News — Black Prisoner

Nicole had been in prison for four years, where she has been in a relationship with Daonte. Despite warnings from his family, 33-year-old Daonte spent more than $30,000 on Nicole while incarcerated. He was ready to take their relationship to the next level. However, when Nicole is released, she claims not to be ready to have an intimate relationship with Deonte; she is interested in someone else. Doente, who is not aware of this, is willing to give Nicole some space The dynamics of their relationship represent most that develop with inmates. What do you think?

At California's Institution for Men in Chino, 78 female transgender prisoners live among more than 3,500 men. The prisoners live in shared spaces and bunk beds. Many live in fear of sexual assault and would prefer to be transferred to female prisons per their rights. According to the justice department, 35% of transgender people individuals report cases of sexual assault by other prisoners or prison staff. LGBTQ advocates note these numbers could be higher. At Chino, most trans women have requested transfers but have been denied or asked about their security concerns. What do you think about the safety of transgender persons and the changes that need to be made?

Jumans just got out after serving 31 years in prison. He shares never-heard-before stories of what prison is like and how social influence in his life contributed to his experience in prison. For a long time, he thought he was never going back home.  Now, he sees his release as a second chance and is ready to change his life. He expresses his concern over the number of black people in prison, showing how they have formed a community in there. The realness in his stories is unmatched. His opinion also shows that it is possible to live a fulfilling life after serving time. What do you think?

The Louisiana State Penitentiary nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the South” is the largest maximum security prison in the country. Six thousand, three hundred men, 80 per cent of whom are black are held there. Before the Civil War, the prison property was known as the Angola Plantations and was owned by Isaac Franklin, who at the time owned the largest slave trading firm (Franklin & Armfield) in the United States. The prison grounds occupy a 28-square-mile area. To put that in perspective, the prison property covers an area larger than Manhattan (22.8 sq miles).

Angola’s origins as a prison date back to 1880. Then the state awarded the lease of Louisiana State Penitentiary and all of its convicts to a former Confederate Army officer, Samuel L. James. James purchased several plantations across Louisiana, in addition to the Angola Plantation. Inmates were housed in the old slave quarters and worked on his plantations. The majority of black inmates, however, were subleased to landowners to replace their emancipated slaves. They were leased to businesses to build levees, dig railroad tunnels, build roads, reclaim lowlands, and harvest crops. White inmates, seen as more intellectual, were given clerk and craftsmanship work.

Under this private prison system, profit was the main concern. Humane treatment of prisoners and accountability to the state of Louisiana were ignored. In many instances, inmates suffered worse abuse under the convict lease arrangements than under the now abolished slavery system. As a result, a constitutional ban of convict leasing was successfully adopted in 1898. The State of Louisiana purchased the prison camp from the James family in 1900 and assumed operational control in 1901. Thus, began state control of Angola prison.

Presently, Angola has numerous enterprises. They include a license tag plant, printing services, and a mattress factory. Inmates cultivate, harvest, and process a variety of crops, making the facility self-supporting. Each year, the prison produces four million pounds of vegetable crops including cabbage, corn, cotton, strawberries, okra, onions, peppers, soybeans, squash, tomatoes, and wheat. The facility also has approximately 2,000 head of cattle, and some of the herd is sold at local markets for beef. Inmates also breed and train the horses used at Angola for field work. The prison is known for its professional rodeo which is held one weekend every April, and every Sunday in October. Inmates are allowed to participate in the events. The Angola prison rodeo is open to the general public and attracts 10,000 spectators annually.

At one time, 68 per cent of Angola’s inmate population were serving life sentences. Consequently, a large portion of its prison population consists of elderly inmates. In 2015 a class-action lawsuit (Lewis vs. Cain) was filed stating that inadequate inmate medical care is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment”. According to the lawsuit, the Louisiana Department of Corrections (LADOC) neglected the serious medical needs of people incarcerated there. The lawsuit further claims that Angola is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, by not addressing the mobility issues of inmates who are physically unable to access parts of the prison. As of this writing, the two parties have not reached an agreement.

