Sam Parr  ⚪️

I went to San Quentin State Prison today for my buddy @ChrisRedlitz's program The Last Mile, which teaches inmates coding, like building Wordpress sites, so they can get work when they're out. I learned a few things.

1. Chris Redlitz is a bad motherf*cker. He's a badass VC but downplayed The Last Mile to me. He started the program 10 years ago. It's in 5 states, dozens of prisons. 100% of graduates secure employment upon release with a 0 percent recidivism rate. He's a guy u need to know

2. We walked around the yard with the inmates. Chris is like a god there. They know how much he has helped the prison. If people screw up, they can't get into his program, and because of that the place is much safer.

3. I hung out with a lot of inmates. Most of people were normal dudes who lost their temper or got into a sticky situation where they made bad choices. But...everyone in the program I spoke with was smart, nice, and someone I'd shoot the shit with anytime. I'd hire many of them

4. Makes you realize those split-second decisions can really screw you up. Met a guy who was an engineer. He came home and caught his wife cheating. He assaulted both his wife and the guy. Got 14 years. Before that, no criminal record.

5. I hung out with a few folks who knew Suge Knight, Tupac, and a bunch of Death Row folks. Heard stories about them, Tupac's murder, Death Row's founding.

6. I saw San Quentin's news operation. These guys have a news tv program and paper newspaper that's read/seen by 30k inmates. A lot of dying newspapers need to study these guys...they're doing great stuff and their model can be implemented elsewhere.