“$50 and a Potato Sack” — What Release Day Really Looks Like – Josh Walker & Lance Fleming Interview [Video]

Watch the replay of our conversation with Joshua “Juice” Walker, co-founder of 7More, and Lance Fleming, 7More reentry specialist. In Texas, a man walks out of prison with a $50 check and a red mesh “chain bag” that tells the whole neighborhood where he just came from. Josh and Lance describe what that day really looks like — and what changes when someone is standing at the gate with clothes, food, dignity, and a peer mentor who has walked the same road.

The conversation moves from the Greyhound station where 7More began in 2015 to the releasing prison where the team now meets men before they step into daylight, and from Lance’s own turning point inside to the peer-mentor network that carries men through their first weeks home.

About Our Guests

Joshua “Juice” Walker is the co-founder of 7More with his wife, Debs. Born to missionary parents, he had visited more than 50 countries by age ten before his family settled in Ireland, where he and Debs began serving in inner-city Dublin youth work. A short break in Texas in 2005 changed everything: while volunteering with a homeless outreach in Houston, they found a two-month-old baby near death behind a dumpster — their son Isaiah, now 21.

Since 2015, 7More has met men at one of life’s most vulnerable moments, the day they are released from prison, and connects them with a network of peer mentors across Texas. Josh’s dream is that one day every man leaving prison in Texas will be met by “family.”

Lance Fleming is a reentry specialist with 7More. After years in and out of prison, his turning point came inside — in a Bible study he joined for parole certificates, and a prayer on a top bunk in Plainview, Texas, in August 2018. Today he walks with men from their first day out: IDs, bank accounts, transitional housing, second-chance jobs, and mentorship.

In This Interview:

Two Greyhound buses a day — how 7More began meeting men released into the roughest part of Houston with a $50 check.

The chain bag — why the first thing the team does is take away everything that says “I just got out.”

Inside the releasing prison — 8:30 a.m. in the holding tank, and the hours before a man steps into daylight.

“The majority are just scared to death” — Lance on what the men at the gate are actually feeling.

A thousand different faces — Lance’s turning point, and why it started before he got out.

Peer mentors who mentor mentors — the model, and how it connects with Ready for Reentry learners coming home.

44 rental applications — what employers, landlords, dentists, and churches can do to say yes.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

3:08 The name “Juice”

7:54 The baby behind the dumpster

11:47 Coming out with far less

13:30 Why “7More”: seventy times seven

16:58 Meeting the Greyhound buses

18:53 “They’re not used to kindness”

20:01 The chain bag

22:58 Inside the releasing prison

27:34 3,000 releases a month

29:09 When people truly decide to change

31:06 Lance: a thousand different faces

33:06 The top bunk under the gray blanket

39:03 Q&A: how release day works

43:19 Does prison rehabilitate?

45:01 Brisket for 160 officers

50:36 From prison to bus driver

56:36 “Who I was, that’s not who I’m gonna be”

59:33 Connecting chaplains to 7More

1:06:40 Partnering with Ready for Reentry

1:11:57 44 rental applications

1:15:12 Wrap-up

To learn more about Josh and Lance’s work, visit 7More. Watch the TDCJ video David mentions, “Providing Hope – 7More.”

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Our Mission

In partnership with others, Embraced:Fully supports incarcerated and returning citizens in their moral and spiritual journey toward successful reentry. Through Angel Team members, we help connect individuals with community, faith, housing, employment, transportation, friendship, and mentorship—building bridges of hope and belonging.