Dedicated to humanizing incarcerated people through the expressive vessels of their art and literature. Committed to accelerate higher education and careers post-conviction.
It is not a matter of if the prison system is broken. Thats an understatement. The prison system is doing exactly what it was designed to do! Not only is it a business at the end of the day, but the beginning as well all at the expense of our people. This country was built upon slavery. So if you don’t acknowledge that; there’s no way that we can expect different result!
Leroy Williams
Deerfield Correctional
It’s a horrible sign that the country of America might actually be going backwards– towards the wrong direction… was this what was meant by the 2016 dog whistle calls to ” Make America Great Again”…?
Five states, here in America, are putting a rather interesting bill on their ballots this midterm election season… Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Oregon, and Vermont are all trying to reintroduce “forced labor” back into the American penal system. This situation makes this month’s Brilliance writing prompt somewhat prophetic…
“Am I incarcerated for profit?” (Brilliance writing prompt for October 2022) detailed the very gruesome history of the many insidious ways the powers of this country have exploited the American justice system and configured it into a racist pitfall (a “black hole”). All of this, in an effort to re-enslave black people, subjugate American minorities, and further the seemingly impenetrable grip racism has on this country…
Maybe the powers are going to decided to use the cover of a poor post-covid economy to bolster the need for slavery in prisons? They’ve already put forth the footwork for the past four years and successfully weaponized a fringe base of poor, white people, armed and even ready to storm the capital — maybe in hopes of taking the country “back” to “make it great again?” It is easy to accept the state of the economy as broken or unfit by those privileged but in poverty. But to those who have aligned such privilege with financial success and are now in want more, pointing them in the directions of the prison system as a means for their salvation is a welcomed fix.
Maybe the minimal headway made on social justice reforms leaves most with an unmerited sense of self satisfaction? So much that they aren’t even the least dissuaded to publicly disregard the mental wellness of Black Americans by resurrecting their most critical of traumas.
I hate that the connotation of capitalism can be justifiably understood to mean: at times we sacrifice long term mental anguish in hopes of short term monetary gains. and in a democracy like ours, this expense tends to always fall on the minority.
Why is forced labor in prisons an issue of race?
Well regardless of what our leaders are touting as true social justice reforms, the dramatic disparities in incarceration rates are still very well alive and thriving. the emphasis on racial justice, these past two years, has barely put a scratch on the issue of unfair treatment between minorities and the penal system. Black Americans still greatly outpace white ones in America’s prison population. And as described in the latest Brilliance prompt, the current state we are foregoing in this country concerning Black Americans and prison was deliberate in its design.
Given the recent events taking place within the Alabama prison system– where the incarcerated there are demonstrating a work stoppage in protest of inhumane living conditions and unfair treatment by the Alabama justice system, the fact that Alabama is amongst the states considering forced labor is nothing other than a symbol of its stern unwillingness to consider to the pleas of its prisoners. A bold statement that power is in no need of a heart nor soul. It only needs lives to stand over…
My hopes are that these aversive proposals to enslave prisoners do not go further than just racist propaganda, designed to motivate alt-right fringe voters to the polls.
If this horrible, racist. vision does manage to make it to fruition, my hope then is that the human soul that will forever fight for equality and justice, beats loudly throughout all the hearts of the oppressed and imprisoned, and that of all of their allies, and stands in opposition of such travesty…
Continue to fight for righteousness, because it is not freely given. We are all the children of freedom and it is our birthright to be free…
Love, peace, and power,
Q. Patterson
The fact that the United States still operates under post civil war era criminal justice standards is plain wrong! Governments need frameworks to establish beginnings. Not saying the way of our founder’s frameworks were the right path to take, but frameworks are needed to build period. Once the initial building is over certain things need to change (amended) or be removed to better society or just to be morally sound. Again, in this essay’s case, the justice system’s correctional approach is antiquaaaaaaaaaadaaaaaaaaaaated in our modern society, which many people have fought and died so hard to change.
One of the essay questions that i personally would like to elaborate on is question #3: How can the prison system be use to better our community?
