Reinventing From Within | Jarrett Adams (Replay)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Impact Theory – Reinventing From Within with Jarrett Adams

Date: January 29, 2024
Host: Tom Bilyeu
Guest: Jarrett Adams, attorney and co-founder of Life After Justice

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Episode Overview

This powerful episode features Jarrett Adams, who was wrongfully convicted at age 17, spent nearly a decade in a maximum-security prison, and then transformed his life, becoming a lawyer and champion for justice reform. Adams details his harrowing journey through the criminal system, the self-education and advocacy that led to his release, and his current mission to reform the system that failed him. The conversation explores themes of resilience, societal injustice, racial bias, personal growth, and using adversity to fuel purposeful action.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Wrongful Conviction and the Reality of the Justice System

[03:40 - 07:38]

• Adams recounts the initial shock and overwhelming hopelessness upon being convicted for a crime he didn't commit as a young Black man without resources.
  • “It's a hopeless feeling...I quickly realized that it wasn't about the truth in my case...It was about who I was, who was accusing me and what resources did I have.” — Jarrett Adams [03:40]
• He reflects on the maturation process forced upon him in prison and the profound impact on both him and his family, particularly his mother.
  • “The people who are in prison aren't in prison themselves. Whether it be rightfully or wrongfully. If you use the analogy of a bomb, when it hits its target, collateral damage is always affected. That's what the criminal justice system is.” — Jarrett Adams [08:12]

2. Transformation, Resilience, and Family Bonds

[09:08 - 10:58]

• Adams shares how adversity deepened his relationship with his mother, resulting in honest, difficult, and ultimately transformative conversations about race, survival, and hope.
  • “We know our parents as kids, right? But we don't really get to know them until we're adults...even in a hell hole like prison.” — Jarrett Adams [09:22]
• He describes passion and focus as fuel to keep going despite pain:
  • “Your focus and your passion will numb you to failure, into pain, of striving to get to where you're trying to go.” — Jarrett Adams [10:54]

3. Choosing Purpose Over Bitterness: The Path to Law

[11:07 - 14:21]

• Tom Bilyeu asks why Adams chose not to emerge with bitterness, and instead became a lawyer; Adams credits therapy and a conscious decision to channel anger into action.
  • “Inside, internally, really was ready to burn stuff to the ground and be upset. But I learned through going to get the therapy and be able to let it out, that...you'd be surprised how much more powerful and lasting that it becomes.” — Jarrett Adams [12:28]

4. Crucial Turning Point in Prison

[14:22 - 28:50]

• Adams recalls a life-changing encounter with his cellmate, "Pops", who challenges him to start fighting for his own case.
  • “I've never once seen you looking at your case, working on your case...You're saying you're innocent, but you act like you're enrolled on the college campus here, right?” — Pops (paraphrased by Adams) [16:41]
• This conversation propels Adams into relentless self-education, learning law from scratch, and writing 50 letters a week to seek help.
  • “So when I came back to the room, I asked him, I said, look, I read the case. Is this what you're trying to get me to understand? He threw the note back to me. He said, no, look, you go tell me what I'm trying to get you to understand.” — Jarrett Adams [16:40]
• Adams explains how helping other inmates and persistent outreach (sometimes leveraging stamps in exchange for legal help) eventually led to contact with organizations like the Innocence Project.
  • “I was sending out 50 letters a week, like, I'm not lying, I'm not making this up...I'd run off copies and I would send these things out every week.” — Jarrett Adams [25:53]

5. Release, Reinvention, and Observations on Life After Prison

[28:50 - 35:12]

• Adams describes adjusting to life post-prison and observing that adversity is universal, not unique.
  • “Life is hard...and people who are born into different situations have a hard time appreciating how hard it is for others.” — Jarrett Adams [32:26]
• He discusses the unique challenges faced by exonerees, who often lack the basic support even paroled prisoners receive.
  • “When you are wrongfully convicted, you don't get anything – that's crazy.” — Jarrett Adams [34:44]
• His drive comes from the desire to use his experience to help others and break the cycle of injustice.

6. Justice Reform, Systemic Change, and Advice to Listeners

[35:13 - 49:35]

• Adams argues for structural change:
  • “If you believe that the criminal justice system is about corrections, you need to go find the biggest pair of scissors you can and cut that shit out. Because it's not true.” — Jarrett Adams [21:07]
• He advocates for introducing curricula on race and privilege in America to begin change from within.
  • “Race in America needs to be a curriculum. And it needs to be a curriculum because it'll trickle down into the effects that mess us up in society today.” — Jarrett Adams [43:13]
• He encourages listeners to get involved by starting locally, holding elected officials accountable, and understanding that systemic change is slow but necessary.

7. Personal Mission, Lasting Impact, and "Silhouette" Metaphor

[40:47 - 51:03]

• Tom likens Adams to a real-life superhero for beating a rigged system and then choosing to help others escape it.
  • “When you can win a game that you know is rigged but that you can still outplay and outperform, that's a superhero.” — Tom Bilyeu [40:48]
• Adams shares his mission: to break down stigmas against formerly incarcerated individuals and inspire hope and change.
  • “What this means is the person is putting the worst behind them... walking out with the hopes and the dreams and the aspirations of being productive in society, to be able to live and just have a life.” (explaining his organization’s logo) — Jarrett Adams [50:07]

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Notable Quotes & Highlights

• On Survivorship and Hope:
  “My mother was very much so imprisoned by me being there. Couldn't go to church, couldn't go out...collateral damage is always affected.” — Jarrett Adams [08:12]
• On Agency:
  “Your focus and your passion will numb you to failure, into pain, of striving to get to where you're trying to go.” — Jarrett Adams [10:54]
• On Fighting the System:
  "They didn't serve me a smart pill in prison... I had these talents before going to prison, but my candle was almost blew out before it was even lit." — Jarrett Adams [41:43]
• On Systemic Solutions:
  "We need to take the long route and the most stable route and that's to bring these curriculums [about race and privilege] into our school." — Jarrett Adams [46:30]

