Editor’s Note: We started highlighting Redemption Road in 2019. Get caught up and check out some of our past articles here, here, here, here, and here.

The opening of a CrossFit affiliate inside Avenal State Prison, run and entirely coached by inmates this year, would not have been possible without someone else forging the path. 

• The affiliate that started it all? Redemption Road.

Remind Me

After facing a number of difficulties as a teenager, including drug issues and run-ins with the law, Nick Wells found himself serving 12 years at Limon Correctional Facility near Colorado Springs, CO. 

• During his time in prison, he was among the first inmates to join Redemption Road CrossFit, the first-ever CrossFit affiliate inside a correctional facility.

The program started inside the facility in 2017. Several inmates had been participating in the CrossFit Open since 2013, and they decided to form a group and participate together starting in 2015. 

CrossFit HQ took notice, and in 2018, the CrossFit Journal visited. Soon after, the CrossFit Seminar Staff held a CF Level 1 certification course there, and 10 men earned their CF-L1s.

• “A year later, we did another L1 for a group of individuals at another prison,” Wells tells the Morning Chalk Up. “Some of our head coaches relocated there and established the program, which is now known as Redemption Road 999. And then we expanded to Fremont, and then Arkansas Valley and Sterling, which are named Crucible and Sanctum.”

COVID-19 restrictions made it challenging to continue, but the men did their best to persevere. They began offering CrossFit to individual units when large groups couldn’t gather, and coaches led classes behind glass to encourage more people to participate.

The program didn’t just make Wells more fit; it gave him his life back.

• “In 2021, I was informed that I got clemency by Governor Jared Polis, largely in part because of the program,” Wells says.

A Morning Chalk Up article about the program, noting that Wells was seeking clemency, led to hundreds of emails to the governor’s office. 

The positive support for the program that Wells had helped initiate influenced the administration to grant clemency, and Wells was released on May 10, 2022.

A Wider Reach

Redemption Road now has a deep footprint. 

There is a Redemption Road nonprofit that partners with CrossFit to provide educational resources to their facilities.

• The nonprofit also supplies equipment and assists with organizing logistics for the inmates.

The Redemption Road network now includes seven affiliates, with four more expected soon; most of these are men’s prisons.

For the Ladies

The first women’s prison to implement the Redemption Road program was La Vista Correctional Facility in Southern Colorado. 

• One of the men Wells coached with had a relationship with a woman at La Vista, and through correspondence, he suggested to her that they do Murph on Memorial Day. 

The prisons have something called an inside wire, which is like a newsletter for the prison system, so the men could see photos of the women doing Murph. 

It was clear that the opportunity was there, so the men started teaching the women via Zoom, covering topics such as CrossFit, community, and leadership. 

But it isn’t just about the movement, it’s the motivation.

• Wells elaborated: “It is all about leadership development. We want to show them that for it to be a successful program, you have to be the responsible leaders, and you have to change your life inside and be that walking example, so that when people come into the gym, they look to you.”

The first L1 in a women’s prison was in 2022, and earlier this month, Redemption Road held its second one at the Denver women’s prison. 

This L1 was unique, Wells told the Morning Chalk Up. 

• “We transported women from La Vista there, and also guys from Arkansas Valley, Sterling, and Limon,” he said.

There are two women’s prisons in Colorado, and Redemption Road now operates in both of them.

A Shining Example

The goal is simple: to produce outstanding coaches.

Wells also told us about a woman named Rebecca Acosta, who was one of the first to earn her L1 through the program, and is exactly the kind of person they aim to develop. 

Acosta currently works at Wells’ affiliate.

• “She is the absolute pillar of what we can hope for out of this program. She did everything she was supposed to do in prison. She got her L1 and was a leader and a peer mentor,” he shared.

When Acosta was released, she reached out to Wells, who invited her to his affiliate. The owners gave her a chance, and now she has taken over the early morning sessions, picking up the classes that no one wants to do, doing it willingly, smiling, and loving it.

She is a constant inspiration to Wells and what he is trying to accomplish.

• “My goal with the women’s prison is to develop hundreds more Rebeccas out there that are going to take over yet, that are going to take over the CrossFit gym world and just be outstanding coaches,” Wells concluded.

Featured image: Carlos Marquez