WELCOME TO THE STATEVILLE SPEAKS BLOG

Download a copy of Stateville Speaks Loyola!

This is the blog for the Loyola edition of Stateville Speaks, a print publication written in collaboration with current Illinois prisoners about topics in criminal justice and prison life.  Join our facebook page!

This overhead view of Stateville would never be allowed into our print publication because all aerial views of prisons are censored.

Tamms supermax legislation

HB 2633 was introduced by Rep. Julie Hamos and 20 co-sponsors immediately signed on. Tamms bill factsheet and learn about this bill.

Lullabies Behind Bars

Check out this article featured in Ms. Magazine that describes innovative programs for women who enter prison while pregnant.

Women: Be a Pen Pal to a Prisoner

The Action Committee for Women in Prison (ACWIP) sponsors a pen pal program that matches up women serving long sentences with out women.  If you are uncomfortable using your own address, you can use ACWIP’s P.O. box and they will forward letters to your home address.  For more information contact penpal@acwip.net or visit http://www.acwip.net/penpals.htm.  The list of women waiting for pen pals gets longer each day.

Reflections

Since I didn’t get to share my reflections with the class or the surprisingly large amount of people who came for the Stateville Speaks event, I’ll post mine here.

I enrolled in the Stateville Speaks class because I thought the subject material we’d learn would be interesting, the thought of working as a class to publish an edition of Stateville Speaks sounded exciting, and I had taken Laurie Jo before and I knew that she is a very unique teacher and deeply invested in prison system issues, especially Tamms.  Even though I’m a film major and I knew nothing about the prison system or journalism or really anything pertaining to the class, I knew it would be a good experience.  At first, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t so sure it was really a good choice for me to be taking the class.  Everything seemed chaotic and somewhat disorganized, and we had random guest speakers every week and all these letters to organize.. I just wasn’t really sure what we were doing or if any of the things we were doing in class would help with the publication.  Looking back though, everything we did in that class helped in some way towards our publication- whether it be sparking in interest in certain topics through the various readings we were given, or through the diverse speakers that we heard, or learning how to make a professional, kick ass publication through some gurus we heard from.  I can safetly say I learned something every time I stepped into the classroom, even though some days it wasn’t yet clear how it pertained to the publication. Now I understand that in order to create a truly great publication, we had to explore all areas of the prison system, and hear accounts from all different types of people involved in it.  One day I was crying to Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins’ tragic story of her sister’s death, the next I was learning what challenges the IDOC faces and how they go about their business,  another day I’d be learning how Akeem turned his life around by creating the Save Our Sons organization once he got out of prison for charges relating to drug distribution.   It was a fascinating class, and I think every single student got something out of every Wednesday.  I can’t believe Laurie-Jo was able to squeeze all of these great resources into one semester, but she did and I believe it has made all the difference in our publication. 

The event was amazing.  I had no idea the turnout would be so great, or that the speakers lined up to talk would do such a great job, or that the audience would be so genuinely interested in these topics, judging by their sincere questions and responses. It made me proud to have been in the class and to have been working on the publication because I felt like the important messages of needed change in the corrections sphere were actually getting across to a large amount of people.  Everyone involved, great job.  Seriously.  That was really something, and I’m glad to have been part of it.

Just wanted to say…

I was amazed with the presentation yesterday and all the support and response all our hard work is getting. Congrats to all of you for your fantastic work!

I received the following Facebook message yesterday from Peter Wagner, the Executive Director of the Prison Policy Initiative (in regards to my paper about Felony Disenfranchisement):

Thanks for the mention of the Census Bureau’s prison miscount in your Stateville Speaks editorial.

For what it’s worth, the prison miscount’s impact on state and federal funding is actually extremely small. Most government programs are too sophisticated to be fooled by this; but the impact on the political process and redistricting is quite large. We have a report about prison-based gerrymandering in Illinois scheduled for release in January.

Stay tuned. http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org

http://www.prisonpolicy.org

-Peter Wagner

Mentally Ill in Custody

This is an article I found to be interesting and relevant to our discussion of problems with confining mentally ill individuals.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_11049839?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com

Pre-Release Party on Dec 10, 2008

Map of 25. E. Pearson

Please join our facebook page!

