Robert Sanchez has always had a passion for helping others.  It’s a passion that has honest, good-hearted intentions, but it’s also a passion that led to him being incarcerated for 15 years in one of our country’s most infamous prisons, Sing Sing Correctional Facility.  Sanchez grew up in New York City during the 1980’s  As a young man growing up in East Harlem, Sanchez had no role models except for himself.  With his father incarcerated, Sanchez was left to financially support his sisters, mother, and girlfriend.

 

When Sanchez and his girlfriend became pregnant with their first child, Crystal, he faced an emotional and mental crossroads.  Sanchez was excited to have a beautiful baby, a child that he would do anything in the world to support, but he was also scared.  He was scared he couldn’t provide for his family.  He was scared because he didn’t know how to be a good father because he had never had one. He was scared that he wasn’t going to be able to afford the Pampers diapers that his beautiful baby girl was going to need.

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He wanted to help out, he just didn’t know how, so when one of his friends at school asked him if he wanted to make a little extra money, he jumped at the opportunity.  Sanchez had never dealt drugs before and had no interest in doing so, but when his friend told him “Look, you hang out with me for about a month, I’m going to give you a couple dollars, you don’t have to do anything,” Sanchez decided to observe.  It didn’t last long.  Within a month Sanchez realized this wasn’t the life he wanted to live and decided to get out.  He went back up to the apartment where all of the money, crack cocaine, and guns were located and grabbed his backpack and schoolbooks.  As he opened the door to leave, he was thrown back against the wall.  The police raided the apartment, and since Sanchez was the only one in the apartment at the time of the raid, all of the charges were placed on him.  Even though he had no prior record, no drugs or weapons on him, he was still sentenced to 15 years in prison.

 

The start of Sanchez’s prison sentence was the hardest.  As a handsome 18-year-old man, he became an easy target for older inmates to pick on, and because of this he routinely had to fight.  Being in such a hostile environment at such a young age led him to despair; he couldn’t imagine how he was going to get through 15 years of this type of life, and he couldn’t imagine the type of person he would be when he got out.  Above all, he struggled daily when he thought about the life that Crystal and his family would have with him in prison.  According to Sanchez, the worst part of prison was knowing that “My daughter is going to grow up without a dad.  That killed me, that killed me that I couldn’t see my daughter grow up.  That I missed her graduation and I missed her birthdays and I missed all the little things that meant something to her at a young age.”

 

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With nowhere left to turn, Sanchez decided to focus on something he hadn’t focused on before: education.  It gave him hope, and it quickly became his solace.  After he gained his GED in prison, he was finally able to articulate all of the thoughts and emotions he had been trying to express for so long.  Before he focused on education, he hadn’t been able to understand or explain the roles that racism, discrimination, and economics played in his incarceration. 

 

His hard work and dedication paid off, as he gained his Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees through prison programs run by Mercy College, and then proceeded to gain a Master’s degree in Theology from New York Theological Seminary, all while being incarcerated.  When he was eventually released from prison, he attained his second Master’s degree, this one in Social Work from Hunter College.

 

Sanchez’s passion for helping others has led him to create a variety of social work-focused programs.  While incarcerated at Sing Sing, Sanchez helped create “Rehabilitation Through the Arts,” which allowed inmates to write, act, and perform in large-scale theater productions.  The program is now in seven New York prisons, and various other institutions across the country work to replicate it. “Rehabilitation Through the Arts” celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017. Another one of Sanchez’s programs, “Ready for Work,” helps men and women on the verge of getting out prison and helps them with the transition by teaching them how to prepare to prepare resumes, cover letters, job interview resources. 

 

Today, Sanchez works as a social worker, serving as a Program Manager for a program called “Connections to Care.” Working with both formerly incarcerated people and people who have not been incarcerated, Sanchez focuses on the mental health of his clients by utilizing motivational interviewing, first aid, and psychoeducation techniques.  He also works to provide mental health providers to clients in need of one.   Sanchez has always had a passion for helping others.  Through the education programs he participated in while he was incarcerated, he has been able to continue to do so.   

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