Humanity for Prisoners

It doesn’t take long to figure out what’s wrong with Michigan prisoner Mr. T. You don’t have to spend hours trying to decipher the awkward hand-writing in a meandering 5-page letter, or the stack of poorly prepared grievances, or the attached medical and psychological reports. Here’s what you’ll find:            - two suicide attempts           -personal attacks by inmates           -verbal abuse by guards           -various medical issues, some serious, some treated, some not           -misconduct tickets, often for “insolence.” Mr. T. is mentally ill. This subject keeps rearing its ugly head as Matt and I try to address the problems of inmates.  A good share of our prisoners are mentally challenged, staff-members aren’t properly trained to handle them, and many fellow-prisoners don’t know how to deal with them.  As a result, tragic stories, hundreds of them very much like this…and nothing happening! Reading between the lines, it’s easy to see how staf

Last minute Christmas shopping worries? Wondering if you got the right gift for the right person? Wondering if everyone will get along at the holiday family gathering? Our Christmas week suggestion suggestion:  Give the gift of prayer...prayer for hurting, lonely, needy children of God huddling behind bars. Right now, there’s a prisoner feeling lonely at Christmas time, because family and friends abandoned him/her years ago.  Fewer than 15% of Michigan inmates even receive visits! Right now, there’s a prisoner wishing he could see his children, but his wife has obtained a court-order forbidding visits. Right now, there’s a prisoner contemplating suicide because he feels friendless, or because he has been raped, or because he is being victimized by gang-bangers. Right now, a prisoner is struggling with pain because of improper, inappropriate, or just plain lack of any medical care. Right now, a mentally ill prisoner is so drugged that he/she has no idea

I refuse to call this a defense of HFP philosophy.  I prefer to call it an explanation. When telling of our work to church groups, I always explain that we do not teach Bible lessons in prison…other groups are already doing that.  We do not openly try to convert inmates to Christianity.  Other prison missionaries make that their goal.  Our efforts are Christian in nature, because we believe we are showing compassion to inmates in the name of Jesus, but in a very practical way.  I usually quote St. Francis of Assisi:  Preach the gospel every day.  Use words if necessary. I go way back to the days when we started this organization in 2001.  The name of our agency was still INNOCENT at that time.  I had been asked by the Wisconsin Innocence Project to assist in helping a guy who was wrongly convicted.  During my two days in Madison, I didn’t help free the man from prison.  But I learned that he was completely estranged from his offspring due to his outrageous behavior in an earli

Isn’t it ironic that today, December 10, is Human Rights Day? Human Rights Day is a global observance, not a national holiday, and nothing that will give kids a day off, close banks or stop your daily mail.  It was developed by the UN way back in the 1940s, following the Second World War.  Its observance is marred today. ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL, The United States has been disgraced by newly released reports showing that our country used torture on detainees who, it was believed, may have been involved with or had contact with those who brought about the 9/11 attack in New York.  It’s a shameful day in U.S. history. But torture isn’t limited to just the national and international arenas. ON THE STATE LEVEL, our office is dealing with a first-hand report from inside the women’s prison located in Ypsilanti regarding a mentally ill inmate:  The last 18 months she has been locked in an Observation Cell without showering, reading material, or any form of human contact, for

I thought back to last spring. I was watching happy and excited crowds in New York City, on hand for a traditional Christmas season ceremony.  But I was reflecting on an experience of a few hours earlier, one that reminded me of happy and exciting times for many of our friends last spring. As warm weather arrived, there were outdoor receptions for high school graduates, many people posted many pictures of graduates on Facebook, newspaper stories paid tribute to valedictorians and salutatorians, display ads recognized the accomplishments of high school grads from various local institutions.  It was an exciting time, and proud parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters attended ceremonies marking this milestone in the lives of local teenagers.  That isn’t the way it was yesterday at Brooks Correctional Facility, one of three state prisons located in Muskegon. Nearly 50 students, ranging in age from the late teens to the late 60s, had been patiently tutored by

