Speaker 1: 00:00 When a life is violently taken, the person most deeply impacted is typically the mother who gave it. That's why a local victim's impact group called mothers with a message. Vows to break the cycle of violence by rehabilitating offenders from the inside out. KPBS as Maya Trabelsi has the first of a two part series, Speaker 2: 00:20 it's a busy morning at mount hope cemetery in San Diego. A freshly dug grave awaits its new resident while others are being prepared for theirs. It's a familiar place to bevel and Bravo. Speaker 3: 00:33 This is where my, my son is buried. Speaker 2: 00:35 Seven years ago, her 21 year old son Heimaey Jr was stabbed and left to die as he walked out of a friend's house in city heights, Speaker 3: 00:43 my son. But I believe that day was a some sort of gang day. Speaker 2: 00:48 Her pain as raw now as it was then. And during the five years she spent in court until two men were finally convicted of Jaime's murder. Speaker 3: 00:57 And I went into court crying for the son that I have lost and I loved that courtroom crying for these young people that decided to take my son's life. Speaker 2: 01:07 She decided to use her own tragic story to effect change together with other moms of murdered sons and daughters. She formed a group called mothers with a message. Speaker 3: 01:18 It's a mother's pain. We carry our child for nine months and when that child is taken at whatever age that may be, something inside of you dies. Speaker 2: 01:30 The women took their grief into the community hoping to divert youth before more murders took place, but also after within the correctional system itself. Speaker 4: 01:41 Look how many people that you've heard because of your choice, Speaker 2: 01:44 and that is exactly where Dennis Martinez knew their message would be taken most to heart. Speaker 4: 01:50 Well, when I heard that story, when she shared that time for the first time, you could hear a pin drop and I knew that this was going on a success. Hi, I'm former world and US gate champion, Dennis Martinez. I lost everything, my titles, my sponsors, and my life to drug, but he turned her life Speaker 2: 02:10 diction fueled crime into prison ministry. Speaker 4: 02:13 I don't care if they're blasted with tattoos or whatever crime they've committed. If they're willing to change, I was willing to work with them. Speaker 2: 02:20 He now runs a faith based residential treatment center in Spring Valley for offenders entering back into society. Speaker 4: 02:27 When you go to prison, your family goes to prison, your wife goes to prison, your kids go to prison. Speaker 2: 02:32 Training Center is a state licensed facility designed to help transition men back to life on the outside. Speaker 4: 02:38 And that's my job is to get these guys prepared to come out. And so I need the right tools to accomplish this. I need the shotgun blast. And the mothers were, the message is my shotgun blast. Speaker 2: 02:48 Together Martinez and mothers with a message created a curriculum of rehabilitation, which they then brought inside the walls of California prison. Speaker 4: 02:57 Let's see. Hundreds inmates come. They would stop what they're doing and they would listen to what the moms had to say. And then they talked about, I forgave that person who killed my kid. They hear forgiveness. They hear redemption. Speaker 2: 03:14 For many offenders, it would be years, even decades in prison before they can humanize their victim. Speaker 4: 03:21 Hey, Mike sort of tied together. Speaker 2: 03:27 Matthew Konan was 19 when he entered the prison system. Speaker 4: 03:31 I shot and killed somebody. I was, uh, arrested, convicted, and sent to prison on a 20 life sentence. Speaker 2: 03:39 He served 25 years, mostly in maximum security facilities before finally earning parole. But he says it took most of that time and a long list of behavioral infractions before he would change his mentality. He says the mothers and their message finally gave him a vicarious look at his own victim's family. Right? Speaker 4: 04:00 You hear their story, you can't help but realize what you did and, and despise what you did. And it just changes your remos you're thinking. So the class price list and put myself in this position where I'm locked in this cage Speaker 2: 04:13 now as a free man, Conant also known by the rapper named Mc. I'm better than that. Joins Martinez and mothers with a message right inside the prisons and at training center testifying how he was rehabilitated from the inside before he was let out. Speaker 5: 04:32 Joining me is KPBS reporter Maya Trabelsi. Maya, welcome. Thank you so much. Maureen Bevel in Bravo. So she went into the trial for her son's murder crying for her son and came out also crying for the men who killed him. Is that the motivation behind mothers with a message of feeling of sorrow for the prisoners themselves? You Know Maureen, I think it's a sorrow for youth dying at the hands of other youth because she feels like something failed. These guys and these moms, obviously they know the value of life and of course they're still grieving for their children, but they, they do also feel sorry for these men, many of whom were in their teen years when they killed someone and have been in prison ever since. They do want them to see what they've done, but they also want these men to heal about how many mothers are part of this group. Speaker 5: 05:20 There's about 20 mothers now. Four of them are at the stage where they feel that they can speak publicly