[tense music]
- What's up, dog?
I was charged with
two counts of
delivery of a controlled substance,
possession of a controlled substance,
and a count of stealing.
- I made the choice to bring Nick here to help,
'cause I knew his father who passed away.
Out of respect for his dad,
I thought it would be a good idea that I could help him
by allowing him a safe place to stay.
- Are you married now? - Yes.
- I'm not [beep] dumb.
You can lie to yourself all you want.
I know you were on something.
- We're done here, everybody.
I'm [beep] moving out.
I'm not hooked on pills or doing heroin.
If I wanna party, I'm gonna do that.
I'm not doing this [beep] no more, dude.
- [Doctor] Darquavion was a patient of mine seven years ago.
[men cheering]
- Very anxious to get on with my life.
I feel like I'm in good hands on this side.
If you was to see me and Jamal around each other
and we was to be here, what would you do?
- I'm supposed to call the police.
You're both on parole and you're not supposed
to see each other.
- For him to say that though is [beep] up.
I'm ain't trying to, I'm not trying to hear none of that.
- He has a sense of freedom
but he needs to know he's not really free.
- I'm taking my nephew with me.
Let's go, get your stuff.
- So after I went and stayed with Joe, it was havoc.
- You can come stay at my house and call it home.
- How you doing, man?
- Hello, hi, hey.
I finally get to meet you. - Yeah.
- Jovan, that's my son.
That's Steve.
- It's a random man coming to stay at my mother's house
since he got outta prison.
You know what I mean?
You disrespect her house, things could go left real fast.
[loud knocking]
- [Artie] [beep] you coming over here
at one in the morning?
- 'Cause I want to man, that's how.
- What the [beep] is going on down here?
My house, my rules.
Do it my way or go.
- Today is the first time for me to see my daughter
in over three years.
[daughter crying] Oh no, no.
- [Mother] Come on, it's okay.
- The feeling that I'm having right now
is one of the worst feelings that a dad can feel.
- What?
- I had to fight to stay in my son Steven's life
and I'm gonna help Jovan fight
to stay in his daughter's life.
- My name is Arielle.
I was charged with aggravated identity theft
and bank fraud.
- I ended up writing Ari a letter
and we just developed a really strong friendship
while she was in prison.
Oh, how are you?
- I'm feeling nervous, anxious, excited.
Just a whole lot of emotions.
[women cheering]
This is on me to you.
- This bottle is $350.
I'm confused on where the money's coming from.
All right, nobody trusts you.
Like seriously, I don't have no drama.
I'm not a convicted felon.
- All right, so-
- But I'm just being real.
I'm being real. - I get that
and I don't care what you feeling
so I'm gonna walk away.
- I think we really need to scratch
this whole living situation.
We're just in two different spaces.
- I've never met Bill in person.
I only know Bill from the time that I've been writing to him
through a prison pen pal program.
- After all these years. - Hi.
- Hi, Bill.
- Just extraordinarily grateful
for Mark and Sharna that they opened their home to me.
- Over here, we do have your list of rules.
- I seriously don't know how to respond.
What the hell did I get myself into here?
- [Mark] You wouldn't believe all the crap
that's been going on here.
- Mark said he kept a ledger of my toilet paper use.
- The last two or three weeks
Bill has been more confrontational.
- We're gonna have to change these locks.
[drill buzzing]
- Since we were expecting Bill to come back,
I've been on pins and needles.
I don't know what to expect.
- The hell?
Okay, they changed the locks.
This is the most underhanded thing you could do
to somebody in my status when I'm very vulnerable.
Sharna, you are just so self absorbed.
It's not right.
I don't wanna make you cry there Sharna.
You know, it's just reality. - I'm not gonna cry.
- You don't seem like you care about us or our marriage.
Why don't you just get out?
- Friends don't do that. - We're done with it.
- Get your hand outta my face.
You don't rob me of my ability to speak, Sharna.
- I'm not talking about it anymore.
- I don't put my fingers in your face.
[dramatic music]
I'm angry at Mark and Sharna for not giving me
a chance to figure it out.
Instead they're forcing me to the street,
where the little bit of money I have left has
to go now for sleeping in a fleabag hotel,
instead of being over here packing my stuff up.