Well, my personal opinion is that I feel the number of correctional facilities should be reduced and the closed facilities should be remodeled into immigrant/disaster relief facilities where people in need have shelter, clean water, laundry, dinning areas and grounds for medical attention. The federal government could easily funnel some of it’s money used to incarcerate the population to aide others in more immediate need. While at the same time, create jobs for the economy that current inmates could be employed that would better the economy by being paid more, therefore, taxed more. This was one of the ides I had on this year’s fall essay. Thank you for the time that you took to read this and I hope that it may take root.
Shout out to the crew behind Brilliancebehindbars.com.
Keep up the work!
J. Reinard, LVCC
by Lord Serious
On September 26, 2022 Senator Jennifer Boysko and Delegate Irene Shin paid a visit to a group of prisoners at Lawrenceville Correctional Center. After introducing myself and thanking the distinguished guest for visiting us at the prison, I asked them what were their visions for prison reform and criminal justice reform. They each spoke of their record and the various bills they have sponsored and fought to get passed. I’d like to thank Q. Patterson and Sistas In Prison Reform (S.I.P) for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the group who were chosen to attend this meeting. Below is a draft of some of the speaking points I wrote to prepare for the meeting:
First, we offenders request that you amend Code 15.2-1636.7 to prohibit the Compensation Board from continuing to use the formula suggested by Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys. This prosecutorial interest group has suggested a formula that incentives Commonwealths Attorneys offices to seek felony convictions for funding, and it deters prosecutors from using alternative methods to secure just and fair results.
This formula contributes to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people. It encourages prosecutors to seek felony charges over misdemeanors, and it deters them from recommending diversion programs, even in cases where a misdemeanor or diversion program will result in a more just result without jeopardizing public safety. Furthermore, the formula fails to factor in the socioeconomic factors that also influence crime. All of this results in a biased criminal justice system that encourages its prosecutors to over charge and excessively sentence minorities so that their office will receive more funding.
Once this formula has been replaced with a method that will eradicate the bias and exploitative nature of the Criminal justice system. Many of your funding issues will be solved when it comes to the Department of Corrections, because prosecutors will be less inclined to charge every criminal defendant they possibly can with a felony and sentence them to prison. Those who can remain in the community without jeopardizing public safety will receive an adequate punishment without ever having to step foot in a prison, thus they will be less of a burden on the Virginia tax payer.
Next, we request that you amend Code 9.1-601 Citizen Review Panels. We ask that you expand their oversight abilities beyond the police department. We request that their oversight authority be amended to include the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offices and the Probation and Parole Office.
It is our position that a lot of the socioeconomic bias that infects the criminal justice system goes beyond just police brutality. The entire system neither values nor does it respect the Black and Brown life, especially when they are from impoverished communities. Therefore, we ask that municipalities be given the authority to establish Community Review Panels that will maintain the checks and balances and make these two critical departments accountable to the communities they serve.
The Community Review Panel should be allowed to play a role in determining whether Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offices are dealing too harshly with the citizens in their community. It’s easy for an office of predominantly White people to send young Black and Brown men to prison for multiple decades for their first felony offense. But the very communities that we’re committing our crimes in do not always agree that a lengthy prison sentence is an appropriate punishment, and the voice of the community should have some influence in these matters before trial. Community Review Panels should be granted the authority to recommend eligible cases for diversion programs when appropriate.
The Community Review Panel should also be granted authority to review the practices of the probation and parole offices for biases and abuses of power. Ex-offenders on probation and parole have no right to an attorney for a revocation hearing and neither can they appeal the decision if their parole has been revoked. This leaves ex-offenders at the mercy of the probation and parole office and they are powerless to prevent abuses of power. Therefore, Community Review Panels should also be granted oversight authority to protect returning citizens from bias probation or parole officers.
And lastly, we would like you to pass a law to make financial literacy a requirement for our rehabilitation. The Uniform Crime Report data shows that poverty is a major contributor to crime. In fact, that report list economic conditions and employment availability as the #3 influencer to crime in the Commonwealth, eclipsed only by population density and population stability which were #1 and #2 respectively.
Legislators in Virginia recognize that having access to more financial resources can help prevent recidivism. This is why the law was passed that now requires us to save $1,000 in our hold account. Obviously, legislators realized that Virginia offenders were not doing a good enough job with saving their money and many were being released with only the $25 they gave you for the bus ticket and the lack of financial stability is what was leading many to re-offend. Unfortunately, with inflation steadily increasing that $1,000 will have less impact by the time many of us are released.
