Joshua’s Story: To Be “Extraordinarily Human”

Joshua Hairston has spent 17 years behind prison walls, almost half his entire life. He was 18 when he was sentenced to 40 years, and it’s almost impossible to imagine how someone that young — facing four decades inside — could find hope for any kind of meaningful future. But that’s exactly what he has done.

It was in the tenth year of Joshua’s incarceration, when he was enduring what would be his last time in solitary confinement, that everything changed. He describes the experience:

In August 2018, I was in the hole and I had an epiphany. I looked at the past 10 years of my incarcerated life. I realized I blamed everyone for my circumstances, and I realized I had removed all power to change the trajectory of my life by blaming others and making them responsible. This locus of control rendered me helpless. I came from a background where life was perceived as worthless. It was in that moment while sitting in the hole where I actually understood the value of life — the life that I took, and my own.

What followed, and what Joshua continues to sustain to this day, is a life shaped by service, growth, and meaning, especially in making life better for others. It is the only way he survives his long sentence.

“Since that moment in August of 2018, I have lived enveloped in the mission of inspiring my peers to be more than prisoners. My intention is purely to encourage those around me (inmates and staff alike) to expend themselves in being extraordinarily human.”

Seventeen years ago, a drug deal went tragically wrong and Joshua shot and killed a man. Joshua pleaded self-defense, but the jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, for which he was sentenced to 37 years, and the use of a firearm in commission of a felony, for which he received a sentence of three years (the mandatory minimum). It was 2008, and Joshua had only recently turned 18. His release date is 2048.

His life before that day was almost entirely consumed by chaos and instability. All of his friends, family, and neighbors were in one way or another impacted by the criminal justice system. His father was difficult, and his mother suffered from deep trauma and mental health issues. Joshua started using drugs when he was very young, and he became a father at age 16.

It’s hard to square that dysfunction and the 18-year-old whom the system sentenced to more than four decades with the person Joshua is today. He is a loving, consistent father to his two daughters and deeply supportive of two of his nephews.

“I am,” Joshua says, “absolutely desperate to be more than the impulsive and fear-motivated inner-city kid.”

Nowhere is that drive to be worthy of a second chance more evident than in his standing within prison system itself, where Joshua’s service earns him respect from others serving time and prison staff. He is involved in many positive-impact prison initiatives, including the Action Planning for Prevention & Relapse program. And notably, the Virginia Department of Corrections sends Joshua throughout the state to consult with various facilities on improving Peer Recovery and Youthful Offender in-prison programs.

Central to his work has been his journey to become a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist; most impressively, Joshua passed and received the highest grade in Virginia — and not just among people behind bars. Joshua received the highest score among all Virginians who took the test, incarcerated and not.

Recently, he and four of his peers from the incarcerated community were specially selected to launch the Fentanyl Response Program, the Virginia DOC’s answer to the spike in overdoses and deaths due to fentanyl poisoning.

Perhaps most impactful has been Joshua’s ability to reach people far beyond the walls confining him. He helps lead a broader cultural push for “all people behind bars to be seen as extraordinarily human,” as he puts it, through education, research, organizing, and legislative advocacy that centers on lived experiences. He serves on the board of directors for the Humanization Project, and has led the expansion of the Humanizing the Classroom program at colleges across Virginia, where incarcerated people serve as teachers for college students.

Joshua has 23 more years to serve, no matter the positive impact he has had and will continue to make on the world. As the system is now, nothing short of clemency will change that. That painful fact highlights how necessary reforms like Second Look laws — especially Emerging Adult Second Look laws — are for Virginia. Such laws would allow judges to review sentences after a person has served a discrete number of years. For someone like Joshua, whose efforts align directly with Virginia’s values of justice, compassion, and second chances, a second look makes sense.

The system essentially gave up on Joshua 17 years ago. Yet he hasn’t given up on himself. “I live in a sense of gratitude, in my actions and thoughts. I don’t want to be just another person expressing his pain, but to do the work so badly needed in this fight. To do something lasting and do something that is going to be truly impactful to change the trajectory of the system toward second chances and justice.”

The post Joshua’s Story: To Be “Extraordinarily Human” first appeared on Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation.