Eric Hughie
Separated from his wife and children for over three years while incarcerated, Eric Hughie knew that he had to change his life before going home. He wanted to work shorter hours in order to show an even greater commitment to his family. With this in mind, Eric Hughie spent his time in prison creating a second chance for himself.
45-year-old Hughie lives in Manhattan and is the founder of Eye See You Too, LLC. He runs a mobile optics lab along with his wife, and together they make and sell glasses. Hughie returned from prison in January of 2020, and he officially launched his business in January of 2021.
Normally, when buying eyeglasses, a person must go to the eye doctor, get a prescription, and then take that prescription to an outside retailer. Hughie’s vision, however, is to have a mobile business in which full eye exams can be given onsite, and then the lenses can be created and given to the customer on the spot. The mobile business goes right to the client in order to provide maximum convenience. Right now, Hughie is working on creating more infrastructure for the business, gathering optical equipment, and securing more funding.
Hughie did not always make glasses, nor did he previously see this as a possible career track. Hughie actually learned this trade while incarcerated, taking his time away and making it productive. He worked diligently for hours on end in order to give himself more opportunities.
Prior to his incarceration, Hughie was a chef who worked in some of the best restaurants in New York City for over 25 years. He even had his own catering company and was featured on the Food Network. Still, the hours were long and took a toll on his family life. Hughie made a commitment to himself that when he returned from prison, he would find something new that would keep his family more structured and stabilized.
“That's why I started looking at different ideas,” Hughie said. “If I can make glasses and still [make] good money [and] have normal hours, nine to five, I'm able to be at home with dinner for my wife and kids. It was more of a family decision than a career decision.”
Hughie saw his 36 months in prison as an opportunity for more time. His prison, Wallkill Correctional Facility, offered courses in trades. Making glasses seemed to be one of the most sought after trades to master, and Hughie was able to get into the program. He quickly excelled at the craft.
“It was a blessing that I didn’t see coming,” Hughie said.
Making glasses was like a full time job for Hughie while in prison. He would wake up at 7:00 a.m. and attend classes until the evenings.
With the help of Defy Ventures, an organization that helps formerly incarcerated individuals become entrepreneurs, Hughie laid the groundwork to start a business. Defy Ventures offered courses at the prison, for two hours a day, four days a week, and Hughie committed himself to the program’s rigorous work. Defy’s program also had pitch competitions where participants would pitch their business ideas. Hughie’s pitch for a mobile optics lab won first place, showing him that he was onto something. By learning this trade in prison, Hughie was able to be employed a mere two weeks after being released.
That being said, Hughie still experiences lasting effects from his time in prison as well as real trauma. Though he was able to leave prison with a very useful skill, his time there was still incredibly difficult.
Hughie recognizes the way that the courses he was taking in prison to learn a trade allowed him to be exploited. The glasses Hughie was making in prison are the glasses used by the Medicaid program for people in New York. He was paid 65 cents an hour for his labor, yet the insurance company was making millions. Hughie sees the way that programs that teach a trade in prison don’t solely have the incarcerated individual’s best interests at heart.
To get through the hardships of prison, Hughie relied heavily on his faith. Growing up Baptist but stopping frequent religious participation as an adult, Hughie reignited his faith while incarcerated. He would read The Daily Bread, a little booklet given every day in prison with a Bible verse and a passage of scripture for the day, and he would find himself grabbing on to his religion more and more.
“It gives you something to hold on to, gives you something to believe in, because one of the things of being incarcerated is it's really more mental than anything else,” Hughie said. “Having your faith helps keep you grounded mentally.”
The mental struggles of prison still have a lasting impact on Hughie. He now finds it difficult to be in crowds and constantly feels the need to be aware of his surroundings.
“Now I have PTSD, I'm suffering from depression, a bunch of stuff that I didn’t have problems with prior to my incarceration,” Hughie said. “It's traumatizing.”
Though Hughie definitely had and continues to have struggles during reentry, on the whole, he was able to make a smooth transition home. He was able to get a job after coming home in Brooklyn, working for an optometrist. Once that job fell through after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Hughie began taking the steps to start I See You Too.
Hughie had an amazing support system of family when coming home that welcomed him back with open arms. His children were 15 and 17 when Hughie returned, and now he gets to spend more time with them than ever before. Hughie was also lucky enough to keep in touch with his family while incarcerated.
