Cal Lewis's Blog

Written by Carlton A. Lewis

Rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft have transformed the transportation industry. Lyft operates in the U.S. and Canada, while Uber is a multi-national company operating in over 70 countries with a collective workforce of nearly 6 million people. With such a massive workforce, issues are occurring, leading to the community asking, “Are rideshare services safe?” In recent years, the safety of their service to passengers have been called into question by workers committing serious criminal acts such as sexual assaults and drunk driving. And rightly so. I do not believe rideshare apps have done a sufficient job in keeping our communities safe. For rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft that have not demonstrated their ability to be profitable, this is a major issue. And for communities across America, these serious safety challenges are a real cause for concern.

Safety Issues
Sexual Assaults

Sexual assaults are a real issue for rideshare apps. Numerous complaints allege that rideshare companies such as Uber and Lyft do not adequately screen new drivers when performing background checks. Also, once drivers are hired, there is minimal monitoring for inappropriate conduct. A CNN investigate report revealed that in a recent three-year span, over 100 Uber drivers have been accused of sexually assaulting their passengers. A notable incident occurred in 2017, where a Los Angeles Uber driver picked up an intoxicated woman. Instead of fulfilling his duties as a driver, he took advantage of the impaired woman and drove her to a nearby motel where he sexually assaulted her. Upon the driver being tracked down and subsequently arrested, it was revealed that he had an arrest record involving five prior felony convictions. Uber has since reinstated and revamped its background check policy, blaming company budget restrictions and lax enforcement as to how these drivers with a checkered criminal record were hired.

Drunk Driving

Each year, 1.35 million people are killed on roadways around the world. According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report, the U.S. annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $44 billion. When ride share drivers are impaired, the company can be held liable in court for injuries inflicted on others. In 2017, in a one-year span – from August 2014 to August 2015, Uber faced a total fine of $1.1 million dollars stemming from over 150 drunk driving complaints. As alcohol-related automotive incidents is still one of the primary factors for vehicle fatalities, rideshare apps should focus on this area when looking for ways to improve safety for their passengers.

Ways To Improve

Rideshare apps seem to have only shown reactionary safety measures instead of preventive. These measures have only occurred after hundreds of incidences have been reported. Uber revamped and reinstated its background check policy on its drivers after numerous sexual assault complaints, however, law officials are calling for additional safety changes by Uber. Officials are recommending fingerprint-based criminal background checks, live recordings of rides, and an option where you can request the gender of your driver – since most sexual assaults on women involve male drivers as the offenders.

There are a few ways I believe rideshare apps can improve drunk driving safety measures. I recommend ignition interlock devices for drivers previously suspended for drunk driving. An ignition interlock device is a breath test device connected to a vehicle’s ignition. Some states require drunk drivers to install these devices into their vehicles at the owner’s expense. The NHTSA supports the spread of mandating ignition interlock devices as a deterrent for drunk drivers getting behind the wheel of their vehicles while under the influence at no additional cost to the companies. Another idea rideshare apps can use to deter their drivers getting behind the wheel of their vehicles while under the influence is by promoting and offering them discounted rides. It is common knowledge that one of the cited reasons of utilizing a rideshare app as a passenger under the influence of alcohol is safety. By Uber and Lyft promoting and offering discounts to their own drivers to utilize the company service to safely travel, then this can be seen as a preventive measure steering drivers away from thoughts of getting behind the wheel of their own vehicles, which may lead to them never logging onto the rideshare app and working.

Conclusion

Rideshare apps face unique challenges as it has transformed the transportation industry. This has also brought about issues that they are still having a difficult time grappling with. Unless these companies further invest and make additional, real commitments to the safety of their customers, complaints, personal injury claims, lawsuits, and fines will continue to be brought against them. And for rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft that have not demonstrated their ability to be profitable, this can turn out to be a fatal blow to the success of their companies. No matter how innovative and convenient a service is, customer safety should always be a focal point.

The post Are Rideshare Apps Keeping Their Customers Safe? appeared first on CAL Writes - Carlton Lewis.

“Y’all telling me that I need to get out and vote, huh, why?

Ain’t nobody black running but crac-kers, so, why

I got to register? I’m thinking of better shit to do with my time”

– Andre 3000 ‘Git Up, Get Out’

It is not easy admitting that you were wrong and have a different opinion now than you did in years past. But, that is exactly what this post is about. Yesterday, I voted for the first time in my life. Me, as a 34-year old, Black, male, law school student, walked into a voting booth for the first time ever and exercised my right as a citizen of the United States of America. There were a number of reasons and beliefs I held for never voting before yesterday, however, as my experiences and understanding grew, I re-evaluated and challenged each of them before I chose to participate in this country’s election process.

My Reasons For Not Voting
My Reality Growing Up

I grew up in a single parent household in a working-class, predominantly all-Black, neighborhood in metropolitan Atlanta. My mother always voted, but we never had serious conversations about voting. In school, I learned about the importance of voting and how people that looked like me fought for this right while being subjected to physical beatings and discrimination. I heard it, but honestly, that imagery was so far from my realm of reality and what I had to deal with on a day-to-day basis that I filed it away in my memory bank and didn’t give it much thought. It simply wasn’t high on my priority list of navigating and surviving my Black reality in America. I was more worried about:

a) how do I not get my a** beat by crooked cops?

b) if I trade jeans with my homeboy and wear it tomorrow, will everybody in class notice?

c) how many more late days will the power company give us before they come and cut our service?

