This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history.
It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything.
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Visit joybox.studio to get started on your personalized song today. Don't just say I love you, sing it with Joybox. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. Coming to you from the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Up next comes a story from a listener in Maine, Randy Liberty.
For most people, a prison is a place they hope never to see from the inside. For Randy, it was simply a part of childhood. But instead of turning away from that world, Randy eventually dedicated himself to changing it. Let's take a listen. I wasn't quite sure in high school what I wanted to do, and then I didn't have any negative or positive feeling about the law enforcement at the time.
When I came off active duty and I worked at the local police department, I did my interview with the police chief and the detective. And they said, Who's your dad? And I said, You know Ray Liberty? I said, Ray's my uncle. I tried to leave it there.
And he said, Yeah, we know Ray. He's a good man. I said, Who's your dad? I said, You know, Gene? That's my uncle.
And they kept it going. I said, Yeah, who's your dad? And I said, We're on liberty. And they put their pens down and said, We know Ronnie. And I said, Yeah, I know you know Ronnie, I'm Randy.
I said, I have a year and a half of college at this point. I was a military policeman or a sergeant. I said, I'm not Ronnie. And uh they gave me a chance. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. My first memories, I was probably four years old, and I remember my father coming home drunk again. He was violent. I remember grabbing my mother by the hair and hauling her into the bedroom and her screaming and throwing a plate against the wall. I remember as a four-year-old, five-year-old, ten-year-old, witnessing the domestic violence, witnessing the alcoholism, the drunkardness, and it makes you sick to your stomach as a child because you're along for the ride.
You have no. No say in what's happening in the family. You have no power. You can't prevent anything from happening. You just know that on a Friday night when they start drinking, it's not going to go well.
It's not going to go well when dad isn't around for the weekend, and you know, Sunday night when he finally comes home, it's going to go like it always goes. You know that when the landlord comes and knocks on the door, and your mother's like quiet kids, and you're pretending not to be home, it's not a good thing. you know that at the end of the month there's no food in the house. You know, our best meal was at school. You know, in the 70s when we would be in school, they would call the students up that were paying for their lunch.
They'd lay down their 75 cents and 10 cents for clerical milk, and then they'd say free hot lunch kids. They clearly identified who the poor kids were. Weighed a different color ticket, it was red. and you'd go up there and do the walk of shame and get your free ticket. You know, some people just refused to do it because they're too ashamed and they went without.
the shame that we put on these children because of the acts of their parents. Hmm. My father had gone to a local variety store, and there was a collection jar for some charity, and it was full of money. My dad grabbed it and ran. The police were chasing him.
He ran down the the railroad tracks. He stashed it and he ran home. And he told my brother, who was twelve at the time, Hey Ryan, if you go grab that, I'll split it with you. Too dangerous for you to go get it, but he'll send your son out to grab it. You know, so there's a lot of that, a lot of unemployment.
There was a lot of him womanizing and um He didn't hide it. In 1975, he came home one time drunk. For the last time, and my mother locked the door, but he ripped the door off the hinges and came in the house, and he told my mother that he had gotten a girl pregnant. And you can imagine how that went over. And so she called the police, and the local police chief, and the local state trooper, showed up, and my father was a fighter, and a fight ensued.
And that was the first time I smelled mace. And um we're Four boys and a tiny two-bedroom trailer. And they sprayed him and and he dropped on the ground and they hauled him off. And that was the last time he was at the house. Uh He was charged in the end with child support, which he didn't pay.
And so we just suffered. That was it. We suffered. My mother's pregnant at 15, at 17, at 20, and 22. There are four children in one, my brothers and I in one bedroom.
I mean, there were times when in the winter where the pipes would freeze, we wouldn't have any water for a couple of months. No shower, no drinking water, no toilet, you know, all of that. We'd go to the neighbors and borrow three or four gallons of water, you know, just to cook with, maybe, and melt snow. To flush the toilet. And up here in Maine, real cold winters, and there are times in the month we'd buy kerosene by the gallon jug just to get us through the night.
And uh times are tough. Remember that. When my brother was was 18, He joined the army, as many people do, to kind of break the cycle of poverty. And he joined the military police and went to visit him my senior year, the next year. And it was pretty cool.
He had an Army uniform on, he was driving a cruiser. I'm like, wow. You know, just three months ago, you know, you were here in high school. And so I decided to do the same thing. And when I saw the recruiter, I said to him, I want as much college money as you can give me, and I want to be a military policeman.
