Thank you.
I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak today. I'm here to put a face on who this legislation, the faint hope clause, applies to.
Over the past 30 years I've been a prisoner. I've worked with young offenders in the community after going through the faint hope clause process, eventually earning my parole. I'm now working back inside the system. I go back into federal penitentiaries and work with men serving life sentences.
There have been some misconceptions over the years about the faint hope clause. I've heard things such as “It's an automatic release for people going back into the community after 15 years.” There hasn't been one person at the 15-year mark who ever returned to the community--not one.
When people go back to the community where the crime was committed, they expose themselves, and it's a trial of their character by the people of that community. I've talked to hundreds of people in speaking engagements in high schools, universities, and public forums, and not one person has ever said that I should not have been returned to the community.
I trust the National Parole Board and Corrections. Many men are never going to apply for the faint hope clause, but it's one of the tools in Corrections that allows prisoners insight into themselves so they realize the only way they're ever going to return to the community is by working toward that goal. For many of the men I work with--I'm in prison five days a week seeing them--and some have been in for 25 years, some for 30 years, it's becoming a hopeless situation in prison.
I look forward to your questions.
Thank you.