I'm Done: Jim Niederheiser on Federal Time, Lost Years, and Starting Over at 55

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In this episode, Mario reconnects with an old friend — Jim Niederheiser, a 55-year-old Twin Falls native who just walked out of federal prison after nearly four years, his sixth stint behind bars overall. Jim is staying at Port of Hope halfway house and working at Learning to Live, taking it one day at a time.

Jim opens up about a life shaped by absent structure, a drug addiction that started at 13, and decades of cycling in and out of the system on parole violations. He talks candidly about the regret of being an absent father, losing his mother on Christmas Day 2023 while he was incarcerated — and the gut-punch of not getting to say goodbye. But Jim also brings something rare: genuine conviction. Not a sales pitch, not a broken record — just a man who sold himself on change before he ever hit that gate.

What makes this episode special is the history. Mario and Jim go back to age 15. The fact that Jim's first call out of federal prison led him straight to Mario — without either of them even knowing it — is the kind of full-circle moment that reminds you why this show exists. They also get into the real barriers facing returning citizens in Idaho: finding housing as a felon is harder than finding work, and the community has a role to play in changing that.

Jim's message to anyone still inside or sitting in a halfway house: "Be hopeful. Feel blessed for every little good thing that comes your way. Have faith, be confident, and work hard."

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Transcript

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Mario 0:05

Welcome to Reformed and Real, where we take a journey with our people fresh out of prison and we want to know how the community around them really feels. My name is Mario Hernandez. I'm one of those messed up people that got released back into the community, and we're here to try and figure out how this looks.

Wayne 0:19

My name is Wayne Burt, Curious Onlooker, wants to get to know about our prison system, get to the stories beyond the stigma of incarceration, because like Mario, I believe all stories count.

Mario 0:29

They absolutely do. They absolutely do.

Wayne 0:31

Wayne, uh, it's been a what, a couple weeks? Yeah. Or a week. We're on a roll. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, two out of three, right? We've had live content. So uh pretty good.

Mario 0:41

Yeah, yeah. So uh it's been a good week. Uh we have uh uh special guest with us, one of my old friends. His name's Jim Niederhyser. Um I guess uh Yeah. Yeah what's your story, Jim? Yeah, what's your story, bud?

Wayne 0:56

What's my story? This is what the whole episode is going to be about.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Yeah, yeah, you didn't warn me about that.

Mario 1:00

Tell us a little bit where you're at, where you where you're at, what you're doing, why you're there, what's going on. We don't want, you know, the dirty, nitty-gritty details, just why are you there?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

So uh I got out of fiddle prison about a month ago from staying at the uh Port of Hope halfway house, currently working here at uh learning to live, and uh just getting my life back together.

Mario 1:22

Well good. That's uh that's the number one, like you know, we that's what we want to hear, right? That's where you want to be. You want to be at the place, like where am I gonna go from here? How am I gonna get better? Um, Jim, how long how much time did you do? Almost four years. Uh, and you've been in and out a lot, haven't you? Yeah, I've been back five times. Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

How much did you this was the first federal time, but five, five times out to the state here. Oh, and how old are you? 55.

Wayne 1:48

Is that five times within the four years? No, the four years just the latest stent.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

No, I started when I was 38. Gotcha. My first prison sentence was in when I was 38, so quite a while back. That's a late bloomer. Yeah, a lot of parole violations. Yeah. Gotcha. In and out, in and out, in and out.

Wayne 2:05

How'd all that come about? How'd your life going into the drugs? Yeah. Drugs got me there.

Mario 2:11

Trying to make a quick buck, trying to stay high. That's about the gist of most of it, right? Because trying to get stay high, whatever it is. And everybody always, you know, I always tell people, yeah, I used to deal drugs, but I dealt drugs to get high. Yep. And uh, you know, that's that's kind of the nobody can really get high and just get high, right? You don't want to have to pay for it, so you do you do what you gotta do. Yeah, yeah, right. Right. How long have uh how long have I known you, Tim?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

I met you when I was 15. Oh yeah. We were little turdballs together, weren't we? I didn't go to school with you, but I went to school with your brother, and then we developed friendship that way. Were you south of twin? No, I was right. I was right. Well, yeah, I was south of twin, I guess, back then.

unknown 2:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Yeah. Yeah.