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Important Timestamps

• [03:40] – Jarrett describes the shock and pain of wrongful conviction.
• [08:12] – Collateral damage of incarceration on families.
• [14:22] – Shifting from anger/denial to purposeful action after cellmate’s challenge.
• [25:53] – Adams's relentless campaign of outreach and first legal strategies.
• [32:26] – Observing adversity in others after release.
• [34:44] – On the unique hardships faced by exonerees.
• [43:13] – Adams's call for education on race and privilege in America.
• [50:07] – Explanation of Life After Justice's logo and mission.
• [51:15] – Summing up his intended societal impact.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a compelling testimonial on resilience, transformation, and justice. Jarrett Adams’s journey illustrates not only the deep flaws of the American penal system but also the capacity of the human spirit to endure, adapt, and find purpose through even the harshest adversity. His work now aims to make systemic change, inspire others to action, and prove that from personal pain can come powerful progress.

For more or to support:

• Visit jarrettadams.com
• Learn about the nonprofit Life After Justice

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Transcript

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[Tom Bilyeu]

You're listening to the Impact Theory podcast, your source of empowering ideas and actionable techniques from the world's highest achievers. Join host Tom Bilyeu, serial entrepreneur and co founder of the billion dollar brand Quest Nutrition, on a journey to unlock your potential and realize your vision of success. Welcome to Impact Theory,

[Jarrett Adams]

everybody.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Welcome to another episode of Impact. The. You are here, my friends, because you believe that human potential is nearly limitless. But you know that having potential is not the same as actually doing something with it. So our goal with this show and company is to introduce you to the people and ideas that are going to help you actually execute on your dreams. All right, today's guest was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault at the age of 17 and sentenced to 28 years in a maximum security prison. This miscarriage of justice robbed him of nearly 10 years of his life. And while most people would have been lost to hopelessness or swallowed by blinding rage after a chance encounter with a fellow inmate snapped him out of his passive approach to a situation, he decided he was going to fight for his freedom. Armed with a radical new enthusiasm, he threw himself headlong into the prison's library, beginning the long and arduous process of teaching himself law. Realizing the need for help, he launched a tireless outreach campaign that saw him writing upwards of 50 letters per week. And this onslaught finally got the Wisconsin Innocence Project to come to his aid and help him secure the legal team that would ultimately assist him in winning his freedom in 2007. But hell bent to do more than simply get out of prison despite being broke, having no credit history and a 10 year gap on his resume, he decided to double down on his education. Living on his mother's couch, he first attended community college, then transferred to Roosevelt College, where he graduated with high honors and obtained a BA in Criminal justice. In recognition of his extraordinary work and talents, he became the 2012 recipient of the Chicago Bar Association's Abraham Lincoln Merovitz Public Interest Scholarship, which he used to attend law school. After graduating in 2015, he went on to pass the New York State Bar which win a coveted position to clerk for the seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the very court that overturned his conviction. Guys, please help me in welcoming the co founder of Life after justice, the investigator of the year award recipient and relentless advocate for legal reform, Jarrett Adams.

[Jarrett Adams]

Well appreciated.

[Tom Bilyeu]

It is an honor to have you. Thank you everybody. I'm sure every time this happens, freaks out about your story. I mean, it is, it is. In fact, it was two seconds before you came on George, who you met.

[Jarrett Adams]

Yeah.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Said literally if you were going to ask me to say what my nightmare is, my nightmare would be to be wrongfully convicted. What is that moment like?

[Jarrett Adams]

It's a hopeless feeling and you're surrounded around a bunch of hopelessness inside of the criminal justice system. I quickly realized that it wasn't about the truth in my case because if it was, I never would have been tried, convicted, anything. Right. It was about who I was, who was accusing me and what resources did I have. Right. And in my case, I'm young black man, no resources, just a high school education and I was accused by a white woman of rape. So all of those were like the ingredients to see the injustice happen to you in the criminal justice system. So to go through it. At first, there was a transformation that I took while in prison. Shock was definitely the first of anything. Just the initial shock to be 17, turning 18, turning 19. I'm receiving letters from my friends who had going off to college, got their first car, got their first credit card, maxed out their first credit card. You know what I mean? Just stuff like that. Just the stuff where you're like, look, this is the maturation process that kids go through and that sets them up to who they be, who they become in life. Right. That setup for me was taking place inside of a maximum security prison with a 28 year sentence. I started to just going to a dark, just desolate, there's no way I'm getting out of here type of place. It was a splash wake up. To race the criminal justice system and what it's like to be underprivileged and to face the criminal justice system. And I'm watching the worst of the worst horror movies to be accused of something of raping a woman. And I was raised by like a single mother, my two aunts, my grandmother. So more than anything I felt like in debt to explain to them this is a lie. But I didn't really have to do that with them because like they knew me. You could have called and said, look, I took someone's skateboard or Just some juvenile stuff, Right? But you weren't gonna call and say, I shot nobody, robbed nobody, or raped anyone, Right? Like, they just weren't going for that. They weren't buying it. And that's when the conversations they started to have with me was a bit more raw, a bit more. You know what? You've grown up in an all black neighborhood. You've never experienced racism. We've told you certain things are out here and boom, this is what's going on. This is why stuff doesn't make sense to you. We can't afford to get you an attorney. We don't know much about the law. No one in my family had been arrested, charged with any crimes or anything like that. So it was one of these things where I could recite to you the entire Tupac album, but, like, none of my constitutional amendments or any of those type of things, right? And I look back on that and I said to myself, first of all, how did I. How am I so ill prepared? How are we so ill prepared to, like, deal with this right? To be accused is one thing, but to, like, not have the resources to prove your innocence is like a total. It's a totally different animal. And you're there and you're watching this, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. And that is a terrible, lonely, isolating feeling for me, definitely. But when I would turn around and I would look at my mother in court and to just look at those. Those wrinkles and those creases of anguish on her forehead, it spoke to me what she wasn't able to say in words. She felt like she had failed me by not having resources to be able to afford to buy me an attorney. But I felt even more in pain because, like, I told her I was going to spend the night over a friend's house and we snuck to a party where this allegation was able to be made in the first place. So I felt like. I just felt so. So torn up by that. So torn up to the point where I'm in prison. Yeah, I'm mad. I'm there. But if you ask me what took first place, me being there and being mad I was there, or me being mad at how I disappointed my mother, like that came a one. I mean, what did this woman do but go to work, Work crazy early hours to provide for me and my brother, and I just. Man, I just almost just blew not only my life away, but. But her life? Because the people who are in prison aren't in prison themselves. Whether it Be rightfully or wrongfully. If you use the analogy of a bomb, when it hits its target, collateral damage is always affected. That's what the criminal justice system is. My mother was very much so imprisoned by me being there. Couldn't go to church, couldn't go out. Certain events and people would ask, hey, how's Jared doing? How do you go on to start a story where like, yeah, he's in prison, but he didn't do it. Doesn't it sound familiar to, like, a lot of, you know, the things that people say? And so it was that. It was that that I locked onto.

