Between The Lines: The Pod' With Ivana Rojas

Curtis Cummings is serving life without parole.

He says the night that changed his life started with one wrong turn.

After leaving a club, Curtis missed his turn, ended up near a gas station, and says a confrontation escalated into a decision that changed everything.

Years later, Curtis says he is sober, grounded in his faith, working as a teacher’s assistant, helping others with their GED, and trying to become a different man.

In this full interview, Curtis opens up about gang life, fatherhood, sobriety, faith, accountability, and what he would say to his younger self before one night changed the rest of his life.

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Shawn Espinoza is serving 32 years to life.

In this episode of Between the Lines, Shawn opens up about growing up in Long Beach, feeling abandoned as a teenager, running away from home, joining a street gang, and searching for the love and validation he felt he was missing.

For years, Shawn says that validation came from the streets, gangs, drugs, and prison.

He was addicted to heroin for 25 years.

Shawn says his life began to change four years ago when he got sober in prison. After hearing his mother’s voice in his head telling him to get off drugs and focus, he started going to recovery groups, surrounded himself with people in the program, and began rebuilding his life one day at a time.

Today, Shawn is a state-certified substance abuse disorder counselor and relapse prevention specialist. He says sobriety changed everything — his mindset, his faith, his relationships, his purpose, and the way he sees freedom.

In this interview, Shawn also shares how becoming a husband and stepfather gave him a new sense of responsibility and purpose. He talks about remorse, the impact of violence on families, the loss of his own brother, and the moment he finally understood the ripple effect of his actions.

Now, Shawn says he wants to use his story to help others before they make the same mistakes. His dream is to build Redeemed Recovery, a nonprofit focused on mentoring youth, supporting recovery, and helping people find a better path.

This is a story about addiction, gang life, prison, sobriety, fatherhood, faith, redemption, and the power of a second chance.

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Raul Olvera has been incarcerated for 27 years.

In this episode of Between the Lines, Raul opens up about growing up in Watts and Compton, being raised by his grandmother, and being exposed to drugs, crime, and instability at an age when most kids are still learning how to be children.

Raul says his grandmother had him selling cocaine from a window when he was only six or seven years old. One day, the person who came to buy from him was his own mother.

As he got older, Raul says that environment shaped the path he followed. He became involved in robberies, stealing cars, and eventually a robbery that led to a life without parole sentence.

But Raul’s story does not stop there.

Even after coming to prison, Raul says he continued the same lifestyle, selling drugs inside for years. In 2017, he was stabbed 29 times in the yard. His wife was told he had been killed. When he survived, she confronted him with a question that changed the direction of his life: what was he still trying to prove?

From that point forward, Raul says he began to change.

Today, Raul is a state licensed drug and alcohol counselor. He says learning about addiction helped him understand his mother, his childhood, and the cycle he had been part of for most of his life. Now, instead of selling drugs, Raul spends his days talking to others about recovery and trying to help people change.

This is a story about childhood trauma, addiction, crime, accountability, survival, family, counseling, and the belief that even someone serving life can still become someone different.

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Anthony Knowles grew up in Pasadena, California, with talent, support, and real opportunity.

He played college football, became an All-American at Pasadena City College, went on to Troy University, earned a degree, and once dreamed of playing in the NFL. But Anthony says even while he was succeeding in sports, he was still holding onto the wrong crowd, drinking, gang life, and a mindset that eventually cost him everything.

Anthony first went to prison at 23 and served 12 years. When he came home, he says he thought he had become “a better criminal” instead of a better man. Two years later, he was convicted in a third-strike armed robbery case and sentenced to 103 years, four months to life.

In this episode of Between the Lines, Anthony opens up about growing up with an absent father, being the “black sheep” of a successful family, choosing the streets despite having a future, and the hopelessness that came with receiving a sentence of more than 100 years to life.

But Anthony’s story does not end there.

After years on level four yards, he began seeing men with life sentences come home, return to prison to teach classes, and help others believe change was possible. Through programs like UnCommon Law, ARC, Critical Insight, emotional intelligence, and the rehabilitation culture around him, Anthony says he finally began to believe there was still hope.

Now, he works as a chaplain clerk, supports other men on the yard, and says he wants his family to know his change is genuine.

This is a story about wasted potential, accountability, family heartbreak, prison, hopelessness, rehabilitation, and the possibility of redemption.

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Dion King is serving 34 years to life.

In this episode of Between the Lines, Dion opens up about growing up in Los Angeles, playing basketball, struggling with anger, spending time in juvenile hall and group homes, and eventually becoming involved in gang life.

But the most emotional part of Dion’s story centers on his son.

On Halloween night in 2016, Dion says he left his son’s birthday celebration to go to the store. His son was wearing a Batman costume. Dion told him, “I’ll be right back.”

That was the last time he saw him in person.

