Interview: Victor Perez on Family, Faith, and More

February 27, 2025

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by Nina Zhao

Victor Perez was incarcerated at the Rhode Island ACI for 25 and a half years before being released almost a year ago in March of 2024. Last Tuesday, he sat down with me for an interview. Victor has a contagiously joyful energy, and it was a pleasure to learn about him and his story in this interview.

Victor grew up in Brooklyn and became involved in the streets when he was very young. “My dad was an alcoholic, and my mom was a drug addict.” Victor dropped out of school in 7th grade, at which point he himself was also addicted to drugs. He entered into a drug treatment center when he was around 13 years old, but he didn’t yet think he truly had a problem.

When he was about 14 years old, Victor, his mom, and his brother moved to Rhode Island, with the hopes that they could have a calmer life here. Nevertheless, “I immediately found the street kids again,” Victor recalls. Victor spent time at the Rhode Island Training School when he was 15, 16, and 17. At 17, unable to go back to live with his mom and brother, Victor was released to a group home. Around this time, Victor says, he began doing well and wanted to change his life. He stopped using drugs for several months, but it wasn’t long before he went back to “getting high and running around the streets” again. At 18, Victor ended up in the ACI facing a life sentence.

Around 2004, when Victor was 24, he participated in the 6-month drug treatment program Spectrum in prison in order to get an early release from the High Security facility to the Maximum Security facility. Through that program, he said, he started learning techniques to help him stay away from drugs and started working on his own behaviors. This was the beginning of a new journey for him.

When he was 29, Victor became interested in Islam. He had grown up Catholic, but in prison, he saw people practicing Islam – praying every day, observing Ramadan – and he was drawn in by their devotion. “Once I started praying and getting closer to God, I started to morally enrich myself. I started to morally become the person that I have the potential to be: someone with integrity, someone that’s honest, someone that is of service, cares for others, and cares for himself. I just really learned to love myself and to be connected with the most high.” “I learned to forgive myself,” he says, “I asked God for forgiveness, and I see his forgiveness.” During that time, he saw himself “grow mentally,” and he started getting involved in programs in prison. He says, “people would see me help myself and would try to help me, and for that i’m forever grateful.”

One of the programs he became interested in was the Phoenix Project. “The thing that really got me was family dynamics and the business stuff,” referring to two of the modules of our 6-month program. He had done a lot of programs that worked on internal change, which he appreciated, “but at the end of the day, they weren’t ever speaking about how you’re gonna get out and survive financially … so when [the Phoenix Project] came in, they actually gave that hope that when you get out, there’s a chance for you to get your own job. And if you can’t get a job, make your own job.” He had also known Kathy and Jen for many years from their other work in the prison, and he knew their reputation. He participated in the Phoenix Project in 2020 and says, “It was challenging, but I had a great experience.” “Even out here, they follow up all the time.”

When I ask him about the challenges he faced in the first few months after his release, Victor says, “I built so many resources in there, and I had so many people trying to help me in there … Because of them, I was able to become better. So on the outside, they still supported me, just like the way the Phoenix Project still supports me.” He also values his relationship with Garden Time, one of the organizations he worked with before his release. After his release, “I didn’t even have to look for work because they came to look for me.” Today, he still works for Garden Time, doing tree service work and working with the youth.

Victor also applied lessons from the Phoenix Project about starting his own business. After he went home, he had a 3-year plan. “I saved a few dollars and then was like you know what, who better to invest in than myself… in my mind, I thought you have to be at a certain level to be able to do something.” But, he realized, “we came from nothing to be something; there’s no way we gotta be something to make something. So he decided to go for it, and he started his own company, STR8CLEAN, a professional cleaning service. “I’m shooting for the stars. If I land on the moon, that’s cool.”

In regards to staying on track now, Victor says, “To me, it’s about understanding and seeing the people that got out that want to stay out.” He still goes to NA meetings several times a week, and he has a sponsor that he can turn to. At this point, “I’ve learned so much about people, places, and things, and I apply so much of it that I navigate really well through my triggers.” He now has 21 years of sobriety, and he continues to put in the effort to stay on track.

Victor built a strong support system and has learned to work with and rely on others, and he credits them for helping him work toward his success. “I had a lot of help along the way. A lot of good people came through … they put their necks on the line for guys like me,” he says. Since being incarcerated, he has built a strong relationship with his brother and his brother’s family. Victor also recently returned to New York to see other members of his family, even meeting some of his other brothers and sisters for the first time. “After I started doing really well,” he says, “I started seeking [my family] out, because for me, one of the things that I really wanted to redeem myself about was disappointing some of my family.” Now, Victor says, “they’re crazy proud of me, man!” The Phoenix Project also played a part in his relationship with his family. “I talk to my family about how the ripple effect of our family dynamics can just go on and on unless we break the cycle. I learned things like that and underlying medical conditions, how we break that cycle.”

Victor is also proud of where he is today. After more than 25 years incarcerated, “I didn’t know what a website was, and now I have a website.” He is looking forward to continuing to work hard and grow his business. We are so grateful to have Victor as a part of our community!