[Tom Bilyeu]

And have you guys reconciled that, like, I'm assuming you've talked a lot about that since you got out?

[Jarrett Adams]

Yeah, we developed a really close relationship while, you know, while I was there.

[Tom Bilyeu]

You got closer while you were in prison or when you got home?

[Jarrett Adams]

While I was there. Because. And the reason I say that is because we know our parents as kids, right? But we don't really get to know them until we're adults. Right? You know what I mean? Like, who they are as people. Right? We know who they are as parents, but we don't get to know them as people. And it was that maturation process that I was able to go through, even in a hell hole like prison. The letters, the sending me verses from the book of Psalm in the Bible, the having conversations, the real unfiltered conversations of, look, let me tell you what this is about, and let me tell you why you can't do certain things in America. If you're of black and brown skin color that other people can. You don't get second chances, right? You're not, like, you're not one of the Duke lacrosse teammate members, you know what I mean, who got accused of a rape, never went to prison. Even the prosecutor was this barred, right? And that case was so similar to mine, but it was just like, I got 28 years and got convicted because of, like, the circumstances that I spoke to you about before. So we just had a real conversations. And it made me become an adult far beyond my years. It kept me alive, so to speak, to where it was like, you know, I'm getting these letters, I'm able to communicate with her on the outside. I'm able to understand, like, what's important to me, whether inside or when I get outside. No matter how painful it is, I gotta keep going. And I gotta keep going, because what is my passion? What is my focus? Your focus and your passion will numb you to failure, into pain, of striving to get to where you're trying to go.

[Tom Bilyeu]

All right, well, I have to ask, because we're gonna get to that, but I have to ask, why come out and get a law degree? Why not come out and just burn shit to the ground?

[Jarrett Adams]

Yeah, well, you know. You know, listen, don't let me come across as someone who's just, like, not mad and happy and jovial. Like, hell, no, I'm mad. Like, for real. I am. But. But. But the reality. The reality of it is this, right? So. So now, look, there are a lot of things that come with prison, right? But when you do a credit report check, your last known address shows up. My last known address was a supermax in Wisconsin. So it was like, you know, I couldn't get away from, like, that gap in my life at all and stuff like that. And so. So what I was saying, there's a stigma that is attached to people who go to prison. People who go to prison and who come out of prison, whether rightfully or wrongfully. We just assume, like, this guy or this girl has gotta be a character from Orange is the New Black. Like, something's like, you know, something like that, right? So my mother and my aunts would pay attention to me and they would look at me and they would just, like, notice. Like, I was really quiet. And they were like, look, why you not mad? We mad as hell. Like, you not mad. Something isn't right here, right? So they were encouraging me to go and to get therapy, to get help, but I kind of felt like they were calling me crazy. You know what I mean? It was just more so one of these things where I fought it for a little while of going to get the help that I so desperately needed, right? So that's why I'm able to be how I am now and be able to deal with certain things. I was able to let it out

[Tom Bilyeu]

because you did go get help.

[Jarrett Adams]

I did go get therapy. I had to go down. I had to go and sit down because I inside, internally, really was ready to burn stuff to the ground and be upset. But I learned through going to get the therapy and be able to let it out, that I learned that this thing is a powerful thing right here, right? And you can ball it up, smack a few people with it, and you probably feel good momentarily. There are repercussions with doing that, but you'll probably feel good momentarily. But if you take the same thing and you just do this with it, right? You'd be surprised how much more powerful and lasting that. That it becomes. So that's why I wanted to become an attorney.

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[Tom Bilyeu]

How'd you get convinced of that? I mean, so, like, I'm just putting myself in your shoes. You're 17.

[Jarrett Adams]

Yeah.

[Tom Bilyeu]

By definition, you're dumb because you're 17. Right? I was dumb as hell at 17.

[Jarrett Adams]

Yeah.

[Tom Bilyeu]

So I'm just going to assume. Right. So you. Like when I. When I look at your story from the outside and go, that shit is so unfair. And, like, I'm a big guy. Like, if you come to me and start crying about fair, I'm just gonna tell you, life isn't fair. But that's so unfair that it's like, jesus, what do you do with that? So I know I would have had a lot balled up. I would have been super pissed off. I don't know how easy it would have been for me to go, I can ball this up and smash somebody. It'll feel good, but repercussions. Or I can write and really move something because there's a huge chasm of nothingness in the middle.

[Jarrett Adams]

Right.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Which is the more obvious choice, because I wouldn't have gone out punching people. That's not my makeup. But I could see losing years to feeling sorry for myself, to the black hole in the middle. So, one, walk us through the interaction you have on lockdown that really flips a switch for you, that makes you realize you're gonna fight and find freedom. And then what? The other moment is when you realize, I'm going to do something more than just burn things to the ground.

