#81: Marcus Bullock - Solitary Confinement, Life After Incarceration, and How a Letter Can Save a Life
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Episode Description
Today we discover the story of Marcus Bullock: TED speaker, entrepreneur, justice reform advocate, and founder of Flikshop, a software company aimed towards helping incarcerated people connect with their families and the outside world.
Growing up in Washington DC with his mother and sister, Marcus is no stranger to the shortage of resources and social capital surrounding many neighborhoods today. His early life was encapsulated by the pursuit of a single dream: the outer appearance of success. Having the means to buy a car and nice shoes was Marcus’ early vision of what success looked like, and he tried to achieve that vision through selling drugs and stealing car parts.
But luxury cars and nice shoes came with ramifications that Marcus didn’t expect, and at 15, Marcus was arrested for carjacking and sent to prison. After two years of denial, Marcus began to imagine ending his days surrounded by cinder block walls and metal gates, until his mother’s letters ended up saving his life. Once released after an 8-year sentence, Marcus embarked on an entrepreneurial journey filled with connection, empathy, and the breaking of barriers far tougher than a prison’s walls.
Show Notes
Childhood: Marcus describes living in Washington DC, growing up in the church, and the family values that surrounded him.
Vision of Success: What do luxury cars, Michael Jordan, and a pastor’s son all have in common?
Drug Business: Selling drugs may bring a sense of community, but it also brings in a fair amount of revenue – will Marcus feel tempted by this?
Car Business: Marcus takes his first steps towards forming part of a world of seeming success.
Close Calls: After close-calls with police, Marcus reveals what he was most afraid of.
Arrest: Sunday morning rolls around, and Marcus is caught and arrested for carjacking. But that’s not what surprised him the most.
Incarceration: A 23 year to life sentence is announced, but Marcus doesn’t let reality sink in just yet.
Coping: A thin mattress, frigid room, names scratched on a mirror, and dozens of cinder blocks to count for hours: what over a month of solitary confinement looks like.
Realization: “Marcus, this is your life now.”
Persevering: How a letter and a picture ended up saving Marcus’ life.
Release & Restart: After being released in 2004, Marcus faces a challenge most people looking for a job don’t need to worry about: “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?”
Entrepreneurship: How Marcus went from minimum wage to making $80,000, and how it all began by simply having conversations with people and building rapport.
Flikshop: How an app, initially created to connect Marcus with his friends in prison, ended up transforming the lives of hundreds of families.
Combating Recidivism: 2.3 million people in prison, and over 70% of them end up back behind bars – How Flikshop can help cut this statistic in half by the end of 2030.
Future Legacy: How creating a level of empathy can help open doors, break down barriers, and permeate change.
Links From the Episode
Flikshop: https://www.flikshop.com
Marcus’ Website: https://www.marcusbullock.net
Discrimination Against Formerly Incarcerated People - Greg Lorentzen: https://www.livingwage-sf.org/mass-incarceration/discrimination-against-formerly-incarcerated-people/
Why Are Jail Phone Calls So Expensive? - Tyler Kendall, 10/13/2020: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-are-jail-phone-calls-so-expensive/
Why We Must Rethink Solitary Confinement - Barack Obama, 01/25/2016: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/barack-obama-why-we-must-rethink-solitary-confinement/2016/01/25/29a361f2-c384-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html