I very much enjoyed the Army. The structure was good for me. The positive male role modeling, you always had supervision from sergeants and staff sergeants, they were always present. I deeply respected the drill sergeants. They were professionals.
They were just the masters of their world. And um What I really liked about it too is nobody knew who your father was, nobody knew you lived in a shack. Nobody cared. Everybody starts zero. You're nothing.
I don't care if your dad's a professor or a surgeon or he's in jail. You're going to be judged on your integrity, your work ethic, your ability to work as a team member. And can you do a good job? Do you care? Are you patriotic?
You know, all of that. And so.
So I got busy doing that. I maxed the physical fitness test. I was an expert with my rifle. I was always to work early. I was always the last one there.
I was always very courteous to my superiors, my subordinates, and to the people I arrested. And I'll tell you, I you know I loved serving in the Army. When I came off active duty, You know, I decided I want to get out of the army because I wanted to be a law enforcement officer in the civilian world. and I applied for a position at the Somerset County Jail. And when I did, the sheriff asked me.
Yes, we'd be glad to hire you. You have a good background in the Army and as military policemen, but you have any questions of me? And I said, The only question I have is: is it going to be a problem that my father is currently in that jail? And he says, It's not if it's not for you. When we come back more of the story of Randy Liberty.
Here. on our American stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss, and your stories. Send us your stories, small or large, to our email, oas at ouramericanstories.com.
That's oas at ouramericanstories.com. We'd love to hear them and put them on the air. Our audience loves them too. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. Flowers fade, cards get tossed, but a personalized song? That lasts forever.
Surprise someone you love with a custom song made just for them with Joybox. Visit joybox.studio to get started on your personalized song today. Don't just say I love you, sing it with Joybox. You ever wonder how far an E V can take you on one charge?
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$1 a day premium based on 2024 average new policyholder data for accident and illness plans pets age 0 to 10. Yeah. And we continue with our American stories and the story of Randy Liberty. When we last left off, Randy had just accepted the job as a correction officer. In the very prison his own father was incarcerated.
Here's Randy. I love my father. He's my father. He just missed the duty to take care of his children, really, and he felt no obligation to do that. He was always a good time dad without the burden of the responsibility of grinding to pay for everything, knowing that your children are on food stamps and welfare and free hot lunch and.
I never had a lot of ill feelings toward him. He was. He was, you know, the funnest one in the room, charismatic, hug you, kiss you, love you. And then go out, you know? He did what he wanted in the moment.
I mean, there was one time where we didn't have any Christmas presents under the Christmas tree, and he looked across the street, and he saw there was a six-seated toboggan with a pad on it, and it's, you know, probably a $100 toboggan, fancy. And he went over and grabbed it. And it was obvious that the young girl had received that for Christmas. He grabbed it, brought it in the house, and said, Merry Christmas, kids. And the law enforcement officers pounded on the door an hour later and said, Ronnie, they saw you take the toboggan.
And he said, you got a warrant? Get the hell out of here and slam the door. And that night he was pulling us behind his truck. Through the snow, and we were riding all over town in this toboggan. Good time, dad, right?
Good time, dad. Even when he was incarcerated, and I was his officer. Um it went right over his head. It was like, good to see you, Rand. Where you and I would hunker into our cell and be so ashamed, right?
That your child is supervising you in a correctional facility. But it went over his head. I don't know. He lacked that ability to feel. Maybe you're remorseful.
In the 80s, there was very little training for corrections officers, and so literally they handed me keys and gave me a jumpsuit that didn't fit, and up the stairs I went. And not only was he in the same jail, but he was in the same unit.
So when I went into the unit, there he was. Hey Dad, how you doing? And so for three months, I would literally say, What do I do now, Dad? And he was training me as a corrections officer while he was an inmate. And as silly as that sounds, but he helped me kind of navigate how to be a civilian corrections officer.
Frankly, it was some of the best time I spent with them. You know, eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. We talked and there we hung out. You know, I think that living with a father was incarcerated or domestically violent, and then as a law enforcement officer, spending 20 years on the street being in homes where I would see people in a very disadvantaged environment, where there'd be a single parent trying to do the best they could, no money, you know, no, you know, shut the power off, maybe drug addiction, a lot of that going on. I could sympathize with the victims of that.
I could sympathize with the children. I could sympathize with a single parent trying to make ends meet. And um I felt you know some connection to those families and I think that it informed my leadership as a sergeant, as a chief, as a sheriff, as the commissioner, as the warden. In 2019, the Commissioner of Corrections here in the state of Maine asked me if I'd have interest in becoming the warden at the Maine State Prison. The Main State Prison is the inspiration for Stephen King's Shaw Shank Redemption.
