It's not normal to go to jail every three months.

It's not normal for your mom to come in and stab your dad.

But this is what's going on in our communities.

(newscaster) Breaking news in San Bernardino, where there's been a deadly shooting.

Murders at a high crime rate plague the city of San Bernardino.

(RS) Other people comment, "Oh, you live in the ghetto."

I'm like, "Yeah, gunshots at night."

To me, this is normal.

(TN) A kid's down the street and a mom comes to me and says, "I don't know what he's on, but he's not acting normal.

I'm scared."

I got some Narcan.

Let's go.

(newscaster) The City of San Bernardino is ranked as the third most dangerous city in America.

(TN) I had a fiancé and a husband that died on me, and then my first boyfriend got killed in gang violence.

(newscaster) Police say the gangs are responsible for more than 50 murders this year alone.

(TN) Violence intervention, that's who I am.

That's what I live.

My name is Tasha Nicole, and this is my story.

♪ [dramatic and driving musical score] ♪ [faint voices] [helicopter whirring] [male voice on a radio] [wind rustling through brush] [distant sound of a train whistle] [music continues] [music fades] [rap music] ♪♪ I hit the ground then I go off, yah ♪ ♪ I hit the ground then I go off, yah ♪♪ I'm born into normalized violence, second generation gang life.

I'm biracial but tri-cultural.

My mother is Italian.

My father is African American.

Parents were incarcerated when I was very young.

After that going to college, I got accepted to Cal-State but it didn't stand because I was actively gang banging.

And then I became a mother real soon and I think my son saved my life, because I didn't think I was going to live past 18.

I mean, a lot of us don't think that.

So do you see the resemblance?

These are Blaxicans right here, all right?

It's a whole culture of us.

So in the morning, the hair can look like this out of the shower.

We can brush it, but afterwards it looks just like that, before and after.

All right, so I'm going to try to brush his hair.

Michael is 26 years old but he's my 2-year-old, right?

For life.

A layman's term is the elephant man syndrome.

Some of his organs are backwards or they're deformed.

He has gigantism in his feet so he wears house shoes, that's the only thing that can fit his feet.

And then on one side of his leg is gigantism as well.

Then he has lymph nodes in his back so he has a hunchback.

So when he walks people think he just has that little swag, but that's actually his walk.

But it works for Michael, right?

Right, Michael, throw it up.

Throw it up, Michael.

Yeah, that's Michael.

I had to really focus on his medical needs, caring for him 24/7, and that changed me.

I couldn't risk my freedom.

I couldn't risk my life because what would happen to him?

Michael needs me.

If I hadn't had Michael there's a high possibility I would have died in gang violence, or I would have caught a major case for a murder or something like that.

So I would have lost my life either way.

Come on, Mike.

You say bye-bye.

You're leaving.

You're leaving.

I am a violence intervention professional at Loma Linda and I work in the trauma unit.

My job is to assist the patients who have been assaulted, shot, stabbed, to get the resources they need so that they won't end up victimized again and/or in jail.

(newscaster) Breaking news, a gang raid has turned into a SWAT standoff in San Bernardino.

(Narrator) San Bernardino was once a thriving middle-class, all-American city.

Over the last three decades the economy imploded.

The rail shops, steel plants, Norton Air Force Base and downtown businesses closed, costing the city tens of thousands of jobs along with the hopes of its residents.

(Newscaster) The city of San Bernardino is ranked as the third most dangerous city in America.

(TN) So my phone rings all the time.

Things go on in the hospital all the time.

Things go up in this neighborhood all the time.

I have to walk a line where I can't be biased in any situation, I have to see the whole picture.

We know that San Bernardino has a lot of killings and shootings, violence.

It's not normal to go to jail every three months.

It's not normal for your dad to come in or your mom to come in and stab your dad, but this is what's going on in our communities.

[police sirens] (narrator) As a violence intervention professional, Tasha has routine home visits, many of which are with former prison inmates.

(TN) So today I'm going to meet with Richard.

He's a recently released parolee, so we can get started on seeing what his goals are and how I can assist in supporting him in accomplishing those goals.

We're both from the gang life.

We have our history and then we're here to peer mentor, stand by you, support you.

We also do in juvenile detention and also visit other inmates.

(RS) My name is Richard.

That's something I'm getting used to again, hearing my name because I wasn't being called by my name.

I was being called by my nickname.

I was hearing my nickname since juvenile hall, since before I even went to juvenile hall.

I went to Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, man, and that middle school was cracking.

You'd see kids trying to stab each other with pencils.

I was just like, damn, man.

Everyone's fighting each other.

