Coss Marte grew up in New York City's Lower East Side with a single mother who worked a low-wage job in a factory. At 13, he began selling drugs so he could buy the things his mother could not afford to get him. And at 23, he was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison, where doctors told him he could die of a heart attack due to poor health. He lost 70 pounds in six months by working out in his cell. When he was released from prison he struggled to find a job and ultimately started a “prison-style” boot camp, inspired by his fitness journey. He now hires other formerly incarcerated people as instructors and has hired 26 other formerly incarcerated individuals to date. No one has been re-incarcerated. Approximately 2.3 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and hundreds of thousands of people are in jail simply because they cannot afford to make bail. People of color and those living in poverty are disproportionately represented among the incarcerated population in the US. Criminal justice and cash bail reform are crucial to tackling the issues of poverty and discrimination in the US. Go to this link to read more about Marte's story and learn more about these issues in our series focused on the impact of cash bail and the criminal justice system on people affected by poverty.⠀ ⠀ (📷: @mirandabarnes for Global Citizen)
