My name is Wesley Moore. I am 49 years old, and I'm serving a life without parole plus 20 years for felony murder. My mother raised me and my older brother Richard Antonio Moore AKA Tony and myself and the Projects of Cherry Hill, until I was the age of 10. Afterwards, we moved to some of Baltimore's roughest neighborhoods, where Tony served as my protector and example. My brother taught me to be fearless and loyal which led me to take on the role of protector as well. My mother was working her hardest to improve our circumstances, but in the meanwhile my brother and I were navigating the difficulties of growing up in communities riddled with drugs and violence. To survive this environment, we took on various characteristics we thought would serve as well. Some of these characteristics became a part of my mindset, and contributed to most, if not all, of my poor decisions and choices. Having a survivalist mentality, along with fathering a child at the age of 17, pushed me further down the path to making bad choices. One of those choices landed me in prison at the age of 24, where I have been for the past two and a half decades serving life for a murder I didn't commit.
In my teenage years I began to struggle with my identity growing up in the harsh environments I did, but not really feeling like I belonged. I loved music and dancing and got very good at writing songs and performing them. But at that time this didn't fit the mold that I was shaped in. I was brought to be a hustler for real, to go hard and stand on business before it became popular. I did a lot of things I thought that I “had” to seeking validation, and trying to live up to the expectations of others, instead of my own.
I had a change of mind set between the ages of 20 and 21, when I sought to master more of an internal locus of control, opposed to the external one that influenced much of my negative behavior. After fathering my fourth child I thought to change my life's path and enrolled in Job Corps where I earned a GED and a certification in carpentry. I was working towards my life working my first real job when that change was interrupted by my past. My loyalty to a lifestyle I was trying to leave behind, where does head when I didn't have the tools to rationalize my future path, as opposed to my past. These are the tools that sadly I had to learn during my incarceration, like going through my hierarchy of values, and performing a cost-benefit analysis in making choices and decisions. I wish I could have learned those tools beforehand but I am glad that I've learned them now in order to have a brighter path towards the future.
I've been putting in the work of improving myself for the past two decades and have made many strides that have brought great successes. I'm a devout Muslim and a pillar in the Muslim Community here at JCI. I credit my faith for the majority of my progression, because it has grounded me and given me a platform for which to grow from. I'm currently a student in the University of Baltimore Second Chance college program, working towards my bachelor's degree in human services and administration. I have completed several self help and cognitive development based programs like AVP for which I completed every available course and SMART for which I was a facilitator and training before I started college. I have worked at the MCE furniture plant for 16 years where I operate a computerized saw, and I'm in charge of a group of men who have begun the process of all furniture manufactured and state entities in Maryland.
I'm the president and event coordinator for Positive CHANGE Coalition here at JCI, which is a group of men from different states and walks of life coming together to affect positive change in the community here at JCI, as well as the communities we hope that we are blessed to return to. I'm a member of PEN, which is the gang emancipation and violence interruption organization. As well as a peace ambassador with the Baltimore Peace Movement. I received citations from the Mayor's Office as well as the State Legislature for community work done with Each 1 Save 1 which is an organization that connects the community with life saving tools and resources.
I believe the next phase of my evolution is to return to my community a more educated and enlightened individual one with the positive mindset and the resources to assist young people avoid falling victim to the same system I feel victim to before them. I plan to take the positive change coalition's mission into the community, and build a platform for more young people to evolve and flourish. I want to speak to young people who connect to my experience and can relate to my circumstances in hopes of sharing the tools that I have learned, that might assist them in making a more productive path in their life. In my 25 years in prison I have learned patience, the value of knowledge, how precious life is and the importance of making good choices, my God is above all and foremost in the lives of the successful. These are a few of the blessings that have come as lessons to me and I intend to pass on. God willing.
My family has had so much loss since my incarceration and I am praying that me coming home can bring some sense of hope and light to them. The time and distance apart have created a gap that I hope my presence is able to repair and we can become closer and more unified as a family. My mother has been the most consistent person in my life through my incarceration. She is raised my children and held the family together with all of her might. We lost my son to opioid addiction, my aunt (my mother's sister) to medical malpractice, my brother from complications from diabetes, my little cousin to murder, my grandfather to dementia, and my children's mother to suspicious circumstances, just to name a few. I want to come home to support my family and create new more positive memories with them along the way. To use my carpentry skills to help my 70 year old mother take care of her house which is in need of repair. To help my grandchildren navigate their childhood with a mother suffering from opioid addiction, which has placed them in foster care. To be an example to my little brother and cousins of what evolution and positive change looks like and the success it can bring. I want to create a new legacy for my family. One of community service and building. My hope is to one day facilitate the opening of a circuit of youth centers all around the state, that are connected with the goal of providing safe spaces for young people to chase and recognize their potential. I also want to open a transitional home for young people who age out of foster care, to provide shelter and resources to help shape their future. Upon coming home I hope to go into the field of youth mentorship, and facilitating programs that provide tools for positive reinforcement, and life skills that will assist them in shaping successful paths to their future.
