Lets Just Talk About It Podcast with Chuck

Ep.106 Advocating for Prison Reform with Guest Christa Roseboro & Taj Mahon-Haft

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What if the emotional turmoil of incarceration didn't just end with the individual behind bars? In my latest episode, we bring you the gripping stories of Taj Mahon-Haft, a sociologist turned advocate, and Christa Roseboro, a mother navigating the heartache of having a son in prison. Taj's transformative journey from his own unexpected incarceration to co-founding the Humanization Project is nothing short of inspiring. Together with Christa, they offer a powerful perspective on the need to humanize those affected by the justice system. From dismantling stereotypes to emphasizing personal stories as catalysts for legislative change, their insights are a call to action for empathy and understanding in prison reform.

Join us as we unpack initiatives like the Calls from Home radio program, which strengthens connections between incarcerated individuals and their families. Taj passionately discusses the overlooked challenges faced by women in prison and the importance of advocating for their support. Meanwhile, Christa shares the emotional ripple effects of her son Devon's incarceration, shedding light on the broader impact on families and communities. This heartfelt exchange serves as a reminder of the importance of open dialogue and unwavering support for loved ones during their darkest moments. Prepare to be moved and motivated to recognize the personhood of incarcerated individuals in your own advocacy efforts.

chuck:

Hey, welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life's journey. So, with that being said, today on this episode, I have Taj Mahon-Haft and returning guest Christa Roseboro here to talk about the ongoing fight of prison reform. So if you know anyone who's incarcerated, this is valuable information to understand the importance of advocating for valuable human beings who are still incarcerated. As a matter of fact, do me a favor Go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and gather around to listen to this conversation with Krista and Taj on let's Just Talk About it podcast. Hey, let's jump right in. Today. I have Mr Taj Mahon-Haft on with us today and returning guest Ms Christa Roseboro on with us today just to talk about advocacy for prison reform. So thank you, guys for being a part of this episode.

Christa Roseboro:

Thanks for the invite.

chuck:

Absolutely, and thank you for having me Chuck. Absolutely, absolutely. I love to jump right in to my interviews to have those genuine conversations with genuine people like yourselves. And, as I stated before, taj, you are an advocate for prison reform. So how did you get to that place?

Taj Mahon-Haft:

I got here because I can't stand to see people suffer, and the justice system in America, and particularly in Virginia, is full of human suffering that is unnecessary.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

But it's been a long path to get there to this particular point.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

I was a sociologist.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

I am a sociologist by training and I was teaching and educating on this subject and suddenly found myself incarcerated unexpectedly, and in the end that led to the opportunity to form our organization, the Humanization Project, co-founded with my now wife, the incredible Jen Carter, while I was still inside and she was out here, and in doing so we've been really blessed to be invited to be part of the reform community in Virginia and be part of a lot of events, educational, research and legislative efforts and in the process got to know just so many incredible people who just do not fit stereotypes and assumptions when it comes to somebody with a conviction or anything like that, and so that's that's really how I came to be.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

The advocate I am today is because not only did I care about it in principle before, but so many people, some of the very best people I've ever met in my life the smartest, the most driven, the most ethical, the most moral people are people who are still in prison and 30 years ago have had a conviction for something that sounds really terrible but does not represent who they are today as a person, and I can agree with what you're talking about because me myself, I have done, you know, prison time before.

chuck:

I did seven years and eight months in the Virginia system. And you're absolutely right. There's some amazing people in the system today and if they had another chance right now you would never, ever see them again. But they just can't get out to prove who they really are. You know what I'm saying, so I understand. Yep, ms Krista, we had an interview together. You have a son who's incarcerated right now and you understand the feelings that go along with being incarcerated, because you, you know it's just like you, you there with your son, correct?

Christa Roseboro:

every day. You know Devon Hall, hopefully people remember the interview um, he is still incarcerated. He at this point is now in the single digits, at least thank god for that, and we're trying still to see what we can do to work on getting him home.

chuck:

Got you. Wow, shout out to Devon. Good guy, good guy, good guy. Taj. Talk about some of the programs that people can I know you mentioned it, but talk about what do you do in terms of those programs. How do you go about advocating the?