So that $1,000 is not enough. If you distinguished guest are serious about prison reform and preventing recidivism then the nature of the Department of Corrections will have to change course, it must turn away from it’s past when it was a system that used mass incarceration as a profitable economic model. This economic model has failed and your budget issues and the statistics all show that mass incarceration is an unnecessary burden on the tax payer and it has never increased public safety.
-Lord Serious, September 2022
Peace and chaos and confusion universe, and salute to Q always.
This is off-topic but I would like to share a jewel with you. Today is the funeral of a nurse at Keen Mountain who was murdered by her baby’s father who was a correctional officer here…
Now, this is a sad moment because she treated me as a human, one of the very few that do in the system. Thou I’m weird to almost everyone I meet, due to me claiming to be God and also short, legally blind, and walk with a limp lol. But ask anyone who knows me, I stand on all infinite because I don’t go through life looking at it as if its dangerous. I go through life as I know I control it, and life don’t control me because me and life is bond meaning together…. understand. Everything is attracted to everything when U understand you. Thus, my name is Allure meaning attraction. -smiles-. This is what im predicting (The Seer, which is the follow up of my name Allure, which means prophet) -another smile-. This was a sacrifice so the Universe can now show U that don’t have a development of realization that the material world power is unstable in the mind…the devil. And they look at us (inmates) as if we are nothing but hire deadly inmates!?
All these years the government – and when I mean government, I’m including prison guards along with police cause they all are one. Murdering us. Committing crimes while working as a crime fighter. Then they say correctional center, ha ha, yea to correct you not to know self. Look, I’m Allure The Seer Of Truth GOD! And iuno what the rest of y’all will do but peaceful talks only work with a peaceful person. The government is not peaceful. Extremely tired of talking fareal to all who just hear, rather than listen and application. Last chance, know yaself.
-Allure The Seer Of Truth God
Share this with the world:
“Change comes from knowing we are all the same.”
Editor’s Note: Quadaire has been on a long lockdown for the past few weeks, and spent some time researching the deep roots of mass incarceration. He wanted to share the facts he learned and engage the incarcerated population in Virginia.
Since its conception, America has benefit from free labor and the industry of slavery. Slavery has long been abolished, but the clause of ‘supporting it in cases of punishment for a crime’ has been continuously exploited by corporations and politicians. This has lead to the modern day social crisis of mass incarceration and the lucrative enterprise of the prion industrial complex.
Post-civil war, disgruntled Southern lawmakers sought to evade the parameters laid out by the Reconstruction Amendments (Amendments XIII, XIV, and XV). They used the exception marked out in the 13th amendment that legalized slavery in case of punishment for a crime as the basis for achieving their goal. Incarcerating former slaves disqualified their newfound citizenship, nullified their voting rights, and returned them to chains and involuntary servitude. These Southern lawmakers legislated numerous laws and policies such as “Race Codes,” “Black Codes” and many more targeting former slaves for incarceration. White Southerners effectively weaponized the law to enlist America’s Criminal Justice System as a device to perpetuate slavery under other names.
One of these reimagined forms of slavery mirrored a pre-civil war program used in Louisiana, known as “convict leasing.” Incarcerated prisoners were leased to private companies and plantations as laborers. Ironically, these programs were often many more times dangerous than slavery conditions prior. Private companies held no direct investments when it came to their leased laborers. Unlike former slave owners who stood to lose money if the slaves were to get horribly sick or die, private companies with leased convicts were less dissuaded to put them in very unsafe and hostile environments. Convicts were more harshly abused, and in many cases, company task masters would drive them to their deaths. Since the convict leasing program was facilitated through contracts between the prison and the employer, when a laborer died, the prison would simply replace them to meet their contractural obligations and business resumed as usual.
Convict leasing took numerous lives before it was outlawed. Eventually, the program was replaced by ‘correctional enterprises’ — state-owned companies that used prisoner’s forced labor. Correctional enterprises used prisoner labor to manufacture a number of products ranging from eye glasses, shoes, and state license plates. Correctional enterprises are still widely used today. While they gross multi-million dollars a year, their workers, incarcerated peoples, average to earn about $1 per day to take care of themselves and in many cases, their families.
