San Quentin News

Written By Inmates - Advancing Social Justice

Louisiana taking steps to keep families connected

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A new program is helping Louisiana girls keep in touch with their incarcerated fathers.

“Not being able to see my father has been traumatizing,” said Dominque Jones, whose father has been in prison since before she was born. She organized a program that helps girls cope with the strain of life without their incarcerated dads.

“When I was 16, my paternal grandfather passed away, and that was the first time I saw my biological father outside of prison bars — shackled and chained and escorted by two correctional officers at his dad’s funeral,” Jones, 36, said in an interview with TheAdvocate.com.

The program is called Daughters Beyond Incarceration (DBI). One of its events was a Father’s Day gathering June 15 in New Orleans called a “crawfish boil” for young girls of incarcerated dads. The program relies strictly on fundraising. It currently has 30 members.

DBI was created to advocate for policy changes and removal of the barriers that make it difficult for daughters to communicate with their fathers, according to the June 16 article.

“I get frustrated and angry,” said Sun’Shyne Mathieu, 16. Father’s Day is “going to be a real tough day for me. Everybody’s going to be posting pictures with their father’s gifts and everything, and I have to send my graduation pictures and diploma in an envelope, and that’s not right,” Mathieu added.

DBI has also teamed up with Navigate Nola, which is a New Orleans based activist group, which made this occasion and photo shot possible. They displayed a photo exhibit of portraits of the members, soon to be displayed at all New Orleans Recreation Development Commission’s (NORD) programs and all NORD sites.

Jones pointed out it costs around $100 to visit her father at the Angola prison. That includes gas, money on the phone for their conversations, and feeding her two children. When you are a single mother this can be particularly stressful, according to the article.

“Could you imagine your father being transported to University Hospital or Tulane Hospital and you not know?” asked Jones on the fact that the prison has no notification responsibilities on her father’s medical treatment.

DBI is currently working with Southern Poverty Law Center advocating for prison policy changes to create a free phone call system and even become involved with schools’ PTAs, according to the article.

Another organization working to highlight some of the stresses girls with incarcerated fathers may face is Navigate Nola, founded by Danielle Wright. Wright said these daughters face anxiety, sadness and fear. These factors can contribute to the girl having problems in school. Wright said she is working to highlight these issues instead of letting the girls be subjected to school discipline.

Jones said she hopes to purchase a home for her organization where girls could have recreational activities like art, yoga and dance. This would help the girls gain a sense of normalcy, she said.

Federal judge slams prosecutors for mishandling evidence

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A federal judge has held prosecutors in contempt for failing to preserve evidence in a case involving recorded conversations between prisoners and attorneys.

Some 110 defendants alleged the recordings violated 6th Amendment protections. Three defendants had their sentences vacated or indictments dismissed, the ABA Journal reported in August.

Judge Julie Robinson of Kansas City, Kan., ruled in favor of the defendants, citing a special master’s investigation of recordings made by inmates attorney-client phone calls. She said the investigation proved the Attorney General’s Office’s failed to cooperate in preserving evidence.

Contempt

“Under his discretion, management defied the court’s order and directives, continued to fail to preserve such that years of documents were potentially lost, and then only produced what they (Attorney’s General Office) chose to produce,” Robinson ruled.

The judge declined to rule in favor of a per se 6th Amendment violation of right to counsel for the defendants in the case but cautioned that the individual defendants named in the suit whose calls were recorded at the Leavenworth Detention Center, could raise prosecutorial misconduct claims individually based upon her findings, according to the article.

The center is operated by CoreCivic Inc., formerly the Corrections Corporation of America.

It was estimated that over 1,429 attorney-client calls were received by the U.S. Attorney’s Office upon request by the federal prosecutors between 2010 and 2017, according to findings by Judge Robinson.

She noted that when requests were made to the prison for recorded phone calls by federal prosecutors, there was at least a 28 percent chance the calls contained attorney-client privileged calls, the article stated.

Removal

Two attorneys for the U.S. Attorney General’s Office were released from their official position. The judge found that they had “knowingly and intentionally” listened to recorded attorney-client calls in one or more of their cases, the judge noted.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that those lawyers were “rogue” attorneys.

The judge also found that the U.S. Attorney’s Office “willfully misconstrued” a preservation order, avoiding the preservation of some evidence. The office did not act on the formal litigation hold order until May 2017. Some of the computers’ hard drives were wiped clean. These facts were determined by David Cohen, special master in the case.

