An exclusive conversation about resilience, reinvention, and refusing to be defined by your worst chapter.
 

The Interview You Can't Miss
What does it take to build a business after spending 22 years in prison?

Most people never have to answer that question. Queen Shahmia did - and her answer will challenge everything you think you know about second chances.

In our upcoming episode of Mass 911 Justice, I sit down with a woman who transformed two decades of incarceration into the foundation of sustainability, and resilience; all whilst building an entrepreneurial business.

No venture capital backing. No family connections. Just an unshakable refusal to let her past write her future. In an exclusive interview, she details what it takes to reconstruct a life when the world insists your best chapters are already written. 

This isn't a story about luck. It's a story about strategic resilience!

The Identity Shift
How do you stop seeing yourself as a number and start seeing yourself as a CEO?

Queen Shahmia walks us through the psychological pivot that made everything else possible. From navigating invisible barriers, such as Housing discrimination after re-entry, plus the Legal hurdles designed to keep formerly incarcerated people on the margins. She breaks down exactly how she cleared each hurdle, and what resources actually work in her favor.

At Mass 911 Justice, we don't shy away from the mental health reality: PTSD, anxiety, and the pressure of being a "success story" when you're still healing. Her coping strategies aren't theoretical; they're battle-tested.

The Business of Giving Back
Wondering what if she's creating pipelines for other justice-impacted entrepreneurs? Learn how she's turning personal triumph into systemic change.

The numbers are stark: over 600,000 Americans return from incarceration each year. Within five years, nearly half are re-incarcerated. The system, critics argue, is designed not for rehabilitation but for recidivism.

Queen Shahmia was supposed to be one of those statistics. Instead, she became something the data rarely captures: a founder. A job creator. An entrepreneur who elevated her business, not in spite of her 22 years behind bars, but informed by them.

Her story arrives as criminal justice reform gains uneven traction. Ban-the-box legislation expands. Clean slate laws advance in some states. Yet entrepreneurship among formerly incarcerated individuals remains under-researched and under-resourced.

The data supports the narrative. Studies indicate that employment in some US states, particularly self-employment, significantly reduces recidivism rates. But the infrastructure lags. Access to capital, mentorship networks, and business education tailored to re-entry populations remains fragmented.

Queen Shahmia navigated these gaps largely alone. Her interview offers a roadmap for those following; and is a formidable challenge to institutions to build better on-ramps.

The Human Core
Journalism often treats incarceration as backstory. Here, it is active architecture.

She speaks about the art created inside; paintings, poetry, business plans drafted in notebooks that officers inspected. A reemphasized fact that creativity cannot be confiscated and that identity preserved against institutional pressure is bound to disappear.

"My belief in me and my love for life," she says, "kept me strong and at peace."

The mental health toll is not abstract. PTSD from prison violence. Anxiety in open spaces. The peculiar pressure of being labeled a "success story" when healing remains incomplete. She discusses therapy, support systems, and the daily practices that sustain her.

This is not a performance of wellness. It is documentation of survival.

Listen to the upcoming,
Episode: "One Woman's Rise from Incarceration to Entrepreneurship"
Release Date: Monday, April 20, 2026
Available: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Website

Subscribe. Review, and Share with someone who needs evidence that transformation is engineered, and not bestowed.

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Writer: Dr. E. Rose Green
Email: drempressroseg@proton.me 
Contact: drempressroseg.page/contact
Web: drempressroseg.page