about the murders of their children and one of the moms said something really poignant in one of the sessions. She said that unlike other groups would this group, it's tragic when it grows, it means someone young has died. You spoke about the mother's trying to affect change in the hearts and minds of prisoners, but is this also perhaps a way for some mothers to vent their anger? Of course. It's a really cathartic experience for them to be able to face men who are not unlike the murderers who killed their child. And Bevel in once told me that she went in thinking that she was going to be doing something for these men to help reform them somehow. But in fact, she says that they did something for her and she recalls an experience of having dozens of men coming up to her and apologizing for her son's killer sang. They did. They didn't know what they, what they have done, they might not know for many years. And she said it was very healing to her. So not only are the moms, the faces of the victim's families for these men, but the men are the faces of their children's killers for these moms. Speaker 1: 06:29 Now, tomorrow in the second part of the series, you follow the mothers with a message into sent Nela prison. How difficult was it for you to get permission to record inside the prison? Speaker 5: 06:39 It wasn't easy. I have to say. Um, there are obviously certain channels to go through and it, and it would have been a much more difficult process in my opinion, if it wasn't for Dennis Martinez and his reputation in the state prison system. He really helped us get in there and once we did get approval from the California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation, they were extremely accommodating. And I think it's because they understand the value of classes like this and the benefits that they could have on inmates and society once they are released. Now going back to equipment, of course, this is also a television story, so we had television equipment. You can imagine how very meticulous they were about the equipment that we were bringing in. Everything had to be listed with corresponding serial numbers down to the last triple a battery. Wow. Speaker 1: 07:25 Yeah. Now in this report and us Martinez says you can hear a pin drop when the mothers are speaking to the prisoners. What did you experience during those meetings? Speaker 5: 07:35 I definitely think those inmates were extremely captivated by these moms. And these moms have a reputation on these yards. And interestingly, it was really different going from the level three yard, which is a high security PR, a yard to level four yard, which is a maximum security yard. And I asked the pio before we went in from three to four, what would I see that would be different? And he said, Oh, you'll feel it. You'll feel a difference. And he was right. I mean there was a visual difference because there is an extra perimeter inside the yard. But I did feel a difference. These men were much more willing to speak about what they had done. And one of the inmates who you'll be hearing from in part two of the story, both really freely in the classroom, when the mom mentioned that her child's murderer winked at her in the court room, he said that that was him with his victim's family. And he said that he blew a kiss to them in court and how remorseful he is and how ashamed he is at his behavior. And he says it's something that he will always regret. And this is a room full of lifers and [inaudible]. So these are, these are some very hardened criminals, Speaker 1: 08:40 lots of the prisoners hoping for parole take part in mothers with a message program. It would be to their advantage actually to show remorse for their crimes. So how sincere do you think these reactions are, Speaker 5: 08:53 Maureen? We will never how sincere they are. We'll never know if these classes have changed them, but yes, you're right. It is to their advantage to take this class and this class in particular is very popular. There's a waiting list for it. Some inmates need to be able to lower their points and eventually move to a lower security yard. So the higher your points in prison, the higher the security level you're housed in. Taking programs like mothers with a message lowers points. And we heard from Mc Matthew [inaudible], uh, who served 25 years for a second degree murder charge. It took him 15 years until he somehow changed. Uh, but it took him that long to even make a positive step. And he now speaks at training center with Dennis Martinez. And he goes inside the prisons with mothers, mothers with a message, and he speaks with the, with these inmates, hoping to divert them from, from the wrong path, the crooked path as he says, what will we hear in this extra report? Speaker 5: 09:48 Tomorrow we'll take you inside Centinela state prison while you were here from inmates who took this class. And they were so moved by these moms that they did something that is considered unheard of in a level four maximum security prison. And what they did was they put aside their racial politics and they came together to find a way to give back to new victims. And what's important here is they did it without expecting any compensation. And that's, um, that's an important point. I've been speaking with Maya too. Ballsy. Listen for the second part of mothers with a message that's tomorrow on mid day edition and see the report tonight and tomorrow on evening edition on Kpbs TV. Maya, thank you. Thank you so much, Maureen. Speaker 6: 10:38 Okay.
