“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” ...Dostoevski
FortuneNews Summer 2006
fortunesociety.org
Volume XLII, No. II
“It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” -- Albert Einstein
Giving Back Published by The Fortune Society
FROM
THE
EDITOR
One of my more memorable junior high school English assignments was to write my own obituary. A morbid task, to be sure, but one I attacked with gusto. My imagined future life looked great on paper: I would live in England, become a famous writer, travel the world. My mother was amused by the draft of my obituary, but insisted that I add another phrase to my project before handing it in to my teacher: noted philanthropist. I had never heard the word “philanthropist” and wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but my mother spent a lot of time that afternoon explaining to me why it was a good thing. We talked a lot about giving back, about how important it was to support your community with your time and financial resources. Now, it’s been a long time since junior high school and many of the things I imagined for myself in that obituary have either come to fruition or faded from memory (I’m still working toward that “famous writer” thing), but my mother’s words stayed with me. In fact, they were what I was thinking of when I came up with the idea for this issue.
Fortune News is the publication of The Fortune Society, a not-for-profit community-based organization dedicated to educating the public about prisons, criminal justice issues, and the root causes of crime, and to helping former prison ers and at-risk youth break the cycle of crime and incarceration through a broad range of services. PRESIDENT/CEO: JoAnne Page, Esq. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF : Kristen Kidder EDITORIAL MANAGER : Brian Robinson FORTUNE NEWS EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Carl Johnson Jr., Stephanie Likosky, Nora McCarthy, Anthony Papa, Brian Robinson, Edmond Taylor
In many ways, the theme was very controversial. For example, if you are locked up, are you really able to give back to the community? Would you even want to? I was amazed by the response. I received more submissions and fielded more inquires about this issue than any other I’ve worked on during my two years at the Fortune News. And if you saw the volume of mail that comes into my office each day, you know that’s saying something.
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: Jason Faber and J.T. Gomez, Mark Smith and Manfried West
I encourage every one of you to read through this issue carefully. If you’re currently incarcerated, I hope that we’ve provided you with the inspiration to “give back” in whatever way you can. If you’re one of our supporters, I hope that you’re more informed about the wonderful things that can happen when rehabilitation programs are encouraged and funded. The Fortune Society believes strongly that people can change when they are given the right tools, and we can’t do that without your help.
PRINTING Marx Myles, Inc. 386 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016
This issue is also special because I get to introduce you to Stanley Richards, our Chief Operating Officer and (in my humble opinion) one of the most inspiring people at Fortune. Read his story; you’re sure to agree. Although in the past he’s generally been a behind-the-scenes type of guy, Stanley’s becoming more involved in the public face of the agency and will be sharing editorial responsibilities with JoAnne Page from time to time. Watch for him in future editions of the Fortune News. It’s important to remember that generosity and gratitude go hand in hand, and I’d like to extend my sincerest thank you to everyone who answered the readership survey in the last issue. We gained some valuable insight into what we’re doing right and what elements of the publication need work. I’m going to do my best to incorporate your suggestions into future issues. Thanks also to Heather Rose, the newest member of our department, who spent untold hours tabulating the results! Heather is also responsible for the Prisoner Resource Directory on page 26 – a soon-to-be reoccurring feature born from your feedback.
Kristen Kidder Editor
PHOTOGRAPHS: Rashid Al Alwadud, Edgar Barrens, Maura Donnelly, John Kafalas, Heather Rose
EDITORIAL OFFICES 53 West 23rd Street New York, NY 10010 Telephone: 212.691.7554 Facsimile: 212.255.4948 Email: kkidder@fortunesociety.org Web: www.fortunesociety.org EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinions expressed in signed articles published by Fortune News do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of Fortune News or The Fortune Society, but are the sole responsibility of the author. The Editors of Fortune News reserve the right to alter the punctuation, grammar, length and style of all submissions. The decision to publish manuscripts resides solely with the editors. Articles sent for submission will not be returned to the author. Fortune News has the right to offer submissions for reprint and agrees to ensure that the writer(s) receives a proper credit line. The Editor is unable to personally respond to correspondence. Staff and volunteers read and respond to all incoming mail. The Fortune Society is a community-based service organization and does not provide legal assistance, but will provide information on assistance resources.
Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.
GIVING BACK 2
From the Editor
4
From the Chief Operating Officer
5
Letters to the Editor
7
Around the Nation Fortune Clients contribute to the AIDS Quilt
Eugene Alexander Dey
8
To Fight the Good Fight
Jason Faber
9
The Struggle for Redemption in Prison
John H. Perry
10
There Has To Be a Better Way
Tina M. Thomas
11
Season of Change
Rashid A. Alwadud
12
Crooks and Hooks
John Marc Taylor
14
Who Knew It Was Called Restorative Justice?
“Colored Spaces” by Robert Serrano, Jr.
“The Prisoner’s Life” by Zachary Redfearne
Joseph Chappetta, Jr.
15
Pre-Release and Employability Programs
Patricia Prewitt
16
Prison Diaries: Contraband
Derrick Corley
18
Gate Money
Harry Steenwerth
19
Keeping Off Prison Road and Rounding Toward Main Street
20
Eye on Fortune
Bertrum Burkett
22
Sail to Serenity
Bernie Farmer
23
The Impact of Crime on Victims
24
Media Reviews
Paul Inskeep
26 27
The Pigeon “Nothing” by David Patterson
Prisoner Resources
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER This is my first editorial for the Fortune News and I’m thrilled that the issue focuses on a topic that’s close to my heart: giving back. The term “giving back” implies different things to different people. For some folks, giving back means contributing financial resources; for others it implies volunteering their time or expertise to causes that matter to them. In my day-to-day life I wear many hats – husband, father, brother, community member, social services professional and former prisoner are just a few – and I often reflect on my responsibility to give back through each of these roles. I’ve spent plenty of time cycling in and out of jails and prisons; so much so that I was pretty sure my life would end through either a violent death or by a one-way sentence of life without parole. But there were also moments of hopefulness where I fantasized about what life would be like if I could change my situation for the better. I know that many of you reading Stanley Richards this newsletter right now feel the same way. Every day, people from across the country write to us expressing a desire to reunite with their children, obtain employment and break free from drugs and alcohol. Some of these men and women are recently released from prison; others are planning for a re-entry that might be decades away. I admire the strength and determination of these individuals. I know first hand how challenging the journey is, but I am also proof of the success that can come from it. I first came to The Fortune Society in 1991, and was hired as a counselor shortly after my release from prison. I loved using the knowledge that I had acquired during my incarceration and recovery to help other newly released prisoners stabilize and reintegrate into their community. I re-dedicated myself to my education and the more I learned, the more I was able to progress in the agency. I’ve been with Fortune thirteen years now, and am currently the Chief Operating Officer, which means that I’m responsible for the oversight of the agency as a whole. I’m also proud to say that I recently completed a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship in their Developing Leadership to Reduce Substance Abuse Program and am currently pursuing a joint Bachelors (Social Dimensions of Public Health) and Masters (Public Health) degree at Hunter College. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was in the same position that many of you find yourself now. For prisoners who don’t believe that they can make a difference in the lives of others, I hope that this issue will change your mind. For those of you on the outside, I hope that the following pages will provide you with ideas and inspiration about how you can help. I’ve been around the block a time or two and even I was impressed by the success of some of the prisonbased programs featured in these pages. They are proof that prisoners want to give back to the communities they return to, and that doing so only aides their rehabilitation. Everyday I see our staff members, the majority of whom are former prisoners, give back to others by role modeling in their daily lives that change is possible. They are proof positive that one can avert the pitfalls of jail and prison by building a foundation of hope, commitment and stable progression towards healthier ways of living. I can’t overstate the importance of this work. The communities from which many former prisoners come from often experience a sense of hopelessness and despair, underemployment, death, drugs and a host of other negative outcomes. The men and women who come to Fortune often demonstrate that change is possible even in the face of enormous challenges and obstacles. Role modeling also gives our children, loved ones and fellow community members the opportunity to witness first hand the power of support and belief in human capacity. It builds on our own sense of expanding the possibilities for others through our own good deeds and contributions. There are so many ways that you can give back to your community. Business owners can hire and train former prisoners. Or you could volunteer your time assisting others who are learning how to read and write. Here at Fortune, we’ve built an educational program on the good will of volunteers that has expanded over the years to include literacy classes through GED certification. That wouldn’t be possible without the people who show up everyday, excited and motivated to help. Please remember: giving back is not something that must be done on a grand scale. This issue of the Fortune News emphasizes that philanthropy is not defined and limited to those who have tremendous financial resources; rather it is defined by one’s willingness to support and assist others in need. I hope that you are inspired by these articles – they demonstrate that anyone can give of him or herself and contribute to the betterment of our communities and families. Here at Fortune, I see our staff, clients and volunteers giving back every day. They walk through our doors willing to risk the unknown, share a piece of themselves, and work towards creating better days for themselves and the people they love.
4 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
Letters to the Editor CRYSTAL METH Dear Editor, I just finished reading Fortune News for the very first time. I am a 43-year old woman who is serving a prison term in Oklahoma, that small state that holds the dubious distinction as the national leader in per capita female incarceration. For several years I lived a relatively successful, lawabiding existence as a physician and clinical professor of neurology at a large Midwestern teaching hospital. However, what began as the recreational use of cocaine evolved into a raging addiction resulting in the loss of a lifetime of dreams and hard work – and ultimately cost me my physical freedom. I cannot say enough about the havoc drug addiction wreaks upon one’s life and the lives of one’s family. Whether that addiction is to meth, cocaine, alcohol, etc – the cost is real and is most often paid in a currency which is priceless: human lives and human potential. So thank you for your effort to inform and educate regarding this latest and lethal enemy of the people – crystal meth. While society at large and the criminal justice community in particular has made some progress in its appreciation of drug addiction as an illness, our nation’s “war on drugs” continues to manifest itself as a war on people as reflected in the ever burgeoning prison population for primary and secondary drug crimes. Too often district attorneys and judges contin-
ue to opt for the least productive and most costly option to address criminality within the context of drug addiction: imprisonment. Although I cannot speak for other facilities, here at my institution, the opportunity to obtain information about drug addiction from individuals trained in treatment services is almost nil. Having said that however, it cannot be ignored that an addict who is not ready to hear the message of recovery won’t hear that message. I have been that addict too, sitting in a world class treatment facility, unable to hear the message. This begs the question, “how many chances does the addict deserve or, for that matter, require?” The tragic truth of this disease is that many addicts will in fact have to take the disease to the bitterest of ends before we become willing to embrace a new beginning. The good news for those of us already incarcerated is that, if we are willing to do the necessary work to heal, freedom, on a variety of levels, can be ours! Dr. Tina M. Thomas Taft, OK
Dear Editor: I was particularly interested in your last issue, especially the articles concerning meth mouth. I am an inmate in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) with a federal lawsuit against the TDCJ Medical Director for dentures. When I entered the system in 2003 on a technical parole violation I had all of my teeth with the exception of my wisdom teeth. After I had been here for a year I asked to have my teeth cleaned. The dentist refused on the grounds that I had to have all of my teeth extracted due to
a periodontal disease. I had used crack cocaine several years before and although I had not used any cocaine since 1995, my gums had receded. I told the dentist he could remove all of my teeth if the TDCJ would supply dentures. The dentist told me that TDCJ no longer supplied prothodontics due to budget cuts. I told him to only extract the teeth that were loose so that I could keep what few I had left and eat normally. Since then I have been trying through the courts to get dentures. TDCJ’s policy now is that you can get dentures if there’s a “medical need.” Only they won’t spell out what that need is. Allyn Scribner Beaumont, TX
Dear Editor: I’m a 20 year old inmate at Snake River in Ontario, Oregon. I found a copy of Fortune News and I enjoyed it a lot. It touches on issues affecting people who are locked-up. I was especially inspired with the story of David Ventura in Staff Recognition – he’s doing his thing positively even though he came from a tough past, like me. Major respects to David! I’ve only got three years left to prepare myself for the real world. Maybe I can make a difference too. I can’t wait for the next newsletter. Jerrad Lund Ontario, OR
Dear Editor: I am writing in response to the article, “The Cost of Life Sentences,” in the spring 2006 issue of Fortune News. While I agree with what Mr. Bratt wrote, I think part of the problem is the country’s “get tough on crime” mentality. They see over and over
again on the news how inmates get paroled, reoffend, and end up back inside. Why isn’t the media showing the cost of housing an inmate per year over and over again? They see how we stab prison guards. Anything bad that happens inside a prison by a prisoner is splashed on the news for days. But what you won’t see is the statistics quoted in Mr. Bratt’s article, i.e, “four out of five lifers released have no new arrests.” They don’t promote positive statistics on the news. Like just recently when a corrections officer had a heart attack and an inmate gave him CPR, saving his life before calling for help. What did the inmate get? A Tier III violation for using the corrections officer’s radio! I can give countless examples of the unbalanced media coverage prisoners receive. An inmate who cut a guard with a razor was on the news for three days, while a guard who got caught with drugs and bomb making materials (with pipe bombs in his house) received a blurb on the noon news and nothing else! Here’s one final example: There’s an inmate in our facility doing 25-to-life for DWI. Not too long ago, the Assistant Food Service Administrator was arrested for DWI. The first time he went to rehab, the second time he got probation, and the third time he got more probation and a demotion from Assistant Food Service Administrator to Cook. He didn’t even lose his job. So we can write all the letters we want, but until the media starts giving prisoners equal and fair coverage nothing will change. Roy Tarbell Dannemora, NY
F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 5
Letters to the Editor THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT Dear Editor: I was sorry to see the heading on the Fortune News deleted. I have been reading your magazine since about 1967 and always thought that the line by Dostoevski was particularly fitting: “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” I like that it had a place of honor at the top of the front page. I would also like to offer a friendly observation in comparing the format of year’s gone by with the present format: I like how you used to have a mixture of general interest articles throughout each issue instead of concentrating on a specific subject. Also, I think the old style of newsprint stock in tabloid form gave the publication a nice touch. Robert Chase LaBelle, PA Editor Responds: We completely agree about the Dostoevski quote. There have been many changes to the Fortune News since the early days of our publication, but some things should remain constant. You’ll find that it has been added to the cover of this issue. Dear Editor:
I am writing because I was greatly disappointed when I wrote to the Lucy Parson Bookstore (address on page nine of your spring 2006 issue) and requested the Resource List Booklet. My letter was returned to me as not deliverable as addressed. Also, a couple of the other addresses on page nine no longer exist. I wrote to Left Bank Books in Seattle, Washington and the Prison Book Program in Ashville, North Carolina. They no longer exist either. I know you do the best
you can to make sure addresses are correct, but I hope this letter will help so that no one else wastes their stamps. Roger Woods Lawrenceville, VA Editor Responds: We deeply regret the error. Information about prisoner programs becomes obsolete quickly. We’ll try hard to make sure nothing similar happens again. Turn to page 26 for a checked (and double-checked) list of updated prisoner resources!
