Dear John xxxxxx, 

Since my own release from prison, my greatest passion has been mentoring youth in juvenile hall. With so much of their lives ahead of them, incarcerated youth need to feel that someone not only believes in them, but genuinely cares for them—and that there is hope. This is why I mentor young men and women in Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall each Saturday, and why we are planning to bring them pizza to celebrate on New Year’s Eve.

For kids in Ventura Youth Correctional Facility, there was a special treat right before Christmas: 11 incarcerated young men and women were taken to the Lakers’ practice facility to ball with the team. Their 8-hour respite from incarceration was part of the Represent Justice campaign, which supports the January 10th release of ARC founder Scott Budnick’s film Just Mercy.

The film’s star, Michael B. Jordan, showed up and dedicated two hours of his time to give love, inspire, and dig deep with the young people. The Lakers blessed them with new Lebron shoes, jerseys, and swag. Lakers Legends Robert Horry and Metta World Peace coached a 5-on-5 Play for Justice game and participated in a roundtable discussion with the youth, Represent Justice surrogates, and ARC members. Finally, current Lakers came out for a session with the youth.