Long ago, I spent 6 years as an active volunteer in a discussion group in a House of Detention. When I stopped, I started a correspondence with a long-serving man in prison in the USA. We have been writing regularly with each other for about 21 years now. This man (I call him X) has developed very much over the past 27 years. He has a relentless strength to keep going despite setbacks. He also made many attempts to get his case reopened, to gather evidence of his innocence, to educate himself, but also to survive in a harsh, racist environment.
Blogs
In 2021, I suggested to X that he should start writing blogs about his life so that I could publish them on a website. With these blogs we tried to create attention to the injustice done to X but at the same time X had the desire that others, by reading his experiences, would be inspired. I experienced the things X described as very intense at times. Prison conditions are tough and the stories of rape, drug use, murder, little or no opportunities, sometimes made me feel hopeless.
Despite that, we both worked hard at it for the past 3 years and a total of 70 blogs were created.
Now
The website with the blogs are temporarily offline because X has the help of an investigator who is going to argue his case again. According to this researcher, it is better for his case to take the website offline.
Striving for justice
Over the past 3 years, I have met several people who strive for justice. They do this for children, women and men who are serving or have served prison sentences. Photography is their tool in this endeavor.
Children in custody
Photographer Richard Ross came to interview X in prison about his experiences. Besides he is a photographer, he is also a researcher and professor of art based in Santa Barbara, California. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Annie E. Casey and MacArthur Foundations. He is also an initiator to enable better outcomes for the 53,000+ children in custody every day. For more information see: Juvenile In Justice.
The verdict
This exhibition was created by Jan Banning, a Dutch photographer known to always fight for justice both in word and image. The exhibition tells the story of Christina Boyer. Christina was wrongly convicted in 1992 for the murder of her then 3-year-old daughter. This, because she did not take her daughter Amber to the hospital in time causing her death. In addition, the pancreas was damaged which Christina was also suspected of doing, which earned her another 20 year sentence on top of the life sentence already handed down to her. I will write in more detail about this exposition in a separate blog but here you can already read a bit more about The Verdict
Women with life sentences
At the Rotterdam Photo exhibition I met Sara Bennett. That was because I saw photos of women in prison and I became curious why these photos were taken. It turned out that Sara had worked as a public defender but had gone in a different direction and was now photographing women with life sentences, both in and out of prison. Like the women she photographs, Sara hopes that her work will shed light on the pointlessness of extremely long sentences and arbitrary parole denials. I told Sara about my efforts for X and when I asked if I could buy some of her books, I received them as a gift. If you want to read more about her work visit the website of Sara Bennett
Even if some efforts to strive for greater justice sometimes seem hopeless, giving up is not an option. In doing so, it helps me to know that many with me, such as the above mentioned photographers, are also committed to doing just that.
Johanna
