Design Challenge — How to stay out of prison?
My uncle rejoining the world after being incarcerated for 30 years
I know it’s the last shot.
Richie tells me, as we sit on the deck of my parents house, cigarette in hand. We are engrossed in conversation as we transcribe his goals and dreams on to post-it notes and place them on a board.
I ask him some questions…
What do you want?
What motivates you?
Why is now different than before?
What do you need to do?
Why?
I have never talked to anyone like this
He states. That afternoon we spoke more than we had in all the times we previously met combined and went deep. I was a little older and approached it from a different lens. I wanted to learn.
Last time I saw him was seven years ago in my grandmothers apartment. We spoke for about 10 minutes and I assumed we would have time to learn about one another. A few weeks later my mom told me he went back to jail and that was the last I saw him, until now.
Fast forward seven years. My parents, my grandmother, my uncle, and I are having breakfast in the kitchen and I had a spark. I wanted this scene to happen again, but I was not sure how. It required giving Richie what he needed, but I did not know what what was, truth be told, I did not really know Richie. So in the spirit of all this design thinking I study and strive to do, I recognized the challenge and knew it was my uncle I had to discover. I asked Richie if he was up for an exercise and he accepted the challenge.
We went out to the deck, grabbed poster board, post-its (oh yes, post-its), and markers and went to work. We started to create a vision board.
An exercise I performed on myself and years ago with my sister, it pushes you to define your dreams, milestones, and actions you have to achieve and reach those dreams.
I learned he has dreams like everyone else: to have a relationship, kids, job, and feel secure. I learned he has unique challenges, knowledge, and skills.
Challenges: to stay away from people he knows that use and the need to establish new habits in a familiar setting.
Knowledge: the social etiquette of prisons, extensive knowledge of the New York criminal legal system (really extensive), and how to survive in prison without being part of a gang or an association.
Skills: ability to fearlessly ask anyone anything, get into almost any place, charm almost anyone to teach him something, and do more diamond push-ups than anyone I know.
I am still discovering as we continue conducting exercises, but I am excited to keep learning, and I feel he enjoys sharing.
Leave a question, a quote, a story, a message of hope, for Richie. That is one of the things he needs. To know others believe.