Mario 2:55

You lived out there by the water tower, huh?

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yep.

Wayne 2:57

And you guys went to the same high school?

Mario 2:59

No. Oh, you didn't? No, we didn't go to school together. He went like he went to well I went to school with your brother, a little brother.

unknown 3:05

Yeah.

Mario 3:05

And was that a junior high or that was junior high, yeah, and high school for just a short time. Yeah, my brother didn't make it very far into the school.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

I didn't either.

Wayne 3:15

What about that time was similar between you two? Did you have a dad that wasn't around? Kind of like Mario?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

I had a I had a stepfather, but I didn't have a dad that was around. Not like yeah, we do have that in common. Yeah, yeah. And so really there wasn't much structure. You just kind of running around. Well, my mother was there and she was remarried, so there was some structure, but it was too late for all that.

unknown 3:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yeah.

Mario 3:36

Yeah. So um, when did you start using drugs? What year? What what how old were you?

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Uh probably been 13, 14 years old. I think was the first time I actually really got anywhere with it, you know what I mean?

Mario 3:50

So uh looking back at that time right there, tell me give tell us something about like one of your first instances. Like what changed your life?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

What changed it like towards the worse or yeah, for the worse. You know, I guess for me it would have been uh not really having that structure at home. So my biggest my biggest fears and problems in life were uh I felt out of place. Uh I didn't have uh I just didn't have that father figure in my life. Uh my mother wasn't very persistent about how much school I attended to. And then uh you just I took, you know, I was taking care of myself by the time I was sixteen. I'd I'd moved out and lived oddball places here and there, family, whatever. You know, my family did try to help, but I didn't I wouldn't I wouldn't accept the help. I thought I was accepting it, but I was doing my own thing. The only thing I've done consistent my whole life is do drugs and and I have been employed my whole life, so it always worked. You know, I wasn't just uh laying around playing Nintendo or something.

Wayne 4:56

Yeah. So the drugs part you kind of felt a sense of belonging. That and a a way out, you know, a way to get out.

Mario 5:04

Escape. Yeah, escape. Yeah. Have you always seen it like that or did it take like years for you to look back and say, you know what, I was just like trying to get away from life.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

No, I always I always used to to uh erase, you know what I mean? Yeah That's what I felt like I was doing anyway. I was aware of it.

Mario 5:24

Was there uh did you did you have like an abusive family?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

No, I came from I came from really good roots. It just uh my mom raised five children, I was the fifth, and uh by the time I came around and came of age to be learning things, you know, or needing things like football at, you know, junior high, and she was done raising kids. That's that's the way I feel about it. She was just done raising kids. She was checked out, she was checked out. She was about she was about her life from that point. So uh you know, I just did me. Yeah, I wasn't accepted by my stepfather very well. He didn't want to raise no kids, especially one that knew it all. You know what I mean? Yeah, we didn't couldn't be, you know, couldn't be told, couldn't learn. Not not, you know, I've always learned by my by my my my mistakes, but uh you don't want to be taught. Yeah, yeah. So did you how far in school did you say you went in? I made it I went to the tenth grade. I just until I turned 16. As soon as I turned 16, me and one of the homies, you know, we were like, we're out of here. Yeah.

Mario 6:33

That's crazy. I we we at that time we were just barely running into each other every once in a while. Yeah, we were doing some house partying and yeah, dumb dumb stuff. All right. Yeah, then I guess maybe we must have been about 17 when we started, like 17, 18, 19 is when we started actually clicking and when you really got to know each other.

