Diane’s Story: I Moved 180 Degrees on Compassion
Diane has been a part of the FAMMily for years now. She is a tireless advocate for her husband, and she is a source of...
Compassionate Release Clearinghouse: Damiene Lewis
On April 24, 2020, Damiene Lewis was granted compassionate release and sent home. “That’s a huge blessing,” he says now, from his mother’s home in...
Jomari DeLeon: Pressured Into a Terrible Decision
Jomari DeLeon made two drug sales over 24 hours, making less than $200. Kingpin? Hardly. Yet this first-time offender was sentenced to 15 years. Even...
Chris Young: “Barely on the Totem Pole” and Life in Prison
The judge at Chris Young’s trial described his life sentence as “way out of whack.” The absurdity of his punishment is matched, though, by the...
Compassionate Release Clearinghouse: Margarita Zamora
“I had a rough childhood,” says Margarita Zamora. “My father never wanted nothing to do with me. When he found out my mom was pregnant with me, he left her because he was a married man. My mom was always...Read More
Compassionate Release Clearinghouse: Lea Anne Blystone
Lea Anne Blystone was sentenced to seven years in federal prison. She wasn’t sentenced to die. But when COVID hit her prison, her medical conditions made her especially vulnerable to the potentially fatal disease. Here, she describes her journey from...Read More
Gerald Tarboro: A Story of Second Chances
My story is about two second chances. The first is mine – I got one. I spent 11 years in prison, and I was released a little early because of the First Step Act. The other one I want to...Read More
Compassionate Release Clearinghouse: Ernest Boykin
Ernest Boykin was 41, not halfway through a 15-year sentence in federal prison, and COVID had been hitting prisons hard for months. He had underlying medical conditions that put him at high risk if he contracted the disease, and on...Read More
Jomari DeLeon: Bajo presión, eligió una decisión terrible
Jomari DeLeon hizo dos ventas de drogas durante el curso de 24 horas, ganando menos que $200. ¿Una reina de droga? De ninguna forma. No obstante, siendo su primer delito fue condenada a 15 años. Ni siquiera el juez quería...Read More
Clearinghouse para Liberación Compasiva: Damiene Lewis
El 24 de abril, 2020, Damiene Lewis recibió la liberación compasiva y se le envió a su casa. “Eso es una gran bendición,” él dice ahora, desde la casa de su madre en Baton Rouge. Su liberación fue un proceso...Read More
Success on the Inside: “To Be the Men We Were Taught to Be”
When he was 12 years old, Lee Horton needed help. It was 1977, and he’d just moved to town when he was jumped by a group of boys looking to pick on the new kid. Help arrived in the form...Read More
Charles Brown: Moving Forward to Give Back
It doesn’t take a lot these days to make me happy. Being with family makes me smile. Just sitting on my steps, listening to music, watching people go by. Some stop to chat, some say hi, and others simply walk by....Read More
Claire’s Story: Advocacy Starts Small, Then Blossoms
My name is Claire Tate. I am the vice president of the Arizona criminal justice reform nonprofit the S.T.A.R.T. Project (Striving to Achieve Reform Together), one of FAMM’s partners. We are on a mission to band together system-impacted family members...Read More