CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misspelled Jorja Leap’s name. The article has been updated. (June 16, 2022)
Author and UCLA professor Jorja Leap recently released a book titled, “Entry Lessons: The Stories of Women Fighting for Their Place, Their Children, and Their Futures after Incarceration.”
Some of the women in her book are working at Homeboy Industries. It’s been almost three years since Stephanie Lane got out of prison.
“I ended up in prison with a 10-year sentence for gang enhancement and residential burglary,” Lane said.
But she’s found her groove. After training at Homeboy Industries for months, doing data entry and working with community clients to find housing, they gave her a job offer, making it official.
“I was really surprised. Like right when I was doing this interview, they asked me to go sign for it, so I’m really excited,” Lane said.
She said the folks at Homeboy took her in without judgement. When nobody else would hire her, they first helped her land a job on the set of the HBO TV series “Insecure” for two seasons.
“I started off as a regular P.A., and they see my leadership skills, and they allowed me to be a First Team P.A., which is something I’ve never done, working with main cast, and hair and makeup and I dominated,” Lane said.
Her aunt, who died shortly after Lane got out of prison, is now her biggest inspiration to stay out of trouble.
“I feel like I owe it to her not to fail. That’s a main thing for me because I feel like she’s been my main supporter,” Lane said.
She said she loves helping people and has turned her attention to assisting her friends Ivy Navarrete and Janeth Lopez rejoin society. Both women got out of prison a month ago after serving 10 years.
“I’m staying with my family. I’m on the way to getting Section 8, and I’m actually trying to get my GED so I can become a paralegal,” Navarrete said.
She said she feels as a woman, life after prison is even harder.
“I feel like there’s more programs for men getting out, not for women,” she said.
Navarrete hopes to make amends with her son, who was 3 when she was incarcerated.
“He’s 13 now and I’ve been in and out and he always asks well, ‘When is mom coming home?’ and they didn’t have the heart to tell him, well, ‘Your mom’s a lifer. Who knows if she’s ever going to come home?’”
As for Lane, she said her dream job is to become an advocate for young people and women, behind bars who can’t speak for themselves.
“Don’t be so judgmental on women and why they make the choices that they made. We were in survivor mode. We had to survive, and we did the best we can do with what we had at that time,” Lane said.
She’s well on her way to achieving her goals.
“I’m the crab in the bucket that made it out, and I’m the one that’s going back to reaching my hand in and pulling more people out instead of being that one that’s at the bottom constantly pulling people down,” Lane said.
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