Music

And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axfiles, with your host, David Axelrod.

Shaka Sengor could have been another faceless statistic, buried in America's criminal justice system.

Proct by a broken home he ran away and fell prey to the drug trade on the streets of Detroit.

In prison for murder at 19, he spent seven years in solitary confinement.

But instead of being irretrievably lost, Sengor found his way forward by the light of the words he read and wrote.

Now a best-selling author, youth mentor, entrepreneur and advocate for criminal justice reform.

He's written a book to his sons and for young black boys across this country called Letters to the Sons of Society.

I sat down with him last night before an audience at Chicago Beyond, a splendid organization dedicated to redeeming young lives.

Here's that conversation.

Music

Shaka Sengor, so good to be with you again. Been five, six years since you came to the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago.

Talk about criminal justice reform through your unique perspective.

But you know, we were saying before we got started, your story is extraordinary in so many ways.

And then in some ways it is sadly familiar.

Talk to me about your early childhood and the turn in your life.

First of all, it feels good to be back in person, which has been a while.

Or with anybody for this.

Yeah, truly excited to be here and meet everybody.

You know, when I think about my childhood, you know, always think about the promise of the American dream and what that looked like for us growing up in the city of Detroit.

So I grew up in a house. So my dad was an Air Force. He'd be tired a few years after 35 years of services of the country.

And my mom was a homemaker.

...