It’s not often that residents of the Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI) are invited to participate in discussions with classrooms abroad.
But when instructor Henny Hearn with Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nüremberg invited me to present to her Prison and Punishment class my experiences with Idaho’s criminal justice system, the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) kindly made the arrangements.
Its the second time the IDOC has arranged for me to Zoom in on an academic function and share with the audience my carceral experiences.
In 2021, along with Chris Shanahan, then a resident of the Southern Idaho Correctional Institution, I spoke at the 2021 University of Idaho Video Law Symposium on Mass Incarceration. Our appearances were arranged through then-legal director of ACLU-Idaho, Ritchie Eppink, who months earlier had also arranged for Shanahan and I to submit essays that would later be published by the Idaho Law Review.
Eppink informed me in a visit leading up to the symposium that IDOC Director Josh Tewalt had personally approved us to speak.
Because I, at the time, was housed in administrative segregation, a restricted housing unit built for long-term isolation, and also because for much of the year leading up the symposium I had been publishing my work from a place of deep frustration, I recognized the director’s decision to approve my appearance as an act both extremely bold and remarkable.
I remember having no more than a few days to prepare a fifteen-minute presentation for what I was told would be a widespread audience of students, lawyers, judges and advocates.
It was unnerving, to say the least, how I unraveled before them all under the long-lasting effects of administrative segregation.
When, on January 25, Hearn introduced herself to me over JPay, the prison messaging app used by Idaho prisons, she informed me that she was in attendance at the video law symposium, and that my talk left a lasting impact–one that she would appreciate me sharing with her class.
Her message arrived during one of the many weeks that I have found myself questioning the strength of my efforts–those I have made for the last five years, on behalf of myself and others, to usher into the free world the experience of incarceration.
1.25.23
Hi Henny,
Thank you for reaching out! I was thinking of that symposium speech just the other day, wondering whether its reach has been exhausted–and so your timing now strikes me as a perfect reminder of how a person’s previous efforts are never out of play...
From late January until June, Hearn and I communicated through a JPay-email relay, exchanging background information and updates with the help of my father, and forwarding our mutual questions through IMSI Warden Tim Richardson and the folks at Central Office, where all of the biggest IDOC decisions are made.
It was through my communications with Hearn that I learned Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nüremberg was founded in Bavaria in 1743. It is considered one of Germany’s top universities and it has also been ranked one of the most innovative universities in the world.
I also learned from Hearn that she originated in Pocatello, a small city that sits just a few hours east of Boise, the city that I call home . After graduating from the University of Montana, she says, she moved to Erlangen, Germany to pursue her master’s degree in an interdisciplinary program focused on social sciences.
She is now pursuing her PhD at the Institute of Sociology under the chair for Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Our classroom discussion took place on June 19 over Zoom. For an hour and forty-five minutes, from the IMSI courtroom, I once again rattled into a basket of professional listeners all the loose change from my brain.
Though I was able to deliver my speech in forward-facing restraints, a week of horrific events at my facility required the cuffs be rotated to behind my back after our session had ended–to reduce the perceived level of threat that I posed while being walked back to my cell.
The conversation during my escort home remained light and encouraging. Correctional Officer Taylor [spelling unchecked], who also supervised the presentation, suggested that I seek out, when I can, community college classes to help me work through some of the challenges that I struggle through while speaking publicly.
As an individual included in the 98%* of IDOC residents expected to one day be released from prison, I hope for nothing more than the opportunity to take him up on his advice.
Many thanks to the IDOC–IMSI staff in particular–Instructor Hearn and her class for providing me with an opportunity to share my experiences with our criminal justice system.
I would encourage others DOCs and their community partners to observe the collaborations taking place behind prison doors in Idaho, and to explore in open forums ways that they might do the same.
* IDOC spokesperson Jeff Ray tells the Idaho Capital Sun in Mia Maldonado’s article “Idaho Nonprofit and State Programs Are Key to Reentry Process, Former Prisoners Say.”
See also: Notes From 6.19.23 Discussion With Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nüremberg Students