Humanity for Prisoners

Marcia and I were enjoying a cup of coffee and a dish of ice cream with friends dating back to high school days, Timmy and Char. The question came from Tim, who knows the truth but has a hard time believing that all of this stuff goes on in the prisons day after day. Actually, I couldn't tell him one that I'm dealing with right now, where prisoners have a contract out on a friend of ours who dared to tell the truth despite a threat of retaliation. Jimmy lives in constant fear, and his spirits are so low it's getting hard for me to prop him up. Last weekend some terrorists hit him in the face and mouth with human waste. Nothing is too low, too degrading. I couldn't tell this to Timmy because it would spoil his ice cream snack. One cannot imagine anything so horrible. Makes me gag to talk about it. It took him over an hour just to get rid of the smell and taste, gargling and using mouthwash. Nope, I'm sad to say, I don't make up these stories. General She

I agree that she rambles, but maybe someone ought to listen to Jennifer, mother of a 17 year old kid in the Michigan prison system. Who is our voice? This state cannot have it both ways. They can't keep whining about the budget and then disallow people who can help to do so. I visited my son in prison yesterday. He said "They're taking away the food tech program at some of the facilities, discontinuing the trades programs and stopping a lot more programs to help these guys when they get out. They are evening stopping the GED program!" What the hell is wrong here? I want to use my own money and labor to cook these guys a real dinner once with something that might resemble real meat. Hell, I'll go in and help these guys study for their GED and I know other people that will, too. It's not enough we lock 'em up like animals. Now, we can't even be sure there is any kind of incentive to improve their lives out in the world. Are we just going to si

July 24 is such a special day. It was on this day in the year 2004 that I walked out of the Duane Waters prison hospital in Jackson, Michigan, at the side of my dear friend Maurice Carter. He was a free man. I had met him 9 years earlier, and after some side-stepping and walking on tip-toes, we became best friends. Over the years I came to believe his claims of wrongful conviction, and did my best to mobilize forces to seek his freedom. Things didn't turn out the way we had hoped. He obtained his freedom because of illness, not innocence. But, on this day in 2004, he stepped into the free world. The emotions of that day cannot be described. We sat him in a recliner in the front of a luxurious motor home as we drove away from the ugly prison setting to a beautiful neighorhood of friends waiting in a public reception. He chatted on a cell phone for the first time in his life, as he marveled at the beauty of nature on that glorius day. We tried to pack a lifetime of experien

I believe, as a society, we are acountable to our laws and to those we punish by those laws. I know that prisoners are the "lowest hanging fruit" and often become forgotten, neglected and sometimes abused by those whose role it is to guard them. It is easy to say, "Well, they deserve what they get for what they did." But as often as that might be true, it is too often more wrong than right. And without encouragement, hope and knowing that people on the outside do care, what motivation is there to otherwise change one's behavior? They have no rights and cannot protect themselves, so we MUST stay alert and attentive to what goes on behind the otherwise forgotten walls and fences. Thank God for people like you and HFP. Warmly, Peggy

Sometimes you just hafta shake your head. A happy message arrived in the HFP office this week: GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE! I just received a phone call from Harry, in prison. He has received his orthotic arch supports. No more pain in his legs and feet, knees and lower back. Apparently the prison administration decided he can have them after all, and so now he does not have to file a civil lawsuit to get what he doctor had prescribed already long ago. The amazing part of this little story is that it took months to get this good news. Grievances had to be filed, complaints had to be made, and because Harry is a Dutch citizen there was international communication and involvement. All over arch supports. All over something that was prescribed by a doctor long ago. All over something that was working in the past. All because someone obviously consumed with power to make controversial decisions decided that Harry no longer needed the inserts for his shoes. Shouldn't a prisoner be e

Seems like we always find some goofy ideas under any old wet rock after a controversial jury decision like that of the Casey case. One columnist wondered aloud whether we should consider professionally appointed juries. I spoke to this issue early on, giving the jury credit for a fair decision. The jurors acted on what they heard, and I think they acted responsibly. What a shame that people are in an uproar now simply because they didn't get the verdict they wanted. I remember when that happened in the OJ Simpson case. People were angry at Simpson because he got off, when they should have been angry with the Prosecutor for letting him get off. It all starts with good police work. Prosecutors then work with what they have. And the jury then responds with what it sees and hears. Instead of suggesting that juries be professionally appointed, how about considering the appointment of prosecutors rather than having voters choose them. One state claims this has made a major diffe

