Ex-leader of Crips gang now working for anti-crime coalition

Amanda Stanzilis

5/4/2010

From a Crip to G.R.I.P.

At age 13, William Tutt went to visit his family in Los Angeles for the summer. His life was changed forever after that.

Tutt said. “I fell in love with the gangster lifestyle. My cousin was a Crip and I followed in his path.” When Tutt returned to San Antonio, he returned as a Crip gang member.

But he says there weren’t any other Crips in San Antonio at the time. He said, “You have to remember it was 1983. I was one of the first Crips here in San Antonio, if not the first.”

Tutt was involved in several aggravated robberies. He also sold drugs. He says he was addicted to the adrenaline of committing crimes. “I could have $2,000 to $3,000 in my pocket, see a victim, and want to rob that victim.”

He spent 10 years in jail for aggravated robbery. After serving eight years on probation, he missed an at-home visit from his parole officer and was arrested for parole violation. Tutt has spent the last two years back in jail for that. This past January, he was released.

Since his release, he has started a program called G.R.I.P. which stands for Gang Rehabilitation in Progress. His goal is to meet with various gang leaders and put them through his program. He says he has the best chance of anyone when it comes to reaching these current gang members to turn their lives around. He says, “It’s me that’s been there. That’s what makes the difference I believe.”

Tutt was also recently named to the board of the East Side Crime Coalition. He says he’s trying to do everything in his power to help gang members reform.

The G.R.I.P. Plan

Tutt forwarded several details of his G.R.I.P. program. We’ve copied and pasted those here:
BUSINESS PLAN FOR THE
G.R.I.P. PROGRAM
Gang Rehabilitation in Progress

General Company Description

The G.R.I.P. Program is a rehabilitation program that is much needed in the city of San Antonio. This program has been created to serve our ex-offenders, who are confirmed gang members, for re-entry into society. The program has been designed to allow gang members on the street the opportunity to become ex-gang members and to further their education. The program will focus on the using behavioral modification therapy to adjust the cognition of gang members.

This city has had a major gang problem since 1989 and the only answer has been to increase laws and city ordinances that have only increased the gang population by incarcerating these troubled youth and adults. This is not the solution to this growing and unchanging problem. The solution is to give gang members the opportunity to help themselves by offering them behavior modification therapy and providing the opportunity for secondary education and career orientated vocational trades.

Being an ex-gang member and an ex-offender has afforded me the insight on how gang members think, live, and their purpose for the decisions they make. The lack of opportunity for advancement in life being one of the most profound reasons why individuals join gangs.

The G.R.I.P. Program proposes to create an environment where these ex-offenders and ex-gang members can deal first and foremost with their decision making process via cognitive intervention. Cognitive intervention will be the highlight of the program. Ex-offenders and gang members suffer from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and prison psychosis. There are programs for alcoholics, sex offenders, and substance abusers, but there are no programs available that are directed towards the disorders that gang members suffer from.

This program is seeking financial aid in order to serve the community by giving these individuals the opportunity to better themselves and to change their cognitive processes.
This program is aimed at allowing its clients to become law abiding citizens and preparing themselves for the working environment. It is proven that gang members wizen with age and in the latter part of their lives realize the importance of an education but may have missed out on the opportunity. It has been proven that the cause for gang members to remain focused on gang activities and to be fascinated by the gang life is the lacking desire for educational advancement. This why the G.R.I.P. program will afford gang members the chance to help themselves and grasp the understanding that academic achievement is the absolute pathway to having a successful life.
The program will allow its clients to see that a career can make you a successful on a personal and environmental level.

The only solution that our country has come up with to resolve our gang problem is enhancing punishment, toughening laws and constantly harassing the lower income communities. This type of resolution has only caused an up rise of aggravation, and increase in recruiting in prison and on the streets, and has yet tried to reach the core of the problem which is why do we join gangs and how or what opportunities are available and provided to give gang members a look at a brighter future… The G.R.I.P. program.

William Tutt
Program Director