Prisoner Profile Archives

Behind Bars and Starving to Death: The Urgent Need for Medical Parole

Friday, June 25, 2021

What happens when someone in prison gets very sick and there is no mechanism in place for the system to allow for compassion? That’s the situation that Joseph Palmer and his family are in right now. They – and many others like them – urgently... Read More

If the Law Is Wrong Now, It Was Wrong Then: The Case for First Step Act Retroactivity

Thursday, June 24, 2021

The First Step Act helped thousands of people get shorter, fairer sentences. But as its name makes clear, it was just a start. Too many people have been left behind simply because of the date they were sentenced. The First Step Implementation Act would reunite... Read More

When Addiction Leads to 30 Years Behind Bars

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

“I am not saying that I am innocent. I did some really foolish things and failed to reach out for help for my addiction. I broke my mother’s heart.” Celeste Blair’s path from childhood trauma to addiction to prison is all too common. At the... Read More

How an Unloaded BB Gun Got a Teenager 33 Years

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

15 – Nick Robinson’s age when he was arrested 17 – Nick’s age when he was sent to an adult prison 33 – The number of years of his sentence 28 – How old Nick is now 2037 – The year he will be released Read More

The Crack-Powder Disparity: It’s Time for Justice

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

In 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act reduced the crack-powder disparity in sentencing from 100:1 to 18:1. Lawmakers acknowledged that crack cocaine is no more addictive than powder and is not more likely to cause violent crime. Also true is that lengthy mandatory minimum prison terms... Read More

Retroactivity Needed Now to Right an Unfair Sentence

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Brian Keys is ten years into a 15-year sentence for selling drugs in a school zone, his first felony. Remarkably, he now has the support of the judge who sentenced him, plus the sheriff of the county where Brian was arrested. Both of them see... Read More

When Compassionate Release or Clemency Would Mean Justice Served

Monday, November 30, 2020

John Brookins’ story is filled with pain and injustice. But more than that, John’s story is a love story, one that goes all the way back to his childhood, when he met a girl named Karen at the Salvation Army Church. As teenagers, “we were... Read More

Matthew Rushin’s Mom Just Won’t Quit Fighting

Thursday, October 29, 2020

“If anyone thought I was not going to voice my opinion and that I was just going to let my son become a statistic, they had the wrong mom,” says Lavern Rushin. “They had the wrong mom.” Lavern is the mother of Matthew Rushin, the... Read More

An Unimaginable Sentence

Monday, September 28, 2020

When Darlene Wells and Jesse Dunaway met, it was “empathy at first sight.” She was working as a nurse at the institution where Jesse is a prisoner, and he was working in the staff dining hall. “You get to see these people, day after day,”... Read More

In the Eyes of the Law, First-time Offender Is a Trafficker

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

William Wilder is no kingpin. In fact, he did not even sell drugs. In 2018, he bought 14.3 grams of methamphetamine from a confidential informant. And now he’s in prison for a first-degree felony for trafficking. There is a very, very long distance between Pablo... Read More

Category: Prisoner Profile

Archive