Humanity for Prisoners

One of my teeth broke a few months ago. I’ve learned that the teeth of octogenarians are not as strong and healthy as those of teenagers. I immediately contacted the office of my dentist, fearing the worst because it’s an incredibly busy office. No worries. A very nice member of the staff found a cancelation, and I was able to get an immediate appointment.   That reminded me of a situation I encountered years ago. I was working solo in a much smaller Humanity for Prisoners back then. A Michigan prisoner complained by letter that he had suffered a broken tooth and was experiencing pain from an exposed nerve. Upon contacting the prison dentist he and was informed that he could be seen in about a month!   I’ll bet money that that situation ended up with a removal of the tooth. We continue to hear horror stories about prison dentists…removing teeth instead of repairing them. One dentist explained to an inmate, “I don’t get paid to fix teeth!”   I bring up the issue beca...

We have long deplored the manner in which the Michigan Department of Corrections treats women. Some 2,000 women reside in our state’s only prison for women, located in Ypsilanti. When a plumber employed by the state dared to speak his piece after witnessing the sad treatment of women while he was working at WHV, we put that message out to the public. When a group of whistleblowers among the women dared to sneak abuse messages to HFP, we did something about it. The ACLU jumped in, and a federal investigation was started!   It's no secret that incarcerated women in Michigan face a number of challenges, including trauma, sexual assault, and inadequate health care.   Now it’s time to raise hell once again!   Claiming that this is unlawful, our friends at the American Friends Service Committee bring a deeply disturbing practice to our attention: The MDOC is recording strip searches at Women’s Huron Valley Facility, a blatant breach of dignity and privacy.   Here’s...

Two headlines shouted at me this week! I thought I had written my last piece in observance of Black History Month for 2025. Then, just the other day, MLive newspapers carried this headline:   Black babies in Michigan face triple the mortality rate of white infants before first birthday   T oday, while reading some reports on-line, another headline smacked me:   Ruby Bridges was the first Black child to enter an all-white school in the South. She’s just 70 years of age!   OK, I’m prodded into one more piece.   I remain focused incarceration, prisoners and the justice system on this HFP website. I must tell you that our team encounters racism on a regular basis!   There's a two-tier justice system. And anyone who denies it is either naive or in denial. This is what the reality of America is. If you have certain privileges, if you're from a certain socioeconomic status, you have a certain skin color, the odds are in your favor. ---Ana Kasparian ...

The short answer: I do!   I continue to see an incredible imbalance in news coverage about the release of prisoners. The most flagrant examples of this bias seem to come when TV reporters cover the release of lifers. Some of these people committed crimes when they were teenagers, and the Supreme Court has wisely ruled that we may not give those kids life without parole. Others are perhaps aging, perhaps in failing health, and the Parole Board has decided they are no longer a threat to society.   Recent coverage about a young man who had committed a heinous crime as a teenager really troubled me. The individual had served many years behind bars, and was now a middle-aged man. All who knew him, even those in the prison system, admitted that he was a changed person and a model prisoner.   That made no difference to the victims of the crime.   Neither did it make a difference to TV reporters covering that story.   OK, now I’m going to put on my newsman cap...

I find myself doing a lot of reflecting as we observe Black History Month, 2025.   After all, Black people were not a part of my early life as a white boy of Dutch descent, growing up in a white neighborhood in Muskegon, worshipping in a Christian Reformed Church and attending a Christian School.   But then, I remember seeing a Black kid walking past our house on his way to school. Turns out Billy Green was much nicer than many of the white kids I knew.   My dad, a Muskegon grocer, entered into an agreement to sell unused and discarded produce to Mr. King, a Black pig farmer. He was nicer than many of the white guys who serviced our store.   My parents invited a Black woman from the local county hospital, formerly known as the poor farm, into our home for a Thanksgiving dinner. This delightful lady, with no legs and sitting in a wheelchair, was nicer and more fun than many of our relatives at Thanksgiving dinners.   When getting started in radio broadc...