You're getting shot at by security with paintball guns with pepper spray in them.

And then we go to eighth grade, now the gangs are trying to pull you.

I got drunk one time with these girls and one of them was like, "You're not a gangster, man.

You look like a pretty boy.

You're not with it."

I was like, man, I was like, watch.

I told my homie, "Hey fool, put the one and the three dots on my face."

I got it on my face.

I regretted it the next day.

I was like, damn, what did I do?

I was a gang member.

(TN) He had the trece on his face and it's the 13.

So one trece in our gang culture means that you're from a Hispanic gang.

It's identifiable even with the officers and the cops and parole and probation and everything else.

You're labeled, that's it, so you become a target.

(RS) We had just had a little party.

We were driving around, I don't even know what.

To me it was like, oh, I'm just a homie.

I'm kicking it with the homies.

And then we'd seen some people tagging on our neighborhood and I was like, oh, we're cool.

We're going to beat them up real quick.

The next thing you know somebody pulls out a gun and shoots with them.

I was like, it was like a movie.

It was like slow motion.

I'd just seen everybody run and I ran.

I didn't understand.

Gang members do a lot of bad things, breaking in people's cars, stealing people's bikes.

And then that shooting, that murder of that guy, man, I don't even know how to make amends to that.

That's like, damn.

Two weeks later I got the sheriffs, the PDs smash, come into my house.

I got locked up.

I spent more time in jail than I did living on the streets.

(narrator) As an accessory to the crime, Richard at 15 years old was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

(RS) Honest with you, getting these tattoos removed is the best thing to happen to me in my whole life.

(TN) With Richard planning to remove his gang tattoos, especially the ones on his face, it's very important.

Because he's re-entering the community where people will remember those tattoos and remember the feelings they had, or the encounters they had with him before he went to prison.

So to start a new life, you have to change some things, right?

It's not removing who he is as a person, but it's progressing so he can go ahead and further his career and accomplish his goals.

(RS) I got three more units, I'll get my associate's.

(TN) Look at you.

(RS) I hope that I can get my three units, then I want to get my bachelor's.

(TN) So we want to change that 'I hope,' "I'm going to get my three units so I can get my bachelor's."

How about that?

Thank you so much.

I'm happy to see you and meet you personally.

Hey, it's a blessing, brother.

(RS) Face tattoos, they were around but it wasn't socially acceptable as it is now.

I've been wanting to get this off for about 19 years.

I'm tired of that because it's problems.

But once you get locked up, then it's really treacherous.

I didn't know what I was getting myself into.

That's how everybody knows me now, this guy with the 1-3 on his face.

Every kid in there was like, you couldn't show weakness.

You couldn't say, oh damn, I'm scared, not knowing this is the rest of your life.

It really hit me hard when my dad died.

That was a really bad experience for me because I couldn't go to his funeral.

I knew he was old but he was strong.

It wasn't even like two years.

When they told me he was dying, I didn't believe it.

I was like, damn, I messed up my life.

♪♪♪ (clinician) Breath as needed, okay, and starting.

Even though people say they don't discriminate, they might not do it openly but when you apply for a job or try to get a better job you're like, oh, they don't know me.

They just know what they see, and what they see is not always what it is.

(clinician) If you need to take a break, you say so.

The knuckles are some of the hardest ones.

Yeah, you're shaking here.

I know, it's a little rough.

I'm sorry.

Slowly breath.

(RS) Break.

(clinician) Yeah, no problem.

(RS) It wasn't that bad.

It hurt but it's doable.

It's something I needed to get done so I was like, all right, let's get it done.

I feel good.

I feel like, damn, I started the process.

A lot of people, they might be afraid to take that first step, that change.

I'm ready for change.

I'm ready to start moving forward, start building on my future.

(TN) Alrighty.

I think I got everything I need.

The sun's actually not that bad right now.

But UV rays and the heat, I don't want to be sweaty before I get to the office, right?

(narrator) As a violence intervention professional, Tasha has regular meetings with hospital medical staff and social workers to brief each other on current and incoming patients.

(clinician) All right.

Why don't we run ... Do you want to run through and just do our list, um, run through that and identify safety needs in communicating with the team?

(TN) I do work at the trauma unit at Loma Linda Hospital, but I also advocate for parolees and probationers, high-risk youth.

I advocate for special needs.

I go to court and I support my patients when they go to court, and also to educate them on some other resources they may need.

But I'm a violence intervention professional because it all goes hand in hand.

So this is his case that we went up to Victorville, went to court for him.

The agreement that was made in court was that he was going to be held until we picked him up.

