Senator Webb,
I am writing on behalf of a great number of Florida prisoners. I have
now been incarcerated, day for day, in the State of Florida, for over
fourteen years. I was arrested at the age of eighteen, sentenced to
serve the rest of my life in prison at the age of twenty, and will be
thirty three years of age on Nov 4th, 2009. My first year in the state
prison system, between the ages of twenty and twenty-one, I succeeded in
earning my GED and completing a vocational course in small business
management. After the age of 21, and due to my having a life-sentence, I
lost virtually any further opportunity to participate in such prison
education programs. At the time (1996-1997) those prisoners under the
age of twenty-one were given priority enrollment in such programs -
those over twenty-one were given a secondary priority based upon their
release dates.
Since then, and over time in general, educational opportunities provided
to the prison population collectively and overall, have only become more
and more restricted. Not only are we no longer eligible for government
grants or loans, but the state funds that were once allotted toward
prison educational programs have been both dramatically cut from the
state budget and absurdly funneled into other departments of the
correctional (in no sense rehabilitative) system - such as those
departments which advocate the building of more prisons. In fact, a more
than significant amount of the state budget set aside for educational
programs outside of the prison system, has gone disproportionately
toward that same goal - the building of more, greater restricted
prisons. As I write this letter there are many prisons throughout the
state that have not a single educational program to speak of, period. On
average, a Florida prison houses approximately one thousand prisoners.
Of any of these groups of 1000, the vast majority have never attained
neither a basic education nor a specialized skill. Without these tools,
again and again they will fall by the wayside - as those who are better
equipped, for whatever reason, continue to progress. The prison
population, not only in the state of Florida but across the country, has
boomed, and in many cases has exceeded maximum capacity. Supreme Courts
in the State of California have ordered the reduction of its state’s
prison population by 40,000 people. It is nearing two times maximum
capacity. Why?
Of the 40,000 people to be released in the State of California, how many
of them will have earned a GED, how many of them will have learned a
trade, how many of them will have been given the opportunity to utilize
their time in prison with an option to participate in a college level
correspondence course, and most importantly of all, how many of them
will return, because of the denial or limitation of any or all of these
three?
Senator Webb, as I have already stated, I have been sentenced to serve
the rest of my life in prison. But it wasn’t until some point of my
developing life - a period that some would say came too late - that I
realized that I was indeed a part of a greater whole. I say this because
regardless of my personal circumstances I hold fast to another
conviction as well: the fact that I still have a life in which to serve.
My service has spanned from both prison classrooms and prison youth tour
programs, to prison recreation yards and even disciplinary confinement
cells. I have helped both 40 year old men and kids as young as fifteen -
yes, kids as young as 15 - learn how to read, write, and work
arithmetic. And it is in that same spirit that I wish to be serving now
by writing this letter, and giving them (us) a voice.
Senator Webb, I believe service is something you can relate to. I’ve
heard speak of you over the BBC radio broadcasts, I recently read of
your trip to Burma in Time Magazine, and your devotion toward the need
to improve education, in general, was recently touted in an article
published in the periodical Under Lock and Key. Whatever proposals you
make, points you debate, objective you’ve set out to reach, and
obstacles that will impede the way … we would like to play a part as
well.
Education, or the lack of, is the most relevant factor in the
manifestation of (our) criminal behavior. Whether it be academic,
social, moral, or personal…the prison systems of America have very
little to provide, if not simply just less and less. Continuing to deny
the U.S. prison population this single provision alone, is to continue
to promote the ignorance of a system that, per capita, currently has
imprisoned more human beings than any other nation in the world. The
question why - even among us, the illiterate, is no longer any more
profound than it is rhetorical.
Sincerely,
A United States Prisoner
Response from Senator Webb:
Reply to letter of September 29, 2009:
Dear Senator Webb,
Your letter of Sept. 29, 2009 has been received
and upon contemplation it is my conclusion that it was somewhat
automated. In no way could my original letter to this office have been
construed as concerning my “trial or any of the legal issues surrounding
[my] case.” Furthermore, my contacting you, a Senator of Virginia,
instead of a Senator in the state which I reside, should give credence
to the reason. My Desire is to learn more about the National Criminal
Justice Commission Act of 2009, and how we (the incarcerated) can help
to further that bill. A personal response would be highly praised.
Sincerely,
A United States Prisoner