Mike Tyson Speaks at Prisoner Reentry Conference

I'm a horrible relationship you would think I'm great right but if sucking relationships like that but um no I'm I come from that kind of world where everything was a dog-eat-dog if you if you had money if you had jury and if you couldn't defend your stuff I protected your getting took and you were going to get kilt and all my life I've seen murders and robberies and I became a part of that and I I took mom the choice to become a part because when you think of I have a brother who's like one of the top trauma surgeons in the country I had a sister it was a teacher before she passed and so I come from a very educated background I never passed the ninth grade because I was just so entrenched into the street world I was just feeling lured to that that was really what I wanted to be because you saw instant gratification for us respect was concerned in the street world I didn't have much patience and that's what I wanted so um I started getting involved with crime at a young age my first arrest I guess I was what ten years old my first arrest pickpocket Jocelyn and so I went to when I went to the institution um I realized I'm in this for all my friends everybody so many streets pick parking of the guy from different boroughs and I got addicted to it even more so I wasn't afraid to go to jail anymore and so I became a more advanced criminal so to speak I remember one day we were in the house with Robin somebody's house and I was talking my throat was talking to my friend I was with Smith I was talking to my friend and it was someone else in the house and a dog took my friend so as I told him I heard smack we both leaving the house and my friend who thinks he's a professional II try to lock the door but the guy came open the door and blew his brains out right there oh yeah and I ran I was um I was 12 he must have been 14 I ran is because that's what you do you try to get away and I ran and um and you would think that God that we just send somebody straight that same that um me mother friends we hooked up a little bit late let's get another house and that's just what it was it was this is how we lived our life most of my friends are pretty much dead else they got so much time I'm going to visit some guys tomorrow and they got their corner this Rockefeller they got two hundred and forty years one more my friends got five life sentences he's only fifty and so these are P these little people that I go see I'm once a month sometimes twice a month because these are these are my friends these are who we grew up this is the guy that stayed over their house when they're when my mother was doing what she was doing this is just these are my family and that's what I do I go see all my friends and Deborah so um and treating though I'm at this particular type of event talking about the situation when we were talking about I was hitting I'm talking about these hard laws and helping people when they get out you know it's going to be a very neat trick to do that because those Lords was um the guidelines to put them in there for a long time because the people don't want to ever come out and still get to sixty thousand dollars from them or us so to speak so I'm yeah I'm one of those guys so I went away in this other prison on institution and I'm just called trying so I'm in try on and I'm kind of like a badass guy so somebody said something that he pulled out my hat so I stabbed some guy and I went to another correction then I went there I got introduced to a gentleman by the name of Bobby Stu and he started teaching me how to box cuz I throw the tough guy I didn't know anything about being a tough guy but I thought I was and so I went there and um it was so erotic he didn't want me to go because I kept improving I broke his nose and he was a professional fighter and I'm 12 years old and so I um I had this miraculous um this was just some such an opportunity I met a gentleman named a customer old carrying man and when I went there he he talked to me he talked to me for two weeks he has talked my dirty with them I told he was a pervert I cuz he was saying all these things that I'm beautiful and I can do this and but when I sparred I was getting shellac so I know where I know there's no way they would think that I was a good fighter but he saw something that I still don't see what he saw to this day I don't know how and he said if that was gonna be champ I was good all this stuff and that's what made me think this is the perfect where I come from everybody tryna you know it's a pearl I live in Pearl City and everybody's trying to do this now this real talk to I'm talking to you man you know um so um I so listen to this Italian guy and he teaches me to fight and I'm 14 years old when this witness national championship then when this Union national champ I'm breaking record I knock a guy out in eight seconds how does that happen and he still told me I was I was imperfect I was wrong I was floored so um I didn't know how that worked and I just started listening my said um when I went back home I was gonna do some more robbery because every now then I would go back to Brooklyn do robberies and come back because the state was paying them like 150 bucks a month and that that wasn't even paying for my pants and my sneakers so I always went back home and did robberies and came back with nice clothes and told them that my friends gave me these clothes or the older brother can't fit them anymore something like that some ridiculous story and one day when we were going to do another robbery a friend of mine to tell me no you with those white people Mike stay with them these people love you Mike I saw you in this chamber look so um my friend I told me that me and him was together one day doing by a dice game and we and we know these are these are friend guys we grew up with but something was different I saw them we looked at the dice game we didn't get him but they looked at each other and no one said hi I said what's up everything I to me but they didn't talk to him and so we left and like a week later they told me that I'm they killed him and so they and my friends saw me - Mike man you walked off the game with him I thought that you were killed - because I didn't know these guys were having this little I'm secret walking I was just coming back and forth I didn't know the information and so on ever since my friend died they stayed that then I never came back and I became successful and I became champion at 20 years old the youngest champion ever I won tightly I won titles I had I had everything in the world but I still had that darkness in me at hundreds mil I had money but I still had that darkness in me that darkness working out of me yet