We were honored to host a group from Leadership Charleston for a tour of Turning Leaf last week. Leadership Charleston is a yearlong program that engages participants in experiences that help them become better community leaders. The Chamber has been running this program for over 45 years – offering an intensive and up-close look at … Read more
“I’ve always had a strong sense of fairness and equality, and an equally strong belief that people should get a fair shake in life,” said Turning Leaf Founder and Executive Director, Amy Barch, at a recent meeting of the Columbia Rotary Club in Columbia, South Carolina.
Barch was invited, along with Aulzue “Blue” Fields, to share the Turning Leaf story to this group ahead of the organization’s planned October 2021 opening of its second center. Speaking before a crowd of x members, Amy first shared a bit of the “why” and “how” of Turning Leaf’s origin.
The most basic purpose of our justice system is to convict and punish the guilty while protecting the innocent and safeguarding the rights of all Americans. As part of that mission, rehabilitating offenders and helping them return to society should be a primary goal. Unfortunately, for decades, our criminal justice system has failed to fulfill … Read more
Communities often address crime through a cycle of prison time and release. This cycle leads them back to old habits, separated from their families and a drain on tax payer dollars. That is why The Turning Leaf Project (TLP) exists—to work with individuals who cycle in and out of the criminal justice system in order … 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