Very frustrating.
My parole officer's aware of it.
He's given me his blessings to do what I have to do.
But man, this place stinks.
It smells like,
I don't know if I could say it in polite company
but it's really smells bad.
It's got that musty, crack house, sweaty type smell to it.
[mellow music]
- With moving outta Kyle and Sandra's,
I've got a friend who's renting a room
and I'm just gonna work as much as possible.
I'm out, I'm good, I'm moving on.
- What's up, dude? - What's up, dude?
What you doing?
I gotta use the bathroom.
- I asked Nick to come over and talk
'cause yesterday was a big [beep] show
and I would really like to see things
go down smoother today.
Sandra's still pretty fired up and angry.
But she accused him of slipping up and getting high
and I'd really like to hear Nick's side of the story.
A little on edge here to see how this is
all gonna play out.
- Hi Sandra.
Nick, do you want to fill Sandra in
on your plan of action for today?
- Well, I just made, I secured a place to go.
I'm gonna pack my stuff up and I'm gonna move on.
It'll be good for all three of us.
- [Sandra] I agree.
- It was only meant to be temporary anyway.
So I got a car, job, and things are in motion.
It makes sense to move on. - Yeah, I agree.
- [Kyle] We're not making you leave.
So I mean, I'm glad that we can talk about it
and it can be civil.
- It feels like at times you guys are just waiting
for me to go right back to how I was
before I went to prison.
Which is I can understand somewhat,
but I don't wanna keep reliving the way I used
to live life.
- For somebody who hasn't been in those shoes,
it's hard not to immediately think like, oh,
that person was a screw up.
They're just gonna continue down that.
And you're right and I apologize.
I mean, we both can apologize for that.
- I don't ever wanna go back to where I was at.
- And the other day, I mean,
I'm sorry we disagreed a little bit
about you having people over,
but I felt as if we were pretty cut and dry
about that from before you even got released.
- When you moved in,
we said that this isn't a place for you to get comfortable.
This is a place for you to get up on your feet
and find your own place to have people over at.
I don't really know where Nick is mentally.
If you're not serious about your sobriety,
you're gonna end up either back in prison or dead,
just ultimately.
Everybody in my past that I know that have
struggled with an addiction like that is, they're dead.
They're all dead.
At that point, then you need to go to their house
and hang out.
So y'all need to not get comfortable.
Get up on your feet and figure your [beep] out.
This isn't a time for you to just be relaxing in the room,
hanging out with some girl.
- I'm [beep] done here, dude.
This is it, dude. - What?
- I'm just packing my [beep] up.
I just don't like hearing this [beep], dude.
- Like why?
Just let it go.
Quit, quit [beep] antagonizing him.
- [Sandra] Nick's making it dramatic.
- No, he's not.
Your mouth sometimes makes it dramatic.
- I feel like I'm kind of walking around
on eggshells or I don't ever feel welcome in this house.
Why would you wanna be somewhere
where you don't feel welcome?
It's just time to move on.
[mellow music]
- [Henry] You feel pretty good about the interview?
- Yeah, I feel great about it.
- Cool. - Definitely.
It was a big blow to me losing both of my jobs.
I considered going back to my old life
and doing the things that I knew to survive.
But staying at Henry's has helped me wanna try again.
I'm going to an interview at a factory that makes car parts.
I'm stoked.
Hoping I get the job.
[mellow music]
- [GPS Voice] At the next road, then turn left
onto Six Mile Road.
- Even though Darquavion and I have had our ups and downs,
I'm really glad I can drive him today
because I really do think he's got a bright future.
Darquavion has these things imprinted in him
that are wonderful and are real.
He has my support to help him find the path
he really wants to be on that will take him along
in life to where he wants to get to.
- You gotta keep your blinkers on?
- Yeah, it's an emergency.
- What's the emergency?
You would have to have the hazard lights on, bro.
- Yeah.
The emergency is you're going to get this great job.
- I left once from Henry's thinking
that I was going to achieve more.
But Joe's was something similar to prison,
it was not good for me neither though.
