WASHINGTON — Trauma has a ripple effect on families, sometimes landing parents behind bars. One formerly incarcerated D.C. dad is working to make sure his son doesn’t end up there, too.
It’s the little moments 32-year-old Marcelles Queen is happy witness now. Moments like challenging his 11-year-old son, Jamary Queen, to a pull-up faceoff at a local park.
“Let’s see if you can do that, I’ll go behind you,” he told his son.
“I can do this, Daddy,” Jamary said eagerly, grabbing onto the monkey bars.
Five years ago, Marcelles wouldn’t have been able to watch his son hoisting himself up with all his might.
He got out of prison in 2017 and said he’s just about to complete his parole.
He said he was in and out of jail for the first half of Jamary’s life, charged with possession of a firearm, then distribution of crack cocaine.
“The way I learned how to survive, you know, it was like, you know, doing wrong stuff or whatever,” he said.
Little Jamary said he was confused why one day, his dad would be home, and the next gone for a few years.
“I felt sad,” he said.
Now, Marcelles has two kids and Jamary has a two-year-old sister.
“So that's why like, this time around, I was like, 'oh, let me try something different,'” he said.
He realized Jamary was doing as he said and was worried he’d start doing what he did.
Jamary almost got into a fight at school one day, when he said a kid was calling him names.
“[My dad] said that… if somebody like, tried to mess with you…then, give him a warning, and if they still do it, beat him up,” he said.
He almost did, before his mom – and then dad – told him not to.
“I was like 'Aw yeah, I taught you the wrong thing,'” Marcelles said.
Jamary said the principal got involved and took him and the kid who teased him out to lunch to talk it out – and now they’re friends.
“One of my teachers helped me realize to change what I'm doing because that's going to be on somebody else. That somebody else is going to learn that,” he said.
Marcelles was also part of D.C.'s ONSE office's Pathways program, which helped connect him with mentors and job opportunities.
Now, he works with No Slide Zone to try to prevent other young men from getting sucked into the cycle. Without those lessons, generations of families can keep making the same mistake – and end up in jail or prison.
The medical and mental health staff at D.C.’s jail work to help inmates break that cycle.
“A lot of it is modeled behavior,” said Bruce Reid, D.C. Jail’s Mental Health Services Coordinator. “We've had grandparent, parent and child incarcerated all at the same time. So it is a dangerous cycle.”
Marcelles said his mom struggled with drug abuse, and at one point was convicted of distributing heroin.
He said he ended up being shuffled around to different family members’ homes and group homes, unable to find a stable footing.
His trouble with the law started as a teen.
“So, I mean, it was hard…like my story is like you know, it's well-documented you know, I'm saying like, it's trauma, trauma trauma,” Marcelles said.
Still, he doesn’t believe there’s a direct connection to him ending up behind bars as an adult, saying he made choices to survive – and provide for his son -- in the only way he knew.
“A lot of people don't have that awareness, or… understanding [of] the role that trauma may have had, in getting to a certain place,” DC Jail Medical Director, Dr. Beth Jordan said.
She said addressing that trauma is key to keeping families out of jail.
“We try to have people look at behavior through a trauma lens, not judging it, like what did you do to get in here, but like what happened to you, and really build that sense of empathy,” she said.
Dr. Jordan and Reid said it starts with understanding on their team’s end. Then, therapists can help their patient connect the dots between their trauma and their response to situations – which in these cases landed them in jail and potentially prison.
“I think that we really do our all to make their time here as positive as it can be. Right? I think that the healthcare here is top notch. I think the mental health offerings that I'm talking to about like in addition to cognitive behavioral therapy, medications, medication assisted treatment, suboxone, methadone, [we offer] yoga, and mindfulness, art therapy, meditation, and trauma informed care groups,” Dr. Jordan said. “We do take this opportunity really seriously. We want people to leave in much better shape than when they came here.”
And she believes what they’re doing is working – even though they only get to work with some people for a few months before they’re sentenced.
A report came out in October, saying in fiscal year 2022, recidivism was close to 13% -- which is less than the national average. However, there was a caveat listed in the report that the pandemic had a major impact on these rates, so it could be skewing the numbers.
Dr. Jordan said they don’t focus on the crimes – but the individual.
“We have to do everything we can to try to help them to look at life a little bit differently, so they won't…pass that same cycle to their children,” Reid said.
What Marcelles wants to pass on is being there at playgrounds, school pickups, and birthdays, which Jamary just celebrated this month.
“I feel he more mature, wanting different type of things, and I’m here to see it all, so that’s what I’m happy about,” he said.
Marcelles said he had to learn his lessons the hard way as he tried to survive without a guide, but he’s working to lead Jamary down an alternate path.
“I had to go to prison and do all that stupid stuff and all that. So I'm like, I can show you this now. Like, that's why I’m like take notes,” he said. “It's no way he not gonna win.”
Jamary certainly has big goals he plans to achieve.
“Go to college, become an athlete, and become a scientist,” he said. “After that, get a girlfriend, have kids…and then just live a happy life.”
The DC Jail offers numerous other services, like therapeutic housing units for people with substance abuse disorder, peer mentors who have been in their position, and connecting people who are incarcerated with outside community partners to help them secure jobs and housing.