The LAST MILE program provides second chances which allow residents the opportunity to rebuild their lives while gaining job skills. Some graduates like Ryan Leaf even get a chance to give back to TLM.
The second overall NFL draft pick of the San Diego Chargers in 1996, Ryan Leaf became a bust before landing in the Montana State Prison.
Ten years later, Leaf returned to the prison that allowed him to turn around his life. It was Leaf’s first visit to the prison.
He returned to the prison to speak to current residents about what he had been through.
According to sports writer Jonny Walker, Leaf would’ve called you “nuts,” if you told him he would return to a prison to be an inspiration to others.
Leaf, who was previously convicted of drug and burglary charges, he said he now hopes to inspire those caught in the same addiction cycles that led to his downfall.
His recent success as a graduate of Montana State Prison’s The Last Mile Project, gave him the credibility to speak to the incarcerated residents.
“I think it helps for me to step into that room and tell them that I relate and can identify with them probably better than anybody out in the public,” Leaf said. “I was exactly where they were ten years ago,” he continued. “And you can have the life of your dreams. You just have to do the next right thing.”
Feeling inspired by what Leaf spoke about, incarcerated Billings resident Nicholas Parker said, “My decision that brought me here five years ago; my actions, are not the end of my story. Just as his actions ten years ago were not the end of his story.”
Leaf was representing the Last Mile program, an education program that provides transferable computer programming skills that could lead to gainful employment after being released.
Incarcerated for a series of burglaries at casinos, Columbus resident Falken Brown has his sights set on machine learning and data science. “I think we have so much access to technology and huge data sets that we can potentially gather some really profound insights that can affect humanity as a whole,” Brown said. “And this is just giving me a launch pad to start learning the foundational concepts for that — and hopefully have a new chapter of my life that doesn’t involve prison,” said Brown.
Leaf left residents with three crucial ideals to concentrate on as they navigate the Last Mile: accountability, community, and spirituality.
“The hardest thing for us when we walk out is hope. I mean, it can be dashed with the simplest things,” exclaimed Leaf. “They need hope. And this is what The Last Mile presents. It presents a semblance of hope for these young men to venture into a workforce that seemingly will have passed them by if not for this opportunity.”
At San Quentin, one Last Mile participant, Scotty Lardizabal, commented on Ryan Leaf representing the Last Mile and speaking to students of the program. “I think it’s damn cool a WSU alum who has been through addiction, and prison, came to a program that I’m in as an inspirational speaker, I hope he comes here to San Quentin,” said 1996 Washington State University alum Lardizabal. The SQRC resident continued, “We all make mistakes and to hear a fellow alum from WSU change his life and speak to the incarcerated about inspiring positive change is great.
According to The Last Mile’s Katy Gilbert, a classroom facilitator manager, noted that TLM is currently in 8 states and 16 facilities. The prestigious program offers web development and an audio/ visual video class throughout 21 classrooms.
The classrooms allow hundreds of students an opportunity to be the next Ryan Leaf.