My friend Roger thinks he knows why many people do not contribute to HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS. He and his wife read through the long list of appeals for help that we recently published in a newsletter. Many of these pleas for assistance describe terrible conditions in prison. Roger said his wife concluded: "If these prisoners just thought about this ahead of time, maybe they never would have ended up in prison." And that's the type of thinking that we must counter all the time. There's no quick answer. There are no hard data to quickly drop on people who make these statements. We cannot tell, for example, just how many people have been wrongly convicted. But let's be real about it. If our judicial system is accurate 90% of the time, the flip side is that 10% of the judgments were wrong. A wise man once said that if one innocent person is in prison, I am not free. Well then if 10% of the prison population is innocent, that is indeed an outrage. I have a f

Those were Marcia's words when I hung up the telephone. I had been speaking with the mother of a prisoner and didn't realize my wife was overhearing my half of the conversation. A wave of empathy goes out over the telephone line every time I speak with the parent of a prisoner. It never fails. And that's because you can ALWAYS hear and feel the pain in their voice. Always. I have often thought that if criminals knew how much their bad decisions hurt their mothers, there would be a lot less crime. Don't you agree? Think about it. For the most part, people love their mothers. Granted, some kids have hated their moms much of their lives. While I have no statistics to back me up, I think the majority of people love their moms. How I loved my mother. And, my mother-in-law. How I miss both of them. I can truthfully say that anything and everything I did that hurt my mom REALLY hurt me. Well, back to the telephone conversation, the mother who spoke to me today wa

Ask anyone who works with prisoners. The good guys don't always win. The stories don't always have a happy ending. Twas never thus. Twon't ever be. I'd have to go through the files once again to see how many years we worked for freedom for Ronnie. There were others who worked longer and harder than I did on this case, but I was in the middle of it. I visited him in his lonely cell in the UP. I was at his side for the Parole Board interview. His buddy Mitch and I were at the prison gate when he stepped into freedom. It was the only case in the State of Michigan that I have ever heard of in which a prisoner was freed by the Parole Board even though he refused to admit wrongdoing and refused to show remorse. Until his last breath he maintained his innocence. And it wasn't easy after he got out. There were uphill fights just getting him a place to live, getting him a driver's license, getting him a job, getting him a vehicle, trying to maintain a relationshi

One will be hard pressed to explain how a court case suddenly gets propelled into the national spotlight. A criminal defense attorney pointed out to me the other day that we have cases right here in Michigan that are much more compelling than the Kaylee case. Whatever the reasons, the public suddenly was bombarded with details of this case day after day. And now that the public has been exposed to all of this information, people seem to feel that they probably know as much or more than the jury knew. Since the not guilty verdict was reached on the murder charge, people are outraged. How could the jury make such a serious error? It reminds me of the OJ Simpson case. People were convinced that OJ had commmitted the crime. How come the jury didn't reach a guilty verdict? Well, I'll tell you how come, in both of these trials. The prosecution screwed up. It's time for you to quit placing the blame on high profile criminal defense attorneys. I'm tired of hearing that

But instead, I'm worrying about survival. As we approach the birthday of the land of the free, the home of the brave, this is hard for me to imagine. Are we the only ones who see the problem? One of our nation's greatest heroes, if not the greatest, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made this profound statement that could be one of our business slogans: INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE. Our Board of Directors will hold a quarterly meeting next week, and in preparation for that I have been reviewing some of our activity records for the first half of this year. We could use and should have a paid staff of several people tackling issues of major importance. Instead, we're operating on a shoestring with a long list of committed professionals who ask nothing more than to remain anonymous. If you can believe this, already this year, we have been involved in the rescue of a just-released prisoner stranded on the streets of Ann Arbor, and another stranded on the st

How often do you make that statement, when someone shares a need or a problem with you? It's often how Christians respond. It's kind and reassuring. It's what we do for each other. And then we go about praying for this person or this need in private. I must tell you about an experience yesterday. I was speaking with a Christian brother in prison, and we were talking about the status of my health. This has been a topic of concern for the past year, after a one-year battle with a staph infection. I nearly lost my life several times. I'm grateful now for every day of my new life. BUT, as I shared with my friend in prison, I get very nervous now when a minor health issue comes up. For example, I have been troubled with, what I believe, was just a bout with the flu this week. But I immediately worry that the staph infection may be returning. As I explained that to Mike, he interrupted me and immediately launched into a brief prayer for me! He didn't say "