Are you tired of seeing the revolving door of incarceration in our communities? Want to make a change and reduce the high costs of corrections? Then, join us as Victor Vincent, founder of the Reentry Expert organization, shares his insights on breaking the cycle of re-incarceration.

In this candid conversation, Victor highlights the importance of providing economic opportunities for ex-convicts and exposing young individuals to the consequences of illegal activities. He also addresses the influence of outside forces on crime within African American communities and the need for open discussions around these taboo subjects. You will be inspired!

About Our Guest

Victor M. Vincent Jr. is a man of determination and resilience. He has experienced the highs and lows of life, from being an ex-offender to becoming the President of the Student Government Association at Guilford College. This remarkable journey has shaped him into who he is today - The ReEntry Expert.

Since his release from prison in 1994, Victor has been on a mission to turn his life around. He obtained his GED and pursued higher education, earning a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice from Guilford College. Along with his education, Victor worked hard to obtain various certifications, including a forklift and a class A CDL endorsement.

His hard work did not go unnoticed as he became employed as a Sales Rep for some of the biggest brands in the world. Victor has worked full-time for the City of Greensboro for over 16 years.

But that's not all - Victor is also the founder and President of Victor M. Vincent, Jr. The ReEntry Expert, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping others looking to turn their lives around like he did. His passion for reentry work is evident in everything he does, and his empathetic nature makes him stand out as someone who truly cares about making a positive impact in people's lives.

With his friendly demeanor and informative approach, Victor continues to inspire and guide individuals through their personal transformation journey. From inmate to President to The ReEntry Expert - Victor M. Vincent Jr.'s story is filled with determination, perseverance, and hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Connect with Victor

Visit his website

Email: thereentryexpert@gmail.com

Facebook: The ReEntry Expert

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Additional Links & Resources

• Gate City 180 by Dana Daughtry
• CanTag Solutions - Will Dungee

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Intro/Outro: You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk

money with your money nerd and financial coach.

Now tighten those purse strings and open those ears.

It's the money talk with Tiff. podcast.

Hey, everyone. I am so excited because I

have Victor Vincent on the line. Now, Victor is

part of my local community, and he does amazing

work. We've known each other for quite some time,

and I wanted to get him on just so he can talk about what

he does and maybe spark somebody else's

interest in it. So, hey, Victor, how are you?

I'm, great. How are you?

I'm doing fantastic. Thank you for being

up with me this morning. So what I wanted to

bring you on about was your organization

called the reentry expert. So if you can give

us a little bit about what the reentry expert

is and then kind of how you got started.

Okay. The reentry expert,

Victor Michael Vincent, Jr. The reentry expert

incorporated is a

nonprofit geared to helping men

and women who faced incarceration, who

have judicial experience achieve

success. and we do this by

sitting down with clients and figuring out what they

love to do and setting them on career

paths according to what they love to

do. I have this old philosophy that

God gave every man a talent, every woman

a talent. Let's figure out what those talents

are, and let's get you earning

income based on that particular

talent. being somebody who's formally

incarcerated, I understand the

makeup of that prison system, and I feel

like it's my job to keep people of

color, black and brown, people out of

prison, to have that monster turn

on itself. And when it starts feeding on

itself, because it's fed on us for so long,

eventually, when it starts feeding on itself, it

will destroy itself, and we will create a new kind

of system on how we deal with people in

poverty, how we deal with people who break

law, and how we deal with crime. for some

reason, that system is based on, attacking

people from poverty. But we know white collar

crime goes on all day long, and most of the time,

it's not even addressed.

You just said a whole

this. You speak in my language, so let's

dive into that a little bit. because I know

I made a post on Facebook not too long ago where I talked

about white collar crime and how

it's the least prosecuted, but it causes the most damage

to people. And when you gave

that, I said, oh,

like, the monster needs to start feeding on

itself. Then they'll have to find a different

population to then target, so that

way they can keep making the money, because it's all

about money. Let's be clear.

Go ahead.

And when you look at it, the US makes up for

5% of the world's population, but we

have 25% of the world's prisoners.

When you talk about that criminal justice

system, the state government spent $55

billion on corrections in the year

2020 alone. there were more than

102,000,000 people in prison. In 2020,

the US spent $80.70

billion for prisons,

plus another 3.9 billion

on private prisons in jails.

