Third Chance (1972)

[Music] [Music] now I'm just sit at theing the roll away sitting on AER B wasting [Music] time the problem has been primarily caused by people being deprived they don't have to be excon to be in this program they may have a drug problem a lack of personal confidence or just not enough education but they are all disadvantaged in some way it's just in him that uh I'm going to be a failure all my life all I want is just work steady and buy me buy me a home new car and all that you know have things that other people have that that I don't have that's the most important thing I I really want what really started me to thinking is that uh I got I you know I I was laying down and I was thinking uh about my age that I was getting older and what would happen what was going to happen you understand when uh no one decided that uh they wanted to give me any money or that if I should get into trouble again and go to prison again that it might be for the last time uh you know the habitual criminal act when a guy does wrong they want to see him get his uh penalty for it and everything and uh they don't think about the guy as far as rehabilitating him you know they don't think about well what he's going to do you know we got to let him out one of these days you know and uh then when uh he do get out most of the time uh bigger percentage of the population you know they turn their backs on him and I think this big reason why a lot of guys go back to right you know I had a job at uh this company I was a machine operator machine trainee and uh I worked there for about six months and uh one day they called me in and give me my check and said that was it you know and I inquired why this was and they said that uh they just hand me a piece of paper and says you are discharged because of uh falsification of application concerning your criminal background or I lied to get a job and they found out about it so they fired me people have always have a tendency to uh say that an ex kind is animal you know he doesn't exist once he goes off into another Society you know but this is what they fell realized it is another society and life still goes up makes the guy feel like wow you know what am I even trying to do it right for and why not just go rip somebody off or something it's just one thing when they found out that uh you did something wrong in your past and everything I guess they uh think that you do it again you know but uh I think uh majority of the guys you know when they get out and really got it in their mind to straighten up their s you know they uh they don't want to go back to crime or be incarcerated you know and uh a lot of guys just make up their mind like me you know just don't want it you know they lock you up like an animal and just keep you there for years and years and then let you out and they expect you to act like uh everybody else has been out here all their life you just can't adjust like that you just can't adjust because of the manners you know there's too much Freedom man blows your mind you say wow so I finally realized that uh I ain't going to waste no more of them years man they're too precious you know there's not enough of them to begin with and it's kind of stupid to go blow what uh what few you [Music] got I'd like to uh you know just tell a lot of guys uh it's really you know no picnic being in jail and nobody's jail you know and uh but uh we got a problem and uh I know it's a people trying to solve it you know but uh it will be a problem people should help people people you are people you have not been forgotten well throughout Society it's also at the moment of downtrend in the economy and we're recruiting people for special programs who who in particular don't have a skill or something or who has had problems now the first of our the beginning of our program start with what is known as Outward Bound how many of you are familiar with Outward Bound well if you're not familiar with Outward Bound i' like to tell you something about it uh it was started during World War II as a survival course now maybe you men in here have been trying to survive all your life and you don't need any training in survival well we kind of turned this thing around and uh made it a confidence building Fame it's where it build confidence in them who have lost confidence in themselves understand that it's competitive it's just like anything else that you go into you compete with the next man the man that seem to have something on the ball is the man that uh we're going to help remember this is not a charity thing that we're giving to you we're not giving you anything you're going to work for it you're going to be a productive employee this is where we gain this is where Society gain you're paying tax rather than living off a tax you know we send our supervisors up there along with you now they're not going up there as supervisor they're going up there to do the same thing that you are doing they're up there to know about your problems and to be sensitive to your problems the problem that you might have encountered he's going to know about you you're going to know about the middle class or supervisor you're going to work as a team and this is what we're going to need when you return to Industry as working as a team I wasted six years in this place and few other years in other places and it just isn't worth it not when you see it man as it is man it's really a dragon I know what kind of changes they go through when they're getting out man when they're short you know they're worried about if they're going to get a job if they're going to be able to get a job because of their record or if they're going to go back to stealing you know besides they never have nothing when they steal anyway they do for a while they get busted then it's all gone [Music] Outward Bound works is basically uh you have to learn that it's you that counts it's you that makes that critical step and it's you depending upon some other person and it's uh it's it's these basic fundamental relationships that become uh dramatized and and experienced and and understood to some extent and where possible reinforced uh that represent the the type of of meaning that I think has transparence to any other situation beyond the Outward Bound setting whether it's on the job or whether it's back in school or wherever a person turns to in Outward Bound what we're um trying to do is challenge a person to defeat their own defeatism get some sense of purpose and develop the confidence to to Really hold on and and there are sort of challenges that they face in the Outward Bound setting that if they can survive them that there's nothing that industry can give them that they can't face uh you know it's a total Rehabilitation job and unless you're willing to get involved in this degree of investment in people you know these sort of programs don't work that effectively the one physical part of the course that I remember well was the repel that was really mellow I really like that it's scary as hell and there was no way that you could rent egg you're all alone you're halfway down the cliff you've made all the commitments you're going to make the next thing to do is to get to the bottom get over the cliff that's okay it'll keep going you'll have to feed it through in the beginning don't worry I got you you got me I got you keep your feet nice and wide L your body weight will whoops your body we will carry it down just to cool to fall off man you got to slide down take it easy keep your feet nice and wide see you at the bottom see you later bird man all right oh man I'll tell you when we got up that morning to repel everybody broke Camp slow I mean slow and uh we had done rock climbing just the day before and going up on the Rope it's it's not so bad but boy you walk over an overhanging Cliff 100 150 feet long high and you just drop right out of sight and it's just you period when I went to through my repel the guy who was bling for me the