BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer
NORTH BRUNSWICK – Nearly half of the 100 seventh-graders present at the assembly raised their hands when asked if they know someone who is in a gang.
“Gang members hate what I do. They take lives and I’m saving lives.”
“Earl,” an inmate at Northern State Prison in Newark, wasn’t surprised at the number of Linwood Middle School students who raised their hands on May 25. He came to the school as part of the Gang Awareness & Prevention Program [GAPP] run out of the Special Investigations Division of the New Jersey Department of Corrections. The program is designed to teach students about the dangers of gang activities by presenting the real-life experiences of former gang members.
Although he could not reveal his last name, hometown or gang affiliation, Earl did chronicle step-by-step the details of his life. Currently serving a 10-year prison sentence, he said he first joined a gang at age 8, getting involved with drugs and stealing cars. He went to jail at age 13 but returned to the streets two years later, despite having a sheriff as a father and a businesswoman as a mother.
“At that age, 13, 14, 15, we have the tendency to think we know everything. … Young adults always think they’re cool and don’t want to listen to their parents,” he said.
At 16, he said he was stabbed in the stomach by a rival gang member, and required 120 stitches and 18 staples. Yet in 1995, his cousin, who was also his best friend, persuaded him to join a gang.
“And I let my girlfriend join because I thought it was cool and I thought it was sexy,” he said.
His claimed his first mission for acceptance into the gang was to shoot a rival member.
“Nobody ever told me I was going to get caught,” he said, elaborating that he was arrested at 17 and joined hardcore rapists and murderers in jail.
“My father wouldn’t bail me out; he told me to be a man and to take responsibility for my actions,” Earl continued. “My mom wanted to bail me out, but my father said no. I wish my mom would’ve listened to my father. They put the house up and got a divorce … and I was back on the streets.”
Through all of these circumstances, Earl said his first reality check came only when appearing in front of a judge for his sentencing. On his way to graduating high school, he was instead sentenced to 10 years for attempted murder with the support of only his family and not the promised support of his fellow gang members during the hearing.
“You hear a lot of, ‘They’re my family, they will be here for me.’ You think this, but in court or in jail, nobody is there,” he said.
He also left behind his pregnant girlfriend and did not get to see his daughter until after she was born.
“I held my daughter in jail in prison for the first time with 100 inmates there. … I watched her grow up behind bars. I can’t even call myself a father,” he lamented.
Earl then explained the daily life of an inmate in a 6-by-9-foot cell. Phase 1 at Northern State consists of living with a fellow gang member for three months and Phase 2 consists of living with a rival member for another three months. Gel soap is used as soap, shampoo and laundry detergent; fresh mint toothpaste “is not minty at all”; toothbrushes do not have handles to avoid ice picks being made; and thin, soft, flexible shoes are worn year-round to prevent harmful kicking or stomping.
At the end of Phase 3, the final three months at the prison, the inmates discuss with a panel what they have learned during their stay and their potential for gaining their freedom. Although Earl graduated in January of 2002, he did not heed state law that prohibits any future contact with gangs and instead found himself back on the streets after serving a seven-year sentence and eventually getting arrested again.
However, two eye-opening events changed the course of his life soon thereafter. The first occurred on Feb. 16, 2003, when his cousin was shot 10 times and died 12 hours later at the age of 23, leaving behind a grief-stricken fiance and a 2-month-old son.
“I watched him in the hospital as his body swelled up like a grapefruit. The body is not meant to hold lead,” he recalled.
He then learned that the mother of his daughter, who was 25 at the time, was shot to death by a rival gang member.
“Every time I see my daughter on the weekend, I see her mother’s face. … I blame myself because I got her into this life.”
However, gang members are not allowed to attend funerals or wakes in fear of more gang violence erupting.
“I didn’t get a chance to pay my respects and I didn’t get a chance to tell her she gave me the best gift in the world, my daughter,” he said.
As a result, these two events were fundamental in Earl participating with the GAPP Program, trying to make a difference in the lives of young kids across the state.
“The simple fact is that some of you won’t live to see 16 years old or 26 years old because of the choices that you make. When you wake up you see your own face in the mirror, so stop worrying about what everybody else thinks,” he said. “I don’t want nobody in this room to make the decisions I made. I destroyed my life. Young people, you don’t think. Everything is a game to you. You don’t know reality.”
“I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I want to go home. I miss my freedom,” he added.
The GAPP Program is sponsored by the North Brunswick Police Department and the New Jersey Department of Corrections. For more information, contact Melissa Johnson, GAPP Program Coordinator, at (609) 984-0982 or Melissa.Johnson@doc.state.nj.us.