Justice Works in America for Those Who Can Buy It

By Colin Warner, USA Today

24 August 17

Demand for confessions and plea deals keeps young men of color and the poor from getting due process.

spent 21 years behind bars for a crime I did not commit.

In 1980, I was living in Crown Heights, N.Y., and was convicted in the shooting death of a 16-year-old in the nearby Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. I was 18, and was incarcerated despite persistent efforts by friend and fellow Trinidadian Carl King to secure my freedom. King is my hero. Most people in the system have no one like him fighting on their behalf.

The law enforcement officials in charge of the investigation had reason to know, even as they charged me, that the criminal justice system wasn’t working. 

It was a new era of mass incarceration, and the police and prosecutors were empowered, as they still are, to detain young men of color, and to find a reason to charge them and lock them up. A system built upon rounding up suspects and demanding confessions and plea deals, in which the state has great power and the accused have little, is a system that does grave harm.

Finally exonerated

In 2001, someone else confessed to the crime. I was exonerated that February. 

A thorough investigation would likely have prevented me from going to prison, but no one had a stake in sorting out my innocence. I didn’t have enough money to pay for a better defense, and consequently I was sentenced to 15 years to life. 

Too often, the system doesn’t work for people who can’t afford to defend themselves.

After 15 years, I became eligible for parole, I was in my 30s and married to an incredible woman who, along with King, gave me the strength to endure this ordeal. I hoped to be set free. But to get parole, I had to admit to the crime and exhibit remorse. When I insisted upon my innocence, any consideration of parole disappeared.

Shouldn’t a parole board be predisposed, in the absence of negative information about a person’s performance in prison, to offer hope and some sort of path toward freedom? Despite evidence that aging offenders are less likely to return to crime, parole boards keep people imprisoned who are of little threat to public safety.

Prepare prisoners to return to society

Many of the men I met in prison were guilty of serious crimes and serving long sentences. I believe certain guilty people need to be incarcerated, but I also know that many have potential and deserve a second chance. They come into the legal system with few resources, are confined in a way that resembles slavery, and eventually are released with still fewer resources.

Prison does not prepare you to go home.

Our criminal justice system is a waste pit of lost human potential. No one benefits from the extended periods of incarceration that are the norm in our country — not taxpayers, not victims, not law enforcement, not the community. There are fairer, cheaper and more humane ways to treat people who are guilty of crimes other than long, mind-numbing sentences.

Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice research center, has suggested that sentences of more than 20 years are counterproductive and costly. 

In my mind, the first purpose of incarceration is to punish a guilty person by restricting his freedom and separating him from his community. But when someone is incarcerated, the system should prepare that person for a successful return to family, friends and community.

Instead of stripping people of their rights, time in prison should include enough education to enable inmates to function and give back. People coming out of prison should be ready to work or attend school, pay taxes, participate in elections, serve on juries, and become useful citizens. Prison should make you a better person, not destroy your potential. 

Long sentences change people for the worse. When hope disappears, it takes with it any motivation for self-improvement. I saw men fall apart and engage in crazy behavior that I had seen only on TV. 

Prison needs to be a place for growth, enabling people who are locked up to prepare for better lives. Because sooner or later, most of us do come home.