WASHINGTON D.C., DC — As WUSA9 continues to cover the crime crisis impacting so many neighbors in the District, we also want to bring you stories of hope and chances. That message comes from a D.C. man who spent four decades behind bars. He’s now telling his story in the hopes of inspiring the younger generation to turn their lives around.
According to DC Police, 363 young people were arrested for violent crimes in the first six months of 2023.
Raymond Garrett was arrested as a teenager too. He was charged with murder and found guilty. He spent the next 40 years in federal prison.
“I went to prison when I was just 16 years old, going on 17,” said Garrett, “There’s no retirement plan at all in being a criminal. The worst thing I regret is getting a record because it makes the doors harder to open. I came home on Feb. 17, 2017. When I came home, I was homeless because my whole family died when I was incarcerated. I thought I had grieved but when you get out you realize no one is waiting on me. The hardest part for me was learning technology it took me a year to learn how to use a cellphone.”
But Garrett went from learning how to use a cellphone to earning a college degree. Finding faith and education behind bars, Garrett got his bachelor’s in business management at the University of the District of Columbia.
“A lot of people feel going back to school in your 50s is punishment or a reflection of choices I’ve made in my life, I didn’t look at it this way. I get busy living or dying. I was born and raised in this city and there was no way I was going to let out of towners move into the city I was born and raised and do better than me,” he said.
So, he worked to earn money – first, selling Trump hats during the 2017 inauguration.
“I made over $20,000 in six months. I kid you not! And then I started selling bottled waters,” he recalled. “I mopped floors when I got home, I worked at Burger King – I drove Uber passenger and Uber Eats before I found the job where I’m at now: Homes for Hope which is a transitional place to help people get on their feet.”
Now, as he sees teenagers falling into the same path that got him locked up at 16, he offers this advice:
“If you’re trying to get ahead you have to go around people where you’re trying to get to. For every decision you make there is a consequence for it, good and bad. When you make a good decision, you will see it you cannot view your life in the moment that it’s always going to be like this. Your character doesn’t come out when you’re on solid ground and everything is good. Your character comes out when you’re in quicksand and I want every young person to know that the possibilities in your life are endless you can accomplish anything you want its’ not where you start it’s where you end and direction you’re going.”