BLOOMINGTON—On a cold winter day, you will find Ajay Jackson and his team working to process firewood in Monroe County.
“To the people inside - I want them to know there is hope and we are coming,” Jackson told WRTV.
Jackson says he is talking to those who are incarcerated because he will tell you he knows what its like to serve time and then come home with little to no options.
“In a 30-year window from the age of 13, I’m 53 now, I did about 28 years in juvenile and department of correction. I came home homeless,” Jackson said.
Jackson says he was able to turn his life around and now he says its his mission to help those who were once in his shoes.
“He put to me work as soon as I got out,” Dane Dvorak told WRTV.
Dane says he spent time in prison. The work, he is talking about is Jumble Firewood.
Jackson saysJumble Firewood offers wood processed by people with criminal histories. He wants to help people who spent time behind bars.
“My offense is sexual misconduct with a minor and nobody will hire that,” Kole Gunderman said.
People like Gunderman and Dvorak.
“Keep your head up, just keep trying. Don’t give up, because your past doesn’t determine what your future is going to be,” Dvorak said.
Jackson says he wants to break the cycle and give people hope.
According to the IDOC, of those offenders released in 2020, 34.78% were recommitted to the IDOC within three years of their release date for either a new conviction or a violation of post-release supervision.
“If I didn’t have Ajay or Dane around, I didn’t know where I would be, because there is not a whole lot else, we can do,” Gunderman concluded.
Jackson tells WRTV that he is looking to get Jumble Firewood into the DOC in the next few years.
For more information about Jumble Firewood click here.
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