That's the prison. And so it had been 40 plus years since I'd been there to visit my father. And now I was at the prison as the warden. And when I got there, I saw a lot of solitary confinement. I saw an atmosphere that was us against them.
Officers were being assaulted frequently. There was a lot of hopelessness. And it was there that I decided that, you know, we're going to fix this. But it was a challenge. There's a certain prison tradition and culture at every one of the correctional facilities I manage and throughout the nation.
The traditional us against them, a baton in my hand and a can of mace in my other hand, that's how we manage things, through violence. That's not the kind of modeling that I want to do. I want to model how to be a good man, a professional, how would I treat my children, my spouse? It's not with a baton and mace. We talk through things.
And so we began that journey, but it was difficult. You know, there's a lot of tradition, and a lot of the officers thought you're going to get people killed. When someone arrives in my system, what I try to do is I try to identify what brought them there. Is it addiction? Is it mental health?
And then we work together to try to resolve those issues.
So when they're released, we don't continue this pattern because no one wins. If they continue to come back, the taxpayers lose. The families lose. The individual loses. Everyone loses if they continue to come back.
So anything that we can do to reduce the return to custody or recidivism rate, we get busy doing that. With everything that I did had to be low cost, no cost, because I didn't want to give the governor or the legislature the ability to say, that's unfunded, you can't do it.
So I wouldn't even ask.
So when I first got there, I saw all these lawns and I said to myself, you know, why aren't we gardening? This is very therapeutic, like you would with your grandmother, to be able to put your hands in the soil to nurture and grow something. And so we tilled up the land and the land was like something you'd see on the side of the road. It was gravelly, sandy, it was just fill. And so what I did was I jumped in the dumpsters and you can imagine when you feed 4,000 meals a day, the scrapings, the peelings, all the organics that were there, they were being thrown in the dumpster and brought to the transfer station.
That cost me about $140,000 a year to pay for those tipping fees.
So I jumped in the dumpster, we removed all the organics, I brought in the main compost school, they taught our residents how to compost, and then we started composting everything and rotating it back in the soil. No cost to anyone. I then went to the local nursery, the greenhouse. And in Maine, you can't plant anything that's delicate before Memorial Day because still a threat of frost. And so any of the seedlings that are after Memorial Day that are at the greenhouse that are 12 inches tall, they're too laggy, they won't sell.
And so I went to the greenhouse and said, Do you have any post-retail seedlings that I can, you know? We can work out a deal. I can get a reduced cost. He said, You can have them all. And so he gave me 3,000 pepper plants, 4,000 tomato plants.
We planted every one of them. I brought in the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
Now they've taught more than 140 More Residents to be master gardeners. They were excited about it, they were learning about botany, and they really enjoyed it. And so the first year we had a ton of tomatoes and peppers and then we only grew from that.
Now we produce about 300,000 pounds of produce in all of my correctional facilities. There's no chemical fertilizers. There's no pesticides. It's all organic and it allows them to have an endless salad bar. 25% of the vegetables and produce that we produce in the prison goes to the food pantries on the outside.
So we're doing a lot of that kind of redemptive work that allows the individuals to redeem and be released healthier than when they arrived. And they have a refrigerator or a stove. They cook their own food. If you and I were to go there right now, they're probably baking banana bread or something. And you sit down and it's very normalized.
And I don't even have an officer in there. This is a maximum security person. There's no officer in there. An officer comes through occasionally and says, You guys need anything? Everything cool?
And then leaves. That's unheard of. I had the Liberation Institute come to me and say, Would you consider allowing us to come in the facility to do yoga instructors, certified yoga instructors? What would it cost me? They said, nothing.
Come on in.
So anything that we did. Was low cost, no cost. Didn't cost anybody anything, but greatly enhanced the environment that we were working in. In 2017 I had 87 assaults on staff and last year I had seven. I create a veterans pod.
And there are 74 veterans there, and they have that shared experience of combat, of service. And I brought in an American Legion post. I reached out to them. I said, I'm a legionnaire, retired command sergeant major. I did a tour in Iraq.
Let's talk about what you can do for your veterans that are incarcerated. They were very willing. Most of these guys were retired. They're looking for something to do, help fellow rats. In they came.
And it allowed them to be connected to the veterans on the outside. And the legionnaires come in, and there's that fellowship. As part of that, we have an America Bed Dog program, and that program allows our incarcerated veterans to train service dogs for 14 to 16 months. Creating the cleanest dogs I've ever seen. These dogs, these service dogs that are released back to the community to disabled veterans, turn lights on, get something out of the refrigerator, get your diabetic bag.