night before we had had a a real Stout argument and like when I first went over the cliff I kept saying to myself if it was me on the other end I wouldn't let go of this rope and all the way down that's all I thought about boy if this was me you know I I wouldn't even let go with this rope I just hold on and when I when I touched the ground boy you know I feel well everybody's not bad as they're made out to be you really have to to know that trust is something uh between people that really has to be there whether it's in that type of situation or any other type I belayed a lot of the guys and I was belayed by them while I was repelling and uh I had thoughts going down the edge of that Cliff whether that guy was worthwhile or not that was on the end of my rope but after a while you do it a while and you get to know that uh people are people are are all basically good that he wasn't going to let you down we let no one fail up here the dropout rate is zero because nobody fails if you've been a failure throughout your life if you lost your jobs you're going to get right through this thing like everybody else well this man power challenge you know we send supervisors up so budy you've had it all your life good now we we're on equal basis you know nothing about the mountains I know nothing about them so now let's see you outdo me now and it's kind of competitive you know we had this between Anglo and the black the supervisor this trainee one wasn't going to be outdone by the other one and they just pushed push pushed it goes back one more thing I can compete now the whole course lead you right up into your solo you know where you're able to take care of yourself this is where you spend three days and three nights all by yourself out in the wilderness 72 hours it's a mental thing it'll give you time to think about what you've did in life what have you accomplished in life it'll give you time to think about what you want to do in life and what you want to accomplish in life [Music] waiting in the west with breath and W that wash my eyes [Music] my that [Music] I pretended truth and rela [Music] [Music] I learned that I had some bad faults uh when it came to interacting with other people and that these faults can be corrected that a person can change and he can learn uh to have more faith in people I can't say a whole lot about solo CU I didn't I didn't see solo a whole lot I was sleep most of time you know you know I just couldn't stop dreaming about making love and money that's all I was thinking about for a while there and then food then Making Love and Money had come out my mind then food food I I liked it m climbing the mountains and everything only thing I really didn't enjoy was uh sleeping in those soaking wet sleeping bags but it was all an experience so I didn't mind too much you know I'm not supposed to say this but We snuck out of camp and called home and I called home and talked to my wife no I missed you I missed my wife and I talked to my mother for a while and she was really worried about me and you know it really made me feel good if somebody missed me it went a lot better than I expected it to go you I starved a lot I didn't dig that at all I wrote about old things I had done and I knew I shouldn't have done and things I wish I had it down and I think the whole purpose of of the solo was was to make you think I saw myself a lot of different ways I saw times when I was rationalizing procrastinating when I was really doing things that didn't have any place in a supervisor's role so I saw myself my worst a lot of times during the 3 weeks we were out bound you learn a lot of things uh you know things that uh that you don't think that you could do that that you could really do if you you know if you really put a goal into it and uh really uh if you put put your mind to do it you could do it that's anything really I think you know you could go a lot further than you really think you can oh yeah I'll think back about everything cuz I've gotten everything written down and all the letters I sent to my wife I I put on them save this coupon very valuable you know I was just lonely and miserable the last uh 24 hours of solo I was just on the verge of tears a couple of times just thinking about uh things that I could have done better that I didn't do no sir I'm not sure I'd want to do it again but I wouldn't take anything for it where you living now I'm living with my pants right now but uh I'm planning on moving out soon as I uh get myself together here be able to do that with this right later on in about a couple of months or so where uh we get through with this training program right right now we're not making too much we're making about a175 an hour and then it advances every week if we uh straighten up here this is like sort of a probation period see at one time we were throwing away veils C hundred and something dollars for Junk see these guys Salvage all that stuff they're they're paying their own way now in this Recycling yard and plus making the company money at the same time uh we're working out to traine problem so that when he's promoted into the brewery or he makes a better employee when I started up at Kors I started at the bottom point you I was passing out tools in the tool a chance came and they looked around they said well we're going to try Leon at this so I'm a buyer you know I'm not complaining I got a nice job I like it I really do enjoy my job man is this really worth it you know is it worth it and the way that you have to start from a165 and you rotate into a race where you get a race every other week or every week until you come up to uh $3 I think is the limit and uh then uh you're eligible for uh a job change and within that time you know you didn't got just to this $3 and $3 is a little bit better than that dollar 65 because uh you got more money and you kind to uh break away from uh your uh tight budget and exercise your money within the things that you really want to do you know and it kind of make you look forward in going off into the uh bigger plan because you're making more money and you can step take a step higher in life you know but red is not I mean it it's it's hard to really get adjusted because man sometime you wonder is it really worth it I think it's a pretty good break you know for fellas that uh like me you know that have uh had problems in their lives and you know and it's hard you know to get a good job you know especially if you been a paroly like me you know and then uh you go on this Outward Bound course and I think it's a pretty good break you know for fellas that you know really take it in consideration and uh because uh you just don't find too many places around Denver that you can work yourself up to for for uh about 488 hours you know within a year you know you just can't find jobs like that that's kind of like being born again you know it's kind of like being born again you're R employer to get into a program like this the first thing he must have is a commitment he has to want to do it himself and if he wants to do it he can do it uh he's going to have to use a tremendous amount of Ingenuity he's going he will suffer a lot of disappointment there's much trial and error you have to know how to get along with them you have to develop a rapport with them develop a communication with them this of course is the area that the Colorado Outward Bound school solves for us uh I don't think we could operate this program without their help in this area uh people have asked me what do I get out of this what does the company get out of it in return for our pains and our troubles I would say that uh the psychic benefits that we have all received from this more than justify the effort that we have put into it on the other side we are getting some remarkable employes from it we have one man that we are particularly fond of particularly sold on that is presently back in prison for the second time we're going to take a third chance on it [Music]