I hope you will find it in your heart to support the work like myself men like myself have put forward in the name of growth and redemption the supporting the Second Look Act.
With peace and blessings,
Wesley Moore
In my teenage years I began to struggle with my identity growing up in the harsh environments I did, but not really feeling like I belonged. I loved music and dancing and got very good at writing songs and performing them. But at that time this didn't fit the mold that I was shaped in. I was brought to be a hustler for real, to go hard and stand on business before it became popular. I did a lot of things I thought that I “had” to seeking validation, and trying to live up to the expectations of others, instead of my own.
I had a change of mind set between the ages of 20 and 21, when I sought to master more of an internal locus of control, opposed to the external one that influenced much of my negative behavior. After fathering my fourth child I thought to change my life's path and enrolled in Job Corps where I earned a GED and a certification in carpentry. I was working towards my life working my first real job when that change was interrupted by my past. My loyalty to a lifestyle I was trying to leave behind, where does head when I didn't have the tools to rationalize my future path, as opposed to my past. These are the tools that sadly I had to learn during my incarceration, like going through my hierarchy of values, and performing a cost-benefit analysis in making choices and decisions. I wish I could have learned those tools beforehand but I am glad that I've learned them now in order to have a brighter path towards the future.
I've been putting in the work of improving myself for the past two decades and have made many strides that have brought great successes. I'm a devout Muslim and a pillar in the Muslim Community here at JCI. I credit my faith for the majority of my progression, because it has grounded me and given me a platform for which to grow from. I'm currently a student in the University of Baltimore Second Chance college program, working towards my bachelor's degree in human services and administration. I have completed several self help and cognitive development based programs like AVP for which I completed every available course and SMART for which I was a facilitator and training before I started college. I have worked at the MCE furniture plant for 16 years where I operate a computerized saw, and I'm in charge of a group of men who have begun the process of all furniture manufactured and state entities in Maryland.
I'm the president and event coordinator for Positive CHANGE Coalition here at JCI, which is a group of men from different states and walks of life coming together to affect positive change in the community here at JCI, as well as the communities we hope that we are blessed to return to. I'm a member of PEN, which is the gang emancipation and violence interruption organization. As well as a peace ambassador with the Baltimore Peace Movement. I received citations from the Mayor's Office as well as the State Legislature for community work done with Each 1 Save 1 which is an organization that connects the community with life saving tools and resources.
I believe the next phase of my evolution is to return to my community a more educated and enlightened individual one with the positive mindset and the resources to assist young people avoid falling victim to the same system I feel victim to before them. I plan to take the positive change coalition's mission into the community, and build a platform for more young people to evolve and flourish. I want to speak to young people who connect to my experience and can relate to my circumstances in hopes of sharing the tools that I have learned, that might assist them in making a more productive path in their life. In my 25 years in prison I have learned patience, the value of knowledge, how precious life is and the importance of making good choices, my God is above all and foremost in the lives of the successful. These are a few of the blessings that have come as lessons to me and I intend to pass on. God willing.
My family has had so much loss since my incarceration and I am praying that me coming home can bring some sense of hope and light to them. The time and distance apart have created a gap that I hope my presence is able to repair and we can become closer and more unified as a family. My mother has been the most consistent person in my life through my incarceration. She is raised my children and held the family together with all of her might. We lost my son to opioid addiction, my aunt (my mother's sister) to medical malpractice, my brother from complications from diabetes, my little cousin to murder, my grandfather to dementia, and my children's mother to suspicious circumstances, just to name a few. I want to come home to support my family and create new more positive memories with them along the way. To use my carpentry skills to help my 70 year old mother take care of her house which is in need of repair. To help my grandchildren navigate their childhood with a mother suffering from opioid addiction, which has placed them in foster care. To be an example to my little brother and cousins of what evolution and positive change looks like and the success it can bring. I want to create a new legacy for my family. One of community service and building. My hope is to one day facilitate the opening of a circuit of youth centers all around the state, that are connected with the goal of providing safe spaces for young people to chase and recognize their potential. I also want to open a transitional home for young people who age out of foster care, to provide shelter and resources to help shape their future. Upon coming home I hope to go into the field of youth mentorship, and facilitating programs that provide tools for positive reinforcement, and life skills that will assist them in shaping successful paths to their future.
I hope you will find it in your heart to support the work like myself men like myself have put forward in the name of growth and redemption the supporting the Second Look Act.
With peace and blessings,
Wesley Moore