Click on the image to open the PDF. Enter your email in the sidebar to the right and receive each new issue in your email.
This publication was created for you â family members, friends, and advocates of prisoners. In each issue you will find useful resources for and from inmates; artwork, stories, and recommendations from both adopters and adoptees; and news from the staff. Donât forget to print and send a copy to your inmate loved one. We welcome your feedback and comments.
It’s not very often I can say that I’m sorry I missed the contemporaneous contributions to humanity by any particular human being. The recent passing of Elie Wiesel has left me feeling that loss.
The vivid portrayal of Mr. Wiesel’s Second World War atrocities were nothing less than shocking and left me with an urgent need to know more about the boy who survived some of the most inhumane conditions ever perpetrated by man, and the man who endured and grew from those conditions.
Much of the treatment meted from the German SS was, I am sure with good reason, not described in Night. Nonetheless, Elie Wiesel is an author I plan on learning more from â even posthumously.
This edition was translated by the person who knew him best â his loving wife â who lost nothing in translation. I was moved for the entire Jewish populous for their ordeal, but I felt uniquely helpless for the author who found the strength to re-live his pain in order to heal the world.
With intense, gripping narrative, I was unable to put the book down until I was overcome by the need to sleep. But sleep doesn’t come easy with the realization of what humans are capable of doing to each other, and how hard Elie Wiesel worked, through his writings, to change the world â his and ours.
What a book! This indepth, candid memoir depicts a prominent man’s epic fall from being a young hot shot politician with a sky’s-the-limit career staring him in the face to a convicted felon serving hard time in a federal prison among some of society’s most degenerate criminals. And yet, this 5′ 2″ suburbanite with a Ph.D was able to not only successfully conform and navigate his new survival-driven surroundings, but also thrive in numerous ways while coming away with a wealth of knowledge that has spurred his efforts to reform the criminal justice system from, once again, a position of prominence and privilege.
It’s not everyday that a politician is convicted of a campaign indiscretion (well, an illegal act in terms of campaign laws) and sent to federal prison, but Smith acknowledges and admits fault for his poor judgement, despite the fact that most who commit such crimes do so routinely and with impunity. He does not dwell on this fact, however, but instead chooses to focus on how he can best utilize his time â and that he does.
In his book, Smith takes his readers through a vivid depiction of prison life by narrating many personal anecdotes of his prison experience, relationships, and the peculiar dynamics that characterize prison life. He provides succinct translations of all institution jargon that he uses throughout the book for his readers’ comprehension, giving the full effect of his experience. We learn about his awkward adjustments to certain situations that could potentially get someone beat up or even killed, his run-ins with Aryan Brotherhood members who detested his association with black inmates, and his resourcefulness in using his superb athletic prowess to make friends while simultaneously building alliances. But this book is so much more than a memoir of intriguing tales of prison exploits and riveting episodes of survival among career criminals â so much more.
Former State Senator Smith was astonished to discover the plethora of untapped human talent locked away in state and federal prisons while he served time for a year. He began to draw the many connections between the prison population and the political world: both require a fierce tenacity in order to gain an advantage over others; both demand assertiveness and attentiveness to details in a world where complacency can be one’s literal or figurative demise. But even more than that, says Smith, there lies a mountain of human potential in the drug dealers who possess inherent, extraordinary entrepreneurial attributes, the embezzler who has superb accountant skills, and the con artist who is charismatic and possesses the gift of gab better than most. The issue, however, is the illegal ways they have used their gifts.
Smith advocates for rehabilitative mechanisms to be implemented in the criminal justice system that would not only educate and transform these men into productive members of society, using their gifts for the benefit of us all, but also demonstrates how investments in such resources would save the American taxpayers billions of dollars over time. He cites many studies that substantiate his claim, bolstering the legitimacy of his proposed solutions and causing the average, rationally-minded reader (regardless of where ones stands ideologically or politically) to think critically about the issue of mass incarceration and our philosophy as a nation on the criminal justice system.
This man’s tumultuous, unlikely journey is a compilation of entertaining stories of how anyone who didn’t grow up in a criminal environment might successfully adjust to the violent, predator-prey, perpetually volatile prison setting they are thrust into. It is also a very insightful, thoughtful manifesto of what is glaringly wrong with our current prison (and political) system and how it can begin to be rectified, benefiting all of America at the same time. Mr. Smith Goes to Prison is one of my favorite books this year, and I am confident it will be one of yours. Give it a read â you won’t be sorry you did.
