 I was just trying to make it in life and make my mother proud. Like that was always my thing growing up. My mom was always a single parent and raising two kids, I know that's hard. So I had to, one of us had to be a man of the house and help my mother out. Police ring the bell, knock on the door. I thought they was here for like a warrant, like a warrant and a half of my arrest for hopping a train and throwing it in a different name. I was like, do you know why I'm here? You here for shooting two people. What? What you talking about? I ain't shooting no two people. And from there I haven't seen home for 19 months. For nearly two years Jelani Henry sat in one of America's worst prisons, awaiting a trial that never came. The prosecutor was just like trying to make me gang affiliated as in like I'm in a picture with a few friends or so I grew up with or I got their phone number and my phone hanging out with them and posting the pictures to the DA. It was just like I'm part of them and I'm part of the nonsense so I'm a monster. That's the way she tried to like look at me as just sitting in the cell just thinking and sometimes I was thinking like yo 25 to life man that's a long time. Between 2007 and 2010 the number of youth crews in Harlem exploded. The Henry boys became members of the Goodfellas, a crew based around their home on 129th Street and Lenox. We used to all be hanging out in the park. It was so many of us at one point to say oh what's going on? It's too many of us to say hi to them. Oh hi such and such, hi such and such, hi Sheem, hi this, hi that. So it was Goodfellas and that's how we came up with the name. To me Goodfellas just meant like my family like I know these people. It's not like I just seen them in the street and was just like oh let's just become the Goodfellas. It was just I knew them all my life and we always had each other back like somebody mess with you they mess with all. It's not like where oh it's a gang where you gotta jump this guy in and you do this and you do this. No I'm talking about sleepovers, basketball tournaments. We just decided to run around with a name because we was going to parties and it was like oh those the guys from 29th Street, oh those the Goodfellas. Here in East Harlem we call them crews because they're not the Bloods and the Crips like the way that you see them on TV with a hierarchy and leadership and a history. There are all sorts of examples of groups of young people sticking together, having a code, defending their turf, going on adventures. I mean in many ways it's kind of part of what it means to grow up. What began as simply a group of childhood friends matured into something much more dangerous. You don't have teenage boys you're kind of clueless of what that population is going through so I would hear whispers because I'm a nosy mom. I'm the kind of mom that used to listen at doors and look at phones and you know to see what's going on and I realized that they were having an issue with some of the other kids in the neighborhood. Just like safe I was like it been plenty times I've been walking around the neighborhood and dudes know I'm from a certain block they'll mess with me, jump me or whatever. We young men we gonna fight that's a part of growing up so like everybody going against a little scuffle here and there and after that it started to progress more. Fights fights fights rumbles and then it started weapons getting involved in punch here, little scratch here, bad bottles of stone you know and the other dudes started bringing weapons like other like firearms. I was running around I was running around with a gun because not because yo I was a gang banger I was a gangster no I was running dudes getting robbed for their coats and if you get caught out of pocket something happened to you. As the Henry boys entered their teenage years, crews became an unavoidable part of daily life. Jelani was able to remain at a remove but a sheen was pulled deeply into the violence. What we did was wrong but don't make it seem like don't make it seem like they know what's going on you know you had a weapon you don't know why oh he fired this weapon because of this he did that. Oh again is it right to take somebody else life? No but is it right for him to take my I'm not gonna let them take me away from my friends I don't want them to take take take my friends away from me. I know some of the guys from these other cases it's not bad people they not but people going through their own little situation and they own they own they own problems just because you do a crime don't necessarily make you a criminal. A developing story a massive crackdown today on Manhattan street gangs leads to dozens of arrests. Prosecutors say the member used social media and terrorized East Harlem in a campaign of violence. These gang members have trafficked weapons terrorized the developments in East Harlem and the residents of that community. The premise behind the crime strategies unit is something called intelligence driven prosecution. So what we do is we go to where the violence is we started to develop intelligence about who was responsible for the violence and who committed the crimes and we were finding that they were crews that that those were the people who were largely responsible for violence. It does not surprise me that people talk about criminal activity via social media. You look back you know 30 40 years ago to the mafia they would talk on the phone or they would talk at a dinner table and law enforcement would you know would listen in on those conversations that's how they communicated. People today communicate via social media and cell phones and texts and you know whatever it is whatever their particular medium is. Young people in Harlem are under tremendous surveillance in a way that teenagers in other neighborhoods in more affluent neighborhoods are not. Why do young people use social media? Hood fame. It's all about hood fame in some some cases even exposing people but it's all about hood fame. And people are following them because of the smack that they throw up on their newsfeed. In that you have the mentality okay we know who the who the who the bad boys are the bad girls are but then you also have the wannabes that are around them. You will sometimes see a crew that has a large number of individuals and within that crew you'll have a core group who are responsible for the violence and then there might be some people who don't do that but who like to be a part of the group or who feel they have to say they're part of a group because if they don't say they're part of it they'll get beaten up. Those individuals might be part of the crew but they wouldn't be swept up in the criminal justice process. The 129th Street indictment if I'm not mistaken it was like 19 to 20 people that got arrested for shootings, pitches and like the nonsense that be going around the community. Whatever they was doing I wasn't like really part of it. In November of 2011 Jelani's older brother Ashim was arrested as part of a conspiracy indictment against members of the Goodfellas. Jelani wasn't swept up in that bust but just four months later the police came for him as well. The warrant that they issued for my son was that he fit a description of tall light-skinned black male and the perpetrator they said ran towards 129th Street and in the paperwork it actually said well his brother was just arrested on conspiracy charges. Even if his older brother was the worst person in the world Jelani's guilty by association. They charged him with two counts of attempted murder later on. The case was thrown out because they come to find out that it wasn't him who did it but this goes to show like you labeling people that got nothing to do with nothing. You live in an area, you live in this building of course because you play sports with these guys you're gonna have their number. It's not like I just met you last year I got pictures with you in frames in my house. We've been friends for years. We all entwined but as far as gang banging my brother never did nothing to nobody in his life. It definitely did not go to trial. It just got prolonged prolonged. The judge see that the DA didn't have a case so the judge just granted me bail and was like this case is just gonna get thrown out. I was in there for 18 months with no bail finally got bail on the 19th month and she was just probably just trying to see if I like how long I would just like sit up and see if I would take a plea but I showed her. After almost two years of stalling the district attorney filed the papers to have Jelani's case dismissed. There was no explanation and no apology. He returned to Harlem and is trying to piece his life back together but he's haunted by his time on Rikers. I think it's important for people to understand what happens to these young people while they're incarcerated. My son told me mommy I have to get used to wearing shoes again. That broke my heart. My son is pacing back and forth because he feels he's been caged in for so long and the only thing you have on him because he's from a certain area. My kids had curfews. My kids had jobs. You know my kids graduated high school. My kids you know I thought I was doing everything. I worked two jobs so they can be okay and still. I'm just trying to do right and get back on my feet. If the young people would never get it until like they put their feet in my shoes because that was a part of the nonsense but I got affiliated with it.