And a lot of times, when I look at those numbers and I look at

those statistics, being somebody who's not

necessarily a numbers person, but knowing where

the gaps are in our community when it comes to dealing with

our elderly and them getting their medications,

and also dealing with our children in school, not

having school supplies and books, and if you

look at that number, man, we're talking about

$80 billion and it's

83 billion. and how we could

use that to better serve our

communities.

Absolutely. I am so with you on that. That

is a lot of money. Victor.

About that criminal justice system is

because we've been kind of

conditioned. They flood us with

horrible, violent stories on the

news. So we don't even think about the money we

spend with the criminal justice system. When you look at

every other system in America, we

look at the money the school system spends, what

the superintendent makes, what the schools

get. When we even look at the military, we look at

how much we spend in the military and how much we fund

stuff through the military. But you never see a

story on the news about how much we spend in

the division of corrections in that judicial system,

because it's unregulated, it's

unmonitored, and it's a monster that

just eats up everything in its way.

By driving itself, by putting

fear and

separation within ethnic

groups, within our communities.

We fear each other so much that we're willing to

constantly throw money into that system because there's a fear

that my neighbor may hurt me, this dude

down the street may hurt me. So let this

beast just run.

I'm like, mic drop after that.

No, but that's real. And as

someone that does have ties to the criminal

justice system and also just the

judicial system in general, it's

a mess. It really is a mess.

And with all of that being

said, where do you feel we should

start? I know this is a huge issue,

and we can't solve it

overnight, but just from your perspective,

where does this, fixing or healing of

the system begin?

Okay, let me say this. First of all,

people of color have to recognize that

there were four devastating periods when

it comes to people of color, African Americans, and blacks in

this country. And those four major

areas of destruction were slavery,

Jim Crow, mass

incarceration, and community

chemical infiltration. Now, we

would look at all four of those things. People

of color don't link those four things together. Usually, the

only thing we can see is slavery and Jim Crow.

We have this taboo that believes that

people break law because they choose

to, because there's something wrong with them.

and they are lazy. And when you think like

that, you're really not addressing or you

can't see the bottom root of the

issue. It's, like a friend of mine, Dana daughtry,

says, you're trying to treat a gunshot wound with a

bandaid. those four things

are the reason why we're in the state we're in. And

when you look at that drug trade or you look at the violence

that goes on in our communities, black people aren't

responsible or manufacturers or

creators of any of these devices that

come into our neighborhood. We don't grow

opium. We don't manufacture cocaine and

grow cocaine. all these things that have been put in

our communities, we aren't responsible

for even inventing these things.

However, when you look at opportunity,

always tell people, I don't like the word job

anymore. I like using the word

opportunity. And when you look at people from

the inner city, usually the closest

opportunity for them coming into

their teens, into their young adulthood is

crime, because most of the jobs that

we want are outside of our

communities. And then you would have to look at the

1968 rise, and that would tell you that

when, you had this disruption, major

cities, people fled the inner cities,

and they took the manufacturing plants with them and put

them out in the counties. So when you go into a black

inner city, in most inner cities, you go into

black communities. There are no jobs there. They have to

catch the bus or drive to a job, which

is an opportunity. So, if we could bring

back those opportunities to our community

and engage our, young folk with opportunity,

they're less likely to commit crime.

So you would need a three pronged approach to deal

with the violence and the crime in America. And

one of them would be getting into the communities,

figuring out what the people in the communities really want. Like, yo,

what do you want? Or what do you need to make you happy and

successful? Then we have to take that same approach to

the school system. And I'm talking about in middle

school and really elementary school, working your

way up, creating opportunities for these kids to

say, hey, when you graduate, this is an opportunity

for you. But if you don't want this opportunity,

here are three other alternate choices that you

could take in your future. And then we have

to go into the prison systems and ask the

guys in prison, like, what would it take for you all not to come home

and commit crime and help us help the

people like you in our communities?

I've been pushing for, schools to bring

in the top dude in

the street who is getting all the money that's in

prison right now. Bring that dude into the school system,

orange jumpsuit, shackles and handcuffs,

and let him talk to the kids. Because what I

noticed about drug dealers is every couple of

months, there's a new hot dude riding around in that

mercedes. And nobody thinks about what happened

to the other two dudes that used to have the hot mercedes.

Because out of sight, out of mind. But if you

bring them back and kids can see, like, wow, this is where that

took you, man, I don't want that. And it would

aid towards not necessarily stop, but it would

aid to give our children another

avenue to become

successful as opposed to seeing the

glamorous part of the lifestyle and not the

ending. We never see the ending.