I know, just watching TV news or reading the newspaper is enough to make you angry.  You don’t need anything else to fuel the fire.  Or do you? I’m suggesting that you take a bold step next weekend, and spend ten dollars on a ticket for a program that’ll not only make you mad, but also change the way you think.  I’ll bet on it. JUSTICE FOR MAURICE HENRY CARTER is a great stage play.  It’s going to be presented in the sanctuary of FERRYSBURG COMMUNITY CHURCH next Friday evening, December 5, at 7:30 PM.  And if you can’t get there then, there’ll be two repeat performances on Saturday the 6 th at 2 PM and 7:30 PM. On the surface, it might appear that playwrights Donald Molnar and Alicia Payne have simply used drama to paint a delightful love story about Maurice Carter and me.  If that’s all you get out of this, I’ll be terribly disappointed. The playwrights, instead, have masterfully used music and the spoken word to convey a serious message of injustice.  It’s a story t

Something beautiful happened in Muskegon. A candle-light vigil was held on the campus of Muskegon High School over the weekend to discuss the way their friend Jessica Lynn Brewster has impacted their lives.  In case you haven’t read or heard, Jessica is the 17 year old girl now being held on an open murder charge, after the body of her newborn baby was found buried nearby. Muskegon senior Elizabeth Kurdziel, who organized the event, was quoted as saying, “We’re here in remembrance of Jessica’s baby and to support her.”  And the phrase that was being used time and again, one which began on Facebook, was: We are Jessica. This may not seem like a relevant topic for the guys who run HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS.  To the contrary, it’s one that Matt and I have been talking about, and one that deserves a lot of discussion. Another life is at stake here.  If the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office goes ahead with a charge of first degree murder, and gets a conviction, this little g

Is the headline a bit sarcastic?  Yes. Word of another prison death came to our office again this week.  I use the inmate's number in our headline, not to offend the family, but instead to point out that prisoners are just a number.  Her name was Sabrie Lorain Alexander, she was a real human being, and in our opinion she didn't have to die.  I'm going to let one of our courageous whistle-blowers tell the story, in her own words.  But first, a quick explanation.  POA is a job for which some inmates are chosen and trained.  It's a successful program where inmate observers watch prisoners who may be contemplating suicide, or who have other issues.  Here's her story: We had another incident here. We had a young women here in her twenties, black. She was a level II, out date in 2016. She was in the Infirmary on Observation. She had a seizure. The POA TOLD the officer that Alexander was having a seizure. The Officer said 'Oh, she'll be OK.'

I sent condolences to two friends this week who lost elderly parents.  Even though we completely understand that our parents are getting old and that we cannot keep them forever, it’s still a loss.  In both of these cases, my friends were near their parent at the time of death, and were able to grieve in the midst of family and loved ones. I was also reminded this week that experiencing the death of family members is not the same for people behind bars. One of our board members reported that her friend behind bars had lost a loved one.  Her words: I got a note from Karen today.  Her brother died.  That is her second loss this year.   She lost another brother earlier this year.  My heart is breaking for her.  And there she sits.  And will sit for probably the rest of her life.  I am so sad for the family that will grieve without her and for her to grieve alone.  She knows Christ.  She trusts in Christ.  She has a relationship with Christ.  But—she is so fragile in her human

The thief on the cross would never have survived the scrutiny of the Michigan Parole Board and the Michigan Attorney General’s office.  Jesus forgave.  We won’t. The older I get, and the more I work in this prisoner advocacy business, the more I become convinced that we won’t really see forgiveness in our criminal justice system.  Ever. It ain’t gonna happen. I testified in another public hearing today, held by the Michigan Parole Board.  I cannot prove this, but I sense that these hearings are grudgingly held in a spirit of skepticism.  In many of the hearings where I have testified, there is a snowball’s chance that the inmate will actually be granted a parole.  We’re a “tough on crime” state, and by God, if someone has committed a heinous crime in Michigan, he or she will pay! I know that when I make my pitch, I’m perceived as a left-wing “do-gooder,” who wants to free all the prisoners.  I can see that in the eyes of the Parole Board chairman and the Assistant Attorney

So here’s the deal. If you agree that if kids are too young to drink, too young to smoke, too young to drive, they should also be too young to receive life sentences or to serve time with hardened criminals in adult prisons; If you agree that it’s time for Michigan to release many of its older, medically fragile and incapacitated prisoners; If you agree that successor judges should not have veto-power over Parole Board decisions; If you agree that the Michigan Parole Board is taking over the sentencing role of judges in many cases, especially those involving CSC convictions; If you agree that Michigan sentencing guidelines should be revised to better ensure that similar offenders who commit similar offenses receive similar sentences; If you agree with national and state research that shows that simply keeping people in prison longer does not keep the public safer; If you agree that it’s time to change Michigan’s reputation of keeping people behind bars long

