Formerly incarcerated people deal with a myriad of issues once they reintegrate back into society. Some of those barriers include lack of employment opportunities, housing instability, financial scarcity, reentry syndrome (recidivism), psychological issues, and more.
While life difficulties may present themselves for those that are formerly incarcerated, Los Angeles County partners with programs such as the Flintridge Center. While the nonprofit organization is nestled in the Altadena and Pasadena community at 236 West Mountain Street, Ste. 106, Pasadena, CA 91103, it has become a hub of resources that impacts lives.
Andrea McCraw played an integral role in planning events for the locally and nationally known 2nd Chance Month, which occurs every year in April to shed light on the challenges that formerly incarcerated people experience and signify their successful reentry into society.
She planned several events throughout April, including the ‘Arts Beyond Incarceration’ event, which just occurred on April 29. She spoke to OurWeekly ahead of the event.
“This Wednesday, we are having an event for the Second Chance Month. It’s our last event… It’s called Arts Beyond Incarceration, and it’s highlighting formerly incarcerated individuals who created art while incarcerated and how it has transpired into society.”
“My goal for [my client’s] reintegration means them being a product of society, giving back, fully reentering, and enjoying it,” said Andrea McCraw, a reintegration case manager at Flintridge Center. One message that she hopes people who are formerly incarcerated take away from services offered by Flintridge is, “You are not your past.”
McCraw discussed her work with formerly incarcerated individuals and how she strives to help them combat recidivism by helping them obtain housing, education, employment, and other resources. Born and raised in Northwest Pasadena, she has built a career of advocacy and established herself as a pillar of the community.
“To watch those constituents graduate, and their families to come and watch them—that is amazing—to get a phone call from my constituents that says, ‘I found housing’ or ‘I found employment’… celebrating those and being proud of those minor to major milestones, whichever is [rewarding for me].”
Flintridge offers a 10-week Apprenticeship Placement Program for employment opportunities in trade careers such as construction; the Youth of Promise Program for youth ages 11-18; and wrap-around reintegration services that offer housing, food, substance use treatment, mental health, legal support, transportation, and other resources.
In her interview with OurWeekly, she emphasizes the importance of making re-entry into society smoother and shares her passion for community building through her role as chair of the justice committee for the NAACP Pasadena chapter. A Pasadena native, McCraw previously dedicated 10 years to Pasadena Unified School District as a special education aide and also worked in child welfare, attendance, and safety.
Two people who participated in the panel during the ‘Arts Beyond Incarceration’ event include Paul D. Scott Sr. and Tyson Atlas. The two of them spoke to Our Weekly before the event and shared more about their life experiences.
“I got arrested basically because I was living the dope lifestyle. I was caught up in the drug world, a life got taken, and I didn’t talk.” Scott Sr. was incarcerated for not telling law enforcement officials the details of what he knew about the person who passed away due to street life.
Paul D. Scott Sr., 64, is a Pasadena, Calif., Native who was given a 25-year prison sentence at the age of 19 in 1980. Scott Sr.’s life changed while he was incarcerated; he became an ordained priest, obtained certificates as a grief counselor, and became a youth and community advocate.
Scott Sr. shared a prison cell with his son, Paul D. Scott Jr., for four of his 25 years of incarceration, which he emphasized as being an intensely personal time period in his life as he finally got to live with his son. It was initially difficult for the two of them to live together, as Scott Jr. also had to get adjusted to living with his father. Although family members of Scott Sr. brought his son to visit him since he was 18 months old, visits weren’t enough for their fractured relationship.
“In the visiting room, you don’t have enough time to really know a person—too many rules, restrictions, and distractions. We never lived together, so when we finally became cellmates, we were just starting to know each other as father and son.” He continued, “There was a lot of distrust, anger, suspicion, and guilt because he didn’t really know me. He knew of me, but I never got to do the normal things—eat at the dinner table, go on vacation, pay bills, go to baseball games, or see him graduate. I didn’t get to do any of that.”
The two of them co-wrote a book called “Abandoned Before Birth / United in Prison” after their release, which fully accounts their shared experience. Now that both are out of prison, the two are continuing to work and improve their father-son bond.