Thanksgiving poll

Victims Voices

Victims voice’s need to be be heard too. When Jennifer Bishop came to speak in class, I was completely touched.  I have had a little experience with a victim of a crime.  My 2nd cousin’s family was murdered, and the surviving member of that family, my 2nd cousin, returns every year to Leavenworth Maximum Security Prison every year, in Leavenworth Kansas, in order to keep the guilty man from receiving parole.  I see how she hurts, just as I saw Jennifer hurting.  It is important to take into consideration that the victims aren’t just the ones that literally got physically hurt. Their families and friends are suffering emotionally, as the pain and hurt never fully goes away.  I never thought about the ways victims deal with their pain. Either buried away in a place that at any moment can be dug up when a familiar smell, name or memory comes to mind. Or victims can take the pain and turn it around into something positive to help them deal.  Websites are dedicated to just this: the victims.  After looking over some of  them I realized that it never really ends at the

Reflections From Guest Speaker Darrell Cannon

Darrell Cannon is one of the best speakers that has come to our class, and one of the best speakers that I have ever heard. He was tortured by officers of the Chicago Police Department trained by Jon Burge. Jon Burge used torture tactics such as suffocation and even attaching electrical clips to men’s testicles to try to get them to confess. Another horrible torture tactic that Darrell Cannon described- a police officer loaded a gun (or made the sounds of loading a gun) and said they he would shoot Darrell Cannon if he did not confess. Mr. Cannon refused, and was forced to go through the trauma of thinking that he would be shot in the mouth three times in a row. The abuses that Mr. Cannon described made me cringe, they made me

Victims and Jenifer Bishop Jenkins

Jenifer Bishop Jenkins brought to light an often over looked issue in the criminal justice scene, that is how to deal with victims of violent crimes or extreme tragedy.  Jenkins showed how a victim can take on one of two roles.  One could choose to be extremely depressed, living in fear and only going through the motions of life.  Or, like Jenkins, one could choose the role of advocate, still at times being say but sharing their personal story in order to create awareness, doing so in memory of their lost loved one and others who may have come into the same end.  Jenkins has taken what has happened in her life and is trying to shed light on the subject of victims.  She has chosen to take the high road or as they say she has learned to make lemonade with what lemons life gave her.  During her speech for out class she did still 

Response to Victim’s Websites

It was not until Jennifer Bishop Jenkins came in to speak to our class about victim’s rights did I ever really start thinking about victim’s rights at all. To me, being a victim seemed like such a passive and depressing experience, but it really isn’t. You can do a lot of things as an active victim to ensure that you’re wishes are being considered, that the offender is serving his/her crime, and to ensure your own safely as well as your family’s. Websites such as www.murdervictims.com/Parole and http://www.citizensagainsthomicide.org have a set of guidelines to follow when protesting the parole of the offender and offer legal help. This includes writing a detailed description of the crime, a history of the victim’s life, their future goals and reasons why the offender shouldn’t be paroled. I understand why many victims would want to do this- especially if they feel that the offender is only spending a minimal amount of time in prison, yet at the same time I feel like it is a very anti-restorative justice movement. Victims don’t seem to have any concern for rehabilitative

Darrell Cannons’s Speech

I am honestly in awe of his strength and eloquence.  The speech was beautiful.  I actually saw him speak the Saturday before at an event at the University of Chicago against the death penalty and it was the same day he attended his sisters funeral.  I remember him saying that even though relatives were still at his house, he felt obligated to come to the event to speak out and never misses an opportunity as it is important to him that people are aware and active.  I cannot start to imagine how it must feel to lose loved ones while incarcerated, and it is so inspiring to see how strong he is these days.  His story helped put everything in perspective for me and gave me a chance to try to imagine what he must have gone through.

As he was describing the torture scene with the officers, I felt his helplessness and anger.  For those who were not present, he explained how the police showed up at his house, arrested him and took him to an isolated forested area in which they continued to torture him into confessions.  They used methods such as using electric cattle shockers to his testicles, hanging him by his handcuffs, russian roulette with a shotgun in his mouth, and verbal humiliation.  By the end, he had endured so much pain that he said if they asked

Darrell Cannon Discussion/My interrogation training

Having Darrell speak to the class about his experiences in prison and with torture was interesting as well as depressing. The amount of physical abuse he endured accompanied with the mental torture that lasted throughout his prison sentence seems remarkable that a human being can survive and still remain a competent individual. I think Darrell’s terrifying descriptions of life in prison certainly confirm why some prisoners become even more mentally unstable after release. I can almost understand why recidivism rates are high. The one thing that Darrell mentioned at the beginning of his discussion was the torture that he suffered through inflicted by detectives under the command of Jon Burge. I am very disheartened

Darrell Cannon discussion

The discussion that the class had with Darrell Cannon last week was amazing.  Darrell was able to tell us so much information that we would not be able to get anywhere else.  I’m sure bits and pieces of his story are around, but the best information always comes from the main source.  The thing that made me think the most was when Darrell talked about being in Tamms.  He said that Tamms was made to mentally and even physically break the prisoners. I found this to be very disappointing.  The prison system should break people; it should help them.  It was reassuring to know that some of the guards were nice though.  It was nice to hear that some people were understanding and that they knew that the prisoners were people too.  I’m sure not all prisoners go to prison wanting to change and become different people, but they should have the chance if they want to.  If DOC officials and guards treat the prisoners badly and don’t give them a chance for rehabilitation then what is the point of the prison?….to keep them locked up for the rest of their lives without a chance to become a better person?

