Humanity for Prisoners

Holy Week. A week filled with a tsunami of emotions. It’s early in the morning on Easter, and the stories of the past week remind me of so many similar circumstances in my own life.   Take, for example, that best friend of Jesus. Jesus had changed his name from Simon to Peter, and had expressed such high praise for him…said he was going to be the actual head of the church! So, what does Peter do when the chips are down? He denies that he ever knew the guy!   Yep, been there…done that! You’re loved by many when you go about your regular activities in your community…raise a family, go to work every day, go to church every Sunday. BUT, let something bad happen in your life, and it all goes to hell. Following an unfortunate situation, an arrest, a conviction and a sentence, not many friends anymore. I know the feeling. Many of my former associates, and even some family members, act like they never knew me.   Then there was the actual sentence of Jesus. Death on a cross....

Well, it was Jesus who started this whole business of foot-washing. Yes, that Jesus, whose death and resurrection we remember this week.   In many churches around the country on Maundy or Holy Thursday, there’ll be foot-washing ceremonies. Remembering that unusual event in the Last Supper, people will wash the feet of fellow worshipers and pray for them while doing so. Polite, clean, beautiful.   The original ritual with our Lord and his disciples, however, did not take place in a fancy church with running water, stained glass windows and padded pews, nor did it involve beautiful, clean, pedicured feet.   In those days feet were filthy. People wore sandals in the dusty streets of Israel. The only people who washed feet were slaves. And in that hierarchical system, a slave was property, not entirely human, someone to whom one could do anything with impunity. So of course, it was the slave who washed feet. And this act was considered beneath the dignity, beneath the h...

I’m going to give Paul Egan, our hero at the Detroit Free Press, the podium on this one. I’m speechless.   LANSING — A man died after falling from an elevated platform at a Jackson-area prison April 12 in what was the fifth similar falling or jumping death since 2020 at two state prisons.   Ervin Robinson II, 42, was an inmate at the Charles Egeler Reception & Guidance Center, where prisoners are normally sent for a few weeks or months after they are sentenced and before they are assigned to another state prison to serve their time.   Jenni Riehle, a spokeswoman for Michigan Department of Corrections Director Heidi Washington, confirmed Robinson's death April 15 and described it as resulting from a fall from an upper gallery.   Since 2020, Robinson and four other men have died after plunging from heights at either Egeler or a second Jackson-area prison, Parnall Correctional Facility. Each prison has a similar tiered structure with four levels of cells tha...

We’ve always known that there’s a drug problem in the Michigan prison system. It’s that way in every state. But, there’s word now that the issue is much more serious than we thought.   For years the HFP team has been hearing horror stories from our clients about drug availability, drug use and drug overdoses in our state prisons.   Now comes a prison employee, a “whistle-blower,” who details a deadly culture in the MDOC. He’s willing to name names and provide documentation. He’s been yipping about it for a few years. The worst part of this story: Nobody will do anything about it!   Finally, in recent days, this whistleblower shared his story with a Detroit reporter, and he  is  doing something about it! The shocking information is being made public.   Eddie B. Allen, Jr., is a writer for the Detroit Metro Times, which is an alternative weekly newspaper with a huge circulation. Allen says that this person told him: “One of prison’s worst-kept secret...

Shameful reports about Michigan’s prison system in recent Detroit Free Press stories just about send me into a frenzy! Investigative reporter Paul Egan tells about falsified cell search records and metal detector lapses; corrections officers arrested for beating and breaking bones of a misbehaving inmate; a federal judge blasting the MDOC’s grievance process; and the leader of Michigan’s House of Representatives promising no prison reform for the next two years!   My first reaction is indignance. The longer I think about it, the angrier I get. As a writer I feel prodded to raise hell, and I’ve done my share of that over the years.   As many of you know, in 2001 I formed an organization to help incarcerated men and women in Michigan. Despite the claim that our prison occupants are “the worst of the worst,” as described by a former MDOC director, I have found that to be untrue. Some of the nicest people I know live in prison. Some of my best friends are locked in these cage...

Michigan prisoners had high hopes for “Second Look.” Sadly, the prospects aren’t all that great anymore. Who’s to blame?   The Second Look Sentencing Act, approved by the House Criminal Justice Committee last year, would have allowed individuals who have served at least 20 years to petition their original court for a sentence reduction. Those convicted of criminal sexual conduct, terrorism, mass shootings and certain domestic violence cases would remain ineligible.   Naturally a bill like this would have a lot of interest, especially among old-timers behind bars. But, it should also be of interest to you and me. For example, Michigan’s average prison sentence length is roughly three times the national average. Our state leads the nation in the proportion of its prison population serving sentences longer than 10 years. But here’s where it affects your pocketbook and mine: It costs Michigan about $5.5 M per day to run our Department of Corrections!   Three fine prison...