He went from prison to owning a company. Now, he’s joined a group helping other ‘returning citizens’
He went from prison to owning a company. Now, he’s joined a group helping other ‘returning citizens’
DANBURY — Michael Wright got the idea to start a cleaning company from a peer at the Cheshire Correctional Institution.
The others at the facility always talked about what they’d do if or when they got out of prison. Wright usually scoffed at their ideas. But a cleaning company felt like something he could do.
“That made perfect sense,” said Wright, who was in prison from around age 22 to 34 on first-degree assault charges.
He said he used to walk around Danbury with a “black eye,” but now his Wright Way Cleaning company has over 20 accounts to clean buildings in the city.
“This town, Danbury...is very forgiving,” said Wright, now 46. “If you have the skills, they’ll give you the opportunity.”
Finding employment is one of many challenges individuals face after getting out of prison. That’s why the Greater Danbury Reentry Collaborative is hosting a fair this month to bring together businesses, speakers and “returning citizens” looking for work.
“I got into trouble and turned it around, and just to be able to make a full 360, to be a part of this, it means a lot to me,” said Wright, who is part of the roundtable organization.
The collaborative formed in 2019, but due to COVID-19 this is the group’s first public event. It comes at a time when local businesses may be loosening restrictions on hiring people with criminal backgrounds due to the workforce shortage that has emerged from COVID.
“As the job market got tighter because of COVID, they’re (businesses) rethinking their policies and thinking that this is another source for them to consider,” said Michael Taylor, who is involved in the collaborative and local NAACP.
He’s working with the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce and others to recruit companies for the “Welcome Home Reentry Employment and Resource Fair.” The group’s goal is to bring in 20 companies.
The fair is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 11 at the Student Center Ballroom of Western Connecticut State University’s Westside campus.
‘Holistic’ approach
Phyllis Kinlow, co-chair of the collaborative, became interested in this advocacy after attending a court hearing where a man on his 18th birthday got an 18-year prison sentence. She quickly realized he’d be 36 when he got out.
“What is he going to do?” she wondered.
She got her master’s degree in nonprofit leadership and teamed up with her co-chair Ryan Murphy to start the Danbury collaborative, which is connected to 10 roundtables in the state known as the CT Reentry Collaborative.
“We started addressing issues like housing, employment, family unification and then we got some returning citizens that started attending so we could hear their voice,” Kinlow said.
The collaborative is made up of various organizations and individuals in the area, allowing them to collaborate on legislation and providing services, Murphy said.
“We can discuss the different services that each of our agencies provide and just collaboratively work,” he said.
In addition to the collaborative, Kinlow is starting a non-profit organization that focuses on this kind of work work.
“I wanted to take a holistic view of individuals and help them that way, so if you have trauma, we want to deal with trauma, so you can maintain family relationships, you can maintain housing,” she said.
One of the speakers at the fair, Keith Smith, Jr., takes a similar approach. His “Path to Purpose” organization focuses on “transformational coaching” for young people at risk of going to prison and those who have come home.
“You can give a person a job, but if they don’t have the mental capacity to deal with that, then you’re going to lose that job and fall victim to recidivism that so many people in the inner city are dealing with right now,” said Smith, who is from Waterbury.
He has been in and out of prison multiple times. Going to therapy finally helped him on the “right path,” he said. He developed his program based on the steps he took.
“You can’t live and thrive when you’re suppressing certain things, so me dealing with mine, I realized I wanted to be the voice for others,” Smith said.
Trying to avoid the ‘revolving door’
Wright was born in Jamaica but considers Danbury home. He moved here as a young child in 1982. His family’s first home was at the property that has since been turned into the Danbury police station. Growing up, he played sports at Danbury High School and through Pop Warner youth football.
His family was tight-knit and supportive, but “poor” and he turned to criminal activity to make money, he said.
He shot someone in 1997 on Main Street and then went on the run to Canada, where he was caught and extradited to the United States in 1998 on the same day his son was born. He was permitted to hold his son and given one picture. That photo and a Bible from Canada were the two items he took to prison.
He served his time at Cheshire Correctional Institute, Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia and MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institute in Suffield.
“Every morning I woke up, it felt like a nightmare,” he said.
He took various courses, including a culinary class, thinking he’d pursue that after prison. At one point, he considered dentistry. He said he picked up ideas from conversations with others in the facility. Some had a “master plan” to do better when they were released, while others sought the opposite. He aimed for the former.
“I was there with some of the most undesirable people in the world, but I learned a lot from them,” Wright said.
He was 34 when he was released.
“It was scary,” he said. “I didn’t know how to approach the world.”
His cousin picked up him from the facility. Wright said his stomach dropped when he learned his cousin’s car was unregistered.
“I remember just, not flipping out, but understanding how people could get trapped back in the revolving door because of little things like that,” Wright said.
He was afraid to walk around his neighborhood after seeing the victim he shot while Wright was out with his son. His grandmother co-signed a loan for a car, so he could get around. That kind of support was key, he said.
Smith said those returning home are often directed to anger management or drug services, but that didn’t fit his needs.
“When you come home, you’re anxious, you’re nervous,” he said. “Part of it is fear or returning back if you make mistakes because you have these probation and parole parameters in front of you. You’re toeing the line of: How do I live my life in a normal way and keep from returning to prison? All these things are on your chest ever day.”
Wright turned down a high-paying job in Manhattan because his probation officer wouldn’t let him take it. Instead, he got a job with Peapod before quitting and starting the cleaning company in 2011.
He was attracted to the idea because he felt the Danbury community would welcome it, and he recognized that cleaning services would always be needed, no matter the economy.
Wright recalled challenging jobs cleaning overnight at pizza restaurants, but the business started to take off after about five years.
Businesses have typically shied away from hiring people with criminal records, making it harder for them to get well-paying jobs, Taylor said.
“They feel that even though they paid their dues to society that they still have the stigma associated with them,” he said. “They also feel that as they try to get back to the mainstream, that it’s only the low-paying jobs that are available to them.”
They’re more likely to start their own business because of that, he said.
Smith faced similar challenges. Despite volunteering with youth at Naugatuck Community College, he said he was turned down for a job there due to his criminal record, although his last offense was eight to nine years ago, he said. That led him to create Path to Purpose beginning in 2020, gaining an LLC in 2021.
Aiming to do better
Tragedy struck Wright’s family a few years ago.
His daughters, Carter and Madison, were born in June 2016 as monochorionic monoamniotic twins, also known as “mo/mo twins.” This means they share one placenta and one amniotic sac, according to Health Line.
Carter spent most of her life at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York and died at 1 1/2 in January 2018.
“I couldn’t care if I lived or died,” Wright said.
He had returned to criminal activity to help pay the medical bills while she was in the hospital and was arrested on drug charges in 2017. When he went before the judge in 2018, he asked for “mercy,” he said. The judge did so, suspending four years off of his five-year sentence, Wright said. His friends ran the company until he came home.
He said it’s “embarrassing” to discuss his past and that he’s grown since then.
“I want to be given the chance to reflect myself positively,” Wright said.
Business picked up due to COVID and he’s close to paying off debts, he said. He has six to seven employees and contracts with doctor’s offices and the state.
“I feel proud to be a part of that,” he said.
His daughter Madison is 5 and taking ballet. He visited his Carter’s grave on Thursday and told her about the good things going on his life.
Through the collaborative and the fair, he wants to support others.
“People have to know there’s opportunity here and where the resources are,” Wright said. “I think that’s where the disconnect is, not knowing where some of the resources are.”
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