Even though my Black mother did her best, I believe that Black men have to navigate their realities in a different manner than our fellow women, so I held the weight of Black male thoughts and opinions as more beneficial to helping me understand and make it through life. My Black male influences came largely from rap/hip-hop – as I’m a part of this culture, and Black men who I could easily connect and relate to by them living nearby, or frequent interactions between us. These Black men in my life were a mixed bag of voters and non-voters, but again, the voters were quiet and little to no conversations were centered around voting and its importance.

Many of the Black men I encountered subscribed to the mindset of, “A real man doesn’t ask, plead, or wait for a politician to come down from their ‘house on the hill’ and save him. A real man finds a way to ‘make it happen’ for him and his family, regardless of what crooked politician is in office.” This male bravado is something that many of us share. We look at politicians, regardless of their race, as “elitist others”. We don’t see or interact with them on a regular basis besides election time when they come out to campaign and ask for our votes, so we don’t believe they are genuine and/or truly care about us. This mistrust was so deeply embedded in me that I didn’t even vote for Barack Obama in 2008.

Most rappers don’t talk about voting, and the ones that do have mixed feelings about it. I remember one of my favorite rappers of all time saying a rap lyric that has stuck with me throughout the years:

“Y’all telling me that I need to get out and vote, huh, why?

Ain’t nobody black running but crac-kers, so, why

I got to register? I’m thinking of better shit to do with my time”

– Andre 3000 ‘Git Up, Get Out’

I don’t know if Andre 3000 really believed that or if it was simply an entertaining line for the song. I also don’t know if he still feels the same way. I now acknowledge that the song came out in 1994, when Andre 3000 was the tender age of 19. Unfortunately, this was a song I heard older men in my neighborhood play when I was the impressionable age of 8 years old, so I internalized not only the lyrics but the message, “voting is a waste of time and doesn’t help Black people. Don’t even bother doing it.” As I got older, more theories about why voting was irrelevant reinforced these early beliefs. Theories such as elections are rigged, and “they” already know who “they” want to win. Learning about voter suppression and gerrymandering further reinforced these beliefs that voting was a waste of my time.

Losing My Right To Vote

At the age of 25, I was charged and convicted of a non-violent federal conspiracy and incarcerated. As a Georgia resident, I lost my right to vote by now having a felony and would have to wait until I was released from prison and completed my mandatory supervised release before this right was restored. By this time in my life, losing the right to vote was the last thing I cared about. My life felt as though I lived as an outcast on the margins of society. I was used to making money in the black market, so I never paid taxes or filed a tax return. I did not care about which president was going to give my household tax breaks or increase my taxes. I did not pay taxes. My first tax return I ever filed was at the age of 30.

When I was released from prison, losing the right to travel internationally without written permission, the right to possess a firearm, and the right to receive public assistance were all far more important to me than the right to vote. From my perspective, it was inconsequential; it was for other people to fight over and get emotional about. It had no bearing on my life. For a politician to give speeches and make promises to me during campaign time that they would not be responsible for honoring was so unlike the code of how I lived my life, I could care less about the elections. And, if they somehow surprised everyone and did do what they said they were going to do, it would be years before the effect could be felt by people at the bottom like me. Delayed gratification was still not a concept I could invest my hopes and dreams in. This led to me not being invested in the outcome of elections or caring about how they affected me or my community. The result would be the same for me; I would still be a Black man who had to struggle each and every day to find success in White America. Even if there was a Black president, I could not relax; life would be the same as it always has been, a struggle.

I’m Considering Voting
Re-Evaluating My Reality In Prison

In prison, I read a lot of books. I read Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk To Freedom, Hill Harper’s “Letters To An Incarcerated Brother”, Reginald F. Lewis’ “Why Should White Guys Have All The Fun?”, and Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” along with others. I also read Barack Obama’s “Dreams From My Father”, where our first black president talked about his humble, working-class beginnings and trying cocaine in college. During this time, I also began seeing a Black man who I went to college with and saw daily, Bakari Sellers, on CNN as a thought leader in politics and represent his community to enact real, positive change. Reading these experiences from other Black men and seeing how their upbringings were not vastly different from my own unlocked something in me. I began to question why they succeeded, and I was currently stuck sitting on a bunk in prison.

Another thing happened to me while incarcerated, my taste in music changed. Sticking with my earlier example, I had to critically think about what a 19-year old Andre 3000 was saying on a song and how relevant this was to me at 26 years old. Also, I began to believe that a lot of the gangsta rap/hip-hop that I previously listened to was essentially rebel music meant for young listeners. Many of the songs that were anthems to me had been fuel to my fire of criminality. They glorified not caring about society or the details that law-abiding citizens needed to concern themselves with in order to remain in legal compliance. Moving forward, I could no longer solve my issues with physical violence or a firearm, and I needed to pay attention to who the local judges being elected were because they made the laws that could make the difference between me doing 2 years for a crime or doing 15 years for the exact same crime.

Re-Evaluating My Reality After Prison

Upon my release from prison, I got a legal job and began working. I was an hourly worker not making a lot of money, so now I began paying attention to all the deductions coming out of my earnings: medical, and state and federal taxes. When tax season came around, I filed taxes for the first time ever. As a law-abiding citizen, I now had a vested interest in paying attention to politics because it directly affected my money and thus, my reality and way of life. It still took more for me to finally vote, though. When I completed my sentence – the length of incarceration and supervised release, and was restored my right to vote in 2018, I still was not interested in voting.