Nelson Mandela in a cell on Robben Island has become one of the most emotive mental pictures anyone can come up with when the story of Black South African push against white domination is told. But what if you were told that two hundred years before Mandela, a Black African broke twice from the Dutch penitentiary?

The man was a chief of the Khoi people, a group from one of the oldest, if not the oldest traceable lineage on earth. He has for long been called David Stuurman but that is not his real name. He is thought to have been born around 1773 and details about his upbringing are not known to us. The name he was identified by is of Dutch extraction, with the first name sometimes spelled Dawid.

What we do know is that he was born near the Gamtoos River in what is now known as the Eastern Cape. We also know that while a teenager, Stuurman was a farm laborer on the farm of the Dutch Vermaak family, who lived in Gamtoos. The Khoi, as well as their tribal kinsmen the San, were mistreated, a fact recorded by Christian missionaries in Bethelsdorp. The patriarch of the Vermaak family, Johannes extended the cruelty to Stuurman. All of this was happening while the European settlers dispossessed the native Black population of their lands.

Indeed, the relationship that existed between the Europeans and many of the Khoi people was one of indentured servitude on the part of the latter.

Dispossessing the Khoi and the San of their lands expectedly brought about tensions between the locals and the white settlers. These tensions are what collectively are called The Xhosa Wars. After 1790, Stuurman, along with his family. like many others, had to relocate to avoid the violence. But he was leaving the place of his birth a man permanently scarred by the events of his childhood.

Those who fled were welcomed in association with the Xhosa people, the main enemies of the Europeans. Having found security the Khoi who fled like Stuurman and his family refused to return to indentured servitude. This obviously incensed the white people who had usurped ownership of the lands.

But from this vantage point, Stuurman distinguished himself by leading the Khoi composite of the Xhosa opposition to Dutch and British settlements. He led expeditions, as a warring chief, against the Europeans and made life imaginably unpalatable for them. His efforts momentarily paid off when in 1802, he was granted land to settle on by the British governor, Francis Dundas. This was only to quiet Stuurman down because soon enough the British attacked. And so did the Dutch.

In 1809, Stuurman was arrested and according to cultural activist, Stephen Langtry, “charged for resisting colonial rule as well as opposing the conscription of the Khoi into militias that were created to defend the colony and to attack the San and amaXhosa”. He was essentially an enemy of settler interests since he would not go to war against other natives. He was taken to Robben Island.

That year, in December, Stuurman and a host of others escaped from the island using a whaling boat. When he arrived on land, Stuurman sought and found reunification with the Xhosa with whom he had enjoyed a camaraderie for two decades. But he was rearrested ten years later, only for him to escape again in 1820.

But the second escape was only short. He was recaptured as he tried to swim his way to shore. When he was taken back to the island, he was chained, unlike previous times. He was kept there for nearly three years and then transported to Australia where Stuurman would die in 1830.

In South Africa, Stuurman has been immortalized with a statue in the National Heritage Monument Park in Pretoria. The international airport formerly known as Port Elizabeth is now also the Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport.

For the seven years Lester Eubanks was in jail, reports said he acted like a model prisoner. Eubanks, then 22, had been convicted of murdering 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener in 1966. Prosecutors alleged he tried to rape her before beating her and shooting her twice. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 when the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.

While at the Ohio State Penitentiary, Eubanks was so well-behaved that he became an Honor Inmate at the facility, enabling him to be given certain privileges. On December 7, 1973, Ohio State Penitentiary granted him a furlough to go Christmas shopping at a local mall as a reward for good behavior. Eubanks was supposed to get back at a specific time and place near the mall when he was done. Rather, he disappeared and hasn’t been seen to date.

His escape baffled many. The family of the 14-year-old he killed was traumatized. “We thought it was over,” said sister Myrtle Carter who was 18 at the time of the murder. “And then lo and behold, he goes Christmas shopping, first of all — that’s a shock — and then escapes. My mom, she was just beside herself.”

“…It bothers me that he’s still missing, that he’s still free and took her innocent life. That bothers me.”