The article said a former attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s office testimony of a lunchtime discussion on record disclosed the following:

“Their conclusion was that phone calls placed by detainees to their lawyers weren’t privileged because they were on notice the call was being recorded. The group also concluded that if the lawyers were ‘stupid enough’ to talk to their clients over the phone, prosecutors had no obligation to disclose the recorded calls.”

The case is United States v. Carter.

Conditions unsafe for the incarcerated in some southern prisons

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Many prisons in the South lack air conditioning and this creates life-threatening conditions in heat spells, the Prison Policy Initiative reports.

“The lack of air conditioning in Southern prisons creates unsafe — even lethal –conditions,” the report stated. “Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can cause dehydration and heat stroke, both of which can be fatal.”

Some courts have ruled that prison standards on incarcerating people in extreme cold or heat violates prisoners’ constitutional 8th Amendment rights. Those states include Arizona, Mississippi and Wisconsin.

Ninety-five percent of households in the South have air conditioning, but almost none of southern state prisons do.

“The lack of air conditioning in Southern prisons creates unsafe — even lethal –conditions”

“People outside of prison who experience extreme heat have the options that prisoners lack — they can take a cool shower, drink water, move into the shade, or go to a place that is air conditioned,” quoted Prison Legal News in a 2018 article. “For prisoners, those options are generally unavailable.”

Heat related illnesses can be exacerbated by certain prescribed medications. These are but not limited to Zoloft, Cymbalta, Prozac, and Lexapro, (do not stop taking any medication with- out your doctors permission). There are also certain medical conditions that can lead to heat related illnesses such as diabetes, and obesity. Heat has a greater effect on those that are older. This demographic has an increased risk of cardiovascular, and respiratory illnesses.

“Everyone understands that if you leave a child in a car on a hot day, there’s a serious risk this child could be injured or die,” said ACLU Director David Fathi to The Intercept. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing when we leave a prisoner locked in cells when the heat and humidity climb beyond a certain level.”

Most prisons are constructed from heat retaining materials such as concrete and rebar. This can contribute to higher temperatures inside prison cells.

A fan could possible make a difference in regulating heat, but a fan in a Texas prison commissary costs $20, an astronomical fee when prisoners in Texas are not paid for their labor.

“It routinely feels as if one’s sitting in a convection oven being slowly cooked alive,” said Benny Hernandez, a Texas prisoner. “There is no respite from the agony that the heat in Texas prisons inflicts.”

Prison Policy Initiative believes air conditioning should be a human right and not an amenity or privilege. When it’s withheld, it can subject people to conditions that can constitute cruel and unusual punishment. In some cases, death sentences, according to the article.

California legislators want to streamline re-entry

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New “one-stop” program would acknowledge many hurdles for returning citizens

Congresswoman Karen Bass

Congresswoman Karen Bass is spearheading legislation to create a one-stop reentry program, as well as criminal justice reform, according to the Los Angeles Sentinel.

“There should be a place where you can get your ID, sign up for benefits, get connected to medical services, get transportation — a place where people can get their lives on track quickly,” Bass said at a July 13 legislative hearing in Los Angeles on criminal justice changes.

Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, has concentrated on criminal justice reform most of her political career, according to the Sentinel. She said she is currently working on reform legislation.

“Many of our criminal justice policies are good; they protect our loved ones and communities,” said Bass. “At the same time, far too many of our laws are ineffective or do more harm than good. I am committed to reforming criminal justice so that it is sensible, effective and consistent with our notions of equality and fairness.

“In addition, we need to ensure that those who have paid their debt to society have reentry services and opportunities to live productive lives.”

Among those attending the hearing were Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life.

“I’m really thankful to Karen Bass for holding this hearing, so that we can dis- cuss women and their need (upon reentry to society),” Burton told reporter Jennifer Bihm. “I know what it could mean to leave prison and not have safety.”

Burton’s reentry program is geared towards helping women function after prison.

“I’ve visited 40 states and 36 prisons. When we talked about what women need when they are leaving; overwhelmingly, I saw women who were desperately trying to maintain their parental rights,” said Burton. “I saw women who wanted a job but were worried about how they would be employed.”

The topic of jobs, housing and reunification were topics that Bass mentioned.

