Hats Off: Inmates Raise $32,000 To Pay For Student’s Tuition
Jeff & Aimee are giving a Hats Off to a group of inmates at Soledad State Prison!
Years ago Sy Newson Green had his life changed forever. His father suffered a heart attack and needed a transplant, according to CBS. His mother had an accident and lost her eyesight, thus making Green’s life much more difficult.
Although his life had dramatically changed, a lending hand would come from an unlikely place.
Inmates at Soledad State Prison donated their entire work savings for 3 years to raise $32,000 for Green’s school tuition. With tough times at Green’s household, it became extremely difficult for his parents to pay his school tuition.
Green attended the Palma School, which is a private all-boys Catholic school in Salinas, California. He has since graduated from the Palma School and attends the San Francisco’s Academy of Art University.
Green now honors these men’s good deeds and plans to pay it forward for the next person.
The inspiration behind the good deed came from Mia Mirassou and Jim Micheletti, who founded the book-club “Exercises In Empathy.” Soledad State Prison is home to the book-club where students get a different perspective on incarcerated men.
“They go in thinking monster … and they come out thinking a man. A human being … they’ve done bad things, but there are no throwaway people here,” said Micheletti in a CBS interview.
Former inmate Jason Bryant rallied almost 800 inmates to donate their work savings for Green’s tuition. The average work pay for incarcerated men is eight cents in California, according to CBS. Inmates can earn $1 an hour working an industry job.
Through Bryant’s good deed, he earned a second chance at life. California Governor Gavin Newsom granted clemency to Bryant giving him freedom after spending 20-years behind bars.
Bryant was serving a 26-years to life sentence for a 1999 robbery that lead to a shooting death.
“I don’t know about redemption. … I can say this, I know that those of us who have truly transformed our lives are committed to adding value in any way that we possibly can,” Bryant said.
