On LA’s Skid Row, a criminal court judge organizes a running club comprised of homeless, recovering and paroled men an | dG1fQVIxQXFucW5ZeFU
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Short filmTranscript
00:00The Running Club started a year and two or three months ago.
00:16My involvement gives me the ability to impact lives in a way that I cannot as a judge.
00:22The total state prison commitment for Mr. Williams is 71 years, four months to life.
00:33David was one of the first members of The Running Club.
00:36I slept up under here for maybe two years.
00:41I'm down on Skid Row, you know, I'm better than this.
00:43No, no, I'm not, I'm not better than that at all.
00:46I got no hope.
00:47That's where I wound up, Skid Row, and I lost everything when I went down there.
00:51I said, what gang are you guys from?
00:53I started shooting at them, and I seen them both fall right there in the driveway.
00:59One horrendous act does not define a person in his or her entirety.
01:07I came in the mission at 300 pounds.
01:09Judge Mitchell came in, I'm starting a running club.
01:12I couldn't waddle down the street.
01:13I waddled down the street and just, oh God, I'm dying.
01:15You do not wake up one morning and say you're going to run a marathon.
01:19You have to be focused, you have to be disciplined, and you really have to be committed to the proposition.
01:25I just kind of thought, as a drug addict, this is my lot in life.
01:29But what running did is it gave me my fight back.
01:31It gives us our fight back.
01:33No matter where we come from, we can do anything and attain the impossible.
01:38He doesn't spend money on anything, nothing, except running shoes, plane trips.
01:4535 years of drugs and addiction, 10 years sleeping on the streets of Skid Rowey, and here we are in Africa.
01:53Wow.
01:57Modi is not running with us this morning, okay?
02:00Major relapse.
02:02I'm an elite super athlete.
02:04Oh my God.
02:05I'm not.
02:06Your legs are like, falling off at the end of every run.
02:10People question, why are you spending this kind of money to take people halfway around the world?
02:17It's just, it's such a big deal being here.
02:20It's not just about homeless people running in Rome.
02:24Giving someone from Skid Row an opportunity to come to a glorious city is incredibly empowering.
02:32It gives them dignity, and that's what this is about.