LI group aims to help ex-convicts 'get their mind right'
Risco Mention-Lewis, deputy Suffolk County police commissioner, hands out prizes during a Fall festival at Wyandanch Park in Wyandanch, Nov. 8, 2014. Credit: Ed Betz
Amid the pony rides, live jazz and carnival games Saturday afternoon, a 70-year-old man with a neat mustache strolled Wyandanch Park clutching a drawstring bag.
Inside, for those in need, were job fliers, support group pamphlets and snacks.
Mikail, a volunteer "conductor" for a group that aims to keep ex-convicts out of trouble, handed out the materials like prayers. "The quality of your life depends on the quality of your mind," he said later.
After serving 31 years in prison for murder, Mikail, who asked that his last name not be published, knows better than most about the value of second chances. He now spends much of his time mentoring others, many of whom have fallen into addiction or resumed their criminal ways, to "get their mind right."
He brings them to meetings of the Council of Thought and Action, or COTA, and briefs them on the latest job prospects. The group Saturday held its annual family-oriented fall festival, which drew Suffolk politicians, police officials and community activists.
Mikail's life had been a cycle of drug abuse and theft. Now, six years after moving to Long Island, he says he has a good job as a drug counselor and a home in Hempstead. More importantly, he's been a mentor for hundreds of people hoping to change their trajectory and stay out of jail.
Suffolk Deputy Police Commissioner Risco Mention-Lewis, who started COTA in 2008 as a Nassau prosecutor, said "conductor" is used to recall Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad -- those who've freed themselves of their evils are freeing others.
"If you've had a record, if you've never had a record, it makes no difference -- you can make great change in your community," Mention-Lewis said.
COTA began in Hempstead and spread to Wyandanch and Bellport. It's also jumped to other states -- Pittsburgh has a COTA and Chicago has two.
Wearing a gray baseball cap Saturday, Carlos Jennings, 36, of Mastic, manned a ring toss game for kids. Five months out of prison, he's already a conductor for the Bellport group.
"This is a support system where you actually get to see the transitions -- in other people's lives, and yours as well," he said.
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