The Vision of Life After Life Despite Current Uncertainty
This is the second semester we are collaborating with Life After Life, an organization that is created by individuals who were formally in prison for life sentences with no possibility of parole. After the 2012 Supreme Court case, Miller v. Alabama, and the 2016 case, Montgomery v. Louisiana, it was guaranteed that state and federal governments are to consider the unique circumstances of each juvenile defendant in determining an individualized sentence; and that a juvenile serving a lifelong sentence without parole was deemed unconstitutional. Our goal this semester was to create content for Life After Life to aid in advocating for change within the judicial system.
In the beginning of the semester, we had a meeting with Abd’Aallah, founder of L.A.L, to solidify some plans for our project. SJU’s Communications department always says “The best way to tell a story is to show it” so we were planning on implementing digital storytelling into our project by conducting interviews with the members of Life After Life. Abd’Allah wanted the focus of this project to be the potential that all humans are born with. He stressed that instead of our Criminal Justice System enhancing this potential for young people, it strips them from it. On top of filming these interviews, we were going to take drone and B-roll footage of Philadelphia since Philly has the highest juvenile incarceration rate the United States.
A Change in Direction
However our project took a turn when a week before our filming day, the University cancelled all face-to-face classes and activities because of the Coronavirus.
Like everyone else currently affected by this pandemic, we’ve had to work around certain obstacles and adapt to the new way of doing things. In light of the current situation and the prophylactic measures, we’ve had to redirect our course of action for this project from this semester into the following semester. As it has been very evident in the news almost everyday since early March, the entire nation has undergone precautions due to the pandemic over the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Due to the safety and health of everyone involved, we will no longer be conducting the in-person interviews like we would have hoped, and we have decided to transition into planning the project for the next semester and leave the next group collaborating with Life After Life a solid plan and foundation. We’re currently starting to set plans for interviews with various individuals within the organization, and even for a roundtable discussion, which was an idea originally expressed by Abd’Aallah.
The Effects Beyond our Project
Amid the Coronavirus drastically affecting the United States and the world, a recent discovery that we found prevalent as a group interested and dedicated to social justice, are the effects the virus is having on the prison system and justice reform. People in prison are not in an environment where they are able to safely practice social distancing and are at high risk of contracting the disease. As positive cases of the virus keep being reported among those held in detention facilities, prisons across the United States are releasing low-level and nonviolent prisoners in order to prevent the virus from spreading at quick and dangerous levels, as well as reducing arrests. While different states are implementing different regulations, some legislations that have been introduced have been focused on protecting those most vulnerable and releasing them into supervised and controlled environments. One suggests releasing inmates who are pregnant, over 50 years old, and have underlying health issues into community supervision, while other plans are releasing individuals into Bureau of Prisons facilities where they have doctors and medical care on hand or are even considering home confinement. In California, the state has worked to reduce arrests and Governor Newsom froze the admission of individuals into prisons and detention facilities, demanding they remain in country custody for a period of time.
While these steps seem hopeful in preventing the problem, prison populations having dropped by 20%, there are still many inmates and staff exposed to these dangerous conditions and there still many prisons that have increased their population. We are grateful to be healthy and safe during these trying times and are grateful for our freedom to protect ourselves and to practice safe social distancing. We continue to think of the those stuck in situations where they cannot say the same, and to hope that the justice system continues to move forward in protecting these individuals.
