Alumni Spotlight: Dominique Harris by Michael Clark

It is hard to describe prisons and incarceration with one universally agreed-upon word or description. It is a peculiar place to say the least. Multiple forms of media, such as movies and podcasts, attempt to capture life therein as something foreign and altogether violently alien to the rest of society. As an entity so far removed from the norm that no one outside of the gates could understand or survive. There are plenty of instances of said atrocities and travesties taking place, which feed into this perception. Another way to look at prison, however, is as a condensed version of society as a whole.

Incarcerated individuals do not conjure some new capacity for action from thin air. Our list of responses to stimuli is finite. What changes is the intensity of the stimuli, and therefore the intensity of the reaction. This holds for both favorable and dangerous situations. One often-neglected aspect of prison life is the quality of friendships one can form while there. As unexpected as it is thought to be, it is as much a response given the direness of the situation as fighting, drug use, or creative endeavors are. In what is often seen as perilous, people will seek some semblance of normalcy and or relief. Meeting someone with whom you can relate on a friendly, personal level captures that sentiment. That connection becomes that much stronger the more challenging the condition you find yourself in.

It is in this light that I recall the first time meeting Dominique Harris. In the summer of 2019, we both transferred to Atlanta TC about a month apart and put in the same shack together. There were ten other men in the room with us who came and went to and from work every day. At that time, we did not know each other or talk often, given our different schedules and constant comings and goings. It was not until we both came home that we subsequently crossed paths again at a Common Good event years later. Dominique now sits as the Alumni Outreach Coordinator for CGA.

What was your first day out like?

I’ve been home for five years now in July. When I first got out, I was uneasy. I was incarcerated at 18, came home at 30, and there was a lot I had to learn and grow from when I got out. I was proud to be home, but I had unrealistic expectations about life and the free world. One big realization was that I expected to accomplish everything on my own. I went through a lot of personal reflection when I got home because I was still growing and learning. I had to accept that I can’t do everything on my own, all the time. Sometimes you need help. 

Was there a moment when you truly felt free?

It took me several years to really feel like I wasn’t being watched or supervised. There also wasn’t a massive shift in reality for me where I could say I felt free. Probably one event that happened where I really felt that deep breath of fresh air was when I went to Walton Beach, Florida, with my brothers. It was nice because it was spur of the moment —we all took the weekend off and just went down there. Waking up to your own patio, walking into the fresh air, and being able to do all the things were huge differences compared to prison. It was nice because it was with my family, and I didn’t have to worry about anything else.

How did you come across CGA?

I started when I was at Metro in 2018. My roommate Preston Townsend more or less forced me to go! He kept telling me about it, then finally he was like, “Hey, bro, let’s go!” It was a first for me: walking into a place and feeling at ease. I felt a sense of community immediately with the teachers, the students, and everything. The one thing I took away from CGA aside from the knowledge and the classroom stuff, was how to be a professional. Having been gone for so long, I didn’t know what that looked like, and they showed me. 

Did you learn or gain anything while incarcerated?

There were several things that I took with me from prison. The obvious one is reading people. You get an uncanny ability to read people in most settings after being in prison. I’ll say another big one that I didn’t fully see until I came home was mentorship. What I mean by that is the ability to reflect on my own actions and learn from others. Now, when I am working with kids and teens, I can relate to them in a way most people who do this can’t, because I’ve been there. I have been in their shoes. There is nothing they’ve seen that I don’t know or haven’t seen. It’s because of that ability to reflect and learn that I developed in prison that I can be a mentor to these kids now.

What is one challenge you faced since returning home?

There are the obvious obstacles. Finding a place to live, a car, clothes, food, and whatnot. Stuff we all gotta figure out. I wouldn’t call it a problem, but there was a ‘thing’ about coming back into my community. I had to adapt back to where I was from because I had grown and changed so much since I was gone. I wasn’t trying to be on no street shit, again. I was done with that. People in my community, though, saw that and just thought I had changed and that I was different. Like they really couldn’t accept it. The way I looked at it, though, and what I tell people is, “Imagine you are smelling a bunch of dudes right now.” That should be enough to tell you, you don’t want to go back. I don’t want to go back. That’s why they can say what they want, but I do not want to go back.

How do you see yourself in your community?

I see myself as a leader to my younger siblings. For the bigger community, I see myself as a pillar. More like the glue that brings all the different parts together.

Have you found a sense of purpose since coming home?

I do not feel like I have found it yet, but I am on the way to finding it. Life is showing me things, and that moment is soon to come.

What is one piece of advice you would give someone coming home?

Remember where you just came from. Remember all those experiences you just went through, and don’t forget it. Like I said earlier, “Do you want to wake up smelling a bunch of dudes?” No one does. The problem is, it is so easy to forget. Especially when times are hard, money is tight, and things aren’t going your way. It’s easy to get back into your old ways. You got to stay focused. My young brother told me this when we were in Florida. He said “We all get dealt a hand every day that we got to play. But, every new day, we get a new hand.”

Last thing I’ll say is you can be interested in helping, but you have to figure out how to love yourself when you come home. That will allow you to share that love with others. In a way, you have to put yourself first so you can create the requisite self-esteem to help others. You can’t always be the pitcher that is pouring out into other people’s cups. Sometimes you gotta let them pour into you a little.