Prison Calls: Shaka & Efrén
Listen to Efrén speak to Shaka on the phone from Lakeland Correctional Facility in Michigan where more than 50% of the population was infected by the start of May. Efrén talks about how the conditions, responses, and fear in one of the largest Covid-19 hotspots. Read on below for more of Efrén’s story and how you can help.
For the past weeks, Efrén has been sending insightful and devastating news reports from Lakeland Correctional. He is currently up for a resentencing or parole hearing and the message below gives specific ways that any of us can help advocate for his release. He has an incredibly well-organized support team, and if you’d like to support his resentencing as well, here is the information on how to do that. Efrén is a longtime PCAP participant and ally, and the organization has long stood by him, as he describes below.
I appreciate your willingness to support my campaign for release and am grateful for your offer to help advocate for me when a release opportunity becomes available. Your offer comes at the perfect time too.
I haven't discussed my case as I have been documenting the COVID-19 crisis in prison because the work I've been doing has been about the 39,000 vulnerable people being impacted by the deadly pandemic, medical negligence, and a disgraceful lack of leadership in prisons across Michigan.
This coming week is the first time I'll be addressing my case in a COVID-19 writing because it addresses the issue of juvenile lifers -- people who were sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) when they were kids -- contracting the disease at this prison who didn't have to. One juvenile lifer died in April at the Macomb Correctional Facility waiting to be released this month.
I am among the one hundred ninety-six juvenile lifers who have been waiting to be resentenced for eight years because of prosecutors who have been abusing their power and stalling resentencing hearings by trying to reimpose LWOP sentences on juvenile lifers all over again. They are doing so despite the U.S. Supreme Court stating that only people who are "irreparably corrupt" and "incapable of change" can receive the sentence.
I will be resentenced in the coming months, before the end of the year. Support letters from you and anyone else you know willing to write one would be very helpful. We are currently gathering support letters as well as petition signatures for my online Change.org petition which is available at http://Bitly.com/FreeEfren.
The petition sends an email message to my sentencing judge asking him to resentence me to a term-of-year sentence that is proportional to the average sentence imposed on the first 177 juvenile lifer cases who have been resentenced which is 29.5 years.
I have already served 31 years, so a 29.5- or 30-year sentence would make me eligible for parole now. People interested can view my list of accomplishments at http://Bitly.com/EfrenCV to see what I have been doing with my life during the past three decades. I've even included my participation in PCAP among my accomplishments which I am very proud of.
Quick story. I never wrote a single poem before being inspired to do so during my first PCAP writing workshop. After I did I grew to enjoy it and have written numerous poems since then which have been published in various publications, on websites, and blogs. PCAP helped me discover a gift for creative writing I had never previously explored. Before my focus was on writing essays and articles.
Back to the support letters. In addition to signing the online petition we are asking people to also write a personal letter addressed to the judge that I can include with my mitigation package which my attorney will provide to the court. People can use the template letter on the petition page as a model or they can write their own. I encourage people to introduce themselves in their letters so the judge knows and appreciates where the letters are coming from (e.g., educators, community leaders, students, etc.).
Any personal support letters written can be sent as a PDF document via email to EfrenUncaged@gmail.com using the subject line "Efrén Support Letter" or people can send their letter to me directly via U.S. Mail. If you or anyone else has any additional questions, don't hesitate to contact me.
At the end of my message I will include a list of notable people and organizations supporting my release. It may be helpful garnering support from additional people who don't know me or aren't familiar with my social justice advocacy.
Buzz Alexander was also a long-time supporter of mine. He attended my public hearing in 2008 which was the most widely attended and longest public hearing in Michigan history. Nearly 200 people were in attendance and the hearing was nine hours long. A number of PCAP alums and MSU students from the Xicanx/Latinx Studies Dept. were in attendance as well.
Thank you once again for offering to support my campaign for freedom. It means a lot to me. Upon my release I look forward continue being a voice for incarcerated people, prison reform, changing perceptions about the incarcerated, the need to end the failed social experiment of mass incarceration. I want to also continue promoting comprehensive immigration reform and improving race relations.
I would also like to collaborate with you, PCAP, and other like-minded people to engage in social justice work. If we can harness the energy of our young people, and provide them critical guidance and leadership, we can help transform the world and inspire people to dream of a better future for people of color, the poor, and underserved communities. I'm prepared to engage in that work and continue using my voice and talents to help make a difference.
