MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
What does it mean to be free? That's a question Greg Eskridge thinks about a lot, even when he's doing errands, like getting a new ID. The last time he got a new driver's license - 1992.
GREG ESKRIDGE: I go to the DMV, put the ID onto the - on the counter, and the receptionist looks at the ID and says, is this the last time you've had your ID? I say, yep. She said, where have you been? I said, I've been on a long vacation.
KELLY: Eskridge was released from San Quentin last summer, after 30 years in prison. He is now the host of the newest season of KALW's "Uncuffed" podcast, a show made by people in California prisons. This season, Eskridge is also sharing moments of freedom from other people like him, who recently got out of prison. Today, we are bringing you a few of them for our regular segment of short-form audio documentaries.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
ANTHONY IVY, BYLINE: My name is Anthony Ivy, and coaching my kids on this football field - man, it's playoff time. It's playoff atmosphere. It's win or go home. Get it in or get kicked out. And this is my moment of freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: Are you ready?
IVY: He's going deep.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: Down. Set hut (ph).
IVY: I remember them times, man, waking up in the morning on that prison yard.
Catch that ball.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Let's go.
IVY: I remember being on the phone, talking to my folks, you know, as they getting ready for the game.
You ready?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: Yes, Coach.
IVY: I'm trying to give them a pregame speech, a pep talk, but now I'm actually here to be able to talk to them myself.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: When you're ready. Down. Set hut.
IVY: It ain't nothing like it, man.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Beautiful.
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MONICA HICKS: I'm Monica Hicks. It's Monday night. We're at Safeway, and I'm planning out what I'm going to eat this week in grocery shopping. And this is my moment of freedom.
We're standing in front of the dressings, and I thought that picking out a dressing was going to be easy.
I remember being in prison and thinking, I would literally cut off the tip of my pinky just to be able to go walk around a grocery store right now and get whatever I want.
At least six Caesar dressings, which is really crazy.
Like, when I think back to, like, when I was incarcerated, like, all the meat was gray. Like, the mashed potatoes and, like, rice were, like, gray.
Freshly shaved Parmesan.
In the year that I was incarcerated, I gained 70 pounds. To be able to be out and to learn about food and to make, like, salads and stuff, to incorporate a lot of color and just have so much control, is really nice.
Oh, is this what I want?
It's so funny. Now I can eat whatever I want, but I buy all the same things (laughter).
AUTOMATED VOICE: Please remember to take your receipt. Thank you.
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TIM HICKS: So I'm about to open the fridge and pull this...
(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC RUSTLING)
T HICKS: ...Yeah, this hamburger meat out and - let me see.
My name is Tim Hicks, and I'm making me a nice, juicy hamburger with some bacon and some eggs and cheese. And this is my moment of freedom.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLATES RATTLING)
T HICKS: Let me see. What kind of grease - I got olive oil on it. Yeah.
Cooking my own meal makes me feel free because when I was in prison, I couldn't cook my own meal. And I always wanted to cook my own meal - like, be able to cook it myself, to the temperature, to season my own meat - and just the freedom of it without having to rely on somebody that I don't know hiding behind the scenes, cooking my food, and I don't know what I'm getting. And then it wasn't something that I wanted. It was always something designed by prison officials. And so now, being out here, I'm able to cook something different. I'm able to come to my own stove. I'm able to go to my own refrigerator, able to do whatever I want.
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DANNY MURILLO: So I'm just taking my suitcase out. Hi, this is Danny Murillo, and I'm packing for a trip to Mexico City. And this is my moment of freedom.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC RUSTLING)
MURILLO: So yeah, I'm going to start putting my shoes in my luggage. But before I do that, I have a habit of wrapping up my shoes in plastic. You know, I don't like my shoes touching my luggage.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC RUSTLING)
MURILLO: And so every time I travel...
(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC RUSTLING)
MURILLO: ...I wrap my shoes up...
(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC RUSTLING)
MURILLO: ...Because they're dirty. You know, as I'm packing my stuff - right? - like, you know, I'm doing it in a way where I'm organizing it how I want it, right? When we were incarcerated, they just come to your cell, give you two, three bags, and they pack [expletive], and it's just, like, you just got to throw all your stuff in there. Like, you have no time to, like, you know, organize your stuff. And then when you get to your destination, your lotion bottle's popped, and it's all over your stuff, all over your pictures, right? Like - so, you know, now I have the opportunity to, you know, organize things the way I want it but also thinking about the destination.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BLUE INK WATKINS: I'm standing - right now, I'm standing in the sand, just fixated on what's going on over there with the birds. I'm at Venice Beach, and it's been almost 40 years since I've been at this beach. And it's just me and my dog...
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
WATKINS: ...My favorite person.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
WATKINS: The sun is setting over these clouds, and it's just, like - it looked like infinity. The beauty of the birds flying over the water - something I just always imagined being able to see. I used to always ask for photos of things just like this. I didn't think that I was going to ever do anything but hold that photo in my hand. But now I can reach out, I could pick up the sand, I could look at the sun, I could look at the birds in motion, which was something I never thought I was going to be able to do.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WATKINS: Hey. Spring (ph).
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WATKINS: My name is Blue (ph), and this is my moment of freedom.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KELLY: That was Blue Ink Watkins (ph), a writer, educator and spoken-word artist in Los Angeles; Danny Murillo, co-founder and associate director of the Underground Scholars Initiative at UC Berkeley; Tim Hicks, a journalist and sports editor in Oakland; Monica Hicks, who's completing a masters in computer science at Stanford University and will soon start a job as a software engineer at Reddit; and Anthony Ivy, an associate producer at "Uncuffed" and reporting fellow at KALW. You can listen to the latest season of "Uncuffed" wherever you get your podcasts or at weareuncuffed.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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