Wayne 6:54

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, messing things up. The partying started in earnest. Well, as you went, Mario, you were able to hold a job much of the time too. Yep. So you guys were pr you were somewhat functional. That's a good word, is functioning addict, yeah. Yeah. And uh it took quite a while of that period of time. So I'm thinking what early 20s until your first time in incarcerated was 38. Is that right? Yeah, I was 38.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

So yeah, I just didn't get caught, you know what I mean. Uh you got lucky. I just didn't get caught, right? Yeah. I mean, I got caught driving without a license and all that kind of stuff growing up, but it's uh which led to enough problems. But I I I married early. I married when I was 21. Uh you know, like I would say, I was a dropout at 16, married when I was 21. I was with her for three or four years. We had a child, and I I I flew a good path at that time. They were good people, they helped me get my shit in order. And uh after that, I uh got a divorce, but I went right into a new relationship and I was with her for 16 years. So we raised a few kids together, but in the middle of that, I she didn't ever use. I was the one that used. And uh she allowed me to to use, I guess you could say, as long as I didn't involve certain groups of people, mainly women, exact, you know, to be precise. But uh I was also I obviously could have furnished the things that she wanted to, so it was a trade-off for her. How did you do on the parenting front? You know, I was absent for a lot of it. Yeah, I felt like I was providing, which I actually was, you know. We had the home, we had the cars, we had all that. I felt like I was providing. We always had groceries, but all the little stuff uh you miss out on and don't address like you should. You look back and you know it's a lot of regret now. You look back at a lot of that, hoping that they remember some of that stuff, but they don't.

Mario 8:52

Yeah, that's a that's a good place to start the next question. How does your daughter how does she feel about all that? And how does she feel now?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Well, my kids, my youngest son, he's 26 now, 27. He's done great with it. He's he's been except but he lived with me more throughout his life as an adult or a young adult and coming of age when it was important. Like when I when I needed somebody those those teenage years, I was actually I made it back home for that. Well, I brought him to Boise, is what I did. But uh my daughter didn't get that kind of love because she was in a relationship. Um she had a uh a young man that took care of her, and so I didn't really have to worry about her. But uh yeah, she feels like she got robbed. It's uh, you know. Yeah, yeah. The heart of the matter is she felt like she got robbed. We're trying to fix that now. She's got a granddaughter, or I got a granddaughter, she got a daughter, and uh, so we're I'm using you know, we're using that time to make it up and to fix it.

Mario 9:50

Oh, good, good. You're lucky, one of the lucky ones, because I still have a daughter that doesn't talk to me, so you're you know, you're one of the lucky ones.

Wayne 9:58

The one I met is the one that's still talking to you, obviously. Yeah, yeah. And there's one that isn't talking to you. Uh yeah. Two well, yeah, one.

unknown 10:04

Yeah.

Wayne 10:05

Gotcha. I found one later on in life. Uh yeah. Gotcha.

unknown 10:11

Yeah.

Wayne 10:11

Strength in numbers. Yeah. I got a bunch of I got a gang of girls. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's good. You you must appreciate their forgive, their being forgiving about some of that stuff, huh?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Yeah, yeah.

Wayne 10:24

You'd always live with the regret though. You always have regret in your mind. Yeah. Well, it sounds like even in those troublemaking years, you still had some presence. You still, you still were available. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think that's I mean, we all know that counts more than anything. Yeah. Right?

Mario 10:42

That's good. How many, how many like if you had to count them up, how many years do you think you were locked up? Oh, right off the top of my head, probably between seven and ten.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

I mean, on the installment process.

Mario 10:56

Oh, yeah, yeah. Parole violators violations you were talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Get out, violate, go back, get out, violate, go back.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yeah, do a writer to this, do a short program, impose your time. I talked out in there once. I mean, I think this was actually my sixth trip in.

Mario 11:14

So uh for people that are listening, topping out means that you're finished your commitment to IDOC. It means that you top out your time. It's like you're finishing it, you're done, you get out, you have no parole, no time left, nothing, you're done. Yeah. So yeah. I I don't think I ever did that inside. No, no golden seal for Mario.

Wayne 11:32

No golden seal for Mario. You feel a sense of incompletion. Now you're jealous of Jim. Yeah.