The prison industrial complex has thus evolved. Today, the highest grossing business fueled by the incarceration of Americans is that of the private prison sector. Private prison corporations gross multi-billion dollars a year. The business arrangement set between these corporations who provide incarceration services to the governmental agencies that employ them is a simple one: Incarcerated service providers supply bed space to state and federal agencies and must meet a quote of occupants in order to satisfy their contracted obligations. The most sinister part of this dynamic is the corporations that provide private prisons are publicly traded on the stock market. Thus, anyone and everyone, even law enforcement officers can profit from an increase in the incarceration rate.
One more interesting concept to identify in the scheme of prison for profit is a little more subtle than others. In 1994, 10 years after the first installation of a private prison, the Clinton Administration enacted the Crime Act. This piece of legislation awarded incentives to the states who get more severe on crime. The Crime Act inadvertently encouraged systemic racism with monetary gain and further the profit-for-prison dynamic.
In a perfect world, we can see the logic in society profiting from anti-social acts such as crime. But in America, our racist past infects our criminal justice system to its core. Post-Civil War and Jim Crow politicians have taken advantage of that notion from the onset of the Emancipation Proclamation. Segregationist politicians worked hard to frame the tactics of the civil rights movement as ‘crime running rapid in the streets’ and spawned “tough-on-crime” politics that still serve as the breeding ground for dog whistle politics today. (as defined in Rethinking Incarceration, as racial legislation ensconced within coded rhetoric about the common good)
Never forget that the American justice system is built on principles of the slave trade, monetary gain at the cost of human lives. Everything from the low cost, low quality food being served in prison mess halls, the highly marked up nearly expired food products being pushed through commissary, excessive price tags on essentially free services such as emails, all combined with state-sponsored monetary incentives for persecuting felony charges, keeping an ample incarceration rate, and cutting corners on a bare essentials are all aimed at profiting of human lives…
All of this takes place under the guise of sound economical principles, public safety, and justice for victims, but just as slavery was regarded as a noble conquest in the eyes of many Americans, profiting from the misfortune of already poor, disparaged people is nothing more than vile, life-costing capitalism.
Quadaire Patterson
Thought Starter Questions for the Incarcerated:
Write your own essay, poem, or submit art relative to this topic. Do not forget to include your name and any contact information for any readers who may be able to offer you some assistance.
How much time am I expected to serve before I’m deemed by the public eye as being fit for society? When will enough be enough? There has to be a common denominator where the offender and the people in power can have a meeting of the minds to determine how much is enough time. What is time but the calculated motion measuring how long it takes to get from one place to another? With that being said who are you to determine how far I have come in my growth and development as a man, and how long it has taken me to do so? So once again, how much is enough time?
What if my rehabilitation has come faster than the average offender’s? I have done more than enough to exemplify that I am, and have been for a while now, deemed fit for society. What is the purpose of programs, vocational trades, maintaining employment, and being infraction free if they are not tools used to determine whether or not a person is rehabilitated? The prison system is broken and it is obvious that those in power do not believe in their own system. Their theory is to lock them up and throw away the key, whether you’re innocent or guilty. I have been incarcerated for 21 years and have done everything there is to do, but yet I am not deserving of the good time sentence credit because I am considered to be a violent offender.
Before parole was abolished, was it not for non-violent and violent offenders. When the 85% good time went into effect, was it not for both non-violent and violent offenders? If so, then why change the customs of past laws and legislations to exclude a certain category and class of people that in past history, were treated with equality. Did our United States Constitution not grant us equality and protect us from cruel and unusual punishment? Are those in power not supposed to uphold the Constitution?
How much is too much time? A message for the political powers that be. I am serving a 53-year sentence for a robbery that I committed in which no one was harmed. I plead guilty to a term of 13 years for this offense. I was given 40 years solely for a crime that is documented that I didn’t commit – so you tell me how much is enough time.
My name is Antoinne Pitt # 1157338 I’m currently housed at Lawrenceville Correctional Center. Peace and Blessings to you all.
On of the biggest difficulties that I come across on a daily basis has to be the undiscovered talent and skills individuals have, and us ‘inmates’ are the only ones that tend to see them. With very limited access to the outside environment, many of the talents and beautiful skills that these incarcerated individuals have go undiscovered for years (and sometimes even lifetimes) without ever being discovered by normal society. This is one of the things that tends to rub me in the wrong way.