Hopefully once I get a job,
I will be able to save up a lot more money living
at Henry's, since I don't have to pay rent,
and I'm getting financial support from him.
I'm very enthused with myself though.
It's a lot of opportunities - Yeah
coming my way.
- That's an answer I really don't know.
I still ask myself that to this day.
I would probably be living day-by-day, I'd be lost.
I wouldn't have no direction.
Pretty soon here, I'm gonna be my own boss.
- I bet you are going to be your own boss
somewhere down the road here.
[mellow music]
- Hello?
- Hi. - Hi.
You Kelly? - Yes.
- [Artie] Hey Kelly, Artie.
- Hello, how you doing?
- Good, good. - Good.
- I'm meeting with Jovan's ex, Kelly,
'cause Kelly just served Jovan with divorce papers.
I think Jovan adores his daughter.
She's a beautiful girl and I think he really,
really wants to be in her life.
I know this divorce is a huge step back for Jovan.
It could jeopardize his relationship with his daughter
and make it where he can't really see her like he wants to.
I'm gonna step in for Jovan because it's not fair
to keep a loving parent from their kid.
Well, I wanna thank you for meeting with me.
So tell me your story.
- I think when it comes to Jovan, he was very,
very verbal all the time to me and my children.
Thank you.
- [Artie] Yeah, I'm so sorry.
- I hit my breaking point and I was like,
okay, I'm leaving him.
So that's where I'm at now with him.
We did not leave things good when he went to jail.
I'm trying to get through this.
- Right. - You know.
So that's it like
and with Kaylana, I think this is all kind of
just trying to figure out what's best for her.
So she's got a very small group of people
that she's been around her whole life
and bouncing from this place, that place.
Her father still doesn't know her too.
She doesn't really know him.
- Yeah, yeah, she's not used to him.
- She's not.
And I know when he's outside,
where he's going and what he's doing.
If someone calls him and say, hey, let's go do this,
he's going.
And I don't want my daughter in those situations.
- I wanna tell you this, it's been 24 years ago,
I went to prison.
I did 14 months.
I lost my son, they took him from me.
And coming out, I had to fight to get him
and we've been all right ever since.
But it takes time when you've been gone
for some years and whatnot.
You want him to have somewhere stable?
My place is stable.
If you don't want her leaving, going off places with him,
which I can understand- - Right.
- She won't.
She'll be right there with me.
I don't deal with riff raff, bull [beep].
If your daughter's ever at my house,
I'm gonna be watching him and her,
like a hawk.
Then he can build a bond
'cause daughters and fathers and mothers and sons,
that bond is unbreakable. - They have that, yeah.
- So all I'm saying is if you give him the chance
to bring her to my house, it could work.
- Okay, that sounds good. - Okay.
- I think Imma agree with it. - Okay fine.
- And then we can, if it's okay with you, talk through you,
'cause I don't want any communication with him.
- Okay. - With that.
- I was a little nervous coming in here
'cause I kind of didn't know what I was walking into,
but she seems like we're kind of on the same page
with keeping Kaylana safe and Kaylana comfortable.
I think Artie being the middle man between me and Jovan,
I think we could really make this work.
- I will talk with Jovan. - Okay.
- And I'll do it today, if I can catch up with him.
- Okay. - Okay?
- All right. - But you got my number.
- I do. - Call me anytime.
- Thank you. [mellow music]
-Okay.
- When I started writing to Bill
and when we made the decision to allow him
to come and parole here,
we definitely didn't know as much as we should've known.
I've definitely been hurt by Bill's behavior toward me.
You were my friend and yet you're gonna cast me aside
and treat me like a piece of trash.
- You've come down here dressed kind of inappropriately
for saying you're a Christian, when your husband's at work.
- Never. - So please.
- It's been a hard thing to deal with.
What I've learned from this is
that people aren't always what they seem.
Someone can seem nice writing letters
and be a whole different ball game
when they come into your home.
Mark is going to make sure that Bill gets
all of his things out of the room.
I'm gonna be away from the house somewhere else
because I don't wanna have any more contact with him.
I did reach my breaking point with this.
I've had enough.
[phone ringing]
- Hey, it's Mark.
- Hey, just checking in with you.
