Hard Road Home

Julio Medina beat the odds. Former gang leader and drug dealer who served 12 years in prison, Medina created the Exodus Transitional Community, a program in Harlem committed to breaking the cycle of incarceration and recidivism, employing a team of folks who know first-hand what it is like on the inside to help folks who are getting out to stay out.

Throughout HARD ROAD HOME, the men and women aspire to freedom and security “on the outside,” while grappling with the constant challenges posed by poverty, racism, addiction, peer pressure, suspicion, the immediate needs of loved ones, and the relentlessness of rage, despair, and the desire to escape. Just when things look good, someone you’ve come to care about falls apart. Just when you have given up hope, someone beats the odds and hangs in. This is life at Exodus. HARD ROAD HOME shows just how stacked the deck is against folks born poor in the United States and the extraordinary amount of energy, resources and strength of character required to help one person beat the system and turn their fate around.