Witness John Harriel of reentry program 2nd Call said, “I did not know that I had low self-esteem grow- ing up. I had no idea that I wanted to commit suicide. I didn’t want to do it by my own hands. I wanted some- one else to do it. When I think back, there were no men leading the way, putting on their boots and going to work every day. I envisioned going to prison as a young man because in my community going to prison was rewarded.”

Harriel said he pulled his life back from the edge with the help of two support members. He has successfully gained a union job and is now a homeowner and a mentor to the youth, accord- ing to the article.

Another witness, Stanley Bailey, said he is a former drug addict who spent 36 years in prison. He said people with mental health issues make up a large part of the prison population and don’t receive the help they need.

Bass commented, “I believe we could drastically reduce prison overcrowding by repealing harsh mandatory minimums and reserving the toughest sentences for serious criminals who threaten public safety. We should invest in community-oriented crime prevention and intervention efforts for struggling neighborhoods and at-risk youth.”


Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Spring 2018, Population Projections.

Formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs successful in business

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Entrepreneurship does not define where you have been, but where you are going. Formerly incarcerated Teresa Hodge, Marcus Bullock, and David Figueroa have all launched successful businesses despite all having a troubled past that led them to prison, reported the ABA Journal.

“It was as if prison provided a moment of clarity—a place to plan and figure out life and to determine how to start over—and yet somehow there was this huge disconnect from that vision and desire to actually being successful,” Teresa Hodge told the ABA Journal on how her vision started in prison.

Teresa Hodge launched R3 Score, which is an algorithm based score and report that uses your education level, along with arrest record, facts from your life and volunteer work to create a score. The score is much like a credit score with 300 being the lowest and 850 the ceiling. These scores could be used for bank financing, commercial contracting, and occupational licensing or other opportunities.

“I kept seeing that over and over in prison: the spark in someone’s eye saying. ‘I’m going to make it,’” said Teresa Hodge. “And then the return of someone whose light had been dimmed by reality.”

After his release from prison, Bullock filled out over 141 job applications for various positions.

“The question on the application was ‘have you been convicted of a felony within the last seven years?’ said Bullock. “I want to create my own destiny instead of relying on someone else. I’m naturally an entrepreneur, I sold candy in school.”

Bullock created Flikshop, an app that allows family and friends to take a photo and add a message that is print- ed on a postcard and sent to a correctional facility for a cost of 99 cents. He received a grant to help him launch the business by Unlocked Features, which is affiliated with John Legend, a recording artist and criminal justice advocate.

According to the article, Bullock goes into prisons frequently to teach inmates basic entrepreneurship skills to launch their own business.

“I’m never going to tell them it’s going to be easy, but this is the first step,” he said. “Now, entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. But for those who want it, let’s give them an opportunity to provide for their families.”

“They can leverage up and learn about business and marketing,” Bullock said. “If we do this right, we’re changing the world, we’re changing the narrative.”

David Figueroa took his dreams and has built a crew of three, a foreman and two men, recently released from prison. His company is called Second Chance Renovations. His goal is to hire ex-cons and give them the opportunity he never had.

“Every time that I checked the box that asked whether you were a convicted felon, I never got a call back.”

He feels that ending the cycle of mass incarceration starts with each potential employer.

“People think they’re thugs, scum. But they still have kids,” said Figueroa. “They still have bills. I think the system is rigged to keep a certain amount of people in prison.”

According to the ABA Journal, Figueroa has accomplished his goals since his release from prison 14 years ago. He had his gang tattoos lasered off, found a lovely woman he married, has a career, a job he loves.

“I used to be really heartless. I had no emotions, said Figueroa. “Once I had my children, it completely changed me.”

The ABA Criminal Justice Section has been working for over a decade to remove the barriers that most ex-cons find when released from prison.

“There can be lifelong consequences for not only a felony conviction, but also for a misdemeanor conviction,” said Lucian Dervan, chair of ABA Criminal Justice Section and associate professor of law at Belmont University College of Law.

Yet many former inmates don’t attempt to have their prison records sealed or expunged even when they are eligible because they don’t know how to do it or lack the legal help they will need.

A study by the Harvard Law Review found that only 6.5 percent of legally eligible ex-convicts that could ex- punge their record in Michigan had actually done so within five years.

“Affording these individuals a way to expunge or seal their nonviolent convictions recognizes both the accomplishments of the individual in building a life free from further contact with the criminal justice system and the need to reduce the collateral consequences of a conviction,” stated Resolution 109B, which was passed this January by the ABA House of Delegates.

