Behind bars? Not much respect!

All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings. UN General Assembly, Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners 

Some 20 years ago, I found that Michigan didn't abide by that principle, as I was trying to assist a wrongly-convicted prisoner.

 -The chairman of the Michigan Parole Board harangued and harassed him, finally suggesting that he would free him immediately if he would just admit to committing the crime. Maurice Carter refused.

-The Assistant Attorney General recommended no medical parole for Maurice, even though he was dying from Hepatitis C, final stage. A danger to society. 

-The circuit court judge hearing the circumstances of Maurice’s terminal disease, said “We all gotta die sometime!” 

-The Governor of our State, when faced with the request for a compassionate release, waited a year before granting approval. It was too late. Maurice died 3 months after his release. 

One might think that, over the period of 20 years, we’d become a bit more civil, more humane. But, based on my experiences in just the past 10 days, that ain’t happening! 

I attended two public hearings conducted by the Michigan Parole Board last week. I was disappointed to discover that, despite a change in state administrations and a replacement of an Assistant Attorney General, there was little improvement. A 76-year-old woman who showed considerable remorse for her crime, committed in a moment of passion, was badgered until reduced to tears. In the second hearing, a wrongly convicted prisoner who has now served 30 years was badgered by the Assistant AG, doing her best to prod him into showing remorse for something he didn’t do. 

One week later I attended a court session where, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, a juvenile’s sentence of life without parole had to be changed. The prisoner, at age 44, met every point for rehabilitation and restoration, after committing at the age of 17. The judge, a former prosecutor, would have no part of leniency. In my opinion, the resentence numbers that she ordered, 40-60 years with credit for time served, completely violate the spirit of the Supreme Court decision. 

I show little sympathy when prisoners refuse to halt their criminal behavior while incarcerated, and then get vetoes from Parole Boards and judges. 

But, when prisoners show promise, when obviously there has been rehabilitation, when their continued presence behind bars serves no purpose, when there’s not even a hint that they might reoffend, we are the criminals if we blow them off, mock them, ridicule them and deny a second chance.

 

 

Comments

Wflower2001 said…
This is Michigan, no Mercy in Michigan,
March 31, 2022 at 8:51 AM
Anonymous said…
So sad, and so undeniably true. SHAME on all of us for tolerating this treatment.
March 31, 2022 at 10:22 AM
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