The California-based non-profit Prison From The Inside Out is bridging the gap between people in prison and those in the community, says the organization’s founder and executive director.
Prison From The Inside Out offers the incarcerated community a platform to share their stories, accept responsibility for their actions, as well as mentor others. Led by Porshe Taylor, FTIO’s goal is to reach the incarcerated in every state and to serve as a model nationally and internationally.
“We wanted to make sure that people who are not impacted had a source of connection to people who are currently serving and are formally incarcerated,” Taylor tells BLACK ENTERPRISE.
Born out of her experience in dealing with the challenges her husband faced when he was behind bars, Taylor wanted to build a platform that humanizes the incarcerated.
“My husband is formerly incarcerated and during his incarceration, I was angry,” Taylor reveals. “I’ve seen a lot of things happen to him as a nonviolent offender in regards to rehabilitation that I just did not agree with.”
“He wasn’t provided with the tools that he needed to learn from his mistakes, heal from his mistakes, and then come out to be a better person,” she added.
From witnessing her husband’s experience, Taylor came up with a plan to build a bridge between the incarcerated and the outside world that would offer criminal offenders an opportunity to show how they’ve changed while or since serving their time.
“I wanted to kind of share with people who are not impacted by the atrocities that happen behind bars, and also share that everybody that’s in prison is not a monster,” she says. “And, in doing so, Prison From the Inside Out was born.”
Since its inception in 2019, FTIO has expanded nationally and internationally, including Uganda, Africa. With over six government-funded programs, FTIO is offering creative outlets through its Poetry Slam Program, teaching lessons on self-control and cause and effect to inmates, as well as preventative outreach and accountability.
Taylor is the first African-American woman to create a nonprofit organization that supplies correctional institutions with innovative and rehabilitative curriculums that have been approved and funded by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) partner Innovative Programming. Her goal is to expand FTIO to correctional facilities across the country.
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