Six years ago, amid the cotton fields of South Carolina, a stabbing spiraled into America’s deadliest prison riot in a generation. The next morning, it fell to a prisoner at Lee Correctional Institution named Ofonzo Staton to start mopping up the blood. Staton would become a leading figure in the Vera Institute of Justice's Restoring Promise initiative.

As he lifted body bags onto gurneys, the 41-year-old father found himself judging the young gang members whose rampage had killed seven men and injured many others. “If you’re going to be angry,” he recalled thinking, “be angry against the oppressor!”

In media reports, state officials largely attributed the violence to gang rivalries and contraband cell phones. But after two decades inside, Staton — who goes by “Zo” — could talk like an anthropologist, describing how endless sentences, meager medical care, and moldy food had spawned hopelessness and rage among the mostly Black population. The prison itself bore the name of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, leading another man inside to call it “nothing more than a modern-day plantation.”

So it was all the more jarring to see cheery flyers, posted around the prison soon after the riot, inviting men to apply for a new unit called Restoring Promise, where residents ages 18 to 25 would supposedly find “a right to privacy, self-expression, and connection with family.”

What Sets the Restoring Promise Initiative Apart?

Staton had seen programs come and go, but Restoring Promise seemed radical. The concept drew on German prisons, where people have individual cells they can personalize, and officers act more like counselors. In the new Restoring Promise unit, older men like Staton would serve as mentors. They would design the living environment and teach classes on everything from financial literacy to parenting. They would also write the unit’s rules, and decide together how to treat rulebreakers.

For Staton, Restoring Promise was a chance to share the wisdom he’d earned over 21 years inside. The Marlboro County native was doing life for helping a cousin murder a woman, but he always maintained his innocence and never stopped filing appeals.

Read the full article about the Restoring Promise initiative by Maurice Chammah at The Marshall Project.