Michael spent many years in the justice system. He also spent many years learning, changing, and building a new life. His story is not simple. It includes pain, loss, harm, accountability, support, and growth. It also shows what can happen when someone is given the chance to become more than their record.
“Having spent time in prison myself, I know firsthand the value that it brings when people come and invest their time in you.”
For Michael, that truth is not just an idea. It is part of his life. Today, Michael is the executive director of Defy Ventures. He helps people inside prison build business skills, prepare for reentry, and see a future for themselves. He works with people who are often judged only by their worst choices, which he understands because he has lived it, too.
Michael's Upbringing
Michael was born in the Caribbean. He spent time in Utah as a young child, then moved there full time when he was eight years old. It was a big culture shock. He lived in Rose Park, Poplar Grove, and other parts of the west side of Salt Lake City.
Inside his home, life felt stable. Outside, things were harder and he was exposed to extreme poverty. Michael was the youngest of nine children. Some of his older siblings were already involved with crime, drugs, and gangs when he was still very young. His family also had ties to bars in Salt Lake City, and he saw adult problems at an early age.
Michael also carried pain from his family story. He knew who his father was, but the real relationship did not come until much later in life.
As a young boy, Michael was angry. He remembers fighting often. He also remembers learning that violence could bring respect in the streets, even when school and the court system punished him for it.
“I was this bad, angry kid… that’s what I was told,” he said.
Entering the Justice System at a Young Age
By age 13, Michael had been arrested. Fighting got him into trouble at school. Then more trouble followed. He went through youth services, anger management classes, therapy, group homes, proctor homes, and youth corrections. He spent time at Decker Lake. At 17, while he was there, his son was born.
Six months after Michael got out, he was on his way to prison.
Right before turning 19, he went to jail on a gang related homicide case. He was sentenced to prison and served 10 years the first time.
By then, prison did not feel unknown to him. “I think I was just so used to the system at that point,” Michael said. He had seen family members go in and out of the system. He had visited people in prison before. In the world he grew up in, incarceration felt almost normal.
When Prison Started to Feel Like His Future
His first prison sentence became a turning point, but not at first in the way people might expect. Michael said that when he received nine more years after his first board hearing, something inside him changed. His son was two years old. His son had started calling another man dad. Michael felt like prison was going to be his life.
“So I bought into the system,” he said.
For years, Michael moved in and out of prison. When he was released at almost 29, he had gone from being a teenager to being an adult without learning how to live outside. He had spent his most important, formative years inside prison. Six months after he got out, he was back. Then it happened again.
Finding Work, Facing Old Cases, and Searching for a Way Forward
At one point, he moved to Las Vegas. He went back to school, got a job running shingles up and down roofs in the heat and obtained a commercial driver’s license. From there, he worked his way into inside sales. For the first time, he had a career.
That gave him something important.
“If nothing else, I know I could at least get a job,” he said.
But old cases and old ties pulled him back into the system. He later faced both state and federal charges. At one point, his federal sentencing was 24 to 28 years. But people in the community spoke up for him, including his pastor and a man who had worked with his father at the university. Michael was given a chance.
He knew it was rare. He also knew it might be his last one.
“I was 40 years old,” he said. “I’d been in the system at that time 27 years. I’d been incarcerated for about 17 years at that point.”
Michael's Turning Point: Letting Go of Shame and Choosing Growth
That is when Michael began taking programs seriously. He joined Con-Quest, which was shifting from a substance use program to a broader life rehabilitation program, completed a cooking program, ran the library, began helping lead classes, got access to therapists and started learning about the systems that had shaped his life, including the school to prison pipeline.
One therapist helped him see that while systems mattered, his choices mattered too. She helped him understand that change was possible.
“These are decisions, things that you’re buying into,” he said, “You also have the choice to change.”
Michael also joined The Real Transition, a program built around honesty and vulnerability and helped lead it. He also got involved with Toastmasters and from there, began telling his story in a new way.
“It was during there where I stopped having this shame around my story,” he said.
Life After Prison: The Barriers of a Criminal Record
After his release, Michael still faced barriers because of his record. At first, he was able to work around some of them. He worked with family. He found housing through someone willing to give him a chance. But as he tried to move forward, his record kept showing up.
He was denied housing as a cosigner for his mother. A business partnership fell apart after his record came up in process. On top of this, he had trouble getting a contractor’s license, even after he had invested time and money into learning the trade.
That denial hit him hard.
