Humanity for Prisoners

An item in the Washington Post last week caught my attention. Here are a couple paragraphs:   Death row inmates in five states have been put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a years-long trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S.   The United States has reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, said Robin Maher, the Death Penalty Information Center’s executive director. The story struck a chord with me because, as many of you know, I witnessed the execution of a friend who, I believe, was wrongly convicted in Texas. That experience gives me much appreciation for this quote from Clint Smith:   The death penalty not only takes away the life of the person strapped to the table - it takes away a little bit of the humanity in each of us. This will not be a long piece. I’ve been beating this drum for years. I am not optimistic i...

Several years ago representatives from the Michigan Department of Corrections visited Norway to learn about the country's criminal justice system and correctional facilities. And, for good reason. Norway's criminal justice system focuses on restorative justice and prisoner rehabilitation, and the number of prisoners keeps dropping!   Correctional facilities in Norway aim to make prisoners functioning members of society .   But, and we cannot stress this enough: Something else is incredibly important in the Norwegian System. Leaders there claim that their success also hinges on two other critical components: dedication to staff training and staffing ratios.   I was prompted to write about this after our good friend Carol Myers sent me an article from The Seattle Times. The State of Washington is in the middle of a multimillion-dollar effort that some advocates hope will make Washington’s prisons safer. It has nothing to do with tighter restrictions or heightened sur...

Music. That’s how it all began!   I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. I’m sure it’s a combination of old age, the recent 23 rd birthday of HFP, and the production of a new documentary detailing the Maurice Carter/Doug Tjapkes story. I keep trying to answer the question: How did I get here? With a major in broadcast journalism, and a minor in church music (none of it the result of formal education), here I am working with prisoners. And loving it! And believing with all my heart that this is my calling!   Well, let’s go back to my first prison experience.   The year was 1968, the shameful Vietnam War was in full swing, and I was in that war-torn country on behalf of World Vision International, accompanying two wonderful singers…old family friends. It’s hot in Vietnam, unless you are up in the mountains. It was a chilly, rainy Sunday morning in the Central Highlands when World Vision rep Jim Franks led us to a prison. It was a small facility where captured enemy sol...

Maurice Carter wouldn’t believe it. His story goes on!   It was back in the mid-1990s that I made the decision to assist a Michigan prisoner named Maurice Carter, who claimed he was innocent. Maurice was introduced to me by another inmate who also claimed wrongful conviction. I was selling church organs at the time, so I was on the road a lot. This enabled me to stop by a state prison from time to time to visit my new friend.   I’ve told this story so many times, I’ll keep it short. It didn’t take long for Maurice to convince me that there was a major injustice here. A Black man from Gary, Indiana, with almost no family support, absolutely no financial support, and whose claims of wrongful conviction kept falling on deaf ears, finally had a helper. Maurice and Doug. His team had doubled!   The story of our history-making fight for his freedom over the next nine years resulted in a book: Sweet Freedom. Then it was told in a stage play: Justice for Maurice Henry Cart...

August 29, 2001…the date that the bylaws were signed for a new non-profit organization called INNOCENT! Years later, the agency’s name would change to HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS to more accurately reflect its work and its mission.   One might think that, when I started this organization 23 years ago, I had lofty goals in mind and knew exactly what I was doing! Couldn’t be farther from the truth.   I was successfully selling church organs, and certainly needed no more tasks or responsibilities in my life. BUT, I had this good friend residing in Michigan prisons, serving time for a crime he did not commit. We were five years into the fight for his freedom, as partners or, as we preferred to call it, “brothers.” And this brother of mine kept insisting that we should start an organization to help others with similar plights. It should be pointed out that Maurice had little-to-no support, only a few close family members, and no money.   Maurice was no “lone wolf,” he insiste...

OK, fellow church goers. A quick question for you. When’s the last time you heard either the topic of incarceration, or more specifically the incarcerated mentioned in your church prayer list?   Some of the most beautiful prayers in the history of the church, in my opinion, are found in the Book of Common Prayer. Granted, we seldom use this type of English in our prayers anymore, but take a moment to read this:   O GOD, who sparest when we deserve punishment, and in thy wrath rememberest mercy; We humbly beseech thee, of thy goodness to comfort and succour all those who are under reproach and misery in the house of bondage; correct them not in thine anger, neither chasten them in thy sore displeasure. Give them a right understanding of themselves, and of thy threats and promises; that they may neither cast away their confidence in thee, nor place it any where but in thee. Relieve the distressed, protect the innocent, and awaken the guilty: and forasmuch as thou alone bring...

A resident of one of Michigan’s prisons sent a lengthy letter to our staff recently, grumbling about a lot of things. After all, when one spends time behind bars, one will find a lot of things to grumble about. Today I just want to repeat our stand on two issues.   First, take a look at what an incarcerated person has to say about wages:   The prices at the prison commissary are extremely high with what little we are paid. Food service workers make between $.17 -$.33 per hour. Yes, that's cents. Someone mowing grass or shoveling snow makes $.94 a day. The average job in here makes around $25.00 - $30.00 a month. Our commissary prices aren't affordable for what we get paid. Go to michiganpackages.com to see our store prices. We have no choice but to burden our friends and family to survive in here, as we get fed so poorly. Prisoners do all of the work inside and outside of these fences. Staff only watches. So why are Michigan prisoners paid so poorly? Wisconsin prisoners ...