DAVID LUIS "SUAVE" GONZALEZ: It hit me almost 10 years later that I have a life sentence, that I'm going to die in prison. With the first two episodes of the new Suave podcast from Futuro Studios now playing, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Futuro colleague and Suave co-producer Julieta Martinelli to talk about the making of the podcast and how the story of David Luis "Suave" Gonzalez is the story of one man's incarceration and redemption and an unusual relationship between a . I'm still learning. So winning that prize means that our issues are in the frontline right next. CHANG: And Suave, can you take me back to that moment? kevin@deathbyincacerationpodcast.com. I'm never going to catch up. Our partnership demonstrates the heights we can reach together in public media. Here is our report: But I know that if I get out, Im going to still need some help. (SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "SUAVE") Maria Hinojosa, Maggie Freleng, Julieta Martinelli, Stephanie Lebow, Audrey Quinn, and Marlon Bishop the production team behind Suave, When I heard the news that Suave won the Pulitzer Prize, I felt like a tectonic shift happened, saidMaria Hinojosa, President and Founder of Futuro Media. degree from Villanova University. The Pulitzer Prizes, administered by Columbia University and considered the most prestigious in American journalism, recognize work in 15 journalism categories and seven arts categories. - 'cause it was like it was not going to happen. Suave was also a talented artist. Her narrative podcast Aftereffect from WNYC Studios won a Newswomens Club of New York Award, a National Center on Disability Journalism Award, and was a Scripps Howard and Third Coast finalist. But I am curious - at this point in your life, going forward, what is the story you want to tell about yourself? And I'm still honored to be that source. Each week, , hosts David "Suave" Gonzalez (Suave podcast/released lifer) and Kevin McCracken (Adulting Well podcast) will be joined by law-makers, community leaders, policy-makers, formerly incarcerated and the currently incarcerated as they shed light on institutions that viciously target and harm marginalized communities, specifically Originally, she maintained contact in order to have a source inside the prison system. And for me, one of the messages for my fellow journalists is, always stay in touch with your sources 'cause you never know. Suave, as he likes to be called, was serving a life sentence without parole for a crime he committed when he was 17 years old. At Graterford State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania, Suave joined the largest population of juvenile lifers in the countrymen considered by the justice system to be irredeemable for acts committed when they were just teenagers. I began reading every law book, I began learning their system, to the point where I could memorize all of the rules and regulations and pinpoint when they was violating my rights. Audreys reporting with Reveal on deadly for-profit disability care led to the unraveling of one of the countrys largest group home companies and earned a Garden State Award for podcasting. So thats where me and you gonna disagree at, some dude saying, the DOC didnt let me in, is some bullshit because when your back is against the wall, you got to make a decision: Do I want this education? Suave is a seven-part podcast series about the criminal justice system that sentences juveniles to life in prison particularly young men of color and what happens when, decades later, theyre suddenly granted one more chance at freedom. Imagine following a story for almost 30 years - the ups, the downs and the relationship that evolves between reporter and source. Suave tells the story of what happens when your whole world is a prison cell, and you suddenly get a second chance at life. He is the cohost of both the "Suave" and "Death by Incarceration" podcasts. His stories have appeared in The FADER, This American Life, Planet Money, NPR News, Studio 360 and many other outlets. Suave fromFuturo StudiosandPRXwas also awarded this year in theIDA Documentary Awardsfrom the International Documentary Association. The two would later work together to document his time in prison and subsequent release, in 2017 after a Supreme Court decision that ruled automatic life sentences without parole for juveniles as unconstitutional, in an eponymous podcast, Suave, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize. The football player is dating Sara Madeira, his starsign is Taurus and he is now 35 years of age. Originally, she maintained contact in order to have a source inside the prison system. I mean, it's kind of crazy. In August, journalist Rahsaan New York Thomas called Gonzalez from a phone booth on the ground tier of San Quentins North Block. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. In order to be able to do that, you gotta be educated to some extent. But I always say that there's - lucky for me, I had someone that was there for me. After Suave is cleared from all accusations, he returns to his home in Philadelphia and tries to move on with his life. A conversation with Maria Hinojosa and David Luis "Suave" Gonzalez exploring the Pulitzer-Prize-winning podcast 'Suave.'Maria Hinojosa spent nearly 20 years . That means he was never going to get out. And to be the first formerly incarcerated person and the first juvenile lifer to really knock that off, man, listen, its a blessing. The punishment is now banned in half the states and in a handful of states, no one is serving the sentence. As he looks inward and determines to break intergenerational cycles he begins therapy to deal with the trauma of his