Oh, my gosh. My neck is tired

from. Not in my head so much

while he was talking. I kid you not.

But, you said a mouthful, so there's a few things that I want to hit

on. So first and foremost, shout out to Dana, gate

city, 180. Definitely check him out. He's an awesome dude as

well. But also what you said at the end

there when you said, give them

that, perspective. Give them

that perspective. Because if they're only seeing

the glamorous side, if they're only seeing, oh,

I could have whatever I want, I can get all this money.

But they're not seeing the other side. And what could

possibly happen, or another

approach, and this might be a little much for

elementary, but maybe middle school and high school,

bring in the families of the people who

lost their loved ones

from doing

whatever they did. You know what I'm saying? Or doing.

because that's another perspective as well that you don't

really hear about unless you're close to the family.

There's a lot of people that are losing their lives. There's a

lot of people that are being incarcerated for these things.

Now, of course, for me, there's

so much like you said, that needs to change as far

as policing and incarceration

and things like that. But

the kids do need to see the other side of this.

Like, what can this get me?

Because if you're constantly seeing the

glamour and not seeing the

downside, then what decision are you going

to know as someone that's listening to this, if you were in

that position, what would you do?

And it has to be a point where elderly black

people come out of the church, come

out of corporate America, take off that suit

and tie and sit down with me, and let's engage

in a conversation. when you look at

the things that affect our neighborhoods, like,

when you look at, know, black folk had

nothing to do with heroin coming here. It really was

the Asians, doing the, building of the

railroads, because opium was grew over there in

Asia. And when you look at the Holland

Renaissance and the blues, the French

imported a lot of heroin

into United States to make money. And if

you're watching tv, these new tv shows

and movies will give us a false history. Like, bumpy

Johnson was responsible for the heroin

trade in New York, or, the dude

from Carolina, an american gangster, was

responsible for heroin, in New York, in

the United States. No, it was the French, during the French

Connection, which created the opioid

emidemic. And if you look back before that, it was Baer who was

using it in cough, syrup and selling it behind the

counter that created the

opioid use in the United States. Now,

that's just heroin. Now, when you look at cocaine and

crack cocaine, you have to look at the Iran

Contra on how America

allowed, South Americans to

smuggle and sell cocaine into United States to

fund a war in South America. So

it's like, yo, how are these things

our fault when we didn't create this

problem? Did we fall into it? Yes, we did.

Because at the end of the day, we all want

to be successful, especially men.

black men want to be successful. I want

my wife to look at me like I'm a

king, like I'm a leader. I want my kids to look at me like

I'm a great person, I'm a great

provider. But when we also look at the

job force, I'm going to say something to you that people don't

even talk about. I've seen people

destroy people in the workforce. I've

seen African Americans create an environment and

run another african american person out the workforce,

usually three or four of them. But they don't see that as being

a problem, because they're not selling narcotics,

they're not shooting anybody. However, you're leaving

somebody in a desperate desire position.

And we don't know what this person is going to do when

they out there and they can't find income. Because I have

watched women who had nice jobs

get bullied and chased out of the workplace and

end up going into a relationship with a dude just to

survive who is abusive.

I've seen women lead a job, go out of the

workforce, and start drinking and using

and then tricking. I've seen dudes say,

like, the next time this dude say something to me,

I'm going to put hands on him, do it, go to

prison, and end back out in the streets.

So we as a community have to sit

down and start having these taboo

conversations and look at each other like,

yo, this is not your creation.

But how do we create something that

you don't feel the need to have to go out

here and break law and bring

more destruction into our community. When we can get real

about it, we can start solving the.

You know, there's one thing that my friend will

dungey shout out to will as well. he

says he's know people act like

crabs in a barrel, but you have to ask

yourself, how did they get know crabs?

That's not their natural habitat. It's not in a

barrel. It's in the ocean. So how

did the crabs get in the barrel in order to act like

crabs in a barrel? so I wanted to mention that as

well. But then also, when you said, sit down and talk with

you, one of the quotes that I love

to tell people and that I love in my personal

life is that it's hard to hate someone once

you get to know them. And I feel like having these

conversations, as we're doing now, but also

having these conversations with people that do this work in the

community and also those in the community can

really change. A lot of

know, you can get a lot of perspective from having

these conversations. So with that said, victor, if

people were interested in learning more

about you and learning more about what you do, how they can

help, how they can get started, how could they find

you?