Mario 11:41

Yeah. So, Jim, so I mean, if you had to like um like kind of sum up your your those years you were partying, what did you spend? I mean, honestly, you're because we all, you know, you you said it yourself. We we feel like we were there, but we weren't there. Um what kind of things did you miss out on your life? And I think that's important. Like, what do you like if you look back right now, what did you miss that you could be that you wish you would have been able to do?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

I guess the first thing that comes to mind is uh what's left of a legacy that I would leave for my children, you know. Uh I never I did purchase a few homes, obviously foreclosed on one, sold the other, but I never had that foundation that I wanted to give my children in a long-term something that they could have when I leave, you know what I mean? Uh I've tried to do it, but I've failed. But if I look back, that's probably the biggest regret is I don't I don't have and I'm running, you know, I got more years behind me than I do in front of me, so it's like uh will it ever happen, you know?

Mario 12:50

That's kind of a grim outlook, right? I I I you think about retirement? Yeah, well, you can at this age, but I mean you it's definitely been a thought. Yeah. So do you you worry uh because I I worry sometimes about me not having retirement. I tell people, wow, I need to get a maybe uh another job that does retirement because man, what's gonna happen in 10 years?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah Yeah, I just spent the last 42 months reflecting on that and it ate me up every day thinking about it. Yeah. Well, you'll fully be out in a month, right? Yeah, September. The 21st, and uh coincidentally, and that lands on my mother, which is my late mother's birthday, so it's kind of a all-around like yeah, a lot of feelings mixed up in there. Yeah, yeah. Oh, when do when did you lose your mom? I lost her on Christmas uh in 23. And you were in prison for doubt? Yep. How did you take that? That was brutal. Yeah, that was brutal. Yeah. Yeah, she didn't know how to say goodbye, and that was tough. So you got to talk to her before it happened? I talked to her uh the week before it happened. Um she, you know, I don't know if we want to go there, but she told me she couldn't uh she didn't know how to say goodbye to me. I didn't realize it was that to that point. But I'm like, you don't have to say goodbye, mom. I'll I'll I'll call you every day. I'll call you, I'll call you Wednesday, I'll call you Tuesday, I'll call you whatever every day, you know. Just I'll I'll be better about it. And man, that's the last time I talked to her. Next time, next time I called, she couldn't answer. That's crazy. That's a lot to hold on your shoulders, ain't it?

Mario 14:24

Yeah, it was tough. Yeah, I feel you feel guilt, you know what I mean. I think that's what some people miss in the community, Wayne. And uh, you know that um being incarcerated ain't easy. And uh not only are you separated from all your family, but things like that happen. Yeah. That just make it just hard to get out and and and try to fix certain relationships, like the one with your mom, right? Because there's no fixing it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah, there's no fixing it. I do feel some closure in it, but until I go down to Twin Falls is where I'm from. So once I go down and I'm actually around everybody, you know, because I haven't seen anybody other than my my daughter. But once I'm around everybody, I think it'll kind of set in. It hasn't set in yet, so it'll happen. Yeah, it'll happen when it's supposed to.

Wayne 15:10

Got some closure to get through. Yeah, got some uh, I don't know, closing loops, regrets, maybe all that stuff.

Mario 15:18

How do you how do you but I mean pretty much you're in a good space. I talk to you all the time here, and uh, you know, you have a good attitude, and you're and I remember asking you when I first saw you, and I says, Are you done? Um, because this is like not we're getting old, brother. And uh What was my answer?

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yes. I wasn't trying to convince you because that stuff, that stuff uh is is hard to convince people of, so you gotta show them by action. Yeah, it's not a sales pitch. Yeah, it's not a sales, yeah. Yeah broken ray can't be a broken record.

Wayne 15:50

When did you decide you were done?