He was released overnight, so where do you think he ended back up?

Back up in Barstow.

(Clinician) Just on the street?

(TN) On the street in a 100 and something degree heat.

But this is the system that we're dealing with.

(clinician) Then why didn't they contact you when he was released?

(TN) They released him after midnight.

(clinician) But that's dumb.

(TN) It is dumb, but that's what happens and that's why it's recidivism.

(clinician) But the bad thing about it is, and the worst thing, they said, you got 30 minutes- to get out of here, or we're going to re-arrest you.

(clinician) Are you serious?

(TN) Well, you know what?

You're not innocent until proven guilty, you're guilty until proven innocent in our realm.

(SB) I think that passion drives Tasha to always look for more, right?

So instead of accepting that something isn't possible or a resource isn't available, or a service isn't going to be available for a patient or family, she just won't take no.

It's like, we're going to find a way and then she just makes it happen because she knows how important it is for these patients and families.

Because that is the difference between sleeping in the car that night and going without food, or having a roof over their head and being able to send their child to school the next day.

[dog barking] (RS) When I study, my mindset is, I have a goal to continue getting my tattoos removed, to finish getting my degree.

To get my bachelor's, to get my master's degree and just to give back, get back to the community.

I got a second chance at life so I want to be that light where others could be like, that guy did it.

Then they know I could do it, and I don't tell anybody it's easy.

It's work.

A lot of people that got out before me, a lot of people that got out after me that I thought were doing good, ended up going back to prison.

It's hard to get out of that lifestyle when it's all around you and you feel that camaraderie and you remember these guys, but they're still doing the same things so you feel sucked in and trapped.

Someone told me that I wasn't going to graduate.

I feel like I failed the people that believed in me, the ones that pushed me to go to school.

The ones that were like, you can do it.

I think I'd fail myself, for all the work I've put in there's nothing that is going to stop me.

I know my path is difficult but whatever I need to do, I'll do it.

And if I have to work all day, every day, I will.

[reading] Identify and describe the four goals of social work practice.

Oh man, I'm just dealing with like five things at once.

There was no work for the whole week.

I only went for two days.

So I was like, all right.

I'm just trying to figure out what's going to be my next move because everyone's trying to pull me here and pull me there.

It's like, I feel overwhelmed because I didn't get that time to be like, okay, I'm going to be a teenager.

Then I'm going to be an adult, then I'm going to be a real adult.

I didn't get that 18 's.

I didn't get none of my teens.

I didn't get none of my 20s.

I'm trying to see if I can get a stable job.

I'm not trying to go two days out of the week.

I don't get no rest at home because when I get home, I got to help all my family.

It's not just all sunshine.

Sometimes it's bad days and I feel like I've been having a bad week.

Out here I'm just like, damn, what do I do?

I never had to do any of this.

It's difficult.

(SB) Wait, what?

(TN) (SB) What's going on?

(SB) How and what and why?

Do you need to sit down?

(SB) No, you don't.

You need to sit down.

(TN) So my assistant, it was her husband but I call her my prima and he's my primo.

It's like cousins, right?

My primo was killed on Easter and his body wasn't removed until the morning.

And then straight from that, I went to work.

I just broke down because Tippi's just shot and killed like nothing and just laid on the ground.

It brings back when my husband was killed.

The night my husband was killed, he suffered multiple gunshots and he passed away right there.

They weren't even looking for him, he was an innocent victim and he had become this great husband and father and everybody loved him.

We were seven months legally married, and we thought we were at the age where we were done with that.

We were veteranos, right?

We had made it through.

We had it.

The reality is, once you're in a gang you're always in that gang because no one forgets the past.

Usually they don't.

Especially if you've hurt other people, you become a target all the way around.

You remain a target all the way around, yeah.

So a lot of the incidents or experiences that we are working with that the patients are currently going through, it's a lot of things that we've endured.

This job is very difficult.

It's not for everyone, but it makes a huge impact on the people we service.

[train whistle] (narrator) Recidivism rates in California are around 68% for arrests of new crimes.

This means that more than two-thirds of former inmates that Tasha assists end up back in prison.

(TN) Because I didn't have that wholesome family lifestyle, father was in prison, mom was gone, you wanted to belong to something.

But to have sisters from different mothers, right, brothers from different mothers, and know that they loved you and you loved them, you felt unconditional love.

And that's what gang banging in our days was about.

But the violence was the downfall.

The violence was the horrible part.

That's why I do what I do with these youth, because you want to feel a part of something.

They know me as Ms. G, or the big home girl or my mentor.

I wouldn't want to mess up that rapport.

