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| Model prisoner John Benny Williams, second from left, is 83, and has been denied parole over 20 times. |
Yahweh brings about justice for the oppressed
and offers food for the hungry.
Yahweh frees prisoners
and opens the eyes of the blind.
- from Psalm 146
Buckingham Correctional Center near Dillwyn, Virginia, is housing at least three legally blind inmates with long records of good behavior. Yet they and scores of other deserving persons are being regularly passed over for parole or geriatric release.
One of them, John Bennie Williams, pictured above, has been incarcerated for over thirty-three years. He has been denied parole over 20 times. A second blind inmate, Minor Junior Smith has been incarcerated over forty-four years. A third one, a Mr. Jeter, has only recently been declared totally blind, but I have no information about his age or condition. However, he is reported to have been a hardworking and dedicated kitchen worker at Buckingham for many years.
In addition, there are many other sighted persons who are deserving of parole and/or geriatric release at BKCC and other Virginia prisons. Robert Davis Fitchett, Jr, for example, is a model prisoner who was incarcerated at sixteen years of age for a crime he committed nearly forty years ago. Charles Zellers, Sr., another model inmate, has been incarcerated over twenty-three years and has been employed in a responsible supervisory role by the Buckingham Division of Virginia Correctional Enterprises (which generates profit for the DOC) since November, 2006. John Clinton Wright, a highly trusted prisoner who has worked for wardens at the Powhatan Correctional Center for over over thirty years, will turn 89 in November.
These are only a few of many remarkably rehabilitated men, as their wardens and their supervisors can attest.
Why are we keeping aged and reformed prisoners incarcerated who are demonstrating consistently responsible behavior? Shouldn't we expect a Department of Corrections costing us in excess of a billion dollars a year to actually correct some of the people in their charge?
Here's a link to more posts on parole reform and how to contact the Governor's office, the Parole Board and the Secretary of Public Safety: http://harvyoder.blogspot.com/search?q=parole+reform
2 comments:
You write a very sympathetic piece about these so called "Model Prisoners". But I must ask, where is your sympathy for the victims of their crimes? Just because a prisoner becomes eligible for parole, must the state grant it to them? Although some of these men may have committed non violent crimes, but what about the others that have. An example; you mention R. D. Fitchett, how he has was incarcerated at the age of 16 and has served nearly 40 years. And has shown himself to be a model prisoner. Yet you fail to mention that after months of stalking, breaking and entering, he brutally murdered a 13 year old child while maiming 3 others with the intent to kill. Should we as a society choose to allow a person like this to walk amugst us. Regardless of his age at the time of his crime, or the time served. Maybe we should consider that is many cases the state has just cause for denying parole. I myself stand by the state of Virginia and support their decision to deny these men the opportunity to rejoin society.
Thank you! His 13 year old victim SUSANNA MARIE FORSBERG was my best friend. If he did that as a juvenile, what would he be capable of if he is ever released?
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