♪ ANGIE MILES: If at first you don't succeed...

The second part of this saying is the reason for our program today.

Sometimes people make mistakes.

Sometimes what's valuable gets pushed aside.

Sometimes second chances are in order for individuals and institutions.

That's next on a special edition of VPM News Focal Point.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by ♪ ♪ ♪ ANGIE MILES: If at first you dont succeed try, try again.

That is the point of this special edition of VPM News Focal Point.

I'm Angie Miles.

In recent years, our criminal justice system has taken a new approach to handling some criminal offenses, propelled by research that shows individuals and entire communities are often better off if justice doesn't just mean punishing, but also tries repairing.

Our A.J.

Nwoko shows us an example at work in Chesterfield County.

DeWARREN FITZGERALD: I've done probably 17 years since I was 18, in and out, in and out.

A.J.

NWOKO: In just over three months- DeWARREN FITZGERALD: 97 days A.J.

NWOKO: DeWarren Fitzgerald will be a free man and this time he intends to stay that way.

DeWARREN FITZGERALD: I always thought that coming to jail, getting out and coming back was the normal thing to do until I came into this program.

A.J.

NWOKO: That program is called Helping Addicts Recover Progressively or HARP.

It's been a staple in the Chesterfield County Jail for nearly a decade, investing in inmates like Fitzgerald with the hope that this is the final sentence they'll ever serve.

DeWARREN FITZGERALD: Until I got arrested in Chesterfield, I thought that was my life.

A.J.

NWOKO: In addition to mental health services and substance abuse rehabilitation, HARP participants are taught new skills to prepare them for the workforce.

DeWARREN FITZGERALD: I got my forklift license here.

I got PRS certified.

and now they have a roofing class.

They have a horticulture class.

A.J.

NWOKO: All of this to curb the county's recidivism rate.

BAILEY HILLIARD: Restorative justice really makes a lot of sense.

A.J.

NWOKO: Bailey Hilliard is the rehabilitations program manager of the jail.

She says the county's methods are the key to keeping the recently released from returning to damaging habits.

(door clicking) BAILEY HILLIARD: For us to be a part of a restorative justice system, it means that we are doing something very different from a lot of people.

A.J.

NWOKO: For graduates like Archie Jones, that difference has meant... ARCHIE JONES: Freedom.

A.J.

NWOKO: For seven years straight and counting.

ARCHIE JONES: Its the greatest thing to ever happen to a person theyve been incarcerated most of their life.

Freedom.

A.J.

NWOKO: A complete 180 from the 40 years prior he spent in and out of jail.

Now, the only reason why Jones comes back is to show others that change is possible.

ARCHIE JONES: Someone is sitting in that room.

They don't believe that they can get a stay out and then someone come in and say they were sitting in those same seats and I've been free seven straight years.

If that's not good enough for me to want to change.

Wow.

BAILEY HILLIARD: We like to look at it here like we give people opportunity to make different choices and make the changes in their life.

A.J.

NWOKO: According to a 2019 review of HARP by VCU Health, from 2016 to 2019, 45% of inmates who didn't participate in HARP were rearrested after being released, compared to just over 28% of graduates.

However, the review did not detail how soon after release former inmates reoffended.

Virginia had a 20.6 recidivism rate for state that report re-incarceration rates within three years according to the U.S. Department of Corrections.

But Hilliard says recidivism rate alone does not completely illustrate Virginia's success.

BAILEY HILLIARD: If you're coming back to jail twice a year instead of six times a year.

That, to me, is a reduction, for reducing behaviors.

A.J.

NWOKO: But measureing success through recidivism gets complicated, especially when comparing other states.

North Carolina measures based on new incarcerations, while Georgia measures based on new convictions, even if there is no incarceration.

And still other states measure based on arrests alone.

DANA SCHRAD: I don't know if the formulas for how we calculate this tell us as much as whether or not we are giving people opportunities at different stages of their involvement in the criminal justice system to actually take the right path.

A.J.

NWOKO: That's Dana Schrad with the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police.

