Amy Barch To an untrained eye, it’s easy to think that Turning Leaf is just like any other reentry organization. But we’re not. Okay, you might be thinking, “Sure, every nonprofit thinks they’re special.” That’s probably true, but seriously, we really are. I can prove it. I officially started out my career in reentry as a case … Read more
An audience at the Mount Pleasant library listens silently as three men calmly talk about violence, the crimes they’ve committed, the drugs they’ve sold — and the reason they quit. She’s sitting in the front row. The men are students of Amy Barch’s Turning Leaf Project, a local nonprofit working to quell the epidemic of recidivism. … Read more
Getting out of prison isn’t easy. There’s parole and probation to navigate, child custody issues, securing housing, finding a job, and avoiding the temptation to fall back into criminal habits. That’s what drew Turning Leaf Project founder Amy Barch to reentry work—despite her middle-class upbringing, she understood why the less privileged would take whatever they … Read more
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — The Turning Leaf Project is a group in Charleston working to help formerly incarcerated men complete probation and get acclimated back into society. Aulzue Fields spent the last 17 years in prison. He took someone else’s life in the Lowcountry when he was 26 years old. “I was using a lot of … Read more
Growing up in public housing in North Charleston, S.C., in the 1970s, David Hayward was familiar with poverty, violence and loss. His mother, grandmother and brother all died when he was young, and his father was in prison. He became addicted to alcohol and cocaine and occasionally lived under bridges and in abandoned buildings, he … Read more
South Carolina prisons are not rehabilitating criminals — they’re training them. In most of the state’s roughest correctional facilities, the yard is not so different from life on the street. Inmates may have to sell drugs to survive, join a gang for protection and constantly watch their manners — and their six — to avoid brutal assault. Solitary … Read more
Marty Hamilton has spent 30 years behind bars, and he’s only 47. The North Charleston native has been in prison seven times, and twice spent a year in the county jail. During the brief periods in between, he was a stone-cold criminal. Hamilton terrorized the streets of North Charleston during its most violent years, selling … Read more
More than a quarter of the crime committed in Charleston County last year was the work of just 1,900 men. And 12 of them are sitting in Amy Barch’s classroom this morning. Many of them are drug dealers, but some dabble in carjacking, home invasion and armed robbery. A few have shot people, a couple … Read more
In the shadow of the razorwire fences and bleak facade of the Al Cannon Detention Center sits the small, nondescript building that houses the Turning Leaf Project. Inside, two classrooms are lined with handwritten lists that encapsulate the lessons learned by the former convicts who participate in the reintroduction program. Identifying a social support network, … Read more
There are about a dozen guys sitting in this room — some of them tattooed, some with long hair or dreads — talking casually about doing drugs, committing crimes. Quietly and calmly, they are listing the factors that led them into both. Joe McGrew urges them on, writes their answers on a board at the … Read more
