felony inc podcast

Coming from a neighborhood with basically third world conditions, Eugene Brown was trouble pretty much from the beginning. So prison time was almost preordained. Eugene has been a barber before incarceration and that trade kept him plenty busy behind bars, as everyone had to shave and be bald then. He read voraciously, but became intrigued with the game of chess as those in the yard were a fascinating group. Luckily, he was taken under the wing of a great mentor who taught him the basics of chess: There's an opening, a middle and an end. Just like with life, chess is a pattern. And you should always remember: YOU are the KING and make your moves accordingly. When you accept your kingship, you stay out of prison. That's the foundation for his club that caters to the youth in need of this lesson. And the Big Chair? It's a real thing. A landmark, 19-foot tall chair from 1926 that's close to the clubhouse, so it acts as a directional.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Meg Thibodeaux

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

Until he started "using", Kirk Charlton was a pretty good by his own account. But brushes with the law, including some Fed time landed him behind bars for over 20 years. Luckily, he began his career in prison, becoming acquainted with his gift as an artist. Only out on his own for a few months, Kirk has had to adapt to the fire hose of information and stimulation. Occasionally overwhelmed with social media, a colorful world and interaction with others, Kirk is navigating successfully but there are some exasperating days. The Art Inside Out program he developed a the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institute has helped a lot of AICs. But not in big, Ah-Ha type moments, in more gradual, therapeutic steps. Kirk got AICs into the program by bating them with art. Almost all AICs love art, as it an activity that lets them create and share. And for some, it becomes expression and a way to figure out why they are where they are. Kirk feels the big lesson with art is to teach sufficiency, an extremely valuable to AICs. Being sufficient is enough; expecting perfection and then feeling inadequate when it's not achieved leads to despair and depression for many.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Meg Thibodeaux

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

Return guest Georgia Durante has seen the stunt driver business change. More often than not, the drivers need a second job to keep alive; it's more part time and the advertising business has taken over the movie business. It takes a team that has worked together to pull of a great stunt, and Georgia hasn't been working the client side like she used to. And the current pandemic hasn't helped, when people can't get close to each other. Plus, she books a home - where Sharon Tate was murdered, incidentally - and has had cancellation after cancellation, which means refunds that are making cash flow really tough. The first portion of a movie in which she is involved now is trying to figure out how to finish it, with millions of dollars in the lurch, all Hollywood problems right now. But the pivoting point for Georgia is "The Company She Keeps", a Netflix series or feature film about her life. Started but now suspended during the lockdown. But when the production gets back on track, Georgia wants to double for the woman who doubles for her. Think about it.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Meg Thibodeaux

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

A return guest, Emily O'Brien has pivoted her Canadian business since the last show to be called ComebackSnacks.com. Her women-owned business hires ex-felons, is a social enterprise and she's working to get other businesses to change their social policies. In this particular pandemic, Emily's business is lucky in the fact they produce food so they have remained open. However, adjustments are being made, including free deliveries. Their stores are located with other grocery stores which has kept their doors open. All employees have been kept on payroll so far,. She credits her time in prison as teaching her to adapt with new and extreme situations. And house arrest made it a lot easier to deal with the current isolation and keeping busy. When she entered the prison system, Emily was privileged in the fact that she had family and resources. Once she realized how few people had any resources in the prison system and were essentially doomed, it spurred her to work for social justice. Oh, and let's not forget to mention she started her popcorn business in prison, found some amazing recipes, and started the business on the outside, growing to the enterprise it is now.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Meg Thibodeaux

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

Meg Thibodeaux and Dick Hennessy, Felony Inc hosts, talk about their incarceration experiences to let the public know rehabilitation is not really at the top of the institutions' lists. Health, both physical as well as mental, is low on the totem pole and our hosts have seen fellow inmates die for both reasons. The recent pandemic doesn't help, with visitations from family, friends and attorneys not allowed to see the inmates. And with the close quarters of the prisons and the changing of the prison personnel bringing in contact from others outside of the prison makes for a very bad situation for contagion. Connection to the outside also very limited and important to rehabilitation. Phone calls are being listened to and letters take forever to go out, be read and responded to. Video calls are great, but way too expensive for the masses in custody: Kitchen jobs pay the inmate twelve cents - yes, you read that correctly - but if you are fortunate enough to get a shop job you can get a whopping seventy cents and hour. Is this slavery? Inmates are purposely dehumanized to keep control and because society has decided this is punishment. But dehumanizing does not produce a human that will eventually be back out in society, and that's what lands so many back in the institution rather than being productive citizens.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Meg Thibodeaux