There is a time for everything…a time to weep and a time to laugh Ecclesiastes 3 It was a whiskey-tasting class, a fund-raiser for HFP, and people were having fun.  I was asked to say a few words.  I had to put on a smile and talk about the good things.  I couldn’t really talk about Suzie, wife of a prisoner, who fears for his life.  A guy killed his bunkie in the prison where her husband resides a few nights ago.  The next day three more prisoners were stabbed.  She can’t be there with him, and she worries a lot. It wouldn’t have been appropriate to tell about a prisoner named Donna, who wrote to say that healthcare workers ignored her pleas for treatment until she collapsed and had to be raced to a hospital by ambulance.  Surgery barely saved her life.  She was in the hospital for 5 weeks.  She will wear an ileostomy bag for the rest of her life. I’m sure John’s story would have aroused undue skepticism.  This military veteran showed me the documents of admission t

One by one they gave their names, and then told of a family member now in prison.  One by one they shed tears of pain in making that admission.  One by one they listened to the stories of abuse and neglect behind bars, and nodded their heads in agreement.  They could tell similar stories. Matt and I were involving in a workshop led by our friend Lois DeMott of Michigan’s Family Participation Program.  Two dozen people were there to get information and to share stories. And it was at that moment that I realized, once again, why we are in this business.  I was affirmed in what we are doing!  This is exactly where we belong! Just in recent days -we extended our hand to two 74-year-old inmates who together have served 90 years behind bars -we listened to the story of a prisoner who claims to have been sexually compromised by a prison therapist -we resumed our work with the family of a mentally ill inmate nearly killed by prison abuse -we continued our preparation to

My soul brother Maurice Carter died 10 years ago today.  He had spent nearly half of his life in prison for something he didn’t do. One of his favorite sayings was that when he got arrested, “The wheels of justice ground to a halt.”  The injustice of it all wasn’t just the wrongful conviction.  Other ingredients included racism before, during and after the trial; incompetent legal assistance; shoddy police work;  face-saving prosecutors and judges;  inadequate prison medical care…the list goes on and on. Yet, Maurice Carter made a conscious decision to reach past all of this suffering and indignity, so that he could touch others.  His goal was to help other prisoners upon his release.  Things didn’t go the way he had planned.  He experienced only three months of freedom, and during that time he was in poor health. Instead, God saw to it that he began touching lives while still behind bars.  No one will ever know how many, but I saw it with my own eyes.  Not just my fam

A prison hospital would seem like about the last place where one would see a miracle.  But as sure as I’m sitting here typing up this story, I believe a miracle has occurred. Often we tell these stories to help raise money.  We want our supporters to know that their dollars actually touch lives behind bars, one at a time.  This is NOT a dollar story.  It’s God, pure and simple.  Nothing your dollars did.  Nothing we did.  But it’s important that we share our stories of celebration, also. I’m getting way ahead of myself.  Let me start at the beginning. This spring our office began receiving disturbing reports of cruelty, neglect and abuse in a particular unit of the women’s prison in Ypsilanti.  It was the place where they care for the worst of the mentally ill cases.  Some prisoners who were patients in that unit, we were told, were being hog-tied, and were being abused by taser weapons and pepper gas sprayers. In one particularly upsetting case, a woman with parched t

HFP President Doug Tjapkes made a prison visit yesterday.  That was not uncommon, but what was uncommon was the reason for the visit.  The Warden of the prison felt that this elderly individual, now in bad health and who had already served 46 years, deserved to be released.  She asked if HFP would help.  Herb is 74, died three times while in prison due to a heart attack but was successfully revived, and then survived heart surgery.  5 bypasses later, he’s ready to step out and help others. In his 46 years behind bars he has received only 5 tickets, none for violence…none in the past 25 years. In his 46 years he obtained a high school diploma, a liberal arts communicate college certificate, a tool and die worker certificate, and a para-legal degree.  He’s now a library clerk, and loves his work. A heavy-duty alcoholic, he never touched a drop in the past 46 years (and alcohol is available behind bars!). He was granted a parole in 1982 by a unanimous Parole Board vot