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Man, the minute I went in. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't believe I was even there, but it happened.

unknown 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

I don't it, it was what it was, and I gotta do what I gotta do. But it's over with for the most part. There's a lot, a lot of good to look forward to. Everything's clicking into place. Our first phone call I made happened to be Mario. I've known Mario forever, and I really needed a hand. And he's like, Jim, is that you? Get down here. Yeah, I he didn't even know he was calling it was me. Is that to be clear? I sent him a text message because I really didn't want to phone call him because I didn't I didn't even know it was Mario at all. I got the number from a guy down at the center saying, Hey, I'm still wearing prison clothes. I've been out three days and I'm still wearing prison clothes, you know. And uh I could and he says, Well, go down to learning to live. They'll give you some hygiene and all that. I didn't have a dime to my name. My family's two hours away. So I shot him and he goes, Here's his number and gave me a card. I text messaged Mario and said, Hey, look, I I wasn't even prepared to come down to volunteer because I was still wearing what I had from prison. So I was embarrassed, you know. But it just happens, he's like, Man, it's me, Mario, dude. Come and see me. I'll I'll fix you up. And man, since then I've been working, I got my my license and all my my documents that I need, and he's helped me out with all that. Learning to live's helped me out with all that. I'm I'm working, I'm getting paid, and it's just going by quick, and it's going by effortlessly, to be honest with you. Everything's just falling into place.

Mario 17:26

It's really been pleasant. Yeah, it was kind of weird when I saw the name Jim Niederheiser. I'm like, there's no way there's another Jim Niederheiser in this world. There's no way. Not that Jim. I said I'm like, dude, it's Mario calling.

Wayne 17:41

And crazy. It was crazy. Yeah. Amazing.

unknown 17:43

Yeah.

Wayne 17:44

Yeah. No way you could have foreseen this when uh you were running around with each other in the Magic Valley.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Honestly, it made me emotional because I just I knew I was in good hands once I talked to him. Yeah. That uh I knew I already knew he'd have my back no matter what. Yeah. And he it's just been like that.

unknown 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Chokes me up thinking about a little bit.

Mario 18:03

Oh, yeah, yeah.

unknown 18:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

That's great.

Wayne 18:07

So uh what if you looked in the future, like in your teens, and you're like, wow, we're both gonna end up here? Just kind of a wild thought, isn't it? All the trials and tribulations, you know, all the all the backslides. Never would have guessed it. Yeah. Never. Yeah. Million years. It was just partying and fun, huh? Yeah.

Mario 18:28

That's that, that's that um that fate thing, right? Um, I don't know if you are I I you know, I believe in God. Um, I always think that everything's for a reason. So when I saw your name, I'm like, what a trip, man. What a what what a thing happened. Because the last time I saw him, no, I talked to you on the phone, huh? I just gotten out that time too. Yeah, yeah. How long ago was that? Twenty-one, twenty. Oh, okay.

Wayne 18:52

Yeah.

Mario 18:52

Yeah. And I had just gotten out um out of prison. I had just finished five years and I'm like, what are you doing, dude? And he says, Oh, I'm over here. I don't know what you said you were doing. Don't worry, you're a mechanic or something back then. Yeah, I was running around.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Uh but the time before that that we run into each other, you were at the halfway house. Yep. I mean, there might have been a conversation in between then and there, but yeah, but I recall going to the halfway house to see you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Mario 19:22

Yeah, it's so many so and it's been like years apart for all of these. Yeah. It's not just and if you figure like from when we first knew each other and then running into each other in those situations, and then once in a TC program. Um TC. Therapeutic community. Got it. Needless to say, Mario never made it.

Wayne 19:45

Did Jim make it? Yeah, I was successful actually. Jim made it, man.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

I actually stayed out for three, four years after that, but drink drinking. We didn't, I didn't go to drugs. You know, I replaced one with another and I started drinking. Got a DUI and violated, went back. So just kept doing it, kept doing it. I think I went out in handcuffs, didn't I? You definitely got rolled. I don't remember if you it was a physical role, but out of TC. Got removed, yeah.

Wayne 20:14

What do you have to do to have that happen? Nonconformist. They were, I don't know, it was such a weird process. He was an employee we had to let go of. Yeah. I think it was more like failure to participate.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah. Got it.

Wayne 20:30

Yeah. Low enthusiasm. Very low.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Hey, that was a pretty tough TC out there. Yeah, that was that was pretty hardcore back then.

Mario 20:38

Yeah. I think it was uh three days and then 10 days, and then I made it 30 days the last time.