Darrell Cannon’s Story

Darrell Cannon brought up some heart wrenching topics, yet the one that really interested me was his story of Tamms.  A supermax prison located in the southern most part of Illinois has gone from temporary punishment to long term dehumanization.  Many times when Darrell was talking he mentioned the fact that, “Tamms was made to break you mentally, physically and spiritually.  This really made me upset with the criminal justice system because conditions in prison should foster growth and change, not take the spirit and life out of a person.  Darrell told the class that the staff would sometimes provoke or at least try to get a rise from the prisoners.  One can barely begin to comprehend the mental stress one must endure every day in solitary confinement and recieving abuse from staff members.  Darrell mentioned that Tamms is all about the commodity a.k.a. the prisoner, and getting money.  The supermax is no longer concerned with crime and punishment but helping their economy.

Darrell Cannon, Rip Van Winkle and Questions of Accountability

After spending 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Darrell Cannon became a free man, only to find his world completely changed. Despite being tortured and wrongfully imprisoned, Cannon was most upset about having lost many of his loved ones. “I lost everything,” he said, choking back on his tears. He had just recently put his sister to rest. It was as if Darrell Cannon had slept through a nightmare and woke up to find himself living through an actual nightmare. How would one react in this situation? With sadness? With anger? Cannon expressed both. And I would be lying if I didn’t say I expected him to forgive his torturers. But thinking back on his experiences now, I realize I was in the wrong in expecting him to be forgiving. He wasn’t in a deep slumber. He was beaten; severely enough to confess to something he did not do. And for taking the fall for someone else, he was imprisoned for 24 years, 9 of them served in a place where he felt insanity was imminent. Cannon lost everything; the people he loved are gone, and he can’t ever get them back.

What really struck me during Darrell’s lecture was the issue of accountability. Here’s the definition from Merriam-Webster:

the quality or state of being accountable ; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions <public officials lacking accountability>

We talked about accountability when we discussed the death of Timothy Souders in a Michigan correctional facility. Who was accountable for his death? Nobody was held accountable, and nobody took the responsibility for his death.

It’s pretty clear who was mostly accountable for the torture Darrell and others like him experienced. Or is it?

Response to Darrell Cannon’s Speech

Darrell was one of the best public speakers I have ever heard in my life.  Almost every part of his story was so extremely interesting from how he got to prison in the first place, to his life at Tamms, to his life now.  The one thing that really struck me was his attitude towards Burge and his “crew” that tortured him into confessing to a crime he really didn’t commit.  He said that he hates them every day of his life, and doesn’t expect his attitude to change ever.  I thought this was so interesting, since he seems like such a Christian man, one of moral character in principle, that he can’t seem to forgive these men for that they did to him.  Its understandable to me, they took away, what, 24 years of his life with his wife and children and family for something he never did.  If I were him and had some of the best years of my life taken from me, I’d couldn’t be angrier either.  What’s amazing about Darrell though, is that he doesn’t show how angry or mentally scarred he is from the whole experience.  He was so kind, and funny and happy and nice, if I ever met him on the street I would have never guessed he had been tortured and put in prison.  I really am awed at his

Coerced Confessions

Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to hear Darrell Cannon speak in class.  However, the topic of coerced confessions has been of great interest to me since taking a course that covered issues related to Psychology and Law.  Through my internship this semester I am working with a White Paper written about this topic.  The paper is currently a draft, but it does an excellent job of covering the topic and offers recommendations to reform the process of interrogation.  If you go to the first link, you can find the paper.  I hope you guys enjoy this and it teaches you more about this topic.  For those of you who haven’t been exposed to the Reid technique of police interrogation, I would love to hear how this strikes you after reading the section regarding it.  This technique drives me crazy!!

The second link I have included will direct you to a webpage that connects you with the story of the first person ever to be exonerated by DNA evidence in 1989 here in Illinois.  I found this story to be rather insane as the woman who accused Gary Dotson completely made up a story of rape incase she became pregnant after having consensual sex with her boyfriend at the time.  She thought it would be better to make up this story and apparently put a man behind bars than face her parents with the news of being pregnant.  Wow!

http://www.ap-ls.org/links/confessions.pdf

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/ilDotsonSummary.html