Humanity for Prisoners

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