Earlier this year, COVID-19 hit around the world. Like everyone else, it took me by complete surprise. I was now done with my sentence and had been restored the right to vote, but I was not exercising that right. I was concerned about coronavirus. I stayed inside on lockdown and was careful to do what I could to reduce the risk and exposure of contracting this deadly virus. At the beginning, our elected officials, more specifically, Georgia’s Governor Kemp was allowing all Georgia residents to shelter in place and remain indoors. Then, he changed his tune and wanted to open back up the state to conduct business. Our cases were not flattening, as was advised by health officials before a re-opening could occur, yet our elected official was not listening and putting the people he was elected to represent in danger. This was the last straw. I could no longer ignore and act like voting does not affect me or my community. By not exercising my right to vote, I was complicit in allowing Governor Kemp to win a competitive election race. I do not know if his opponent in that race, Stacey Abrams, would have done the same thing and opened up the state in my view prematurely, but I now felt responsible for not at least letting my voice be heard and having a say in who I placed my trust in to keep me and my loved ones safe.

I Am Now A Proud Voter!

Voting may not be cool when you’re young, but as an adult it is necessary. It is my right as an American citizen to have the right and to exercise my right to vote. I live in a country where all the policies that are enacted affect me. Whether I pay attention to it or not, the reality is it has a real effect on me. Whether it be national or local elections, all of these have ripple effects that shape my way of life. If you belong to a society, I believe you cannot complain and hold rebel beliefs that stop you from exercising your rights. You must have hope in the society and the way it is governed. You must hope that as a collective, we as a society can make it through anything together. We must also have hope that who we elect to lead us has our best interest and safety in mind. They and their family do not live in a bubble, so their actions and experiences are not as different from yours as you may think. If you vote and your candidate loses, at least you participated in the process and fought for your beliefs. And if your candidate wins and fulfills the promises he/she made while campaigning, then it was well worth it! After re-evaluating and challenging my old beliefs about voting, I am proud to say that I am now an active voter, and I never plan on missing another opportunity to exercise my right to vote. I left the voting location yesterday feeling proud to be an American citizen participating in the election process. If you have not tried it yet, I suggest you do. The power remains with the people.

The post I’m A 34 Year Old Black Man And I Voted For The First Time Ever Yesterday appeared first on CAL Writes - Carlton Lewis.

The new coronavirus, or COVID-19, is among us and it has reached pandemic levels. Mayors, city and government officials, all the way up to President Trump have mandated limiting the size of gatherings and practicing social distancing. Why? Because the new coronavirus spreads at its quickest in closed environments. Most relevant to this discussion; jails and prisons.

This virus outbreak could not have come at a worse time. Correctional facilities are widely known to be overcrowded, as our country is currently in the midst of the policy-engendered phenomenon known as mass incarceration. Within a correctional facility, it is impossible to maintain the mandatory six-foot interpersonal distance required to prevent the virus from spreading. Dr. Michelle Barry, an infectious disease doctor, said jail and prisons are like Petri dishes incubating, and will pose a real problem.  Additionally, people over the age of 60 are the most susceptible to becoming fatally ill from this disease and are the leading group with the highest fatalities. According to The Marshall Project and the National Corrections Reporting Program, nearly 150,000 people incarcerated in state correctional facilities were 55 years or older in 2016, the most recent year data is available. Jails and prisons being overcapacity, having a sizable aging population, and many having sub-par health conditions, COVID-19 will spread in these environments at an alarmingly fast rate, one which we are neither prepared for nor fully understand at this point.

What Happened In Chinese Jails and Prisons?

In February of 2020, China had over 500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in just four of their correctional facilities. The outbreak first surfaced in correctional facilities at Rencheng Prison in mid-February 2020 when a guard was treated for a cough in the hospital. Over the next 10 days, 200 inmates and six more guards were confirmed as being infected with the coronavirus.

Wu Lei, newly appointed head of east China’s Shandong province prisons bureau, said in a press conference following, “The outbreak at Rencheng jail revealed our poor implementation of infection control measures, … we feel so much guilt.” This caused a more distinguished Chinese official to warn others, as well as other countries, about what can happen in their corrections system if this viral threat is not taken seriously. Guo Shengkun, who heads the Chinese Communist Party’s Politics and Legal Affairs Commission, said, “You should resolutely put an end to laxity and taking chances. Take extraordinary measures, take wartime measures to curb the spread of the epidemic. The biggest risk … in the penal system is from outside, and the most effective prevention and control measure is a strictly closed management. Prison guards must be disciplined in their approach to disease control and “cut off the external sources of infection.”

What’s Currently Being Done?

Currently, a number of facilities have suspended inmate visitation and the transportation and processing of new inmates into facilities. However, these measures do not stop correctional staff, vendors, and health care workers from being potential hosts transporting the virus into the facility, and out to the surrounding communities they return back to on a daily basis. “Neither inmates nor correction officers have been provided with masks or cleaning materials like hand sanitizer or bleach. Many workers are afraid that they could pass the virus on to their family members when they go home without knowing,” a 19-year correctional officer working on Rikers Island told Time magazine.

Too Little Too Late: COVID-19 Cases Are Already Popping Up In Jails and Prisons All Over Our Country

There have been confirmed cases in Rikers Island, the main New York City jail complex that houses around 5-6,000 inmates on a daily basis, which includes a population of detainees who have not as yet gone through due process and been convicted of their accused crime. A prison in Georgia, 762- inmate Lee State prison, has reported at least 3 inmates are confirmed to have the virus. A representative from the Georgia Department of Corrections stated in a news release that, “Measures have been taken to screen and quarantine the entire inmate population at that facility. All staff are being screened prior to entry, to include temperature screening, and currently no staff have exhibited signs of flu or COVID-19.” However, as we now understand more about COVID-19, one can have the virus and be a host passing it onto others without exhibiting any symptoms whatsoever.

How Did RED Help the Corrections System?

