[Death by incarceration is the most prevalent and most overlooked
form of state sponsored execution. They call it a life sentence, but
that is a misnomer. Any prison sentence that a person cannot outlive
is a sentence to death.]
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PRISONERS REIGNITE MOVEMENT TO END MASS INCARCERATION  
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Raymond Williams
February 24, 2023
Waging Nonviolence
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_ Death by incarceration is the most prevalent and most overlooked
form of state sponsored execution. They call it a life sentence, but
that is a misnomer. Any prison sentence that a person cannot outlive
is a sentence to death. _

, (Facebook/Concerned Lifers)

 

On Dec. 5, I sat in a circle with 30 prisoners at the Washington
Correction Center in Shelton, Washington. As we looked around the
room, anticipation, resolve and relief reflected in our eyes — yet
we were all eager for this moment.

Unable to meet due to COVID restrictions, we watched the world change
around us for nearly three years. During this time tragedies like the
murder of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor and countless others took
place, and justice reform became a dinner-table conversation for many
Americans. As incarcerated activists, we sat silenced, unable to
convene — even though, as stakeholders, experts in the field and
leaders in justice reform efforts in Washington state, we have a lot
to contribute. Nevertheless, our passion for the work smoldered, and
this circle was the oxygen needed to light the fire of our movement
once again.

I looked around the room with pride, then uttered the most powerful
five words I will ever speak, “Welcome to Concerned Lifers
everyone.” To those of us familiar with this call-to-order, they
were words we thought would never be spoken again.

This circle, a true microcosm of America, was filled with people of
every ethnicity and representatives from various socially active
groups. As we introduced ourselves, people in the circle identified
themselves by name, membership and other affiliations.

Represented amongst the prisoners were members of the Black Prisoners
Caucus, Tribal Sons, Asian Pacific Islanders, Look2Justice and
Liberation Media. Among the groups’ sponsors (free citizens who come
into the prison and share our circle) were representatives of the
University of Washington, the Washington Sentencing Guidelines
Commission, and United Church of Christ In Works.

We met with ambitious goals in mind: to end mass incarceration,
redress grievances of marginalized groups and form community, against
all odds.

The Concerned Lifer’s Organization, or CLO, last met in the spring
of 2020 at the Washington State Reformatory, or WSR, in Monroe —
where it had existed since its founding in 1972. Over the years,
thousands of prisoners have been CLO members, with Monday night
meetings attended by 30 people or more. After COVID shut meetings down
— but before the veil of lockdowns lifted — WSR unexpectedly
closed in 2021. This left CLO members without hope we would ever meet
again. Despite its 50-year history in Washington state, no other
prison had ever allowed the CLO or any kind of organizing among Lifers
(people serving life without parole and sentences that they cannot
outlive). But now that’s finally changing.

Breaking into a new prison puts CLO on unfamiliar territory, a fact
not lost on the members who have been around a while. While some
contemplate whether this precedent represents a sea-change in
correctional philosophy or is just an anomaly, others prefer to focus
more on the work ahead.

The need for the CLO today is just as strong as it was a half century
ago. Henry Grisby, a founding member of the CLO, recalls that
initially the group met as a way to establish positive relationships
with prison administrators in hopes to improve prison conditions. Over
the years, CLO has successfully advocated for higher quality food and
mattresses, while also helping facilitate access to rehabilitative and
educational programs. Now 82-years-old, Grisby slightly closes his
eyes as he discusses the early days of the CLO. He recalls that it
didn’t take long for early members to realize that “in order to
get change it would have to come from the outside.” And in order to
enact change from the outside, prisoners needed to engage with the
public.

Towards this goal, no single person worked harder — or longer —
for the CLO than the late Rev. Jonathan Nelson. He would incessantly
advocate for the Lifers. Originally coming to the prison as a Lutheran
Minister, Nelson quickly realized people inside needed more than
spiritual food. Through his advocacy in the community, free citizens
would learn about the CLO and be invited into the circle. By word of
mouth, Nelson would invite curious people in and they would be blown
away by the sincerity and fellowship of the prisoners they found
inside. Through a model of meeting with people and sharing their
stories, the CLO grew in community.

