‘I want a better future than the one I offered myself before’
Kevin Wong, 27, has first-hand experience with the devastating effects that incarceration can have on education, job prospects, and just about every other facet of life. He’s currently in his second year at Middlesex County College, and is serving the tail end of his parole from Bayside State Prison. Kevin also volunteers at NeighborCorps by helping people coming out of local Middlesex County Correctional Facility with employment in housing.
Alex Harrison: How did you start getting involved in NeighborCorps?
Kevin Wong: I was taking a course at Middlesex [County College]called Contemporary Social Problems, and my professor required us to pick categories of social issues and how they’re linked together. Of course, I was drawn to criminal justice and disenfranchisement, and how life is difficult for people coming out of prison or even county jail. It’s always difficult coming home. Part of the assignment was to link up with NeighborCorps, find out what they’re about, and write a paper on it.
Getting involved in this has been an opportunity to help people who are less fortunate than me. I wasn’t from the most affluent neighborhood, but I’m also not from the most terrible neighborhood either. I understand that people come from a wide range of places and everyone needs help when they come home, especially people who come from more urbanized areas.
AH: Did you attend college before you were incarcerated?
KW: No. I graduated high school in 2008, but didn’t attend college after.
AH: How were you as a student?
KW: I didn’t go to a bad school and I didn’t go to a great school; I just didn’t try. All my teachers said that I was such a disappointment compared to my older brother. He was an introvert, and I was an extrovert, so I would be out and about doing whatever while he would be paying close attention to his studies.
AH: What were you doing post high school? Did your lack of effort in school affect you after you graduated?
KW: After I graduated, I was doing odd jobs. My parents kept telling me to get my life together and figure out what I wanted to do, and I would just say “I’m 18, I’ll figure it out later,” or “I’m 19, I’ll figure it out later.” Then when I was 22, I got involved in the wrong things and next thing I knew I had a case against me.
AH: What made you want to go back to school after you got out?
KW: After I got out of jail, I was working odd jobs like Shoprite. I knew that I was capable of doing more than what I was doing. I knew that I didn’t belong around certain work fields. After all these years of not trying, I decided to try. So I went back to school.
AH: What motivated you to keep going with school?
KW: My first semester, I ended up getting a 4.0. After that, I started enrolling in summer courses. The following courses, I decided to go hard and take seven courses. I just wanted to find my limit at that point. I want a better future than the one I offered myself before.
AH: What’s next for you, education-wise?
KW: I’m about to move to Vegas to attend UNLV. I have a good amount of time before I can get this expunged off my record. My ultimate goal is to go to law school. I had intended on doing computer science, but then I realized I don’t like math. I excelled in classes like constitutional law and political science. The dream is to practice criminal and immigration law.
AH: How did you find the money to pay for community college?
KW: I have financial aid, which doesn’t cover all of it. I was paying for summer classes out of pocket. You can do that at county colleges, because it’s not so expensive, but once you get to universities it gets really expensive. You have to worry about housing, food, transportation, paying for classes, and even textbooks.
AH: How do you think going to prison affects your chances of getting an education and subsequently getting back into the workforce?
KW: It affects people differently. The workforce is a huge one. Even before the conviction, when I had several accusations that were not even convictions, I had a hard time finding employment. On another instance, I am legally allowed to participate in the federal work-study program. It doesn’t matter if you’re a convicted felon; you’re still supposed to be able to qualify for the federal work-study program.
I initially applied for that because I was serving as the Vice President of a community service group at school that works with NeighborCorps. I was getting paid, but when the school got word that I was a felon, they refused to pay me. And the thing is, it wasn’t even their money — it was the federal government’s money. They said that I could volunteer, I could do whatever work I wanted to do — but I just couldn’t be getting paid. Which didn’t make any sense! It was bullshit, it was ultimately bullshit! I hadn’t ever been so slighted by Middlesex County College.
AH: Did you try to fight it?
KW: The coordinator for the program came, my professors all advocated for me and said I was a great student and was doing everything I was supposed to be doing. Then the school just put their foot down firmly and refused to pay me. So, I went to complain to HR. They were very firm and didn’t allow me to work there. I told them that they couldn’t fire me for being a convict because they had already hired me. But yeah, it’s really difficult going back to school and going back to work. Work is the most difficult part. I was a janitor for a year after I got out.
AH: How long were you locked up for?
KW: I left the country for two years. I was at Rikers for one month. Then they took me to Middlesex County Jail for three months, until I got into a fight in prison. Then I was in confinement for four months. Then I did seven months in the state jail. From there I’ve been on parole — from the day of the [2016] election until now. Parole is going to end on May 17, this year.
AH: I bet you can’t wait for it to end.
KW: Oh yeah, I can’t wait. I can’t wait to not have to call anybody if I have to leave the state, not have to worry about someone randomly popping up at my house, check my room, etc. When you have your liberty deprived of you, all you have left is your pride and a bit of your ego. When you’re locked in an area with all men, there’s so much anger and frustration flying around. It fosters violence. I’d argue that prison is overly punitive with the amount of non-violent offenders I met in there. It’s a revolving door. They go in, they get out, and keep repeating the cycle.
AH: Do universities do background checks?
KW: There’s this one private school that I’m applying to in New York. I think that my grades are good enough to get in, but there’s another portion of the application where it asks if you’ve been convicted of a felony, and asks for an explanation. But how do you ask for an explanation? You gotta be more specific than that. You want me to just put the charges there, or say why I did it? Those are really personal questions. But the school I’m currently set to go to, University of Nevada Las Vegas, didn’t ask for anything. So it definitely varies from school to school.
AH: What did being incarcerated teach you about the value of education?
KW: Jail and incarceration — if it did one thing for me — it definitely taught me a lot more discipline with reading. Beforehand, I hadn’t done much reading at all. But when you’re locked in a box for 20 hours a day, all you really have is a book.
AH: What books did you read in prison that particularly stood out to you?
KW: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and the Bible of course. That was hands down the most important book I read while incarcerated. I used to read it every day. I also read all the Game of Thrones books.
