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Alabama prisons—it’s getting harder and harder to get out alive.

March 29, 2023/0 Comments/in Alabama Prisons, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Criminal Justice, Pre-Law, Research/by Admin

Leola Harris is 71 years old, wheelchair-bound, suffering from end stage renal disease and
diabetes. She has served over 19 years of a 35-year sentence at Tutwiler prison. On January
10th, she was denied medical parole. The day of her hearing, the Parole Board granted parole
to just 1 of the 46 incarcerated individuals up for a hearing that day. Ms. Harris’s next parole
hearing will be in five years—if she survives that long.

As Leola Harris’s story demonstrates, it’s getting harder and harder to leave Alabama prisons alive.

Leola Harris, Sentence Date 11/24/2003

First, Alabama state officials have made it easier for the state to carry out death sentences. Death warrants no longer expire at midnight and appellate courts no longer review death penalty cases for plain errors. A “top-to-bottom” review of our death penalty protocols resulted in a swift return to business as usual. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has made it more and more difficult for death sentences to be reversed.

Second, our prisons have become more deadly. The Department of Justice is suing Alabama because our prisons are so violent and dangerous that they violate the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The violence will only worsen if legislation to limit good time credits passes and understaffing continues. Last year 266 people died in Alabama’s prisons—95 were preventable deaths, the result of homicide, suicide, or drug-overdose. ADOC’s response to this crisis is to stop reporting monthly data on prison deaths.

Finally, it’s increasingly harder to get parole and leave prison alive. The 10% grant rate from 2022 was a new low, but the 2023 grant rate hovers near 3%. The numbers are just as dismal for medical parole and furlough grants. In 2020—the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic—only 5 people were granted medical parole. One of those five was my client, Justin Faircloth, who died of cancer within a year of his release. The most recent reports from ADOC show just 8 people in the medical furlough program.

This is in a prison system where 1 in 4 prisoners is over 50 years old. We have thousands more elderly people in our prisons than we did a generation ago.

These are Alabamians like you and me, not just statistics. These are grandparents sitting in violent prisons. Dostoevsky said that “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” Our prisons are brutal and filled with despair—what does this say about our state? The humanitarian crisis in Alabama’s prisons is a call to action. This legislative cycle is a chance to prove our state can be better. We need parole reform. There are people who have spent decades in prison are no longer dangerous. They and their loved ones have been punished enough. We need to offer them hope.

Please tell your legislators to support, House Bill 16. 

Learn more about the bill HERE.

 

 

 

 

Professor Amy Kimpel, serves on Redemption Earned Inc.’s Board of Directors and as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Instruction at the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

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CRIME & PUNISHMENT vs. REDEMPTION & FORGIVENESS

March 7, 2023/0 Comments/in Alabama Prisons, Criminal Justice, The Executive Director's Corner/by Admin

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT–These FIRST two words form the foundation of our criminal justice system. When crimes are committed and a perpetrator is charged, other words become important: presumption of innocence, constitutional rights, and fairness.

In Judge Kechia S. Davis’ courtroom, another word was the theme for the day: forgiveness. Yes, Barbara Ekes, the mother of a wonderful young man, told the judge that she did not want the man who, with his vehicle, killed her son twenty years ago, to spend another day in prison. Mrs. Eckes told Judge Davis that she prayed every day that she would live long enough to see Douglas Layton, Jr. free.

Mrs. Eckes told the Judge and Doug Layton that she wanted him to be released.

She said, “My son was not a saint, but he was a good man. I want Doug released so that he can have an opportunity to live a life that would honor my son and his memory….My son has not been present to help take care of me, but I want Doug to be able to take care of his mother.”


In preparing for the hearing, Mrs. Eckes waivered on whether she wanted to testify in court: her health is not good and getting around is difficult but her primary concern was seeing Doug. She wondered if she had really forgiven him and that if she saw him, would hard feelings overwhelm her. She almost did not come to the courthouse. It was going to be too much. But, she faced her fears; she told her daughter, Samantha, that she would accompany her to the courtroom. Tears flowed, but so did forgiveness.

Douglas told Mrs. Eckes and Samantha, who lost a beloved brother, how sorry he was for causing the death of their son and brother. He asked if he could hug her and Mrs. Ekes acquiesced. Thus, in Judge Davis’ courtroom, a man convicted of murder embraced the mother of his victim, a moment of healing, evidence of the fullness of her forgiveness.

Before the hearing, two mothers embraced: the mother who lost her son forever and the mother who lost her son for two decades. Thanks to Barbara Eckes, who even advocated without success to the Alabama Board of Pardons & Paroles for Doug’s parole, Mrs. Layton will have her son returned.

There is now closure for Mrs. Eckes and freedom for Doug Layton to prove that he, as he said, is not the man he was when he ran over this special young man who had his whole life ahead of him.