She says in addition to rehabilitation efforts, DANA SCHRAD: what are we doing with people while we have them incarcerated and how long are we keeping them?

A.J.

NWOKO: From the perspective of victims of crime, time served is the other component that must be addressed DANA SCHRAD: That's really the key part we think of restorative justice as making sure that that takes place at an integral point in someone's life where they can still have a higher degree of success in terms of turning away from a life of crime.

A.J.

NWOKO: But Fitzgerald believes he's made that turn and he's ready to prove it.

DeWARREN FITZGERALD: My story is just beginning.

A.J.

NWOKO: For VPM News, I'm A.J.

Nwoko.

♪ ANGIE MILES: Veterans, you may know are often managing trauma that is outsized compared with what is considered average and trauma related responses can sometimes lead to negative outcomes.

We're talking about veteran suicide or drug abuse, but also crimes committed in conjunction with difficulties coping.

Recognizing the problem and the research, many courts are opting to assist with second chances.

Take a look at veterans court.

RACHEL THORNSBERRY: I am a veteran of the US Army.

I joined in 2000 right out of high school as an 18-year-old kid, just wanting to go save the world.

And during my time, I experienced some trauma from my peers.

You know, at the time, I didn't realize that that trauma would eventually be a ticking time bomb and what that would mean for me.

And there're so many other people that experience those traumas, people that fight for our country that see things that other people don't see.

So when I graduated from the Veterans docket in Spotsylvania, it was super important for my whole life because it was important to me to prove to not just myself, but everybody else, that this recovery road is possible.

It is fair to say that the program did save my life.

I am here sitting here talking to you today because of that choice.

STEVE DESCANO: A diversion court is, it's a problem solving court.

It's not adversarial.

It does take place in a courtroom, but it is all about all the sides, all the parties working together to try to get at the root cause of why somebody has touched our justice system and everybody working together to help that person, not punish them so that they can become the member of our community that they want to be.

We have a veteran treatment docket court.

We have a mental health court, and then we have a drug court.

We live here in Fairfax County in a community with roughly 70,000 veterans.

Veterans understand what what other veterans go through and that camaraderie, they want to help these individuals.

That really was a big driving force here in Fairfax.

But like anything else, once you see it working, once you see it being effective, you want to spread it out to many other people.

We in the justice system can do better.

We know that we put more people in jail and prison than any other country in the world, and yet we're not the safest country in the world.

If you really care about community safety and you really care about helping people, then you start to look at alternatives.

Our Veterans Court docket has a lot of veteran mentors and the interactions with those veteran mentors who are just volunteers who really care about their fellow veterans is really, really important in terms of keeping up with those individuals and making sure that you're on track.

There is this misunderstanding that these types of programs are somehow soft on crime, when in reality they're smart on crime.

These programs don't exist out of the goodness of people's hearts.

They exist because they work.

They help individuals lower their recidivism rate.

It creates lower crime going forward.

I've gone to a lot of these graduations and heard their stories and just the way that these individuals talk about themselves from before they were in the program to when they are now and graduated, they are so happy with where they are at, that they're such a better version of the person that they were.

It's really inspiring.

RACHEL THORNSBERRY: I am a senior at Liberty University.

I never thought that I would be able to go to college.

I have two semesters left until I graduate.

I'll have my bachelor's in social work.

I run a ministry called Help Along the Way, we help individuals who are getting out of jail, prison, people entering the recovery community, and that's really where the best feeling of accomplishment comes from, is reaching back and bringing the next person that was behind you.

It makes me so happy to see all these different counties stepping up, providing these programs.

I couldn't be happier seeing that because everybody deserves to go through a program.

Everybody deserves that help.

ANGIE MILES: One of the challenges facing those who've been involved with the justice system is being able to find reliable employment.

Some businesses simply don't have the will to hire people who serve time.

But our Keyris Manzanares found there are those who say, “Welcome.” and provide a second chance for people to serve in a very different way.

LISA GOAD: When women come out of incarceration, we expect them to jump back into the community, get a job, find a place to live, and just be a part of the community.