childhood and incarceration. But I always say that there's - lucky for me, I had someone that was there for me. Stop the cancel culture and make yourself useful. Suave, you just heard Maria say, he's not a friend. You got to know how to read and write. A new podcast from Futuro Media follows. Look. David Luis "Suave" Gonzalez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when he was 17. Now nearly 50, Suave has come to terms with the fact that he will never leave the confines of SCI Graterford. People dying in the streets and that need a helping hand. Co-Host/Inspiration. What takes four years out here, might take 16 years in there because they come in once a year.Thats why it took so long to get a bachelors degree. Suave returns with Maria to the corner of 8th and Somerset in the Badlandsthe place where his victims young life ended and the place that changed the course of Suaves life. 70% of all juveniles serving life without parole are people of color. Once on the outside, he tries to continue this way of life. She has mixed and produced music in a multitude of genres (from jazz to pop) and received an independent music award for her work. That little place right here changed my whole life. In addition, PRX distributes trusted and treasured public radio programming to hundreds of stations nationwide, including The World, The Moth Radio Hour, This American Life, Snap Judgment, Reveal, The Takeaway, and Latino USA. PRX programs have been recognized by the Peabody Awards, the duPont-Columbia Awards, the IDA Documentary Awards, and the Pulitzer Prizes. He had gotten a life sentence as a juvenile without the possibility of parole. 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalists for audio included NPR and NBC News. The only thing I succeeded at in prison was in getting an education. David Luiz. Is there a part of you that believes Maria is on your side? In 2018 she was a Fellow at Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School and is a frequent speaker across the country. The Pulitzer Prizesannouncedthe winners of the 2022 awards, naming the podcast series Suave fromFuturo Studiosand public media organizationPRXas the winner in theAudio Reportingcategory. But the return to prison has him questioning a lot of things, including what led him there in the first place. How does that sit with you? I fought a guard so they put me in solitary confinement. And I'm still honored to be that source. That is until a Supreme Court ruling changes everythingand Suave suddenly gets a second chance to fight for his freedom. - for a journalist to make. Im getting out of jail, and when I mean getting out, I mean mentally. Suave leaves Graterford and kicks off his first day of freedom by checking things off his bucket listincluding a long overdue conversation with his brother and an apology to students at a school in his neighborhood in the Badlands. Suave returns to prison. 10.20.2022 David Luis "Suave" Gonzalez A curated collection of links The Record What are records? The Pulitzer is an example of American excellence. HINOJOSA: Because things change, Ailsa. I don't know - because, Suave, we didn't even talk about it 'cause it's like you're in for life. You know, and I say all the time, in 2017 when I stepped out that prison, not my family, not my community, not my friends - it was Maria Hinojosa that was there waiting for me. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Suave moves to a transitional housing unit at SCI Graterford where he will spend the next few months as he waits for his parole hearing. Sometimes they surprise and entertain. All Rights Reserved. Kagan wrote that adolescence is marked by transient rashness, proclivity for risk and inability to assess consequences, all factors that should mitigate the punishment received by juvenile defendants. David Guez (born 8 December 1982) is a French tennis player. And so it was like this long-haul battle. The very last word she said was You can become a voice for the voiceless. And I was just like, Damn, why am I letting this lady mess up my high?. l mean, of course it would have been easier, but guess what? And he finds that there are still a few things he needs to do, so he asks Maria to join him. If you wait for the DOC to give you permission to do it, its never gonna get done. What can I do? Hinojosa responded, You could be my source. In this episode, we follow Suave in his first year of freedom as he experiences countless firsts: leaving the halfway house for his first solo apartment, adopting a pet, finding a job and the start of a promising relationship with someone from his past. Hes become a man and built a life behind bars. But in journalism, a source is somebody that could report what - the injustices taking place behind these prison walls that society don't know about. Rahsaan New York Thomas: What was the highest level of education you completed on the streets? It is no accident so many children of color get such extreme sentences. And he imagines this is what his life will be like until he dies. December 6, 1986. I think that that makes us better journalists. It has a value and people care. You know, Im gonna be the baddest dude on the block.. He read them over and over. Your focus is not nonsense no more. Everything - phones, computers. I feel like Im leaving my brothers behind.. CHANG: Yeah. Since 2014, The Marshall Project has been curating some of the best criminal justice reporting from around the web. Recently, it launched the critically-acclaimed podcasts: Anything For Selena with WBUR, La Brega with WNYC Studios, Norco 80 for LAist Studios, LOUD: The History of Reggaeton with Spotify, and dolo: The Ballad of Chalino Snchez with Sonoro. I was on