46 THE NEW BARKER www.TheNewBarker.com FIGHTING HATE WITH LOVE. The longer you’re in prison, the more hardened you become. “Suddenly, with Sugar Mama in my life, going through the TAILS program together, I learned how to control my anger. I was allowed to finally show emotion because it was with a dog,” said Jason. “Sugar Mama meant love. She gave me hope while I was in prison. She gave me a reason to want to get out.” –Story and photography by Anna Cooke Jason Bertrand and Sugar Mama. His Past Did Not Have to Determine His Happiness. Criminals think differently. Jason Bertrand knows this firsthand.Having been incarcerated since the age of 12, he’s spent most of his life in prison. “Being a good person is not easy when you’re used to being a bad person,and you think it’s easier to be bad.I’ve lived my life in a fight mode. It was easier to stop someone physically than to talk it through,” he said. “But, I don’t want to be that guy anymore.The world I grew up in, isn’t this world. It’s kind of like the Tarzan movie, where the world he grew up in wasn’t the real world.”