If you're having a nightmare, they'll nudge you. And it gives the veterans on the inside a chance to continue to serve on the outside. And you've been listening to Randy Liberty tell one heck of a story. He gets through the army and then discovers that he has an appetite for working in the prison, does, and gets promoted all the way up to warden at the prison that inspired the movie Shawshank Redemption. And it was there that he wanted to sort of create a new way of thinking about incarceration and about inmates.
He wanted to figure out how to lower the return rate, that is, lower the recidivism rate. And part of that had to be treating those inmates as human beings and treating them well. Gardening, cooking. You heard about all the things that they ended up doing. In 1987, there were 80 assaults in this prison.
That number reduced to almost seven. When we come back, more of the story of Randy Liberty here on Our American Stories. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history.
It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. Flowers fade, cards get tossed, but a personalized song? That lasts forever. Surprise someone you love with a custom song made just for them with Joybox.
Visit joybox.studio to get started on your personalized song today. Don't just say I love you, sing it with Joybox. You ever wonder how far an EV can take you on one charge?
Well, most people drive about 40 miles a day, which means you can do all daily stuff no problem. Go to work, grab the kids at school, get the groceries, and still have enough charge to visit your in-laws in the next county. But they don't need to know that. And the best part, you won't have to buy gas at all. The way forward is Electric.
Explore EVs that fit your life at electricforall.org. The following ad is sponsored by PetsBest Insurance Services. You knew right away he's perfect. The one for you. Those puppy dog eyes, that cute little button nose.
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$1 a day premium based on 2024 average new policyholder data for accident and illness plans pets age 0 to 10. Yeah. And we continue with our American stories and to the story of Randy Liberty, the son of an inmate who dedicated his life to reforming American prison systems. Here's Randy once again. I've got 160 individuals that are in college full-time in the prison system.
I've got 12 that are graduate students. I've got four that are PhD candidates. And the benefit of that really is: if somebody graduates from college while they're in the Maine Department of Corrections, they return to prison at a rate of 0.05%.
So they don't come back. They become good fathers, good mothers, good spouses, and they don't return and they become good citizens. The first time that we started this was maybe eight years ago. I had Colby College, it's an Ivy League school here in Maine, reached out to me. They asked me if one of the residents who was a graduate student could be an adjunct professor at the college.
via zoom. And after consideration, I granted it. And he taught three semesters. And then on a Saturday night, Governor Mills called me and said, please tell me he's not teaching at Colby. Uh The positions of Commissioner are very Fragile.
The average lifespan is about two and a half years nationally. If things go wrong, we're gone. And so I said to her, Before you make me park my bags, let me explain. He made $27,000 last year. And when he made that, he paid tuition for his nephew to go to college.
He paid $800 for his mother to get breaks so she could get her car inspected and go to work. He paid for residents that don't have any money, an indigent resident fund. He paid $1,000 to the homeless shelter. And she's like This is the stuff we're looking for. And so since then we've blown that up.
I have an individual that obtained a paralegal degree while he was in. He worked for a law firm while he was in A law firm on the outside, he did much of the illegal work. When he was released, he was a paralegal for them and still is to this day. I have one woman that's doing a 30-year bid, and she's the grants manager for a home healthcare company. She's got 20 more years to go, but she's earning $65,000 a year by doing that.
And that, you know, some of the listeners are going to say, where's the punishment? And that. What I say to them is: when I was a drug investigator, there would be times when people may do 30 burglaries before they're caught. And they owe the victims of their crimes $50,000 in total. If somebody is working in the prison making $100 a month, those victims never get their money back.
You send them each a $5 check. It's insulting. And if we care about the victims of crime, An individual making $60 a year is sending that 80-year-old widow $1,000 a month. and making her whole again. And then they have some money in their pocket when they release and they don't come back.
and the community stronger as a result of it. And we've done that 45 times with 45 individual people doing time at the Main State Prison and elsewhere. The most outrageous case that we have is we have an individual that taught himself to code. And he's now a senior software engineer. In San Francisco, From Maine Prison.
He made 160 last year. and he's able to pay all those victims off. He pays me room and board for the privilege of living in a prison.
So he relieves the tax burden on the taxpayer. He pays taxes for the state and the feds. He pays child support, mortgage, and for the victims. One of the best programs that we've been able to affiliate with is the National Prison Debate League. We have been able to form debate teams at every one of our correctional facilities, and an all-women's debate team coming from the Women's Center.
