This Is What It’s Like to Spend Your Life in Prison | NYT Opinion

look that thing that what it does is this thing yeah it's just it's a camera it also takes film oh all right okay it's a digital camera yeah and this is a microphone oh okay you know I've been locked up 40 something years go back to your time before coming here um what is this that is teach sparkling water they don't sell stuff like this here yeah never when I got locked up my twins were eight months old and that was the last time I saw him I wrote them letters like every week for the first 20 years I was here and by this time now they're all adults so I figure it's time for me to stop trying how could you take a an 18 year old person and just take the worst decision he ever made and hold him responsible for it for the rest of his entire life and not even consider that you may have changed he was the thug on the streets 24 25 years ago and we're angry at that person not realizing that that person no longer exists actually hasn't existed for like over 20 years these men are serving life sentences at Angola prison in Louisiana they don't have the possibility of parole I'm serving a license for second degree murder first degree murder second we murdered and all robbery I'm serving a Life Center a life sentence without parole I was 18 when this crime happened I was 17 years old I was 18 at the time now come here I was 17 I'm 80 years old now people who commit crimes should be held responsible but how much punishment is enough for justice as you listen to these men ask yourself do they deserve a chance at Redemption I had time to reflect and what my life would be if I had to stay here and then I started noticing the need here of the people that was illiterate so I said okay well I could do some good here you know so I started tutoring guys and I started feeling a self-worth I say you know well I could give something back like that you know all the while still dealing with the fact you know that I that I took a life an innocent life if I happen to die here in prison that's not something that I want but I had to think about taking under consideration I took another human's life a young man named it and I went to school with a he still was somebody's son if I could go back in time and redo that that would have never happened it shouldn't happen in the U.S there are more than 50 000 people serving life without Pearl seventy percent of whom are black if you come here Young well prison provides so you never have to be responsible if you don't want to it's hard to Mentor in prison because prisons are set up for you to to Bear the stress of responsibility and and to grow from that so you know you have to kind of seek it out your own with so many long sentences America's prison population is aging taxpayers spend about seventy thousand dollars to keep every elderly prisoner locked up every year so Angola created a hospice program prisoners volunteered to take care of other prisoners basically people convicted of murder caring for the dying it gave me a purpose it gave me a purpose and showed me a different side yeah compassionate side and I probably sat with uh over 50 people to their death hey well I'm not being an old man but my first patient was a guy dying of ease when I'm looking at a man weighing 60 something pounds like man you know can't do nothing so I used to pick him out of the bed put him in a wheelchair bring them to bash and help them bed them up tease them mess with them but when I first was able to help a person I just felt different excuse this pressure but they washed all of the crack of another man's ass all upon his nuts you know it doesn't care what nationality or racy is is that man faking have that man change he might have been a character when he got here but if this man and developed character this man and develop compassion it comes down to not so much what you'd have done but what have you become volunteering mentoring education new experiences gave these men new purpose got a diploma from Culinary Art School from Baton Rouge Community College and um three certifications from the national uh Center for construction Education and Research you know in the event that album went home I could be an asset society and not a liability you know I prepare as if I'm going home tomorrow even though I have a life without parole I try to prepare as if I'm going home tomorrow because who knows what might happen I'd rather go prepare I didn't go unprofiled do we really want to be a country where there's no amount of growth that will ever give someone even a chance to leave prison a country that's fine with endless punishment but never with Mercy that's the worst part knowing that I have I'm a change man knowing that I have the skills to go be a better person in society knowing that I want to do better in society and knowing that I can do better in society and not have an opportunity to do that because I have a life sensor without parole [Music] [Music] his heart is old um but we have a solution second look reforms would offer a chance at parole for those who have transformed themselves and who've already served a significant portion of their sentence to be fair there may be lifers who haven't grown but for the many who have they deserve a second chance ask yourself when you was 7 16 17 year old are you the same person did you even think the same way you did now no as human nature people change if Rehabilitation is a process that should be an end to it there's no you get to a certain grade level and that's not you know high school and college and you know you could pursue undergraduate and then Graduate Studies there's none of that it's just life sentence a few states have implemented changes in the Criminal Justice System including second look reforms and some of these men have actually gotten out but they're only a small fraction of those serving life without parole now if you're concerned they might harm someone else less than three percent of lifers who are released are re-arrested and when they are it's frequently for a technicality not a violent crime in other words lengthy prison sentences don't improve Public Safety over time Americans could save billions of dollars if some of these older reformed men are set free I've been here longer than I've been with my family so sometimes I question where I'm from I'll be tempting to write my mom and them and say if I die leave me here don't come get me don't hurt me with them I don't know them no more bear me with my friends I know without a doubt I'm going home if I die here whether it's tomorrow or God forbid 25 years from now my body will not stay here I'm leaving Angola I'm not going to be buried here somebody who says I want to be buried at Angola that's the saddest part of what a life sentence does to you I make sure that my life is very purposeful every time I invest myself into someone else I free a part of myself a part of me will leave here with you I'm going to love people so passionately until a part of me will always live outside of the gates of Angola I'll go put in the hills and it's been changed we're not I hope I'll be lucky enough to get out go somewhere make me a living oh again yeah you said oh you get the more you're wrong a lot of things you understand so [Music] foreign foreign

Channel: The New York Times

Views: 747,993

Keywords: How many prisoners in America are serving life sentences?, How common is life without parole in America?, Does america let elderly prisoners out on parole?, How much does it cost to house an elderly prisoner in the U.S.?, Why does america have so many old prisoners?, Why is mass incarceration a problem in america?, Mass incarceration, Angola Prison, Louisiana, The New York Times, NYT Opinion, NYT Opinion Video, The Visiting Room Project, Restorative Justice

Id: chpgT_VTEjE

Length: 10min 30sec (630 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 01 2023