Mary Ellen Deener, a 14-year-old Mansfield, Ohio girl, had gone to do laundry with her younger sister when she ran out of change. She told her little sister to sit tight while she walked to another laundromat five minutes away in search of change. Eubanks, who was out on a bond on an attempted rape charge, was apparently watching Deener, the News Journal reported. He grabbed Deener and dragged her behind a home where he tried to rape her and shot her when she refused to stop screaming, the report added.

Deener’s family later found her dead in the streets, with change still in her hand. The following day, Eubanks confessed to the murder after being arrested by the police. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder while perpetrating rape. Reports said he tried to plead insanity, without success. On May 25, 1966, a jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972. The following year, he escaped.

The Ohio Department of Corrections immediately listed Eubanks as a fugitive, but federal authorities would do the same after decades. In the 1990s, the head of the Detective Bureau of the Mansfield Police Department, John Arcudi, delved into Eubanks’ disappearance and found out that the National Crime Information Center had not listed him as wanted. “It had been 20 years and it was like nobody was working the case that we were aware of,” said Arcudi. “He was just out there on his own and nobody seemed concerned about it.”

Arcudi contacted the 1994 TV episode America’s Most Wanted about Eubanks, directing the attention of the public to his case. Several calls came in, with many saying they had spotted him in Northern California. The U.S. Marshal’s officially listed Eubanks on their 15 Most Wanted List.

Eubanks’ case received renewed attention when it was featured last year on the Netflix true-crime documentary series “Unsolved Mysteries”.

On Monday, authorities said they are now closing in on Eubanks. “We believe that he may have never left the Greater Los Angeles area,” Deputy US Marshal David Siler, a member of a cold case squad seeking Eubanks, said, according to KABC-TV. “We’re just hoping for that one, one piece of the puzzle that’s going to get us to his front door.”

Eubanks, after escaping from prison, fled to Los Angeles and worked under the name “Victor Young”, authorities said. He is also believed to have lived off and on with a woman named Kay Eubanks between 1975 and 1996. He worked different jobs including in a waterbed factory and as a hospital janitor. “Fugitives on the run as long as Eubanks tend to use that time to change their appearance, use aliases, and even start new lives,” Siler said, according to City News Service. “He literally could be hiding in plain sight. This is why we are asking citizens to be vigilant and contact us with any information they believe will help us apprehend him.”

Investigators say they know Eubanks has friends and associates in the Los Angeles area. “We just need to talk to those people,” Siler told KABC.

Eubanks, who loved music and art, would be in his 70s now, authorities say. He is described as 5-foot-11-inches with a huge scar on his right arm. “This is one of these cases that you go to bed with, it’s one of these cases that you wake up with. It’s just so disgusting, so unjust,” Siler said, according to KABC. “We continue to fight for [Deener] so that someday she will get justice when we’re able to put Lester Eubanks in custody.”

A North Carolina woman who won a massive $188 million Powerball jackpot lottery in 2015 is being sued by her currently incarcerated ex-fiancé for allegedly giving away gifts and other property she bought for him – with her own money.

Marie Holmes, then a 26-year-old mother of four, made headlines in 2015 as she became the largest jackpot winner in the state at the time. After scooping the jackpot, Holmes opted to go in for the lump sum of $127 million, though she eventually took home $88 million after tax deductions, as reported. She was dating her now incarcerated ex-fiancé, Lamar McDow, when she won the jackpot.

Months before Holmes became an overnight millionaire, McDow was facing legal woes as he had been arrested for allegedly trafficking heroin and was on bail awaiting trial. Though McDow violated his bail conditions many times after Holmes won the jackpot and landed back in jail on each occasion, his bond was always paid no matter the amount as his fiancée always stepped in. Holmes reportedly paid over $15 million in bond and spent around $600,000 in fees for the services of bail bondsmen. Aside from that, Holmes also showered McDow with gifts and also opened a business for him.

Per the lawsuit, McDow said he met Holmes when she was “working at McDonald’s and living with her mother and three kids in a single-wide mobile home,” WECT reported. The pair had two children while they were together. After Holmes won the jackpot, McDow – in the lawsuit – said Holmes bought him gifts including a $250,000 modified Chevrolet Stingray, clothes and jewelry amounting to $100,000, among others. McDow also stated Holmes opened a $600,000 auto restoration business for him. Though the business and vehicle are in Holmes’ name, McDow said Holmes bought them for him.

