Hedi Rudd
Carmella Glenn
Glenn: "Many people in prison are nonviolent offenders."
My mother and biological father separated at a very young age. There was a lot of domestic violence in my home while growing up, which I believe led my mother to self-medicate with drugs. When the crack cocaine era hit, both of them were highly addicted. It took them years to separate, I was 15. We moved down to Florida and to Northern Wisconsin. My mom was always trying to geographically relocate, but the trauma comes with you. My mom eventually went to prison for drugs in the 1990s.
I was 22 when she was sent to prison. She left me her house and her younger children, but at this point I was a pretty stone cold alcoholic. I was in my own domestic violence relationship with my child's father. I kind of spiraled. I eventually got arrested for drunk driving in my 20s.
My mom came home in 2003 and that's when my healing started. She was working with Asha Family Services, a domestic violence program that led workshops in women’s prisons. She took me to Milwaukee to meet Antonia, the founder of Asha, and I fell in love with this work. Since then I have worked for Antonia in any possible way, going inside the women's prisons and doing Sister Circles. Any time there was a gap in my life of needing employment and re-centering myself, I always reached back out to her. I've been sober now for 18 years. And since my mother came home, for the last 15 years, she has been a chaplain within the prison system.
I'm the coordinator of a program called Just Bakery, a 12-week educational and vocational training program. I have a culinary degree and a criminal justice degree. Who would have thought these two would go together? It's just been my sweet spot. I got my culinary degree first. I'm great with food and everyone always thought that’s what I should do. So I took on this program to train people in culinary and baking once they leave prison and help them get a job. But for most of the people I work with, it's not just about not getting a job. It's all the stuff that they've been through and all the stuff they are going through. I call Just Bakery a healing hub. Baking is a big piece of it, but just a piece. All the pieces got to be addressed. Every student that comes to us, I ask them for a 90-day interruption of their life. Let me interrupt everything you thought you knew for 90 days and just heal.
They all get a circle of support. We have an intensive resource specialist for every piece of their life — employment, housing, credit, taxes and schooling. During the 12 weeks we are going to teach you a skill. Once you graduate, we still reach out for the next year because the evidence shows it takes about 18 months after incarceration for someone to really reset back into the community.
My first moment when I thought, “I'm good at this and I can make this program work” was getting our contract with UW Hospital for our cookies. It was for 3,000 cookies a week, a $60,000 contract, which is a good amount of money for us. I didn't realize I had this entrepreneur brain. My business mind grew, and I developed this business to support this program to keep it free. It’s growing. We just got a grant to do hospitality restaurant training so we'll be able to train people for those managerial positions.
The biggest thing for me is educating people on who is actually in our prisons. Many people in prison are nonviolent offenders and struggle with mental health and substance use disorders. Wisconsin also loves to lock people up for crimeless revocation, sending people back to prison for violating a technical rule of probation — not a new crime. More than 95 percent of people who are going into prison are coming home and our communities aren’t prepared with treatment and community-based services for them.
I used to go with my mom to do sister circles in the women’s prison and talk about domestic violence. I could identify with the women that were telling their stories. I've been there. They're not alone. When you are in jail and you are sitting in a room full of women in a trauma class, who have been through severe domestic violence and sexual abuse, you realize “Me too.” That's why I love peer work and became a certified peer specialist. I can say, “I actually have walked in your shoes, or if not your shoes then shoes that look a lot like yours. I know that road.”
I’m a firm believer, which is I think what I love about food, that when you sit across from the table from somebody and hear their story of how they got to where they are, that's it. You are changed forever.
[Editor's note: Collaboration with other nonprofits and media organizations will be a key piece of Isthmus moving forward. As we’re all doing more with less, this is a way to share resources, help gain new audiences for our respective content and amplify diverse voices. One of our first collaborations is with Wisconsin Humanities and its storytelling project, Love Wisconsin. This story by Carmella Glenn of Madison is one of five stories in a new series by Love Wisconsin on the barriers to reentry people face after incarceration. It is produced by Dasha Kelly Hamilton and Jen Rubin. Find Glenn’s story and the full series at www.lovewi.com.]