Established 2003 | 501C3
Our HISTORY
The Gang Diversion, Reentry And Absent Fathers Intervention Centers (Dba: GRAAFICS) was first visualized in 2000 by it's current Founder |Executive Director and CEO: Kai Smith. While in prison, confined for 2yrs to a 6ft X 9ft punitive segregation cell for 23 hrs a day (for assaulting a corrections officer that spit in his food) Kai decided to channel negative energy with creative writing.
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment within prison. It looks like an inmate forced to live in a single 6ft X 9ft cell with little or no meaningful contact to other inmates or in some cases daylight. It is specifically designed for extremely disruptive inmates who are security risks to other inmates, prison staff, or the prison itself. It is mostly used for extreme violations of discipline, such as murder, hostage-taking, deadly assault, stabbings, slashings, assaults on staff and/or rioting. Solitary confinement has received severe criticism for having detrimental psychological effects and, to some extend and/or in some cases, constituting torture. A 2014 study found that detainees sent to solitary confinement were nearly seven times more likely to try to hurt or kill themselves. The mental harm of solitary confinement was highlighted by The Kalief Browder Story (Executive Produced By: Jay-Z) who was arrested at age 16. Kalief spent three years in confinement on a stolen backpack charge that was later dropped. Kalief died by suicide in June 2015. With 10 months left on a 1yr solitary stint, Kai decided to channel negative energy with creative writing.
After reading 5 different self-help books, a question was asked at the conclusion of one. It read, 'If YOU could design an effective reentry program, what would it look like?' Kai thought: "Who better to answer this question than me? I've been in and out of juvenile institutions and adult prisons all of my life. I grew up watching my father and each of my uncles go in and out of prison all of their lives. Who better than me?" It took Kai two years to answer this one question; two years of journaling his thoughts within the pages of nearly 200 writing pads. And then one day it was time to go home ... with a plan!
The Gang Diversion, Reentry And Absent Fathers Intervention Centers, Inc. was created to serve as a ‘port-of-exit’ for those young adults genuinely interested in discontinuing negative or criminal behavior. GRAAFICS assist at-risk youth, current gang members, inactive gang members, the incarcerated, the formerly incarcerated, and absent fathers with successfully reforming the attitudes and behaviors that directly correlate to unhealthy decisions.