McDow received a seven-year prison sentence for his 2014 drug trafficking charges in 2016. Before beginning his prison term, he made Holmes his agent through a power of attorney, WECT reported. They were engaged at that time.

“Mr. McDow authorized Ms. Holmes to store, maintain, and protect his real and personal property during his incarceration,” the lawsuit alleged. While incarcerated, Holmes also gave birth to their second child.

The lawsuit stated they broke up in 2017 and subsequently grew distant, with McDow alleging he later got to know Holmes was romantically involved with another person through a friend. McDow also alleged Holmes gave away the gifts she purchased for him and closed down his business.

“Each unauthorized gift, conveyance, or transfer of Mr. McDow’s personal property was without his knowledge or consent and without consideration ceding to Mr. McDow… Ms. Holmes failed to act openly, fairly, and honestly by secretly giving away the items identified as Mr. McDow’s personal property,” the lawsuit stated.

McDow is seeking punitive damages as well as compensation from Holmes for giving away his supposed assets, according to WECT. “Ms. Holmes unconditional obligation to act in the best interests of Mr. McDow didn’t stop because Ms. Holmes and Mr. McDow’s relationship ended,” the complaint alleged.

Holmes and McDow had a publicly tumultuous relationship following her jackpot winning. In a 2016 interview, McDow defended Holmes repeatedly spending millions to bail him. The pair were engaged at the time.

“If I had that money then I would do the same for her,” he said. “People are just jealous because of how much she won, and people want to see me locked in jail.”

“She [Holmes] is standing by her man,” he added. McDow will reportedly be released in 2023.

Atlanta Chaplain Gwendale Boyd-Willis is proof that no matter what challenges life may bring you, hard work, family, and faith can always bring you back.

In 2005, Boyd-Willis was living with her grandmother and trying to figure out her life when she went to an ATM and saw a card left inside. She made some purchases but it wasn’t long before the law caught up to her.

“I had just gotten a divorce and I was living in Carrollton,” Boyd-Willis told Black Enterprise. “I went to the ATM one night and a young woman left her card in and it said do you want another transaction, so I took some money out and went shopping. I was just in a very emotional place.”

About a month later, the cops caught up to Boyd-Willis, who admitted fault and cooperated with the investigation and had five charges dropped as a result. However Boyd-Willis still had had to serve time—four months at the West Central Center facility.

Boyd-Willis will never forget the feeling of walking in. “I was sad, depressed and ashamed,” she says. “I was really disappointed in myself.”

Boyd-Wills said the facility was run like an army barracks: bunk beds, 5 a.m. wake up, and everyone has a job. Hers was in the kitchen, which meant she had to get up at 3 a.m.

“After we cleaned up our area in the morning, everyone would report to their assignment and if you didn’t have one, you’d stay in the barracks,” Boyd-Willis says.

The inmates did get a break during the day, but Boyd-Willis says she largely kept to herself during that time. The one thing she did look forward to was church.

“When we would go out on the yard I would just keep to myself, I didn’t really socialize with anyone, I wasn’t trying to make friends,” she says. “They did give us time to go to church so I took advantage of that and I would go and seek counsel on a regular basis.”

Boyd-Willis began going to every church service, not only to get away but because she always had a strong sense of faith. During the services she felt moved by the music and it wasn’t long before some of the inmates who also attended church found out that Boyd-Willis had a voice.

Eventually the women in the barracks began asking Boyd-Willis to sing to them at nights when their work was done for the day. “They always asked me to sing Sam Cooke, ‘A Change Is Gonna Come,’ so I’d sing that song every night.” Boyd-Willis says laughing.

When she found out her release date, Boyd-Willis kept it to herself. On the day, she she was excited to get out, but the four months inside West Central made the transition difficult.