Dear Editor: I wanted to write you to elaborate on my answer to question nine in your recent survey (“Is there anything else you want to tell us about the Fortune News?”) I have read and do read numerous publications and newsletters on prison and criminal justice issues and one glaring shortcoming I have noted in all of them is a total lack of articles that would move the general public to want reforms that help prisoners. Even articles that do appeal to the sympathy of readers are generally such that only family members and friends of prisoners or extremely compassionate citizens are going to be inspired and motivated by them. If we are realistic, though, the average citizens who make up the majority aren’t particularly empathetic about the hardships of convicted felons. What publications such as the Fortune News need are more articles that make the average citizen empathetic by demonstrating to them how society in general is harmed by present laws and practices and how reforms would benefit the average citizen and society. If you make the plight of prisoners and parolees the equal plight of “Joe Citizen” he will demand reforms!
6 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
I use penal slavery as an example. The average citizen does not even know that most prisoners are, for all intents and purposes, slaves of the state and receive no form or remuneration for their work. They do not know how long-term incarceration leaves a released prisoner a homeless pauper dependent upon public welfare. They do not know that since prisoners are not paid, when they are released they usually have no unemployment, social security or other safety-net benefits accrued and are therefore left dependent upon the monies other people have paid into these funds. The average citizen needs to be told examples like this because it makes our problem their problem in a real manner that will motivate them to agree with reforms. J. Logan Diez Tennessee Colony, TX
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION Dear Editor: Here in Indiana prisoners get time cuts for the following: attending college, substance abuse treatment, earning a high school diploma, learning a vocational trade, and working towards a GED. We had inmates taking correspondence courses out of America School in Lansing Illinois, an institution accredited to grant high school diplomas. First of all, the DOC didn’t want to recognize the school so an inmate took it to the Indiana Court of Appeals. Long story short he won and the state had to acknowledge the diploma and give him a time cut. I recently sent America School my high school transcripts to see how many classes I would need and the exact amount of money it would cost to get my diplo-
ma. American School wrote back stating that: “recent policy changes put into effect by the state of Indiana governing Indiana Department of Corrections makes it impossible for the school to continue to administer their program to Indiana Department of Corrections Institutions.” Isn’t that a crock? People trying to gain a higher education get blocked. Why? Anthony Williams Pendleton, IN
Dear Editor: In your last issue contributor Randy McGee stated that, “just as a pencil has an eraser to correct mistakes, education is the eraser inside prison.” How true. You see, at forty-four I’ve just gotten my GED and now I’m signed up for a college trade. We cannot erase our past, but we can build a new future while we’re down. We can’t get out and try to pick up our past, but we can go on with an education to build a life free of drugs. Now that I’ve started changing, my family has come back into my life. I truly believe that if I had not come to prison I would not be alive today. I’m not happy to be in jail, but I’m glad to have help in here so I can change and be a man my sons can look up to one day. Not all of prison is bad if you want to change. My prayer is that you all do. Terry O’ Brien Amarillo, TX
Send Your Letter To: Fortune News Attn: Letters to the Editor 53 West 23rd Street 8th Floor New York, NY 10010 Letters should include the writer’s full name and address; they may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space.
AROUND THE NATION The News that Affects Your World
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR PLANS NEW PRISON FACILITIES Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently reversed a decade of California policy, calling for the construction of at least two more prisons and the addition of thousands of beds in existing facilities to deal with what he called "dangerously overcrowded" prisons. California houses more than 171,000 inmates, including, Schwarzenegger said, 16,300 placed in prison gyms and day rooms, making it the most overcrowded prison system in the nation. When Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003, one of his first promises was to reform the troubled prison system, but that effort has been stalled. Only the federal prison system is larger than California's system. California went through an unprecedented prison-building boom in the 1980s and 1990s as the state, like the rest of the nation, turned tough on crime. But no new prisons have been approved since the mid-1990s. Overcrowding has worsened, making rehabilitation of prisoners all but impossible, experts say. The governor noted that California's recidivism rate is 70 percent, the highest in the nation. Schwarzenegger said he wants the prisons to be built with lease-revenue bonds, a type of financing that does not require voter approval. In addition to building more prisons, California is considering paying other states to house the thousands of illegal immigrants in its prisons, according to a statement from the governor's office. More than 10 percent of California's prison population is in the United States illegally. Source: Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2006
NUMBER OF U.S. INMATES RISES 2 PERCENT Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer. A 2.6 percent increase from mid-2004 to mid-2005 translates into a weekly rise of 1,085 inmates. Overall, 738 people were locked up for every 100,000 residents, compared with a rate of 725 at mid-2004. The states with the highest rates were Louisiana and Georgia, with more than 1 percent of their populations in prison or jail. Other states in the top five include Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma The states with the lowest rates were Maine, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire. Men were 10 times to 11 times more likely than women to be in prison or jail, but the number of women behind bars appears to be growing at a faster rate. The racial makeup of inmates has changed little in recent years. In the 25-29 age group, an estimated 11.9 percent of black men were in prison or jails, compared with 3.9 percent of Hispanic males and 1.7 percent of white males. Source: Associated Press, May 22, 2006
KATRINA STRAINS LOUISIANA PUBLIC DEFENDER’S OFFICE Every week or so in New Orleans, the chief criminal court judge and his staff discover someone in jail who shouldn't be. The flooding after Katrina robbed thousands of people of their homes, drinking water and other essentials. But it has also deprived many others of another fundamental right: legal representation. The criminal justice system in Louisiana is besieged on all sides. The evidence room was flooded with several feet of water. Witnesses, like half the population, are scattered all over the country. But what may be raising the most troubling constitutional issues, according to judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers, is the underfunded public defender system, which is required by law to provide indigent defendants with legal representation. District Judge Arthur Hunter, a former street cop, has announced that he is suspending the prosecution of cases in which the defendants are represented by the public defender's office - that is, he says, until Louisiana appropriates enough money to allow public defenders to put on a competent defense. About 80 percent of defendants in New Orleans are supposed to be represented by the public defender's office. Supported financially largely by traffic court fines and fees -- which evaporated after Katrina - the office shrank from 42 lawyers to 10 afterward. With more than a thousand clients still spread out across the state in parish prisons because of damage to the Orleans Parish jail, the chief public defender said the office has not been able to meet with all it is expected to represent. The public defender program received a short-term spurt of money, but that was an insufficient fix. Meanwhile, no one knows exactly how many defendants are serving or have served "Katrina time." Source: Washington Post, April 14, 2006
U.S. PRISON STUDY FAULTS SYSTEM AND THE PUBLIC Not only are America's prisons and jails largely failing the 13.5 million adults who pass through them each year, but the American public is also failing the prisons and jails, a bipartisan study group concluded in a recent report. Politicians have passed laws dramatically increasing the inmate population to 2.2 million without understanding life behind bars or funding programs likely to help prisoners return home and not commit more crimes, said the private Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. "We should be astonished by the size of the prisoner population, troubled by the disproportionate incarceration of AfricanAmericans and Latinos, and saddened by the waste of human potential," the panel said in a report to be presented to Congress on Thursday. "Confronting Confinement," sponsored by the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York think tank, adds an eminent voice to the view that the recent boom in imprisonment has not always made Americans safer, even as violent crime has dropped. The report draws on hundreds of experts, including corrections officers, inmates, psychiatrists, policymakers, scholars and religious leaders. It paints a dispiriting portrait of incarceration in the United States, and contends that a high price is paid for poor policy and implementation, in dollars and anguish alike. Each year, the United States spends an estimated $60 billion on corrections. Source: Washington Post, June 8th, 2006 F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 7
To Fight the Good Fight BY EUGENE ALEXANDER DEY As an embedded drug war correspondent and permanent member of the American army of the incarcerated (now 2.3 million strong), I make my reports from far behind enemy lines. My superiors are less than enthused about my willingness to go where no other journalist is willing to go. Informants of any kind aren’t exactly tolerated in prison, yet what I do cannot be defined by any prison bureaucrat or deviant subculture. My gig as an activist-writer began back in the 1990s. At that time, in early ‘94, the country was screaming for vengeance because a sexual predator with a lengthy rap-sheet kidnapped and killed a young girl. The nation
was already mired in an international drug war that fueled a mammoth prisonbuilding boom. Yet, due to California’s unique political infatuation with being toughon-crime, the three-strikesand-you’re-out sentencing law quickly came into being. Never before had the politics of vengeance been stronger. Grief stricken families were being embraced by agenda-driven politicos in order to promote themselves as champions of public safety. The pendulum of ultra-toughness that took an extreme swing to the right in the ‘80s appeared ready to swing back in the ‘90s. Then, Richard Allen Davis, the predator who killed 12-year old Polly Klaas from Petaluma, became the poster boy for the ultraharsh movement no one ever expected -- especially me. I participated in a prison college program in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s that originated from the Civil Rights movement. During my stint in prison from ’88 to ‘94, I watched sentencing mandates grow harsher by the year, and prisoners’ rights fall prey to the
Drawing by Mark Smith
8 Fortune || F Fortune 2003 8 |8 | Summer 2005 o r t uNews n e News New s | |Spring Summer 2006
politics of grief championed already served for a drug by the though-on-crime offense is harsh by any zealots – which included the standards. I fight my conabrupt end to all prison colviction, sentence, and conlege programs. I was angry. ditions of confinement So, when the threebecause I have a mindstrikes debate began, I numbing 19 years to go. decided to write. In an opSo I do my duty; I fight ed, I explained how three by virtue of what I write. In violent felonies are enough some circles I’m considered for any society to endure, a jailhouse lawyer – someand how no one seemed to one who practices law withcare how wide a range of out a license and has fools offenses this law would I fight the good fight. include. Surprisingly, But my battles are not with all the local bombs, bullets, or even papers ran prison-made shanks, but with the piece, in addition to articles and essays. the Christian Science Monitor. In the months for clients, one of which is leading to my release, I conhimself. Due to my litigious tinued to publish in papers and literary activities, I’m like San Francisco considered a pain-in-the-ass Chronicle, again in the by my oppressors. Monitor, and a number of In the shadow of these local newspapers. A fire incarcerated writers, I fight had been lit under me. the good fight. But my batOnce released, I spent tles are not with bombs, the next four years going to bullets, or even prison-made college, volunteering for the shanks, but with articles, Prisoner’s Rights Union and essays and litigious endeavstarting a small construction ors. Over the years, I have company. Regrettably, durgrown comfortable in my ing the height of my multirole, defending an assemtasking, I started using blage of toothless, tattooed drugs again. At 32, seven toughs who often hate years ago, I was given a life themselves even more than sentence after being arrestthe society who fears and ed for possessing and hates them. Despite being transporting a small amount largely a thankless job, I feel of methamphetamine and a tremendous sense of marijuana – and back to pride as I defend my demoprison I went. graphic. While I pay my debt to EUGENE ALEXANDER DEY society, I cannot help but is a frequent contributor to feel I’m due a refund of the Fortune News. sorts. Seven long years
The Struggle for Redemption in Prison BY JASON FABER When I was twenty years