California expands higher education access for prisoners

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A new program offering bachelor’s degrees to prison inmates is thriving in Los Angeles County.

“It’s about making people who can reach all their potential,” said Bidhan Roy, an English professor for the program at Lancaster in the Mojave Desert.

The bachelor’s program allows each student to take up to two classes per semester. It currently relies mostly on donations and/or private money from the nonprofit Renewing Communities. This nonprofit gave the school $256,984 as a three-year grant for the classes.

California now spends nearly $81,200 per year for each prisoner housed in a state prison. It only costs an additional $5,000 for a prisoner’s full time college enrollment, according to Wayne D’Orio for The Hechinger Report printed in USA Today on July 12.

Many of prison college education programs were gutted when President Clinton and then Sen. Joe Biden barred prison inmates from gaining Pell Grants to pay for college classes.

The Obama administration installed a pilot program to allow Pell Grants for some prisoners. As a result, the number of prisoners in college programs grew from 1,504 in 2016 to 5,000 prisoners in 2017, according to USA Today.

Since 2014, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports the number of inmates who received passing grades increased from 5,725 to 13,301 the following year.

Some lawmakers are trying to remove the ban entirely on inmates receiving Pell Grants. It would affect about 463,000 nationwide prisoners, said Brian Walsh of the Vera Institute of Justice.

California is the only state that offers community college classes in almost every prison, the report noted. The tuition for these classes is paid by the state’s taxpayers. The number of students in these colleges in 2017 was 4,500, a number that was zero in 2014, according to the article.

There are teachers who feel some students need remedial education before college classes. Some “may have not read an entire book in their life,” said Jody Lewen, executive director of the Prison University Project (PUP) at San Quentin.

PUP has conducted college classes at San Quentin for nearly 20 years. Lewen added, although the faculty she has met has been “fantastic” taking their work seriously, she worries the quality of the education may be threatened by some colleges wanting to expand too quickly, according to the article.

Cerro Coso Community College is another degree- rich college. It has expanded its degree program to seven degree programs. It currently has close to 900 prisoners enrolled. That demographic makes up nearly 18% of the college population. The college serves two prisons and has 45 classes at these two prisons.

In June, the Andrew W. Melon Foundation gave Cal State LA a three-year grant of $750,000 to continue the bachelor’s program offered at CSP Lancaster.

One of the students in Lancaster, Bradley Arrowood, is now free on parole.

“When I was a kid, I was told I’d never amount to any- thing,” said Arrowood. “Had I not gone in for this offense, I was either going to end up dead or kill someone else.” In 1995 he was sentenced to life without parole, and I “de- served every bit of my sentence,” Arrowood, now 49, said.

The Lancaster program was started by Bidhan Roy, an English professor, while he was volunteering at the prison. He saw the ambitions of the students and persisted with Tiffany Lim, Cal State LA administrator to start a Bachelor’s degree program.

The success of the pro- gram is because of the students’ willingness to learn and transform their lives. Many of them know that as a lifer serving a sentence for murder, or attempted murder, it’s unlikely they’ll have a career, said CDCR Lt. Richard Ochoa. But their studies also impact their family members, encouraging some of them to aspire to college too.

Pennsylvania under scrutiny after prisoner dies in custody

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Family of deceased raise questions about cause of death in legal action against prison administrators

Everett Palmer Jr. died in custody from injuries that York County Prison in Pennsylvania deemed were self-inflicted, reported The Washington Post.

“There was so much mystery and unanswered questions in a way that violates every policy and procedure the state has,” said Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney representing the family.

Palmer, a Black man, was arrested in Pennsylvania in 2016 for driving while under the influence (DUI) and causing a single-car crash. Emergency responders at the time said they could smell alcohol on Palmer. His blood alcohol level tested 0.148—whereas Pennsylvania’s legal limit was 0.08.

Palmer returned to Lancaster County in 2018 to clear up the warrant for the DUI, and ended up being detained and sent to York County Prison.

Palmer was in single-cell housing on April 9, where he was reported to have been in an “agitated” state while repeatedly hitting his head on his cell door.

When custody officials noticed Palmer’s behavior, they placed him in restraints and then took him to the prison clinic for evaluation. The coroner’s report said that’s when Palmer was “noted to be unresponsive.”

Staff’s attempts to resuscitate Palmer proved unsuccessful. He was then pronounced dead early the next morning.

