Selling drugs was just a way of life for Kelvin Dayse.
Growing up in the Gadsden Green housing project in downtown Charleston, Dayse said he was taught to think with a pack mentality and to do whatever was needed to make money. He said he was charged with tax evasion and money laundering from his time selling drugs. He spent more than two years in jail waiting to be sentenced before he met Amy Barch.
Barch, the founder and director of Charleston-based Turning Leaf, is tackling recidivism with a new type of immersion program for former inmates. Most re-entry initiatives provide job training, food stamps, housing options or financial assistance to help integrate those formerly incarcerated back into society.
Barch said none of those factors really matter, however, if the person does not change his way of thinking or care whether she hurts someone.