How’re you doing out there America? and society at large? My name is Burnell Kelly, E 04304. Presently I’m housed at Pleasant V, I mean uh Pleasanton Hall (?) at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison. I’ve been incarcerated going on 36, 37 years. I was a youth offender at the time I was incarcerated for second degree murder, a crime for which I am innocent of.
I presently host a podcast with my cousin called On Uz!, and On Uz! Live. Our objective is and that is to humanize the prison experience, and give individuals a voice. We are honored and blessed to be able to collaborate and to entertain ourselves with coming on Prison Radio. I was flabbergasted by it. I’m back (?) and taken aback that there are those out there that want to hear our truths.
I been incarcerated, like I said, 36, 37 years and oftentimes that people in society doesn’t have a real glimpse as to the day and hour experiences of someone incarcerated. And no matter how hard those truths may be, often the times you know, we we tend to turn our nose up to the human experience and the pain and the trauma and the hurt that comes with individuals behind these walls and why they did some of the things that they did. And to give voice to those experiences sometimes or often times heals the wounds that individuals experience and trauma.
So that was, that’s part of my my, my goal, and was On Us, and On Us Live. Me personally, my prison experience, like I said, I was 17 years old when I got locked up. I’ve been in prison incarcerated since that time, I’m not I’m not a saint. But my objective has always been to push forward, to move forward, to grow, to learn to become a better human being and a better person.
I try to motivate individuals you know what I mean with that same train of thought, with that same energy, you mean no matter what to constantly move forward. Like I said, I’m very, very pleased with being able to do to, to grace, Prison Radio, I’m open for all communication and contact, you know, if you want to contact me, you know, I mean, getting out, eto, constant, tablet, I’m just right now, I’m just, you know what I mean, just want to just put something out there so that we can get this going, then we, I can get more into it. It’s it’s it’s a honor. And I can say that, you know.
Right now I’m sitting in my cell in the level two, prison, it’s a new non-designated programming, I want to get more into that, you know what I mean, the dynamics of it, how it came into existence, and why it’s important that society understand these specialized type programs, and what they entail for us and what they mean and the ups and downs of them. I think there’s a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to that.
I think there’s a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to the idea of what rehabilitation is, when it comes to life without inmates or vs. inmates that have life terms, vs. inmates that don’t have life terms. I think that’s a different dynamic. Are we talking about sentencing schemes, when we talk about that from California versus Louisiana versus Florida versus Utah, Colorado. I don’t think there’s a set criteria when it comes to the board as to how individuals are gauged and weighed when they go in front of the board. I think there’s a lot of ambiguity and a lot of vagueness that exists within these laws that allow individuals to not, that make individuals not want to strive to do better, and what their incentives may be to help them to get to a point where they want to do better. It’s a lot, so I’m glad that I get 3 minutes, uh, to be able to come on and to give commentary on, in a different format vs. just all the time on on us.
So with that, my name is Abdullah Burnell Kelly aka Abdullah the Blaqsheep. Leo, thank you brother. Noelle, thank you for being inspired to want to, you know, hear our voices and give us a platform to where that we can utilize our voices. With that, with that I’ll leave as I always come, you know what I mean, unexpected, humble. And thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