and I got in a whole bunch of trouble I got involved with people who had made me no good and I lost a lot of my love kept getting lawsuits like lawsuits - lawsuit here lawsuit here and most of my money I've checked off on lawsuits you know me you know me you could listen if I spend 250 million dollars on girls and trips and clothes that's nothing to what I did on lawsuits okay so they really got me good with those lawsuits and but um it still still didn't have peace how something was that still had that old darkness from back before and then um because you know of course my father and mother they're addicts and I'm not fighting anymore and I have nothing to do why not I becoming attic because that's just how it goes right so I become this addict now cuz I always drink my home I've never stopped drinking and I became this addict I've been getting a lot of trouble what happened I had some kids from being an addict I marry some people from during my attic stage and I'm scooting I'm sorry I'm injury so listen up and so I started going through this process and I'm Scott McLean so I give clean for a year I can clean for five years but then I realized and the reason why I relapsed because I didn't have um I didn't have a spiritual awakening I just wasn't using drugs you know I wasn't sober I get told to using drugs and liquor from the user and I was miserable right um so eventually I received that spiritual awakening and this is um this is listen trust me this is um listen when I'm at the height of my career you know I don't wanna make this long but listen at the height of my career I got what 40 mins of fire I'm doing this I'm going both I got playing at everything but they wouldn't touch me a cartoon one touch me with a million foot pole now I got the number one cartoon on television I got um Amy I got a Golden Globe this is ridiculous stuff I don't believe this is true but uh yeah I got um I'm not perfect yet but I'm just trying to get this stuff on track and um I'm taking on I'm sober by being so by Mabel to UM show up for my children I'm up there able to go to the best schools in the country I have a daughter that graduated from first George walked with his George Washington DC then she went to Georgetown now she's doing Drexler that's Philadelphia somewhere right where she she didn't Jackson out I got a daughter my 8 - my 19 year old is in NYU she's a director and stuff I have this other young kid he's trying to go to them with he trying to go this guy he's the character he have 18 years son that mean I'm you know we crash we we just don't get it something's wrong me I understand that yet I'm I'm gonna need some advice from some older people but some just not happening here and I'm just very grateful that my kids able to go to schools and sometimes they tease me because I don't spell as well as they spell and I'm not advanced galactically as well as they are but I'm just happy that I'm able to put them in that position you know and I just wish and they give me a hard time because they think I'm they think because I do this I think I'm do that they think I'm I'm a show-off but the fact that if they had my parents then they would really have something to talk about I wish he had my father because they my children believe it or not I have a twenty fifty then I then I receive the beaten before I received beating just by look somebody I can remember being and Roy your farm see they don't have for a farm you guys memory-foam great real cheap bum just had been beaten in the corner because my mother couldn't afford something and I'm it's really I'm grateful to be here talking to you and even though I got sucker punch being the keynote speaker at this time I haven't really I'm I'm really grateful for my life now I'm really grateful I'm really um if I I'm quite a graceful audience was able to just do this because I chose I was going to be different I wasn't going to live that life anymore and I was going to be um the person I wanted to be and everything I was doing in my past life you know it was champion money that prevented me from being the man that I wanted to be and I'm I could pretty much say I'm on I'm on I'm on the course as being the person I want to be I have dignity have self-respect and anybody here to look at me and see what I'm doing Thank You boys and let that is right and what and then I'm not finished our feet I don't believe I'm finished I'll be one finish so - so - talk about your experience behind the bars and then second one is being the greatest source of transformation in your life - for you to live a more godly life so the first thing you could just talk about far as well listen um you have to understand me being behind prisons will be like different than the average person being a high prison it was not pretty you know you've seen you know everything in total is true you know it's not um you don't see I'm like guys walking around everybody getting stabbed and raped because you're locked down you don't touch nobody else you lock down everybody it's very few people to trust you take that out but normally you're locked down 23 hours a day in this cell and then when you go to the hole and they lock you in the hole where mainly something lock me in a hole you know you're supposed to get you one hour of recreation so I'm thinking I'm gonna go to the yard so there's put a gate a cage to my cell and they put a cage then you come out in the cell at the cages for an hour like this and that's your recreation and for me you know some some jails have them I guess a higher security rate some it's just not nice people go insane people go to hospital people die in prison you know you never know who you're going to make it home you may have an outdated you let me know you're gonna make it home it's so debilitating and nobody gets some what is the word they say when you go to gentleman you get no there's no such danger a little bit you get prisoners all delivered debilitating there's not rehabilitation about that you know because when you go in there you never come out the same person again you know they give you these um football numbers they give you these massive times if I think if anybody do anything over 10 to 15 years they should allow them to come back out because then you got a real problem coming back out you know I I'm just very grateful I'm very grateful at a good life and um people like me and people gave me benefits and stuff but that's not going to happen to the average guy that's not gonna happen it's going to happen to when he gets angry and he throws a tantrum like I throw my 10 they love coming to something they go to beating my death you know the goon squads coming they're going to be in the death this is going to happen they're going