Spotted in today’s Newsday: my letter to the editor about prison reform. While some of my words were eclipsed or altered, I’m grateful for being given the space to share the importance of treating all people as human beings and worthy of respect, support, and understanding.
Sending love to Adopt an Inmate, especially founder Melissa, for inspiring change, educating me, and offering your continued support.
August 4, 2016 FCC Approves Modified Phone Rate Caps to Bring Financial Relief for Prisonersâ Families
Washington, D.C. â Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted modified rate caps for calls made from prisons and jails in an attempt to once again provide financial relief to prisonersâ families who have long been preyed upon by Inmate Calling Service (ICS) providers, including Global Tel*Link (GTL) and Securus Technologies. The FCC voted 3 to 2 in favor of adopting slightly higher rate caps.
Over 1.5 million families with loved ones in state and federal prisons should have experienced significant financial relief with respect to the rates charged for prison phone calls in March 2016, with the same relief being granted in June 2016 to families with loved ones held in local jails based on an order issued by the FCC in November 2015. However, ICS providers wasted no time in appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in an attempt to invalidate the FCCâs ruling, so they could continue to prey on prisonersâ families. The D.C. Court of Appeals stayed implementation of the lower rate caps but allowed the FCCâs reforms related to ancillary fees to go into effect as scheduled. Not only did the new rate caps not go into effect, but at least one ICS provider â Securus â has increased the rates for in-state calls to âoffset fees that have been eliminated or reduced.â1
The FCCâs November 2015 order capped rates for all debit/prepaid calls from state and federal prisons at $0.11/min., and between $0.14/min. and $0.22/min. for debit/prepaid calls made from jails based on prisoner population. The new, modified rate caps were adjusted to include the long-alleged but never documented costs incurred by detention facilities to provide ICS, and are set at $0.13/min. for debit/prepaid calls from state and federal prisons, and $0.19/min. for debit/prepaid calls from jails with more than 1,000 prisoners; $0.21/min. for jails with 350-999 prisoners; and $0.31/min. for jails with under 350 prisoners. As with the FCCâs initial order, collect calls will initially be capped at slightly higher rates during the first year and phased down after a two-year transition period.
âWhile todayâs vote set rates higher than the initial caps, the FCCâs action should bring much needed rate relief to families more quickly than waiting for the appeal process to conclude,â said Paul Wright, executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center. âThere should be no mistake that this action was the direct result of the relentless greed of ICS providers and the government agencies that run detention facilities,â he added.
The Human Rights Defense Center had previously filed comments with the FCC expressing that even the original rate caps were higher than the phone rates charged in a number of state prison systems. Currently, for example, at least nine states have prison phone rates of $.05/min. or less, including West Virginia, Virginia, New Mexico, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Minnesota and Ohio.
Based on that fact, as well as the failure of prison and jail officials to quantify or justify their alleged costs for providing ICS, âwe would have preferred to see the rate caps lowered rather than increased,â said HRDC associate director Alex Friedmann.
Here is a touching letter from an inmate in Texas who is worried about a fellow inmate he met during transit – which means he likely spent a week or less with him. #InmatesAreHuman
For the first time in almost 28 years, convicted murderer Yvette Louisell soon will live outside the walls of prison.
The Iowa Board of Parole voted Friday to move her to an Ames work-release program, ending years of legal wrangling that overturned an earlier sentence of life without parole.
Louisell was convicted of first-degree murder in 1987 for the killing of Keith Stilwell inside his Ames home. She was a 17-year-old college student at the time of the murder.
She is one the first Iowa inmates convicted of first-degree murder as a teenager to be granted conditional parole after a 2012 Supreme Court ruling declared that mandatory life-without-parole sentences are an unconstitutional form of cruel and unusual punishment for those who committed their crimes before turning 18.
There are more than 30 Iowa inmates who fall into this category.
She has received support from church members, sentencing reform advocates and even the prosecutor who convicted her of murder. They’ve all argued that Louisell has matured during her decades as an inmate and is ready to be released.
Louisell detailed the accomplishments she has made in the 10 months since her last parole hearing on Friday via a video feed from the Iowa Correctional Facility for Women in Mitchellville. She has a leadership role with a group that prepares inmates for release, and she has taken an increasing number of supervised trips outside the prison.