RED’s restorative justice program helps keep first time, nonviolent offenders from going into correctional facilities by offering them a chance to rehabilitate themselves while free. RED’s graduates, especially our newest graduation class, are particularly fortunate they are not in a jail or prison and having to deal with this pandemic while incarcerated. Not only are they grateful, but I’m sure their families are as well, as there has been an outpouring of concern and frustration over how our corrections agencies have handled their facilities exposure to the virus. RED’s restorative justice program utilizing deferred prosecution and the ability to ensure all participants who complete our program have their charges dismissed and their records clean is impactful, now more than ever, as jails and prisons will assuredly see COVID-19 sweep through the facilities at an alarmingly fast rate and any inmate on the inside is in one of the most high-risk environments for contracting the virus.

Conclusion

The outlook of the coronavirus rapidly spreading in jails and prison across America is bleak, and dare I say, inevitable. Inmate health advocates, if not already doing so, will probably start asking governors across the country to consider releasing nonviolent or medically fragile inmates, in particular, those whose sentences are almost up. As of the writing of this article the day of March 25, Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, GA has released 30 pre-trial detainees charged with nonviolent offenses, and are assuring that more will follow. I doubt that one who argues these measures should have been taken at the onset to limit the susceptibility of the virus spreading in these facilities will be on the wrong side of history. The corrections agencies have chosen to take a reactive instead of a preventative approach, and this will undoubtedly lead to cases spiking and being much higher than they currently stand. This reactive approach has put not only the jail and prison population at risk, but the workers within these facilities, and the communities that they are returning home to everyday. They are all interconnected.

Our jail and prison population need to be lowered. Having nonviolent inmates and pretrial detainees incarcerated made no sense before the COVID-19 outbreak, and now the realization of that is more evident than ever before. We will eventually get through COVID-19 but let us all make sure that after we do, the lessons learned from this experience are not lost; ending mass incarceration and implementing other ways to rehabilitate offenders in our country besides punitive incarceration need to be emphasized moving forward.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/opinion/coronavirus-in-jails.html

https://www.ajc.com/news/crime–law/fulton-jail-beings-releasing-nonviolent-pre-trial-detainees/WyaJFEJUQ1Lgkb9Qn7WCXN/

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3051983/coronavirus-prisons-must-learn-outbreak-chinas-top-legal

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/20/this_is_a_war_says_doctor

https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACJD/studies/37021

The post The Coronavirus Will Sweep Through American Jails At An Alarmingly Fast Rate, Faster Than It Did In China appeared first on CAL Writes - Carlton Lewis.

In the last half of 2019, respected journalist and news anchor, Lester Holt of NBC, explored the American prison system by placing himself inside for three days. This was a new approach to examining American prisons as most reports on prison take an “outside-in” approach. He experienced day to day life as an inmate inside the United States of America’s largest maximum-security prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The segment aired on Dateline NBC and was entitled “Dateline: ‘Life Inside’ Prison”. This blog post recalls Lester Holt’s experience and what he highlighted in the special report.

Louisiana State Penitentiary – Angola

The Louisiana State penitentiary is America’s largest maximum-security prison. The prison also goes by the name, Angola. Lester Holt and Dateline NBC chose Angola because at one point in time Louisiana was incarcerating more people than any other state, arguably more than any other place in the world. Angola was once a former slave plantation, and like in the days of slavery, inmates work is comparable to slaves in that they till the land every day and harvest crops for the institution where the land is on to be self-sufficient and feed its occupants. Today, it houses majority violent criminals convicted in the state of Louisiana.

Lester Holt’s Experience

Lester immediately noticed how most of the inmates belonged to the same racial group as he, Black. He also noted how he was surprised to see a sizable number of elderly inmates. Talking with other inmates, he also noticed how many inmates had a common thread, the search for hope and validation. They were introspective and trying to understand their purpose and how their life can still have meaning even though they’ve been removed from society, some for the rest of their lives.

While walking around, Lester also noticed how busy the inmates keep themselves. They all have jobs, and some are involved in vocational programs like auto repair. However, while they may be doing work similar to that found in our society, they are paid meager wages. Inmates told Lester that some of them make just a few cents an hour.

Another experience Lester Holt had was spending time on a cell block where inmates there are locked up 23 hours out of each 24-hour day. After only spending a night in these conditions, Lester admitted that the confines of the environment were already starting to frustrate him. He could not get adequate sleep as his bed was connected to his neighbor’s where he felt every toss and turn his neighbor did. He also heard the noises from the cell block all night long, such as conversations all around him by individuals who he does not know what they look like, smells from his neighbor’s bowel movements, and the constant flushing of toilets day and night.

Check out this video summarizing Lester Holt’s special report:


Conclusion

The main takeaway I believe that Lester Holt walked away from his experience inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary is the psychological and emotional toll it takes on inmates. Prison is not a place for rehabilitation, not how it is executed in the United States of America. Even though some former inmates come out and thrive, the vast majority are so traumatized from their experience being incarcerated that they are unable to assimilate and function in a healthy way once released back into society. There is hope, however, as a country we are making strides in terms of reform and understanding that we cannot remain a nation whose solution to crime is incarceration. Furthermore, if incarceration is still a tool we plan to utilize, it must go through a major overhaul and be reassessed for its efficacy in rehabilitating individuals and returning them back to our society.

The post Lester Holt’s Dateline NBC News Special Report: ‘Life Inside Prison’ appeared first on CAL Writes - Carlton Lewis.

“I’ve seen the impact we can have as a community when we work together for change. I’m running because I believe our government should work for all of us.” – Tarra Simmons, Esq.