Palmer’s official cause of death was “complication following an excited state, associated with methamphetamine toxicity, during physical restraint. ” The manner of death was undetermined, according to the coroner’s report.

His death has prompted a possible grand jury investigation into his death.

“My son was a perfectly healthy young man, and my son is not going to bang his head on a cell. My son was not a troublemaker, not at all, he was a very gentle, kind man,” his mother, Rose Palmer, told the Washington Post.

The county contracted with an independent firm, Forensic Pathology Associates (FPA), to perform an autopsy, York County Coroner Pamela L. Gay told the Post. She said that the result for methamphetamine toxicity meant that the level of methamphetamine in Palmer’s system “was sufficient enough that it could have contributed to the death.” Yet she questions how Palmer could have got the drug while in custody. These findings prompted the family to pursue civil and criminal charges against York County Prison.

They continued to have questions regarding his death a year later.

“My brother was a good man, he comes from a good family, if he did something wrong with regards to the DUI then clearly he should be held accountable for that. But that should not be a death sentence,” said Dwayne Palmer, regarding his brother’s death.

When the Palmer family did get Everett’s body, it was missing his brain, heart, and throat. At that point, they hired an independent pathologist to determine what had happened; the independent pathologist, after investigating, said Palmer’s death should be considered a homicide. At first, the coroner’s office denied removing Palmer’s organs; it took several months before they admitted that they had removed the organs and that FPA had them. Gay, the county coroner, said that “it was not uncommon for those organs to be removed and kept by a lab.”

“We’re gonna get answers to what led to his death, and we do that with everybody. We’re going to do this the right way,” Gay said.

In recent years, police and law enforcement have been scrutinized for their handling of African Americans during police stops, arrests, or while in jail.

Sandra Bland was another such suspicious death. She died in a Texas jail cell in 2015. Her death was classified as a suicide. A traffic stop led to her incarceration. She was videotaped being confrontational toward officers. An officer was recorded during the incident threatening Bland with a Taser. The video recorded him saying he would “light you up.” Within three days of her arrest she was dead. The emergence of this video prompted nation-wide outrage while her family sought answers.

New York considers elderly parole law inmates 55 and over may see relief

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There is new legislation being introduced in Albany, NY, that would allow inmates that are 55 years of age to be eligible for parole after serving 15 consecutive years, according to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

This measure was introduced to the Senate by Brad Hoylman, a Democrat representing Manhattan. The measure however doesn’t mandate the release of the prisoner.

Judith Clark is a 69-year- old who served more than 37 years for her role in a 1981 Rockland County armored truck robbery. During the commission of the robbery two police officers were killed along with a security guard. Clark was paroled a week after the bill was introduced.

“It’s nuts. It’s unbelievable that a cop killer is being freed,” said Sen. Bob Antonacci, a Republican from Syracuse, to the Times Union of Albany.

The number of elderly prisoners in the New York prison system has risen 81% since 2000, despite the drop in the number of the overall prison population. This increase has required correctional facilities to hire more geriatric nurses and establish care units to treat these elderly prisoners. Some of these elderly inmates suffer from dementia, heart disease and diabetes.

The recidivism rate for elderly inmates is 5% for those released when older than 50 years. The recidivism rate drops to 4% when released at age 65, according to the article.

The parole board noted in Clark’s case her accomplishments while in prison, length of time served, her age, apologies to her victims, and her change of view from previous radical principles.

“There are so many more Judith Clarks out there—elder, incarcerated New York- ers who have honestly confronted their crimes, taken responsibility, served their time, and worked to change the path of their lives,” said Sen. Hoylman after Clark’s parole grant.

Fear of the outdoors – one result of long term solitary

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Frank De Palma spent more than 40 years of his life inside Nevada’s state prisons for second-degree murder, grand larceny, battery, and attempted murder. Twenty-two of those years were spent in solitary confinement, where he developed acute agoraphobia as a result of the prolonged time alone, reports The Marshall Project.

While serving time at Ely Maximum Security Prison, De Palma was sent to solitary for his own protection. While there, he assaulted a prison guard, so he was kept there. During his confinement in solitary, De Palma slowly began to experience what he called “the opposite of claustrophobia.” He began to fear leaving his cell even to exercise.

“It was suddenly like all the air around me became a pressure force…I couldn’t breathe. I started banging on the door to the yard to go back inside,” he said.