Taj Mahon-Haft:

ultimate answer to that question, chuck, is humanization. The thing is, if everybody knew Devon and Antoine and Mike and Kelly the way that I know, devon and Antoine and Mike and Kelly, then everybody would want justice reform the way I do, because they would see that nobody is the worst moment of their life forever. Nobody should ever be defined that way and also all of us are human beings beyond whatever that worst moment was. So it's real easy to hate the word felon or convict or murderer or rapist or robber, but those are just terms that are inherently negative. Nobody is just that big. Everybody is also a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a friend, a partner, a parent, All these other things, an artist, a writer, a scholar, whatever the case may be, a leader, a teacher, a pastor.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

And so when we focus and I say humanization because when we focus on that, and that's what we do at Advocacy we bring our voices, our human experiences, our human selves in three dimensions to the conversations, because it's closest to the problem, closest to the solution. Those of us who live the experience of being impacted by the justice system, both incarcerated ourselves, formally, and our loved ones, we understand what this is really about in human terms, about in human terms. And if we can get that to be the way we talk about this on human terms, then we'll get past all the politics and all the BS and we'll get to humane policies. And so that's what we do. We bring our voices, our experiences to every opportunity we can so that people hear that. From that perspective, Right.

chuck:

Do you see any progress or is it a struggle sometimes to get things done or get bills passed?

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Is it a struggle sometimes to get things done or get bills passed? Both, both is the answer to that. We had great moments of progress and I'm going to give a shout out to Krista and her whole entire family, essie and Devon and everybody. They showed up for an event we had in Roanoke. Well, devon didn't show up, he was there in spirit and we all shouted him out. But anyway, they showed up for an event we had at Roanoke and we spoke. We had legislators there, we had the chief of police there, we had elected officials, nonprofit leaders, all sorts of community members all there, hearing the voices of people who are impacted, our humanity and our staying connected and all of these issues. And everybody had a different way of thinking about it afterwards. And so we see progress there. We also see progress. Uh, earned sentence credit has aka good time has been expanded and finally, the final version of expansion happened this summer and virginia's prison population went down 3.7 percent in one day and is going to continue to do so.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Uh, move downwards, uh, and so we we're actually leading the nation in decarceration in virginia right now, like that's unheard of in the former capital of the confederacy so we see progress right, but it also we run headfirst into, you know, when we try to go even further and and give you know, more opportunities for people who have even longer sentences, even more severe sentences that don't represent their character. Um, we ran into people just dehumanizing, talking about people as if they were animals and talking about people as if they only existed in this worst moment of their life, and and that was done from from other leadership positions I will, uh, you know, there is I don't want to get into who said what? It's not the point here, but so there are still people in that kind of old fashioned lock them up, throw away the key. They're all terrible, racist, you know, dog whistling mindset of the 90s, whereas there's also a lot of people and I would say the majority now are starting to get this hey, we're human beings. So it's kind of a mixed bag yeah.

chuck:

So, miss Christy, you want to talk about like your part that you play. I know he mentioned it, but you know your heart and have an advocacy for people who are incarcerated being that I'm personally impacted as far as my sons which means that my family, we're all impacted.

Christa Roseboro:

we write, we advocate and I'm no ways on the level of Taj. He's amazing. I went to a program that he had, which is why I'm glad that you're having him on and I promise you, as they spoke, I watched the film. They had me in tears the whole time. I internalized that whole program. It's that powerful, that emotional.

chuck:

What was on that film that had you emotional?

Christa Roseboro:

So it spoke on, for example, and this lady she happened to be there that day as well, speaking, and she was saying that she married a gentleman that was in prison they went forth, they were doing everything to try to get him home when he was told, I guess, that he was given life, he was not coming home. She still supports him, she still advocates for him. I can't tell you her name, I'm sure Taj can, gotcha but she is full-blown going for him because she understands that, as he says, he is a person he made a mistake. Give him a chance. I saw this throughout that film film they talked to the actual prisoners where they were saying how they were waiting for visitors and all of a sudden visitors were told no, the different things going on that were.

