Judith Tannenbaum » lifers http://judithtannenbaum.com Judith Tannenbaum is a writer and teacher whose work has focused on community arts and issues of cultural democracy. Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:59:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Lifers: article on Lonnie Morris http://judithtannenbaum.com/2010/02/lifers-article-on-lonnie-morris/ http://judithtannenbaum.com/2010/02/lifers-article-on-lonnie-morris/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:45:19 +0000 judith http://judithtannenbaum.com/?p=105 Most of the men I know in prison (I mostly know men) are serving some kind of life sentence. Some — like Spoon — are serving life without possibility of parole. Some — like Coties — have a sentence so long (99 years) that it stands as a life sentence. Others — like Elmo — are serving term-to-life (in his case, 7-to-life, a sentence meant to last about 13 years in the era when he was convicted, but he’s now served over 30 years on that sentence).

Those with term-to-life sentences have to go before the Board of Prison Terms periodically and make a case for why they should be given a release date. There’s lots to share about this process, but for now here’s a very interesting article about one man — Lonnie Morris, whom Spoon, Coties, Elmo, and I all knew at San Quentin 25 years ago — and his experience with the Board.

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