Humanity for Prisoners

I’ll be playing the organ for John Mulder’s memorial service on Sunday, May 18. My heart is heavy.   Dr. John Mulder was not only a physician, loving husband and father, devout Christian, gifted musician, and internationally recognized palliative care expert. I am honored to boast that he was also my friend !   John died at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville on May 1, his body finally rejecting a transplanted lung that had extended his life by 8 years. He was 74.   I could spend time telling of his extraordinary skills as a physician, of the hundreds of babies he lovingly and tenderly brought into this world, of the miraculous intervention in my personal medical history, of his internationally recognized skills in palliative care, and of his incredible musicianship, but, this is a HUMANTY FOR PRISONERS site. Still, the accolades are legion.   John didn’t get involved with incarcerated men and women until I did…and if that goal was good enough for me, it was goo...

 T he Guardian, a British daily newspaper: Revealed: Autopsy suggests South Carolina botched firing squad execution. Records obtained by the Guardian indicate shooters did not hit Mikal Mahdi according to protocol, which lawyers say caused prolonged suffering.   To set up this report, I quote from my HFP essay on March 10: “If there were such a thing as humanity for prisoners, our organization would not exist But, even with what little humanity you might find in our justice system, it took a step backward last week! Having experienced some horrific experiences with lethal injections, the State of South Carolina responded by offering alternatives to prisoners facing execution. After being convicted on a murder charge, Brad Sigmon was allowed to choose between three inhumane methods of execution—lethal injection, electrocution, or firing squad.”   On April 11 the state carried out its second execution by firing squad . We never heard much about it, but the procedure did...

Marla Mitchel, a member of the Humanity for Prisoners Board of Directors, insists that our prison system is broken and that we must start over again. Professor Mitchell knows what she’s talking about. An attorney and former leader of the WMU-Cooley Law School Innocence Project, she speaks from experience.   Today there are approximately 1.9 million people incarcerated in the United States. Only two other countries have stats like these: China, and Russia. Here in Michigan, the state prison population is 32,778.   I really thought we were taking small steps forward. Agreed, it was like climbing our Lake Michigan sand dunes---three steps up and then two back down again. Then, voters chose to make a U-turn. Watching and listening to this president reminds me of the old “law and order” days when our own Governor Engler chose to be tough on crime by building more prisons and locking up more people. Our state’s prison population rose to over 50,000! Crime rates didn’t change. ...

Pope Francis has gone to his eternal home. But his love for prisoners lives on! Recently this headline appeared in the National Catholic Reporter:   In final act of mercy, Pope Francis donates entire private bank account to prisoners!   Writes Camillo Barone, NCR staff reporter: “At the end of his life, Pope Francis made one last symbolic gesture: He emptied his personal bank account to donate 200,000 euros to the prisoners he had long championed. It was a final act of love toward those he had called his 'brothers and sisters behind bars.'"   I don’t know how many essays I’ve written about this pope, a personal hero of mine. Each year when Holy Thursday came around, I was touched anew when Pope Francis made his annual trek to prison where, in touching ceremonies, he washed the feet of inmates.   Holy Thursday arrived shortly before the pope’s death this year. But, writes the NCR journalist, “Not able to wash feet this year on Holy Thursday, even as his streng...

  “No person … shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law …” Fifth Amendment, United States Constitution   Nearly 70 years ago, when I was a young news reporter covering small town crime, our local cops were handed a new ruling, and were they pissed! The new procedure they were forced to use was called the “Miranda Warning.” In 1966 the Supreme Court decided that all criminal suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights before interrogation, particularly their right to remain silent and right to an attorney. Police officers were outraged…another liberal idea in favor of the criminals. Officers carried tiny copies of the Miranda Warning with them which they were forced to read to an alleged “perp” upon making an arrest.   Just getting started in this news reporting business, I rather sided with the cops. It seemed to me that they were doing their best to catch bad people and lock them up.   As years passed, however, ...

