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Prisoner reentry: The punishment continues!

A couple of former prisoners sat in our office the other day. One of our clients, a friend of mine who had served 16 years (all the while claiming innocence), was finally paroled a few years ago. He and I met with our Executive Director, who also served time for a crime he did not commit. But, the frustration being shared was not over innocence or guilt issues. The topic was reentry.   Al had a difficult time getting a driver’s license. Even though he had maintained a high grade-point average in community college courses during incarceration, he found it difficult to get a job upon release. He had been approved for some good positions…that is, until his prison record was discovered. The same thing happened when he wanted to continue his education. Even one of the fine Christian colleges in the area turned him down…donors might not like it!   And that reminded me of numerous unpleasant reentry stories.   Maurice Carter was seriously ill after 29 years of incarceration. He was appr
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Hellish reports from WHV!

A headline in the August 30 edition of the Detroit Free Press shouted: Violence on rise at women’s prison! Veteran Freep writer on prison issues, Paul Egan, led off the article by saying, “Violence and turmoil are on the rise at Michigan’s only prison for women…”   For background information, some 2,000 women are housed in Women’s Huron Valley, located in Ypsilanti. They were all moved into one facility in the early years of HFP. I have personally been a champion for these incarcerated women from the very beginning. A check of our blog posts over the years will show a continuous battle for improvement. One of the times when I went there to speak with inmates, I was given a standing ovation. It wasn’t because Doug Tjapkes was so great. It was because HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS cares!   When Heidi Washington assumed the position of Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections in 2015, she assured me in a private session that she had a personal interest in WHV. Personal interest or
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Executions. Will they never end?

An item in the Washington Post last week caught my attention. Here are a couple paragraphs:   Death row inmates in five states have been put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a years-long trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S.   The United States has reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, said Robin Maher, the Death Penalty Information Center’s executive director. The story struck a chord with me because, as many of you know, I witnessed the execution of a friend who, I believe, was wrongly convicted in Texas. That experience gives me much appreciation for this quote from Clint Smith:   The death penalty not only takes away the life of the person strapped to the table - it takes away a little bit of the humanity in each of us. This will not be a long piece. I’ve been beating this drum for years. I am not optimistic in the least th
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Will we ever learn from Norway?

Several years ago representatives from the Michigan Department of Corrections visited Norway to learn about the country's criminal justice system and correctional facilities. And, for good reason. Norway's criminal justice system focuses on restorative justice and prisoner rehabilitation, and the number of prisoners keeps dropping!   Correctional facilities in Norway aim to make prisoners functioning members of society .   But, and we cannot stress this enough: Something else is incredibly important in the Norwegian System. Leaders there claim that their success also hinges on two other critical components: dedication to staff training and staffing ratios.   I was prompted to write about this after our good friend Carol Myers sent me an article from The Seattle Times. The State of Washington is in the middle of a multimillion-dollar effort that some advocates hope will make Washington’s prisons safer. It has nothing to do with tighter restrictions or heightened surveilla
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It all got started with music!

Music. That’s how it all began!   I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. I’m sure it’s a combination of old age, the recent 23 rd birthday of HFP, and the production of a new documentary detailing the Maurice Carter/Doug Tjapkes story. I keep trying to answer the question: How did I get here? With a major in broadcast journalism, and a minor in church music (none of it the result of formal education), here I am working with prisoners. And loving it! And believing with all my heart that this is my calling!   Well, let’s go back to my first prison experience.   The year was 1968, the shameful Vietnam War was in full swing, and I was in that war-torn country on behalf of World Vision International, accompanying two wonderful singers…old family friends. It’s hot in Vietnam, unless you are up in the mountains. It was a chilly, rainy Sunday morning in the Central Highlands when World Vision rep Jim Franks led us to a prison. It was a small facility where captured enemy soldiers, members
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The Maurice Carter story retold. And how!

Maurice Carter wouldn’t believe it. His story goes on!   It was back in the mid-1990s that I made the decision to assist a Michigan prisoner named Maurice Carter, who claimed he was innocent. Maurice was introduced to me by another inmate who also claimed wrongful conviction. I was selling church organs at the time, so I was on the road a lot. This enabled me to stop by a state prison from time to time to visit my new friend.   I’ve told this story so many times, I’ll keep it short. It didn’t take long for Maurice to convince me that there was a major injustice here. A Black man from Gary, Indiana, with almost no family support, absolutely no financial support, and whose claims of wrongful conviction kept falling on deaf ears, finally had a helper. Maurice and Doug. His team had doubled!   The story of our history-making fight for his freedom over the next nine years resulted in a book: Sweet Freedom. Then it was told in a stage play: Justice for Maurice Henry Carter. Now, all
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Proudly lighting 23 candles!

August 29, 2001…the date that the bylaws were signed for a new non-profit organization called INNOCENT! Years later, the agency’s name would change to HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS to more accurately reflect its work and its mission.   One might think that, when I started this organization 23 years ago, I had lofty goals in mind and knew exactly what I was doing! Couldn’t be farther from the truth.   I was successfully selling church organs, and certainly needed no more tasks or responsibilities in my life. BUT, I had this good friend residing in Michigan prisons, serving time for a crime he did not commit. We were five years into the fight for his freedom, as partners or, as we preferred to call it, “brothers.” And this brother of mine kept insisting that we should start an organization to help others with similar plights. It should be pointed out that Maurice had little-to-no support, only a few close family members, and no money.   Maurice was no “lone wolf,” he insisted. There were
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