a suicide mission. - for a journalist to make. At Graterford State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania, Suave joined the largest population of juvenile lifers in the country, young men considered by the U.S. justice system to be irredeemable. Then, in 2016, a Supreme Court decision changed everything. Were all dying in here. Approximately 2,500 juveniles have been effectively sentenced to die in prisonconsidered "irredeemable" by the state for crimes committed when they were just teenagers. I went to college really like 25 years ago. The story leads us back to North Philadelphia in search of someone else who was present the night of the murder. Suaves life shows the difference second chances can make. Suave had a rough startas a teenager walking into a maximum-security prison he says he was a target, and much like in the neighborhood where he grew up, Suave decided he had to be tougher than everyone else. You came out when you were in your mid-40s. She has mixed and produced music in a multitude of genres (from jazz to pop) and received an independent music award for her work. There are still several episodes to go in this podcast, so I don't know how the story ends up. Im going up and I know everything that goes up must come down.. You know, it was scary because even though I went to college, I got my degrees, I educated myself, transformed myself, I never thought about living as a free man, as an adult. Theres no winners in this. Weve been through this journey. Edmond, Oklahoma. Luis Suave Gonzalez is a graduate from Villanova University, Dirctor of NuStop Resource Center, a 2014 TED talk presenter, a muralist, writer, and community activist, helping returning citizens acclimate themselves back into the community. CHANG: Now that he has been released from prison, the two of them are sharing their story in a new Futuro Media podcast called "Suave.". info@deathbyincarcerationpodcast.com 2021 Death By Incarceration Podcast. This is a testament to never giving up on a story and to trusting your producers. Fifteen seconds changed my whole life.. Acclaimed journalist Maria Hinojosa met Suave 27 years ago when she was invited to speak at a graduation ceremony at Graterford. David Luis Suave Gonzalez was sentenced as a juvenile lifer at 17, and served 31 years, mostly in state prison, before being released in 2017. Maggie Freleng is an investigative journalist, producer and the host/producer of Unjust & Unsolved, a podcast about wrongful convictions and the crimes that are consequently left unsolved. Lance Reenstierna. This is what we do. We had a secret, unspoken bond. What was it like to catch up with the world almost 30 years later? I feel like Im leaving my brothers behind.. What was it like to catch up with the world almost 30 years later? I failed miserably in going to the hole for fuckin guards up. You had life without parole. His stories have appeared in The FADER, This American Life, Planet Money, NPR News, Studio 360 and many other outlets. Fifteen seconds changed my whole life.. You know, I was ready to die. Suave returns to prison. So I did and I looked over and seen a class. Because I was illiterate, I really didn't understand the process. The story follows David Luis Suave Gonzalez from boy to man, and explores incarceration, redemption, and the often unusual relationship between a journalist and a source. The organization gave away scholarships of $500, $1,000 and $2,000. The fifth fellow, Luis Suave Gonzalez, will appear Nov. 2 at a public symposium on overhauling the criminal justice system. That our podcast focusing on people that are often forgotten just because they are behind bars is being recognized is an extraordinary feat. So thats what I did. Thats how you get the street credibility. Gavin Newsom earlier this year. In a shockingly backwarddecision authored by Justice Kavanaugh, the Court reinstated juvenile life without parole. If you in it, you in it for the long run. Hinojosas nearly 30-year career as an award-winning journalist includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, NPR, and anchoring the Emmy Award winning talk show from WGBH Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. So I was able to encourage them to go to school. CHANG: And when you became a free man - I mean, let's just think about this. America is infatuated with prisons and incarceration. And for me, one of the messages for my fellow journalists is, always stay in touch with your sources 'cause you never know. Everything I knew up to that point was as a child in prison. I could not help but think about Suave and other Suaves when I heard about the new U.S. Supreme Court decision in Jones v Montgomery. On his way to court, Suave is surprised by the smell of fresh air as he boards a bus and leaves the prison grounds for the first time in decades. Maggie was also a TV documentary host for VICE and Oxygens The Disappearance of Maura Murray. GONZALEZ: From 1998, '99, I gave up all hope. In 2019, she was named the inaugural Distinguished Journalist in Residence at her Alma Mater, Barnard College. And it was just the most unbelievable thing, truly. And Ive pretty much taken every avenue that I could possibly take in prison to rehabilitate myselfMinors do have the ability to change.. In the corner of 8th and Somerset, Maria encourages Suave to talk about that night, which theyve never discussed in nearly three decades of friendship. I'm still trying to understand society for what it is. Suave also reckons with complicated emotions, wavering between the unparalleled joy of his upcoming release and the guilt of leaving behind the men hes considered his brothers for nearly three decades. Support the work of PVS by