At 1:30 in the morning in May of 2012, Bevelynn Bravo was woken by a knock on the door. Two detectives had come to tell her that her son was dead. Her 21-year-old son, Jaime Bravo Jr., was stabbed and left to die as he walked out of friend’s house in City Heights.
“So I asked the detectives to take me to the scene where I had been many times before with other families. Now I was about to be at mine,” she said.
As a volunteer first responder for the San Diego Compassion Project since 2010, Bravo had become accustomed to dealing with tragedy at a crime scene. She offered emotional and administrative support to the families of homicide victims, never expecting to one day be stricken by the same grief she helped ease in others.
“(The killers) didn't know my son, but I believe that day was some sort of gang day,” said Bravo. “I really don't like highlighting them because I feel that they get honor for that.”
She spent 5 years in court until two men were finally convicted of Jaime’s murder.
“I went into court crying for the son that I had lost, and I left crying for these young people that decided to take my son's life.”
Just as she had helped grieving mothers before becoming one herself, Bravo used her own tragic story to effect change. Together with other moms of murdered sons and daughters, she formed a group called Mothers with a Message.
“It's a mother's pain. We carry our child for nine months and when that child is taken at whatever age that may be, something inside of you dies,” said Bravo.
The women took their grief into the community, hoping to divert youth before more murders took place. But they alway wanted to reach out to men who had already gone down that path - and ended up in the correctional system. And that is where Dennis Martinez knew their message would be taken most to heart.
Skateboards and salvation
“When I heard that story, when she shared that time for the first time, you could hear a pin drop and I knew that this was going to be a success,” said Dennis Martinez.
Martinez is a former skateboard champion, winning the 1977 World Freestyle, and 1978 U.S. skateboard championship titles. But by the time he was 18-years-old, he was in the grip of drug addiction that was leading him to crime to support his dependency.
“I had to rob to get the money to get the dope, to get the needle, to get the hotel room, to get the girl. I was stuck,” said Martinez.
It wasn’t until his best friend was sentenced to serve 678-years in prison, that Martinez knew his life had to change. “So if he was my crime partner at that time, he got 678 years, just imagine what I deserve,” said Martinez.
Martinez owns and operates Training Center San Diego. It’s a state-licensed and certified faith-based drug and alcohol residential treatment facility that is designed to transition offenders back to life on the outside. The center offers counselling services, housing, and workshops for rehabilitation and diversion. Martinez is no stranger to working inside state prisons.
“I don't care if they're blasted with tattoos or whatever crime they've committed, if they're willing to change, I’m willing to work with them,” he said.
Together, Dennis and Mothers with a Message created a curriculum of rehabilitation which they then brought inside the walls of California state prisons.
“They were scared when they heard that we were going to come in because it was going to make them face the reality of what they had done,” Bravo said of working with offenders. “We’re that face or that face of the victim and they have to see it and they have to hear it.”
His faith in the power of the mothers is profound.
“You can never go back in time and change what took place, but you sure darn can change this moment right now and move forward to make sure that it never happens again,” Martinez said. “I need the right tools to accomplish this. I need the shotgun blast and the Mothers with a Message is my shotgun blast.”
A crooked path
“I shot and killed somebody. I was arrested, convicted, and sent to prison on a 20 to life sentence,” said Matthew Conant, who entered the prison system when he was 19-years-old.
He served 25 years, mostly in level 4, maximum security prisons across the state of California. He says it took him 15 years and a long list of behavioral infractions before he would change his mentality, never expecting to be released.
“It was hell on earth. It was the most violence I've ever seen and participated in,” Conant said. “I had lived like I was going to die in prison.”
Conant said the mothers, and their message, helped him change the cycle of violence he had become accustomed to before and inside prison.
“If you're any bit of a human being or have any humanity left in you, when you hear their story, you can't help but realize what you did and, and despise what you did,” said Conant “So, the class is priceless. The women are brave women to come in there, into the lion's den, to the same people that did harm to their families.”
Conant is now a free man. He’s known by the rapper name, ‘EMCY,’ and joins Martinez at the Training Center and inside the prisons. He uses original rap music, like his song, ‘Crooked Path,’ and personal testimony to help offenders reconstruct their perspective on their committed crimes.
