Rev. Zach Presutti is a Jesuit priest working in the Bronx to transform the lives of formerly incarcerated men. For years, he served as an itinerant chaplain at Attica and Sing Sing, offering pastoral care to incarcerated men. In 2018, he founded Thrive For Life, the first safe co-housing option for formerly incarcerated men pursuing higher education.
The organization emerged from a specific encounter. During a spiritual retreat at Otisville Correctional Facility, Presutti met Italo Sanchez, a man who had spent eight years in solitary confinement and had been in the system since age 13. By 18, he was a Latin Kings warlord—a position he earned through violence and survival instinct. During the retreat, when asked to write down his life accomplishments, Sanchez wept. "I didn't have any accomplishments to write," he says. "I didn't graduate school, didn't go to my prom—I was raised in the system from 13."
Years later, when Presutti launched Thrive For Life, Sanchez became one of its residents—living proof that redemption is possible when someone believes in a person's capacity to change.
Thrive For Life removes barriers that formerly incarcerated individuals typically face: housing, employment, and education gatekeeping. The nonprofit provides safe housing coupled with support systems designed to help these men rebuild their identities as students, community members, and human beings capable of a second chapter.
Presutti's approach rests on a simple principle: he did not judge them. In a landscape where formerly incarcerated individuals encounter endless obstacles, his organization opens doors instead of closing them.