Michael later learned there was an appeal process. With support from people in the community, he was able to keep going. But he knows many people do not have that kind of support.
That is part of why he does the work he does now.
Building a New Life Through Therapy, Service, and Community
Michael found strong support through therapy. At first, he told his therapist, “I just want to stay out.” She gave him space to talk. Then she started teaching him tools he could use.
That support opened another door. Michael began working as a peer support at Slate Canyon, a juvenile secure facility. Through a partnership with Bike Utah, he helped teach young people bike mechanics. Some became certified and had a path to jobs.
From there, more organizations began asking Michael to bring his lived experience into their work. He worked with young people who were facing the adult system helping with murals, hip hop classes, peace circles, and programs inside juvenile facilities. He joined boards and got involved with NeighborWorks, West Side Leadership Institute, and helped grassroots groups learn how to build and serve their communities.
Leading Defy Ventures and Supporting Reentry
Michael also became involved with Defy Ventures as a volunteer coach. That work brought together many parts of his life: leadership, business, reentry, community, and lived experience.
When the chance came to become executive director, Michael saw it as the result of everything he had been building.
“To me, Defy just seems like everything that I’ve ever put my energy into,” he said.
Defy serves people inside prison by calling them entrepreneurs in training. That language is important. It does not reduce people to their charges, sentences, or past choices. It points to who they are becoming.
The program helps people build business ideas, receive coaching, grow their skills, and prepare for life after release. Michael wants to strengthen the program’s reentry work and build deeper relationships with the Utah Department of Corrections, community partners, coaches, and other groups that care about second chances.
Helping Young People See a Different Future
When Michael works with young people, he starts with trust. He plays basketball with them, works out with them, listens to them, and tells them that he knows what those rooms look like because he has lived in them too.
“I’ve been in those rooms,” he said. “I’ve lived in that exact room that some of them have lived in.”
That connection matters. For many young people, Michael is not just a speaker. He is proof that a different future can be real.
Why Investing in People With Criminal Records Matters
Michael sees the same thing happen through Defy’s volunteer coaching. People from the community come into prison and spend a full day listening to someone’s ideas, dreams, and plans. For a person inside, that can be powerful.
“A lot of them come from professional environments,” Michael said. “They come in and they spend their full day investing completely into you and into your ideas.”
That kind of support can change how someone sees themselves. It also changes volunteers. Michael has heard stories from both sides. He remembers a participant who once felt hopeless. After going through Defy, she won a pitch competition and became a peer facilitator. Her parents saw new life in her.
Michael has also seen volunteers open doors after seeing the talent and drive of people inside. One volunteer coach later hired a Defy participant. Another company became willing to hire people coming home.
That is what investment can do.
Why Michael loves the #1in3 campaign
Michael believes the #1in3 campaign matters for the same reason. It helps people understand that criminal records are common, reduces stigma, and shows that people with records are not one kind of person. They are parents, workers, leaders, business owners, neighbors, and people with gifts to offer.
“I think campaigns like the 1in3 campaign are very important,” he said. “It helps people realize how much more common that it is, and it helps reduce a little bit of this stigma.”
Michael still has a record. He has not finished clearing everything yet. He says his record is not an easy one to clear. But he wants to walk that path too, because if he can do it, other people may see that they can try too.
He wants more people to know there is a pathway forward.
“They don’t tell you, you’re going to plead to this felony, once you go through the steps and you exit the system, there’s a pathway,” he said. “They’re not letting people know that.”
A Second Chance Story About Leadership, Hope, and Possibility
When Michael thinks about the future, he does not limit himself. He wants to grow Defy; building partnerships and becoming the best leader he can be. He pictures sitting at tables where people may not expect to see someone with his background, and showing others what’s possible.
“I honestly don’t know that I could dream big enough,” he said.
Michael’s story does not erase the past. It does not pretend harm did not happen. It does not make change sound easy. Instead, it shows the truth that many people know firsthand: people can grow. People can take responsibility, heal, and lead.
And when communities invest in people instead of giving up on them, the future can look very different.
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This story is part of our #1in3 campaign, a project to end the stigma and raise awareness of how common it is to have a criminal record.
1 in 3 Americans has a criminal record, which is a lot more common than people think. No one expects to be involved in the justice system, but it can happen to anyone. People of all ages, backgrounds, genders, and income-levels are involved in the justice system. Their pathways vary, but the barriers of a record affect them all. Our hope is that by sharing their portraits and telling their stories, we can change the way people think about people with records and appreciate them for all they have overcome.