We're having a birthday party for Michael and he's turning 26.

However, my sister's birthday is on the exact same date.

So because this is the community house, whatever celebrations we do is for the community.

We're all pulling together and just making it a celebration for everybody.

I got to give our thanks to Tasha, because when she invested her time and her money and her property to this, that's the most caring thing in the world.

That's why everybody will know her name forever.

I call her Dia, because she's the one who kept me out of trouble.

She actually brought me into her house and I started getting my ó_ó_ó_ó_ right.

And that's when I started going back and that's when I started going to school.

She's that one person you can always count on.

She's really caring.

She'll do almost anything for anybody.

I met Tasha through a O &H program.

It's just a program for the homeless.

I was just out on the streets doing what I do, and she was real cool.

She had a good vibe to her, more chill, laid back, more like herself.

And she kind of understands so we're able to open up more.

She's really been there for me, and she's been here for all the other kids.

It's like, she really is family.

I never really had no good like that.

(group) ♪♪ Happy birthday to you.

♪ (TN) CHA CHA CHA ♪ Happy birthday to you.

♪ (TN) CHA CHA CHA (TN) Wait...why are we off?

♪ Happy birthday, dear Michael.

Happy birthday to you.

♪♪ Michael!

[POP of champagne cork] (TN) Right on time.

Right on time.

I mean, growing up in the hood, this is tradition.

I grew up knowing that I had hood aunties, hood grandmas, hood Tias.

Because I didn't have my own mom, I had hood moms.

So when someone asked me, why do you do this?

I would say, why wouldn't I?

Because I can.

I'm capable of doing it and it's a need.

And then my passion is in my purpose.

Why would my mom leave?

Well, why did I go through this physical abuse or other abuses that I've endured?

Why did I do that?

And now today I say, now I know why.

Because if I hadn't gone through that, I wouldn't be able to not only sympathize but empathize with someone else going through it.

I wouldn't be able to say, you can get through this.

So I take pride in being the hood auntie.

One day I'll be the hood grandma, right, but right now I'm still a hood auntie.

I think everybody needs those people.

(RS) I was on two flights.

I'm going to Lake Tahoe to graduate.

Seven months ago I was right here, High Desert State Prison, and now I'm right here graduating.

(Shane) There he is.

Awesome.

(RS) How are you doing, man?

(Shane) How are you doing?

How was the travel, man?

(RS) It was good, man.

(Shane) Are you proud to be here?

(RS) Yeah, real proud.

(Shane) I'm proud to have you.

(Shane) Richard's a very motivated individual.

He joined us I think in 2001, and he really was working so hard while at HDSP, High Desert State Prison, to work on his degree.

He just really wanted it.

I mean, he's graduating with two degrees, an AA in social sciences, an AAT in sociology with a 3.54 GPA.

I mean, that's a big deal.

(RS) I got to get adjusted to life.

The people were different.

Technology was way advanced.

The billboards move now.

We were just talking about almond milk and I was like, "Almond milk?

When did they come out with almond milk?"

My main goal is just to help others so they could experience what I'm experiencing, to show them, hey, this is possible.

(TN) It's very important for other high-risk youth and adults to see Richard graduate.

Just to see someone who's been away for 17 years plus, coming from the same communities or the same lifestyle, and see him walk across that stage means it's possible.

I truly look up to Richard.

He's accomplished so much.

(RS) The most important thing I tell the community is, I'd say not to give up on people.

There's a lot of people that make one or two mistakes and that's their whole life.

If you give a person a second chance and they do change, they can help change the next person.

(announcer) Richard Salazar.

[cheering] (RS) It's surreal, dude.

It's like, I'm watching it, I'm like, this can't be me.

This ain't my life.

I didn't think I was going to make it to 18.

I didn't think I was going to leave High Desert.

If my dad was here, man, I think I would have cried.

Because he would have seen me, I was like, I made it.

I want to be a 10th of a man that he was.

But this is just the beginning, just the beginning right here.

(Shane) Congratulations.

So proud of you.

(TN) Since I've been doing this job, I've lost three people to murders that I've worked with closely.

So to see Richard accomplish this means a lot, because sometimes you feel like you could have did more.

So to see him accomplish it makes me feel like I'm doing something right.

(RS) We need more people like Tasha.

She influenced me, but I was like damn, I want to do what you're doing.

If I could be changed, who's to say the next person can't?

(TN) Violence intervention, that's who I am.

That's what I live.

This will be my purpose till the day I die.

[touching piano melody] This program was made possible by the Ralph & Carolyn Thompson Charitable Foundation, and Ed and Ann Zinke.