#WE CANNOT FORGET ABOUT THE INCARCERATED!!!

There are plethora of men and women who has been in prison longer than they should, men and women who has suffered severely by the hands of an unjust system that has an appetite so voracious, so barbaric and animalistic, that it even locks away children for the rest of their lives. This vehicle (mass incarceration) is one of the most profitable, dehumanizing, debilitating, and unjust institutions since slavery and the Jim Crow era. They (the architects of the prison system) care very little about rehabilitation, penitence, transformative justice, or humanity as long as their bottom line (profit margin, destruction of black and brown families and status quo) is maintained, they will continue locking minorities and people that do not look like them up at alarming and astronomical rates.

And as an incarcerated black man of over 30 years, I can tell you first hand that this system does not play fair or based on justice for that matter. In 1992, the honorable judge Michael Callahan violated my Constitutional Rights by giving me a 50 year prison sentence, 42 years over the recommended maximum eight year sentence based upon the sentencing guidelines. The problem with what he did was there was no laws on the books that said he couldn't do it and it took 27 years before the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that it is a Constitutional Violation to use acquitted charges to enhance a defendant's sentence. Yes, I received 50 years erroneously and still I sit in prison!

Why haven't I been released? Why hasn't the prosecutor responded to the many motions that my attorney has filed to get me released because I should not still be in prison? The reason for that is because I am unimportant and insignificant so there's no rush to free me. As a society we are quick to judge and punish, but slow to forgive and help correct the inherent problems that exist in the black and brown communities. The problems that creates the visible and invisible web that snags and destroys the lives of so many black and brown poor people.

This is why when the judge gave me all of this time, I didn't know how to react. I was ignorant to the proceedings and so emotionless when it came to the best interest of my life, that I couldn't even fathom the possibility of living long enough to do even a fraction of that time. I don't know why, but for some strange reason I had the ideal in my head that I wouldn't live past 25, so in my mind, the judges sentence wouldn't be carried out anyway because I would be dead long before I reached that number. But once the years started rolling by and I reached 25, the amount of time I had been given started to affect me in a very emotional way.

What do I mean by that? I became humane towards the victims of my crimes and it led me to make some swift and drastic changes in my thinking and the actions that followed because of those thoughts. I started to think about every bad decision I had ever made in my life, and the more I did the more I realized that something was really wrong with me. It had to be because I didn't even blink or cry when he sentenced me, I just felt like it was my lot for all the terrible things I had done in the course of my youth, that it was my time to pay the piper. So I didn't wince or cry, I took it as best as I could because I was built for pain because it felt like I've been carrying it for as long as I can remember.

But that was the misguided Carlos, the unintelligent Carlos, the pain filled Carlos, and the Carlos that didn't give a damn about anything or anyone. But the today Carlos chooses to share his pain and his traumatic experience with you because I am no longer the guy that do not care. As a youth, I thought that there was no way out for me, and prison was the result of my bad decision making and I accepted that. But when the judge chose to violate my Constitutional Rights, a person that is elected by law to protect those rights, why did it take 27 years before it became Unconstitutional??? If it was Unconstitutional in 2019, then it was definitely Unconstitutional in 1992! How can it not be? This is another form of the injustice that is so pervasive in the judicial system when it comes to black and brown people. This is 2021 and I am still sitting in prison after the Supreme Court ruled that my sentence is unconstitutional because it was based on acquitted charges. A sentence that was handed out in 1992, is there something wrong with that?

I/we need society to demand more from their elected officials, to demand that their elected officials find a better solution to the crises that locks so many of us up. As well as the problem of taking too long to let a person out of prison that isn't suppose to be in prison. We can/must be better and we cannot forget about the incarcerated! They/we are so much more than the prison numbers that are stitched on the back of our shirts. We are worthy of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, love and another chance to show as Bryan Stevenson would say, that we are more than the worst things we've ever done. Something must be done to eradicate the barbarity within the judicial system that locks up and throw away the key on so many black and brown people. Do they (architects of the prison system) have a path to redemption, or do they feel we are incapable of being redeemed? What is penitence if not the ability to be remorseful, compassionate and empathetic for the wrongs one has committed against society? I have pondered that question many times throughout my incarceration because change didn't come easy for me. I have been involved in the criminal justice system since I was 15 years old and in prison since I was 18. But once I decided to be better, I did so on my own accord and not because the MDOC (Michigan Department of Corrections) sought to rehabilitate me so that I could return back to my community and do more good than harm, no, that never happened.

 They did the opposite, they worked to mentally destroy me so that I wouldn't be any good to anyone whenever I was released from prison. But I chose to be more. Although I suffered for many years due to my own demons and self made hell, I eventually turned my life around and became very productive. I am now ready to be free so that I can do some good just like so many other incarcerated men and women. We are ready to be resources for our communities and no longer liabilities. We need your help in shinning a brighter light in our direction because the Department of Corrections across the country has stranded us on these prison island without the necessities of family, friends, freedom and rehabilitation. We are just sitting, cluttered together, and waiting to die! We need your help. Thank you for reading and sharing this...

Sincerely

Carlos