Spirits Rise At Dover Park Clean-Up

by Allan Appel

Incarcerated at 20 years old, James Flynn was deep in the heart of what would be a 32-year sentence when Covid struck. He volunteered for the dangerous work of being a nurse’s aide in the Covid unit of the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.

One of his patients, whose life he helped to save, was Melvin Delgado, incarcerated at age 16 and serving a 30-year sentence.

Their lives met again Saturday afternoon amid bright sun, breezes, and dappled light on the waters of the Quinnipiac River, at Dover Beach Park in Fair Haven.

This time both are free, running successful organizations. They were surrounded by their partners, kids, and friends as they participated in a community clean-up of the riverine oasis.

About 75 people attended the nine-to-noon clean-up and school-bag give-away, said James Flynn.

The clean-up began around 8.30 a.m. with two dozen people bearing bags and gloves, which were provided. The idea was to clean the entire park from from sidewalk to the river and from the overpass to the butterfly garden in the south.

The result, when this reporter arrived, was a pristine vista, with bottles, broken glass, cigarette butts, and chip bag-type litter all waiting in bags for pick up later by city public works.

The day was more than a clean-up and book-bag and picnic event. It was also a fraternal reunion of individuals involved in the city’s varied re-entry organizations.

The air was filled with the glee of kids soaring up on the swings that overlook the river or grabbing burgers and soda. And an atmosphere of quiet hope and achievement was evident.

People — veterans of both prison and personal battles — were now enjoying life in a glorious location on a stellar late summer day surrounded by those who have been essential players in the redemptive turnaround of their lives.

James Flynn’s community service-oriented Flynn Project was the lead organizer of the event. Also participating was Kyle Gonzalez with his new organization BeyondThaBars, devoted to community service and helping recently released ex-offenders get a leg up on life outside of prison.

Flynn also had met Gonzalez in prison, befriended him there, and advised him that when he gets out, the key is leading by example: “If you’re sincere, people will see and give.”

That in part is how BeyondThaBars was born. The nascent group has a different focus and title for each of the events it has done, Gonzalez said. The first was “Love Beyond the Bars,” a distribution of soap and hygiene products for the homeless. The date was this past Valentine’s Day at the Possible Futures bookstore in the Dwight neighborhood. The next event Gonzalez is organizing will be called “Unburdened” and it’s going to focus on mental struggles specific to the release from prison.

Gonzalez told his turn-around story: “I actively was partying and it ended up taking someone’s life. It took years and participation in the Yale Prison Education Initiative,” from which Gonzalez has recently graduated with a college degree.

Local Fair Haven alder Frank Redente, Jr., a lifelong friend of Flynn, facilitated the collaboration and brought the varied groups together for the event.

Gonzalez is also a friend of Wildaliz Bermudez, the Fair Rent Commission director and a Fair Havener who recently prevailed in the primary election as Democratic nominee for the 97th state General Assembly district seat. She brought Gonzalez into the event, along with a fire truck and enthusiastic New Haven Fire Department members. The Local 825 fire union, who supported Bermudez, was on hand for the festive Dover Beach event.

Delgado had gone on, within a year of his release, to establish his own roofing and contracting business. When Flynn told Delgado about the event, he said, “I’ll be there.” He arrived with a dozen book bags to distribute to Fair Haven kids as they prepare to return to school next week.

“When you lead and give by example,” Flynn said, “other people will give.”

Here’s how James Flynn put his own trajectory: “Incarcerated August 1992, out October 2024. I earned every day in there and every day out.”

And the turnaround?

“I had a bunch of locks on me and I couldn’t find the key.” He started attending different groups in prison with therapy and religious focuses.

In the Covid ward, he cleaned showers, learning and in effect performing the work of a certified nursing assistant, he said.

Flynn attended by the beds of the dying. “I saved lives. I took care of one guy, and ten minutes later, I heard his death rattles.”

For his work in the Covid section of the prison, four years were taken off his sentence, Flynn said.

“And I discovered myself. I said if God lets me out, I’ll give back. I dirtied these streets, and I feel I should clean them. I’m giving but I’m getting back.”

Flynn’s day job, he said, is with Freedom Reads, an organization established by Reginald Dwayne Betts, that focuses on assembling and installing micro-libraries in prisons all across the country.

However, if Flynn has an event coming up, and funds are needed for supplies, Flynn shifts into a second job: He puts in a night or two as an Uber or Lyft driver. His work cleaning up Fair Haven’s green spaces and being the go-to-guy for back-up for other groups’ service projects, he said, is all self-funded.

For more information or to become involved in the Flynn Project, call 203-570-0501.

Kyle Gonzalez and Jimmy Flynn at the Dover Beach Park Cleanp-Up