Through this program, I found an immediate and old, a man in a black robe direct way to give back to the (who could no better repreworld outside the walls of sent the dark-shrouded figure prison. This pseudo “scared of Death) slammed his gavel straight” educational program down on my future like a brought at-risk children from scythe upon a fallen soul. counties across Wisconsin to That fifty-year sentence resta maxied on my shoulmum ders like the weight I can find solace in security of the world. I felt prison for the fact that I’ve like my life was an upover, at least my life done all I can to front as a free man. I reality become a didn’t know how I check. would spend the better person. The pronext five decades; I gram couldn’t imagine allowed me to directly affect that there would be any goal the lives of children who had worth pursuing. Luckily, reastarted down the wrong son crept in with time and I path, the path that led me chose to cast aside my selfdirectly to a tiny prison cell. I loathing and take advantage like to think that I was able to of every program that was help turn them around. available to me in prison. If I I also had the opportunity was going to find redempto participate in a creative, tion, I reasoned, I was going innovative and moving proto have to work at it. I would gram called Challenges and have to do whatever I could Possibilities. This program to better myself. brought volunteers from the My first step was to take community into our prison to my desire for education as far provide inmates with insight, as I could. I earned my education, and opportunities Associate of Arts and for betterment. One particuScience degree. I earned a larly cathartic portion of this vocational degree in Building program was called Maintenance and Care. I “Introduction to Restorative even became a certified Justice.” Restorative Justice Braille Transcriber through is a program of healing for the Library of Congress in prisoners and victims of Washington, DC! crime that has had some sigWhile educational growth nificant support among variwas essential to my personal ous states across the coundevelopment, I knew I couldtry. Through this program I n’t continue to focus entirely was able to see how crime on myself. I needed to give affects the lives of victims, back to my community in any both directly and indirectly. I way possible. To do this, I had the honor of being presbegan to participate in the ent for the stories of three Green Bay Correctional brave survivors of crime who Institution’s BRICK Program expressed how their lives (Breaking down the walls to were forever changed by the Reality through Intervention actions of individuals who and Counseling for Kids). committed crimes against
them. However, the most moving part of their involvement was how they wanted to help us find forgiveness in ourselves, in addition to healing the wounds we inflicted on others, so that we would be better prepared to return to our communities. I can only speak of my experiences in the Wisconsin prison system, but I believe that rehabilitation, education and redemption can only be achieved if an individual aspires to these goals. The State can’t force anything on anyone and, in my opinion, the State doesn’t care about fostering these goals in any prisoner. Corrections has become merely another business, a capital venture with human lives as the commodity with which they will do with as they please. As long as incarceration is viewed as the primary solution to problems
that stem from poverty, addiction, class and race, prison populations will continue to grow and human lives will continue to be lost. I have been rehabilitated by my decision to not give up, to use my time to my benefit, and to realize the impact of my actions on the community I was removed from. The State may choose to use me as a cog in the machine to ensure the employment of correctional staff, but I can find solace in the fact that I’ve done and will continue to do all I can to become a better person. A judge can’t take away an individual’s freedom to choose the path that’s in his heart. JASON FABER is a frequent contributor to the Fortune News.
Colored Spaces A blank page on my desk suddenly opens a portal of time dare I enter, how do I even begin? I can travel anywhere with the ink in this pen back in time ahead to the future or get lost within draw you a vivid picture of a moment frozen in time capture an emotions plead to be heard by the blind A blank page on my desk suddenly closes a portal of time dare I exit, how could it come to an end? silent black tear splattered everywhere revealing all that had been trapped within.
Robert Serrano, Jr. F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 9
There Has To Be a Better Way BY JOHN H. PERRY In a recently released report, the U.S. Justice Department reported that nearly 2.2 million people were behind bars by the end of 2005. That’s one in every 136 U.S. residents. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of people in the nation’s prisons and jails grew 2.6% from June 2004 to June 2005. This increase occurred despite the fact that crime rates are falling. Mark Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that promotes alternatives to prison, is quoted as saying, “Crime rates have been going down for a decade now, so it’s somewhat disturbing that the prison population continues to rise. Increasingly, we’re filling our prisons with people who have committed non-violent drug and property crimes.” The trend of lower crime rates and higher incarceration of U.S. residents is disturbing to say the least. The fact that this disconnect has occurred in a nation founded on the
Illustration by Cartoon Fred
values of personal freedom is beyond the grasp of rational thinking. For America’s addicted, non-violent prisoner, the prison and judicial system have become a “revolvingdoor” with no end in sight. In many states, repeat offenders are not qualified to participate in any of the drug courts or programs that are being implemented nationwide because they are only available to first time, non-violent offenders. This, in essence, means that the addicted repeat offender will often languish in prison, serving a lengthy sentence with no avenue for treatment or reentry into society, at an astronomical cost to the taxpayer. These prisoners have become an enormous burden on the nation’s bloated prison system. Long-term incarceration of non-violent drug and property crime offenders is not a cost-effective method of cutting the crime rate or curbing prison recidivism. Alternative programs and sentencing could ease this enormous burden considerably. I am not proposing that the nation’s prison systems should simply open their gates and flood the streets with drug-crazed criminals. I propose the concept and theory that legislators and lawmakers should enact laws that provide a mechanism for the release of nonviolent inmates who have completed mandatory requirements of in-prison treatment programs and who display the ability and desire to develop the life-skills needed to comply
1 0 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
with rules that govern society as a whole. It’s a simple concept: if the nation cannot afford to keep these prisoners locked inside forever, then a change must occur in the current policy that will mandate some sort of treatment and rehabilitation programs. If that fails to happen then these individuals will return to their communities with the exact same problems they had when they left. Nonviolent offenders are excellent candidates for rehabilitation and drug treatment and, in many cases, would welcome the concept with open arms. The implementation of this release program should require the prisoner to sign a contract with their designated community of release. After completing the requirements set forth by prison treatment directors, the contract would require that the prisoner actively become involved as a peer educator in their community upon release. The individual will provide information on how to avoid the pitfalls of addiction and will give troubled young adults an opportunity to see the true face of addiction. I’m not advocating for “Scared Straight.” I simply think we should educate young people to the true facts and horrors of drug abuse, as seen through the knowing eyes of someone who has lived through this ordeal and survived. There is already a program within my prison system that promotes this type of education. Our Peer Health Educator Program consists of inmates who have been taught by an instructor about the transmission and prevention of AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis and other infectious
diseases, and they in turn teach other inmates about these topics. There are many Peer Health Educators volunteering their time and sharing their knowledge in hopes of helping to curb the spread of Editor’s infectious diseases. (E Note: In fact, The Fortune Society runs a similar program. Read about it on page 21!) It should be abundantly clear to this nation’s policymakers at this late stage of “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” legislation that punishment is not the answer. Punishment has not slowed the spread of disease associated with drug abuse among our cities and citizens. Punishment has not stemmed the flow of drugs on America’s streets. And punishment certainly has not curtailed the ever-increasing prison population from “busting at the seams.” Education, treatment and rehabilitation are the only rational answers inside the nation’s prisons. Our country needs to capitalize on the wealth of knowledge and resources available among our 2.2 million inmates. The implementation of these programs would enrich the lives of all involved: prisoners would have the opportunity to alleviate some of the guilt associated with addiction, rehabilitate their lives and improve their chances of becoming a productive member of society again, all the while giving back to the community. Ultimately, we would stem the rising rate of the prison population and educate the public concerning addiction and disease. JOHN H. PERRY is an inmate in the Central Florida Reception Center in Orlando.
Season of Change BY TINA M. THOMAS Is it ever really possible to predict the path one’s life will take? For certain, many of us had to assume a “fight or die” relationship with the world from the very moment we took our first breath. Perhaps we cut our teeth on the chaos and calamity that had us distrusting our surroundings long before we had an opportunity to taste life’s richness. Or maybe we never actually had to live in the margins, maybe we simply experienced the normal dose of family dysfunction and figured we’d just move on. Still, most every one has had some vision for the future, regardless of the circumstances of our origin. Some of us married and started families. Others may have pursued education and gone on to start successful careers. There are artists, athletes, and musicians amongst us. Some of us may have even made a conscious decision to sow a few wild oats, to live a little, before committing to a plan. Although we may have had our doubts, we certainly hoped in our heart of hearts that all would be well. However, if we live long enough (and in some cases not long at all) we can be sure that from time to time, we will be blind-sided by life. In this yin and yang of living, we have to realize that best laid plans and good intentions may often go awry as we come to find ourselves in straits or circumstances we previously assumed could only happen to “someone else.” No one dreams of or aspires to bad choices. There is no pomp and circumstance when one graduates into addiction or criminality. Those of us living behind fences and walls per-
haps never imagined that imprisonment would become our unique reality. Yet at the end of the day we must confront the fact that, indeed, we are. We have surrendered the highest ideal of our humanity: our freedom. Ironically, this was the one aspect of our live that we almost surely took for granted. The first days of my con-
pair of blue Wranglers – cocky and proud! Anxiety soon caused me to develop a relentless foot tap and body rock. Each tic served as a tell-tale sign of my troubled and weary mind. This angst insinuated itself into my precious few hours of sleep time escape. During the quiet of the night I would reflect, again and again, on the journey that led me here.
No one dreams of or aspires to bad choices. There is no pomp and circumstance when one graduates into addiction or criminality.
finement were marked by a starkness and austerity the likes of which I had never known. But hey, this wasn’t Girl Scout camp or even some soft rehab facility. This was prison and, after all, what had I expected? But all I could see in the eyes of my handlers were reflections of my failures. I constantly fought the impulse to grab each one by the arm and exclaim, “I’m not really that bad!” I could sense their apathy. Too many others had come before me – too many with the same look of desperation begging for the opportunity to explain themselves. Although they tried to hide it, I could feel my handler’s contempt. They wore their disdain for me like a crisp new
It goes without saying that the trail is littered with the debris of broken family, lost friendships, long gone possessions and vapor-like dreams. Regret is like the phantom pain of a limb long-ago severed. It is electric jolts of memory that forever transport one back to the one moment that will come to define their entire life time. Gazing out a window framed in cinder-block gray, I watch as the trees begin their transition into fall felicity. They are enchantingly beautiful in this gentle coast from fading summer green into radiant reds, rusts, oranges and golds – the brilliant harmonies of a perfect fall orchestra. In another place and time this pastoral would leave me
exalted by its beauty and the elusive mystery of nature’s hidden secrets. However, mine is a view sullied by fences designed to make a body bleed. Here the razor wire is queen and I, I am her reluctant subject. Could I have known that prison would become the destination of a journey set in motion the instant I took my first hit of cocaine? Or maybe it was before that. Maybe this outcome assumed its life when I discovered blissful escape in the cannabis leaf. Yet still, this detour may have started the day when, as a child, fear and doubt grabbed hold of my heart and would not set it free. I may never come to understand the ultimate birth of this spirit of self-destruction, that something or lack of something within that allowed the expressions of my worst impulses. Neither may I be able to understand my ability to ignore each sign post along the way, the warnings that read, “danger, sharp curve ahead.” Until the day the curve sent me over the edge of the world and down, down, down. Just the same, this prison journey must come to represent my own changing season – that last great opportunity for inner transformation. In the outside world, summer is becoming fall, which becomes winter and then spring. It is changing seasons in this season of change. “Season of Change” is TINA M. THOMAS’ first article for the Fortune News.