Originally posted on January 7, 2012 A friend of HFP sent in a copy of an editorial that I had written three years ago. It deserves a reprint. "We hear this all the time!" Assistant Michigan Attorney General Thomas Kulick, with a smirk on his face, in the spotlight at a public hearing this week. "Prisoners are always trying to convince us that they are feeling remorse." Kulick was responding to the whispered words of a dying inmate, cringing in a wheelchair before him, seeking permission to spend his final days outside of prison . The inmate merely had stated that he was sorry about his earlier life, and he wished he could do it all over again. Do you know why you hear those words all the time, Mr. Kulick? It's because the Parole Board from your own state makes that demand! I speak from experience. If prisoners, especially those accused of a sex offense, ever hope to get a parole, they must confess to the crime, and they must show remorse. This comes f

Is our disgust over sex crimes resulting in wrongful convictions? I can’t prove it, but I think so. Three very good friends of mine were wrongly convicted of sex crimes. In each case, the alleged crimes involved molestation of little girls. In each case, the stories were prompted by adults. In each case, there was another emotion driving the accusations, such as jealousy or vindictiveness. Jealousy over the lifestyle of someone with more wealth, anger as the result of a family fight, or anger over a broken relationship. Accusing a man of molesting a little girl was a way to ease those emotions, perhaps a way to get a financial settlement, perhaps a way to just plain get even. As a result, these three guys were convicted by juries. Prosecutors are well aware of the fact that average citizens hate the thought of adults molesting kids. They want to put them away. As a result, these three guys collectively spent decades behind bars. Members of the Michigan Parole Board make

Can there really be peace behind bars? Probably not, but give Warden Mary Berghuis credit for making huge strides toward that goal. Ms. Berghuis, whom I describe as a warden with a heart, runs both Brooks and West Shoreline facilities in Muskegon. During my last visit, she handed me a little plastic card with the label: THE POWER OF PEACE PROJECT. I was intrigued, and asked for more information. Turns out Warden Berghuis, always thinking outside the box for her prisons, met Power of Peace Project founder Kit Cummings at a conference a few years ago. During their conversation, the nationally known motivational speaker offered to go to the Muskegon prisons to introduce his program. And since that time, he has made several return visits. Cummings’ principles make strong demands of prisoners: 1. I WILL do my very best to live I peace with everyone I meet. 2. I WILL NOT provoke or disrespect anyone. 3. When provoked, I WILL NOT retaliate. 4. When cursed, I WILL NOT cur

Frequently there’s a person who disagrees. As President of HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS, I’m sometimes asked to explain our work to church and civic groups. While I appreciate the support and acceptance of those smiling and nodding individuals sitting in the front, I have more concern for the one or two frowning persons with pursed lips sitting in the rear. I’m not only concerned, but I’m sad, because I can predict with some accuracy what these people are thinking. It goes something like this: Why do prisoners deserve any compassion, decent meals, appropriate health care, and letters from caring individuals? If they hadn’t done the crime, they wouldn’t be doing the time. This isn’t a country club. They deserve all the rudeness and mistreatment they get. What about the victims of the crimes these people committed? Why aren’t you supporting them, instead of the criminals? That’s where the care and compassion should be directed. What about the corrections officers? Why aren’t

A most amazing event took place this week behind bars. A group of inmates who are members of an organization called SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS presented a staged reading of the play JUSTICE FOR MAURICE HENRY CARTER. The program was presented in a classroom of the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon. There have been previously staged readings of the drama or segments of it around the country, but never behind bars, and never with a cast consisting solely of prisoners. The play is a compressed, poignant depiction of the unique relationship between an indigent black man from Gary, Indiana, and a middle-class Dutch boy from western Michigan, and their 10-year battle to overturn a wrongful conviction. It’s important however, to identify the real heroes of the two performances this week. I don’t mean to minimize the divine plan that put me into the life of Maurice Carter, or vice versa. I certainly don’t mean to downplay the fact that Marcia and I, our daughter Sue and

In his fine sermon series on prayer, Pastor Nate Sunday challenged us to find God in our simple, every day experiences. He used the example from I Kings 19, when God told Elijah that the Lord was about to pass by. There were strong winds, there was an earthquake, and there was fire…but God wasn’t there. After all of these sensational phenomena came a gentle whisper, and God was in that still small voice. That challenge has prompted me and fellow church members this week to wake up to the fact that we can see God in something as simple as the first sip of a steaming hot cup of coffee in the morning, or a spectacular Lake Michigan sunset, or a favorite piece of music. But it also prompted me to take this whole thing one step farther. Perhaps if we run across people who have a hard time seeing God anywhere, our challenge should be to help them reach this experience. As I reflected on that while waking up this morning, it dawned on me that this has been a specific goal of HUMANITY