Stay Free Forever
Stay Free Forever is a monthly podcast aimed at helping people, especially those who are currently and formerly justice-involved, to remain free and avoid incarceration or re-incarceration. We do this by talking about replacing risky thinking and behavior with sound, positive pro-social choices. Each discussion is guided by former corrections and parole officer Clifford Fewel, a journalist, writer, speaker and owner of the cognitive behavioral education company Stay Free Forever LLC.
Listen on:
Episodes
Wednesday Jan 31, 2024
Wednesday Jan 31, 2024
Interview from the Twin Towers Correction Facility in LA with the leader of a successful movement to help and treat severely mentally ill patients, while also restoring and truly rehabilitating lifers and other convicted felon volunteers by permitting them to serve in a meaningful way
Monday Dec 11, 2023
Monday Dec 11, 2023
Artist and blacksmith Steve Fontanini confronts years of addiction to smokeless tobacco and explains how he keeps it from controlling him.
Sunday Nov 19, 2023
Sunday Nov 19, 2023
Judge Bo Zeerip discusses the challenges of being a County Court Judge in Delta, Colorado, and offers specific advice — to attorneys and their clients — as to how to appear and behave in court. He shares how his Christian faith informs and influences his decision-making as he attempts to do justice, make room for mercy, and run an efficient courtroom, all the while looking out for the rights of people who are innocent until proven guilty.
Saturday Oct 28, 2023
Saturday Oct 28, 2023
15-year-old Northern Arapaho Tanksi (tungk-SHEE) Duran shares her thoughts on bullying, teen suicide, friendship, hip-hop and learning from the elders.
Saturday Sep 02, 2023
Saturday Sep 02, 2023
At a point in his recovery from chemical and sexual addiction where he can articulate specific ways in which he is confronting and changing his own self-destructive thoughts and behavior, Austin Peavler describes his journey toward integrity and peace. As with the main character, Odysseus, in his favorite tale, "The Odyssey", 39-year-old Austin has survived setback after setback ; mostly self-imposed.
Saturday Jul 08, 2023
Saturday Jul 08, 2023
U.S. Army and Wyoming Highway Patrol veteran James Weck shares proven methods to avoid tickets and manage chaos.
Saturday Jun 17, 2023
Saturday Jun 17, 2023
It began with a near-fatal beating that led to addiction, homelessness and losing her children. Hear Samantha Johnson recall her painful yet promising journey to recovery, sobriety, self-reliance and a career serving the sick and helping those who struggle as she did.
Monday May 29, 2023
Monday May 29, 2023
"We understand there is the law, and we have to act in accordance with it...but there's also a human here who has some needs! Are those sets of laws are helping me help this person? And sometimes they don't," says the man whose company, since 1975, has helped folks stop breaking laws and start living right.
Sunday Apr 23, 2023
Sunday Apr 23, 2023
From judge to judged; peer support specialist and former judge Terri Smith recounts her journey from trauma and addiction through recovery and redemption.
Thursday Mar 30, 2023
Thursday Mar 30, 2023
From athlete to addict to adult; Kimberly Smith shares lessons learned and how to keep them from fading.
Stay Free Forever
Whenever a person is let out of jail or prison, what they typically hear from staff is the admonition, "Don't come back!". When I worked as a corrections and programs officer in state prison, I always said, "Stay free forever!". I believe in the power of positive thinking and in the power of words.
This podcast reveals specific ways to stay free forever as told by women and men who are doing just that. And you must know it's a process, not an event. Or, I may chat with a judge or a teacher or other professional who believes in peoples' abilities to correct their own thinking, right their own ships and walk a new path that is clearly different from the one that took them to incarceration in the first place.
Please join us each month as we seek to spread the good word about all the ways one can choose to adapt and thrive. It can be done despite all of the judgment, obstacles, loneliness, temptations and envy, yes, envy, that face the person who steps away from the shadows of their former risky thinking and behaviors and into the blue skies and sunlight of freedom on one's own new terms.