[Jarrett Adams]

Right. Well, actually, you know, a lot of what you just described, it was. It was more. It's like my life and who I was was morphing right in front of me. So, yeah, I went through those angry stages, those mad, no one cares, I'm the victim and stuff like that. I went through that. But, but, but by doing that, I cannot stress this enough. By doing that, it added to the definition that was in my mother's forehead with those wrinkles and those creases of anguish. So I Locked onto that. Like, how do I lock onto that to block out the pain, the anger and frustration that I was, and that

[Tom Bilyeu]

is bringing beauty back to her life.

[Jarrett Adams]

I said, you know what? You know, this woman was having her head down, crying, not knowing what to do, coming to visit me five, six hours away. Broke her leg one day, coming to visit me in the wintertime, accepting expensive phone calls. I was indebted to that woman, and I was gonna pay her back. You could believe that, right? They knew I was gonna become an attorney. But I knew the next time she walked up in that church and sat in the front row, she was gonna be proud to say what Jared was doing and not ducking her head, right? So. And that's what I locked onto. And I say this whenever I go and I speak to kids and stuff like that. You have to be crazy and believing what your goal and your passion is. Because when something is crazy, even though it's crazy, you still do. Right? You know what I mean? And so that's what you have to become. You have to become insane, right?

[Tom Bilyeu]

Where did you learn this?

[Jarrett Adams]

I mean, I cannot tell you. I had to pick this up in prison. Like, I had to pick this up in prison.

[Tom Bilyeu]

I had to pick up this. Are you learning step by step? Is somebody, like, saying some of this stuff? Like, this is so powerful, right?

[Jarrett Adams]

No, I mean, this is all based on research. And I'll tell you this.

[Tom Bilyeu]

So you're reading.

[Jarrett Adams]

