It does not take someone that study rocket science nor any one that profess to study the affects of wrongful conviction to realize those that have been affected as the result of wrongful conviction in the United States will come out different. While it may be true that many will mature, what has not been spoken of much through media and other social media outlets is the affect of wrongful conviction. If you were to take a child or perhaps a love one and place them inside their bedroom for decades without them ever knowing if they will be released, feeding them food in which most in society view as pig slop, providing them mail that is 14 to 30 days behind, and ill preparing them to deal with the affects and responsibilities of life then one must view them as defective. IMAGINE BEING LOCKED INSIDE A STEEL CAGE. You are in this cage much as 16 to 21 hours each day if you are privileged to not be in a isolation tank commonly known as "Segregation or super max" in which those inmates are confined much as 23 hours to a cage each day. Hope for those that experience wrongful conviction often grow dim as they are forced to adopt to the adjustment of residing in total hell of psychological abuse for weeks, months, years, and decades. They sleep in hell, they wake up to hell, they experience hell. Guards are screaming at someone they view as garbage. The guards are allowed by the U.S. Government to abuse and in some cases kill should a inmate decide to stand up for their humanality. Guards are permitted to systematically harass and in some cases openly break the law toward visitors.
What does most inmates do? suck it all in. Most are deprived of their children by women that have made a choice to move on with their lives, however abandoning the inmate. Cries of loud screams filling the hallways during the night hours as some experience the affects of being deprived completely away from society. No matter how good or bad they become, they are treated as inmates. Most affected by wrongful convictions have lost as the result of death a father, mother, brother, sister, son, or daughter. Not to fail to mention that Grandfathers, Grandmothers, Uncles, Aunts, and cousins die off and in most cases fade away out of the inmates life in three to five years. None are taught how to survive, however they are reminded daily that they are inmates and will most likely die behind the wall of an U.S. prison. Men such as Rodney Reed in Texas and Jeffrey Havard in Mississippi who are on death row are often reminded as they watch the news or read a news paper that they are on death row and the State in which they are held desires them to be put to death. The anguish of wrongful conviction never fades.
While its true that over 2.3 million people are confined to U.S. prisons most are provided with an out date, with over a million that are sentenced to long term sentences, including death row inmates are not provided any rehabilitative programs that would be of benefit to them should they be deem wrongful convicted. Every week we view one or two people walking out of an U.S. prison that was innocent while some are also viewed as individuals that were sentence to excessive prison terms. They are taught in most cases by other inmates how to survive behind the walls of prison, with all confined to max security prisons never afforded with any training nor program that teach them realistic goals to receive housing nor jobs.
It is not one person that has ever stepped a foot inside a U.S. prison that has been deemed to be wrongful conviction that returned back to society without psychological scars from their incarceration. Those scars must be viewed as deep WOUNDS of psychological and emotional abuse. While confined to their cages, they were never taught how to survive outside prison settings. We view after decades of legal fights on television of men and women jumping up and down, happy to finally be released but in their minds the stress of survival. Yesterday they were treated as inmates, screamed at, some deprived of the basic functions of life while all faced with the reality they will take on a new responsibility and once again be labeled a citizen of this country. They were led to be slaughtered as the result of a citizen that either lied on them or provided false identification to authorities to imprison them. Society viewed them as criminals, society permitted their mistreatment by guards and now he or she has been finally freed to a retaliatory society that does not want to acknowledge their pain and suffering. Often most struggle to find employment. They often grow frustrated as they attempt to convince a employer they are no longer guilty, frequently carrying around news paper clippings that tell decades of suffering at the hands of the State. Many were never afforded with any opportunity to gain education, however find themselves in a less them sympathetic world that is filled with discriminatory laws. In some cases it takes weeks, and even months for someone that was in prison to gain identification. Meanwhile they have no opportunity to attempt to gain food stamps nor any assistance from the State.
The jumping around that many of you have viewed over the television of some man or woman finally freed after decades inside a prison quickly turns into anguish and frustration. Despite being exonerated, they remain to be viewed as criminals and often told if they truly did not commit that crime, they have committed other crimes, so don't feel bad about being in prison. Many become ponds to women and men through relationships and marriages, with their SPOUCE ambition to gain and to market themselves through the attention that flows from wrongful conviction. Their baby mama's or daddy's resurfacing with hidden motives that is not often seen by the person that suffered years of neglect and abuse at the hands of prison officials. The men and women having a pure desire to only be accepted and loved, however finds themselves in positions that cause them to be taken advantage of and in some cases in the worst way. Despite having psychological affects many are never provided with treatment and when they are compensated by the State they are viewed as "CITIZENS" that are often weak, that are often in position to help others but neglect the opportunity as they chase dark memories of prison life far from their reach through the gain of millions of dollars. Thousands if not millions are spent to restructure the life of someone that has been incarcerated due to wrongful conviction.
Today in the city of Chicago their are some that were wrongful convicted that received millions in compensation from the city and county who contributed to their findings of guilt, that are penniless and who sleeps under railroad tracks to survive. They are often seen by society and labeled as nut's. These were men and women that gain millions to waste it all on people that scatted like roaches when the money ran out. Their own families that felt it worthy to hung in their midst while the money was their, now finds it worthy to see to it that they reside homeless under railroad tracks or inside abandon buildings. People viewing the fact that before they they gain money they were dealing with psychological affects, but never mentioning it to their family member or friend until once the money had ran out. I love you's have turned into I hate you or that you are stupid, because they have no more money to silence the opinion of those they felt loved and cherished them.
WRONGFUL CONVICTED MEN AND WOMEN ARE NOT ON SOCIETY LEVEL
Often I must remind someone that I have suffered, that I am not on their level and cannot be on their level because the anguish of wrongful conviction comes with a price that is generally known as "psychological affects", struggle to survive, and the reality thatdecades were taken away from my life in which I will never be able to regain. Hospitals and Universities all across this country must start to invest dollars toward treating victims of wrongful conviction. Families and friends of those wrongfully convicted must start to be provided counseling and other services that can help transform the lives of people that never asked to be placed inside a U.S. prison.
Mark A. Clements
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