Bertrand Thompson

Bertrand Thompson
Bertrand Thompson
Status	Incarcerated
Facility	Ironwood State Prison

Bertrand Thompson is an inmate at Ironwood State Prison in California who addressed the audience at the TEDx in Prisons event held there in May 2014.

Like a lot of our youth, Thompson was once caught up in the gravitational pull of the streets. He got involved with drugs, alcohol, and for years he cultivated the kind of behavior that contributed to the perplexing problems plaguing our neighborhoods. These days he utilizes his experience and knowledge to conduct the kind of consciousness that demonstrates beneficial change as he strives to regain the trust of our communities and help bridge the social gap between the incarcerated and society. Thompson speaks about how underdeveloped minds plagued by the effects of abnormal conditioning can create a lapse in reasoning, which gives rise to the alarming rates of juvenile and adolescent incarceration.

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A lot of people are quick to judge us by our damaged petals

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