Skip to content
Contact USI

Inmate-turned-advocate to USI criminal justice students: "We are all here to change something"

May 7, 2019

When they met in 2015, Dr. Laura Lutgen, assistant professor of criminal justice, knew Tomás Montalvo as the husband of a friend from graduate school. Over time she realized Montalvo, married to a college professor and climbing the ranks as shop foreman at a cabinet factory in Louisville, had served time in prison. But it wasn't until she heard him speak during a roundtable session at November's annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology that she began to understand the scope of his experiences.

"Having been through what he's been through, he's one of the most optimistic people I've ever met," Lutgen says. "It's so easy to only see one side of the situation or of the system, and so I think it's important to talk to somebody who's been through the system and, especially, to see how well he is doing. He's doing amazing in his life. [We need] to understand that these are human beings; it's not just a one-sided system."

Montalvo considers himself an "open book" about his past, so when Lutgen invited him to speak to her Introduction to Corrections and Community Corrections classes, he agreed to make the trip to USI. "There's a big misconception about the formerly incarcerated," Montalvo says. "We're not all negative people."

From solitary confinement to living the "American Dream"

Dressed in jeans and a sport coat, Montalvo acknowledges that he sometimes takes students by surprise. "When they meet me, they can't really believe that I've been through so much. I guess it's because of the way that I carry myself or the way that I speak," he explains.

Still, he tells them.

He tells them about growing up in poverty-ridden Bronx County, New York, and first using drugs at age 12. He tells them about being arrested for the first time when he was 16. And he tells them about his first incarceration for a non-violent drug conviction at 18. "Twenty bucks [worth of drugs] warranted me getting seven and a half years in prison," he says.

"I'm not going to stand here and tell you guys the justice system did me wrong, because I committed a crime" he says. "I was arrested with drugs… it was illegal. What I did find harsh was the sentence, and then everything I endured during those seven and a half years."

Montalvo tells Lutgen's class that when he arrived in upstate New York to serve his sentence, he spent more than a year in solitary confinement because he was a known gang member. That he was later assaulted "on a daily basis" while placed in a rival gang unit. And that he endured sexual assault.

It took several parole violations and reincarcerations before Montalvo found what he calls "the right path" about 10 years ago. He credits his turnaround to his wife, Jennifer, and to the second chance employer that not only provided him a job, but now allows him to hire other former inmates. "I'm living the American Dream," he says.

Advocating for change

Tomás Montalvo speaks to Dr. Laura Lutgen's Introduction to Corrections class about his experience in prison and his mission to help advocate for criminal justice reform.But Montalvo's dream doesn't stop there. He's now a criminal justice system reform advocate, speaking at universities and to the Louisville City Council and Kentucky Department of Corrections. "We are all here to change something," he explains to Lutgen's class. "I am grateful for everything I endured… because I can talk about it. It took me a long time to talk about, and the reason I talk about is because something needs to change. I can't change it, but you guys can change it. "

He hopes that one day criminal sentences will reflect offenders' individual situations instead of relying on mandatory prison requirements. He believes better programs should be created to help inmates navigate the re-entry process after being released-often with poor job, education and/or housing prospects. And perhaps most importantly, he wants people like him, who have made mistakes and paid the price, to have the ability to leave the past in the past. "I think everybody deserves a second chance," he says. "I look at you all [in Lutgen's class], and I see future police officers, future lawyers… and I think that my end goal here with you guys and anywhere else that I speak is, change the narrative. That is my end goal-to change the way a former incarcerated member is perceived in society."

Montalvo wants people to care. 

"I don't think that I am a monster. I don't think monsters and criminals want to change the laws and change the way things function," he says. "I'm not looking to change everybody's mind because I know that is never going to happen. But if I can touch one person and that person reaches back and touches somebody else, I did my job."

Message received

"I really connected with what he was saying," Mikeala Myers '21, criminal justice and psychology, says after class. "His whole story with wanting us to make a difference, and we are the upcoming generation … it was really nice to hear from him that that's kind of what he's wanting to do… I've always wanted to change the system in a way that can help people once they do get released to stop going back or give them other options."

Tomás Montalvo speaks to students in Dr. Laura Lutgen's Introduction to Corrections class"I think it's really inspiring and amazing that he's to the point to where he's got a job that he's proud of, he's got his family, he can support his children and he doesn't have that hanging over his head," adds Kristin Sowder '21, criminal justice. "I really just want to take people like Tomas' story and make a difference and change what I feel is unfair and what a lot of the people who are victims of these circumstances know is unfair."

"It's kind of having to take a step back and understand that we haven't all been presented with the same opportunities, the same experiences. And those greatly affect our outcomes in life and how we're able to overcome them," explains Lutgen, who believes in supplementing traditional coursework with outside speakers and experiences to provide a "real-world, practical, no sugar coating" look at what things are like in the criminal justice field. In addition to Montalvo's visit-which came just before she began teaching a section on re-entry-she invited a sergeant at the Vanderburgh County Jail to her classes earlier in the semester and requires her students to tour the jail.

"One of my biggest things [in teaching] is trying to humanize inmate and offender populations because I think so many times people think, 'Oh, you've been to prison, you must be a terrible person.' When, in reality, a lot of people make mistakes," Lutgen says.

Recent Stories