A trauma camp in Northern Michigan is helping returning citizens cope with the stress of living on the outside after leaving prison.

The annual gathering brings together the formerly incarcerated with counselors in a retreat-like setting free of distractions.

"One Detroit" contributor, Mario Bueno, who served time himself in prison, and producer Bill Kubota attended the recent camp to see how it works.

- We are in Bellaire, Michigan.

It's the Shanty Creek Resort.

We're at this beautiful cabin here that's got like at least 15 or 16 beds.

- [Mario] Aaron Kinzel's creation, Trauma Camp.

The campers, ex-cons refreshing their minds while getting a taste of Northern hospitality.

- Yeah, yeah; so it's fresh smoked salmon from the Bear River up in Petoskey.

- Wow, two days old.

Two days ago, it was swimming in the river.

- It was swimming two days ago, yeah.

- [Mario] Trauma Camp in its fourth year.

This time, 15 campers came.

- I'm gonna go around and give you a piece of paper and a pen.

We're gonna have a couple of little things we're gonna work on.

- You really need to get people right in their head.

And the whole idea of incarceration of itself is extremely traumatic.

- [Mario] Kinzel, on faculty at the University of Michigan Dearborn specializing in Criminal Justice.

He's been in prison himself.

- A lot of my family were actively involved in criminal behavior.

Seeing violence in the home, watching violence in my community.

- [Mario] 18 years old, pulled over by police.

He panicked.

- And within seconds, I make the worst decision of my life.

I reached beneath my seat.

I pulled a firearm, I fire out the window.

- [Mario] Charged with attempted murder and other felonies, Kinzel served 10 years.

Education changed his life: college, grad school.

Now, much of his work: teaching, criminal justice advocacy, and helping returning citizens.

- It started out, I think, initially as this kind of brainchild of mine where I realized that some of my own issues when I came home from prison as a young man, I had a lot of unresolved trauma.

And honestly, I didn't even know what the hell trauma was until I started in grad school and started reading more about different literature that talks about these experiences that I had: for example, ACEs, adverse childhood experiences.

All this stuff that happened to me as a young child has really helped define, not necessarily cause but certainly led me down certain roads in which I made really negative choices going forward in my life, and then getting involved in the criminal justice system.

- Before your 18th birthday, did you often or very often feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special?

1 for yes, 0 for no.

- [Mario] Postdoctoral researcher, Meghan O'Neil, administers an ACEs test, a survey of adverse childhood experiences.

- These individuals may have experienced multiple traumas throughout their life.

Childhood trauma in particular is something that carries forth into adulthood for many.

Did a parent or other adult swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you in any way?

The Trauma Camp really tries to get at providing a supportive humanizing environment.

We appreciate and understand the challenges they've been through and that the system is inadequate as it stands to fully support reentry to housing, employment, to families.

Because there are gaps, right, in services.

- [Mario] The reading of the ACEs scorecards.

- Somebody with a 3?

- [Mario] A high number, higher risk for health problems, mental and physical.

- A 9?

- It was surprising to see my score was so high.

There was an interesting point that she brought up about like, just because you have a high ACEs score doesn't mean that you're destined for, you know, problems.

But it's that like resiliency gene that she was speaking of.

Some people have it, some people don't.

And I think that's what makes the difference.

- I wanna do things a little bit differently to where we work with people holistically instead of this cookie-cutter approach with reentry.

"Well, here's your basic stuff.

"See you later."

I wanted to really work with the individual and get them, you know, free of anxiety, access clinical health services, really de-stigmatize mental health.

- A lot of the negative experiences that we encounter like in the carceral state are, you know, they're difficult to even think about.

So coming together in a safe space like this is really beneficial.

Because you find out like, wow, I'm not alone.

Like somebody else went through that and they're still standing.

I wound up coming home from the military and, you know, wasn't really in my right mind when I got home.

I was suffering a lot from post-traumatic stress and yeah, I lost my temper.

Got into an altercation with some people.

I was really young and very impetuous.

And I wound up hurting some people pretty badly.

And it's like 17 years now that I've been out.

And it's just in the last few years that I've started to get a grip on it.

So like, it takes a while.

- [Mario] Jay Elias goes to college now.

He heard about the Detroit art scene and came here 10 years ago finding solace creating art, casting metal through his Evolution Art Studio.

He says Aaron Kinzel helps him with issues that have followed him since incarceration.