Today with a grandson who has never been incarcerated, Scott Sr. sees his story as proof that generational cycles can be broken. He participated in the Arts of Incarceration panel on April 29.
“I’m really just looking to share my story—for my son and me to share our story—and hopefully help families who are struggling with their relationships. Flint Ridge Center has helped me a great deal, so any time there’s an event I can be part of, I feel honored to participate and give back, especially for people who don’t even know this kind of resource is right there in their own community.”
Atlas, 37, is from San Bernardino, Calif. Native, who shared his journey from being sentenced to life without parole at 16 years old for a gang-related shooting alongside his father, who was given a 50-year sentence; his involvement in a dance program while in prison; and his reintegration into society by way of the support of Andrea McCraw and the Flintridge Center.
His father had repeatedly been in and out of incarceration since the 1970s due to being involved in street life, even up until his birth and throughout his childhood well into the early 2000s. After Tyson was shot at age 16 in April 2006, his father came home from prison about two months later and, 10 days after being released, took Tyson to kill the young man who had shot him. Tyson and his father were later tried together, along with Tyson’s mother. Tyson received life without the possibility of parole, and his father received a 50 to life sentence. His mother was released in 2008, while both Atlas and his father were sentenced during the same year.
Tyson was transferred to Lancaster State Prison in 2015, where he saw his father again for the first time in 10 years and 8 months since they were sentenced in January 2008. During his time in prison, he found solace in ministry, prayer, faith, education, and self-help programs.
“I was at this crossroads where I saw the possibility for me to digress in my own progression in life… I had a lot of anger inside of me as a result of this; I was full of resentment towards the correctional staff… and I needed a way to positively express myself and to just cope with the weight of what I had just experienced,” said Atlas.
He began dancing at the age of nine and stopped at 14, succumbing to joining a gang, losing focus on his passion for dance. It wasn’t until adulthood and being incarcerated that he reignited his passion for dance.
He continued, “The dancing became this vehicle that I used to kind of lift my spirits.”
A participant in the Arts Beyond Incarceration panel. Atlas recounted his father’s overdose in 2018, which inspired him to join the dance program as a way to cope. Ahead of the panel, he shared that he planned to advocate for second chances and stressed the importance of art’s transformative ability for one’s personal growth and healing.
“I hope that people can really see human beings behind, you know, crime… that one moment does not define their humanity… we all have the capacity for change, for growth, and to live out the full expression of what it means to be human… Second chances are valuable, and stories like mine and many more come out of opportunity, hope, and forgiveness.”
Tyson was also a part of a 2023 documentary that followed 10 men who were serving time at the Lancaster State Prison in California called “Dancing in A-Yard,” which is a film that focuses on and challenges the taboo criticism men face for utilizing dance as a form of self-expression while incarcerated. He further spoke about what he hopes people take away from the film, his story, and participation in the panel.
“I am not an anomaly. There are many individuals who have changed and who are worth a second chance, who unfortunately currently don’t have the opportunity to live [freely] and who have died before given that opportunity… I hope that it is just a reflection of many other stories that should and could be told,” said Atlas.
Josh McCurry is the executive director of Flintridge Center and was also born and raised in Pasadena. After graduating from Trinity College in 2011, he moved from Hartford, Conn. He moved to Austin, Texas, to work for the Boys and Girls Club; he then moved to Hawaii to work with youth at a horticultural therapy program.
McCurry joined the Flintridge team in 2016 as a research & development specialist, and he continues to learn from colleagues and constituents as executive director. He shares about why the work that he does is crucial to the community.
“So much of this work we feel is really about centering the voices of those most impacted, and that’s what our events aim to do… So much of our view of the system is that it is designed to dehumanize folks, and so these events are a way to celebrate the humanity of people,” said Josh McCurry. “We as an organization recognize the criminal justice system as one that is often caused by larger community and environmental factors—things like poverty and community violence—and the criminal justice system is something that reinforces those cycles.”
Flintridge Center partners with LA County’s Department of Youth Development (DYD), Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department (JCOD), and LA County Probation & California State Parole to provide wrap-around services to formerly incarcerated adults and youth. For more information, visit www.flintridge.org or call (626) 318-9534.