Rev. Corey Passons was a young citizen — not yet on a path of public
service — when he heard a man at church named Darel Grothaus give
thanks for the time spent in a CLO meeting. Interested in his
experience, Passons accepted an invitation to WSR. On his first ride
into the prison, he met Nelson, and soon after was moved to become a
sponsor for the group. Passons sponsored the CLO from 2004-2016 and
asserts that the CLO was a learning experience for him. He also says
learning about the justice system — the biases and racism in society
— changed his life trajectory and put him on a path of public
service. Now, with the CLO restarting, he is once again a sponsor.

Recalling his first meetings back in 2004, Passons said “I had never
heard stories like these, and it didn’t take me long to realize that
if I grew up in a setting like those it could just as easily be me
staying behind when the sponsors walked out of the room.” Through
interactions with regular people, professionals and other
organizations in the community, the CLO has impacted society in
countless positive ways.

As stakeholders and impacted people, the CLO serves as a resource for
professionals and works with them to enact change. Katherine Beckett,
who heads the Law Society and Justice program at the University of
Washington, has been a sponsor of the CLO since 2014. In her time with
the organization she works alongside the CLO to raise public awareness
and further understanding on the human cost of mass incarceration.
Beckett says that her work is undoubtedly inspired by the time she has
spent in the CLO, and members of the CLO say that their work would be
much harder without the ardent support of professionals like Beckett.

The fruits of this relationship can be seen in the About Time
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published in collaboration with ACLU Washington. This report proves
racial bias in Washington’s judicial system with regard to long-term
and life sentences. Beckett credits the CLO and Black Prisoners Caucus
as instrumental allies in compiling the stories and data for this
report. Working relationships like the one formed between the CLO and
professionals like Beckett are critical to achieving informed social
policies that work towards equitable solutions that dismantle mass
incarceration.

In addition to reports, Beckett points to the work done within the CLO
to dismantle the foster-care-to-prison pipeline as another example of
the organization’s impact. In 2016, Arthur Longworth, Jeff Fox and
other prisoners (including me) founded the State Raised Working Group
as a committee within CLO to address disproportionate representation
of former foster youth among the prison population.

As the founders of the committee, and former foster youth ourselves,
we knew all-too-well the trappings of the “state raised”
experience. Reaching out to community members, community
organizations, politicians and professionals, we raised awareness of
the intersection between foster care and mass incarceration. This work
culminated in strong relationships with organizations like Treehouse
— which helps foster youth navigate educational development and
graduate high school — and people like Secretary Ross Hunter of the
Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families. Working with
Treehouse and Secretary Hunter, the State Raised Working Group helped
develop and fund a mentorship program for at-risk foster youth that
aims to pull those youth out of the foster-care-to-prison pipeline.

Over the years the CLO community has grown strong — in true
grassroots fashion, by word of mouth, by personal connection and by
achieving consensus on principled positions with a view towards
reform.

The CLO held yearly conferences at WSR titled “Ending the Crime
Cycle.” Every year these conferences would feature lawmakers, policy
wonks, lawyers, advocates, community organizers and concerned
citizens. Around 150 people who had shared Monday night meetings
throughout the year fill these conferences. Speakers, both prisoners
and free professionals, would give talks, and people would leave with
a call to action — simple steps to take to achieve change.

In 2018, the CLO had built enough political capital to push
post-conviction relief legislation. The CLO Legislative Committee
drafted a bill, and the community mobilized around it. Senate Bill
5819 (SB5819), as it came to be called, would have created a
post-conviction review process for prisoners who had served over 15
years in prison. Prior to the bill being voted on, members of the CLO
gave public testimony via Zoom on the impact this bill would have on
society and on the criminal justice system. Although the bill did not
succeed, valuable lessons were learned that day.

Nick Hacheney, then-chair of the CLO Legislative Committee, notes that
we had stuck together through a tough time, kept our word to each
other, and maintained solidarity based on our principals. From this
moment Hacheney was sure we could “build upon that foundation and
keep pushing for comprehensive sentencing reform for all.”

With lessons learned from the fight for SB5819, the CLO was more
determined than ever. The organization went to work on new strategies
to push for much needed change. On Jan. 20, 2020, the CLO, in
collaboration with Prison Voice Washington, organized the Rally to End
Mass Incarceration on the steps of the Capital building in Olympia.
That night we held a candle light vigil for the 1,300 people sentenced
to die in Washington prisons. A candle for each person lined the
steps, guest speakers addressed the crowd, and live music was
performed for the nearly 400 people who attended that cold winter
night.

