DEER LODGE - The last time Great Falls native and former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf stepped within the walls of Montana State Prison was about 10 years ago. Wednesday, Leaf made a triumphant return, delivering an inspiring message of his own experiences to current inmates.
But if you told Leaf 10 years ago the next time he’d be back in Montana State Prison it wouldn’t be as a prisoner but as a guest speaker, he would’ve called you “nuts.”
“Like you’re crazy. You know my story,” said Leaf. “Does that sound any bit true? No.”
The unlikely story became the true story Wednesday. The man once convicted on felony burglary and drug charges spoke hope into the lives of prisoners trapped in the same cycles of addiction that once plagued him.
“I think it helps for me to step into that room and tell them that I relate and can identify with them probably better than anybody out in the public,” said Leaf. “That I was exactly where they were 10 years ago. And you can have the life of your dreams. You just have to do the next right thing.”
A key part of Leaf’s message to the inmates was his belief that people shouldn’t let themselves be defined by the worst thing they’ve done — something that seemed to resonate with every inmate.
“But what makes it inspirational to me is that this isn’t going to define me,” said Nicholas Parker, an inmate from Billings who said he is in prison for a drunk-driving incident. “My decision that brought me here five years ago, my actions, is not the end of my story. Just as his actions 10 years ago were not the end of his story.”
Leaf’s appearance at the prison was part of its The Last Mile program, which has equipped a class of inmates with employable computer programming skills that should translate to the job market on the outside.
“Me personally, I want to get into data science and machine learning,” said Falken Brown, an inmate from Columbus who said he is in prison for a string of casino burglaries. “I think we have so much access to technology and huge data sets that we can potentially gather some really profound insights that can affect humanity as a whole. And this is just giving me a launchpad to start learning the foundational concepts for that — and hopefully have a new chapter of my life that doesn’t involve prison when I do hopefully get out of here.”
Finally, Leaf left the inmates with three key areas to focus on as they progress through the program: accountability, spirituality and community.
“The hardest thing for us when we walk out is hope. I mean, it can be dashed with the simplest of things,” said Leaf. “They need hope. And this is what The Last Mile presents. It presents a semblance of hope for these young men to venture into a workforce that seemingly will have passed them by if not for this opportunity.”