For many offenders it takes years, even decades in prison, before they can humanize their victim. Martinez says through the Mothers with a Message workshop, the inmates hear redemption and forgiveness.
“And a lot of them break down because a lot of them want to get to their victims’ families and say they're so sorry for what they've done, but they don't know how to say it. And so they get there and they hear this and they break down. The hardest of the hardest criminals crying,” Martinez said.
Inside Centinela State Prison
Just as they do every Monday morning, in the early morning of March 11th, Martinez and Mothers with a Message rode a convoy of vehicles to Centinela State Prison, located in Imperial County. It is a level 3 (high) and level 4 (maximum) security prison, housing high-risk offenders serving longer sentences. Today’s group includes four moms - Bevelynn Bravo, Lisa Ortiz, Alejandra Sambrano, and Elizabeth Munoz. Together, they teach a 16-week worksop that helps inmates take responsibility for their crimes, in turn preparing them for the potential to face their victims’ families in parole hearings.
“They don't really know what happens to their victims’ family because after they get sent to prison, they just start doing their time and they don't see that person. They don't see that family,” Bravo said. “And so when we come in, they get to see that. They get to really experience, ‘Look at what you did’.”
In B-yard, it’s a sea of blue and green uniforms as each inmate is carefully patted down by one of several guards. Inmates then drop their IDs into a box before taking their seats in a small classroom at the end of the hall. Some of these men have been incarcerated since they were teenagers, and some may never be eligible for parole. But they have all come to listen, and even to say sorry.
“I'm sorry? ‘Sorry’ doesn't cover it. ‘Sorry’ to a lot of people is a word and it doesn't cover the pain. How do you…how do you give a mom her child back? You can’t. How do you give the children their dad back? You can’t,” said Jason Hernandez, an inmate serving an 84 years-to-life sentence. “At my trial, I had the audacity to come in and blow a kiss at the family. My behavior was shameful. That's not how a man should act. That's not how a human being should act. Human beings deserve dignity.”
Another inmate who talked about the class is Antonio Cruz.
“I love this class. I live to understand those mothers that have lost their kids to gang violence. I know I owe them more than an apology. I owe them my life,” said Cruz, who is 38-years-old and has already served 22 years on a murder conviction. “What was to me a gang member, was the son to his mother, was a father, was the uncle, was a role model to his sisters or brother.”
“It took me like two days to get over just her message, her story, just feeling her staring at me. I felt it, it hurt,” said Gabriel Bonilla, an inmate who said hearing from the mothers spurred him, and others, to action. “And then that's when we came together and we said, what can we do? What can we give back?”
“So we all just came together and came up with the idea that we should do something with art,” said Ellis Dillon, a 28-year-old inmate serving time for robbery.''
Art from behind the walls
The inmates got organized, and delegated tasks to create an event on the outside of the prison that would benefit families of homicide. They crossed racial lines, recruiting artists to create and donate artwork created from what they had available to them - pen, pencil, watercolor, and pastels.
One of the inmates, Michael Moore, asked his wife to help organize an auction of “Art From Behind the Walls.”
“And next thing you know, black, white, brown, it didn't even matter what ratio, they were coming together for a good cause,’ said Martinez, who helped coordinate the auction inside a donated space at Alpha House in San Diego. “And some of the guys that couldn't draw would pay the artists to draw a picture for them because they just wanted to participate in this,” Martinez said.
Conant, who performed his original rap music at the event said the cooperation between different races is generally unheard of in a maximum security prison. “On a level four where there's the most politics, the most violence in prison, to have these guys from different gangs, different races come together for a cause...and to not be compensated for it.”
Martinez said the emotions can run deep in this kind of project.
“And if that’s even the first time somebody in the prison had done something good, that feeling that they get…they’re going to start chasing that and the next thing you know that life is changed,” he said. “They are going to get out of prison and they’re going to go home and they’re going to become a productive member of society. That’s how that ripple effect works.”
All the pieces were sold with proceeds donated to the families of new victims to help pay for headstones, burial clothes, or mortuary costs. A small token to ease the life sentence still being served by those left behind.
Bevelynn Bravo still responds to homicides across San Diego County for UPAC - Alliance For Community Empowerment. For her, Mothers with a Message has transcended its original purpose of changing the hearts and minds of murderers.
“I thought I was going there to see what I could give them, but they actually did something for me because my heart was in a lot of pain, and they offered me a little bit of a peace,” she said. “And it just heals your heart.”