Freedom of expression in our free world (country) should be and unalienable right? Am I wrong? And without the proper platforms for these types of expressions to reach the free world, turns into a form of oppression in my personal opinion. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few ways that we can contact the outside , but we have to pay for it in order to do these things. From buying postage stamps, J-Pay stamps, and collect and debit calls. J-Pay & GTL Phone services offer very few things for individuals whole are not fortunate enough to have financial support on the outside. This not only inhibits people from reaching out to the people who could spread the word of their particular gifts and talents, but this is also morally crushing as well.
The state offers employment, but the waiting list for a job opportunity can be very lengthy. Additionally, over the years the educational opportunities have become fewer and fewer.
In conclusion, another terrible thing is that this bill that was rescinded after many people across Virginia were promised closer release dates. My time is very short so I have to end this as briefly as possible because of the time limit on the kiosk. But these are some of the things that aren’t right from my perspective. We need more people to notice the true Brilliance Behind Bars!!
J. Reinard #1523818
Lawrenceville Correctional Center
TALKING LOUD, but SAYING NOTHING!
TALKING LOUD, but SAYING NOTHING!
TALKING LOUD, but SAYING NOTHING!
TALKING LOUD, but SAYING NOTHING!
Every 2 years state Delegates run for election. They promise tax paying citizens they will do this and do that– TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING!
Some of them even tell you they believe in second chances any prison reform. TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING!
They get in front of cameras taking photos, talking to crowds, shaking hands. TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING!
Then they go behind closed doors having meeting after meeting not taking into consideration the outcome of their decisions, they make on people lives. TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING!
We say Black Lives Matter. We say White Lives Matter. We say Latino Lives Matter. We say ALL Lives Matter. But here we are 53 days and counting with the budget amendment to the enhanced sentence credit bill that affected a little over 8,000 inmates behind the prison walls. There are about 53% of Black men behind bars in VADOC. There are 38% White men behind bars in VADOC. There are about 2% Latino men behind bars in VADOC—and less than 1% of other nationalities behind bars in VADOC. TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING!
July 24th there was a rally for what happened to the ESC for our loved ones to show up to have their voices heard. Sad to say only about 60 people showed up. TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING!
Families are we going to stop TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING and rally together to fix the injustice that was done to all of us! So that your loved ones can get the chance they have rightfully EARNED!
If you really care, you will get on board with prison reform advocates at the next rally coming up. STOP TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING!
To the national groups like NAACP, we need your support too because you say you stand for Black Lives Matter. You say you stand for injustice to our people! STOP TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING!
There are many behind bars for some 15+ years that’s spent time rehabilitating ourselves, taking programs, remaining infraction free and maintaining employment. We are not the men/women we use to be–at least some of us are not. Why penalize us for the violent crime that is still happening in VA today. We want to help make a difference and join forces with the community, advocate groups and law enforcement to make change happen.
I say to you today, “You without sin cast the first stone!” Let’s put an end to TALKING LOUD but SAYING NOTHING and start TALKING LOUD and DOING SOMETHING!
Written by Jerry L. James, #1157844
Brilliance Coordinator @ Deerfield Correctional Center
“I was arrested in 1991 for multiple armed robberies and malicious wounding. I had charges in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia. I was convicted in Maryland for robbery, use of a firearm, and shooting in an occupied dwelling. The charges were dropped in D.C. I was extradited to VA to face criminal charges in 1992, while serving a 5 year sentence in MD. After finishing going to court and receiving my time in VA, I was extradited back to MD to finish my sentence in 1994. I made parole in MD and was extradited back to VA penitentiary in 94. I never was released in between my extradition. That was my first offense. I was sentenced to serve a total of 58 years with parole.
In 1995, I received a letter from court and legal telling me that due to the change of the law, I would not be eligible for parole. Court and legal placed me under the “three strike” rule (53.1-151(B1)). They unlawfully took my parole. In 2018, I received a letter saying I might have been placed under the wrong law. I explained to them my situation and they reinstated my parole. I was suppose to be eligible for parole in 2003. I missed 15 years of seeing the parole board. Now that I’m going up, they keep turning me down due to nature of crime and haven’t served enough time. I’ve been incarcerated for 30 years and 8 months. I was 18 years old when I got arrested.”
George M. Lynch
#1181371
Brilliance Behind Bars 