So I'm reading like, crazy. Reading, like, reading books in a day and a half, you know what I mean? If it's good, you know? So I. I. We were. We were. I was in maximum security prison, Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was one of the most violent prisons, like, in the state. Like, it had the nickname Gladiator school, right? And so, you know, like, look, it lived up to his title. It was just a ridiculous setting place for anything to be called Corrections. Like, nah, man. It's like Department of Warehousing, let's be honest. Like, that's what it is. So one day it was. It was an incident that happened where it was just. It was like a stabbing or beating or something like that. And they put everybody on lockdown at this time. So when they put you on lockdown, you're on lockdown 24 hours a day. You're in your cell that's about the size of a broom closet in New York, right? You know what I mean? That small. You know, it's two beds stacked on top of each other. The toilet's right by your head. You Know there's a TV in there, if you can afford one. And there's like a little stool, you know, sticking out of the wall. And that's where everything is like where you're at. So lockdown is one of the most inhumane things to like be on, especially when you're there for like more than 24 hours. So when you're on lockdown, what they're trying to do is they're trying to find out if this is like a, like a grand scale riot or if this is just like an isolated incident. So that way they can determine when they let down, let people off of lockdown. So if you have the phone that night, phones are assigned to people on different nights and stuff like that. They'll bring you the phone, they bring you your food to your cell. Like they throw you change of clothes there. Cause you don't take a shower during certain periods and stints during, during this lockdown. And it was my phone night. My cellmate, older white dude, you know, I've been in there for about five months and me and this guy didn't really have a conversation past two sentences, right? I had just begin really starting my time. I was younger, he was older, been there for like 19 years. He was already set in his ways. And it's like a different, these are, we're different people, right? You that may irritate him and stuff like that. I just tried to stay out of his way. So I was on the phone with my mother and my mother patched in my aunts on a three way call. And I was explaining to them like the appellate court was like denying another one of my appeals. And they just kept asking like, I don't understand if, you know, there are witnesses that are coming forward now and your lawyer didn't call any of these people who basically provided you alibi. Like, I don't understand how they're ignoring this. Like, and I really came to understand that as well. Like it's not about the truth, it's about what you can prove in court. They don't care. The criminal justice system doesn't care about the truth, man. Unless you're rich, you know, and you don't go to jail when you're rich unless you piss off other rich people, you know. So it's just, you know, it's just really nuts, right? So I was in his cell and he told me to come down off the bunk after I got off the phone with my mother and my aunts. And he was just like, you know, I heard what you was up there saying. And I'm like, sure you did, man. You, like, within arm's reach under the damn mug. Like, of course you did. So he's like, nah. But, you know, I listened. And what's confusing me is you go work out, you play chess, you play basketball. I've never once seen you looking at your case, working on your case, like. And so that's just, like, confusing to me, man. Like, you know, you're saying you're innocent, but you're like. You act like you're enrolled on the college campus here, right? So he began to have a conversation with me and point out certain things to me. And he was like, look, the same dudes that you're talking to, they'll be paroled out in the wintertime. I want you to listen real well for their voice. At the end of the next summer, sure enough, he was right about a lot of that stuff. He was right about that because they came back. They came right back. And you want to talk about scary? It was never a violent incident that I saw in prison that could scare me. Like, looking at people leave out in December and come back in July. Like, routinely. Like, routinely. And I would ask them questions, and I'll get to that, too, how I was able to start picking people's brain to find out what. What. What I wanted to do in my life. But. So he. My cellmate, old white guy by the name of Pops. So he asked me for my transcripts, my paperwork, police reports. He was like, let me. Let me just see it, and I'll go through, and I'll give you my advice. So we got off of lockdown, and he was still, like, going through, you know, my paperwork and stuff like that. And he was gonna let me know his opinion. So, you know, we get off lockdown, and you would think I would go right to the library right now. I had, like, 23 points that day on the rec yard. I was balling out there, okay? But it was. It was. And the thing about it is this. Like, I wasn't doing it because it was just like, man, forget this crap. Like, I mean, like, I did not know how to deal with this. I was lost. It was painful to get pictures looking at my nephew just born when I'm locked up, and he's, like, growing up, like, look, I had a niece who came to the family that I didn't even know, like, just looking at pictures. So it was just one of these things where it was like, look, I didn't want to deal with it. That like, that was my. The. That's how I dealt with it, therapeutically, to just ignore it. And I deal with it. I came back off of, you know, the rec yard, and my cellmate was sitting in. In the cell, and he was just like, I want you to sit down for a second. He was just like, look, I do a lot of legal work helping people out and stuff like that around here. He was like, I've never in my life seen such bull crap. And it's racial bull crap. And he's like, there's no evidence here, man. He's like, you got 28 years. You know, the guy, he was out, he shot two people. He has 18 years. So it's just like, he was just explaining to me, waking me up, so to speak, to say, look, if you keep on, it's only a matter of time before you're walking around here with tattoo teardrops under your eye and basically becoming immersed in what the prison culture is, right? And it woke me up. It gave me a different perspective on why I was there and who was counting on me, you know, on the outside, like, very much so. My mother was in prison, just minus the bars, you know, and I was looking at it take a toll and the effect on her and my aunts. And so he threw me a notepad and he said, look, I want you to look at this case. It's called Strickland versus Washington. And, you know, I went to the library and I started looking at this case, and I'm like, all right, okay, I get. I get what it's saying. So Strickland versus Washington is a case where it's like a lawyer who failed to do his job and his failures were constitutionally like, like, like just. Just not allowed by standards you in a court of law. So they overturned this guy's conviction and stuff like that. And so when I came back to the room, I asked him, I said, look, I read the case. Is this what you're trying to get me to understand? He threw the note back to me. He said, no, look, you go tell me what I'm trying to get you to understand. So it was a course of a couple weeks of going back and forth to the library, coming back on the same case, the same case. That's where my academic level was. When you just graduate high school from a South side of Chicago type of high school, and depending on what school district you're in, right, you don't get the best of the best education. And so I'm not knowing anything, and I'm going through and I'm reading words, I have absolutely no idea what they mean. And each time I would come back and ask what a word meant, he would send me back in the library to go tell me what the word meant. And so I did this over a course of time and like, I got an understanding of what was going on. This sounds like a movie, right? Well, I'm hoping, you know, you know, I'm recently married and my wife wants kids. So. Look, I'm hoping, you know, but more than anything, I'm hoping that it has a couple different impacts on people in society in general. First of all, if you believe that the criminal justice system is about corrections, you need to go find the biggest pair of scissors you can and cut that shit out. Because it's not true. Like, it's absolutely not. It's not true at all, man. Like, that wake up call was like, important to me. Cause he included a lot of other colorful language in there just to say, like, look, dude, I ain't never going home. Like, I'm never going home, right? And you ain't here for some racial bull crap. And it's like, he's like, look, it's five different version of events. Like, which one is the state saying happened? And then he was like, more importantly, there's a witness that is saying that he is with you guys from like the beginning to the end. And it was a stud. So it was stuff that I wasn't. All I knew was this. I was accused of a rape. That's all I knew, right? I didn't really know what we were accused of or anything like that until I got. Got to the trial and heard what it was and just heard the ridiculousness of like, wait a minute, dude, are you serious? It was like all students all around with only three black guys on campus, man. Like, I mean, look, people saw us, right? They knew where we were like, at all during, during the. The party, right? So I just, I looked at this and I. And I looked at this and I started to read what was going on. And I started to draft, like, what I thought would. A petition would look like to get me home. But simultaneously, while drafting this, I was writing letters to as many people as I can as I can get in touch with. Like, seriously, when I. When I tell you I was sending out 50 letters a week, like, I'm not lying, I'm not making this up. I. I got a. I got ahold to a typewriter and I typed out a letter explaining to people, look, I'm innocent. This is my issue. These are my claims. And the letter would have a blank as to who it was going to and a blank as to the date. And I would run off copies and I would send these things out every week. And you would only get 20 stamps, like allowed off canteen man, that's even crazier. Like, you can get like 50,000 bags of chips. You can only get like 20 stamps. Like, come on, man, that's crazy. I'm not getting that. So I started helping other people with legal work and in return it would give me stamps. So that's how I was able to mail out 50 a week. Like I wrote everyone trying to get help, and I told myself, I said, look, okay, now, now people, they, they weren't responding at first, but I was like, all right, even if you respond and tell me to stop writing you, you're gonna respond, right? Cause I was sending these things out. And so I was getting feedback from certain organizations who are on the way up as to opening up the door, to showing the different injustices of the criminal justice system and helping society to understand that not every time someone walks across your stream in the perp walk, what we call a perp walk, with handcuffs and they're accused of something, not every time that happens, they are guilty of what they're accused of. And it was just one of these things where it was just like I told myself that I would be going home each day, the next day, in order to keep myself from going crazy in there. You know, it was just one of these things where I was able to grow both writing these letters, watching what was going on on the outside as much as possible. Because I would go to the law library, I would get the newspaper, and when I couldn't find case law in the library, I would write different attorneys out of the newspaper. Cause they always show your name or your. And one of the guys name was Robert Hennick. Robert Hennick was a criminal attorney who did post conviction work out of Milwaukee. And he responded to my letter and he started to help me edit the habeas petition where the body of work got me home with the argument that was inside. I would write it, mail it to him with one of the 50 letters I was sending out. He would send it back, edit it. I would do whatever edits I needed, send it back to him. And we did this for, you know, for a short amount of time until it was respectable. Like, honestly, I'm sitting up here doing this with a pen insert, like, you know what I mean? Like, pen insert in the typewriter, like, it was gonna be as best as it could, right. So I started to send out with my letters, like, a draft of this thing. And that's when things started to change. Like, I started to see people's response

[Tom Bilyeu]

because now it was like, official. You could tell there was some meat to this.

[Jarrett Adams]

This is what it is. Like, is what it is. This is the case. And I started to talk the language of a lawyer. So I was like, okay, so that's what it is.

[Tom Bilyeu]

How old are you at this point?

[Jarrett Adams]

So at this point, I was. I was turning 22.

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Wow.

[Jarrett Adams]

So I was turning 22. And that's the thing about prison. Like, time doesn't go slow. You think it does, but one Christmas would turn into like seven of them. Wow. Before you know it. Right.

[Tom Bilyeu]

That's really surprising.