I need to see when you can come over
and we can get your stuff out.
- Well I'm gonna have to start without you then.
- Bill enjoys playing with our heads, but the game is over.
It's been nothing but chaos since he came
and Bill only has a small window of time
to get his stuff outta here while Sharna is gone.
I don't wanna wait for Bill to start moving his stuff out,
but I can't start packing without him
because before Bill left to visit his girlfriend
in California, he installed a lock on his door
and we don't have the key.
- I feel ridiculous that I need to put a lock
in a Christian family's home to stop them
from violating my privacy and Sharna from wanting
to creep in in the middle of the night when I'm in bed.
Yeah, I had the lock installed on my bedroom
for security purposes
because I can't trust the people I live with.
- I think Bill has a lot of paranoia.
The fact is, Shana's very uncomfortable
with the way that he's insinuated feelings
that she may have towards him.
Bill's challenged me as man of the house
and I do feel kind of a emasculated at this point.
But I'm not gonna allow Bill to try to control my life.
[slow music]
After everything that's happened with me and Artie,
I finally gained a little trust with her.
Artie gave me a set of keys to her house
'cause she see that I'm mainly focused on my family,
my business, and building the trust with her.
Keys might not seem like much,
but the freedom to come and go as you please is amazing.
They don't give you keys in prison.
[paper crackling]
[slow music]
Damn.
I missed my daughter's birthday.
I got outta prison 10 days after her birthday.
So now I'm sitting here wrapping these gifts,
trying to let her know daddy ain't forget
it was your birthday.
Getting these divorce papers from Kelly
was a big blow to me.
Because of my criminal past, it might be harder for me
to secure time with my daughter,
especially if the legal system all up in my business.
I don't wanna miss any more time from my daughter.
I already lost plenty of time being in prison.
And time is something you can't get back.
Hey. - Hey Jovan.
What's going on? - What's up, Artie?
- Oh, I went and had lunch.
I met with Kelly.
- I didn't think she was gonna sit down and talk with you.
- Well, she did, hon'ty.
Had a nice little talk, you know.
I want Jovan to be able to see his child.
I want him to be able to spend quality time with his child
and not be stressed out.
'Cause if he's stressed out,
the child's gonna see he's stressed out
and he doesn't need that and neither does she.
Well, one thing, she does want you
to have a relationship with your daughter, Jovan.
You know, it's just, it's gonna take time
'cause nothing can make up for being gone, you know.
I'm hoping that keeping Jovan involved
with his daughter will keep him off the streets.
And I'm hoping that it'll give him the motivation
to get his life together and not go back to prison.
But it's up to him to put in the work
'cause I can't do that for him.
- I'm her father so I'm equal as a parent
so why I don't get equal rights?
- She's just concerned.
She just wants stability.
I told her that my home is one of the safest places
her child could be.
So let's just do that for a while.
- We can do that. - You know what I'm saying?
Just no matter what, just keep on pushing.
For me, the biggest thing in helping Jovan,
I wanna see him succeed.
It's like just giving someone a chance, you know.
where maybe nobody else did or could.
- I've been wrapping these up and they look kind of funny.
- Yeah, you kind of butchered 'em.
- Yeah. - But the kid
just gonna tear it up anyway.
But you know what- - But you think
you could help me though?
- Yeah, I think I will.
Leave the paper there- - Okay.
- I'll wrap 'em for you.
- I appreciate it, Artie.
[dramatic music]
- I just can't stand her [beep] attitude.
I knew it was gonna be issues even coming here with her.
I tried to look past it
but then I'm being treated as if I'm still
the person I was before prison.
- I was really good friends with Nick's dad.
We used to go hunting together and stuff
and I could see me and Nick being old men hunting together
and doing projects at the farm and stuff.
But I mean, I would never turn my back on my girlfriend.
What's up?
Packing your stuff?
- [Nick] Mmm-hmm.
- If you need any more time and stuff,
I ain't kicking you out or nothing today.
But I just wanna see you, wherever it is
that you are going, keep yourself on the right path.
You know. Don't fall back into that [beep].
Don't be running around with the riff raff.
So I'm glad we could open the doors for you.
