Prison Experience Episodes

Kimberley Brooke is 19 years clean from methamphetamine and has spent the last twelve of those years sitting across from people on the worst day of their lives. She got there the long way. Raised in Amarillo by parents she calls “hippies practicing free love,” Kimberley was molested by an uncle starting at age five and grew up inside what she calls "the land of the great pretenders" — picket fence, two dogs, upper-middle-class home, none of it close to the truth. By middle school she had decide...

David became a father at 18, finished college while working full-time, entered Nissan's executive training program, and then built a successful marketing agency serving plastic surgeons. As his success grew, so did a hard-partying lifestyle driven by cocaine and alcohol addiction, and he drifted from his faith. After suffering a severe stroke and grand mal seizure in 2015, he was put in a medically induced coma and told he likely would not survive. Experiencing a decisive spiritual turning poi...

Although Curtiss was sexually abused as a child, he did well in school and football until a humiliating pep‑rally incident in seventh grade led him to quit sports and start smoking marijuana. Drifting into fights, he landed in alternative schools and eventually dropped out. While his mother used crack and his father cooked meth for the Bandidos, he lived mostly with his grandparents while stacking up arrests and DWIs. For two decades, he cycled through probation, prison, and the SAFP program, ...

Doug experienced abuse in early childhood, and at age 12 when his father left, he spiraled into severe depression, suicidality, and repeated psychiatric hospitalizations. As a teenager, he discovered alcohol and used it to manage his symptoms while earning a master’s degree in social work and working at a suicide hotline, even as hospitalizations and heavy drinking continued. In his mid-30s, after a suicide attempt and abruptly quitting alcohol addiction, Doug was introduced to crack cocaine, ...

Chris grew up in Odessa, Texas, in a home where alcohol and drugs were part of everyday life. At 15, he altered his birth certificate to work in the oil fields. By 19, he was drilling, and by 25, he was running crews—building a successful career. Drug addiction resulted in four incarcerations, and by his last conviction he faced a potential life sentence. In prison, he began seeking faith and direction but his addiction destroyed his family. When an 86-year-old lawyer offers to take Chris’s ca...

Brandon grew up in Houston with an abusive, alcoholic father and experienced trauma from sexual abuse at ages eight and 10. By 11, he had his first sip of alcohol, and by seventeen, he was charged with organized crime and began a seven-year prison sentence—learning basic life skills like shaving from other inmates. Over time, he spent a total of fifteen years incarcerated, carrying a street mentality that followed him long after release. On parole, Brandon returned to drugs, relationships, and...

From Jason’s first drink at 17, his alcohol addiction spiraled into prison, and homelessness. He tried AA, NA, and church, but staying in recovery was tough, and a string of DUIs and prison sentences made things harder. While homeless, Jason describes walking the streets of Pensacola, covering about 20 miles in June heat until his shoes were bloody and had to be discarded upon arrival at a mental hospital, where he collapsed. This grueling walk marked a turning point, leading him to seek help a...

Scott’s last relapse ended with him withdrawing in jail, where for the first time since age 13 he made it past five days sober. Facing probation, restitution, treatment and childhood trauma, he found purpose through service work, community support, and helping others just starting their recovery. Ironically, a broken leg led him to a role supporting newcomers—work he excelled at and that launched a career dedicated to helping others heal. Today, Scott’s life is proof of what’s possible. He wen...