[Jarrett Adams]

And. And it's the real, like, it's the truth. You find a way to pass the time in prison. That old saying, do the time, don't let the time do you, and stuff like that. But there's some truth to that. Psychologically, where you have to. You read books and stuff like that to take you outside of the prison walls mentally. So even they. Even though they hold you physically, you do not ever surrender your mental freedom to the establishment, you know? And so doing that, I started to take notes. Just like a diary, so to speak. The people I met, the people I would help. My mother was keeping letters that I was writing to her. Even in the letters that I was writing, you can see the evolution. So when I first started writing them, it was just like, yo, look, mom, I ain't do it. You know me, I love you. Boom. That's it. Then it started. Like, you started seeing, hey, look, I just saw another case overturned. This happened. That happened. This can help in my case. So there was a maturation process and in many ways. I received my certificate, my diploma from Loyola Law School, but I attended law school back in Green Bay correctional facility.

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[Jarrett Adams]

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[Jarrett Adams]

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[Tom Bilyeu]

Learn more@american express.com Explore Platinum enrollment requirements monthly and other limits in terms of. Yeah, I mean, that's. That's so powerful because there's no substitute for the trenches. There's no substitute for this has to work. Right. And I think that's why that's the gift that being an entrepreneur has given me. Right. So not nearly as terrifying or profound as going to prison, but it's when you're building a company and your house is on the line and everything's in it, there is no retreat. Failure has real consequence. It's not, I'm going to go get another job. It's everything I have is taken away from me. And I am at ground zero. And I love that. And when I was reading your story, I thought, okay, no one would wish this on somebody, certainly not somebody that they care about. And I don't even think I would be able to man up and wish it on myself knowing that there are benefits, but there are benefits.

[Jarrett Adams]

Yeah.

[Tom Bilyeu]

And it's so interesting to hear you talk about the maturation process, to talk about how you can see your life transforming before your very eyes. And that to me is, is why your story seems so exceptional. Right? So, so many people have gone through what you've gone through, sadly. But you're the only one here for that reason. Is that. How do you think about the blessings that came out of this?

[Jarrett Adams]

I mean, I'm. Each and every day I'm looking at the blessings that have come. Now, look, there's no way in hell I would have signed up for this, right? Like, not at all. Like, it wasn't definitely. No, I wouldn't have gave up, you know, like all of my 20s, essentially, you know, for this. Not at all. But, you know, you look at it and I'll give you an example like this. So I am, I'm out. And I felt like I had missed so much, like just so much. February 2007. I'm home. I was arrested in 1998. Turning 27 on my mother's couch with no credit, no insurance, nothing. But then I started to catch up with old friends and I started to run into old classmates and I started to see something, right? And it was just like, well, damn, I have been gone, spotted you all, a ten year head start. And like, man, look, this is, you know, but it wasn't them or it wasn't how remarkable I am, if I am at all, it was life itself. Life is hard. Life is hard. And people who are born into different situations have a hard time appreciating how hard it is for others, right? And life is difficult. Had a high school buddy, he only operates with one side of his body now. He was shot up in a drug deal. So I looked at that. I have another friend, he went to the army, there was an accident that happened and he's not the same person anymore, you know what I mean? So it's like he escaped the neighborhood to go to the army in search of better opportunities for him and his family. I go unsigned up to go to prison in the hellish of conditions. And I make it out and I'm not gonna say unscathed because that's definitely not the case, but I may get out and physical, relatively physical, great health. And he goes to the army to serve our country and he's just like not the same person anymore. So it was like, yeah, the blessings were right there in front of me. And to tell you even more, how I used what I saw in there to drive me every time I got tired. The best story I could tell you was in a visiting room one day, an hour before a visit with my mother and my aunts. I was out on basketball court again, but I wasn't playing. I was actually reading over my case material stuff now. And I was looking down. I met some guys, it was a game going on and I thought the guys were referring to each other as nicknames, nicknames, Pops, old man, grandpa and all that type. It wasn't until I got on the visit and I realized, nah, that was like a grandfather, a father and a son all in one prison. And they were there on unrelated offenses, all drugs, non violent. And at the end of the visit they have you stand up, meaning the visitors and the inmates to go back into general population and the visitors to go back past the security. So it wasn't then until it really hit home where I looked at the women who got up at the end of the visit and each one of them with a toddler in tow in their hand, walking to be released. And I said to myself, you know how many of them young black boys, girls will grow to reach their potential or go to become where I'm a replacement? You know, it was just like looking at stuff like that. It gave me the opportunity to say, look, you can get out here and play victim if you want to, you know, because there's a lot of company for that, right when you can come out of here and make sure that if there's ever a story written about you or talked about or said about you, it won't end with, yeah, Jared was wrongfully convicted. He got out like, nah, nah, nah, nah. This 10 years that I gave is going to be meaningful and more than just, you know, being a story. Because I'm telling you, I just, I. Every time I get tired, I think back to certain things. Like looking at that in the visiting room and then looking at my mother, just how helpless she was. And if I can have a law that allows me to, I don't have to be rich because rich people have problems. But I just want to be able to go. And I have to ask how much something costs before I order it on the menu. So that's what I want, right? And to be able to afford to send my kids through college. So I'm not doing this to become wealthy or anything like that. I really want to do this to see people live the lives that they deserve. Life is really, really short. And I think that we don't value and appreciate our freedoms and our opportunities in our life. There are going to always be obstacles. You're going to have to either go around them, go over them, or go right through them. But you can't stop going. You know what I mean? Like, you just can't. And people ask me, like, well, how are you able to do this? Like, what other choice did I have? Like, I was coming home to a ever changing environment in the city of Chicago where it's like you, it's just a different, it's different like right now, it's different right now in these neighborhoods. And I didn't have any skills, but I had something that a lot of people who come home from cases such as mine, they don't have. And that was my youth. A lot of people come home at the age of retirement with nothing to retire on and they've been exonerated of crimes. And when you're exonerated of a crime, you don't get the same help that people who parole out of prison get. They'll get like halfway homes, parole officers, you know, job readiness programs. Yeah, they're inadequate services, but they get services. When you are wrongfully convicted, you don't get anything that's crazy. You don't crazy. And I, and I think that it's not that people don't care. They just in society, things that make sense, you don't really question it because you're like, like, no, no, no, no. There's no way you can let person out after doing all that time and something they didn't do and you don't get anything that doesn't make sense. But nah, it's happening, it's real. I had one of the best moments ever a few weeks Back I was in the state of Wisconsin again, in court again. But this time I was an attorney, co counsel with Keith Finley, the director of the Innocence Project, who got me out in Wisconsin. So me and him are working a case together, and we are representing the guy that we feel wholeheartedly is innocent because the DNA evidence excludes him from ever being there. So it was like, what does that mean? Right. He didn't do it. But these courts don't look at it like that. They believe in finality more than they believe in justice. So in being able to sit there, it was one of these moments where it was just like, look, monetarily, they could never repay me for what they have done to me. But when they have to address me as counselor in the same, it's like a different feeling. It really is.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Do you like superhero movies?