F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 1 1
Crooks and Hooks BY RASHID A. ALWADUD
“That’s a nice bootie you got there.”
Eleven years into a twenty-five year mandatory minimum, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would take those words as a compliment. In my world, those words are an invitation to some sort of painful ending. But this was not a posturing for power and/or lust, but sincere praise of the skill it took to create a baby’s crocheted foot covering. It all started about 18 months ago when Pepe and I were tossing around ideas for positive activities for the inmate population. As presidents of two of the six sanctioned clubs at the Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI) we both had a vested interest in developing activities for the general population. Although prisons are expanding, the budgets to run them - outside of security - are shrinking. So inmate clubs or organizations (at institutions that are lucky enough to have them) must provide edifying activities. We both wanted a dual use activity that would not only address the creativity that is latent in most inmates, but also allow us to give back to the community. The Northwest wind whipped around us as we walked the track that Sunday and the chill caused Pepe to comment about missing his grandmother’s afghan. I thought about all those out there without homes and in that instant the Crochet Program was born. We decided we wanted to create afghans for the homeless and
later discovered that the charity Warm-Up America was collecting 7” x 9” crocheted and knitted swatches to be sewn together for that very purpose. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. The difficult part was selling our plans to prison leadership. Every administrator I talked to said it was a great idea, but their eyes told a different story. What we were proposing was unheard of in the state of Oregon, at least among the male prison populace. What they didn’t know was that I already had thirty people lined up to participate, or so I thought. Half backed out after we obtained approval. One offered to stay if he could crochet by himself in the classroom closet. “You have to come out of the closet sometime,” I joked with him. Our class eventually started with fourteen inmates and a retired DOC manager who volunteered to teach us. It truly helped that none of us knew the difference between a crochet hook and a fish hook. We stumbled along together. The big selling point of our class was not the actual crocheting, but the fact that our work was going to charity. Most inmates want to do good, but fall short. Not this time. We discovered the joys of crocheting, the beauty of crafting, the healing of giving and the Zen-like relaxation state that ironed-smooth the pressures of prison life. Yarn catalogs became the Sears catalogs of old during Christmas time. Crochet World magazine started arriving in the mailroom along with Sports Illustrated, National Geographic and Maxim. Of
1 2 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
course we all had to deal with but we don’t and average remarks thrown around about 90% attendance rate our masculinity, but our crobecause people want to chet bond was nurtured in participate. Also, it takes 49 the fact that we were doing squares to make a Warm-Up something good in a not-soAmerica afghan. The first two good place. It also helped hour class, most of our stuthat a few of our students dents learn the single crochet bench pressed over four hunstitch and if they don’t finish a dred pounds. square they come pretty We learned the close. It allows them to see single, double and treble immediate progress and crochet stitches while realize that they are a part of creating squares for Warm-Up something larger. That someAmerica. We shared shell stitches, passed popcorn stitches and hustled together harlequin Crochet Program Participants. stitches. You would have thought we thing larger takes on an all received early parole when entirely different dimension as the local paper, The students realize the fraternal Statesman Journal, recogties of crochet, even among nized our efforts. We didn’t prison staff. Everyone start out looking for pats on crochets or knits or knows the back, we just wanted to someone who does. make a difference and make We have come a long way a difference we have. as students, as men and as We still work with Warmhuman beings. So now when Up America, but now we one of our students are have reached out to local released from prison and is hospitals donating preemie sitting at home bored, instead blankets and “booties” that of heading down to the bar soften even the hardest conand into trouble, he can pick vict. We plan on providing up a skein of yarn, a crochet scarves, mittens and hats to hook and create. Sure, we disadvantaged children at one are convicted felons paying of the local elementary our debt to society, but the schools. We are also gearing true debt is to our fellow up to make pink ‘chemo human being. We’re paying caps’ for survivors of cancer ours through crocheting and I during October, Cancer know we are on to someAwareness month. thing. Our waiting list The success of our class increases weekly and securiis in the simplicity. The ty-staff toss about positive overhead is low. Yarn and comments regularly. crochet utensils can be had Moreover, when someone for a song; moreover, there says, “That’s a nice bootie are plenty of yarn companies you got there,” my soul and craft stores that are smiles. willing to lend a hand. The RASHID A. ALWADUD is a classroom setting is pressure founding member of the and competition free. Other Crochet Program at Oregon prison programs mandate State Correctional Institution. that you attend every class,
PEN Prison Writing Contest Founded in 1971, the PEN Prison Writing Program believes in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing, by providing hundreds of inmates across the country with skilled writing teachers and audiences for their work. The program seeks to provide a place for inmates to express themselves freely with paper and pen and to encourage the use of the written word as a legitimate form of power. The program sponsors an annual writing contest, publishes a free handbook for prisoners, provides one-on-one mentoring to inmates whose writing shows merit or promise, conducts workshops for former inmates, and seeks to get inmates' work to the public through literary publications and readings. ANNUAL PRISON WRITING CONTEST PEN American Center sponsors an annual writing contest for prisoners. Anyone incarcerated in a federal, state, or county prison in the year before the September 1 deadline is eligible to enter. Prizes of $200, $100, and $50 are awarded for first, second, and third place, respectively, in each of the following categories: Poetry Submit up to 10 poems of any form, no more than 20 pages total. Fiction Short story or excerpt from a longer piece, no more than 25 pages. Drama Monologues, scenes, or plays intended for stage or screen, no more than 25 pages. Nonfiction Essay, observation, journal excerpt, editorial, article, or memoir (personal experiences from childhood or later life) no more than 25 pages. CONTEST GUIDELINES PEN's Prison Writing Contest accepts contest submission between January 1 and September 1 of each year. Winners will be announced the following March. Manuscripts should be typewritten and double-spaced whenever possible, or legibly handwritten on 8.5-by-11-inch paper. All submissions should be accompanied by a brief cover letter with the author's name, identification number, and complete mailing address. Authors may not submit more than one entry in each category, except in poetry, which has a 20-page limit. Only unpublished manuscripts will be considered, with the exception of pieces that have appeared in publications for the prison population only. Any subject matter will be considered. Please be sure to send copies of your work, not the originals. PEN is unable to return manuscripts. Always include a return address.
2005-2006 WINNERS Poetry First Prize Erin George F.C.C.W., Troy, VA Origami Heart
Fiction First Prize Brian Chase Beaver, West Virginia Willie en Las Cruces
Second Prize Andrew Jaicks Tuscon, AZ A Catholic Girl Gets a Telescope
Second Prize Charles Huckleberry Concord, New Hampshire When Eddie Gets the Blues
Third Prize Gail Leonard Wetumpka, AL Whispers
Third Prize Charles P. Norman Daytona Beach, Florida World’s Oldest Prisoner
Dawson Prize for Poetry Zachery Redfearne Bent County C.F., Las Animas, Colorado
Dawson Award for Fiction Melvin Weatherall Tennessee Colony, TX A Town With No Name
Memoir First Prize Richard Parker Ramsey Unit, Rosharon, TX Land of Opportunity—Or Else
Essay First Prize Patricia Prewitt Vandalia, MO Contraband
Second Prize Ricky Quarles California M.F., Vacaville, CA Why I Care
Second Prize Daniel B. Harris Estelle H/S, Huntsville, TX Dialogue With a Convict
Third Prize Mark D. McKenna Rutledge S.P., Columbus, GA Pictures Don’t Lie
Third Prize Santonio Murff Tennessee Colony, TX Banging For a Solution
Dawson Award for Nonfiction Frank Serrano S.P.B., Crescent City, CA Too Young to Drive
Drama First Prize Laos Schman San Luis Obispo, California Sisters
Selected winning entries will be published by The Fortune Society in Fortune News and on PEN's web site. PLEASE SEND ENTRIES TO: PEN Writing Awards for Prisoners PEN American Center 588 Broadway, Suite 303 New York, NY 10012
Read “Contraband,” Patricia Prewitt’s First Prize Winning Essay, on page 16!
Second Prize John Corley Louisiana S.P., Angola, LA Time Served or Conversation’ Third Prize Dennis Forrest Ramsey Unit, Rosharon, TX In the Beginning
F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 1 3
Who Knew It Was Called Restorative Justice? BY JON MARC TAYLOR
The Charitable Campaign Committee was formed in Missouri’s Jefferson City Correctional Center during the mid-1990s. Around the joint, we were more commonly referred to as the “Can Committee,” because we raised money by recycling the aluminum soda cans that prisoners purchased from the commissary. Each month we would take what we’d collected from each housing unit, smash and bag ‘em and ship them to the recycler. During the first few years of operation, the “Can Committee” raised over $10,000. Our group was committed
to donating the money we raised to Missouri-focused charities. National organizations like the Special Olympics and the United Way are fantastic and do great work, but we reasoned that such well-known groups had plenty of opportunity to raise funds. Since we made our donations in relatively small $1000 increments, we wanted to pick organizations that would benefit from the boost. A few years into operations we decided to expand our efforts, striving to have an even greater impact on the surrounding community. We called a convocation of representatives from the prison
THE PRISONER’S LIFE The great challenge is to say what it’s really like without complaining. The perfect inmate would see this as nothing but opportunity. But how can I so denounce the basic desire for freedom and dignity? Even so, I can only understand the parts I have lost. As for the rest, they speak of a respect I’ve never possessed. The birds and rabbits do not know the suffering we devise. I brush my teeth much as before and let my blanket hang loose against the structure. I’m in retreat, playing the same games, all my bills paid. Zachary Redfearne 1 4 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
community’s various religious groups and service organizations and proposed a penitentiary version of the United Nations. Our master plan was to launch a food drive and then donate the collections to local food banks just in time for the holiday season! We also brainstormed a highly original and catchy name for the project: “The First Annual Food for Families Campaign.” (What can I say? Consensus ruled). The involvement of the different groups stimulated positive competition among the inmates. Everyone wanted to find out who could raise the largest donations - apathy was virtually eliminated from the prison population and we all focused on our common goal. Since we were utilizing volunteers from the various groups we always had two or three representatives at the commissary exit encouraging (and at times good naturedly badgering for) donations. We also contacted the local poultry processing plant and asked for donations of frozen turkeys. That Thanksgiving we were able donate over thirty turkeys to three local area charitable organizations. Both the Agape House (a hostel for visiting inmate families) and the Samaritan Center of Jefferson City received 13 turkeys, and the Ronald McDonald House of Columbia received seven. By Christmas, our commissary exit collection succeeded in gathering 2333 canned food items, which we donated to the Samaritan Center and New Life Evangelical Center food banks. As the Jefferson City Tribune noted in their cover-
age of the event, “One can represents a 10 percent donation by inmates whose monthly wages average only $7.50.” Later that week they lauded our holiday generosity in their annual “Spirit of Giving” editorial. But we weren’t content to rest on our laurels. In February of 1997, in a ceremony broadcast live over the prison’s closed-circuit television system, the Charitable Campaign Committee donated three $1000 checks to representatives of the River City Habitat for Humanity, the Mid-Missouri Ronald McDonald House and the Prisoner Family Services Project. The money, given in the name of the men of the Jefferson City Correctional Center, funded 1/30th of the cost of a new home, a weeks stay for five families of sick children, and bus fuel for a month of state-wide family visitation transportation, respectively. After the ceremony, Donald Cline, Associate Superintendent of the prison, told our committee that we were providing the public with a new perception of prisoners’ humanity and that we were offering a positive example of the potential of “restorative justice.” Myself and other members of the committee exchanged perplexed looks. Although we were unfamiliar with this term, we had unknowingly embraced its concept by our desire to give back to the community we had harmed. Many of us were embarrassed by our self-centered and destructive past – we were just doing our part to make it right again. So I guess that’s called “restorative justice.” Who knew? JON MARC TAYLOR is a Missouri inmate and member of the Charitable Campaign Committee Board of Directors.
Pre-Release and Employability Programs Discourage Recidivism BY JOSEPH CHIAPPETTA, JR.