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

Selling drugs at 11 and incarcerated at 17, Lawrence Carpenter knew he was an entrepreneur, it just took some time to realize he was in the wrong business. Now with a family, he thanks them for saving HIS life, because being there for them has given him the strength to live on the bright side of the law. Deciding to start a business, he wanted something he could do now - not after four years of college - and something that didn't take a lot of investment to get started. So, cleaning offices was a natural. At first, he tried to find out about how the business was approached successfully and asked those in the business how it worked. He found people wouldn't really share much information with him, so he just had to jump in, fail, get back up and keep going to figure it out. Which he did. Lawrence has discovered the power of relationship-building, and even though his business is based on contracts, it's always that human connection that keeps the business. And the ex-felon stigma? It has hurt Lawrence once in the past, just because of the restrictions on the contract, but he has overcome that by always being dressed professionally and acting professionally. He says that when you do that, your background never becomes an issue.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Meg Thibodeaux

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

Established author and professional audio voice, Todd Brown joins the Felony Inc. family yet again. Even with all his success, Todd never forgets to appreciate where he has come from and where he is at the moment. He still gets up in the middle of the night, walks around his home and touches everything, just to remind himself of how good life is. For the first time on the show, Todd talks about his childhood, where his mother took a beating from her husband on a regular basis. He was so outraged at the man that when he was 12, he took the shotgun stored in the closed, pointed it at the man point blank and pulled the trigger. "Click" was the only sound it made, as his mother had made the man unload the gun some days before, unbeknownst to Todd. Another beating for Todd and you get the picture. Todd ran away at 16 and a bus driver who noticed he rode the bus often to avoid going home and took Todd into her home until he got out of high school and joined the Navy. Fast forward: Now with about 40 titles under his belt, Todd is a known national quantity. And his current family situation is stable; even though his present wife is his fourth wife, they are celebrating their 18th anniversary. It can happen and Todd's great attitude is proof positive.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Mark Gailey

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

Returning to the show to continue inspire ex-felons to stay on the right side of the bars, Sean Beers has an update on his world-wide enterprise. Defying all odds, Sean has evolved from ex-felon to attorney, CPA and now CEO of Portland Product Werks, an international clothing brand wholesaler. He recommends a book, "David and Goliath", by Malcolm Cladwell. These short stories about individuals who came from not-so-sumptuous backgrounds to become successful points out that sometimes overcoming tough circumstances can be an advantage and not a disadvantage. As Sean says, it may not have been the smartest thing to dig himself a big hole from which to climb out, but that's the way it happened and he dealt with it. The shock value of the LA County jail was what it took to turn him around, but it worked. So what's been happening? Sean's company is licensing Pendleton footwear and the Dovetail brand is taking off. Dovetail is a Portland manufacturer that tailors work clothes for the women who are entering the construction, engineering and electrical fields. And consumer acceptance has been tremendous.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Mark Gailey

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

A friend of occasional host Dave Dahl, Tim Jensen is a Nebraska native who grew up in a mixed, but not particularly violent neighborhood. But it did lead him to drinking, which became his addiction of choice. It didn't start out as alcoholism, but more like a right of passage. That lifestyle contributed to his father dying when Tim was 12 and his sister was caught up in drugs. Tim is philosophical about it, having seen both better and worse situations for growing up in his travels around the world as a videographer. A smart kid, Tim's humor and mouth was both good and bad for him, making him popular with adults but sometimes a terror with teachers. His intelligence and athletic ability got him into the University of Nebraska, but Tim liked to "coast" on his natural ability rather than working hard. That attitude and a head injury put him into the communications department. That got him into a news network where he was employed, and found out he had a natural camera eye and a real gift. It put him into a place where he was married, had a house and a family. But the alcohol called and Tim went through the ups and downs that put him behind bars and put him out of work in many places. However, he came to that realization he was powerless in the face of alcohol and that's when life started to turn around.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Mark Gailey

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com

A Boston native, Josh Menges moved to Salem, Oregon and enjoyed a middle class upbringing. He enjoyed it a little too much, starting as a tagger in the seventh grade. From there he got caught with pot in school, graduated to cocaine as a young adult and of course sold it to support his own habit. In and out of the institutions until his early 30's, a real friend "ratted" on him while on parole simply to get him caught and hopefully straightened out. It worked. He got into a circle of addicts who were sober and his life turned on a dime. His first real job was with Goodwill, riding a bike to work and packing clothes. But he moved on, now buying old houses, fixing them up and selling them. Also, he has found a niche buying bare land, building four-bedroom duplexes in a small college town. The model is for students who have spent their first year in a dorm (required) and are ready for unsupervised living (party time). Josh is raising his sights even more, looking to become a developer who builds his own sub divisions. Always looking up and on, no more looking backward for Josh.

Felony Inc Podcast with your hosts Dick Hennessy and Mark Gailey

We record the Felony Inc Podcast inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by Carolyn Main

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

Theme music "Free" written and recorded by Dave Dahl, all rights reserved, motherfuckers

This weeks podcast brought to you in part by soap-on-a-rope, when you don't want to drop stuff

Felony Inc Podcast supports City Central Concern at centralcityconcern.org

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

Listen to the Felony Inc Podcast live on-air every Friday at 10:00am pacific time on Startup Radio Network at startupradionetwork.com