MEDIA
Roach Brown August 11, 2021 320 5 minutes read
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In February of this year, Lavance “Pance” Green was released from federal prison after serving 50 years. Who has served more years than anyone in the history of DC Dept of Corrections? He was convicted and sentenced to 35 years to life for shooting and killing a U.S. Marshal who was returning his brother to prison after attending the funeral of his father.
During his 50 years of incarceration, Lavance saved two correctional officers’ lives, according to a letter written by one of the officers who he assisted during a riot in Lorton Correctional Complex. He mastered more than six trades, served as a mentor, big brother and father to hundreds. He became pro efficient and respected as a jailhouse lawyer. During his numerous parole hearings, he had the backing of more than a dozen correctional officers and staff who appeared on his behalf from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons stating that he is a “reformed, model inmate.”
Green was released from incarceration on a motion seeking Compassionate Release. The DC City Council passed this law in 2020. “The court shall modify a sentence . . . due to extraordinary and compelling reasons, if defendant has a terminal illness . . . 60 years old or older and has served at least 20 years.”
Green fits the criteria given his advanced age (72) and his then-current and numerous medical conditions: cancer, congestive heart failure, tuberculosis, abdominal hernia and shingles. Green appeared before the U.S. Parole Commission on six occasions but was denied each time, even though the Director of the DC Dept of Corrections, Margaret Moore, Mayor Marion Barry, along with several D.C. Council members, all supported his release. The U.S. Marshals Service consistently opposed his release.
At every parole rehearing, regardless of his deteriorating health and extraordinary circumstances like COVID-19 and his exceptional institutional record, Greene’s case only highlights the need for the District to have its own DC Board of Parole and have the authority of the custody and treatment of its own prisoners.
Green was released in February with no gate money (money given upon release). Every Dept. of Corrections has a gratuitous fund for those being released. But he was not given medication for pain or prescriptions for his various medical conditions, no referral to a medical facility, no clothing except the clothes on his back, no social security card and no reentry assistance or contacts for emergency assistance.
We got in the car and I told Green to put the seat belt on. He said, “What’s a seat belt?” He didn’t know how to put it on as he hasn’t ridden or been inside a car in decades. I asked why he hadn’t called me. He said he walked and walked and couldn’t find a phone booth.
Green’s situation isn’t isolated. Men and women have been and are being released with virtually nothing. How can they navigate this highly technical society and be expected to live and survive with no support living in a correctional coma, suspended in time? During his four months on the street, he was hospitalized on several occasions and he died from cancer. He spent 50 years spent in prison and died within four months after being released!
There’s no need to ask why there’s such a high recidivism rate. This is one of the main causes of recidivism.
Willie Ingram-Bey was also just released 90 days ago, after serving 48 years in prison. He was serving a sentence of 35 years to life for a rape and robbery. One of the first things he said to me was “Roach, I didn’t do this crime.”
I last saw Willie in 1975 in Lorton Correctional Facility. He had resigned himself to die in prison after being in for 48 years. He, too, was released under the Compassionate Release provision. He was called into the office and told he was being released within 48 hours following a court order. He went into shock. They gave him a bus ticket and a $50 debit card (which were not in existence 48 years ago). Riding the bus from Terre Haute, Indiana, at each stop he got off the bus and stood beside the bus driver, asking “Are they coming to get me yet?” He had only the clothes on his back. Family and practically everyone he knew had died since his incarceration.
He has a sister in Prince George, Virginia, who he planned to live with but was told he couldn’t live with his sister because her son, Ingram-Bey’s nephew, had a felony conviction over 20 years ago. He had two options: go to a shelter or live on the street. He was given permission to move with his sister but only for two weeks during which time he had to find another place to live in the same county. Now, at 77, he has never lived in that county, doesn’t know anyone, has no ID, no source of income and no social security card. But he was asked by his parole officer “What employment prospects do you have?” He’s been ordered to give urine once a week. During the 48 years of his incarceration, he never once tested positive for any drug. He lives more than 30 miles from the testing facility and doesn’t have a license or a car, no can he drive. He hasn’t ridden in a vehicle in over four decades. There’s no nearby public transportation where he’s staying and if he misses his weekly drop, he will be in violation of his conditions for release and supervision and possibly be sent back to prison. Additionally, he has a daily 9 p.m. curfew, reminiscent of old racist practice of the Sunshine law when Blacks had to leave the white part of town when the sun went down. He must actively seek employment despite his advanced age but he’s never had a job in his life. When Willie applied for a government ID, he was told his prison ID was insufficient and he would need to provide his original birth certificate from 78 years ago.
This type of insensitive, inconsiderate and inhuman treatment remains consistent with the majority of those who are under supervision.
We need a complete coordination of all government, corporate, businesses, colleges, religious community, Wall Street and community resources to address this growing crisis of people being dumped back on the streets of D.C. after serving decades in prison. We need a reentry safety net that would provide pre- and post-release emergency transitional services consisting of housing, medical services, social security, employment and mental health assistance. We need to implement a reentry hotline from MORCA (Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizens Affairs).
