Humanity for Prisoners

Imagine giving birth in a hospital bed with two state corrections officers—including a man—standing over you, their chest-mounted body cameras recording your active labor, intimate medical exams, and the first moments you breastfeed your newborn son.   I've just finished reading Detroit Free Press writer Paul Egan’s story about a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on October 12 by Natalie Forrest, a former minimum-security inmate at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility (WHV). The complaint alleges that guards kept their body cameras rolling during her delivery, despite prison leadership being warned in writing just days earlier that filming undressed women is a felony. To make matters worse, guards allegedly threatened Forrest’s mother with two additional years of prison time for her daughter if she dared to snap a photo of her newborn grandson!   Our supporters know that we’ve been concerned about the way the State of Michigan treats women in prison since the day HF...

Two things are quickly approaching. In a few weeks I’ll hit the 90-year mark. And in a few months, Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s term will come to an end. Those 2 prospects this week prompted me to attack some unfinished business: I sent a formal letter to Governor Whitmer with a serious, urgent request for positive response to a posthumous pardon application for my late friend, Maurice Carter. That request was filed more than a decade ago. Still no action!   Many of you know that Maurice was the catalyst for everything we do at Humanity for Prisoners.   In the mid-1990s, I partnered with him in a grueling, ten-year battle to overturn his wrongful conviction. We achieved a partial victory in 2004 when Governor Jennifer Granholm granted him clemency for health reasons. Maurice was freed, but tragically, he passed away just three months later. He died a free man, but he did not die an exonerated man.   In 2014, a dedicated team of University of Michigan law students filed...

I get upset when local area media present lopsided stories about prisoners who are finally granted release by the Michigan Parole Board. You’ll hear reasons like -while an inmate may get a second chance at life outside, the victim's loss is permanent; -families still fear for their safety if the prisoner is released; and -the justice system frequently focuses heavily on rehabilitation but treats the lifelong trauma of the victims as an afterthought.   All of this came to mind as I reflected on the delightful evening last week when some 150 people attended the annual film festival of Humanity for Prisoners. Here’s a part of the evening that only a few in the audience were aware of:   -2 members of our staff have served nearly 45 years behind bars! -The pastor who offered the invocation had served 34 years! -Released prisoners in the audience had served some 60 years!   In that very room sat men and women who had collectively spent about 140 years in prison!...

  It’s not a day that is posted on most calendars, but it’s a day that should be of interest to you! Today, October second, is International Wrongful Conviction Day. The Innocence Network decided to do something about so many innocent people sitting in prison many years ago. It’s a network of organizations and agencies that provide free services to people who claim they were wrongfully convicted. Their goal is a lofty one: to highlight systematic flaws in the criminal legal system and to advocate for reforms.   I have a particular interest in this topic because my very special friend Maurice Carter had been wrongly convicted, and my 10-year battle with him for his freedom resulted in a dramatic change in my life, as well as the formation of what is now HFP.   But, as I mentioned in today’s headline, the topic should be meaningful to you, as well. Let me explain.   We often think that those who have been wrongly convicted are poor people, often Black, who probabl...

Perhaps you saw the story in the news last week: Families of four dead inmates sue state over unsafe prison railings.   Is it any wonder?   Paul Egan, fine writer for the Detroit Free Press, has been doing an excellent job of following this story for years. It’s not a very nice one.   This new lawsuit alleges that officials knew prison railings at two Jackson-area facilities were unsafe for years and did nothing. The Detroit Free Press has documented six fatal inmate falls from upper galleries and four falls causing injuries at these 2 prisons in Jackson, beginning in 2020. The MDOC ruled 4 of the deaths as suicide. The other 2 were said to be accidental falls.   “The lawsuit notes that, as first reported by the Free Press, an MDOC employee in 2023 complained to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration that the height of the railings was unsafe and that the MDOC's response to the complaint was that no hazard existed,” says Paul Egan. Now t...

David was more than an HFP client. He was a dear friend, and I miss him. It’s a sad story.   I first met this kind, soft-spoken man shortly after the formation of HFP in 2001, back in the days when our organization was still called INNOCENT. Because of that name, his parents contacted me to explain his case. I will not delve into the legal aspects of this story now. I will only state that we had proof that he had been wrongly convicted.   18 years later, while serving time in one of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula correctional facilities. David became ill. It was apparent that this was no common cold. David had pneumonia, and the Michigan Department of Corrections determined that the nearby hospital wasn’t capable of handing this situation.   So, here’s the first shameful step the department took. It piled him into a van, while literally dying, and transported David 160 miles to another UP prison for supposedly improved hospital care! No one will ever know how much this...