to put you in the hole it will put the holes only to go beat you two definitely we living in 2015 and all this what this is this is um this is something a nation of strategy to look at it's something to disgrace and this is what we're doing in 2015 so listen up you have to understand them if you can't prepare them from going in there because once they I went to any I was hearing a gentleman talk about for once you about you know preventing them once you're in there they got to put the Whammy on you want you in there everything's going to change you have to prevent from going there once you in there is almost a rap you know some guys may become more articulating more directly to read the books and have you know and they're very articulate with their words but they have their demons in there working they have their demons and it's really hard to release those demons once you're in that place I can just talk about how you've changed your life and and for many of us in recovery like my friend Gloria said it's also the spiritual element because this isn't about changing your mind it's about changing your heart and so whether it's your love of your children your faith what is it that's brought about that ring for use a little more godly holy life I don't know I'm capable living a godly life God God to me is inconceivable to live a life of God you know we only study his life and hope to be able to be in the path of God but the live godly life is inconceivable to me to me to me you know to me I just try to do the right thing you know I mean and not necessarily the right thing is probably the best thing but it's try to do the right thing I try to respect everybody treated by the way I want to be treated you know I don't have no I don't care what your black/white Chris and well I don't care what you are you know only thing I want to respect because I give respect that's only reason why morning and I just realized that I'm I wanted to change my life I didn't like the way I was living my life and one of the different I just wanted to better a better way of life you know I didn't want to be the guy that had it all outside and had nothing inside and I found I realized all this recovery and sober thing and life in general is the inside job you know if you're looking finally if you're looking for happiness from out here it'll be disasters it'll be from my perspective that maybe other people can get in I'm and I'm different I'm a little scooter and I know something's wrong up there I got a real difficult situation receiving love and happiness from the outside and stuff but I'm it's all an inside job you know it's all inside job you know all we know about God is what people tell us about God what a mother's a father would they tell us about God you know I was I wasn't um I was in there and Moses split the Red Sea I wasn't there when they got the commandments you know we look at if you if you look at the internet which we all look at Moses didn't exist there's no Alice fact about I hope that story is true when you know to the promised land and just I know we got our gear from Mario here mara could you stand up listen and champ what is your favorite restaurant in Jersey City my favorite restaurant say the one um I'll know if it's the white man you know I only eat it cuz I eat at ringside the white man you know I don't eat it I got still got that facility but she was to call us hamburgers again the slide i don'ti sliders you know some pork in there proudly I don't want the sliders I don't want the sliders I know what the slider I like ringside just tell me what you do with the kids at ringside what I do the skills we have a gym there and we work out the chips you know everybody this is the program down there and that's what we hang out with the kids who work there and of course is after-school married with kids out to a school but for um we have that and we have most of the kids that work there as well so they also they get prepared for the workplace and they're gonna have jobs and this is pretty awesome and it's really it's really it's really sad that we live in the richest most powerful country in the world and we have people starving out here you know and they have no other choice but to commit crimes also going to starve to death I have no dignity and their wife might lead them out of shame or the kids might not have respect for them and I know we have a gang of these put some symposiums right here but you know we need some action and work has to be done all right say something man that's their governor Richard yeah but this is just what it is we need some we need work to be done we were magnificent no one talks better than us knowing is more loquacious than we are no one speaks better than we are you know because listen because they used to date somebody that wasn't um what's that um caress crime he had what's that a compound your the compound when they die today the girls in the compound and I said I said did your guys um recruit blacks you have any blacks in the compound and she said oh wait yes we had black they're the ones that give the best recruiting so I said there's nobody can talk better than us right but we need some action we just need to get some action and George urgency is a beautiful state and this could be a beautiful country if we we stopped being their leaves and think we're better than other people and treat everybody like brothers and sisters and this would be a wonderful place but that's going to be a neat trick you know with the kind of people that we have running our country we like to say friend mr. governor can we give a round of applause to the chance thanks thank you very much I've always liked Jersey City Jersey pretty cool it is not newark going so you see Jersey City Jersey City Jersey City baby Dave's pretty thank you for having

Channel: NJ Spotlight News

Views: 1,319,237

Rating: 4.8738279 out of 5

Keywords: nj, Mike Tyson (Boxer), prison reentry, Jim McGreevey (Politician), jersey city, njtv news

Id: KaMb3GqKXb0

Length: 19min 40sec (1180 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/uwmadisongrad]

I really like Mike Tyson's honesty. Super glad he turned his life around.

[u/zzzlater]

"Moses didn't exist" --> "favorite restaurant" in 5 seconds

[u/hells-kitchen]

i don't actually think he's saying religion helped him per se, sounds more like a doctrine of utilitarianism helped him. Bear in mind Tyson converted to Islam in 1995, although i'm not sure what type of Islam he converted to whether 5%er, nation of islam, or traditional islam; he was still wildin' out around after his conversion. The famous "I will eat your children" line in 2000 was after he had converted to Islam.

[u/layoR]

Just a FYI, Mike Tyson is a Muslim.