Clifford Powers [Redacted] IL
Tyler Walton, Esq. [Redacted]
October 28, 2022
Dear Tyler, Jhody, and the team,

Hi. I hope you all are in good health and spirits as this letter reaches you. I wanted to say thank you for the August Module covering the FOIA and give sol some updates on what's happening around here. I have enjoyed the modules and do my best to share with everyone interested. Working in the library helps with making copies for those who want them. The last one, on research had some good tips in it on keeping the information and inquiries in order that I appreciated. The vast majority of my writing has been on interpreting law and how to file certain actions in court, but I have my eye on a couple of more journalistic topics right now. One of them concerns a law that was enacted in 2019, establishing a parole eligibility for individuals who were under 21 when the crime was committed.

The law states that anyone who meets that criteria that is sentenced on or after July 1, 2019, may go in front of the board after serving 10 or 20 years, depending on the crime. No one involved with the creation of this law was aware that "sentenced" includes being resentenced and so didn't expect to have to deal with anyone for 10 years. I know multiple people here at Western (which means there are more at other prisons) who have been resentenced in the last three years and were immediately eligible for parole, yet they have been met with silence from the board. Not even their lawyers have been able to get a response. The Prisoner Review Board has effectively nullified this law for three years. The public needs to know.

(A quick note about the newsletter and Module #4. I had a bit of trouble getting it because the newsletter and module were printed on different types and colors of paper. There has been a lot of "K2" synthetic THC coming in and the admin believes it's coming in through the mail so anything can be flagged and kept for testing. )

I read a lot about Covid interference with library access in this newsletter and it has been any different here. From March 2020 to March 2022 no one was allowed to go to the library here. Fortunately, myself and the other law clerk were allowed to work, which meant that the two of us fielded all the questions, did all the research, provided forms, made copies, and everything else. For a year there was only one supervisor, the general (non-legal) librarian, who at least stayed out of our way. In March of this year someone was hired to fill the law librarian position, a woman who has zero experience but is learning, and groups of 6 were allowed to come over for thirty minutes. In June things went mostly back to normal, with 25 or so people coming over for an hour and a half. Around August 20th several staff and men in here supposedly tested positive for Covid (I say supposedly only slightly sarcastically. I know there were some positive cases, but in the weeks leading up we were put on lockdown several times for staff shortages) and we were put on institutional quarantine once again. Since then we weren't allowed to go to work for a month, so the two supervisors who know absolutely nothing about law were our only access to the library. Once a week one of them would bring me a pile of requests that they didn't know what to do with.

Even without Covid we are having serious access issues. Yesterday and today we were not allowed to go in. I believe it's due to staff shortage (this prison is currently about 70 employees short), though today we are on "holiday schedule," which means that certain things are canceled. The library, school, and chapel are housed in the same building, which requires an officer to be posted up stairs and one down stairs. These posts are always the first to be pulled when staff are needed somewhere else. This building is also used for other programs for mental health, various peer-educator classes, etc., all of which are also canceled. What should be a top priority is the lowest.

Here in Illinois we have use of tablets from GTL/ViaPath, but they do not contain anything useful. I do enjoy having access to music, which keeps me grounded, but all of the applications that we're given access to only have entertainment value. All of the county jails in the state hand out the tablets on loan for free and have access to LexisNexis. IDOC has refused to give us this access directly on the tablet, instead only having two kiosks in the library for us to use while we are there. Many grievances have been filed and GTL has been contacted but we can't get a straight answer as to why this app is being withheld. Although we all know the reason.

Despite these obstacles we continue to push things through the courts. The developing law concerning juveniles and young adults is a major focus of mine. As the courts close doors on the juveniles we keep trying to open new ones and are still fighting to get protections for young adults put into statute. We have been fortunate that even though the legislature has dragged its feet, many judges are using the state constitution to get around imposing the firearm enhancement in many cases. It's very hit and miss, depending on where you're from, whether you get back in court and get a sentence reduction. It's so divided that in the First District Appellate Court (Cook County/Chicago), which is itself divided into six divisions, you can predict the result based on which division you're in.

What has been happening more and more is that if you present a decent petition and the crime wasn't too bad (for lack of a better term), the judge will allow the state to remove the firearm enhancement and resentence you. Most firearm enhancements are 25 years so that is significant, but many people are still left with lengthy sentences nonetheless:

I have one of these petitions in myself as I was 18 when I was arrested. I was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 20 years plus a 25-year firearm enhancement. Here we still have truth-in-sentencing so I have to do all 45 years. I went to court on the 18th of this month and my sentencing claim was advanced so I will have an evidentiary/sentencing hearing early next year to present evidence of my rehabilitation as well as mitigating evidence that wasn't considered at my original sentencing hearing. The judge and State's Attorney both seem to be open to a reduction, but how much is to be determined.

