Anthony Muhammad: Community Engagement (Life After A Second Chance Series #2)

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In "Anthony Muhammad – Community Engagement” (Episode 2), you'll learn who Anthony is and what he did with his second chance. Anthony was incarcerated as a 15-year-old in Baltimore City. While on the inside he worked tirelessly to rehabilitate himself and exhibited such growth during his sentence that the judge who released said he was the first violent offender she seen with absolutely no reservations about releasing back into the community.

Holding himself accountable, Anthony has dedicated his life to undoing his past wrongs and ensuring other teenagers don’t make the same mistakes he made. As a teenager, Anthony acknowledged his participation in crime in the community, but as a man he and his peers are doing everything they can to be the solution. He serves as a mentor to young men, a community activist, and an inspiration to all who are seeking to make the most out of a second chance.

Learn more:

Maryland Parole Partnership

Video by Nehemiah Bester. Portrait photos by Nicole McCann and other photos provided by Anthony Muhuammad.

TRANSCRIPT

00:04 – 00:06
Nehemiah Bester
Who is Anthony Muhammad?

00:06 – 00:35
Anthony Muhammad
Anthony Muhammad is a brother. Anthony Muhammad is a friend. Anthony Muhammad is somebody who was intimately concerned about the community, intimately concerned about righting the wrongs that he has done in his own past. At the age of 15, I was arrested for two homicide charges in the city of Baltimore. I was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison.

00:36 – 00:57
Anthony Muhammad
Thankfully, the judge who released me said the exact opposite about me than the judge who sentenced me. In fact, the judge who released me said that in all of her years on the bench, I was the first violent offender that she had absolutely no reservations about releasing back into the community. Since my release, I've been pretty much very active in the community.

00:57 – 01:23
Anthony Muhammad
I'm a youth mentor with the Baltimore Brothers Organization. We provide a manhood training class to Baltimore City Youth. That is my principal work of activity, engaging young men throughout Baltimore City, trying to help other 15-year old’s not make the same bad decisions I made when I was 15. Our community is our responsibility. It's our job to make our communities safe and decent places to live.

01:23 – 01:55
Anthony Muhammad
So, the community engagement work that we do both at Baltimore Brothers and We Are Us, we kind of literally boots on the ground door to door, block by block, street by street, engaging the members of the community. We provide resources to the community for resources, financial resources, housing resources, employment resources, identifying what are the needs in the community, and then connecting and collaborating with organizations and people that provide those essential needs and services.

01:55 – 01:58
Nehemiah Bester
What are you passionate about in your life right now?

01:58 – 02:29
Anthony Muhammad
I'm passionate about changing lives, changing minds, mentalities, helping people get to that point where that light bulb comes on for them and they start to see that there's a better way of doing this, a better way of living this thing that we call life. So, there's a lot that has not been said or credit that has not been given to those returning citizens who are really the foundational cornerstone of that success.

02:29 – 02:39
Anthony Muhammad
Who would ever thought that people who were once perpetrators of crime and violence in the community are now all of a sudden the solution to crime and violence in the community?