In 2021 it’s difficult for the average person to imagine that someone born and raised in the United States does not know how to use technology or navigate public transportation, or could be overcome with anxiety at the thought of crossing the street. Now imagine being in a position where it’s frowned upon to ask for help in those situations or even ask questions because you’re expected to just KNOW. I was that person 6 years ago. 

For over a decade I lived in what I call a time capsule. I was eventually released from one of NJ’s state prisons but to an area, where I had never lived, at an age that people expected me to act in a manner that was foreign to me, and without the support needed for my survival. I couldn’t get a job because I never had a resume, I couldn’t get an apartment because I had no rental, employment, or credit history, I couldn’t do the many things that would prevent me from going back to the system designed for me to fail. I’m not the only neighbor you pass that has a similar reentry experience. 

Hiding In Plain Sight: The Neighbors You Never Hear From is an audio series that will take you on the journey of reentry through the first-hand experiences of 6 people and where they are today.

Tia Ryans is an advocate against the detrimental culminations of the criminal legal system. Her areas of passion and study surround the intersectionality between environmental, social, and criminal injustices that impact disenfranchised communities. As the Founding Executive Director of Forcing Out Recidivism Through Education (F.O.R.T.E. House), she provides a healthy and stable living environment for formerly incarcerated students transitioning from incarceration through post-secondary education.

Tia is also the Founding Chapter Leader of All of Us or None - Northern NJ, where she leads grassroots advocacy initiatives to support families directly impacted by the criminal legal system. As a first-generation college graduate, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Rutgers University- Newark. Her experiences include her work with Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. (NJ-10) to strengthen and maintain constituent relationships, collaborations with ETS for best practices surrounding justice impacted college students in the educational ecosystem, and presentations in spaces such as The AAUW about the advancements to advocacy and education for women and girls. Tia is also a speaker of the Faces of Women Imprisoned Speakers Bureau to deepen and broaden public conversation through public symposiums.

To support the continued work of NJ F.O.R.T.E House and learn more about the organization, visit: njfortehouse.org

Get involved: All of us or None-Northern NJ

 Tia's Book Recommendations

• Fourth City: Essays from Prison in America, Edited by Doran Larson (2014)
• Just Mercy, By Bryan Stevenson (2014)
• Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, By Emily Bazelon (2019)
• From Prison to Ph.D.: A Memoir of Hope, Resilience, and Second Chances, By Jason Sole
• Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, By Marie Gottschalk (2014)
• A Colony in a Nation, By Chris Hayes (2017)
• Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness, By Alisa Roth (2018)
• American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment, By Shane Bauer (2018)
• Among the Lowest of the Dead, By David Von Drehle (1995)
• Anatomy of Injustice, By Raymond Bonner (2012)
• Autobiography of an Execution, By David Dow (2010)
• Burning Down The House: The End of Juvenile Prison, By Nell Bernstein (2014)
• Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, By Brandon Garrett (2011)
• Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration, By Lauren-Brooke Eisen (2017)
• A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America
• By T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong (2018)
• Prison Rape: An American Institution?, by Michael Singer  (Author)
• Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women's Prisons
• by Robin Levi (Editor), Ayelet Waldman (Goodreads Author) (Editor)
• Dark Alliance by Gary Webb (1998)
• S Street Rising by Ruben Castaneda (2014)

This series is part of the Newark News, and Story Collaborative made possible with funding support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Victoria Foundation. The Newark News and Story Collaborative is committed to elevating community-driven storytelling to fill information gaps in local and national media. The Collaborative trains community members in storytelling, media-making, and other creative art forms to share and amplify their experiences. It’s laying the groundwork for a collaborative network that will address longstanding information inequities in Newark, New Jersey. For more information and hear local stories, you can go to newarkstories.com.