Back to the team…
Meet Justin Allen
Program Staff
Justin was born in Ogden, Utah. His mother was a drug addict, so he was raised by his abusive father in California. He started getting in trouble at a young age. In retrospect, Justin can see that he was desperate for his father’s attention, and negative attention was just as good as any. He started with lying and stealing, and by age 11 he was smoking pot. At 15 years old, he ran away from home. His frustrated father sent him back to Utah to live with his mother. With his mom still using, Justin had a lot of freedom, and things started to go downhill. Stealing turned to burglary and pot turned to hard drugs. He dropped out of high school. He had children and ended up choosing drugs over them. For the next 10 years, he was caught in a cycle of using drugs and going in and out of jail. He served his first prison term at age 28, and the incarceration cycle began again. It continued until he wrote a letter to The Other Side Academy and was accepted in 2015. His peers at Other Side Academy taught him so much about himself. What he thought were his main issues (using drugs, getting arrested) turned out not to be the real problem at all. Justin’s core issue was his lack of empathy and compassion. His peers gave him constant reminders about how he affected other people, and he gradually realized that though his intentions were good, his lack of empathy was interfering with his relationships and ability to connect. As he worked on that, he began to gain leadership skills. He became a leader among the students, serving as a tribe leader for two years. In 2019, Justin was hired by The Other Side Academy as an official staff member. He will be part of the team establishing The Other Side Academy’s second campus in Denver, Colorado.