Mrs. Eckes’ prayers have now been answered: Doug Layton is redeemed.

Doug Layton is FREE.

 

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Executive Director’s Corner: Leola Harris, a dying woman DENIED parole.

January 11, 2023/24 Comments/in Criminal Justice, News, The Executive Director's Corner/by Admin

As the Executive Director of Redemption Earned, I attended our first medical parole hearing before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. This week, the Parole Board denied medical parole to a dying woman, a Redemption Earned client, Leola Harris.

This denial by the Parole Board was a blatant violation of its role in the criminal justice system. The Alabama code sets out the high standard an incarcerated person must meet to be awarded medical parole.

According to the testimony of Felicia Hall-Grace, Ms. Harris’s severe health conditions warrant parole. Ms. Grace is a registered nurse who is also a nursing instructor and case manager with 28 years of nursing experience. Ms. Harris was convicted of the murder of a homeless man she had befriended who entered her home. Even though she had no criminal history, not even a parking ticket, Ms. Harris was sentenced to 35 years in prison. She has served 19 years of that sentence as a model prisoner. The Parole Board has limited prospective parolees to 4 minutes if they have no legal representation or advocate and 6 minutes if they are fortunate enough to have an advocate. After listening to 6 minutes of testimony and argument from two Redemption Earned staff attorneys and an expert witness, with no family present in opposition, the two Parole Board members denied parole and set her re-hearing off for a maximum of five years.

Leola Harris, Sentence Date 11/24/2003

Medical testimony revealed that this is a death sentence as Ms. Harris suffers from:

  • End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)
  • Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM)
  • Hypertension (HTN)
  • AV Fistula and Dialysis

The Alabama Department of Corrections, based on Ms. Harris’s severe life-threatening medical conditions, her multitude of disabilities, and lengthy stays in the infirmary, certified her to the Parole Board as meeting the statutory criteria for medical parole.

Even though Redemption Earned was fortunate to secure a nursing home placement for Ms. Harris, the Parole Board ignored the certification.  The Parole Board’s responsibility is to ask and answer two questions: Has the prospective parolee been adequately punished and is the prospective parolee a threat to public safety? Any reasonable person would conclude that 19 years is a sufficient sentence for a 71-year-old woman who is dying in prison. No one would say that a dying woman, who is confined to a wheelchair, who cannot perform basic personal body functions unassisted, is a danger to the public. This Parole Board not only failed Ms. Leola Harris, but they also failed the taxpayers of the State of Alabama. This denial of medical parole to a wheelchair- bound, weak, and dying woman is an injustice that the people of Alabama ought not accept or be forced to pay for.

-Sue Bell Cobb

Executive Director of Redemption Earned and Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice

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WAFF Report: Parole denials skyrocket in Alabama

June 20, 2022/0 Comments/in Alabama Prisons, Criminal Justice/by Admin

by Megan Plotka

More than four years ago, Alabama prisons were overcrowded to the point of being unconstitutional, according to federal court judges. Now, new data shows fewer paroles may be compounding that problem.

In just four years, parole denials in Alabama nearly doubled.

That’s according to data from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles compiled by the ACLU. That data shows the parole board denied 46% of applications in 2017. In 2021, 84% of parole applications were denied.

“People in prison rely on parole for hope they look at the parole date and think ok if I make it to my parole date I’m going to take classes and programs and do positive things because I have hope that that matters,” said Carla Crowder the Executive Director of the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLE AND VIDEO

Source: WAFF 48 Huntsville

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UAB’s Pre-Law Program making an impact outside of the classroom

June 8, 2022/0 Comments/in Criminal Justice, Pre-Law/by Admin

 

by Chris McCauley

Students who participate in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Pre-Law Program in the Department of Criminal Justice have access to pre-law advising, an academic minor, and activities designed to build pre-professional competencies, including legal research and critical thinking.

According to Brandon Blankenship, J.D., assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and director of the Pre-Law Program, these skills—along with many others—consistently prove to be valuable when practicing law or working in careers in law.

In addition to the core competencies, Blankenship also emphasizes community engagement and restorative leadership with his pre-law students.

“[We’re] proactively building community,” said Blankenship.

For Blankenship, community-building often begins with engaging middle and high school students in hands-on learning experiences.

One of the longest-standing experiences available through the Pre-Law Program is Journey to Attorney, an innovative summer camp for rising high school juniors and seniors that includes mock mediation and mock trials. During the camp, UAB pre-law students support camp participants as they retry a historic case (the last camp focused on the Scottsboro Nine case). Attendees dig into the facts of the case and aim to achieve a just result—an effort that often requires 12-hour days and intensive preparation. CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

 

Source: UAB College of Arts and Sciences – Student News

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