Humanity for Prisoners

As we remember the passing of my friend Maurice Carter this week, I use this blog site to reprint a column written by former Grand Rapids Religion Editor Charley Honey, who visited Maurice at a nursing home. August 21, 2004 Grand Rapids Press After 28 years, 'It's so great to be free' By Charley Honey, Religion Editor   I have had the privilege of meeting a man convicted of trying to kill someone. His name is Maurice Carter. He has gentle eyes, a warm hug and a soft smile that glows with gratitude. In this thin, ailing man, I saw a presence of grace that I have not witnessed in a very long time. "I know this God is for real," Carter said quietly, sitting in the lobby of an area nursing home. "He's just answered my prayers. That's what keeps me going." It had been almost a month since Maurice Carter walked out of prison after 28 years behind bars. He went in at age 32, convicted in 1976 of assault with the intent to murder a Benton...

Have you ever stopped to consider when and where and how you met your best friends? Treasured experiences! I contend, however, that no one can tell a friendship story like this one.   October 25 is the date that Maurice Carter died. That was in the year 2004, and he was only 60 years of age. Hepatitis C and all of its complications finally caught up with this quiet, gentle man. After serving 29 years in prison, he lived only 3 months in freedom.   Every year at this time I reflect on the amazing impact of this friend and his story.   For those who know nothing about Maurice Carter, he was a wrongly convicted Black man from Gary, Indiana, serving time in a Michigan prison for a crime he did not commit.   Our first meeting in a Michigan prison in Coldwater led to a rather friendly partnership relationship. I agreed to do my best to assist him in obtaining his freedom and proving his innocence. From that day forward, in the mid-1990s, we would launch what was un...

 " They shouldn’t have voting rights!”   That’s how one reader responded after HFP posted a message on Facebook encouraging formerly incarcerated men and women in Michigan to vote on November 3. Ours is one of 23 states where those living behind bars in state prisons lose their voting rights…but only until their release. When they get out, voting rights are automatically restored.   For the record, 25 states actually bar community members from voting , simply on the basis of convictions in their past.   Also for the record, Michigan is one of 48 states that won’t allow prisoners to cast ballots.   HFP’s Communications Director Brad Warner, who speaks from personal experience, quickly responded to that statement on Facebook: “…our system is built on due process, the presumption of innocence, and the belief that people can be held accountable while still retaining their humanity. Rights should not be taken away based solely on an accusation, nor should p...

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!...