Wayne 20:43

What would you have to do during it? What kind of things would you have to do? Gosh, that's deep right there. It's deep, yeah. Yeah, that's deep. That's another podcast episode.

Mario 20:52

We had to do some like they call it we go it's a lot of groups, a lot of confrontational stuff. I think the first time the straw broke the camel's back was when I was playing guitar in that room and a guy goes in, he goes, Hey, he pokes his head in the room because I used to go in there every morning and uh pokes his head and he says, Mario, I'm pulling you up for isolating. And I'm like, I looked at him, I'm like, I s isolating what? And he says, You're isolating, you're staying away from the group, you're in here playing the guitar every morning. And once they do that, you can't do it anymore. No, so I was like, Fuck that. I'm out of here. You know what I mean?

Wayne 21:32

I was like, there's no way. Yeah. That was your failure to comply.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Well, that was one of them anyway. That was one of them. It's it was the program's all about accountability. Yeah, I had none. Yeah, and it and there it was just it's over the top.

Mario 21:48

Yeah, well, we got to hang we got to hang out a little bit in there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you were there for a month or so, maybe two. I think 30 days I made it.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Yeah, was it 30 days? Yeah, yeah.

Wayne 22:00

Well, so Jim, what do you look forward to now? What do you look forward to the most? You got a whole wide world ahead of you, man.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

I'm just my next step is to get a place to live. Um I I got something lined up already there, so that's in place. We're gonna fall into place. Uh we're gonna we're gonna do some uh uh home improvement stuff and some construction stuff we got lined up or getting lined up and uh the future's looking bright. I mean, it's looking bright. I'm like I'm excited about it. I'm hopefully eventually bringing my son into it and uh it's make some money, you know. Just it's time, it's cool.

Wayne 22:34

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you got some uh got some lost time to make up for it. And you think this time is it's the one.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

I think this is different for me. It's different. I I don't know if it's an age thing. Uh, you know, I feel I feel kind of guilty even saying it for some reason, just because in the past it's been shallow, but I it's uh I the only person I gotta convince is me right now, and and I'm convinced.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Mm-hmm.

Wayne 23:02

Yeah, I mean, I feel that in a lot of these episodes when we interview people, there's like absolute 100% conviction when they say it. I don't mean that as a pun, right? But it's like, I'm done. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Yeah, I haven't tried to sell the concept to anybody. Uh I've just I sold it to myself before I got out. So I'm I'm the one that's important right now as far as that goes. As long as I'm good in my head, I'll make everybody believe in time. They'll see.

Wayne 23:31

Yeah.

Mario 23:31

So what do you think your biggest struggles are gonna be if you look if you if you try and predict the future, what are they gonna be?

SPEAKER_00 23:39

You know, the I there's nothing I don't feel I can accomplish. Uh you know, the the short-term, the short-term struggles are are a place to live and being a be able being able to afford it. You know, I got a vehicle underneath me now, so that really helps. But uh just staying busy, I mean it's it's I really think it's all gonna fall into place so easy that it's it's probably wrong, feels on me, you know, some to some degree.

Mario 24:06

You think that's when you find out that you could have been doing it like that this whole time? Well, that's the problem.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

That's the biggest problem, is I could have been. And I could, you know, the coulda, woulda, shoulda. Yeah. It's it's that's a terrible one to to swallow sometimes.

Mario 24:19

It is, yeah. So yeah, so those, I mean, I I always uh lump them all together because you know, you got obviously you got money um and you work, and we we worry about that because uh being a felon in the state of Idaho is tough. You know, like who wants to give us a job, a chance, an opportunity? Um, but I think with people like uh you, Jim, and everybody else that gets out has the same opportunity. When you have the mentality you have, you're already in a good place. Right. You know, you don't have to get out and change anything, you're already changed. Uh so now it's just like what work is it gonna take? And and you know, just line it up and just go, man.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

I want to make a quick comment on that real quick. It's like like I said, I've been back five, six times, and every time I got out, it was never a struggle to find work. So the work is out there. Oh, yeah. You just gotta open your eyes and or you just gotta open your mouth because the work is there, and then there's a lot of it, and there's so much out there you can be picky.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

And there's so many people that hire hire felons. I I don't I I think it's if somebody's saying, Oh, I'm a felon, I can't get a job, I think that's that's a cop out.