I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
I'm sorry that sometimes things are a little wonky
between you and Sandra.
I don't want you to be mad at her.
I'm sorry that she upset you.
But I still got your back and you always
got a spot to crash here, man.
You know.
- Looking back on it,
this was part of what was leading into my anxiety
and [beep] that I was having.
You know what I'm saying?
We all do, it's human nature.
So I'm glad we could help you out.
At the end of the day,
I wish it would've ended a little better,
but still we provided him with what he needed.
That's all we could do.
- I don't think I could have done
anything differently for Nick.
We opened up our home to him,
we gave him every opportunity to do what he needed to do.
If you don't wanna stay sober and do it for yourself,
then I don't give a [beep].
- Appreciate you for everything, dude.
Love you, dude. - Appreciate you, man.
- Relieved.
[engine starting]
I don't regret doing anything.
I was planning on going my separate way
as soon as I could anyways.
This just kind of fast tracked things.
We can all move on from here.
I think it's just gonna be, it'll be a relief for everyone.
- I don't need this anymore.
[slow music]
- [Henry] Hey.
- I got the job at the auto parts place
that I interviewed for a few weeks ago.
But I've been doing well and I've been saving money.
I finally saved up enough to get my own place
and I'm moving out, thanks to Henry's support
and helping me.
Listen, I wanted to come to you say
I appreciate you for everything.
You've been my stepping stone.
And I just wanna tell you, we done had our up and downs.
Everything is going the way that I needed to go right now
and I'm just happy that I took the initiative
and the time to go back to Henry's
and figure things out and now it's happening for me.
You've been my role model since I known you.
- Yeah.
- You the reason why I'm where I am today.
I was locked up when I was 17 so it was like,
when I came home, I wanted to do everything
that I couldn't do 'cause I missed.
But now that I can do those things,
it's like damn, that [beep] is boring.
What is it, what is it doing for me?
- I see that Darquavion has made some
really difficult changes and I think he is going to succeed.
And it's very exciting, isn't it?
That all the hell that you went through
and you're gonna turn out good in your life like you are.
- Yeah, I got something to show you though.
- Darquavion is having a chance to make his
next changes into the successful life
like most people want that he couldn't get to.
But he can get to it now.
- Well though, well, let me tell you my surprise.
- You have a surprise?
- Yeah, I do got one. - Okay.
What is it?
Oh.
[dramatic music]
- [Henry] You have a surprise?
- Yeah, I do got one.
- [Henry] Whoa.
- [Darquavion] You know what that is right there?
- I sort of recognize it, what is it?
- Oh. - I got a child on the way.
- You have a child on the way?
- Yeah, my first child. - Cool.
- [laughing] Right now I am definitely very excited,
very happy.
I can't wait to bring my child into this world
and be a father that I never had to my child.
It means so much to me.
Even though my baby mama is crazy as hell,
I mean crazy.
But I love her and anything that come at me,
I know how to maneuver through it
and handle it to the best way that is possible.
I see good things happening.
That's for you though.
So you can put it up on a refrigerator and keep it though.
That's something very special to me though.
- I didn't know anything about Darquavion
now being in a serious relationship.
But that doesn't really matter much
because Darquavion is a remarkable person,
he will be a remarkable father.
I see great hope for Darquavion.
I think he could turn out to do great things.
- I'm in a place in my life right now
where I'm at peace and I appreciate you very much.
- Yeah. - You know, it's love.
- Yeah. - And I'll see you soon.
- All right.
- When I saw how amazing Darquavion was,
my goals from the beginning were to help him find his way
to what it was that mattered for his future.
Okay. - All right, thank you.
- Very good.
He doesn't need me as much anymore.
He's moving on into adulthood
and he's going to succeed at it in wonderful ways.
- Me being here was a safety net.
It was something for me to get on my feet.
Ain't no telling what's gonna happen next.
It's just the beginning.
I've got a lot to look forward to.
[mellow music]
[door slamming]
[door knocking]
- I have a lot of mixed feelings about moving out
and coming here to pack up.
But in a way it's good because it'll be
that much less stress, that much less drama.
- So I see you got in.
Yeah, you left the windows unlocked
- I could put up with anything,
having done so much time in prison,
but this is kind of to a new level.