We invited MIT to come. Their debate team, or some of the sharpest minds in the US, they debated them. And to see these women who have, in many cases, not have any education. No self-esteem. Many of them are victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Some of them are missing many teeth. No self-esteem at all to study, research, practice, and debate students from MIT, and they beat them. They beat him. And they've beaten six different schools that way: MIT, Harvard, Wake Forest, and The staff were cheering the residents on like, oh, we're onto something here. We're all people, we all care about each other, we're on the same journey.
The National Prison Debate League was really groundbreaking. I have all the ones we do, Scrabble tournaments, and each one of the prisons brings a champion to one central location, and it's a big deal. Always trying to find things for them to do that's meaningful to them, that fills that time, grows them intellectually, builds their self-esteem, and really assures success when they release. I have many stories of transformation. We have a lot of people like many states.
I have 90 people doing life. You know, when you get arrested and you get a 50-year bid as a 20-year-old, you're probably not going to make it out alive. And so we have a lot of people that were very helpless, were in segregation. There was no hope, there's no opportunity. I had an individual that got a 40-year bid and was helpless, was in segregation.
And when we started to open up opportunities for him, he flourished. He was able to get an associate degree. In early childhood development, he has a bachelor's degree in early childhood development, and I just went to his graduation where he has a master's degree. and he's using that to help the youth that are incarcerated here in Maine. I've got 37 youth that are incarcerated for violent crimes.
He's able to zoom in from the main state prison. and find meaning in helping to coach and mentor them. He's able to say, I have traveled your journey. This isn't cool. Being at the main state prison is not cool.
Go to school, be respectful, get a college degree or a trade. Raise a family, be truly happy. What do you want? This drinking and drugging and this trouble is going to land you here, and you will be sincerely regretful for what you've done. And he made $72,000 last year.
He works externally for a firm. A guy doing he's probably done 27 years of his bid. he was able to purchase his own home. From the Mainstay Prison, Now he has a home in the community. He's fixing it up through contractors.
He's going to be a homeowner. a landlord renting it out to a freemaner. From the prison, right? And now he has hope. He knows that he has employment when he gets out.
He never dreamed he'd have a home. Never dreamed. He thought, I'll get out when I'm 55 years old. I won't have any money in the bank. I won't have an education.
I won't have a career. I'm going to be on welfare. I'm going to be a loser. He just felt that way. And now he has all the hope in the world.
It was just truly amazing to see that transformation. I had another gentleman that became incarcerated and doing a heavy bid. And when I first went to the prison, I met him and he had tattoos all over his face. and is a very dark man. He had no hope.
And he since has done a conversion, and he has a bachelor's degree now. He works for a nonprofit on the outside, earning a fair market wage. He goes on Zoom now with fellow employees that are free. And when they see his face covered in tattoos, It's offsetting. Knowing he's coming from the prison and he looks like that, that can be a barrier to people.
I purchased a tattoo removal piece of equipment. And he was the first one in line. When I went to the prison to see how it was working, there are two nurses, and he had his goggles on, and they're removing all of the ink on his face. And so he's going through the process, and the process is eight times. You have to have six to eight weeks in between.
So he's on a journey for a year and a half to get all these tattoos removed. But he's been significantly transformed. It's been amazing. You know, I think that if I haven't traveled the journey that I traveled. I wouldn't truly understand.
You know, regardless of where you start off in life. You don't have to stay there. In America, you can be redeemed and you can set the course for whatever you wish to do. Anything is possible through education or service in the military. If you work hard and you have good integrity and you do the right thing when no one's watching, you can be successful.
And I think my brothers and I are an example of that. And there are hundreds and hundreds of people that are incarcerated that if we give them a second chance, we give them an opportunity, they can be successful too. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Madison Derricott. And a special thanks to Randy Liberty, author of Liberty's Prison. My goodness, this should be a movie.
No, better still, it should be a TV series. Story after story. A man who, well, sort of could have easily given up hope given his childhood. Easily could have turned in the wrong direction. But in the end, as he said, regardless of where you start in life, you can do anything in America.
And my goodness, did he? And I think without that experience with his dad, I don't know that he would have done what he did. I don't know that he would have had the empathetic power to transform a prison and provide hope to those inmates and potentially a future life. The story of Randy Liberty: a hope story and a redemption story here. On our American stories.
This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org.
Flowers fade, cards get tossed, but a personalized song? That lasts forever. Surprise someone you love with a custom song made just for them with Joybox. Visit joybox.studio to get started on your personalized song today. Don't just say I love you, sing it with Joybox.
You ever wonder how far an E V can take you on one charge?
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