A local nonprofit organization is releasing a documentary about a former participant in its programs who went on to become a community leader in his own right. “Sithy Bin: Life After Prison” tells the story of a local man as he turns his life around and struggles with his immigration status post-incarceration.
“I would hope, if not already, we become more open minded to those who are incarcerated, and believe in second chances, and that someone, if they put in the work, can definitely become a productive member in society,” said Raven Nolasco, Dream Live Hope Foundation’s director of marketing & communications, who did most of the filming and editing for the documentary.
Sithy Bin served 15 years in prison for committing a gang-related shooting that injured a bystander. While incarcerated, Bin worked to rehabilitate himself and went on to become a peer mentor and ordained minister.
Because he was born in a Thai refugee camp to Cambodian parents and brought to the U.S. as a toddler, he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement immediately after being granted parole. He was later released from ICE custody in 2020 after a class action lawsuit over the potential spread of COVID-19 within the detention facility, but was still at risk of being deported.
“We’re all just human, we shouldn’t have to leave the only place we’ve ever known, especially if we came here as a baby or as a toddler,” Nolasco said. “People don’t make these decisions. Their parents bring them here, and then they’re told they have to leave the only country they’ve ever been to. That’s heartbreaking.”
Last month, Bin was ordered to self-deport to Cambodia, a country his parents were forced to flee from and that he has never visited. But later in April, Bin was granted executive clemency by Governor Gavin Newsom.
When the documentary was being filmed, it was still unclear whether Bin would be pardoned.
“Knowing that he had this deportation order over his head, we wanted to find out how we can support him in that,” Dream Live Hope Foundation’s Executive Director Kevin Waters said.
The Dream Live Hope Foundation is an Inglewood-based nonprofit organization that assists underserved communities by connecting them to housing and other resources. Bin said he benefited from nearly all of the Dream Live Hope Foundation’s programs after he was released from ICE custody, especially its housing program, which helped him secure an apartment in Long Beach.
“Without Dream Live Hope Foundation, my re-entry journey would not be as successful as it is today,” Bin said.
Bin now gives back to the organization as a volunteer, working with its Push for Peace youth program, which provides life-skills classes and mentoring for kids and young adults. Waters referred to Bin as a “standout” among their programs’ participants.
“Now I’m able to serve and pay it forward and help inspire and encourage others and empower others,” Bin said.
He also went on to co-found his own nonprofit organization alongside two other men he had been incarcerated with, Major Bunton and Rafael Quiroz. Through the Made New Foundation, they aim to help people leaving the prison system reenter society by connecting them to resources.
“Organizations like Dream Live Hope and people like Sithy Bin who are out here in the trenches doing the work — it’s very important for the community to know and understand, number one, how important the work is, and number two, how much it is, in a lot of ways, a thankless job,” Waters said. “But when you have people that are dedicated, we do it anyway, because we don’t do it for the thanks, we don’t do it for the accolades. We don’t do it for the fanfare. We do it because we have a true passion for being of service to our community.”
The screening of “Sithy Bin: Life After Prison” will be held at Dream Live Hope Foundation’s Youth Resource Center, located at 340 E Kelso St. in Inglewood from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 17.
