The unPrison Project engages people in Minnesota prisons through the art of storytelling and messaging. It works to builds literacy, mentoring, and life skills to prepare for successful life after prison.
Transcript
Opening: This is Minnesota’s Legacy: A look at the organizations and people who have benefitted from Minnesota’s unique Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.
BRITT AAMODT: How did I end up here? That’s not the only, or even most important, question inmates ask themselves when they land behind bars. SFX prison door and/or music
DEBORAH JIANG-STEIN: What do I do with the pain? I'm afraid I go back to my old life. What do I do?
AAMODT: Those are the questions Deborah Jiang-Stein hears when she visits Minnesota’s incarcerated girls and women.
JIANG-STEIN: How do I break the cycle I've been caught up in? How do I find purpose? How do I look back on my past and not be ashamed for the things that happened to me or things I've done to others?
AAMODT: After a difficult childhood and a period of drug addiction, Jiang-Stein turned her life around. In 2010, she founded the unPrison Project to build literacy and life skills for female inmates. The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund helps her to mentor inmates through storytelling and writing to prepare for a successful life after release. Audio music
JIANG-STEIN: I think it's important to know what the story is, which isn't that I did this and I was sentenced for this. There's a lot more to the person than the sentence.
Closing: Minnesota’s Legacy is a production of AMPERS, with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, more at ampers dot org.