It's kind of a relief that I can actually be somewhere
where I could eat pepperoni.
Why are you evicting me anyway?
What's the real reason?
- Bill, you know the ongoing problems with Sharna.
And the big factor that drives that is you.
- So why don't you make this easy and evict her?
- Well, here's the problem, you couldn't lay off Sharna.
- I asked you a thousand times to please check her
for her nasty comments towards me.
- I told you a red line in the sand is you continuing
to harass her.
- [Bill] Nobody harassed her.
- [Mark] You're way too worried about her, Bill.
- [Bill] I'm not worried about her.
I worry about you.
Why don't you worry about yourself?
- I am.
To have Bill disrespect my wife like that
is definitely not cool.
I have to put my wife and our sanity before Bill.
We need to bring peace into our house and reclaim our lives.
Unfortunately, time has come to end this.
- A good friend of mine is gonna let me live
with him while I get on my feet going forward
and while I look for a place to live permanently.
Am I hurt?
Sure.
Am I disappointed?
Am I upset?
Am I angry?
A little bit.
But it is what it is.
I have to live my life, let them live theirs,
go about my business, put them in the rearview mirror
'cause I know where I'm going.
I know I'm leaving behind a good environment physically,
but emotionally and mentally, it was killing me.
I think that's about it.
- The most difficult thing about seeing Bill go is
that I'm unsure of his future.
He could fall through the cracks.
He could end up somewhere else where he'd have
much more temptation for the things out in the world
that can get him in trouble.
- Sorry things turned out the way they did.
No hugs.
Hugs are for brothers.
I don't know if we're brothers anymore.
But anyway, I gotta get going
'cause I gotta go get this stuff put in a friend's house.
Take care, man.
- All right, Bill. - Anything else?
- I just hope that time and space
could make things better [crying].
- [Bill] Yeah.
- Sorry we failed you.
- Sorry about it, man.
Sorry man.
- I know we all three had our times
where we fell short and I believe in taking responsibility
for my part.
I know Sharna's struggled with the times that she was...
that she could have done better
and we've all had our times where we could've done better.
All right. - All right.
Take care of yourself. - All right.
It's too bad that it had to end like this.
[engine firing]
- For me, a thing that I felt the most was
that I felt very betrayed because Bill had made
all of these promises the months before he got out
and he didn't do any of it.
Instead, he turned on us and he harassed us,
he accused us of things.
It was just a time that I'm never gonna forget,
but I would like to forget and wish it never had happened.
[mellow music]
- Things are going really good.
I've been working for a company that rehabs
and renovates houses.
I'm stacking money.
I got a stable place to stay.
And I'm right on schedule to buy my first property to flip.
Living at Kyle and Sandra's reminded me of being in prison.
But even though it was a rocky start,
I have a whole life ahead of me and things are headed
in the right direction.
It takes time to get there.
There's a lot of time in there to make the wrong decision,
start sliding backwards.
- Yeah, I might be a little tired and stressed,
maybe drinking a little more than I should,
but at least I'm not hooked on pills and doing heroin.
I don't know.
I know that, I'm sorry.
Let's see.
[dramatic music]
- You ready to see your new home, Nicholas?
- Looking back on it,
it probably wasn't the healthiest environment
for me to move into coming fresh out of prison.
There's just a lot of partying.
[people cheering]
I felt susceptible too pretty quickly.
Things are going great.
I'm sober, I have a great job.
It's giving me the opportunity to follow my dreams.
I'm excited to see what the future holds in this new life
and I couldn't be any more grateful.
[dramatic music]
- It's going good.
I'm back in my parents' house and trying
to get readjusted and comfortable with everything.
I'm going through a box of stuff right now
and some of it belongs to my sister
and it's definitely stirring up old memories.
Tiffane kicking me out actually turned out to be a blessing.
I was so afraid to come back home,
but it had nothing to do with being independent.
It was the fact that I didn't wanna deal
with all the pain I had wrapped up with losing my sister.
This is me and my twin sister, my brother, and his kids.
It's gonna be a long road until I dig up everything
I had buried for so long and I just miss her so much.
