Jennifer M. Miller - Inside Voices

Inside Voices

Jennifer M. Miller, Ph. D.

Copyright Jennifer M. Miller, Ph. D. 2019

Black Rose Writing | Texas

2019 by Jennifer M. Miller, Ph. D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

The final approval for this literary material is granted by the author.

First digital version

The author has tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from her memories. In order to maintain anonymity in some instances, the author may have changed the names of individuals and places. The author may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence.

Print ISBN: 978-1-68433-207-6

PUBLISHED BY BLACK ROSE WRITING

www.blackrosewriting.com

Print edition produced in the United States of America

Thank you so much for checking out one of our Biography / Memoirs .

If you enjoy our book, please check out our recommended title for your next great read!

Z.O.S. by Kay Merkel Boruff

dazzling in its specificity and intensity.

C.W. Smith, author of Understanding Women

This book is dedicated to four special men.

Thank you for sharing your stories.

Table of Contents

Foreword

During my doctoral program, I went on tours of two Arkansas prisons: Varner Unit and Cummins Unit. Because of the professor leading the tour, we were granted access to everything including death row at Varner and the death chamber at Cummins. While Arkansas has one of the best prison systems in the country, death row was still a dreary place to visit. The death chamber was uncomfortable for everyone in the room, I think.

The thing that had the most significant on me personally, though, was watching the inmates through Plexiglas like zoo animals. We were shepherded down hallways with barracks on one side. These barracks had reinforced windows behind which the inmates were going about their daily lives while we looked in on them. They did not act like zoo animals as much as we looked like spectators at a zoo. At one point, I even accidentally spied on a man in the shower. A door opened behind me, and I turned reflexively to see what the noise was. It was the door to the shower room, and it was in use.

It was one of the most uncomfortable sensations of my life because they are still people. I think this is so easy for us to forget as we live free and move about as we want. No one tells us when to get up, go to the restroom, eat, or go to bed. I came away from the tours unsettled, and it was a feeling that did not fade quickly. So, I wrote letters to four men from each unit who had spoken with our tour group. Several from each unit responded, but through several months of letter writing, these four became regular correspondents for me. They captured my imagination and my heart. In fact, as a doctoral student, I still did not know in what direction I wanted to aim my research. These men made it an easy decision corrections. My research has focused and will continue to focus on corrections, and I have even developed an open educational resource (OER) material for a corrections class.

These men have become my friends. They send me cards on the holidays or letters to just say they are thinking of me or how proud they were when I earned my doctorate. When I was offered my current job at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, the guys were thrilled and told me so. It is impossible to express how good it felt for them to be proud when I graduated. They helped me get to this point. I must admit that I am not as good to them as they are to me because it is so easy to forget how important a birthday card can be to someone. I keep telling myself that I must do better.

I wanted to share the stories of these men, these inmates, my friends with the world by compiling their personal correspondence. The nature of sending letters to get to know someone through postal mail allowed the narratives leading up to incarceration (and since) to form quite naturally I just had to type them. I simply put them together in chronological order and did some light editing. I then sent these stories to the guys for their individual approval. It is my sincere hope that others will read these stories and see the light in them. They are funny, intelligent, articulate, and sincere in their effort to tell their stories.

I have to say that while I may not be the greatest at correspondence and keeping up with everyone s birthdays, I consider all these men to be personal friends. They have my home address. I have met some of their family members. They are people. If readers take nothing else away from this book, take away that they are people. They are not animals. They are not throwaways. They deserve respect and love just as much as anyone else. They are lifers, and they matter.

I have also included several short essays intermingled with the stories the inmates tell to help provide background and context. Three of my former (now graduated) students have shared some of their own experiences with touring prisons and corresponding with inmates. I have written two essays for contextual information and an introduction to each of the inmate narratives to give the reader a personal look at what they are about to read. I hope you enjoy getting to know the people in this book even half as much as I did.

Life in Arkansas

Arkansas is a life means life state according to the Arkansas Supreme Court in Hobbs v. Turner . Television shows make it seem that if someone is sentenced to life in prison, they will usually be released after serving a fraction of this sentence. There are two types of life sentence in Arkansas: life and life without parole. As described in A.C.A. 16-93-613 (below), a life sentence may result in eligibility for parole if the sentence is changed to a number of years by executive clemency. A life without parole sentence can be commuted down to a life sentence (still without parole), which can then be further commuted to a number of years. Clemency of this magnitude does not happen often.

Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated Official Edition
1987-2015 by the State of Arkansas
All rights reserved.

*** Current through the 2015 Regular Session and First Extraordinary Session. ***

Title 16 Practice, Procedure, And Courts
Subtitle 6. Criminal Procedure Generally
Chapter 93 Probation And Parole
Subchapter 6 -- Parole -- Eligibility

GO TO CODE ARCHIVE DIRECTORY FOR THIS JURISDICTION

A.C.A. 16-93-613 (2015)

16-93-613. Parole eligibility -- Class Y, Class A, or Class B felonies.
(a) A person who commits a Class Y, Class A, or Class B felony, except those drug offenses addressed in 16-93-618 or those Class Y felonies addressed in 16-93-614 or 16-93-618, and who shall be convicted and incarcerated for that felony, shall be eligible for release on parole as follows:
(1) An inmate under sentence of death or life imprisonment without parole is not eligible for release on parole but may be pardoned or have his or her sentence commuted by the Governor, as provided by law; and
(2) (A) An inmate sentenced to life imprisonment is not eligible for release on parole unless the sentence is commuted to a term of years by executive clemency.
(B) Upon commutation, the inmate is eligible for release on parole as provided in this subchapter.