These small victories are helping to keep hope alive here and I wanted to share that with you. Thank you for doing what you do and keeping hope alive in your own way. I look forward to the next newsletter and Module. If there is anything I can do please let me know. I have passed word of the feminist circles to a friend and asked her to get the information to someone in the female prisons here. If you are not already in contact with someone there hopefully you will be.
In peace and solidarity,
clifford Powers

Clifford Powers
[Redacted]IL [Redacted]
JLI
[Redacted]

March 22, 2023
Dear JLI Team,
I hope all of you are well and in good spirits. It has been an eventful few days here at [Redacted]. On the 16th we had the first major Tact Team shakedown since the start of the pandemic. A couple hundred officers shook down about half of the wings that day. Monday, two former officers were sentenced, one of them to 20 years, for killing a 63 year old man here back in 2018. Another was sentenced yesterday. The Tact Team was back yesterday, too, to shake down a couple more wings, including the one I'm in. I went back to work today and heard stories from men you had various things thrown away, none of it actual contraband. One person told me that they through away all of the paperwork he had in the cell concerning a civil suit pending against this place and the copies that the JL who was helping him had were tossed as well.
If anyone is interested in reading about it, the man who was killed was named Larry Irvin [Earvin]. He was serving time for a petty crime and was going home soon. He was BRUTALLY beaten to death. There were around 15 staff involved, only five of which were charged, three of which: have convicted in federal court, and seven of which still work, some of them promoted.
Sorry to start the letter off on such a somber note, but its been a long couple of weeks. I received the latest newsletter with the Imagining Freedom Transcript the night before last and it was a nice reminder of our growing community. I really enjoyed reading about what is going on around the country and how we are able to inspire one another. I really like the idea of the Flashlights project. It is so difficult to have our words published in a way that reaches a wide audience through formal means; letters are often our best avenue to be heard. And as you pointed out, so many of us are reluctant to write an org knowing that we are unlikely to receive feedback, that fear that we are casting our words into an abyss. There is only so much a small staff can do, but I'm sure that knowing that the issues we speak on will be available to the public will be motivational for many.
I've read over the Flashlights consent form a few times and have a couple of questions.
Is this a perpetual consent to sharing all future letters, or will a person need to execute multiple?
I understand from reading the form that it will only need to be executed once, subject to our ability to affirm, deny or limit how future letters will be shared. However, nowhere does it say explicitly that the form is only required once.
If I initially consent to having my name and other identifying info attached
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to a shared letter, or all future shared letters as stated in the form, could I indicate in a specific letter that I want it attributed or not?
The form only gives the two perpetual options of attribution or anonymity with a chosen pseudonym. I can forsee a situation where, while I don't mind having my name included most of the time, I may want to write about something, at a particular time when I need to be anonymous. I don't think this would need to be presented as another option to select on the form, but something like a footnote to make contributors aware that they can do so if they need to.
Other than those two things, I think the form is great. It more than covers what the project is and what we are agreeing to, as well as what protections we are afforded.
I wanted to give an update on the topic of library access that I wrote about in my last letter. We are still dealing with the same staff shortages, and it seems like the school building, where the library and other programs are conducted, is closed once a week due to this problem. But there are more specific access issues that are not being addressed by the admin. The library here, and in several other prisons, is on the second floor with only stair access. Because of this many people who should not be going up stairs, men in their eighties or just with severe disabilities, are forced to find a way or sit downstairs in the hallway.
There are only a few men at the moment who choose to sit downstairs. This is partly because the supervisor in charge of calling people over refuses to accommodate them because he sees it as inconvenient him (even though it does not require him to do any work). As the the only paralegal it falls on me to take their legal property boxes down to them and bring back any documents they need copied or other requests. They do not have any access to resources except through me; they personally use any books, the kiosk or other scant resources others can. The other supervisor does what she can to help, and is now working on applying for a grant that would go toward installing a lift on the side of the stairs. I'm interested to see if she is successful.
In a recent audit on library services here the one area where the institution failed was in segregation. There is no satellite law library in seg of any sort. The only access an individual in seg has to the law library is through the mail. They can request forms, ask questions and request copies of laws and cases. One of the supervisors has Westlaw and can print statutes/cases, but she has no legal knowledge, so all questions and research requests fall on me. I also do a lot of the printing via the kiosk. I do my best and am able to help some of the people in seg, but it's not enough, and it's beside the point. They have a right to direct access that is being completely ignored.
Thank you for sending the Transcript. It was a great read and I wish I could have listened in. I try to catch panels on C-Span and BookTV as much as possible. I had heard of the Melon Foundation, but had no idea that it was involved in this struggle. The enthusiasm of the president, Elizabeth Alexander, was amazing. The ideas expressed by the participants gave a lot of food for thought, especially concerning the vocabulary we employ and the need to create new terms. That is something I've been engaging in with local friends/advocates in our effort to bring awareness to long-term sentencing in Illinois through the use of the concept of "DBI" as opposed to "Life" sentences. I know it's a term a few years old, but it is not much used in this state.
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Before I go I want to share something that I found funny but sad. The same day that I received the newsletter I recieved this DOC newsletter called [Redacted], published out of [Redacted] C.C. here in Illinois. Reading in the Transcript about how [Redacted] uses art to expose the realities of prison reminded me of something in the Horizons issue that is to my mind an abomination of his idea, and shows that the people at [Redacted] C.C. have no sense of irony. Or a sick one. The men there recently painted murals in the gym of the American Flag with the Pledge of Allegiance, the Statue of Liberty, and individuals from the five branches of the military. All these symbols of freedom in an institution that is the antithesis of freedom and liberty. It's like something out of an Orwel novel.
Please keep me in mind for future participation in the pen pal program. I am always looking for new people to build with and learn with in this struggle. Thank you all for all of the work you are doing and the support you give all us of on the inside.
In Solidarity,
Clifford Powers
Cliffad Pausa
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