But we make that really hard because there's all these barriers.

VIRGINIA ANDERSON: I had been addicted to drugs for many years and I finally went to treatment.

I have 121 days clean now and because of the drug use, I had been in jail before, which made me eligible for this program.

LISA GOAD: We started initially to serve women coming out of incarceration and help them integrate back into the community as they're trying to rebuild.

We have since expanded our umbrella, so we serve any under-resourced women.

There's lots of people who can use what we're offering that haven't necessarily been incarcerated, but the goal is just to build self-esteem and confidence.

We wanted to make it kitchen based so that our students are getting job experience in a kitchen, because that's a likely field for them to find employment.

But also, it's a really simple task and so when we have a group of women just working shoulder to shoulder in the kitchen, making bread, kneading, mixing, all those kind of things, it doesn't require a lot of concentration, but it gives us a chance to have conversations.

For the students in our program, they come to the kitchen for four weeks.

They come twice a week, and we alternate between classroom skills, we teach a ServSafe food handler class, and we also teach interview skills and help them write resumes.

And then on the opposite weeks, we're in the kitchen and we're teaching kitchen skills and then also baking bread that we sell to customers.

And so, in conjunction with that, our students meet weekly with a mentor and the mentor is basically just a friend to walk alongside them through whatever it is they're dealing with right now.

We don't train, we don't recruit professionals, they're all just volunteers from the community.

SUSAN KESSLER: I've learned from these ladies.

There are some of them come with a lot of experience and some in the kitchen and some do not.

So, it's just kind of fun to to sit back and see how much they want to know and what they want to do and I like, you know, being able to share that with them.

I think the gratification of, you know, working really hard to mix something together and then when you see this come out of the oven, the excitement on their faces, they can't believe "I made that".

LISA GOAD: We are small.

In the seven years that we've been operating, we've had just under 90 women come through the program, and we don't intend to become huge, we like being small because we get to know the people that we're serving.

VIRGINIA ANDERSON: It's been good being involved in something with some of my peers and we have done the ServSafe certification classes, which is good for getting a job, to be able to put on a resume or anything like that.

It's also just been really therapeutic to get to work with the bread and to start with raw ingredients and to end up with the final product.

LISA GOAD: When a woman comes out of incarceration, she has made a mistake and she has served a sentence, and when she gets out it is not the end of the sentence because there's stereotypes and barriers and labels, and you cannot be restored to the community if the community sees you as a felon or as a junkie.

You need the community to see you as a human being.

And so I think that to me is what restorative justice is, it's giving people an opportunity to be seen for the person that they are and not just their actions.

♪ ANGIE MILES: House of Bread started as an option for formerly incarcerated women, but has expanded to provide employment for those who've been under-resourced.

Food can become a means for healing and empowerment for immigrants as well.

Focal Points Billy Shields introduces us to people building a new life on the culinary traditions of their former homes.

(food sizzling) (metal clanging) BILLY SHIELDS: For José Galo, it's another day at the office, making pupusas for the lunchtime crowd at his Midlothian Turnpike restaurant.

The overwhelming majority of his customers are migrant workers.

(José speaking in Spanish) BILLY SHIELDS: They're made from two fried layers of cornmeal with fillings inside, a specialty from his native El Salvador.

It's a country he left when he was 17, crossing the border without papers in 1996.

(José speaking in Spanish) BILLY SHIELDS: He worked restaurant jobs in Maryland and Virginia, similar to what he does now.

He got help from an employer to become naturalized, and eight years ago, he opened his own restaurant.

(José speaking in Spanish) BILLY SHIELDS: The business is set up by and large to cater to a growing Latin American population on the South Side.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 7% of the population of Richmond was born in another country.

EDWIN GALO: So pretty much our core customer base is probably a lot of Latin, Latin people, a lot of workers, a lot of construction workers, outdoor people who work, grass, you know, all that, so.

It's a lot of Latin people.

BILLY SHIELDS: That is Galo's son, who manages the restaurant.