“Why do they keep coming back?” It’s a question that drives me in my daily work. During the five years that I’ve served, I continue to see people come back to prison or hear that they’re on their way. At first I never really thought about it at all. I was 2 ½ years into a 35-year sentence for white-collar theft. I had my own priorities to worry about, mainly how to win my appeals and reduce my sentence. In early 2004 I was asked to come into an Employability Class as a guest speaker to discuss small business ownership, real estate, and credit repair. My family has been involved in these activities for years so I had a lot of material to offer. When I got up and started talking to the twenty or so students, I noticed something that really shocked me: they were all taking notes and listening. I never thought that this kind of information would be received so well in such a negative environment. It honestly inspired me! The class was two hours long and after a 45-minute lecture I answered questions for another hour and continued to answer them all the way back to my housing unit. The teacher asked me back again and I eventually became one of the facilitators of the class. During the next two months I noticed a lot of room for improvement. The course itself was dated and missing many important elements. I spent hours discussing these observations with the teacher. She, of course, was already aware of the issues. Under her supervision, we revamped the entire course and wrote a
detailed outline for future don’t know all the answers! I Warden assigned me the task classes. find myself doing a lot of of merging the pre-release After several groups and research to answer all of the materials with the many classes, a revelation questions the students ask of Employability Program. This came to me: the me. I have become an eager task was completed in students/inmates really didn’t student of many subjects. September 2005. To date, want to come back to prison Perhaps the most gratifythe unit’s “Pre-release and once they were released. ing work I’ve done was in my Employability Class” has These students really wanted GED Teacher’s Aide position. graduated over 150 inmates. to change their lives; they just When I wasn’t facilitating the Many of those inmates are needed a little encourageEmployability Class, I held a approaching release or are ment and some good informath study group, tutored, already out. I believe that mation. Most of them and gave weekly lectures on they are better equipped to weren’t “hardened criminals” history and current events. succeed by having taken this - they had committed their I am always amazed at how course. Some may come crimes out of desperation, well these presentations go back to prison, but I’m betpeer pressure or substance over in such a diverse class, ting that most won’t. abuse issues. Knowing that some When we will use the knowledge After several groups and many showed them a I passed on to them real and viable to succeed makes all classes, a revelation came to alternative they of the work well worth me: the students/inmates really put a genuine the effort. effort into the For most of my didn’t want to come back to program. life, I’ve been an prison once they were Granted, there opportunist. I was out is no “magic for myself only. In released. These students really wand” to cure truth, this attitude was wanted to change their lives; recidivism. It’s a my downfall. When process with you go through life they just needed a little many facets. with the “blinders of encouragement and some The most selfishness” on, you important one is never truly see reality good information. an individual’s or yourself. Now I desire to help myself by giving change and rather than taking. I his/her own willingness to act made up of all ages and ethfeel genuine remorse for my on that decision. As we are nic backgrounds. crimes and I’m confident that fond of telling our students: I think that the fact that I am this part of my life is permayou can’t wait for a helping not a figure of authority helps. nently in the past. This is a hand, you have to help yourBeing “just one of the guys” decision that I made. It’s that self. All we do is give them greatly aids me in my work. first step to truly change one’s the tools, they daily make the The spirit of commradery life. Nobody has to come decision to use them. breaks through many barriers back. We all have the power What I didn’t notice during and stimulates a positive to change. the many months of classes atmosphere in the classes. and working with my fellow Eventually the JOSEPH CHIAPPETTA is a inmates was what was hapEmployability Class was teacher’s aide, programs pening to me. The teaching removed from the Education faciliator, and published experience changed my entire Department and placed in author currently serving a 35outlook on life because I had Unit Programs. This shift year sentence in Arizona for a found a new purpose. allowed general population white collar theft case. Helping others achieve their inmates to sign up, not just goals has become a full-time those select few enrolled in calling. Another revelation: I school. The Unit Deputy F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 1 5
THE PRISON DIARIES
Contraband BY: PATRICIA PREWITT
Our digital clocks are now contraband. But if your old digital clock has a radio in it, then it’s not contraband. The new replacement clocks the canteen now sells are digital. But they don’t feature radios. Makes no sense? That’s the point. Of course, all the clocks to which I refer were or are sold in the prison canteen. So we purchase things, then are told to get rid of these things and buy other things that are suspiciously like the very things we were forced to discard. This happens all the time. Body powder, like Shower to Shower, is now contraband, but baby powder is not. Colored pencils bought in the canteen are contraband, but colored pencils bought through a craft order are not. Same pencils. Same brand. But not the same in the eyes of the powers-thatbe. Better keep your receipt. Contraband items are still sold at the canteen. A lady who lives down my hall
bought a headphone extension cord on Monday and was ordered to discard it on Wednesday. Rumor has it that we will soon have to send out all our red or blue clothing because those are gang-related colors. I’m sitting here in a red turtleneck pullover. You know the kind. All middle-aged women have one. It’s a classic style, comfortable, wears well, serves for a host of occasions—and I guarantee, I do not look like any kind of gang member. Unless we’re referring to the over-the-hill gang. But if the scuttlebutt is true, I will be forced to get rid of this and pay for a new one in a less dangerous color— like green. But is Greenpeace considered a gang? What color is safe? If you wear pink or baby blue, could it mean you’ve pledged a gang but aren’t a full member yet? Does purple signify you’re straddling the fence? In the mid ’90s we had to
Illustration by Jason Faber
1 6 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Spring 2006
get rid of all our black clothing because it was feared we would dress in black and pass for officers. Even black yarn became contraband, just in case we decide to crochet a baggy uniform. The ESquad, a.k.a. Goon Squad, wears all black when they kick in on us for a shakedown. Around that same time, we had to get rid of denim trousers and shorts. No reason was given for that decision. We can still possess denim shirts and jackets, just no denim below the waist. I remember in 1990 when we could still wear jeans, the rule was the jeans had to be dark indigo, not stonewashed, not acidwashed, no colors. The policy stated "blue jeans," and that description was taken quite literally. It took some tall talking to explain that my indigo 501s could not sustain that dark color through repeated washings. An officer accused me of owning a pair of the dreaded contraband stonewashed jeans—when in truth, the poor Levis had started life dark blue but were just old and faded. I can relate. Over many years of incarceration, I have spent a small fortune (remember that fortunes are relative) on items that were legal, only to find that they have been declared illegal. I have bought scissors, mirrors, tweezers, toenail clippers, Vicks VapoRub, can openers, highlighters, bed comforters, sheets, extension cords, stingers, crockpots, art and craft supplies, crochet hooks, reading lamps, clocks, oatmeal and honey facial scrub, key rings, dental floss, and more, in good faith only to find out I
was holding contraband and could get in big trouble. Having purchased items through the proper channels is no defense in prison. Most people think of prison contraband in terms of weapons or drugs—homemade knives, guns, and other harmful things. In our prison, contraband can be an extra pair of panties. We are allowed only seven. Guards frisk us in search of hard candy. A peppermint is contraband if found in a pocket. I could write a book about prison contraband and never once mention a shank or tattoo gun—mainly because I’ve never even seen either in person. Only in movies. Come to think of it, I’ve never watched a prison movie where the convict was warned that his oatmeal and honey facial scrub had better be disposed of…or else. Yesterday certain hours were set aside for us hapless inmates to go to the Property Department to dispose of contraband. A huge line quickly formed of law-abiding ladies clutching body powder, digital clocks, colored pencils, and other questionable, although canteen-purchased items. An officer ordered all but five to return to their housing units, “There can only be five in the line at one time.” So the mob dispersed and trudged back. Once on the wing, this announcement was heard over the loud speaker, “Anyone wanting to send out contraband is to report to Property immediately!” Everyone gathered up her odds and ends and headed back to Property. Once reassembled, the same officer again advised them of the five-in-the-line rule, so grudgingly they grum-
bled their way back to their quarters still in possession of the newly deemed contraband—only upon arrival to hear, “Last chance to send out contraband. Report to Property now!” Handmade items are also problems. We are allowed one completed craft item and one in-progress craft item. In other words, I can have my completed afghan plus I can have one project on which I currently work. But as soon as I finish the last stitch on a crocheted teddy bear and clip the yarn, the innocent bear changes from “in-progress” to “completed” in a split second. Bam! Just that quickly I am in possession of one more completed craft item than I am
allowed. One minute, I’m lawful. The next minute, I’m just begging for a contraband ticket. When we first arrived here at the new prison, cigarette lighters were contraband. Of course, no one is supposed to smoke in the buildings, so when smoke breaks were called, the women had to beg lights from the officers outside the doors. In-wall lighters had been installed in the siding of the buildings, but these cheap appliances had ceased to function almost immediately. Smokers, as all addicts, are ingenious and driven. The girls were actually rigging the inside electrical outlets to light their own cigarettes. Scary. Those with the proper skills
traded sexual favors for lighters. The administration considered their options and relented. The girls can now buy lighters at the canteen. Not only are certain items contraband, but where we put our stuff can make the stuff contraband. For instance, if I place my Bible on my locker, the Good Book becomes contraband. An innocent wet towel turns into contraband if draped over the locker door to dry. We are constantly on guard (ignore the pun) for infractions that so naturally occur when a person inhabits a space. The inclination to set a plastic cup of instant coffee and a handful of chips on the locker near my bunk while I
read a book is only natural. But if I let my guard down (there’s that pun again), I can be in violation of the housing unit rule: “Two picture frames, one radio, and one locker scarf only allowed on top of the standing locker.” Even this rambling essay may very well be considered contraband. One of the definitions of the word contraband in our rule book states that it is anything that threatens the safety and security of the institution. Gosh. Maybe I should discard this. “Contraband” won first place in PEN Prison Writing Program’s 2006 Essay Competition.
Do you believe we can have a criminal justice system that provides for the public’s safety and is also humane and cost-effective? Do you believe that former prisoners deserve a chance to lead healthy, productive lives? So do we. Your financial support helps make our work possible. We hope you will use the enclosed envelope to make a contribution to The Fortune Society. Planned Giving Bequests and other planned gifts are an excellent way for caring individuals to continue to make a difference once they are gone. Planned gifts are an important part of Fortune’s fundraising efforts and we have developed a program - The Legacy Circle - for those who have notified us of their intention to make a planned gift. If you would like more information about how to make a bequest or other planned gift, or want to notify Fortune of your intention to make a planned gift and join The Legacy Circle, please contact Brian Robinson in our Development Office by either calling (212) 691-7554 ext. 526, emailing brobinson@fortunesociety.org, or utilizing the enclosed reply envelope. Fortune 2005| 17 F o r t u n eNews N e w s| |Winter/Spring 17 Summer 2006
Gate Money BY DERRICK CORLEY
In New York State, prisoners are given forty dollars upon their release; this is what is known as gate money. Gate money is classified as “forced savings” pursuant to DOCS Directive 2788. As such, 12.5% of a prisoner’s receipts are collected until they reach forty dollars. That money is then only accessible to the prisoner upon his/her release. Without question, a released prisoner is going to need money to successfully make his/her re-entry into society, but forty dollars? I’ve been down for seventeen years now and, I’ll admit, I don’t have a clue as to what things cost nowadays out there on the street. However, I do know that forty dollars doesn’t buy me much of anything in the facility commissary, and so I figure that
Illustration by J.T. Gomez
it’s not going to take me very far out there at all. I’d be better served having $4,000 than $40, walking out of prison with nothing but the clothes on my back and some pocket change. What kind of start does forty dollars give someone? What kind of chance at success does it give them? Not a good one, that’s for sure. The concept of “forced savings,” savings that can only be utilized by the prisoner upon his/her release, is a good one. I know well how hard it is not to spend what little money I may have in my prison account, so I am thankful that there is a mechanism to collect money for my release that I cannot touch – but I am very concerned that what is collected is grossly inadequate to meet my needs upon release. I am very puzzled by this, for how can the powers-that-be think that releasing a prisoner with just forty dollars is a good idea? The fact of the matter is, the longer a prisoner is incarcerated, the more money he/she is going to need to reestablish themselves as a successful and productive member of society. For that reason, the smart move would be to initiate forced release savings throughout the prisoner’s incarceration. A special account should be set up for every
1 8 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
Derrick’s View
prisoner who is eligible for Another improvement that release one day, an interest could be considered is the bearing account that cannot awarding of small monetary be touched until the end of awards for prisoners that are the sentence. In the very then added to their release least, each prisoner should savings. Such awards could have the option of starting be given for submitting ideas such an account, with the stipulation that they Forty dollars is not won’t be able to make withenough to start a drawals from it until released. new life with. Could Indeed, the this be a contributing idea of “forced savings” will not factor to the high be very popular with most of the recidivism rate? prison population, for that population is predominantly on how to be more costpoor and such savings will effective, saving someone’s only be seen as a hardship. life, programmatic achievePrisoners make, in general, ment, volunteer work, and just a few cents an hour in hobby craft sales. wages, and so anything Something needs to be deducted is felt. However, if done, be it the creation of a the savings were spread voluntary or involuntary throughout the whole period release savings program. But of incarceration, a more reaone thing is absolutely clear: sonable, lower rate of deducforty dollars is not enough to tion would be appropriate and start a new life with. Could more tolerable. this be a contributing factor to The issue of prison wages the high recidivism rate? needs to be examined by the powers-that-be, for an adjustDerrick Corley is a New York ment is long overdue to State prisoner. His column, increase them, and such an “Derrick’s View,” appears increase would offset the regularly in the Fortune News. hardship created by forced release savings. In a way, the beneficiary of such a program PRISON ARTISTS! is society itself: when you create a release savings plan for Here’s a chance to prisoners that will give them a strut your stuff! better chance of success Enter The Fortune they will be less likely to reoffend when they return to Society’s 7th the community. This way, the Annual Prison Art state is not giving the prisoner Show. anything; he/she is working for it. This work ethic builds a sense of pride and accomDetails and an plishment as inmates begin to updated entry form see themselves as having a are located on real chance to putting their page 27! lives back together in the free world.
