In 2002, I was arrested in front of multiple college students. The cops must have been watching me, doing basic surveillance to make sure I didn’t try to skip town. I had been interrogated by homicide detectives a week and a half earlier. They played a deadly game of human chess. Giving me every opportunity to make a stupid move, they sat and waited. After seeing me consult with law students in the legal clinic who would be dedicated to my case, only then did the DMPD decide to arrest me.

While I sat in the back of a squad car, cuffed and waiting for who knows what, one of the homicide dicks eyed me like a fisherman admiring a catch. Only the dick was a she and never pretended to be anything other than my enemy. That’s more than I can say for her partner who tried to play the good cop and called me brother during interrogation.

“Your ass is mine now.” These are the last words I would hear her speak until forced to listen to trial testimony. Curiously, that explicit remark never made it into the official record. I was taken to the police station and locked in a small interrogation room overnight. After I invoked my right to an attorney, of course. Later, they lied on the stand and said I was free to go at any given time. It’s a curious irony that they can lie on a stand.

Once you’re arrested and indicted, especially in a Bible Belt state, they have a supreme advantage in the end game. A conviction is considered a win, and why would they ever want to reverse that post-conviction? An appeal is expected. The stats show the house wins about 98% of the time.

The problem is, life without parole is real. Take just a couple of moments to consider all the lives it hurts. Not just of those sentenced by rigid courts, but the families and loved ones affected. One of the things I’m continually thankful for is never having had children. It would be cruel for them to have a father who would never be coming home. There are real hearts and minds being rocked by collateral damage.

The Justice system is an intricate web of magical language, one rarely navigated successfully by prisoners. If you are not an agent of the court, you are an outsider. Ironically, an outsider who they want to keep on the inside (of a prison cell you will eventually call your house). The same can be said for scientific circles. Mainstream science is a wonderful thing. If you do not speak the correct language it is unlikely you will fool real scientists into thinking you have degrees you do not. That’s probably why most of us let lawyers be the mouthpiece. If we say anything it will only hurt us. The catch-22 is that silence gives consent. Playing on their terms in their court is a zero sum game for you and yours.

My goal is to help the world see why mass incarceration, lengthy sentences and LWOP is harmful to our very planet. The prison industrial complex is not sustainable. There have to be alternatives. Of course, it is human nature to think up the most horrific case you know of and say, “Some people just need to be locked up!” I know what you’re thinking. The serial killer. The pedophile who you would never want within ten miles of your kids…

Am I saying they should all be let out into what you think of as your community? No. I’m saying that putting millions of people behind a fence is not the answer.

When I first came to prison, I kept hearing the same social meme. You know the one. It goes something like, “The age you come in prison is the age you stay stuck at… “ I made up my mind early on. I was not going to stay 19 forever. Change is a must. The one thing I knew I could still control was what kind of change that would be.

In 2018, I happened to browse an issue of Baron’s financial quarterly. There was an article about how if the country is going to maintain economic growth, they will need more workers. The bull market we were experiencing during that pre-pandemic time couldn’t last, simply because we didn’t have the manpower. The article asserted that ex-felons should be free of a lot of restrictions that keep them out of certain jobs because they are an integral part of the workforce.

At any given time there are about two and a half million human beings incarcerated in the United States. There are tens of millions on parole and supervision. That’s not counting those who are committed to hospitals, inmates of a sort. I suspect that the given number doesn’t take into account juveniles in custody, either. Lowering mandatories, finding alternatives to incarceration and defunding militarized police departments are just a few suggestions for how our community can be more American rather than totalitarian.

How is the system harmful to our very planet you ask? Perpetuating the cycle is bad simply because we are the custodians of our planet. If the world population continues to rise, and it will, then more thought needs to be put into what kind of generations we are bringing into this world. A parent who is manacled to the system sets an anti-social tone. Their offspring mimics their behavior, distrusts the authorities that are supposed to help them and generally misses out on substantive living.

After all, red lining is not merely a practice applied to African American communities. The trailer park is essentially the same thing. Human beings are continually economically and physically marginalized by a capitalist system. As long as that’s what the Prison Industrial Complex remains, only those at the very top will benefit from it.

I encourage you to visit a prison if you can. Tours are given to those thinking of working in Corrections. You can also start a friendship with someone who is locked up. For the most part, you won’t find men and women learning a second language, becoming computer literate, or contemplating things. You will find people watching television, playing dominoes and being warehoused. Educational programs are merely looked at as a prerequisite for early parole. There are those who are serious about improving themselves, who are gifted with a scholarly dedication. These are usually the long termers and lifers who know that they have made their bed and have chosen to elevate their minds because their bodies may never be free. It’s ironic that those who are least likely to reoffend (one time murderers) are the least likely to be released.

Keeping a human being locked up for several years is torture, regardless of what they have done. Keep in mind that there is no way to make up for the thousands of wrongful convictions that have occurred since the Quakers created the penitentiary system. Making someone live in a cage is hard on the mind. It dehumanizes them and makes them feel less than. It is also a stigma for their families.

It is time to start looking into other options. Mental health, education, job training and discretionary sentencing. Why should an 18 year old be given the same sentence as a 65 year old for the same crime? The former could do 50 years in prison before their life sentence expires with death. The latter may only actually have to serve a couple. Do you see how treating everyone the same is not really fair? Equality is not a reality in other spheres, as well. The wealthy have a better shot at facing the justice system for the simple fact that they can afford bail and better legal counsel.

People forget that one thing that supposedly makes the American justice system great is something that puts us at a severe disadvantage. You have the right to an attorney. This means that one will be given to you if you cannot afford one. The same system that is trying to take your life from you is the one who pays your lawyer, a public defender who is likely overworked. Ask someone in jail how many times their lawyer came to visit them, scheduled a call or wrote them a letter. They are lucky if the answer is even once.

Complaining about these hard truths is unlikely to change anything. However, for me, silence is the equivalent of death. Think about how you’re being manipulated by politicians and media the next time you see some horrific case splashed across the headlines. Sometimes, they are doing more than just reporting the news. They are playing on your fears. They are softening you up for the politician running for office who is not soft on crime. There’s animals out there, they want you to know.

They don’t plan to actually do anything about it. They only want to maintain the status quo and keep people in cages: the young, the wrongfully convicted, the vulnerable, and the elderly. After being forced to cohabitate with the worst of the worst, the light leaves their eyes. I came across a phrase recently that really stood out. I don’t know who the original author is. Hurt people hurt people. On this subject in particular, truer words have never been spoken.