It's due to this increasing Latin American population that the offerings here are pretty close to what you'd see in a restaurant back home in El Salvador.

The 22-year-old Edwin Galo is proud of his father.

EDWIN GALO: Someone who comes here not knowing anything about the country, just starting fresh from zero, and having to work hard to achieve something they want in their life.

BILLY SHIELDS: The restaurant still has its first employee, Yolanda Velez-Pérez.

(Yolanda speaking in Spanish) BILLY SHIELDS: Almost a decade ago, her native Guatemala was a dangerous place for Velez-Perez.

(Yolanda speaking in Spanish) BILLY SHIELDS: Velez-Perez and her son were granted asylum by the U.S. government eight years ago, allowing them to stay here.

(Yolanda speaking in Spanish) BILLY SHIELDS: For the Galo family, Edwin says he's grateful that his father took the risk.

EDWIN GALO: I feel very appreciative of them taking that, just making that decision to come here and wanting to have a better life.

BILLY SHIELDS: Now he wants to ensure he rewards that risk.

EDWIN GALO: I work around 10, 11, 12 hours a day, just because I've seen how much my dad works.

And you know, I want to continue the essentially, like building a legacy here.

BILLY SHIELDS: It's a small business on busy Midlothian Turnpike.

If you blink, you might miss it.

But it's full of stories of people from all over the Americas who came to Virginia in search of the American dream.

For VPM News, I'm Billy Shields.

♪ ANGIE MILES: Virginia's large cities and suburbs have experienced a lot of growth over the past decade, but many of our smaller cities and towns have not fared as well.

For Martinsville, Virginia, what looks like a second chance has appeared in the form of a native son returning home to invest in his old community and in the fortunes of its people.

Roberta Oster has that story.

DERRICK ZIGLAR, JR.: So we're in the middle of uptown Martinsville, right in front of the old courthouse.

From Fayette Street up, which is everything going this way, this would've been pretty much where all your white businesses were, whereas everything from Fayette Street down would've been where your African American businesses in those neighborhoods as well.

As you're seeing in the scheme of everything here change, you're seeing more African Americans come up here for business, we're seeing more African Americans as building owners as well, and so they're starting to bring that mix within our community and closing the gap of what that separation has been.

So I came from Fayette Street.

That was like the rough area of Martinsville, and so my mom did a lot, been through a lot, and I had to grow up fast.

The unique thing is because I'm in my hometown, everybody knows that.

They've seen me go through high school and playing sports, and then go off to VMI.

Now I return home, I buy property, I sit on the boards and I'm spending time with my fraternity, investing in our community.

So right now we're on the corner of Church Street.

Right here you have the setback building, so in this space particularly, we have my office in the basement, we have an ice cream shop, Sweet Heaven, that's right there on the main floor.

And then on the third floor, there's an apartment there that I actually leverage as an Airbnb.

The other building beside it is called the Jefferson Plaza.

We have insurance agents.

We have some different like self-care type of things for women.

We have an adoption agency, we have therapists, we have mental health facilities, hairstylists, we have gyms, we have an event space.

So we have quite a few different things within our building, which is good because it brings a mix of different people uptown, which is ultimately the goal to see that growth there.

SPENCER KOGER: The second floor is basically done.

Derrick's ownership of the Jefferson is absolutely critical.

That area has become a focal point for downtown.

It's connected with everything from the Bridge Street parking lot all the way up.

Derrick's building, as well as the centralness of the other buildings beside of it, are really going to pop off between one or the other and really showcase that businesses can survive here and businesses can grow.

NATALIE HODGE: When they put the banner up, it was around the time we were opening... Derrick is the catalyst for a lot of great things that are going on in the community because he represents a young person who's come back.

And who's investing time and talent into the community.

When that happens, people start to imagine the possibilities.

DEVYN GILL: Derrick is revitalizing Martinsville because it gives the small town kid hope that they can do it, too.

There's a lot of kids that are driving past a lot of these buildings and whatnot, never even thinking about owning them.

