An important tool in making transition

BY MICHAEL DOBIE | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

EUGENE, Ore. - Long before he descended into an alcoholic haze, long before he landed in an Oregon prison to do time for armed robbery, Jonny Gill was a runner.

When he found himself locked in solitary confinement for the second time in eight months, Gill knew he had hit rock bottom. He had to change his life. He would run again.

Not only did he resume training behind bars, Gill set for himself an audacious goal: He would try to make the 2004 U.S. Olympic team in the 1,500-meter run.

He had talent. He had the backing of a renowned track coach who had produced seven Olympians. When Gill was released last August, he began serious training. However, a leg injury suffered while running in prison flared in April, halting his workouts and eliminating his chances of qualifying for last month's Olympic trials.

But Gill never questioned his decision. Running saved him in prison. Running will sustain him now.

"When you're in the hole you have nothing," said Gill, referring to solitary confinement, "and you will find hope. Hope comes in different ways. Hope might be getting your family back. Hope might be being a productive member of society. Hope might be to get out of prison. Whatever hope is, that's what running gave me. Athletics is all about hope."

Gill, 35, returned to the track in May. He has been competing in local racesand is thinking about the professional track circuit next year. Whatever the result, his quest provides perspective on whether prison sports continues to help inmates when they return to society.

The answer is that no one really knows for sure.

Prison officials believe sports can help ease the transition back to life on the outside and thereby lower the rate of recidivism -- nearly half of the more than 600,000 prison inmates released annually in the United States return to prison within three years -- but there is no definitive proof. There have been no studies of the impact of sports in prison, only anecdotal evidence and that is mixed.

Several former convicts have used sports to become successful. Ron LeFlore, a Michigan prison inmate in the 1970s, was offered a tryout upon his release by the Detroit Tigers and became an All-Star centerfielder who twice led his league in stolen bases. Bernard Hopkins refined his boxing skills while serving 5 years in a Pennsylvania prison and now is the world middleweight champion. Michael Bennett learned to box while doing time for armed robbery in Illinois and went on to win the 1999 amateur heavyweight world championship and captain the U.S. boxing team at the 2000 Olympics.

Less known but greater in number are the jailhouse stars who could not make it on the outside and soon were back in prison, playing in the yard again. Jose Jimenez was a softball star in a New Jersey prison before being paroled in August 2002; six months later, he was back in the same prison playing softball and doing time on a new charge of drug sales, the same crime that sent him to prison in the first place.

In between the extremes are the inmates who do survive outside the walls, some of whom are helped by lessons learned on prison playing fields.

Sports clearly is working for Jonny Gill.

"Running gave me hope not just for the Olympics, but it gave me a bigger hope of being a better person and living life in a different way," Gill said.

Troubled times

Hope was in short supply during a difficult childhood in which Gill said he was shuttled from one family caretaker to the next. His mentally ill and alcoholic mother lost custody of him. A grandmother physically abused him, he said. His father didn't seem to want him. Gill lived with his best friend during his senior year of high school.

Gill discovered track when he was 10 or 11. It was an outlet for his frustrations and the first thing he found that he was good at. He was, by his own admission, difficult to coach. But he won a Michigan state cross country championship as a senior and finished third in a regional behind Bob Kennedy, who would go on to become one of the nation's best distance runners.

Gill earned a track scholarship to a junior college in Texas, but said he was an indifferent student and a hard-headed athlete. He began drinking and drifted to junior colleges in Michigan and Florida, where he finally stopped running altogether as his drinking escalated out of control.

Eventually, he moved to Los Angeles, where he robbed a Gap clothing store while drunk on his birthday. Gill says he does not remember anything about the incident. He did six months in the Los Angeles County Jail then moved to Fresno, Calif., where a distant relative who also was a track coach suggested Gill go to Eugene and work with veteran track coach Dick Brown.

Brown, who had trained such stars as Anne Marie Lauck, Vicki Huber and Suzy Favor Hamilton, agreed to tutor Gill.