Intro

Tarra Simmons, Esq. is not your typical returning citizen. For one, she is now a licensed attorney, a feat that has been accomplished by less than 1% of the returning citizen population. And, in the near future, she may be the first returning citizen to become an elected official in the state of Washington. Her story is one with many ups and downs, but one in which perseverance and a belief in rehabilitation and a second chance was paramount.

Her Story

Coming from a home where both of her parents were addicts, Tarra Simmons did not have an easy path to the summit she currently stands atop. She became a teen mother at the age of 14. Nevertheless, she persevered and became a nurse. After breaking her tailbone and being prescribed opioids for the pain – which made her tired, then Ritalin to stay awake, Simmons then developed a tolerance for the drugs and craved more. Also around this time, she began to hang out with individuals – some family members, who were using methamphetamine. After a number of arrests within the span of less than a year, Simmons was sentenced to prison.

Simmons did two and a half years in prison. While in prison her home life started to become even more difficult. During this period and shortly after, Simmons got divorced, had to file for bankruptcy, and her home went into foreclosure. Fortunately, the prison had a program where local law students came and assisted inmates with their family law issues, and this was when the first seed of becoming an attorney was planted.

Seattle University School of Law gave Simmons the chance she had hoped for, and she did not make them regret it. While in law school, she far exceeded expectations by being awarded a prestigious fellowship, the Skadden Fellowship. She graduated earning the academic honors of magna cum laude. Simmons was able to do all this while being a mother to her three children.

Her Fight

After earning her J.D. from Seattle University, the real fight began. Initially applying to sit for the 2017 Washington Bar exam, the Washington State Bar Association refused to let her test. A series of appeals followed, lasting more than a year. Simmons had to re-live and answer character questions about her previous substance addiction and if she was actually rehabilitated and fit to practice law. Simmons answered and held up in the face of intense scrutiny, and after taking her appeal all the way to the Washington Supreme Court, she was able to sit for the bar and get admitted as a licensed, practicing attorney. One of the judges said of Simmons,

“Simmons has proved by clear and convincing evidence that she is currently of good moral character and fit to practice law. We affirm this court’s long history of recognizing that one’s past does not dictate one’s future. We therefore unanimously grant her application to sit for the bar exam.” – Justice Mary Yu

What’s Next

Currently, Tarra Simmons, Esq. is campaigning for a 2020 run in which she’s seeking to become the first returning citizen to be elected to Washington Legislature. She will be running as a (D) State Representative in the state of Washington, District 23, Position 1. The seat is currently held by long-time state official, Rep. Sherry Appleton, who will be retiring at the end of her term. Rep. Appleton has endorsed Simmons as a candidate and has taken it upon herself to personally mentor her to be her successor.

 

Conclusion

Simmons’ story is one that we can all admire and deem commendable. She faced many ups and downs on her journey, but all the while she stayed committed and knew she was meant to make a bigger impact on her community than what she was settling for in her earlier years. She is a symbol of hope and a belief that a second chance is deserving to us all. I, for one, commend Tarra Simmons, Esq. on her rehabilitation and support her in her present and future efforts advocating for criminal justice reform as well as continuing to be a symbol of hope, showing that anything is possible when given a second chance.

To support and follow her movement, go here:

Website: Elect Tarra Simmons

Twitter: @TarraSimmons5

Facebook: @ElectTarraSimmons

Instagram: TarraSimmons

Sources:

The Fix: Tarra Simmons: From Committing Felonies to Practicing Law

New York Times: Are Felons Fit To be Lawyers? Increasingly The Answer is Yes

ElectTarraSimmons.com

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The Brick Road Series is an intersection of two worlds where crime and big dreams are the things that bind them.

The first world is Brick Road, a neighborhood in Atlanta that’s majority Black and working class. People living here struggle week to week, paycheck to paycheck, but still dream big and have hopes of one day making a more comfortable life for themselves and their families. Brick Road is like most inner-cities in America, and the issues dealt with by its residents are relatable no matter what part of the country, or world, you live in.

The second world is Brick Road, the online website. Created in the first book, Maxed Out, by the skilled cyber hacker Manila, Brick Road is an online black market website where illegal goods and services are sold and exchanged. Brick Road operates on the Dark Web. The Dark Web is the invisible part of the web not on search engines or indexed on the World Wide Web (i.e. you can’t search for it on Google or Bing). It is well known and widely used all over the world by hackers and other cyber criminals, but most law-abiding citizens don’t know much about it and thus, never go onto the Dark Web.

The concept for the Brick Road website came from one of the world’s first, biggest, and most notorious Dark Web marketplaces, Silk Road. Silk Road, founded by Ross Ulbricht (who is currently serving a life sentence in federal prison), generated millions of dollars from its illegal transactions. It was the first online crime store that operated out of the privacy controls we internet users abide by. Users could make themselves anonymous and untraceable. The Feds knew about it, but for years could do nothing to stop it. Silk Road is also the website that popularized Bitcoin, as this was the currency the buyers and sellers used when making transactions to remain anonymous.

Mixing a cybercrime world with an Atlanta inner-city neighborhood makes for interesting, explosive stories.

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

The post What is the Brick Road Series? appeared first on CAL Writes - Carlton Lewis.

I remember my first day getting a contact visit in prison. This gorgeous woman, inside and out, came to visit me. I hugged her and didn’t want to let go. This beautiful soul drove eight hours to come see little ol’ me. Yes, you read that right, eight hours!

Losing My Mind In Jail

Now, let me give you a bit of background information for this story. When you are going through sentencing as an inmate, you are housed in a jail or detention center. These facilities do not allow contact visits. Visits are normally through plexi-glass, where you pick up a phone and have to talk to your loved ones on that while you look at them through the barrier between you. Some facilities don’t even have that option; they only have video visits, where you are only allowed to video chat with your visitor.

