Moyers Digital Archive

David Lewis, renowned community leader was shot and killed in San Mateo, California on June 9, 2010. In 1992 Lewis, an ex-convict and drug addict, drew on his own experiences to help found Free at Last in East Palo Alto, California. The center helps more than 4,200 people annually and has become a model of community-based treatment. Bill Moyers and producers Kathleen Hughes and Tom Casciato met David Lewis in 1991 during the filming of the documentary Circle of Recovery. Then Lewis was 35 years old and he was just getting on his feet, having spent most of his adult life behind bars in some of California's toughest prisons: Folsom, Soledad and San Quentin. Kathleen Hughes continued to document Lewis' remarkable community efforts in Palo Alto for NOW with Bill Moyers in 2003. You can view that story online for the first time.