Keeping Off Prison Road and
unding Toward o R Main Street
BY HARRY “DOC” STEENWERTH When I came to prison twelve years ago, I looked around and quickly realized that I was the only person who was concerned with my rehabilitation. Every program that I was required to take used formats and criteria established in the early 1980s. The only requirements were to show up and keep your questions to a minimum. Prisoners who acted as facilitators were actively discouraged from adding new material by staff advisors who made cameo appearance in class once or twice a week. After a few months, we were given a certificate and sent back to our usual jobs. As I had worked for many years as a health professional in large hospitals, I was more than shocked that prisons were run so casually when it came to rehabilitation of inmates. They are, after all, called “correctional facilities.” Shouldn’t corrections be their primary mission? If any hospital failed its primary mission to help people heal, the hospital would be reorganized and the administrators sent packing. Yet each year prisons are allowed to continue to fail their primary objective, all the while collecting more and more money. A program that is touted in the media as a success in preventing “at-risk youth” (a dubious term) from coming to prison is the Community Assistance Program (CAP), which is based on the 1980s dinosaur, “Scared Straight.” Since I have met many young
men in prison who went to CAP, I question its success. CAP and its imitators too often attract inmate facilitators who enjoy yelling and screaming at people. These are often the same guys who would not get away with this behavior in population, so they join CAP to indulge their bullying fantasies. The kids know ahead of time that nobody can touch them (thank God), so they enjoy the charade and some even break down and cry. One young inmate I met who had gone through CAP told me that it was like going to a haunted house attraction on Halloween - you get the crap scared out of you, but later on you and your pals laugh about it. Yet many prisons use CAP to prove to local communities that the prison is committed to helping society. Such large scale programmatic failure would trigger a shake-up in any large business or government agency, but in prison, dinosaurs are treated like an endangered species. I am a man who is blessed to have been a part of several well-constructed and dynamic prison programs, each of which was either created by other prisoners or sponsored by outside volunteer groups. In this environment I learned to empower others to become positive members of their communities when released. I now work outside in a work crew that helps local communities with projects that have
no budget for labor. This work is often very physically demanding, but the payoff for me is the kind words of appreciation we receive from the civilians we are directly assisting. The question I am always asked by these good people is, “Why don’t more prisons send you guys out to help us?” The easy answer is that of course not everyone has a security clearance to work outside and many institutions don’t have the vision to carry out this type of work. But I believe that every prison could establish programs that directly aid communities with work done within the prison walls. Prisons should be mandated to establish viable programs that directly assist local communities. Prison tailor shops could refurbish used clothes that are collected by groups such as the Salvation Army. Such an effort would allow the inmates to broaden their skills by working on clothes instead of just prison uniforms, and the fruit of his/her labor would directly help people in need of good clothing. Prisoners in the mess halls could prepare individual dinners for “Meals on Wheels” type programs, using donated food for this purpose. Electrical shops could service and repair small appliances collected by outside groups from senior citizens who cannot afford to pay to repair or replace these items. The practical experience the inmate will gain in these efforts will be matched by the goodwill established in grateful communities. A good deed goes a long way towards letting civilians see prisoners as fellow human beings. Let’s bring those juvenile offenders in to listen to an HIV/AIDS 101 or Hepatitis C presentation given by prisoners who work as peer-educators. Instead of screaming at these kids, it would be better to have a prisoner describe in
detail what the impact of his violent crime had on his victim and the victim’s family. If a crime victim could come in and speak to these young folks about his/her life after being assaulted, I believe the reality would have a long-lasting effect on them. Likewise, an inmate who is in prison for drugs could describe (without unnecessary embellishment how he degraded his loved ones and himself to get high. An ideal presentation would pair a prisoner with the victim of his crime, who has come to forgive him. Both could relate how the crime affected their lives and how the prisoner’s remorse brought him forgiveness from the victim. When you are dealing with brutal truth, there is no need for the theatrics of intimidation. The honest emotions alone will touch a place in their hearts where life-changing decisions are made. I believe that all my suggestions could be fairly easy to implement in any prison, at low or no cost to the facility. The payoff would be a grateful community, and hopefully an enlightened group of juvenile offenders who were treated like adults. The prisoners involved in these efforts would learn greater responsibility to their fellow citizens and perhaps some skills to assist them in getting a job when they are released. Good deeds are better than creeds, and it is past time that we get rid of our old beliefs in worthless programs and actually do things that help our communities directly. There is an old saying that goes, “Who is the might? One who conquers his evil inclination.” Let us go forward and put our remorse into action by helping the communities that need our help. HARRY “DOC” STEENWERTH is a prisoner is the Sullivan Correctional Facility in New York.
F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 1 9
STAFF RECOGNITION
EYE ON F
Troy Williams
Like so many of our exceptional staff members, Troy Williams first came to The Fortune Society as a client. Arrested for drug possession in 2002, Troy was initially enrolled in our Alternatives to Incarceration program. Once he completed his requirements, Troy stayed on at Fortune as a volunteer facilitator for parenting groups and classes. By December 2003, he was hired and placed in our Health Services Department where he continues to Troy in his office. work as the Follow-up Coordinator/Case Management Trainee. Troy has nothing but fond feelings for the agency that took him in when so many denied him because of his young age. As he now reflects: “Fortune chose me.” Troy was admittedly caught off guard when a full-time position was offered to him – at the time he remembers “knowing nothing about health services” – but he accepted it because he admired the organization and, frankly, because he needed the money. But the job that began as “a job to have just because I needed a job” has blossomed into a promising and rewarding career. Troy’s day-to-day responsibilities require a lot of face time with new clients. He helps them with socialization after they have spent, in some cases, decades behind bars. There are also elements of case management and counseling thrown into the mix, along with client screening. Although he admits that his work here at Fortune is “a lot of stress,” at the end of the day he still finds that he “couldn’t ask for anything better.” From making referrals, to helping clients find clothing, to trips to New York City’s many museums, Troy is happy because his career at Fortune provides him with an opportunity to help people help themselves. And their accomplishments become, to some extent, his own. In his nearly three years at Fortune, Troy has progressed from doing follow-up work - where much of his day consisted of outreach to “lost” clients - to managing his own cases. He looks forward to making his career here, and to helping conceptualize departmental improvements (he wants to provide more networking opportunities for clients) as well as personal ones (he’d love to advance to a management position within the department). Just as important, Troy is happy to admit to another three year anniversary in his life: his marriage. Troy’s wife and two children are supportive of his work and success here at Fortune – they couldn’t be any more proud. Photo and article by Heather Rose 2 0 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
EDUCATION AND LITERACY Members from Fortune’s Education Program recently hosted over 50 volunteer tutors for an afternoon social at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The event was organized in appreciation of the tutors’ hard work throughout the year and it gave them an opportunity to relax with agency staff as well as take a private guided tour of the museum. The afternoon was punctuated by a speech from John Gordon, Senior Director of Education and Client Services, who emphasized the invaluable contribution volunteer tutors provide week after week and spoke admirably about their dedication to the mission of the agency and to social justice causes as a whole. John’s speech was made particularly poignant by sharing the story of Kelwyn Henry, a student currently in the Education Program. Kelwyn came to the Fortune Society in October of 2002 and enrolled in the program at a very beginning level of reading comprehension. He was unable to provide a writing sample in any form during his intake - it was just too difficult for him. He didn’t even know where to begin. With the help of The Fortune Society, Kelwyn Henry, born in 1958 on the island of Jamaica, is finally beginning to read, write and understand math. John spoke of Kelwyn’s journey struggling with homelessness and credited the generosity of Fortune’s tutors with providing him with the confidence to advocate for himself and to have a deeper understanding of life. On that afternoon, John also announced Kelwyn’s most recent educational milestone: one of his written pieces, Eavesdropping in the Dog Run, was selected from more than 350 entries from literacy programs across the city to be read at the annual Selected Shorts AllWrite! Program. Later that week, Kelwyn, along with his tutor Sharon Rush and other guests from the Fortune Society, watched as his piece was performed by professional actors at New York City’s Symphony Space. I sat next to Kelwyn that night as he waited anxiously for his piece to be read. It was particularly moving to watch him keep one finger firmly on the title of his piece in the program while he softly moved his other finger down the list as Editor’s note: Kelwyn’s piece pieces were read, toward his. [E can be found on the opposite page]. After his piece was read, Kelwyn was able to move his finger through the end of the program as the rest of the pieces were read. I could hear him softly reading the titles to himself, repeating them as if the words captured the feeling of that evening: My Dream, My Happy Day, Celebration, The Place of Wisdom, English, One Day and finally… My Love for Writing. To learn more about volunteer tutor opportunities at the Fortune Society, please call 212-691-7554 or e-mail jkefalas@fortunesociety.org. Photo and article by John Kefalas
FORTUNE PEER EDUCATION Spring is certainly a busy season for Fortune’s LifeWork Peer Education program. In May, staff and clients walked in New York City’s 21st annual AIDS Walk, sponsored by Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). Just a few weeks later, fifteen Peer Educators celebrated the completion of the 12-week HIV Peer Education training with a graduation ceremony. LifeWork was started in 1997 in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, which was disproportionally affecting the communities many Fortune clients called home. (New York City reports more cases of AIDS than Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Washington, D.C. combined.) The program trains Fortune clients in a host of topics, such as HIV prevention, sexually transmitted infections, Hepatitis C, criminal justice issues, substance use and public speaking. Upon completion of the 12-week cycle, the newly minted Peer Educators are invited to conduct presentations in a wide variety of settings, like jails and drug treatment facilities. Because the audience can often relate to the personal experiences discussed by Fortune Peer Educators, they are more likely to pay attention and engage in safer behaviors, such as more consistent condom use. Still, the rewards of LifeWork extend beyond those who listen to the presentations. Fortune Peers who complete the intensive training experience a tremendous sense of accomplishment. In fact, many report that this is the first time they
have ever completed anything in their life. Peers repeatedly remark, “It feels great to give back.” Many also say, “If I can stop one person from making the same mistakes I made, then I am doing my job.” Fortune’s HIV prevention unit would not be nearly as effective without the use of Peer Educators, many whom go on to become full-time staff members in our organization. Sadly, funding for this remarkable program ends in 2006, and the future of Peer Education at the Fortune Society is uncertain. The one thing we do know is that for the last nine years, Peers have really made a difference in the community. And if numbers mean anything, LifeWork Peer Educators reached more then 6,000 community members last year alone! Photo and article by Elizabeth Loebman
Fortune staff and clients pose at the 2006 AIDS Walk in NYC.
Eavesdropping in the Dog Run We are sitting in the dog run. The day is bright. The temperature is warm. People are sunbathing, children are with their mothers and dogs are playing in the dog run. Channel 9, they are getting ready to take pictures of people and their dogs. Dogs are barking, sniffing, and having fun. The people are talking and playing with their pets. There are all different types of pets in the dog run. There are Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Pit Bulls, Jack Russell Terriers, Huskies, German Shepherds and Mutts. A Mutt is a mixture of all different types. In the dog run are all different races of people, too.