Christa Roseboro:

That was really just painful to hear how they're actually suffering from the inside. When you think of it like todd gives it to you that they are people, not animals absolutely right.

Christa Roseboro:

When you realize that you are dealing with humans and family members, then you might think about it different. Just don't think that this is just a number. They're not numbers, they're people, and so that to me I don't give the advocacy like I should, and I promise you, when Devon comes home I'm still going to try to get more involved. That's why I decided to come from North Carolina, go to Virginia, listen to Taj's program and I'm glad I did in hope that he gets it out to everybody because it's that impactful.

chuck:

You are advocating, you know you have a son. You are doing a job.

Christa Roseboro:

You might not be on a big stage.

chuck:

but you are Correct, Taj, she is doing it.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Not only is she doing it, her voice and man, her mom spoke at that event, yeah, and her mom's voice and Devon's voice. But I will say, like, this movement doesn't happen without the voices of the mothers, people. So all I, the only thing I do, is organize some people and have some conversations with some people. It's it's her voice, it's her family's voice, it's the voices of so many families and and incredible people behind bars. That's what gives this, the movement, strength.

chuck:

Like they're that all we're doing is being a conduit yeah, those parents and so forth are there standing for their children. So how can people reach out to you, man, to get involved with what you're doing? How can they help?

Taj Mahon-Haft:

So we always need we always need more voices of people who want to speak on these issues. It doesn't have to be all the time. Just, you know, this is a particular aspect of it that I'm particularly passionate about or that I experienced my loved one. Experience, so you can reach out to us the humanization project, the humanization project on Facebook. And experience, so you can reach out to us. Uh, the humanization project, the humanization project on Facebook and Instagram. We'll always catch up with you that way or info at the humanization projectorg, um, and we will be happy to be in touch or even just email me directly. Taj T-A-J. At the humanization projectorg, we got a great team of people. We're really trying to get our voices out there.

chuck:

Right, right, I was about to ask you about your team. You know, do you have a team or you just do it by yourself, but you have a team that helps you with the workload of it. Man, it has to be a lot to do, man. You have to be in certain places and you know to push for advocacy man, we would love that uh we actually right now uh, yeah, so until december 4th we have a triple match.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Uh, somebody has been so generous and their company is matching them to match whatever we get for the next couple weeks, so that would be incredibly helpful. We operate on a shoestring budget. I drive my uh, 13 year old honda fit with 100 well over 100 000 miles all over the state with good gas mileage, trying to eat in subway because and I'm being human here because I'm a returning citizen myself we don't have any resources.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

What we have is passion and our voices and so every dollar goes a long way, but we got to get there. We got to be able to be in the room to have these conversations and bring our voices to people. So, yeah, I mean anything anybody can contribute would not only be matched the next couple of weeks, it would be greatly appreciated and helped.

chuck:

Wow, so you say you drive all over the state doing yeah, that's deep man, you got to have heart to do it. And that's the thing I always say when you are incarcerated and you come out. There's a different passion that people have. You know what I mean. They got to drive and they want to do better. We want to do better. So, yeah, that heart. So I appreciate the work that you do, man. It takes a lot.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Yeah, likewise I'll say like it's about loving somebody. Same way, Christa loves Devon and that's what drives her to be an advocate. Having spent 10 years in there, I love. I made real friends. I have people I love behind bars. I can't not fight for them.

Christa Roseboro:

Devon says that as well, that he sees himself being an advocate for people on the inside because he sees what happens, what they go through. When you heard the young man, it was two young men he had on the panel and a lady that does a shout-out program for the gentlemen that are in prison. Todd, if you want to give her information, possibly, so somebody might be able to reach out and just say hello so they can hear voices from the outside.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Yeah, so that's Teddy Weimer. She is the general manager and also does the actual DJ work for the Calls from Home radio program. That's a little community station does? It's amazing and Teddy's incredible. So it's Monday evenings. You call them from seven to nine and you leave a recording and they play it and the guys get to hear it.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

That is mostly guys, but it's a good way to send a lifeline, send a shout and or even just ask them to play something that somebody's going to hear, because dudes up in the mountains like that, most of them I mean, let's be real, most of them are not from the mountains and they're not trying to hear country music, which is what's on the radio right there, um, and it's nothing wrong with that. But you know, a taste of home, a taste of of a shout out from somebody you love and a song that you recognize matters, and so that's what that station's doing and they're just trying to create more connection and so I definitely encourage everybody to. You know somebody up in those mountains call calls from home, give a shout out and send some love.

chuck:

I like that. So what about the women in prison?