“That night was a moving experience,” recalled, Chelsea Moore,
executive director of Look2Justice, an organization focused on civic
education started by members of the CLO advocacy community. “It was
great to see so many people that have been working on criminal justice
reform all there looking to further the movement. Knowing we were
there because of the work the guys inside did to organize it made the
night even more powerful.”

The Rally to End Mass Incarceration was a first step in an escalated
strategy for the CLO — a strategy that the organization intends to
pursue as it begins to work again. This strategy focuses on wielding
political capital in ways that are impossible for lawmakers to ignore,
like rallies in public spaces. It is not enough to bring reasoned
arguments for change if those arguments can then be ignored by people
with power. While one way to achieve change is to disrupt spaces,
another is to fight battles asymmetrically — changing the conditions
around the issues to achieve desired outcomes, as opposed to tackling
the issues head-on.

This year, Rep. Tara Simmons, the first formerly incarcerated member
of the state legislature, introduced HB 1024, a law that will stop
forced labor and pay prisoners minimum wage in Washington prisons.
This legislation is yet to pass, and while we remain hopeful, the CLO
is currently developing an asymmetric strategy to achieve the same
result.

Our approach will first be to reach out to free citizens in the
community and educate them on the 13th Amendment, which allows for
those convicted of crimes to be slaves under the U.S. Constitution.
Next, we are going to draft legislation that proposes an amendment to
the Washington constitution prohibiting all forms of slavery, since
state constitutions can be more — just not less — protective than
the federal constitution. Therefore, the amendment would supercede
provisions for legal slavery currently carved out in U.S.
Constitution’s 13th Amendment. We then plan to collaborate with
lawmakers like Simmons to introduce our legislation in the next
session.

This approach will change the legal landscape, in effect producing the
same conditions that HB 1024 is now attempting to create. It is easy
for lawmakers to oppose a law paying prisoners minimum wage, and much
harder for those same lawmakers to stand against prohibiting slavery.

According to longtime CLO member Look2Justice co-founder Christopher
Blackwell the pendulum is swinging back. “The narrative around crime
now in local and national news is reminiscent of that from the early
1990s. This narrative was foundational in the construction of the
carceral state. Countering this narrative is our number one goal.”

Members of the CLO agree that the tide is turning. But there is yet
time to stall, or disrupt its pull. For Lifers, this is more than a
matter of right and wrong; it’s a matter of life and death.

Our backs are truly against the wall. We fight for change, or we roll
over on a bunk and wait for a miracle — for mercy — while hoping
not to die in prison. We Lifers know the difference between a life
sentence and a death sentence: merely duration and method. In
Washington State, we have death by hanging, death by lethal injection
and death by incarceration — the most prevalent and most overlooked
form of state sponsored execution. They call it a life sentence, but
that is a misnomer. Any prison sentence that a person cannot outlive
is a sentence to death.

As long as there is a CLO, we will fight to end mass incarceration. We
will fight because it is the right thing to do and because we are
fighting for our lives. We will do it as we always have done — by
connecting with people, sharing our humanity, working for and with
community, and holding true to principals that allow diverse people to
coalesce and have unity. There is work to be done.

_Raymond Williams, 42, is serving a life without parole sentence under
Washington state's three strikes law. He is a musician, mentor and an
advocate of justice reform. His writing has been published in PEN
America, The Progressive, and Solitary Watch. Follow him on Twitter
@raywilliams80, or contact him at [email protected]_

_Waging Nonviolence is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to
providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements
around the world. With a commitment to accuracy, transparency and
editorial independence, we examine today’s most crucial issues by
shining a light on those who are organizing for just and peaceful
solutions._

_Waging Nonviolence is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to
providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements
around the world. With a commitment to accuracy, transparency and
editorial independence, we examine today’s most crucial issues by
shining a light on those who are organizing for just and peaceful
solutions.  Support us -- Waging Nonviolence depends on reader
support. Become a sustaining monthly donor today!  Donate
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* Mass Incarceration
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* Death Penalty
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* Sentence Reform
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* criminal justice system
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