[Jarrett Adams]

I kind of do. Like, certain ones, like X Men. I'm a big fan of all of those. Right. I like the idea of there being someone when something goes wrong and they just scream for help, a silhouette will appear. No, I like that idea. I do.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Because going back to what you said a minute ago, what other choice did you have? When people ask you, how do you keep going? I love that for you there was no other option. But the obvious option is to quit. The obvious option, and it's the option almost everyone takes, is easy, too. Is easy. It's to do nothing. It's to retreat. It's to play the victim. And it is very rare that somebody constructs their mentality the way that you have to build themselves up to look at a system that they believe is fundamentally broken and say, I'm actually gonna go back inside that system. I'm gonna win your highest. I'm going to demand your respect, not ask for it. I'm going to demand your respect by winning the game as you have rigged it.

[Jarrett Adams]

Exactly.

[Tom Bilyeu]

And when you can win a game that you know is rigged but that you can still outplay and outperform, that's a superhero. The fact that you went back in, played their game, won, got everything anyone would ever think that you would want, but then said, that's actually just the beginning. Now I'm going to go become a counselor. Now I'm going to go back into the same system that betrayed me, and I'm going to help other people that are in a similar situation. It really is. Somebody calls help and the Silhouette shows up and you're the Silhouette. I mean, it's inspiring.

[Jarrett Adams]

Well, I thank you and I hope that it's inspiring. And the reason, and I hope that it's inspiring, is because I need help. And what I mean by help is I don't necessarily need financial help or food, but you can feed me if you like.

[Tom Bilyeu]

But can somebody bring a lot of something?

[Jarrett Adams]

Yes. But if we don't get the people who are both affected by it and not affected by it to care about it, it will never change. So what I'm advocating for is the change of our criminal justice system. And you may not think it benefits you. Well, let me try to reach, you know, viewers another way. So maybe you don't have anyone in jail, and maybe you'll never go to jail. However, what about a sickness, right? How do you know we're not locking away and throwing away the key on someone who has groundbreaking research to some type of pharmaceutical drug that can help save your life? You don't know that, Right, because you never would have thought that I would've been able to come and do all this. But let me tell you this. They didn't serve me a smart pill in prison. Like, I didn't magically go there and be like, oh, shit, I'm ready for the LSAT and all of that. Like, no, that's not how it happened, right? Like, no. So it's like, I had these talents before going to prison, but my candle was almost blew out before it was even lit. So, you know, when I got there and being able to have these other conversations with other, you know, inmates and stuff like that, I still say to this day, I've worked with some of the brightest minds and judges and lawyers and stuff like that. Still, some of the person. Some of the people I've met with, with so much smart, so much talent, we're right in prison. Like, right in prison. So we've always decided that the best way to get out of stuff is to punish our way out of it. And where's it gotten us? Like, it hasn't gotten us anywhere.

[Tom Bilyeu]

So what's the solution?

[Jarrett Adams]

The solution is simple. Look, this needs to be a curriculum. Like race in America needs to be a curriculum. And it needs to be a curriculum because it'll trickle down into the effects that mess us up in society today. Right? But most Americans don't really realize the privilege that comes with who they are, not because of who they are, but how they look. And so if we're teaching this as a curriculum, right, what it is to be black in America, what it is to be African American in America, what it is to be white in America, you start to change the system from within. Cause right now, like, we got a bunch of Archie Bunkers making decisions for us in society, man. And, like, for real, it's just. It's very clear now what's going on. So at this point, if stuff is. Hasn't changed, it's not changed because the people who have the power to change it don't want to change. But then we lock those people up, we house them for decades in violent situations. No job training, no nothing. 92% of people who go to prison are coming home one day, and we release them right back into that same community of people that we swore to protect. And that's okay. That makes sense. It doesn't. And I'm not that smart. I'm just like. Even when I went to law school, like, I could look and tell and, like, size up competition. And I'm like, yeah, look, a girl with them glasses, like, she'd beat me to a punch, like, in any argument, like, for real. So what I would do was she probably sleep. I wasn't sleeping. So you could be smarter than me, but you were never gonna outwork me ever. Like, for real. Like, I would go hide from the janitor in the library, you know, just so I can use. Cause I couldn't afford printing paper, so I would, like, bounce from floor to floor. If he was cleaning this floor, I was on the second floor. He was cleaning the second floor. I was back in the first place just to spend enough time in there because I couldn't blow this opportunity. Like, I couldn't. Right? It meant more to the hope and impact that I hope to have on young boys who look like myself to understand. Like, look, I need y'. All. Like, I need y' all to stop giving up so easily and saying, oh, forget it, and just, you know, joining into the cycle of hopelessness. Like, I need you to do what I did. Like, seriously. It may sound crazy, but, like, nah, I need that to happen. I need that to happen because, like, I want to have kids one day. I want to have kids to. And not have to worry about them being taken advantage of or being born in circumstances, you know, where it's like, you know, they. They. They are looking and facing what I'm facing. And the only way I can do that is to do three things, man, And. And that's love. God, I'm loving my wife, recently married, and loving this life by living it and a way in which I want to leave it for the kids that I have. Like, that's it. And I know that the analogy of superhero was used. I appreciate that, I really do. And if I didn't have his makeup on, I'd probably be blushing. But nah, man, I really like, I really don't. I'm at the point where it's like I've been on a breakneck pace, like just a breakneck pace. I want to do as much work as I can. Start the movement of, you know, ruling this thing out from the inside out. And the only way you do, like, look, there are no quick, quick answers to big problems. Like there just aren't any. So if you think we're going to pass a bill and everything is going to be a okay, it's not going to happen. So we need to take the long route and the most stable route and that's to bring these curriculums into our school. You know, I don't have all answers at this point, you know, to be here. And I thank you again. It's like a coming out party because I'm able to share my story, which I call my testimony to others. And I don't do it to glorify myself because. Because it would be great to stick my chest out like a 10 foot peacock and be like yo, look at me. But more than anything I would rather be somewhere sticking my toes in the sand looking at what other people are doing as a result of me starting a real conversation.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Well, let's get some more people that can help you. Where can these guys find you?