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Yeah, that's a thing. There is not actually a. There's only a couple women's prisons in Virginia, thank goodness, but they are not in that area so they can't hear that radio station. So in that case, I would just say, step up and just send love, be it on the phone, on an email, whatever it is If you have a woman that you know that is behind bars. Because I'll tell you, this is something that women don't get enough attention in this space. There is a growing portion of women behind bars and I'm just gonna be straight up guys do not do a good job of sticking with and supporting women in their lives when they're behind bars, the way that women do for the men who go away, and that is not equal and that is not right, and I'm just gonna call out our own people for that. Uh, we gotta do better that. So, if you know a woman behind bars, send her some love.

chuck:

Yeah, that's the fact In whatever form. Let her know you care, we're all human. Yeah, any last remarks that anybody wants to give Ms Krista, you want to say anything in regards to what we're talking about in terms of advocacy before we go?

Christa Roseboro:

I just want to say shout out to you, shout out, shout out to you, shout out to Taj and the other people that are also having to deal with this situation. It takes strong people and you got to really have a caring heart to even care about other people on the outside, so much less people that you don't see, don't know. Still think about them as people when you pray at night, pray for them when you go and you talk to your governors or et cetera. If you're part of that, make sure that you advocate and that you let them know that your person is a person, not a number.

Christa Roseboro:

And that's all I can say about it.

chuck:

Got you Any last things you want to say?

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Taj Thank you for having me on, chuck.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

Thank you always, Christa, for joining me and being part of this movement and for inviting me here. I just want to yeah, just give a real shout out to everybody who has ever advocated even if it's just supporting your loved one while they're locked up being part of something being considered being human. As Christa pointed out, that goes a long way and I'll tell you from my own experience had I not had a strong social support system during my incarceration, I would not have come out a better person doing all these good things. That means so much to know that somebody loves you and cares about you and is going to be there for you in some capacity, that you don't have to give a million dollars. You don't got to do what you can, just give them love, and thank you for everybody who does that, because you are making the world a better place because you can go.

Taj Mahon-Haft:

You know you could get wrapped up in all sorts of stupid stuff inside if you don't have somebody that cares about you and you don't have your head on straight. Somebody who cares about you matters more than anything. Social support yeah, 100.

chuck:

Everybody has done that yeah, and you're absolutely right. It does mean a lot to have somebody in your corner fighting for you in terms of being inside and, upon release, that that's there for you, you know, because you easily get out here and just because you're by yourself, nobody's encouraging you and go back, you know. So family is big, support is big, yep, I agree. So thank you both for being on let's just talk about it podcast. I really appreciate what both of you are doing you sticking by your son, miss Krista, that's, that's. That's major, because people give up, because it becomes too hard. But I appreciate you for just sticking by Devon. Yep, I appreciate that. And Taj, thank you so much for the work that you put in. Man, it takes a lot to do what you do, man and um, yeah, appreciate you and thank you and thank you Absolutely.

chuck:

Thank you, Taj Yep. Wow, what an amazing conversation. Shout out to Taj and Christa for having this dialogue with me. You know, having someone you love incarcerated has a trickle-down effect that affects everyone, but standing by them during their darkest moments is a part of advocating. So thank you, taj and Christa, for the challenging work that you put in, and I also want to thank everyone for always tuning in to let's Just Talk About it podcast, and if you have any media needs, such as videography or photography, you can reach out to me and my partner Lo Mills at MandB Media on Facebook. So, as always, until next time, don't hold it in, but let's just talk about it. Talk to you soon, thank you.