrell Jones, who is serving a life sentence for murder, hopes teens will learn from his mistakes.
WBZ
A prison inmate is sending a powerful message to parts of the community as he and other prisoners are making it their mission to make the streets of Boston a safer place for everyone.
The inmates say they don't want teenagers in Boston to make the same mistakes they did – mistakes that ended them up in prison.
One such prisoner is Darrell Jones. Jones says he wants teens to learn from his own actions. But he sits in prison for life and had to find a creative way to talk.
There was no Internet or cell phones when he was first jailed. But with a simple video camera he is now able to deliver a powerful message -- one that he shared in a jailhouse interview.
"What's it like knowing you'll never get out, that you'll never leave these walls?" WBZ's Beth Germano asked Jones.
"People don't come here and say, 'I'm never going to get outside these walls,'" Jones said. "Otherwise they'd be unmanageable."
Jones says that is why he has tried to be a voice of authority from an unusual place. He's trying to get a filmed message to teenagers with help from an unusual cast.
"The department doesn't have a commercial telling you that if you come to prison you're going to lose this, you're going to lose that," Jones said.
But Jones knows the loss after 23 years. He has the voice of a preacher but he's serving a life sentence at Old Colon Correctional Facility in Bridgewater after being convicted of murder.
"They know there are consequences but they don't know what they are," Jones said.
He became the driving force of "
Voices From Behind the Wall." Nine inmates participated in the video, trying to demystify the lure of the streets. Jones says prison is a wake-up call for too many kids.
"I don't look at this guy and think, 'This guy is a killer,'" Jones said. "My thought is, "What happened to him? How did he get here? What's he so angry about?'"
"We have to do anything that can to change the thinking of our kids," Jones added. "We've got to take the opportunity and do it."
The summer's headlines are proving why. Teens are targeting each other and innocent victims are getting caught in the crossfire. It's why
Boston's Youth Organization Teen Empowerment has been promoting the "Voices From Behind the Wall."
"If you're raised by the streets or whatnot, you're not afraid of anything," Diego Medina said.
Medina, 18, says he was living what he calls "the lifestyle," and did his own prison time for it. The reality, he says, is that it can be a rite of passage.
Medina said going to prison enhanced his reputation on the streets.
"People see me as the big, bad guy, whatever, not to be messed with," he said.
The murder rate in Boston is down this year but already 39 people 17 years old and younger have been shot, including a 4 year old just this week. Jones says he wants to get behind the statistics and provide a solution.
Also telling his story on the video is Anthony Warren, the man who shot and paralyzed 3-year-old Kai Leigh Harriott back in 2003. He thanked her for her forgiveness.
Order a copy of "Voices From Behind the Wall"
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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