- Inside, you have this very aggressive, hyper-masculine persona in male facilities.

But even in a lot of female facilities, you may not be expressing emotion like you would normally in conventional society.

So I wanted to break that paradigm and get people to be open and connect with their community, and just be really good citizens.

- How long have you been out now?

- Almost six months.

- Wow, so you're super fresh.

- Yeah.

- I was only in prison for 11 years, I mean, which is a long time, right?

But compared to like some of the other people that were attending that camp, 30 years, 40 years.

You get locked up when there's Atari, and you come out and you got a, you know, super computer in your pocket.

It's tough stuff.

Some of that's really tough to process.

- [Mario] Lawanda Hollister, in her 50s, a regular trauma camper since it began when she left prison in 2020.

- Anytime people see the word reentry, they automatically think that it's about the resources.

And it's not always about the resources.

It's about the policy.

- [Mario] She's become an activist fighting for better opportunities for returning citizens.

That while working two jobs.

- When you give this to Chlo, tell her she's on the clock.

- [Mario] One is her catering company, The Chow Hall.

This night in Detroit, feeding and entertaining some formerly incarcerated, their friends and families.

- My favorite part about this is I'm able to employ not on a large scale, but on a every now and then type basis other returning citizens.

- [Mario] Hollister's finding stability.

This year, a proud homeowner in Ypsilanti.

But looking back, she came from an unstable family filled with trauma.

Trauma she tells me led to decisions she'd regret.

- We came here when I was young to Michigan in Flint, - From?

- Chicago.

- Chicago.

- And just when I turned 17, my family decided they were gonna stay in Chicago.

And so I had no one here in Flint with me.

My boyfriend was here who I was very much in love with.

And I stayed with him, you know, from pillar to post, wherever we could find to stay.

And during that time, he had been involved in a relationship other than ours.

And... - [Mario] Hollister says she just wanted to talk to the other young woman, but it got heated.

- The argument turned into a fight.

- [Mario] Hollister stabbed her.

Guilty of second degree murder in 1986.

Behind bars for 34 years.

You were 17?

- Mm-hmm.

She was 18?

- Mm-hmm.

- And your boyfriend was 19 going on 20?

- Mm-hmm.

Being a returning citizen, it's a lot.

People think: Oh, you're outta prison.

You should be happy and, you know, move on with your life.

Get over it, go ahead.

But there are a lot of issues that we have.

- [Mario] Jay Elias, camp participant.

This year, he's also a camp art instructor.

- [Jay] We create these negative spaces with positive intentions.

- [Mario] In the end, everyone will have a piece of art in their own design, cast in aluminum.

- How do we leave a mark that has a positive effect?

How do we transform this negative into a positive?

- [Mario] Along with the metal work, Elias is studying psychology at Wayne State with an eye on a graduate degree in art therapy.

- Giving people something that creative allows them to really just express themselves non-verbally.

'Cause a lot of times, I don't like to talk about my trauma.

My trauma's very personal.

There's a lot of things that we say as ex-cons that only other ex-cons would really understand.

You know, it's kind of like you learn this language when you go in.

So it's great to like hang out with people who are coming home and want to get better like right away.

- In the professional world, in the business world, for example, retreats are commonplace, right?

Company retreats because we know this is how things get done.

- [Mario] To improve morale, productivity, that's Trauma Camp's mission too.

But maybe it goes a bit deeper.

- It's hard to talk to a parole officer that, you know, went to a school that was paid by their parents and never did a day in jail, doesn't know what the hole is like.

And they're trying to tell you, "Hey, go get a job."

- When you break it down from a macro approach, it's good for society.

I mean, everybody talks about recidivism.

I hate hearing that, a statistic.

But like everybody likes to hear: Oh, well, is public safety being impacted?

Absolutely.

- What are the real statistics when it comes to recidivism?

- Well, the unfortunate reality is people that don't get access to programs like these or any type of program to really help them out, on average, after nine years being home, 83% of them get either rearrested or sent back to jail or prison.

- I love my therapist.

I like my therapist, she's very good.

But to be amongst my peers, my people, is necessary.

- So you need both kind of.

- Yes, absolutely.

- [Mario] You need those who've walked that proverbial mile and who have overcome.

- Yes.

- But you also need those who've never even walked that mile but have walked other miles.

- Yes, absolutely.

That's the village, that's the village.

- That's the village.

- That's the village.

I am blessed and I am grateful that my village began when I walked out.