They, can look me up on the

reentryexpert.org.

they can reach me at the

reentryexpert@gmail.com.

Or they can look me up as Victor Michael Vincent, Jr.

The reentry expert on Facebook.

or a lot of times you can just

tune into Facebook and see me out in the community

somewhere, doing something or another.

I like to use Facebook as a means to show

people, hey, you don't need millions of

dollars to bring about change. That's all you have to

do is bring the will and the want,

and that will bring about change a

lot of times, and I'm real particular about

who I let my clients work with or

who, I send them to because

I had to tell a dude one time because he wanted to help, like,

well, let me be a mentor and talk to your clients. I was like, nah,

bro. Well, what's wrong with me? I said, yo, your

mind's too focused on getting rich. I said,

God didn't design everybody to get rich. And I

said, and when you talking to a dude from the streets and you

constantly talking about Louis Vuitton

and all this old expensive

stuff, that will twist their mind to start

thinking, man, I don't care that I

love to do this. I want to get money. And

money is not the end

to our problems, because if you look at it,

a lot of extremely wealthy, they

nasty, they evil, and a lot of them joke is crazy.

So, once again, if we could go back

to opening ourselves up, to have

conversations to figure out what we love to do,

investing in our own communities, working within our

own communities to better our communities, doing

our own community policing, it's

a shame that drug

dealers live in the same

neighborhoods with homeowners and

people who want to be successful. somebody has to

tell the drug dealers, like, I'm sorry, but you all can't do this

right here no more. but if you're telling them they can't do

it, you have to provide them with an opportunity

to earn income somewhere else. You

can't take something from somebody

without giving them something. and when we

recognize, like, oh, that's how this works. I'm taking

the streets away from you all, but I'm giving you all this

opportunity to earn some income.

And if you don't choose the opportunity to earn

income, I will call the police on you. It's

just as simple as that. Because I don't want this in my

neighborhood, because I want a better life for the kids

growing up in this neighborhood. And when we can have those

conversations and create those avenues, I

don't see it being as big of a problem as it

is. Right?

Yes, yes. We need solutions. And really

quick, y'all. So I will have all of his links in the show notes, so

definitely check that out. But I want to brag on Victor real

quick, because he put on an event in the

community where he had artwork

from formerly incarcerated and some of his clients

and things like that. And these brothers are

talented. They are talented, you

all. it was a wonderful art display,

and I really appreciated that, and it stuck in

my mind. I know it happened maybe, like, last year

or the year before, but it made that much of an

impact on me, so I wanted to brag on him real

quick about that. And those are some of the little things

you can do. Like, he just went to a business owner, said,

hey, can I use your space? Set up the artwork, and

had a whole art show. And it was fantastic to, bring

awareness to this issue. So thank you so much,

Victor, for the things that you do in our community. Like

I said, if you want to connect with Victor, I'll make sure I have all his

information in the show notes, and I appreciate you coming on the

show.

Welcome, tiffany. I'm going to say something

about that. I grew up with some of the most talented dudes

in the world, in Baltimore city,

and a lot of those talented people died in the

streets, serving time in prison,

or lost an addiction to alcohol or

heroin. And the only

difference between a successful

person and a non successful person is

sometimes the

input and the investment

somebody made towards the person that's successful.

So when we can go back in our communities, invest in our

people, we will see a change

gradually start to happen, and it will better our

communities. But thank you for coming to the art show. I

really enjoyed doing it. I was asked to do another

one. So we're in the process of thinking about how to do

it, where we can really get some of our local

talent. And I would like to have poets and,

rappers, just come out and

display that talent to let people know, like,

hey, let's invest in this. Let's

invest in this person right here. Let's see what he can.

Yes, yes. I love that. And I will be there if you

have another one, because it was.

I mean, we could talk about this forever,

but please listen to what Victor said. when

it comes to engaging with the community,

reaching back, my philosophy

is rise and lift. So as you're

rising, lift someone else or a group of people along

the way, because that's the only way

we'll be able to change

our trajectories. So I appreciate you

once again, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the

day.

You too, queen. Have a blessed one.

Bye.

Intro/Outro: Thank you for listening, joining and being a part of the Money

Talk with TIFF podcast this week. You can check Tiff

out every Thursday for a new money talk podcast.

But if you just can't wait until next week, you can listen

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episodes@moneytalkwitht.com

or follow TIff on all social media

platforms at moneytalkwith. Until

next time, spend wise by spending less than

you make. A, word to the money wise is always

sufficient.

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