We need the Biden administration to include the Bureau of Prisons in its criminal justice reform and the Biden administration’s legal team needs to decide which inmates will be required to return prison after the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end. Hundreds of men and women are facing being returned back to prison. This is outrageous. Biden campaigned on giving people a second chance.
There are two options for President Biden to correct this gross injustice. He can issue an executive order or Congress could pass legislation mandating those released on Compassionate Release (home confinement) remain free.
There but for the grace of God go I.
Brown is a community and prison reform activist.
Bowser’s Program to Fight Gun Violence Met With Mixed Reviews
March 3, 2021
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s new program aimed at addressing the District’s recently issued state of emergency regarding crime and violence in D.C., while praised as innovative by supporters, has been met with pointed criticism by others long engaged in efforts to make communities safer.
On Feb. 17, the mayor, with members of her Cabinet, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III, Director of Gun Violence Prevention Linda Harllee Harper and Councilmembers Trayon White (D-Ward 8) and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), introduced the $15 million Building Blocks DC program. The initiative includes a gun violence prevention emergency operations center that will be housed in the Anacostia neighborhood of Ward 8 and uses city government workers to address ways to engage people and places most at-risk for gun violence.
“This is the first of its kind in the country using the public health approach,” Harper said. “We are focusing on people, places and process. We know that hurt people hurt people and communities. We plan to do this with a data-driven approach.”
The program focuses on 151 District blocks which represent about two percent of the city’s blocks but 41 percent of violent offenses where guns have been fired. The targeted blocks will be scoured to zero in on areas known for extensive gun violence in efforts to reduce the disturbing rise in homicides.
Those identified as at-risk for being either a victim or a perpetrator of gun violence will be engaged by the Building Blocks DC staff for programs dealing in trauma, violence prevention, job training and procurement, housing and neighborhood infrastructure. Two advisory groups will be created — one dealing with science led by Mannone Butler and the Rev. Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., the other focusing on the community shepherded by activist Tony Lewis and the Rev. Donald Isaac.
Program supporters believe it will lead to more positive outcomes those who are confronted with incidents involving the use of guns by providing government resources to help them overcome financial and emotional challenges they face.
Jury Out on Impact of Building Blocks DC
White voiced his endorsement for the program, labeling it as a start, while Allen expressed excitement.
“This is a big deal and an incredibly important step for our city. This can absolutely save lives,” Allen said.
Contee, who has voiced his support of Harper, said, “this is what many people in the city have cried for.”
Ronald Hampton, a retired police officer who works as a criminal justice and security consultant and serves on the District’s Police Reform Commission, said Building Blocks DC “is an interesting concept.”
“This will be a good program if Harper has what she needs to make it work,” Hampton said. “The emergency center could be a good thing as a single place where people impacted by gun violence can go for resources whether they have been the victims of crime or perpetrators.”
Alternatively, some activists remain unconvinced that the new initiative will prove effective.
The Rev. Steven Young of The House of Praise in Northeast has become known throughout the city for putting the funeral programs of people who have died from gun violence on the walls of his church. He believes incarcerating youth involved in gun violence may be the best way to deal with the problem.
“Even those who used to be on the front lines are afraid of the youngsters,” he said. “There are a whole lot of parents who are afraid of their children. The only way a lot of these children can be disciplined is if you lock them up.”
One longtime Ward 8 violence prevention activist, the Rev. Anthony Motley, said often the government exacerbates the problem.
“The government has to get out of the way,” Motley said. “Officials think they know so much but they’ve failed to realize that if they are going to do this thing, the government is not the player. It is a team effort with the faith community. My old professor used to say ‘teamwork makes the dream work.’”
Roach Brown, a prison reform advocate who regularly interacts with at-risk youth, identifies “jobs, jobs, jobs” as the solution to gun violence in the District.
“Jobs reduce crime; jobs also improve public safety,” Brown said. “We need jobs. This is an all-hands-on-deck issue. Folks have to drop their attitudes and egos. We have to come together. This is about saving our race.”
Some citizens say they’re dissatisfied with how the mayor has approached the problem of surging gun violence.
Kemi Morten, president of the Bellevue Neighborhood Civic Association, questioned why Bowser put the program in Anacostia when her neighborhood, also in Ward 8, has been plagued the most by homicides.
“Anacostia is a gentrifying neighborhood but we, in Bellevue, are the ones dealing with gun violence every day,” Morten said. “Plus, why didn’t the mayor come to us about this program before she made this big announcement? While this program sounds good, it won’t mean anything unless the people in the community support it.”
Former Ward 8 advisory neighborhood commissioner Christopher Hawthorne dismissed the Building Blocks DC program, refusing to take it seriously.
“This is just a publicity stunt by the mayor,” he said. “We need to remove guns from people’s hands and get them off the streets. Educational resources and job opportunities should be provided to the impoverished people who live here. However, I am afraid it may be too late to change things.”