A basketball team comprised of incarcerated people at Robert N. Davoren Center is changing lives behind bars.

Dominick joined the Men of God basketball team at the jail in March.

Now, with just two weeks left of his one-year sentence at the jail, he says the team has changed him.

“When I go back to the housing area, I’m calm. I don’t get mad,” said Dominick.

He says his coaches have become father figures he never had, and his teammates feel like family.

“No matter where we came from, who we know, how old we are. We always got each other’s back, no matter what,” said Dominick.

Officers White and D. Cummings created the team in 2022 during a time of peak violence at the Robert N. Davoren Center.

Officer White says the goal goes far beyond basketball.

“There’s no slacking. You can’t slack; they’ve been slacking their whole life. We keep pushing them and telling them that life is going to be hard, so it’s instilled in them right now. Wherever they go in life, this discipline is with them,” she says.

The team meets twice a week. But before practice, they hold group Bible study.

Officer D. Cummings says combining faith and basketball builds a stronger bond with the players.

“To see these young kids grow on their own without someone telling them what to do or how to do it and fix their life around violence — this is brotherhood,” Officer D. Cummings, NYC DOC corrections officer.

Officers tell News 12 this program isn’t just about keeping people in custody busy while they’re locked up. It’s about helping them get back on their feet when they return to the community.