“When I went home for a little while I didn’t want to be around anybody, I had to get adjusted back to doing normal things,” Boyd-Willis says. “On the day I got out my mom took me to Ruby Tuesday’s and I couldn’t even eat the food; I went home and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

Boyd-Willis moved to Atlanta after her grandmother passed away and found it difficult to leave her past behind her due to her record. Since she couldn’t get a job, she went to school, earning her Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Westwood College.

But after getting her degree, she still couldn’t find a job, so she decided to go back to school.

“I was looking for a job and couldn’t find one so I said I guess I’ll go back to school. Half of my family is in law enforcement and the other half of my family is in ministry, so I got my masters in religious studies at Beulah Heights University,” Boyd-Willis says. “My mother was a licensed evangelist, my grandmother and uncles were pastors, so there was a lot of influence from them.”

Even after getting her masters, Boyd-Willis still couldn’t find employment as her record continued to follow her. So she continued pursuing her education at Luther Rice College and Seminary School.

Boyd-Willis now had two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree. And while her resume was stunning, her record always came up in job interviews. During that time, she made money through a catering business she started and twice tried to get her record expunged but was denied.

It wasn’t until she got help from the Georgia Justice Project, a nonprofit that provides legal advice for Georgia residents with a state criminal record that she was able to get her record expunged.

Boyd-Wills is now a chaplain and is writing her autobiography. She wants those who may be struggling the same way she did to know that if you work hard enough and stay on the path, things will happen for you.

“When I look back, first of all I have to give God glory and praise because I know he was with me,” Boyd-Willis said. “There’s a purpose behind what you’re going through and to those who are struggling I would say keep your faith and don’t give up.”

A Black Mississippi man who was convicted of raping and murdering an 84-year-old White woman and sentenced to death in 1994 has been exonerated after the state Supreme Court “discredited” bite mark evidence that was used to convict him.

In a statement, the Innocence Project, who represented Eddie Lee Howard, said their client was cleared of the crime based on new forensic opinion pertaining to bite marks as well as strong alibis, and new DNA tests that were conducted on the crime scene evidence. The blood and DNA samples taken from the murder weapon did not tie Howard to the murder.

According to CNN, Howard was convicted of the murder after a doctor testified the bite marks found on the body of the victim – Georgia Kemp – matched Howard’s teeth. In August, the Mississippi Supreme Court, however, ruled that the bite-mark comparisons were not substantial enough to link Howard to the murder, writing that “an individual perpetrator cannot be reliably identified through bite-mark comparison.”

“After reviewing the record, we conclude that Howard’s evidence as to the change in the scientific understanding of the reliability of identification through bite-mark comparisons was almost uncontested. Based on this record, we agree with Howard that a forensic dentist would not be permitted to identify Howard as the biter today as Dr. West did at Howard’s trial in 2000,” the court wrote.

In effect, the Mississippi Supreme Court, on August 31, moved to vacate Howard’s conviction after being on death row for over two decades. He was subsequently released from the state’s death row in December and was finally exonerated on Friday, January 8.

“I want to say many thanks to the many people who are responsible for helping to make my dream of freedom a reality,” Howard said in a statement via the Innocence Project. “I thank you with all my heart, because without your hard work on my behalf, I would still be confined in that terrible place called the Mississippi Department of Corrections, on death row, waiting to be executed.”

Howard is among four formerly incarcerated Mississippi natives on death to have been ultimately exonerated as a result of discredited and unscientific forensic evidence, according to the Innocence Project. He is also the 28th person in the United States convicted with bite-mark comparison evidence to be exonerated.

“Mr. Howard was sentenced to death based on unfounded forensics with no physical evidence or witnesses to the crime,” Vanessa Potkin, one of Howard’s attorneys, said.

“Like Mr. Howard, 21 other men and women on death row across the country have had their innocence proven by DNA, including Kennedy Brewer. Mr. Brewer, who is also a Black man, spent 15 years on Mississippi’s death row based on false bite mark evidence. We know there are more innocent people currently on death row pleading for post-conviction relief. The death penalty is the most extreme and irreversible form of punishment. Mr. Howard’s case is a prime example of why we cannot afford to use it when human error is still so prevalent in the criminal justice system.”