Pope Frances died on Easter Monday, and immediately we started reading headline descriptions of the Pontiff like these from around the world: CNN:   The ‘outsider’ pope who faced fierce resistance to his reforms   LA Times: …beloved for his compassion and willingness to shake up scandal-ridden church The Guardian: …who pushed for social and economic justice, and an urgent response to the climate crisis.     On the other hand, leadership from what I call “mass incarceration circles,” such as state corrections directors, prison administrators and wardens, and tough-on-crime politicians, have been less effusive in their descriptions and praise.   I’m going to let specific quotes from a hero to those of us dedicating our lives toward improving the plight of the incarcerated give you a hint as to the subdued response from some quarters.   ON PRISON LIVING CONDITIONS   “…it would appear that in many cases practical measures are urgently needed ...

Holy Week. A week filled with a tsunami of emotions. It’s early in the morning on Easter, and the stories of the past week remind me of so many similar circumstances in my own life.   Take, for example, that best friend of Jesus. Jesus had changed his name from Simon to Peter, and had expressed such high praise for him…said he was going to be the actual head of the church! So, what does Peter do when the chips are down? He denies that he ever knew the guy!   Yep, been there…done that! You’re loved by many when you go about your regular activities in your community…raise a family, go to work every day, go to church every Sunday. BUT, let something bad happen in your life, and it all goes to hell. Following an unfortunate situation, an arrest, a conviction and a sentence, not many friends anymore. I know the feeling. Many of my former associates, and even some family members, act like they never knew me.   Then there was the actual sentence of Jesus. Death on a cross....

Well, it was Jesus who started this whole business of foot-washing. Yes, that Jesus, whose death and resurrection we remember this week.   In many churches around the country on Maundy or Holy Thursday, there’ll be foot-washing ceremonies. Remembering that unusual event in the Last Supper, people will wash the feet of fellow worshipers and pray for them while doing so. Polite, clean, beautiful.   The original ritual with our Lord and his disciples, however, did not take place in a fancy church with running water, stained glass windows and padded pews, nor did it involve beautiful, clean, pedicured feet.   In those days feet were filthy. People wore sandals in the dusty streets of Israel. The only people who washed feet were slaves. And in that hierarchical system, a slave was property, not entirely human, someone to whom one could do anything with impunity. So of course, it was the slave who washed feet. And this act was considered beneath the dignity, beneath the h...

I’m going to give Paul Egan, our hero at the Detroit Free Press, the podium on this one. I’m speechless.   LANSING — A man died after falling from an elevated platform at a Jackson-area prison April 12 in what was the fifth similar falling or jumping death since 2020 at two state prisons.   Ervin Robinson II, 42, was an inmate at the Charles Egeler Reception & Guidance Center, where prisoners are normally sent for a few weeks or months after they are sentenced and before they are assigned to another state prison to serve their time.   Jenni Riehle, a spokeswoman for Michigan Department of Corrections Director Heidi Washington, confirmed Robinson's death April 15 and described it as resulting from a fall from an upper gallery.   Since 2020, Robinson and four other men have died after plunging from heights at either Egeler or a second Jackson-area prison, Parnall Correctional Facility. Each prison has a similar tiered structure with four levels of cells tha...

We’ve always known that there’s a drug problem in the Michigan prison system. It’s that way in every state. But, there’s word now that the issue is much more serious than we thought.   For years the HFP team has been hearing horror stories from our clients about drug availability, drug use and drug overdoses in our state prisons.   Now comes a prison employee, a “whistle-blower,” who details a deadly culture in the MDOC. He’s willing to name names and provide documentation. He’s been yipping about it for a few years. The worst part of this story: Nobody will do anything about it!   Finally, in recent days, this whistleblower shared his story with a Detroit reporter, and he  is  doing something about it! The shocking information is being made public.   Eddie B. Allen, Jr., is a writer for the Detroit Metro Times, which is an alternative weekly newspaper with a huge circulation. Allen says that this person told him: “One of prison’s worst-kept secret...

