Do we throw people away in our prisons? Do our prisons make it impossible for inmates to recover and reenter society? These questions bothered me after I saw a disturbing photo exhibit of inmates across our country at Pacific Northwest College of Art in the Pearl last fall. The eyes of those men and women haunted me, exuding defiance, tragedy, or perhaps a less-than-human soul. Harold Cubbedge, known as “Bear,” the Executive Director of Iron Tribe and an advocate of criminal reform. Under his guidance, the recovering human souls of Iron Tribe are living solutions and are creating a first-of-its-kind humanizing community that is giving back right here in our midst.
To begin with, will you summarize some factors that led you toward a life of drugs and crime?
Dad disappeared when I was six, after my parents divorced. I started using marijuana and stealing at age twelve, unable to deal with pain and anger. In high school, my best friend died in a car accident and I added alcohol to marijuana. Through high school I continued using and stealing, but was never caught.
Was there any help for you after your friend’s death?
A Catholic priest, Father Grosso, influenced me to stop using for a while, to focus on my tennis and use it to get educated. I secured a scholarship at Lynchburg College in Virginia.
Tell me some more about your background.
My family were educators, people of faith. I was a good student, great at tennis, and a leader among my peers all along, since junior high. In college I discovered compassion for kids with no dads, as a Big Brother to some Asian-American kids. Their mother made delicious egg rolls and my dorm room became an egg-roll factory! But the college shut my business down when girls living above me complained. The funds I earned went for alcohol and cocaine. I pretended cocaine was recreational, but it was addictive—and crime along with it.
Did you recognize your addiction?
One day at college, I looked at myself in the rear view mirror and said, “Man, you are addicted!” I didn’t know I was also depressed. I just knew I couldn’t stop. After two years of college, I left to try the egg roll business in Florida. I thought changing locations would change my life. The problem was, I showed up. Two years of barely breaking even couldn’t compete with addiction, so my partner got the keys to the business. I went back to college at Florida State University.
How did you get there?
I borrowed a racquet, entered a Walk-On Tennis Tournament competing for a full scholarship, and won! I started playing tennis and using crack. It took a strong hold on me. I fell back into crime.
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