A modern-day "David" takes on Goliath!


Apologies for this contemporary paraphrase of I Samuel 17

Now the State of Michigan gathered its forces and drew up its battle lines against the American Civil Liberties Union.

A Goliath named MDOC, a behemoth of a department costing the state $5-million per day, came out of the Michigan camp. He shouted at and taunted the cowering Prisoner Observation Aides at Huron Valley Correctional Facility. “Why have you come out for battle? Am I not the State of Michigan, and are you not prisoners behind bars? Now choose one person to fight me. If I win, nothing will change. If your warrior is able to fight me, however, things will improve for the mentally ill behind bars.”

On hearing his words, the Aides were dismayed and terrified. They had been witnessing abuse and neglect of mentally ill patients for months and years, and their complaints were constantly ignored.

Upon facing this challenge, a POA named Sharee, angered because she had lost her job for reporting incidents of abuse, told her fellow prisoners: “Let no one lose heart, your servant will go fight the state!”

The battleground was the US District Court. Sharee Miller took her slingshot, and picked up four stones with a single letter etched in each one: A C L U. Encouraged by HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS to proceed with her battle, she informed Goliath: “You come against me with might and dollars. I come on behalf of the downtrodden, with the truth on my side!”

Reaching into her bag and taking out a stone, Sharee slung it and struck the MDOC in the forehead. A messenger ran to her fellow POAs with the news:

The ACLU of Michigan has settled a federal lawsuit after the Michigan Department of Corrections agreed to a major policy change that will allow prisoners to report any abuse they witness of other inmates. In addition, Ms. Miller will be reinstated to her position as a POA, compensated for her lost wages, and have her record cleared of having been terminated for violating prison rules.


Said Sharee in a personal message to HFP:

Although I am certainly tired, I am gracefully tired and grateful. God is so amazing. He always does what is right and best. Thank you for taking the hundreds of phone calls, the endless tears you listened to over this, and thank you for sending all the right people my way. Today has truly been rewarding. The change is usually subtle, but this time the change is great. Thank you again for helping me through the retaliation, tears, hurt and anger, it was worth it!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Half-a-race!

The HFP Drag-Racing Fund-Raiser had the potential of being extremely successful, and could have raised several thousand dollars. Let's just say it was partly successful. For background purposes I'll explain that I was racing a 1963 supercharged Studebaker Lark that has a reputation of being one of the fastest stock Studebakers in drag racing today. The engine was built by one of the finest Studebaker engine mechanics in the country, and the car many times has achieved quarter-mile runs in less than 14 seconds! We promised to make at least ten passes in the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags at Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Michigan, this past weekend, and we asked for pledges ONLY ON THOSE RUNS REACHED IN LESS THAN 14 SECONDS. On Friday, here's how we fared: Run #1 13.936 @ 101.24 mph Run #2 14.027 @ 101.30 mph Run #3 14.091 @ 100.88 mph Run #4 13.805 @ 102.84 mph Run #5 14.058 @ 101.26 mph By the 5th run we discovered that ...
Read more

Gregory John McCormick: 1964-2008

Itchy is dead. The lifeless body of this talented rock musician, whose band Shock Therapy was a popular group especially in Europe, was found in a field in Detroit last Wednesday, November 5. The Wayne County Coroner's office informed father Glenn McCormick that the body of his son Gregory, better known to all of us as Itchy, bore no signs of trauma. Glenn said that Itchy, who had been living at his father's dental lab in Detroit, had been drinking to excess for some time. While the toxicology report has not been released yet, the general consensus seems to be that he drank himself to death. Our agency, while still named INNOCENT, first got involved with Itchy in 2005. The Detroit native, who called Germany his home, got involved in some unfortunate activity that placed him in the Michigan State prison system on a charge of arson of a dwelling. It was really just a bonfire in an alley, but an alleged parole violation placed him in prison for 1-20 years. I personally sat w...
Read more

Three lives, connected by a divine thread

My kids say it should be a book! The Doug, Pat and Mark story is a doozie!   About 25 years ago, while fighting to free Maurice Carter from prison, I read a newspaper column written by Pat Shellenbarger of the Grand Rapids Press on the topic of eyewitness identification. I contacted Pat re that story. That led to a friendship between Doug and Pat that continues to this day.   In subsequent months, Pat would go on to assist me in an investigation into the Maurice Carter case that eventually led to solving the crime.  That particular episode became a chapter in my book about the Carter case, SWEET FREEDOM, published in 2006.   Fast forward to 2009, A New York businessman claims wrongful conviction, and while serving time in a Michigan prison is handed a copy of my book. Mark Hartman, who was also convicted in Berrien County, was amazed at the similarity of these two stories and tried to reach out to me. His letters bounced.   Persisting in his efforts to c...
Read more