I was in these facilities for the first 11 months and 15 days of my incarceration. Actually, I was in six of these facilities before finally making it to my first prison in Ashland, Kentucky. A young man from Atlanta, Georgia was sent to federal prison in Ashland Kentucky, which is eight hours away traveling by car.

I had been on a roller coaster for the last year. I didn’t know how much prison time I was facing, I had never even seen the inside of a jail cell before that day, and the culture shock of being locked up was beating me down mentally. During that first year locked up, I could count on one hand the amount of times I stood outside and felt the sun.

My grooming had went down the toilet. Every now and then we were able to get haircuts. Sometimes, based on the rules in the facility I was housed in, I would have to go days without a shower.

I worried about my nutrition. Jail food definitely takes getting used to; it’s bland, not well proportioned for grown adult men, expiration dates are not regularly checked, and the meat I believe was the same grade as dog food (def not USDA Grade A). So, all in all, that first year was not fun.

Preparing for My Visit

When I finally got to Ashland, Kentucky’s federal prison things got better. I was able to walk around outside in the sun, I was able to buy sneakers and shorts to exercise in, and I could go and get a haircut in the barbershop whenever I wanted. Soon after getting to Ashland, I got approved for a visit and a young lady came to see me.

This was quite an event. I had gotten visits before while in jail, but this was different. It was a contact visit. I would be able to actually hold and touch the person who was visiting me; a person who I cared about and who cared about me. After going a whole year without being able to do that to anyone, it was a big deal.

The young lady who came to see me was a friend of mine. We were in the same program at the University of Georgia together. She actually brought a mutual friend along as well.

Days before the visit is like counting down to Christmas or the first day of school. You are energetic. Your anticipation is high. You’re constantly clock-watching, trying to force time to somehow speed up. Finally, the day comes.

Visit Day!

I got up early and ironed my clothes. Each inmate is given one special pair of clothes to wear to visitation. We treasure that outfit and take special care of it, so we can look our best for our loved ones.

After ironing my clothes, I sat patiently in the TV room looking at ESPN Sportscenter, trying to not look too excited and give myself something to do besides watch the clock. I had gotten my haircut the day before and wanted to sit as still as possible and not ruin my clothes or my hair before the visit.

Then, a crackled voice comes over the intercom, “Inmate Lewis, report to visitation. You have a visitor.”

Let’s do this! I think to myself.

I come in through a side room (really, it’s a bathroom). You push a button on the wall and notify the guards in charge of visitation that you are waiting to be allowed into the visit room. A guard shows up, pats you down and makes you strip off your nice clothes that you just spent time ironing while he thoroughly searches. When I think back on it, it’s still degrading to have another man demand you lift up your penis to make sure you’re not hiding anything next to your ball sack. But, the excitement of having a visit makes you not raise much of a fuss.

Finally, he nods and says, “Go to your visit.”

Visits Are Vacations in Prison

You walk out into a room full of people. Kids are talking loud and clashing toys around, and families are playing cards and sharing food from the vending machines like they’re at a real restaurant.

You look around at the other inmates, the only people you recognize, partly because they all have on the exact same outfit you do, and mostly these are the faces you see every day in your tiny world that’s a prison compound. Something seems different about the other inmates than back inside the prison where you are housed. Actually, they don’t seem different, they are different. They’re smiling and enjoying themselves.

Back inside prison, most of the time as an inmate is spent on guard: you’re constantly observing your surroundings, noting changes in the mood of inmates around you as that may give off a telltale sign danger is coming, paying attention to how people interact with you because it lets you know the level of respect they have for you, and studying officers and their routines. It’s a constant, exhausting game of survival. And it’s played 24/7, 365 days out of the year while locked up.

You quickly realize that the only physical break you get from this game will be at a visit. Other inmates don’t care what you’re doing or how you’re acting during visit, they’re too busy focusing on their loved ones and enjoying their small window of peace and relaxation.

My Visiting Angel

After a look around, I spot my visitors sitting at a table smiling. When I come close, they get up and give me big hugs. Man, that hug from my friend felt so good. Hugs don’t seem like a big deal, but when you haven’t gotten one in a whole year, all of a sudden, hugs aren’t just hugs, they’re the most precious form of physical connection and you’re grateful for them.

The first words out of my friend’s mouth after her hug was, “You look great! Your skin is clear.”

Flattery will get you everywhere. Wow! What a way to start off my visit.

She was actually referring to something very real, though. Before my incarceration, I was in bad shape. I was exercising less, experimenting with recreational drugs, and drinking a lot more, to the point where I was on the verge of becoming a functional alcoholic. Before my arrest, the refrigerator in my apartment only contained alcohol and Gatorade to help me recover from hangovers.

My visitor spent the next few hours updating me on events that took place after I got locked up: what the media was saying, the gossip around campus, etc. She also spent a considerable amount of time worrying over me and making sure I was doing alright.

Me? I spent most of the time putting on a smile and appearing cool, calm and collected. I was a mess on the inside, but I didn’t want my visitors getting emotional. If that happened, as composed of an individual as I normally am, I was likely to break down.

“Visitation is over. Please say goodbye to your friends and family, then line up at the back wall and wait on a guard to search you,” a voice yelled out.

I got up from my seat, still smiling and putting on a strong front. I hugged my visitor tightly. To be honest, I didn’t want to let go. The warmth of a person you know cares about you pressed against your body is priceless. It makes all your senses wake up. It’s like a cold glass of water on a hot, summer day.

