Dunivant, who organized a similar initiative between the San Francisco Deltas and San Quentin State Prison before the club dissolved in 2017, reached out to management at Folsom earlier this year and met with Warden Rick Hill and others to discuss a similar partnership.

“They gave me a tour of the entire facility which is pretty incredible and then we talked through a plan of how we wanted to do it, who we wanted to bring in, how often we wanted to come,” Dunivant said. “It was important for me to let them know it wasn’t just a one-time thing for us or a once a year kind of thing. It was more important that we come back on a regular basis and really forge relationships and make an impact on a regular basis.”

This visit will be Republic FC’s sixth trip to Folsom as part of a monthly community outreach program that the club began in June. Since then, both Folsom and Republic FC have seen a positive impact from the initiative.

“This game breaks down a lot of barriers that prison seems to promote,” said Hill. “The racial divides, the gangs, the groupings, just basically the political structure of the prison. None of that matters out here. Everybody forgets about all of that cultural and political nonsense and they come out here and work together toward the common goal of playing a good soccer game.”

While breaking down some of those barriers and serving as an additional incentive for good behavior, the game has also given participating inmates a touchpoint to everyday society that many severely lack.

“For me, I see Sac Republic going to children's hospitals, homeless shelters, holding these soccer camps, but for them to also come in here, to come into prison and to communicate with us, to play with us, that just shows us that we're still human and that there still is hope for us out there,” said Lou, an inmate who has participated in the program.