He began to have panic attacks. He experienced tightening in his chest that resembled a heart attack. He stopped taking showers because he feared having too much open space around him. When light began to bother him, he covered up his one window. He lived in darkness as much as possible; only then did he feel safe.

As the years passed, his psychosis grew to the point that when he began to suffer toothaches he used strong nylon string from his mattress to perform crude extractions in his cell rather than go see a dentist. His behavior did not go unnoticed by the guards. They would tease him by threatening to pull him out of his cell.

During this time, as a cop- ing mechanism, he created his own fantasy world. He’d imagine shopping in a grocery store, tapping melons to see if they were ripe, meeting ficti- tious people—scenarios that sometimes led to romantic re- lationships.

De Palma experienced these fantasies so often that reality and fantasy became blurred. The memories of his real life began to fade. “I literally forgot that I had a family,” he told the reporter from The Marshall Project.

Eventually a psychologist, the warden, and a couple members of the emergency response team came to encourage him to exit his cell. De Palma assumed this was because he was due to leave prison soon. During these first encounters he could barely speak. It had been so long since he actually uttered words that his speech was gar- bled. It took the prison team more than several hours to coerce De Palma out of his place of refuge.

A guard told him, “Just keep your eyes closed, and hold onto me,” and led him out of his cell while De Palma clutched the guard’s belt.

De Palma was transported to Northern Nevada Correctional Center for psychiatric aid. During the several-hour trip, he continued to keep his eyes closed. To pass the time, he concentrated on the pain caused by the tight handcuffs that had been placed on his wrists.

Upon arrival, he asked to be sent back to Ely, a request that was denied. De Palma stayed in the psychiatric ward getting treatment for his acute case of agoraphobia for 10 months He began to understand that the behavior he displayed was in no way human or normal.

De Palma had a gradual ascent out of acute agoraphobia. It began with short durations of time outside, until he was able to be moved back into the general population.

He was finally released from prison after serving a total of 42 years, 9 months, and 15 days. Transitioning back into society has been hard because he still suffers somewhat from agoraphobia. While wearing a hoodie given to him by a friend, De Palma thought he saw some- one closely behind him. In a panic, he quickly turned his body towards the person, causing him to fall to the ground. There was no one behind him, only the hoodie attached to his shirt. On another occasion he walked into a Walmart and noticed himself on one of the big screen TVs. He was horrified, fearing somehow they’d put him into a computer.

To relax, he went to a bathroom stall and locked himself in for 15 minutes until he regained composure. He realizes that a part of him still craves a dark, safe abyss.

De Palma revealed to his interviewer that he is troubled by thoughts that prison has been his whole life, and he questions, “Am I going to make it out here? Am I too damaged to ever belong?”

Princeton students support ex-cons getting higher education

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“Formerly incarcerated applicants are among the most vulnerable, and we should treat them with respect, if not admiration”

Princeton University has taken a stance against a student movement called “Ban the Box.” The “box” refers to a section of the college admissions application that inquires about a prospective student’s criminal history. Applicants with criminal histories are very likely to be rejected from academic institutions. Students argue that by allowing criminal histories to weigh into admissions decisions, the Princeton administration is perpetuating inequality and is unfairly denying the formerly incarcerated second chances. Higher education is also an important contributor to decreasing recidivism.

During a meeting held at the Council of the Princeton University Community, a mixture of opinions emerged regarding how exoffender applicants should be treated.

Some, including many students, thought that once a person has served his or her time, he or she should be able to regain all the rights of full citizenship.

Some, representatives of Princeton expressed their opposition.“I think there are some kinds of criminal activity that may be related to risks that could occur on campus,” said Christopher Eisgruber, President of Princeton University. “We take those risks seriously.”

“I think there are some kinds of criminal activity that may be related to risks that could occur on campus”

Samuel Aftel, a Princeton University student, expressed frustration at the university’s reasoning for maintaining the box. He said that accord- ing to the university’s logic, a former convict will be more likely to commit violence outside FitzRandolph Gate than on campus. Princeton claims to protect its campus community above all else. Some say that the university is okay with the violence as long as it happens outside its campus gates.

“We take those risks seriously”

There is limited research on the potential impacts of banning the box and no hard data suggests a formerly incarcerated person will endanger other students. Some feel that to deny a person’s civil liberties after incarceration is to essentially keep that person incarcerated after his or her release.

“Formerly incarcerated applicants are among the most vulnerable, and we should treat them with respect, if not admiration,” says Aftel.

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