Dion says the decision he made that night changed everything. He was convicted of two counts of premeditated attempted murder and sentenced to 34 years to life. He says his son is now 12 years old, and he has not seen him in about eight years.

In this interview, Dion talks about anger, fatherhood, faith, prison, leaving gang life behind, learning self-control, and trying to become the man he believes God created him to be.

He also shares how basketball still gives him a feeling of freedom inside prison — and how playing on the court reminded him there is still something better ahead.

This is a story about anger, consequences, fatherhood, faith, accountability, and the long road toward becoming a different man.

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Jose Mendez was 19 years old when one decision changed everything.

He says he was carrying years of pain from his father leaving, a deep wound around betrayal, and an obsession with disrespect that he did not know how to control.

Today, Jose is serving 50 years to life.

In this full interview, he opens up about growing up in the Bay Area, joining gang life at 13, taking accountability for the life he took, forgiving his father, and trying to build a legacy connected to something good.

This is a story about anger, father wounds, accountability, forgiveness, and change.

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Edward Roy was 21 years old when he was sentenced to 63 years to life.

In this episode of Between the Lines, Edward opens up about growing up in Compton, playing football, getting pulled into the streets, and the choices that made him a familiar face in his neighborhood.

But Edward says the case he is serving time for is different.

He says he was not at the scene of the crime he was convicted for. According to Edward, he knew the people involved, but he was not there when it happened. He says his conviction was built on witness identification, with no DNA, no camera footage, no gunshot residue, no weapon, and no physical evidence tying him to the crime.

Edward is clear about one thing: he says he is wrongfully convicted, but not innocent of the lifestyle that put him in a position to be accused.

Since being incarcerated, Edward says he has worked to change his thinking, step away from gang life, take accountability for the choices he did make, and become a better father, husband, brother, and man.

One of the most emotional parts of this interview is Edward talking about losing his mother while in prison. Before she passed, she always told him to never stop fighting and to make his way home.

Now, that is the promise he is trying to keep.

This is a story about Compton, fatherhood, wrongful conviction, accountability, grief, resilience, and the fight to come home.

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Timothy Cook has been incarcerated for 35 years.

When asked about his tattoo that says, “Hell Awaits.” He says that at the time, that phrase represented the way he saw himself, his future, and the world around him.

Growing up in Ventura, Timothy says he was exposed to poverty, domestic violence, racism, street life, addiction, and trauma from an early age. By his teenage years, he was already in the streets, using violence as a way to survive, control his environment, and protect himself from fear.

In prison, that mindset continued.

Timothy says he spent 21 years in the SHU, struggled with heroin addiction for decades, and became known for drugs, violence, and power. He says he had no real plan to change — until God, sobriety, his wife, programming, and learning about trauma gave him the clarity to finally see himself differently.

Now, after decades behind bars, Timothy says he is clean, married, learning emotional intelligence, participating in programs, and trying to help others understand that change is possible.

This is a story about trauma, addiction, prison, accountability, faith, recovery, grace, and the long road toward becoming someone new.

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Born in San Diego, Brian grew up as a Navy brat and says he came from a decent home. He played baseball, played football, and had opportunities — but the pull of gang life, street culture, money, anger, and identity led him down a path that kept bringing him back to prison.

In this episode of Between the Lines, Brian opens up about his seven prison terms, his struggle with authority, the lifestyle that shaped him, and the mindset that followed him for decades.

One of the most powerful parts of this conversation is when Brian talks about “the third man” — the mask he wore to hide his emotions, avoid vulnerability, and protect himself from being truly seen.

Now, at 55, Brian says he did not start becoming a man until his 50s.

Today, he says he wants to repair his relationships with his children, return to his community, and help young people understand who they are before the streets define them.

This is a story about prison cycles, identity, fatherhood, faith, accountability, vulnerability, and becoming a different man.

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Frederick Bowden Jr. says he entered the streets at just 10 years old.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Frederick carried deep resentment toward his father. He wanted him to be a better husband, a better father, and a better example of what a man should be. Instead, Frederick says he ran to the streets, learned the wrong version of manhood, and eventually wanted to become “worse” than his father.

That pain shaped years of destructive choices.

Now, after 22 years incarcerated, Frederick looks back with a completely different understanding. Through self-help work, education, accountability, and a powerful timeline exercise, he began to see how much of his hurt came from his relationship with his father.

Before his father passed away, Frederick called him and told him he wanted to rebuild their relationship. His father agreed to stop drinking — and Frederick says he did. In one of the most emotional parts of this interview, Frederick shares how he was able to tell his father that he loved him, appreciated him, and forgave him before he passed away.

In this episode of Between the Lines, Frederick opens up about childhood trauma, growing up in the streets, prison, fatherhood, his daughter’s words, the ripple effect of his choices, and the forgiveness that changed the way he sees himself and others.

This is a story about resentment, accountability, fatherhood, healing, and the long road toward becoming a different man.

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