Shameful reports about Michigan’s prison system in recent Detroit Free Press stories just about send me into a frenzy! Investigative reporter Paul Egan tells about falsified cell search records and metal detector lapses; corrections officers arrested for beating and breaking bones of a misbehaving inmate; a federal judge blasting the MDOC’s grievance process; and the leader of Michigan’s House of Representatives promising no prison reform for the next two years!   My first reaction is indignance. The longer I think about it, the angrier I get. As a writer I feel prodded to raise hell, and I’ve done my share of that over the years.   As many of you know, in 2001 I formed an organization to help incarcerated men and women in Michigan. Despite the claim that our prison occupants are “the worst of the worst,” as described by a former MDOC director, I have found that to be untrue. Some of the nicest people I know live in prison. Some of my best friends are locked in these cage...

Michigan prisoners had high hopes for “Second Look.” Sadly, the prospects aren’t all that great anymore. Who’s to blame?   The Second Look Sentencing Act, approved by the House Criminal Justice Committee last year, would have allowed individuals who have served at least 20 years to petition their original court for a sentence reduction. Those convicted of criminal sexual conduct, terrorism, mass shootings and certain domestic violence cases would remain ineligible.   Naturally a bill like this would have a lot of interest, especially among old-timers behind bars. But, it should also be of interest to you and me. For example, Michigan’s average prison sentence length is roughly three times the national average. Our state leads the nation in the proportion of its prison population serving sentences longer than 10 years. But here’s where it affects your pocketbook and mine: It costs Michigan about $5.5 M per day to run our Department of Corrections!   Three fine prison...

March 25 is a day when this Protestant writer joins up with Catholics. The Catholic Church observes the feast of St. Dismas on the 25 th .   And by now you’re asking, “Just who is this Dismas character?”   I’m glad you asked! That's the name given to the convicted criminal who was granted the greatest clemency ever!   Dismas, sometimes referred to as The Thief on the Cross, was welcomed into Paradise by Jesus himself just before both of them died on side-by-side crosses.   I love this story! I love the hope that it gives to our friends behind bars. And, I love the way Gloria Gaither tells the tale in contemporary terms using these words of Bob Benson’s The Misfit:   It seemed to be his lot, he was one of those unfortunate people, With a talent always to be in the wrong place … always at the wrong time. He was born wrong: The declining Roman Empire, the broken home. The conquered Jewish nation, the poverty-stricken slums. He lived wrong: When o...

  “The opposite of poverty is not wealth. In too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice.” ― Bryan Stevenson   Chances are, you heard nothing about this today. But, this is a special day in our country. March 18 is National Public Defense Day …a day that was created to honor those lawyers who resist the appeal to make big money in order to represent individuals who are charged with crimes but are unable to hire a defense attorney.   Most of us haven’t been arrested. And, if we were, we probably have enough dollars to hire a lawyer. But, there are many who cannot, and I’m proud to say that our country’s forefathers considered that possibility. Here’s how the UCLA Law Library words it: " The right to counsel under the U.S. Constitution is actually a fairly simple concept. If you are charged with a crime for which you face potential time in jail, then you have the constitutional right to have a lawyer to assist you in your defense. And if you can’t afford to hi...

Brad Sigmon was shot to death last week. It was his choice.   Sigmon, age 67, was executed by firing squad on March 9 in South Carolina. He was the first person to die by firing squad in the United States in 15 years.   If there were such a thing as humanity for prisoners, our organization would not exist. But, even with what little humanity you might find in our justice system, it took a step backward last week! Having experienced some horrific experiences with lethal injections, the State of South Carolina responded by offering alternatives to prisoners facing execution. After being convicted on a murder charge, Sigmon was allowed to choose between three inhumane methods of execution—lethal injection, electrocution, or firing squad.   A personal note. It's not at all uncommon or unexpected that I consistently criticize capital punishment. Early in my career as a prisoner advocate I actually witnessed an execution. My buddy/client Charles Anthony Nealy was executed...