On Thursday, she rode on a DART bus to the downtown Des Moines headquarters and learned how to read bus schedules and download the transit authority’s smartphone app, she said. She earned an instructional driver’s permit during a trip to an Iowa Department of Transportation licensing center.
“Ms. Louisell has done above and beyond all that has been requested of her in the last few years, and certainly the years before that,” her attorney, Gordon Allen, told the parole board. “She’s ready to move on.”
Louisell and Allen spent three years in litigation, which ultimately led a district court judge to set aside her original life-without-parole sentence and open the door for her to one day leave prison.
Her bid for a new sentence went before the Iowa Supreme Court, and the ruling set significant precedent for how Iowa judges can sentence young people convicted of first-degree murder.
Louisell’s transition to a work-release facility will not be immediate. There is a waiting list at the Ames facility, parole board chairman John Hodges said.
Promising future
Louisell had a promising future when she graduated from high school in Michigan at age 16 and accepted a full scholarship to Iowa State University, where she planned to study politics. But she drank heavily and began suffering academically. On Dec. 6, 1987, she stabbed and killed Stilwell, 40, in his Ames home.
Louisell met the older man after taking a job modeling at a local art institute where Stilwell took classes. Stilwell, who was handicapped and needed canes to walk, offered to pay the struggling college student for private modeling sessions at his home.
At her trial, Louisell testified that he cornered her with a knife and threatened to rape her one night after she decided to quit posing privately for him. Louisell claimed that she stabbed Stilwell in self-defense after struggling for control of a knife, but she also took his wallet and tried to use his credit card at a mall before her arrest.
In a 1996 interview, Louisell said that abuse she suffered as a young child played a role in her crime. She also hedged her past claim that Stilwell tried to rape her.
“It had a lot more to do with my mental state than it had to do with his actions,” Louisell told Des Moines Register reporter Thomas O’Donnell in the interview from prison. “Because of what I came out of I took him to be threatening, you know, to be almost trapping me in a way that was very familiar to me. I didn’t have the sense to realize I could just get up and walk out of this situation.”
None of Stilwell’s family members was at Friday’s parole board hearing.
No early freedom
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion in the 2012 ruling that deemed mandatory life-without-parole sentences unconstitutional for minors. She wrote that life sentences should only be used for the “rare juvenile whose crime reflects irreparable corruption.”
In late January 2014, Story County District Court Judge James Ellefson sentenced Louisell to 25 years in prison â a move that would have allowed her to be free within days.
But the ruling was put on hold while the Iowa Supreme Court considered whether Ellefson had the authority to fashion a sentence that would release Louisell while bypassing the parole board. The seven justices unanimously overturned the lower judge’s sentence last year, ruling that decisions about the release for most young killers should be left to the parole board.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, at least two other Iowa inmates sentenced as teens to life without parole have been released.
Kristina Fetters, who was imprisoned for killing her great-aunt, was released to a Des Moines hospice facility in 2013 after she was diagnosed with inoperable breast cancer. On May 12, the parole board granted work release to Mitchell Ronek, who was convicted of killing a man at a hotel in Maquoketa in 1984.
Turbulent childhood
Louisell had a turbulent childhood growing up in a family scarred by divorce and her mother’s mental illness, according to a history of her case written in the 2015Â Iowa Supreme Court ruling. Louisell accidentally took LSD and experienced hallucinations when she was only 3 years old after finding the drug in her home.
In Friday’s interview with the board, Louisell said a major factor in her crime was letting her life spiral out of control without asking for help. Prison psychologists and others helping her prepare to leave prison have taught her to set aside her own independence, she said.
“Iâm a very independent person, but I know that not asking for help is a huge part of what led me down the path to committing my crime,â she said. âIf I have any problems, they get dealt with at the first opportunity.â
Louisell is active in Women at the Well, a prison ministry at Mitchellville coordinated through the United Methodist Church. Finding and becoming active in a church would be one of her first priorities upon leaving prison, she said.
Louisell and Allen asked the parole board to consider granting a full parole Friday, under the condition that she move into the Butterfly Freedom House, a faith-based transitional home in Ames. But, Hodges and other board members each said they preferred a more gradual release.
Louisell will be eligible for full parole at the recommendation of her parole supervisor.
Hot off the presses, the AI Newsletter Summer 2016.
