In his TED talk, Kentel Weaver brings together the stories of various allies, who offered him opportunities that became substantial turning points in his reintegration journey. People often frown upon recidivism rates that remain high, with the assumption that incarcerated individuals have all the society’s resources accessible to them upon reentry, yet that’s simply a falsehood. He hopes to highlight the importance of opportunity for formerly incarcerated individuals, so that “success” for formerly incarcerated people should go beyond being attributed to pure “chance” or “luck”. Kentel Weaver is a Tufts University Civic Studies major who started his journey of higher education in MCI Concord in 2019 through the Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College degree program. He went to prison when he was 16, was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 18, and spent the next 19 years of his life in prison until he was released in November of 2022 at the age of 35. He’s been home for two years and is now finishing completing his bachelors degree in Civic Studies at Tufts. He works for the Transformational Prison Project which is grounded in Restorative Justice practices. As a full time circle keeper he goes inside DYS facilities to hold restorative justice circles with the inner city youth. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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