sponsoring this event! As the decades pass, Suave becomes a mentor for younger men and a model citizen inside the prison. Journalist Maria Hinojosa met David Luis "Suave" Gonzalez in 1993 while speaking at the Graterford State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania. A hellion for his first ten years in prison (he spent 8 years in solitary confinement), things dramatically changed for Suave when he persuaded prison authorities to invite the journalist Maria Hinojosa to speak at Graterford State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania where he was incarcerated. I'm still learning. You have this dilemma with Suave - trying to keep some journalistic distance from him in the beginning, but then developing a genuine friendship with him, genuine affection. He would spend the rest of his life behind bars, and would ultimately die in prison. In 2019, she was named the inaugural Distinguished Journalist in Residence at her alma mater, Barnard College. He has produced 52 murals in the city of Philadelphia. December 6, 1986. You know, Im gonna be the baddest dude on the block.. But I am curious - at this point in your life, going forward, what is the story you want to tell about yourself? You know, these are things that I need to learn.Luis Suave Gonzalez. In 1988, Gonzalez was found guilty of a first-degree homicide committed when he was 17 years old. And thats what we did: Im gonna create a program for yall and yall gonna let me in that program.. We are so proud of our partners at Futuro Media, who represent the best of journalism and audio, saidKerri Hoffman, CEO of PRX. It was funded entirely by inmates from their wages which started at 19 cents an hour. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. Like so many of the juveniles serving life without parole sentences, Jones was physically and verbally abused as a child. You may have heard some of our reporting over the last few years about a man named Suave, who is serving a life sentence for murder at a prison in Pennsylvania. Never in my life did I think we could win a Pulitzer. Journalist Maria Hinojosa who has communicated with Gonzalez for nearly 30 years also realizes there are limits to how much she can help as he navigates the realities of conditional freedom. 2023 A Latino juvenile lifer, Suave had been on what he described as a suicide mission. On Monday, 22-year-old Giovanni Feliciano, of Garfield, and 21-year-old Jefersson Gonzalez, of . David Luis 'Sauve' Gonzalez of "Suave" from Futuro Studios and PRX. Maggie is an Adjunct Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and formerly the Producer-at-Large for Latino USA. GONZALEZ: Well, whatever I missed in between, I just missed. Audrey Quinn is a documentary audio reporter and editor. So to me, education was about fighting the system and changing the law. And I understood that. So this is the particular thing about journalists' source - is that it doesn't look like just one thing. In remarks during the announcement of this year's winners, John Daniszewski of the Associated Press and co-chair of . At Graterford State Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania, Suave joined the largest population of juvenile lifers in the countrymen considered by the justice system to be irredeemable for acts committed when they were just teenagers. No, no, no, he's not a friend. When I say we, Im talking about lifers. Like Gonzalez, Thomas was able to earn a degree behind bars, which was one of the factors cited in the commutation he received from California Gov. Then in 2016, the Supreme Court decided the case of Montgomery v Louisiana and ruled that Miller had to be applied retroactively. I think thats the reason we won., This is a remarkable achievement. GONZALEZ: That I am a human being that committed a mistake, paid for it and still trying to work on myself. I failed trying to take peoples commissary. CHANG: I want to bounce what you just said off of Suave. Im gonna get my degree by any means necessary. And what that means is start saving your pennies, start taking them correspondence courses, start accumulating them credits, and get that degree. It's impossible. I asked the teacher, What the heck is going on in there, a Klan meeting? She was like Nah, its a college program.. Please note that this episode contains a brief description of violence and sexual abuse. Suave, as he likes to be called, was. Follow her on Twitter and sign up for her newsletter, College Inside, on the future of postsecondary education in prison. This was in 1993. For more about Suave, listen to Life Sentence from Latino USA: Featured image:Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images, I hope my brother Luis suave Gonzalez gets out soon, Damn straight I havent see David in years, Yeah free david he need to get out already sooo happy for him, I heard the 104.5 morning show with Suave and I was so impressed! Even the worst day that I have is good. But he soon realizes there are limits to how much freedom he can ever truly have, and Maria realizes there are limits to how much she can help him. TheFuturo Studiosproduction team includes executive producer Maria Hinojosa, host and producer Maggie Freleng, reporter and producer Julieta Martinelli, story editor Audrey Quinn, engineer and sound designer Stephanie Lebow, and executive editor Marlon Bishop. I can send you a list with hundreds of schools that will offer you correspondence courses for free. The DOC is not there to make it easy for us, bro. Suave had a rough startas a teenager walking into a maximum-security prison he says he was a target, and much like in the neighborhood where he grew up, Suave decided he had to be tougher than everyone else.