Mario 25:27

Yeah, I think that's a the case in most everybody. Uh most anybody can get a job. And uh anymore, I think uh you know, there's people that struggle getting work. Um, we have some people that are violent offenders that get out and uh Yeah, I didn't take that in the container. Or, you know, uh uh uh some domestic stuff or whatever. And um, you know, it I guess, but you don't have that to worry about, but you know, there is the struggle there. So what about um do you worry about your family? Like how you know how that's gonna come together? Are you just all good with that?

SPEAKER_00 26:04

No, I you know, I'm all I'm always concerned about it, and that's the first thing I started working on from I mean, from the minute I left that gate. That's the first thing that I I started addressing. And uh my daughter that I haven't seen for whatever it is, 42, 44 months. Her and her daughter just came up. So my granddaughter and my daughter just came up and spent a day with me. So I feel like we're on a good path. The trajectory is uh I'm happy, I'm pleased with it. I'm I'm hopeful everything will just get all right into place.

Mario 26:38

That's good, that's good. Um I and I I I don't I don't even know of the answer to this, but are you spiritual? Do you believe in God? Yeah, I have a higher power.

unknown 26:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Yeah. I think I think everything happens for a reason, and somebody's got control of it.

Mario 26:53

Yeah, somebody does, yeah. Yeah, and uh what about is there anything else that worries you? Is there like things that because sometimes uh have you ever had a problem getting a place to live? I mean, I know Yeah, that's difficult.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Yeah, that is really difficult. That's probably harder than getting a job anywhere in Idaho. Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, I even when I was off paper, it was difficult, almost impossible.

unknown 27:17

Yeah.

Mario 27:18

For everybody doesn't know what being off or on paper means, that means being on parole or off parole. Yeah, yeah. So that's a big deal. And and I think uh people listen to this, Jim, people inside of that are incarcerated, uh, people that are out that have been incarcerated, uh, you know, community members, and that's important, like that everybody understands and knows that uh we have to have certain things to be able to survive out here. If you want to build a community here that's stronger, um we need to be able to rent houses and apartments, and we need to be able to get work, and we need to be able to be free just like everybody else. Uh you know, it and so my pitch or my my uh I guess my statement to the community is um we need a place to live. And uh if you want good neighbors, uh start opening up your doors and letting uh felons rent and lease from you and uh give us a chance to build a life and buy a house.

Wayne 28:14

Yeah, it's a way to make everything safer and more neighborhood friendly and build stronger communities, all that stuff.

Mario 28:21

Yeah, we don't want Jim to go back to prison. No, we don't want Mario to go back to prison. We don't want any of us to go back to prison. We want to pay taxes so we can if if he does, we'd have to have another podcast episode in five years.

Wayne 28:33

Yeah, what happened? And we could totally take Jim to task.

Mario 28:39

Just hate my own words, didn't it? Yep. So if you had a thought right now, Jim, uh, and you wanted to tell somebody whether they're out in the prison or uh, you know, or sitting in a halfway house, or what would you say to somebody like you know, how like how at any advice?

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Man, just be hopeful and and uh any any little thing that comes your way that's good, feel blessed because there's a lot of good things out here. Uh, I feel blessed right now, just being in this room with you guys. I feel blessed that uh uh it's just all it's all kind of falling into place. Some people are gonna have to work harder than others. I get it. But uh just have the faith and be confident. Work hard. Yeah. Words for living.

Wayne 29:26

Yep, good advice. I like it.

Mario 29:28

Yeah, cool.

Wayne 29:30

Well, thanks for joining us, Jim. You bet, thank you. Appreciate you sharing your story. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me guys.

Mario 29:35

You betcha. All right, everybody. Uh, thank you for joining us right here on Formed and Real. And uh I'm Mario Hernandez. I'm Wayne Bird, and we've had Jim Mieterheiser here, and we'll catch you next week.