Show Your Support for Good Time Legislation

 Although the push to put a good time bill on the ballot this fall failed to garner enough signatures, the good time legislation sponsored by Senator Steve Irwin is still alive. As I've written before, Michigan is one of the few states in the US that has no form of good time credits for prisoners who exhibit good behavior. Michigan's prisoners must do at least 100% of their minimum sentence. 

Michigan Justice Advocacy has been tirelessly working with Senator Irwin and other senators to develop support for Senate Bill 649, which would allow Michigan prisoners to earn time off their sentences with good behavior. Unfortunately, this senate bill has been stuck in committee, held up by the committee chair, Senator Roger Victory. 

If you think Michigan would benefit, both financially from the money it'd save and from a system that rewards rehabilitation, you can express that support in several ways: 

1. Sign Michigan Justice Advocacy's website expressing your support. They share how much support people express with senators who may vote on the bill. Sign up at www.mijustice.org/sign

2. Email Senator Roger Victory at SenRVictory@senate.michigan.gov and urge him to give the good time bill (SB 649) a fair shake. Tell him to put it up for a vote on the Senate floor. 

3. Email your own senator and urge him or her to ask Senator Victory to put SB 649 up for a vote and to support the passage of the bill. 

The return of good time legislation, especially if it is retroactive to those already in prison, would save Michigan millions of dollars a year, both in reduced staffing and the closure of several prisons. Furthermore, from a moral standpoint, good time legislation is a good idea because it promotes self-directed rehabilitation and puts the responsibility on prisoners to change their behavior. Good time legislation supports the development of pro-social behaviors. 

More societal support for good time legislation exists now than in several decades. It's important for Michigan citizens to capitalize on this support and to bring Michigan back into line with the judicial policies of most of the other fifty states. Please, show your support in one or more of the ways listed above.

Happy Father's Day in Prison?

 "Happy Father's Day!" a prisoner greets me in the hallway early Sunday morning. "Happy Father's Day," I respond. We're simply exchanging pleasantries, acknowledging each other's status as fathers, but I can't help but feel the irony. 

We're both, like many other prisoners, fathers in the sense that we have fathered children, but here we are in prison away from our children. Some prisoners are still active in their children's lives, even from prison, but even they are physically absent, unable to fulfill even the most basic aspects of fatherhood. The rest of us, well, we're simply absent, dead-beat dads (so to speak). We're dead-beats primarily because of our choices that led us to prison, away from our children, even if some of us desperately long to have our children in our lives, even long distance. Still, what sort of fathering can one do from within prison? 

While being a father was my greatest joy in life, I hardly feel worthy of the title now. A day celebrating fathers is not a joyous occasion for me. It's hardly "happy." Instead, it reminds me, every year, of my biggest failures, my deepest regrets. Yes, I have beautiful memories to hold onto, and I treasure those every day. But, those memories are tainted with mourning how I've so profoundly failed my children. I can only hope and pray that they have good memories to hold onto, even if shadowed by grief or anger. 

Though my own father has been gone now for just over a year, I know well the strange duplicity of memories. Every good memory of him is filled with a longing that can never be fulfilled, and with a sorrow that hasn't begun to heal. It breaks my heart to think that I have continued the cycle of painful memories when it comes to fathers in my family. I would change that if I could. 

In the mean time, I smile a smile that hides my pain and respond with kindness to another hurting father, "Happy Father's Day," knowing full well that for neither of us will this day be happy.

Too Immature and Impulsive to Buy Assault Rifles?

Every time a mass shooting happens, the politicians begin, anew, the struggle over gun control. It's a political hot button, but it sort of sits in the background until a tragedy forces it to the forefront. Of course, one reason it stays in the background until forced into the open is because of the massive amounts of lobbyist dollars that are spent to keep legislation stalled. 

The recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, and the many, many shootings since then, has again ignited political debates over gun control laws. One giant question, of course, is how can an 18 year old kid legally purchase a military style assault rifle? It's true that we let 18 year old kids sign up for the military and train them in how to kill with a gun, but that's different, isn't it? 

Personally, I'm a big proponent of protecting Constitutional rights, including the right to bear arms. But I'm also a pragmatist who sees the value of limits on some rights. I'm also keenly aware that the politicians who scream "Protect the Second Amendment!" are the same politicians who readily sold out Americans' right to privacy under the George W. Bush administration. The Patriot Act stripped Americans of many privacy rights (which we've never recovered), but these politicians didn't balk. Apparently there's a big difference between protecting America from foreign and domestic terrorism aimed at our financial institutions and protecting children from deeply disturbed 18 year olds who would kill them in their classrooms. 

Americans ought to have the right to bear arms. The Founding Fathers put that in the Constitution because they recognized the need for citizens to protect themselves from the tyranny of the government. But that tyranny, the kind that requires bearing arms anyway, has not (yet) materialized in 246 years. Mass shootings, though, happen with disturbing regularity in our country. Clearly, something has to change. 

I support some of the limitations being tossed around, but I especially support raising the age of legality for purchasing assault rifles to 21. I'd even consider raising the age for hand guns to 21. Science has demonstrated that brains are not fully developed until 21 to 25 years of age, so I support raising the age limit for those in Michigan who can be sentenced to non-parolable life to at least 21 years old. A legal decision (still pending) may soon raise that age. So, if science supports that decision, certainly it supports raising the age of maturity for purchasing assault rifles.

We can't have it both ways. Kids should simply not be able to buy weapons like these. Their impulsive, immature brains can't handle the responsibility. Trust me. I should know. I'm surrounded every day by such immature impulsivity in prison.

Good Time Ballot Initiative Fails in Michigan, but Hope is Still Intac

 Despite the dedicated, hard work of many people, the grassroots effort in Michigan to collect enough signatures and put a good time proposal on the ballot this fall failed. While Michigan continues to be one of only a few states in America with no good time sentence reductions for prisoners, the momentum still exists for change. Michigan is, in fact, the only state to have no mechanism for sentence reductions, other than court ordered or by way of commutation, and both legislators and the public have begun to recognize the massive waste in spending such policies have led to. 

It's easy, as a Michigan prisoner, to be discouraged by yet another failure to make passage of a good time bill a reality in Michigan. Federal incentives for our so-called truth in sentencing statute ended in the year 2000, and the state's continued refusal to pass some form of good time legislation have likely cost it billions of dollars. Michigan's roads and infrastructure are crumbling, its schools are failing at alarming rates, and yet Michigan continues to hold fast to incarceration policies that make it one of the states with the highest incarceration rates. 

Nevertheless, I am not discouraged. I named this blog "Hope on the Inside" because of its double meaning: hope on the inside of prison, and hope on the inside of one's heart (mine in particular). Hope is an unusual sentiment in prison, particularly the active kind of hope I mean. But, I believe hope must be cultivated, stirred up, to remain alive. Prison itself provides no tools or fertilizer for hope. Those must be discovered and practiced on one's own or within like-minded communities. 

My hope has been planted and cultivated in my faith in God, and thus it is aimed at God. Sure, I would have liked good time legislation to pass, but I'm confident that God is present in my life and has a plan for me, whether I am in prison or out, whether I leave prison early or have to serve the remainder of my sentence. And that same faith motivates me to pursue healing, reconciliation, and restitution for the harms I've caused. 

Properly placed hope ensures that disappointments are temporary and not faith shaking or earth shattering. And it takes reminders from time to time to keep my hope properly placed. That's one of the important steps of keeping hope active--keeping it properly directed. I have enough time and experience in prison to know better than to put my faith in politicians, the justice system, or good time legislation.