And so now that they see him do it, they see that it's possible.

DERRICK ZIGLAR, JR.: So we're heading into Gill Fitness training.

DEVYN GILL: I'm one of the hometown kids that I was talking about.

I saw him do it and I'm like, okay, while everybody else is clapping and whatnot, which I was too, I'm like, it's not just me looking at him with adoration saying must be nice.

I'm thinking if he got it, so can I. DERRICK ZIGLAR, JR: Whats up, man?

DEVYN GILL: I told Derrick, if somebody gave me an opportunity, I was going to take it and run with it.

He was the one that gave me the opportunity so my goal every day is to prove him right in that regard.

DERRICK ZIGLAR, JR.: It's not about just me being successful and me living a life that's fulfilling for what I want to do when I'm an old man, but it is truly about helping others do the same.

And if I can enjoy that with other people that I've got to be a part of their story, then it makes life even more enjoyable.

♪ ANGIE MILES: Finally, a kind of cultural renaissance is taking shape among some of Virginia's native tribes.

Languages largely unspoken by the masses for many, many years are the subject of a resurgence by a few dedicated tribal members.

Keyris Manzanares introduces us to some of them.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Indigenous peoples have deep ties to William & Mary's campus.

The land was originally claimed by native populations, and prior to 1723, Indian boys attended residential school at the college's Wren building, and later Brafferton.

Now, in a space where Indigenous peoples were stripped of their cultural heritage, including language, this group of women has chosen William & Mary as a meaningful place to meet, to awaken what was once lost.

RAVEN “BRIGHTWATER” CUSTALOW: Unfortunately, through assimilation and the genocidal practices, both physical and paper genocide, our people in this area haven't spoken fluently in at least 200 years, I would say.

So all we have left are a few, maybe a thousand or so words, if that.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Raven “Brightwater” Custalow grew up on the Mattaponi tribe reservation in King William County.

She's committed to advocating for preserving Indigenous heritage.

RAVEN “BRIGHTWATER” CUSTALOW: I think most of us can probably say a maybe short introduction.. wingapo (hello), (welcome) nitapewak (my friends), kenah (thank you) anah (goodbye), those sort of like basic words that you would use in like everyday language.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: During meetings, Custalow, along with Diana Gates and Young Brinson who are cousins from the Cheroenhaka Nottoway Indian Tribe research words and pronunciations as they start trying to put the puzzle of Virginia's Algonquian language back together.

YOUNG BRINSON: The culture of Virginia has always been steeped in Algonquian culture, and I think that's why we've been led to it.

And so it's just cool that we are all coming together now to really lift this off the ground and get it started because we're making moves and I love it.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: The group is in the beginning stages of language revitalization.

And while they may never be fluent, they hope future generations will be.

DIANA GATES: Native children who are surrounded and enveloped in the warmth of their community and their culture, they're connected to their tribe through speaking their language.

The rates for substance abuse, suicide, they go drastically down, high school graduation rates go drastically up.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Because Virginia tribes were colonized much earlier than those out West, Gates says reviving their language can feel isolating.

DIANA GATES: We were colonized in the early 1600s.

We had a boarding school called the Brafferton, which is located here at William & Mary, and it's all of these sort of historical elements of stripping away, piece by piece, culture and language that it's really healing for us to say, well, these parts of us aren't dead.

RAVEN “BRIGHTWATER” CUSTALOW: I feel like language transcends the physical space.

It even transcends into that spiritual place.

When my time here is no longer and I join my ancestors in that spirit world, can I greet them and will they understand me?

And that's a big part of why I do what I do, is I want that connection to them and I want to be able to speak their language.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Reporting for VPM News, I'm Keyris Manzanares.

ANGIE MILES: If at first you don't succeed, or if what is valuable or worthwhile in your life or in that of your community seems to be slipping away, there may be a second act or a second chance.

We hope that this special edition of VPM News Focal Point will leave you feeling encouraged, inspired, or ready to tackle a hard challenge in a new way.

I'm Angie Miles saying thank you for watching.

Take care.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