“I was blessed, I had a great support system, my wife and my kids were great. Luckily, I was in Wallkill, that wasn't too far away,” Hughie said. “She used to bring the kids up on a regular basis. So I was really able to really stay in tune with my kids and their development.”
That being said, Hughie knows he missed out on crucial years of his children’s lives. It’s never easy to be away from family, even though Hughie and his children were able to maintain some semblance of familial structure while he was away.
Looking back on his time in prison, Hughie sees the many ways in which the incarceration system needs to change. He believes that the violence that goes on in prison needs to be addressed, and sentences need to be shorter and more proportionate to the crime.
Hughie also believes that the parole system needs to change, as it keeps people in the incarceration system and sets them up to fail so that they are more likely to return to prison.
“That's a way of keeping the system going. Because now you have those who unfortunately, they get caught up in that trap. So now within that five years or that three years [of parole], they get in trouble again. So now they're right back incarcerated,” Hughie said. “It's their way of keeping the cycle going. And I say one of the reasons the cycle is not gonna break, is it's financially based. This is big business, so they're not gonna let that stop. I hate to say it, they're gonna fight tooth and nail for it.”
Hughie believes that things can change drastically for formerly incarcerated individuals if they are given more chances after their reentry. He knows that formerly incarcerated individuals don’t want to go back to prison, and if so many people are ending up incarcerated once again, something must be going wrong within the system.
“Society has to realize that everybody is not a career criminal, and everybody doesn't just get out and go back to jail,” Hughie said. “Everybody doesn't want to receive a recidivism rate to stay the same. You got people like me that made one little simple mistake, and I refused to go back to that place.”
Another problem Hughie sees is the stigma for incarcerated people, and he hopes that more people in society can learn to avoid this stigma in order to help formerly incarcerated individuals in their reentry.
“For the incarcerated individuals, a lot of us, it's a stigma that comes along with being a formerly incarcerated person,” Hughie said. “You already feel like you have a stigma if you happen to meet the wrong people in society. Just makes that stigma grow even more. So if everybody was like giving more chances and stuff like that, I think...it'll make the transition a lot more smooth.”
Though Hughie wants to see a lot of change in the incarceration system, right now he is mainly focusing on just getting his businesses off the ground. He is working on designing glasses and creating them using cutting edge new technology. He one day wants to 3D print some of his glasses.
Hughie also wants the designs of the glasses to be the customers choice, and he’s planning on using customer surveys in order to assess what is popular and trending in order to have the most success.
Hughie sees his business going national one day, but for now, he is planning on building business credit and obtaining capital in order to establish the business as reputable. Once the business becomes larger however, Hughie plans to pay it forward by hiring formerly incarcerated individuals.
Above all, Hughie loves his job and getting to do something useful in the world.
“The best thing about it is it doesn't feel like work. That's the best thing about it. And then it's like, you're actually helping people. You're bringing a service to people, making them more convenient and getting glasses,” Hughie said. “We have that self gratification of knowing that you help somebody.”
Getting this second chance has put Hughie’s life in perspective, and he now looks back on his incarceration and the way it informs the way he sees the world today.
“It makes you appreciate being free,” Hughie said. “We wake up like, ‘wow, this is my life’. You know, it humbles you. It really humbles you and changes you and makes you put life in a different perspective.”
Now, Hughie is looking forward to WITNESS’ July 18th, Suitcase Sunday event. He sees the value in giving formerly incarcerated individuals a place to network and allowing them to have their businesses pushed to the forefront of peoples’ minds.
“It's about who you know. It's about continuous networking. It’s about having that line of communication,” Hughie said.
Hughie is also excited to be a part of WITNESS’ MAP, as he hopes it becomes a way for society to further accept the formerly incarcerated and their contributions to society. He hopes that it will inspire more people to frequent businesses run by formerly incarcerated individuals.
“Maybe while you're there, I can convince you to support formerly incarcerated individuals in their formerly incarcerated businesses. And then I can be like, “Hey, look, I work with this company that has a map of formerly incarcerated people. Maybe you can share it,’” Hughie said. “It's all about us controlling the narrative.”
Abby Stern