Then, it was over. I watched my visitors walk out of the visitation room and into the parking lot. I watched them for as long as I possibly could, trying to burn the image into my mind.

After the search, I walked straight back to my bunk. A few inmates said a few words to me and seemed like they wanted to have a full-blown conversation, but I had one thing on my mind and it wasn’t talking.

With all my visitation clothes still on, I laid down on my bunk and closed my eyes. I blocked out all the prison noise around me. I stayed there, undisturbed, for as long as I possibly could, trying to keep the images of my visitor clear in my head. I thought about her smile, her hair, her smell, the way she felt when I squeezed her in my arms. I wanted to cherish it all.

Damn, it’ll be a while for that happens again, I thought to myself.

But, was it worth it? Did it give me something to hold onto and cherish for the future? Did it give me hope? Absolutely!

To this day, that is still one of the fondest memories I have in my life.

That’s the power of a visit.

The post My First Contact Visit In Prison appeared first on CAL Writes - Carlton Lewis.

New HBO movie, O.G.

HBO released a film on its channel earlier this year, O.G., starring Jeffrey Wright, of Westworld, and directed by Madeleine Sackler. O.G. is about an older man whose done over 20 years in prison and is about to be released back into the world. The film was shot in an actual prison, Pendleton Correctional Facility – a maximum security prison in Indiana, using real inmates and correctional officers as actors. It originally premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, where Wright won the award for Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film.

Overview

Louis Menkins (Jeffrey Wright) is an O.G. in a maximum-security prison. He is in the final stretch of his 24- year prison sentence for murder. Cool, calm, and collected on the exterior, but a nervous wreck on the inside about the unfamiliar world awaiting him outside of the brick wall and barbed wire prison fences. A change from his regular ways, Louis chooses to befriend a new inmate, Beecher, and pass onto him wisdom about prison life and how he can survive his long sentence. This wisdom revolves around gang life, survival, and how to mentally unlock prior chains of the mind. But the friendship comes at a high cost. It puts Louis’ final days of release in jeopardy, and he must find a way to stay out of harm’s way and keep his release date while keeping his O.G. status intact.

My Perspective On The Film

The film puts moviegoers into the mind of an incarcerated inmate at the tail end of his sentence. Although a fictional tale, the movie displays a real, relatable perspective that can occur to any inmate leaving prison. Inmates have a roller coaster of emotions when they’re about to leave prison. I did as well. Think about this: you’ve been living in a totally different environment, almost like another world unto itself, for years, and then all of a sudden, you’re about to be transported back to your old life. But your old life is different and not exactly how you left it; friends and family have changed, technology has advanced to a point beyond your understanding, and you as a person now see the world differently. You basically have hit the reset button on life, but now have to navigate it with a disadvantage of having a felony attached to you forever. It would make most, if not all, of us a bit nervous.

I enjoyed the film. Sackler’s aim was to shed light on the physical and mental struggles an inmate about to re-enter society faces and she did a remarkable job in conveying that. One of my favorite scenes was Louis sitting with the sister of the victim of his horrific crime (murder) that got him sentenced to prison for all this time. In the scene, he shows his growth as a person apologizing for his transgressions and giving insight as to what he did to change himself for the better while incarcerated.

The movie aroused a lot of old feelings within me seeing such a realistic depiction of prison life. It was a healthy experience as I was also able to reflect and marvel at how far I’ve been brought in my rehabilitation. I recommend this film to everyone, whether you have had the experience of being incarcerated or not, the perspective given on rehabilitation is unique to the film world and sheds light on what millions of men and women re-entering society face.

 

Watch the trailer to O.G. here: O.G. trailer

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Sports, one of the things that’s almost as old as mankind itself. There is evidence that ancient civilizations like the Romans, Mayans, and Egyptians all engaged in the playing of sports. Back in B.C. times, The Greeks started one of the first global sporting events in the world, the Olympics. I love sports.

If you’re like me, you still have fond memories of watching sporting events like the Olympics and others. From a) seeing Usain Bolt running the 100-meter race with a blistering time of 9.58 seconds, and then hitting his signature pose after being crowned the fastest man to ever live, to b) Michael Phelps looking like a fish reincarnated cutting through the water to win gold after gold after gold, to c) Michael Jordan gliding through the air with his tongue out and the basketball looking like an orange in his hand, and d) Serena Williams yelling every time she crushes a ball over the net towards an opponent who wants nothing to do with a ball coming from a woman destined to go down as the most dominant female in tennis history. Even these fond memories aren’t keeping me from significantly cutting down on my sports watching.

Sports: The Great Unifier 

Sports permeates all races, nationalities, gender. The activity of sports is one of the few things I can definitively say is universal. This is evident by the fact that global sporting events like the Olympics and the World Cup exist. CNN reported that in 2010, the World Cup – the most watched sporting event in the world, had 3.2 billion people worldwide watch it. That’s 46% of the world! With so many cultures and different walks of life around the globe, to get almost half of the world population to agree on anything is a HUGE deal. But with all that said, I’m no longer watching sports.

I can totally see the appeal of sports. I mean, name another arena where a small country of 2 million people like Jamaica, can compete against AND beat countries like the U.S., China, and India where hundred of millions of people live? I can’t. Sports is the only thing that allows a country to do that. And when I say this, I’m speaking about the country of Jamaica currently being acknowledged as the place where the fastest runners alive are coming from. Who knows, maybe we’re in the middle of one of the biggest cheating scandals in history, where Jamaicans have found a way to unfairly give an advantage to all of their runners who compete. I mean, Lance Armstrong fooled us all for years. I still think he was on some bullshit for that. Lance, thanks for being a Grade A sucka! With that being said, I seriously doubt it.