Kelwyn Henry
Kelwyn reads his piece to the Symphony Space audience.
F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 2 1
Sail To Serenity
The Birth of a Prison Hospice BY BERTRUM “HERKY” BURKETT Prison hospices: a humanitarian show of compassion or simply another way to cut costs on an aging population of prisoners serving life and mandatory sentences? This writer doesn’t understand enough about the state of Iowa’s budget issues to answer that question accurately, so I’ll just speak to what I know. Our hospice unit, named “Sail to Serenity” by its convict volunteers, has had a profound effect on everyone at the Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP) in Fort Madison, the oldest prison in the United States west of the Mississippi River. Until 2005, convicts would simply die in their cell or in the cold, lonely infirmary. Often they would be hurting physically and mentally from the pains of their disease. Dying prisoners would be able to see a nurse if and when she had the time, but after she shut the door they would return to their isolated world. Most would die alone, with only the sounds of nature to give them comfort or compassion. Then one day Marilyn Sales, Director of Nurses for the Iowa Department of Corrections, called six longtime convicts to the infirmary and asked us to watch a video tape. She didn’t explain its contents or why we were being asked to view it, but the feature presentation that day changed our lives. Only eighteen minutes long, it was an informational video about the Hospice Prison program in an Angola, Illinois facility. When the tape was over Marilyn looked at us and asked one simple question: “Do you think we can do that here at ISP?”
Immediately, each man in the room answered, “Yes!” We were all serving life sentences and had each been in prison for more than twenty years. We all understood that in Iowa, a life sentence means a life sentence. In all likelihood each one of us was, at some point, going to die behind bars. Over the next several months our group met multiple times; with each gathering interest in the project grew. Twenty-eight men came forward when it came time to interview volunteer applicants. Twenty were ultimately chosen to be hospice volunteers after in-depth interviews with Marilyn, the Deputy Warden and the Security Director. Work on the program began as soon as we were selected. The first order of business was to pick out the paint colors for our first hospice room because Herbie Schnee, one of the original six to view the Angola video, had recently been diagnosed with cancer. Ironically, he was our first hospice patient. We hadn’t had the chance to take a single class, but under Marilyn’s direction and the helpful hand of several nurses, we cared for Herbie. We stayed with him 24 hours a day and for the first time in ISP history a convict died pain-free, with convict volunteers all around him, holding his hands, praying and caring for his last earthly needs. It was a moment that, if I hadn’t experienced it, I would have had difficulty believing. After his death, we cleaned Herbie’s body and prepared for him to be picked up by the funeral home. We even washed every drop of ink from his hands after he was fingerprinted for the final
2 2 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
time. Since Herbie’s death we have been through classes on hospice care and attention for daily living. All twenty volunteers graduated. We received our diplomas at a special ceremony where we were each able to invite two members of our immediate family. It was
filmmaker Edgar Barrens in our midst, shooting daily for a documentary to be released in 2007. (Edgar was involved in the production of the Angola video and recently directed “A Sentence of their Own,” which was reviewed in the summer 2005 issue of Fortune News). With the help of this video, we’re trying to create a program model that other prisons can emulate. Just as we learned from those special convicts at Angola, we hope to have a real influence on those who
Four original members of the hospice group. (l-r) Michael Williams, Herky Burkett, Charles Watkins and Michael Glover.
truly an unprecedented event. Currently there are two hospice rooms up and running, with an additional six rooms ready to care for convicts who cannot care for themselves. These men are likely not terminally ill, but need daily assistance to maintain a positive manner of living. We bathe, feed and clothe them, as well as clean their rooms and give them a chance to participate in recreational activities. We’ve learned a lot in a relatively short period of time and this experience has been life changing in a positive way. Our motto is simply, “by the hands of many, God’s work is done.” It is important to note that our entire program has been funded by donations from churches, private citizens and an initial $500 foundation grant. Currently, we are blessed to have independent
may watch us, as we bear witness to man’s efforts at the most private time of his life. Critics claim that inmate hospice care is another way of “coddling” convicts. Nothing could be further from the truth. We believe that it is our final opportunity to give back, to show our compassion to God and society and to help make amends for any suffering we might have caused during our lifetimes. We are grateful that the Iowa State Penitentiary has given us an opportunity to experience something so special at a time when most of society has given up on us. When one is entrusted with a solemn duty of this magnitude, shrinking is not an option. BERTRUM “HERKY” BURKETT is a member of the prison hospice team in Ft. Madison, Iowa.
The Impact of Crimes on Victims Program Teaching Restorative Justice BY BERNIE FARMER Envision a roomful of hardened criminals – murderers, rapists and robbers – incarcerated in a maximum security prison. What do they look like? If you’re like most people, you’ll picture a group of snarling, tattooed animals planning future crimes. But what do you think happens when a panel of crime victims is introduced into the room? Do the two groups begin to yell at each other or start to fight? What happens to the inmates when the victims begin to describe how they have been terribly hurt by people just like them? Do the criminals laugh? Are the victims re-victimized? Here at the Jefferson City Correctional Center (JCCC) I’ve seen this same scene unfold monthly for three years, and I can tell you what happens every time. The roomful of criminals sit nervously as the victim panel enters the room. They pay close attention as the victims tell their story. Their heads will nod as they recognize elements of their own lives. Oftentimes men cry as the stories awaken their long repressed sense of humanity. Many of the inmates will express their sincere sorrow, both for the things that the panel experienced and for the pain that they’ve caused their own victims. Even the most hardened criminal will leave the room deep in thought, questioning the life choices that he or she has made. What I’ve just described for you is a typical victim panel in a rehabilitative program called Impact of Crime
on Victims (ICVC). ICVC is part of the Missouri Department of Corrections Restorative Justice effort. Restorative Justice is a concept where offenders take responsibility for the crimes that they’ve committed and acknowledge the harms that they’ve caused. The inmates then work toward making amends for their offenses, both to the individual victims
ly. And there is an additional benefit: in this time of tightening budgets and scarce tax dollars, the inmates teach for free, so the program costs the taxpayer only a very small amount. ICVC is a 40-hour program, which is spread out over five days. The curriculum provides comprehensive coverage of the major types of crime and how each affects
Restorative Justice is a concept where offenders take responsibility for the crimes that they’ve committed and acknowledge the harms that they’ve caused. The inmates then work toward making amends for their offenses.
and the community at large. The Impact of Crime on Victims program is usually the first step that offenders take toward that goal. The Impact of Crime on Victims program at Jefferson City Correctional Center is somewhat unique in that it is taught to the men by a cadre of their fellow inmates who are supervised by prison staff. This set-up has several advantages. First of all, the inmates are more comfortable learning from “one of their own.” They feel more relaxed and are much more willing to share their thoughts and get real with someone who can relate to them on their level. And for those who are not yet open to the experience, it’s a lot harder to con a con, so they’re picked out fairly quick-
the victims: child abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse, property crime and gangs are just some of the topics covered. The men learn that their criminal choices affect not only the primary victims and their families, but they also negatively impact themselves. But Impact of Crime on Victims isn’t just theoretical book learning. Just like the victim’s panel, there are other exercises designed to encourage participants to open up to the world around them. For example, on the second day a staff member will bring a puppy to the prison. During that day’s lecture, two of the toughest students will be called out of class. Most of the time they’re nervous, they don’t
know why they’re being singled out. The inmate facilitator will then lead these students into an empty classroom where the staff member and puppy wait. The effect that this puppy has on most men is incredible! Many of us haven’t touched an animal in many years, and the joy of having a puppy lick your face is indescribable for most. The puppy’s role is to put men back in touch with their feelings, to reawaken their sense of compassion. Not everyone responds positively, but most do. At the end of the five-day workshop the facilitators ask the men to write out something that they are willing to do for their own personal restorative justice effort. The paper is collected and will be mailed back to them in six months as a reminder of their pledge. Most of the time, the inmates continue to stay on track. I’ve been incarcerated for almost twenty years and I’ve never seen anything that has impacted a prison population like this program. The concept of restorative justice works. The Impact of Crime on Victims program works. I’m not saying that it’s a miracle cure for society’s ills, but I’ve seen first hand how it has inspired many men to better themselves and end their criminal lifestyles. I’m proud to say that I’m one of them. BERNIE FARMER is an inmate at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in Missouri.
F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 2 3
EX LIBRIS
FORTUNE MEDIA REVIEWS Scared Straight! Director: Arnold Shapiro Narrators: Peter Falk, Danny Glover DVD release date: 26 August 2003 (Docurama) One of the most memorable exchanges in Scared Straight! - an Academy Award winning documentary describing Rahway State Prison's "Lifer's Program" occurs mid-way through the film, when a group of convicts force 17 juvenile delinquents to take off their sneakers and throw them into the center of the room. Leering into the young faces, the convicts (each serving between 25 years to life in New Jersey's maximum security prison) bellow, "How did you feel when I took your stuff?" As if merely posing the question will be enough to divert these young men and women - whose convictions already include arson, assault and battery, auto theft and possession and distribution of narcotics - from a life of crime. But that, according to director Arnold Shapiro, is exactly what it does. First released in 1979, Scared Straight! was instantly praised for its graphic depiction of prison life and innovative approach to juvenile crime prevention. The cameras watch as the delinquents are given a chance to explore Rahway's jail cells facilitators insist that they smell a grungy toilet - and walk past the jeering inmates housed in "the hole." Before the afternoon is over, the teenagers will also learn the intricacies of the prison cast system, an ever-evolving hierarchy of power where, the convicts assure, people are
prepared to "do you bodily harm" in order to maintain dominance. The documentary is bookended by before-and-after interviews with the participants, and these extol the program. Before they enter the prison gates, the teenagers are a case study in arrogance and denial. Some brag about their unsavory reputations ("That's what I'm about, looking for trouble"), while others describe the plans they're making to advance their careers: an aspiring "professional thief" claims to be taking security classes so that he can learn to dismantle alarm systems. Three hours later, after their meeting with the convicts, these same kids emerge clearly repentant. "I don't want to end up in there," is a repeated mantra. This 25th Anniversary DVD pairs the original movie with 1999's where-are-theynow sequel, Scared Straight! 20 Years Later. The resulting combination is reminiscent of the "mental hygiene" films popularized in 1950s classrooms. The original film's low production costs - the participants were not mic-ed individually, and often it's difficult to hear what they're saying lend a decidedly filmstrip-like quality to the finished product. (This bare bones mentality extends to the DVD as well; although the disc boasts three "extras," these amount to a biography of director Arnold Shapiro and catalog of offerings from the distribution company.) Additionally, although the program defined risquĂŠ in the late-'70s - for many networks, Scared Straight! marked the first intentional broadcast of the fword - its subject matter is
2 4 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
fairly tame by modern standards. It's unlikely that these films will scare contemporary would-be hoodlums into submission. An abundance of shag hairdos and polyester shirts isn't all that root this documentary firmly in another generation; Shapiro's omniscient, fly-on-the-wall camera style is in sharp contrast to recent award winning documentaries (most notably, Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine.) Although this choice - filming life as it unfolds - is congruent with the classic documentary style, it is not unproblematic, especially when considering the population Shapiro chooses to document. Important questions are left unaddressed by the film: to what extent are the Scared Straight! kids performing their role as "delinquents?" How is the dynamic between convicts and juveniles altered by the presence of the cameras? Shapiro's presence as a director isn't felt until Scared Straight!'s 1999 sequel, when he orchestrates a series of awkward reunions between the formerly cocky kids and the convicts, many of whom have since been paroled. Viewers are presumably on the edge of their seats: did the kids really go straight? Surprisingly, most of them did. As the sequel illustrates, 15 out of the 17 juvenile delinquents originally profiled went on to become "productive members of society." The
sequel ends with testimony from two social workers who claim that programs like Scared Straight! have inspired 80% of the at-risk teens they work with to turn their lives around. Scared Straight! and Scared Straight! 20 Years Later form the classic American morality tale of crime and redemption. These young men and women may have started down the wrong path, but they ultimately found their way back to "society." This happy ending, however, may be a little too optimistic. For example, neither film addresses concerns that the tactics employed by the Rahway State Prison's Lifer's Program may actually increase delinquent behavior in juveniles. In their analysis of nine studies that covered Scared Straight! and more moderate jail tours for troubled students, researchers found that "there is little evidence to suggest that the program is a deterrent to subsequent juvenile crime and delinquency. In contrast, the evidence strongly suggests that it leads to more crime by program participants" (Crime & Delinquency July 2000). As a result of the original film's success, versions of Scared Straight! quickly spread from New Jersey to more than 30 states in the 1980s. However, several states later dropped or significantly changed their programs because of the research questioning their effectiveness. Nor does Scared Straight! address the socioeconomic factors that may have played a role in the profiled teen's criminal activities. During their "before" interviews, several of the participants commented that they only "steal what they need" from people whose "insurance would pay for it." Most have a personal policy of not involving "little old ladies" in their criminal activity. This Robin Hood-like attitude suggests that in some cases
there may be more complex reasons for these teens' activities than simple delinquency for delinquency's sake. To Shapiro's credit, Scared Straight! 20 Years Later does describe the oneon-one counseling that is now a part of many of the revamped prison programs. But even so, scant attention is paid to the fact that all of the participants pictured in this more contemporary footage are African American men; the original Scared Straight! gang was more mixed in both race and gender. What, if anything, could account for these changing demographics in the last 20 years? Shapiro's film doesn't offer much of an answer. Struggles for power inform every aspect of Scared Straight!: juveniles scramble for financial security in an environment in which they're economically depressed and convicts attempt to gain some semblance of selfrespect in an institution that is designed to make them feel insignificant. While good will is surely at the heart of many of the Lifer's Program participants, the prisoners scream just a little too loudly and intimidate just a little too much to be convincing as good Samaritans. Scared Straight!'s controversial subject ensures that it will be interpreted differently by different audiences. For many in academia or social services, this DVD pairing will likely be viewed as a fascinating - albeit outdated - study on human behavior and the redeeming power of change. Others will interpret it as propaganda for those hoping America will get tough on crime. Meanwhile, for most students, the 25th anniversary of Scared Straight! is likely to be seen as just another excuse to sleep through fifth period. Kristen Kidder
The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons BY: Elizabeth A. Hull Published by Temple University Press, 2006 Two percent of the adult population does not have the right to vote because of disenfranchisement laws - even through they have paid their debt to society by serving a prison term. The Disenfranchisement of ExFelons provides a compelling, yet comprehensive, overview of the history,nature, and farreaching sociological and political consequences of denying ex-felons the right to vote. This book examines, among other issues, the political consequences of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, which the author argues would have had very different outcomes if former felons were allowed to vote. The Fortune News recently spoke with Professor Hull about the importance of voting rights in American democracy. Fortune News: How does the disenfranchisement of exfelons impact the structure of politics and the functioning of our democracy? Elizabeth Hull: Disenfranchising ex-felons not only impairs democracy by preventing an entire class of citizens from voting (as is the case in many states), but also affecting the outcome of many close elections. For instance, the 2000 presidential election was won because George Bush received 535 more votes than Al Gore in Florida. Had ex-felons been able to vote in Florida, the outcome would have been very different. FN: How does ex-felon disenfranchisement affect the conditions of minority populations and communities?
