Conviction

Hillary Swank stars in a new movie based on the true story of a woman who returns to school, gets her high school and college diplomas, then goes to law school and passes the bar; all to take on her brother’s case and have his conviction for first degree murder overturned.



She was interviewed this past week with lawyer Barry Scheck, director of “The Innocence Project” (http://www.innocenceproject.org/). In a poignant scene from the movie, Swank’s character visits her brother in prison shortly after he attempts suicide. “I’ll go to school, become a lawyer get you out of here. I promise. But you have to promise me you won’t give up, you won’t kill yourself.”


The brother was, in fact, innocent. DNA testing proved it. In the same interview, twelve recently exonerated men from Texas, men who had served sentences from 10 to 26 years before DNA testing proved their innocence, appeared on screen. To a man they spoke of the isolation they endured, the inhumane treatment, the loneliness, the despair – almost each man had tried suicide – loss of family and friends. Yet, each man said the same thing. “I survived because I had faith. I knew God was with me.”


Until you are incarcerated, until you hear the cell door close, you cannot fully understand, fully empathize with these men. Prison changes you. You lose so much, suffer so deeply. If you are lucky, in your loss and despair you find faith and meaning. Still, there is a sadness that always remains.


I used to believe that justice was indeed just. I used to believe that you were “innocent until proven guilty”, that courts were fair, prosecutors honorable, defense attorneys dedicated, prisons places for rehabilitation. I know now my beliefs were all myths. I have dedicated myself to speaking out about what I see each and every day.


The vast majority of inmates are guilty, but they do not deserve the treatment they receive. The criminal justice system and prisons in particular, has become a giant machine with its gears being continually greased by the men and women convicted, their families, and their victims. Prisons warehouse inmates then release them feeling more bitter, more alienated, more lost.


How do you explain to a man that he deserves six years in prison for a driving violation? How do you tell a woman she must serve 10 years for embezzling $2 million, while a woman in Maryland only gets 18 months?


The system perpetuates itself. Virginia DOC maintains 22 facilities, employs 11,500 and holds between 32,000 and 38,000 (both figures provided by DOC themselves). DOC’s 2010-11 operating budget exceeds $1.1 billion. That does not include DCE’s (Department of Correction Education, a separate agency) budget, or that of Probation and Parole. Virginia has one of the ten largest inmate populations in the country, though its population is not in the top ten.


On October 18th a new director of DOC will take over. The outgoing director, Gene Johnson, on the eve of his retirement began speaking candidly about the failures of Virginia’s current sentencing and incarceration practices. His sobering statements should give all conscientious Virginians pause.


The newly appointed Director – Harold Clarke – was previously head of the Massachusetts’s Department of Corrections; he oversaw an inmate population of 9,000. Massachusetts, with a state population of 6.5 million, has only one fourth the prison population of Virginia, a state with a population of approximately 7.6 million. Why the vast disparity?


One of the men I count as a friend is “Black”. When Black was eighteen, he killed a man in a drug deal gone bad. He turns 40 in two months. He’s still under the “old system” (parole; his crime occurred before 1995). For the last ten years he has been “parole eligible”. Ten straight years he has been denied parole. Two days ago he had his annual “parole hearing”. That term doesn’t fit what occurs. Black sits before a video conference hookup. A young female investigator stares at her laptop and asks three questions: Name; DOC number; mandatory parole date. Hearing concluded.


For ten years Black has received the same parole denial form letter. Its reads in part: “parole has been denied due to the severity of the crime”.


During his imprisonment he has earned his college degree. He is active in the Rastafarian Church, a vegetarian and a pacifist. He reads voraciously and writes eloquently. He and I discuss politics, philosophy, religion, music, food. I have no doubt, however, that he will receive the same form denial letter in a month. That is the nature of the amoral system of “corrections” that lives and breathes in Virginia.


In March 2014, Black will be released on mandatory parole. As much as the system has tried to break him, this man survives. What he did was wrong. What Virginia did, and continues to do to him is worse.


DOC reported that last quarter 14 inmates were granted parole. There are approximately 6000 inmates parole eligible. That means on average each quarter 1500 inmates have an opportunity for parole. In practical terms, parole doesn’t even exist for parole eligible inmates.


Despair, loneliness, hopelessness, fear. Each day, inmates fear those emotions. Many quit. They give up. I choose not to. This isn’t about retribution or revenge. It is simply about justice. And justice is, in the end, about fairness, mercy, forgiveness. As President Lincoln noted: we, as a society are to act as the “better part of angels”.


Sometime all it takes is for just one person to believe in you, to love you, to pray for you, to fight for you. The movie “Conviction” is about that. The present state of Virginia’s prisons convicts all well-meaning citizens. Make a difference. Demand change.