My Reason For Not Watching Sports Anymore

The reason I’m not watching sports simply boils down to time, and the value of it. Sure, the similarity of modern athletes to gladiators – who were in fact slaves and prisoners to the Roman empire, is becoming a nagging thought that I am finding harder and harder to ignore, but when I look at how much time I spend watching sports it doesn’t make sense from a productivity standpoint.

If you’re a returning citizen coming home from incarceration, the LAST THING you need to be doing is wasting valuable time doing an activity that doesn’t help you get your life back on track.

Let’s Do The Math

Think about this, the average football game is 4 hours. If you enjoy American football and are a fan of the NFL like myself, that means in a 17-week season you will spend 64 hours watching sports (Remember, there’s 1 bye week, so it’s 16 games x 4 hours each game = 64 hours). And that’s only following one team and watching just their games, without counting their possible playoff games.

If you’re saying to yourself, “Who cares about football, I’m a basketball fan.” NBA games are about 2 ½ hours. The NBA season, with its 82 games, means a fan watches 205 hours of basketball just following his or her particular team.

You know what you could do with 205 extra hours?!? You could write a book (maybe two), start a business, or teach yourself how to write code and program a fully functional app or website from scratch. And, if you’re just an average learner, you can probably learn to do ALL these things with that extra 205 hours. In one sports season, you can learn multiple new skills.

And if you’re like me, I am terrible at multi-tasking while watching sports (I’ve tried and failed miserably). Look, I love sports, and I always will, but I have come to value my time and what I want to accomplish in this one-shot deal called life more than spending a big chunk of it watching sports. Sure, I will still glance at the headlines and see who won the Super Bowl, or the World Cup, or who breaks the 100m world record when it happens (because it will, even impressive records like this one will get broken), but to sit down and commit hours out of my day on a consistent basis to watching a sport that does not help me get any closer to accomplishing any of my life goals and bucket list plans, or putting any money in my pocket is something that’s no longer appealing to me. You have a choice, take more control of your life and shape it the way you want it to be, or keep letting outside influences distract you to the point you never realize your full potential.

What’s more important to you, being a fan of a sports team, or living your best life the way it’s meant to be lived?

The post Why I’m No Longer Watching Sports, And I Recommend You Stop Too… Well, I’m Significantly Cutting Back appeared first on CAL Writes - Carlton Lewis.

To my Unborn Son,

As I lie here on my prison bunk, staring up at a ceiling that I know is there but cannot see through the darkness. My neighbor has stopped screaming. He does it in his sleep, every night. He does not know he is doing it. I have my ideas on why, but they are just ideas. I suspect if I were to ask him he would not give me a straight answer, so I have not. Now, though, I can think.

I was having a conversation earlier today with a buddy of mine. It was on a topic that I have heard expressed multiple times by numerous individuals: Inmates who are parents say the hardest part of being incarcerated is being away from their kids. Not being there to see them take their first steps, or take them to their first day of school, educate them about sex, or see them go to prom seems to be difficult and take a toll on a parent.

As you know already, son, I am writing this before you are born. I have no children as of now. But these thoughts and more swirl around in my head on a consistent basis. I wonder what advice I would have for you as you grow up. I love you even before you have taken your first breath of life. You will be my future, my greatest legacy. One who is a by-product of all the pain and struggle of his ancestors.

You are a descendant of the first man, of a slave, of an Amerindian in the Caribbean, of an island culture where people are so filled with pride they remark, “God must be a Trini”, of an immigrant of the U.S., of a college graduate, and of a felon.

I added this last one recently. Some say, unfortunately. I once did. But, now I know better. Still, if I can prevent my hardships from ever becoming yours, I want to do that. There is no manual to teach you how to be a Black man in America, and immigrant, nor a son, let alone being all these things rolled into one. You learn these things, many times by trial and error, until you reach proficiency. Don’t be offended by my blunt statement, but you, my Unborn Son, will not have this luxury. It pains me to say this, but during your trials and errors, you will not receive verbal warnings or ‘slaps on the wrist’ for infractions where your non-black peers might. No, your judgment will have already factored in the color of your skin and the stigma attached to it. Just? No. Accurate on the system we live in? Absolutely.

These letters are not intended to prove this to you. There are countless examples of ‘Black Lives Matter’ movements, disproportionate incarceration rates, and the number of illegal minority immigrants because the qualification standards required, and level of scrutiny imposed when migrating from a non-European country does not equal that for individuals coming from European countries. No, my intent is far less controversial, leaving less room for debate. I think our community leaders have all but exhausted talks on these issues, and their appeals for justice in society have fallen on deaf ears.  I, on the other hand, have chosen to heed Alexander Hamilton’s words of caution, words stating that countries follow their interests, not their sympathies. And, just like a country following its interests, I will follow my own.

I am interested in you, my Unborn Son. I’m interested in you navigating your dynamic self in a society that would rather ostracize you for being unique rather than embrace you. Contained in the following letters are lessons I learned from my own trials and errors.  I wonder how much smoother my journey could have been had I bypassed these experiences. Maybe I could have been more of an asset to this world. Maybe I could have been more of an asset to this country. Maybe I could have been more of an asset to my family and friends. Maybe I could have been more of an asset to you, son.

These are lessons and experiences that are unique to black men. A woman cannot teach you these, not even your mother. As much as she will love and try to shelter you from the ills of the world, not even she can shield you from these experiences. Right now, as my mind and thoughts are clear and pure, I write these letters to you, my Unborn Son. May you not only survive but also thrive. May these stories and insights of your father’s personal experiences, which you will inevitably encounter at some point, help you on your life’s journey.

Daddy Loves You, Son.

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