Voices Unchained: Giddings youth find meaning in art and wise words 

By David N. Krough, TJJD Communications —

Youth at the Giddings State School displayed their artistic talents and received some solid life lessons at the Voices Unchained event this month.

Inside the Giddings chapel, youth artwork was shown in a gallery quality display, showcasing framed original works and reflecting themes chosen by TJJD teachers and their students.

Dozens of students, teachers and staff packed the chapel for the morning program featuring guest Albert J. Yancey III, a motivational speaker who leads the Faith Beyond Incarceration Prison Ministry.

The program was repeated after lunch for the other half of the 132 youth on campus.

Youth artists started out the program with a series of songs, poetry and readings, relating their struggles about where they had come from and what they are learning while looking forward to a future in their communities.

“I want everybody to know just because we’re behind bars, we still have a life,” youth organizer D.F. said. He was part of the group that organized the event and helped select the songs and spoken word performances.

Youth O.A, another production assistant, helped set up the stage and equipment for the event.

“It’s really, really a beautiful thing that TJJD exists – it’s a second chance,” he said. “I didn’t think that it was going to be like this. I didn’t think I was going to come in here and get certificates and my GED, I thought it was just going to be jail, fights, riots, stuff like that. I was ready for it.”

Instead, O.A. said he has the opportunity to work a job on campus as well as take part in the vocational classes such as auto repair, welding and carpentry.

“I’m glad I got this chance . . .committing my crime (at an) early age, but it was really a blessing because (it) made me learn before I had to go to the big boy house and convicted for the rest of my life. It’s a good experience being here. I met a lot of good people. You know, people think that people that are here are bad people and stuff like that, but they’re really not — a lot of people with good hearts and simple mistakes that they committed.”

O.A. said the event was finally letting youth show off their hidden talents while letting others hear what it’s like being at TJJD.

“Some people have no choice of like, whether to be in the streets or not,” he said. “They were born into that life … But your voices don’t change, unchaining your voice, speaking out what you really feel, you know how it feels to be who you are, where you’re at, (we’re) just explaining things like that. (It’s) awesome.”

Featured speaker Albert Yancey was sent to prison for life at the age of 17 for murder and was released after serving 27 years. He has been speaking to audiences of juveniles and adults inside and outside of prisons for 15 years, starting before he was even released.

Yancey started out by explaining to the youth that although they were in a juvenile facility, the reason they were there was because they had made adult-level mistakes and now face the consequences of their choices.

“So doing what I do now (is) making the right choices,” he said. “That’s how I live past my regrets, because I can’t undo what was done. Nobody in this room can undo what was done. But you can make choices and decisions now that will change your life.”

He described one day after serving several years when a counselor asked what was the root of his anger leading to his actions to live a life of crime. He recalled losing his father at a young age and watching his stepfather beat his mother.

“I realized that from five years old all the way up until I was 27, that I had to walk around with this anger because my mother had (been) beat when I was a kid, and I couldn’t do nothing. And so, I developed this attitude. ‘I’m never going (to) let him hurt you,’” he said.

“When I had that epiphany in that cell that day and I said I wanted to come out different, then I began to involve myself in other activities in prison that was offered whether it was vocation, whether it was education or whether it was chaplaincy,” Yancey said. “I emerged in the chaplaincy department and then I exposed myself to the education and when I began to get educated, then it began to wash my mind of all the negative stuff that I had learned.”

Yancey said he began to turn his life around, became a Christian, obtaining his GED and two associate’s degrees, one in business and one in life sciences, while incarcerated.

“I’ve been talking to the kids ever since I was incarcerated because I went in as a youth and I succumbed to the lower levels of prison life,” he said. “And, then once I emerged, then I begin to look back and try to talk to the youngsters to tell them, ‘Hey man, you, don’t have to go to medium custody. You don’t have to go; to say you don’t have to do those things. They have vocational courses, they have the chapel department, they have this, that, and the other to become a better person.”

Yancey spoke of the loneliness of adult incarceration and that the youth at Giddings were fortunate to be able to take advantage of their counselors, teachers and staff who can listen and allow them to unburden their hearts and minds.

“It takes a man to say I’m hurting and I don’t know how to fix it,” he told them. “Talking to a mentor or staff member gets that stuff out of you because it’s only poison that’s ruining you.”

Youth also got the chance at the end to stand up and ask individual questions, to which Yancey was glad to hear some of their most personal concerns and questions.

Something Yancey said he always had learned to focus on was a meaning in life, a purpose, a reason he had for getting out and living free again. For him, that purpose at the time was his hope to see his mom again – his star, as he called it.

“Every one of you should have a star to say, ‘man, this is my hope. This is the reason why I want to get out. This is the reason why I want to go,’” he explained.

A few of the most important things to decide upon when getting back into society, Yancey said, were to avoid socializing with the old acquaintances. He also advised very strongly to physically relocate, no matter what.

Yancey stressed to the youth that every single decision they make going forward will affect their lives in significant ways, having been adjudicated and needing to avoid future incarceration as an adult.

Youth D.F. said he and his peers have helped put on several similar events at Giddings, previously for Black history Month and Hispanic Heritage Month and for that, the youth are very grateful to the staff and administrators at Giddings.

Such events he says “just bring out the laughter. We try to have a school experience because most of us haven’t gotten to see high school. We don’t get to go to proms, we don’t get to do normal teenage stuff. So, we try to bring it out in programs and Ms. (Tracey) Walker, she does everything she can.”

In addition to running his FBI Ministry, Yancey also owns a business called Ebony and Ivory Expediters, a logistics service that hauls freight from airports to different parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.

“I manage between doing something that I love, which is giving back, and my business,” he says. “Doing what I do now (is) making the right choices. That’s how I live past my regrets. because I can’t undo what was done. Nobody in this room can undo what was done. But you can make choices and decisions now that will change your life.”