[Jarrett Adams]

Online so you can look up my website, jaredadams.com spelled out for em cause it's not okay. It's Jared J A R R e t t Adams a-a m s.com so you can look up jaredadams.com I'm the co founder of a non profit called Life after Justice. And basically what it does is it advocates for the change of the criminal justice system. Like the change of it itself. And what better way to change the criminal justice system? By having someone who has been there. But it is so hard to get a platform to get a voice when you've been there rightfully or wrongfully. Because I want people to understand, you know, a couple things. Like I'm not a magic trick. I'm absolutely real 100% and I didn't take a shortcut here. It took me 10 years to like get here. I've been home since 2007 so it was no shortcut. Like I didn't get a degree while I was in prison. So I went the long way. And to also to get them to understand like, if you think this is amazing, there are other amazing things that could be done. And you don't have to look at this as a entire heel. When you look at things in its entirety, it becomes such a daunting task that you don't even want to deal with it. Right. But if you look at what is in your area, you know, go look up in this public record for you to ask what the decision makers that you voted in are doing in terms of re entry, the prison itself, Go check their record and find out what they're doing and go hold them to the standard that you voted them in on. Because again, the criminal justice system is creating more problems than it's stopping. If you use what the prison is producing, and you use that with a car company and you had the same numbers, it wouldn't keep continuing if more than 50% of the people or more than 50% of the cars that come off a production line were back on that production line for some reason within two, three years. But Congress would have a national debate on how do we stop this particular car company. But over 50% of the people who get out of prison come back in two to three years. And somehow we're like, we gotta get tougher on crime. That's what it is. They'll stop it eventually.

[Tom Bilyeu]

I think I know the answer to this question, but I'm gonna ask, what's the impact that you wanna have on the world?

[Jarrett Adams]

Well, I have an answer, but I also have something even better to go with that answer.

[Tom Bilyeu]

All right.

[Jarrett Adams]

I have a gift for you, my friend.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Wow.

[Jarrett Adams]

Yeah. I didn't wanna come empty handed.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Turn of events.

[Jarrett Adams]

Yeah. So this is a T shirt and it's a logo of my organization that I have. And I wanna take the time to explain to you what this depiction means. Cause it's very important for, for even people who don't know how to help and they want to help to just like get one of these shirts, wear this shirt. Because what this means is this, this, this is a picture of someone leaving out of prison and the bars are behind them, right? And the person that is leaving has a briefcase and has a suit on. So what this means is that it's not a business person or a lawyer leaving out of prison necessarily. What that means is the person is putting the worst behind them with the representation of the bars and they're walking out with the hopes and the dreams and the aspirations of being productive in society, to be able to live and just have a life. But you can't get to that if we still have the depiction of the people who leave from prison as someone who looks like a character of Oz. So that's the whole meaning of having this logo represent the mission statement. So it's more than just a logo. Cause it. You know, it was, like, difficult going back and forth. I would have loved to just have, like, a Nike swoosh, but I couldn't, you know? So I was like, look, let me put some thought in this. So this is yours, my friend.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Wow. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Jarrett Adams]

And so that's my impact. My impact that I hope to have is to break down the barriers and the stigmas that society has allowed to be placed on people who go to the prison system.

[Tom Bilyeu]

It's incredible. Jarrett, thank you so much, brother. That was incredible.

[Jarrett Adams]

Thank you for having me.

[Tom Bilyeu]

My pleasure. Trust me.

[Jarrett Adams]

Thank you all. Thank you all for making this happen, guys.

[Tom Bilyeu]

I don't know if you just got rocked as hard as I did, but that was absolutely incredible. Through the whole interview, all I could think about was his mom and God, if she's not as proud of this man as I am.

[Jarrett Adams]

She is.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Then. Then I don't know what's going on. Absolutely amazing. A story of mindset, a story of transformation, a story of not making excuses, of starting where you start and building from there, but absolutely insisting on building. And when he said that there was no choice, the thought of quitting didn't even cross his mind. That's what I love. And that was the thing that really made him somebody that we had to have come on the show. And as I researched this story and read about what happened, it was all overshadowed by how he reacted. And at the end of the day, we can't control what happens to us, but we absolutely can control how we react. And the way that this man has reacted inspires the the out of me. I hope he inspires you guys as much as he did me. All right, this is a weekly show. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. And, my friends, until next time, be like this guy. Peace out.

[Jarrett Adams]

Thank you, my man.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Thank you so much.

[Jarrett Adams]

I appreciate it, man.

[Tom Bilyeu]

Hey, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us for another episode of Impact Theory. If this content is adding value to your life, our one ask is that you go to itunes and stitcher and rate and review. Not only does that help us build this community, which, at the end of the day, is all we care about, but it also helps us get even more amazing guests on here to share their knowledge with all of us. Thank you, guys. So much for being a part of this community. And until next time, be legendary.

[Jarrett Adams]

My friends,

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