EH: First, by depriving exfelons of the vote, minority communities are disproportionately affected because of the high percentage of black men who have felony convictions (usually because of drug offenses). Secondly, felons are often shipped to rural communities within the state (as they are in New York); these rural (usually Republican) areas thereby gain greater representation in Congress and state legislatures and the home districts comparatively fewer.. FN: You state in the book that 13% of the total adult black male population is disenfranchised because of felony convictions. How does this number compare to whites or other races? EH: Many more blacks, proportionate to their population, than whites (or Latinos) are disenfranchised. This is in part because the "drug war" has targeted AfricanAmerican communities (whose members actually use and sell proscribed drugs at no greater rates than other communities). FN: What arguments are presented in response to the assertion that disenfranchisement of ex-felons is a violation of their constitutional right to suffrage? EH: Those supporting disenfranchisement claim that Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment allows disenfran-
chisement, since the Amendment forbids states from depriving any citizen of the vote "except for participation in rebellion or other crimes." Opponents of disenfranchisement respond that t he framers of an amendment specifically ratified to extend full rights to Black Americans could hardly have intended this amendment to be used to deny them the franchise. (There is much historical data substantiating this interpretation.) FN: If disenfranchisement is a violation of constitutional rights, how is it sustained in such a wide-spread manner? Does anyone challenge it? EH: It is sustained because one, ex-felons have minimal political clout; two, politicians rarely want to risk their careers by championing the rights of an unpopular sector of society; three, the average person reflexively assumes that ex-felons have forfeited their rights – without taking the time to think through the facts of the situation. FN: What can the average citizen do to help stop exfelon disenfranchisement? How can we influence a society where looking "soft on crime" is a detriment? EH: We should make the voting rights of ex-felons a "civil rights" issue – as indeed it is. America as a whole is weakened when a significant share of its people are denied the franchise; when these people are overwhelmingly poor and members of racial minorities, the harm is greater still. ELIZABETH HULL is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, Newark. She frequently writes about the constitutional rights of women, minorities and non-citizens.
r tnuen eN e Nw ew Summer 2006 2005 | 2 5 F oFrot u s s| |Summer
The Pigeon BY PAUL INSKEEP
The other day I was sitting in my cell, a 9’ x 5 ½’ encasement of steel, passing the time by watching several pigeons walk up and down the tier. Pigeons are ever-present in the cell block of the Maryland Penitentiary, a granite structure that is over 175 years old and sports green slate floors and five-tier-high cells constructed of cold steel plate. The floors are faded to a peculiar shade of green and stained by human waste, food and pigeon infestation. My first thought, as I watched these pigeons, was “Now I know how birds feel, as they sit in their cage and watch people walk by.” Lately I’ve became that bird. I spend my time peering through steel bars, watching as pigeons stroll leisurely up and down the cell block, looking in at every inmate. I wondered, “How could a pigeon, an animal designed to be flying free in the sky, adapt to the conditions in this cell block of decaying steel?” This delicate denizen must feel the miserable and often deadly heat of the summer, the bone-chilling and numbing cold in the winter, the constant clanking sound of the metal keys against heavy steel doors. Somehow he must sense the boisterous, 24-hour mix of human and (sometimes) inhuman noise, the lingering acidic smell of drugs and “jump-steady” (a prison brewed wine), the scent of mildew, sweat and human body odor, the smell of someone’s mattress
burning, and the ever present putrid odor of garbage and human waste, permeating the crevices of this massive tomb. So, for no reason in particular, on a cold, raw and rainy day, I decided to feed this one pigeon. I dropped a few peanuts outside my cell and watched as the pigeon pecked feverishly away. Our meals together went on for several months, as the pigeon showed up at my cell door everyday looking for a treat. I can’t help but think about how much human pain and suffering this pigeon has seen over the years. Has it seen the anguished faces of the prisoners, those who didn’t make it: the mental patients; the demented; the rebels, born to die with their boots on; the collaborators swinging from bars, with sheets around their necks; the many eyes of the innocent, tortured and wet; the hollow eyes of the guilty; the eyes of the truth seekers, penetrating perhaps a bit too open and sincere. Had this pigeon heard the screams: the rage threatening to choke a nation to death, the cries of those being bludgeoned by their captors? My final thought on the subject was simply, “Is this how man should end up, watching animals from a cage?” PAUL INSKEEP is a frequent contributor to the Fortune News.
2 6 | F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006
Drawing by Manfried West
Nothing A life without meaning For me at least it seems. A baby without a mother Born into shattered dreams. The future was so bright For one boy and one girl, Until that lonely night Conceived into this world. Ruined without doing Broken, I am sorry For you I was a mistake Your sky no longer starry. A whisper in the night A lonely star up in the sky, It seems only right This dream shatterer wants to fly... David Patterson
Prisoner Resource Directory Legal Resources
Religious Support
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Lamp and Light Publishers, Inc.
125 Broad St. 18th Fl. New York, NY 10004 The ACLU offers the Prisoner’s Assistance Directory, which includes contact information, services, and descriptions for over 300 national, state, local, and international organizations that provide assistance to prisoners, former prisoners, and their families. Inmates may write for information; there may be a charge involved. The ACLU also provides guidance in: system reform cases; impact litigation against the government and impact policy reform cases. Information will be forwarded to ACLU affiliates if not a New York State case.
26 Road 5577 Farmington, NM 87401 Lamp and Light Publishers offers a total of 14 Bible correspondence study courses free of charge and awards a certificate of completion. Inmates may write to request more information or correspondence related to study courses.
Advocacy Organizations Grassroots Investigation Project (GRIP) Quixote Center PO Box 5206 Hyattsville MD 20782 The mission of the Grassroots Investigation Project is to empower family members of death row inmates and anti-death penalty activists to create partnerships with lawyers, journalists, and academicians for the purpose of conducting low cost investigations of death penalty cases that may reveal innocence and help to bring about a death penalty moratorium. Inmates may write to request information and books.
The National Death Row Assistance Network of CURE Claudia Whitman 6 Tolman RD Peaks Island ME 04108 The National Death Row assistance Network of CURE is a new organization formed to help death row prisoners across the United States gain access to legal, financial and community support and to assist individual prisoner’s efforts to act as selfadvocates. Inmates may write to request information.
Pen Pals The Church at Liberty Square 2001 Liberty Sq. Drive Cartersville, GA 30121 The Church at Liberty Square is a Christian pen pal service. inmates may write to request pen pals. PLEASE NOTE: Fortune News does not maintain formal linkages with many of these organizations, although the information provided has been checked for accuracy.
Set Free Prison Ministries PO Box 5440 Riverside, CA 92517 The Set Free Prison Ministries sends Bible study courses directly to inmates free of charge, in Spanish and English. Provides a set curriculum of Bible courses and offers a certificate with each course that is completed. Inmates may write to request course information. Requests for bibles will be referred elsewhere.
Art/Writing/Books Books for Prisoners c/o Groundwork Books 0323 Student Center La Jolla, CA 92037 Books for Prisoners offers up to two books per person free of charge; subjects include politics, spirituality, feminism, dictionaries, culture, social criticism, and select novels. Inmates may write to request information and books.
Books Through Bars 4722 Baltimore Ave Philadelphia, PA 19143 Offers a wide range of reading material free of charge to inmates. Inmates may write to request books in a specific area or topic, or specific titles or authors (this may not always be provided), with the exception of law books.
Pen Prison Writing Program Pen American Center 588 Broadway Suite 303 New York, NY 10012 PEN will send inmates, free of charge, a short guide offering information on creative writing, places to send your work, how to write a cover letter, and a list of organizations that provide pen pals. In addition, PEN will send a free guide describing how to start your own writing workshops in prison. The organization also sponsors an annual writing contest for prisoners; inmates may write to request information and ask about the handbook. F o r t u n e N e w s | Summer 2006 | 2 7
IN THE FALL ISSUE:
Immigration According to a recent New York Times article, the biggest beneficiary of President Bush’s get-tough-on-immigration policies may be the companies in charge of building and maintaining private prisons that hold an estimated 20,000 detainees a night. Those numbers are expected to jump to 27,500 by 2007. Which leads us to ask: Should immigrants be treated like criminals while waiting for citizenship? Are these men and women subject to the same Constitutional rights granted natural born Americans? What is it like inside an average detention center? Is immigration reform ultimately fueled by profit? Please send us your stories, articles or artwork. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: October 15, 2006
Fortune Staff and Clients at NYC’s 2006 AIDS Walk
CONSIDER SUPPORTING THE FORTUNE SOCIETY Your contributions go directly to printing Fortune News, buying books and other educational materials, providing housing, reuniting families, assisting clients in finding jobs, and other critical services for former prisoners. Help us build lives and change minds.
Please use the enclosed reply envelope to send a contribution to
The Fortune Society.
ATTENTION PRISONERS Fortune News subscriptions are FREE to all prisoners. Subscriptions must be renewed every two years and/or when you are transferred. Please allow four to six weeks for processing of subscription request. To subscribe, fill out the form below and return to: Fortune News Subscriptions, c/o The Fortune Society, 53 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010 *****PLEASE FILL IN ALL INFORMATION LEGIBLY ****
FortuneNews 53 West 23rd Street New York, NY 10010
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID New York, NY
PRISONER SUBSCRIPTION FORM PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY First Name: Last Name: Inmate ID Number: Correctional Facility: Address: City:
State:
Zip:
Renewal/Transfer or New Subscription (Please circle one.)