This publication was created for you – family members, friends, and advocates of prisoners. In each issue you will find useful resources for and from inmates; artwork, stories, and recommendations from both adopters and adoptees; and news from the staff. Don’t forget to print and send a copy to your inmate loved one. We do hope you enjoy it.
Enter your email in the sidebar to the right and receive each new issue in your email. See the archive page for previous issues. Click the image below for the PDF file with clickable links.
I’ll admit, when I first heard the title of this best-selling book, I, as a black man, was taken aback. I scoffed at the notion that anyone could attempt to make a sound case for comparing the atrocious Jim Crow segregation laws of the 50s and 60s with today’s â albeit egregious â system of mass incarceration . . . and then she did it!
Michelle Alexander, a civil rights attorney and law professor at Ohio State University, starts from the beginning by illustrating the political and economic motivations by those in power to exploit and subjugate blacks and poor people from seventeenth century North American slavery to twenty-first century mass incarceration. She makes this provocative case by providing compelling evidence through a social and historical narrative that is driven by greed, political power, and economic advantage. If I were a skeptic, her book would at the very least cause me to pause and reconsider my position. Alexander argues her stance as though she were a seasoned lawyer (which she is) presenting her case to a biased jury that she knew would not see it her way unless she presented a masterful argument to win them over â and she does.
Professor Alexander refuses to allow her political persuasion (which I still don’t know) to interfere with her assessment of our broken criminal justice system and its treatment of minorities and poor white people. She equally criticizes Republicans and Democrats for their promotion through propaganda and funding of bad policy that are responsible for creating the highest per capita rate of incarceration among its citizens of any country in the world. She highlights the shrewd political expedience used by Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to propagate the “necessity” to fund the War on Drugs and later devise, state by state, sweeping mandatory minimum sentencing laws, respectively â which are both underlying policies resulting in over 2.2 million people currently incarcerated. She is unapologetically critical of the policies of other presidential administrations, including our current one (which was, frankly, somewhat surprising as she is a black woman), pointing out how they have been led by special interest groups and the big business of building more prisons with the hope of garnering more votes during election cycles.
I found The New Jim Crow to be both incredibly insightful yet profoundly disheartening. It bears the naked ugly truth of America’s ongoing struggle to accept and treat groups of people as equal participants in our diverse society. This book forces its readers to view an insidious, corrupt system â which is driven by politics and money â that confines, disenfranchises, and discriminates against millions of its citizens through a more cynical lens; one that we thought we had moved on from since 1865. For anyone who is affected by or interested in understanding the many tenets that have shaped our system of mass incarceration, I strongly encourage you to read this book â then give it to ten friends to read!
David McCullough’s The Great Bridge is an extraordinary book. It tells the tale of how the Brooklyn Bridge was conceived and built. As is the case with other McCullough works, it is superbly crafted and reads as well as any great work of fiction. The main focus of the book is the bridge, but it is about the fascinating human beings who made the bridge possible. Designed originally by John A. Roebling, it was his son Washington who completed it, along with his incredible wife Emily â as unlikely a story in the Victorian era as one might encounter.
One of the reasons I found the book so fascinating was the great love and respect Washington and Emily showed each other, culminating in Emily’s selfless dedication to Washington after he suffered physical catastrophe during the bridge’s construction.
Besides the Roeblings, the cast of characters involved with the bridge contains a who’s who of New York’s political and industrial giants, including A.C. Barnes (whom you might associate with today’s Barns & Noble), Seth Low (two-term mayor of Brooklyn, and one-term mayor of New York), and William Marcy Tweed (the infamous “Boss” Tweed of Tammany Hall). Tangentially even Henry Ward Beecher had a part to play.
For a while, Brooklyn’s Great Bridge was the world’s largest suspension bridge and even though eclipsed by later works including the Golden Gate, it is still the only bridge with a pedestrian promenade. Walking it has been on my own personal bucket list since first reading this book.
While construction of a bridge that might seem to some as exciting as watching paint dry, this book is anything but droll. I was fascinated throughout, but especially so upon learning that what I always thought was an affliction limited to divers, “the bends,” was discovered by bridge builders who were sinking the footings of their creations using specially-designed platforms â caissons â hence the original name of the malady, caisson disease.
McCullough’s book was first published in 1972, and a further testament to its greatness is the fact that it is still in print. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have a 1982 paperback edition that was signed by the author. Neat.
I highly recommend any edition you can lay your hands on. Four stars.