Coming out of a situation like being in prison,
not knowing what's next
is probably the scariest thing ever.
And if you don't have those support systems,
your risk of recidivism is high.
I work a lot.
I work two jobs, which keeps me busy within them self.
I go to therapy.
I'm definitely just making changes.
Tiffane was really a lifesaver for me
for taking me in from prison.
I may not have acted like it but I am grateful for it.
She's definitely a real one for that.
I'm actually at peace.
I'm not hurting anymore.
I'm healing and I'm happy about that.
I'm genuinely happy about that.
[mellow music]
- My living situation right now is I have my own place.
My baby mama stays with me.
We have a child on the way.
I just found out the news, I'm having a boy.
♪ Darquavion came one day ♪
♪ Came to live in the place where I stay ♪
- The relationship I have with Henry is
still like father, like son.
But he's been one of my biggest supporters
through this whole journey and trial.
Regardless of the ups and down we had,
he's still gonna always be a hero in my book.
I gained a lot over the last couple months.
I really don't have all the answers right now though.
But all I know is I'm moving forward though
and I don't put on looking back at all.
I made it.
I came this far, you know.
Wouldn't dare [beep] up now.
[mellow music]
- Well, here I am in the new house.
Just got a new house with Mary.
Wanna give you a tour of it.
Since I moved out of Mark and Sharna's, life has been great.
Mary has now moved to Indiana with me
and we have own place together.
Watch this.
I can now wipe my butt without it being documented by Mark.
I have all the food I want.
I have my own ice.
It's wonderful.
Life is good.
Guess what I have?
I have smoked ham.
You see the ham?
I'm very happy.
Our wedding plans are as soon as we can afford it
and decide where we wanna go, we're gonna get married.
Say hello to my new Cadillac.
Beautiful Cadillac, as you can see.
I put my criminal life behind me.
I'm writing books now about people I've met along the way,
about criminal justice reform, crime victim advocacy.
I've never been happier in my life.
I'm so thrilled that I'm in love
and I have a woman who accepts me unconditionally.
I'm grateful for the initial offer and willingness
to take me in, get on my feet post-incarceration,
not be a victim of recidivism,
like so many people back and forth to prison.
I pray for Mark and Sharna.
I hope they learn to treat people a little better.
I'm open to wherever the future lies.
Every day of this challenge and this things I'm learning
is better than one more day in prison
or the prison of Mark and Sharna's house.
I have nobody ridiculing me.
I have nothing but love and support now
in a very, very peaceful household.
God bless.
[tense music]
- You gotta take your good with the bad.
Everything is not gonna be just so good all the time.
You know, you gotta be prepared for that.
I was at the point one time where I was ready
just to say [beep] everything.
I'm just about to just go out here and do me.
But the new logic of me thinking was like, wait a minute.
If you wanna stay free, you gonna have to find something
that's gonna keep you outta trouble.
Right now, my cleaning business, I just got it going.
I'm starting to make a little cash flow.
- I got you this.
- Whoa.
- Well, the back fell off cause it got warm but-
- Oh [beep].
Oh man, I gotta give you a hug for that.
I'm very grateful that Artie ain't give up on me
or kick me out.
You know what I'm saying?
'Cause like I said,
that could've triggered me to doing something stupid,
like going back to selling drugs.
And that's my best friend.
When I ain't have nowhere to go, she was there for me.
So she's always gonna be forever in my heart
and part of my, whatever I'm doing, she there.
That's my homie right there.
Look at that lady's hair in the wind.
Geez. - My hair's done.
I'm finally starting to spend a lot of more time
with my daughter, Kaylana.
Getting divorced papers from Kelly was a big blow to me.
But now me and Kelly are having a open communication now.
We actually set a schedule for when I'll be able
to come get Kaylana.
She see that I'm not the same person that I was
before I got locked up.
Everything worked out the way it was supposed to.
I'm here now talking to y'all, ain't got no worries.
Me and my baby having fun, y'all.
It's been a hell of a journey, but hey,
if you really wanna be in your child's life,
stick with it, man.
I'm proof right here.
The streets ain't your friend.
It's for nobody, trust me.
I've been there and done that.
Peace.