Tag: Glenn Martin

Glenn Martin’s “prison-like” White House experience

The Crime Report published this report about Glenn Martin’s recent experience as an invited guest at the White House, described in Glenn’s open letter to the President, giving further details of the treatment he received and describing the Administration’s response. Glenn Martin’s “prison-like” White House experience July 2, 2015 09:01:56 am https://apis.google.com/_/scs/apps-static/_/js/k=oz.gapi.en.RArmLpCIYB0.O/m=auth/exm=plusone/rt=j/sv=1/d=1/ed=1/am=UQ/rs=AGLTcCNdsHwKwytm_BdBPIfRKL9FK1gKdQ/t=zcms/cb=gapi.loaded_1 By Graham Kates Two weeks after criminal justice advocate Glenn Martin was nearly denied access to a White House event he was invited to, he’s still waiting for an explanation. In a widely distributed “open letter” to President Barack Obama last week, Martin revealed that he was required to have a special escort in order to enter the White House complex for a discussion with senior officials on breaking down barriers facing ex-prisoners. Martin, who is one of the country’s leading advocates for ending those barriers, is an ex-inmate himself. Now head of JustLeadershipUSA, he served time for a robbery conviction 20 years ago—and has since achieved national prominence for his work with former prisoners. Although he was invited to the meeting, along with a select group of advocates, scholars, elected officials and law enforcement authorities, he was treated as a security risk. “The staggering symbolism of the ordeal was not lost on me, Mr. President,” Martin wrote in the June 25 letter to Obama and Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy. “In a country where 65 million people have a criminal record on file, being selectively barred from entering the White House for a discussion about those very same people was as insulting as it was indicative of the broader problem.” The White House declined to comment on Martin’s treatment, but a spokesperson pointed to the creation of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council — a Department of Justice initiative focused on prisoner reentry policy established in 2011 — and other reform efforts, such as inviting formerly incarcerated individuals like Martin to the White House.The Secret Service also declined to comment on Martin’s visit. However, spokesperson Robert Hoback briefly described White House security protocol in an emailed statement. “Every visitor to the White House Complex undergoes a comprehensive security check prior to the scheduled visit,” Hoback wrote. “There are many considerations taken into account in making a final determination before allowing an individual access to the White House Complex.” For Martin, the incident underlines the obstacles facing former inmates. In fact, he said used the incident in his White House discussions that day “to frame the topic for larger criminal justice reform.” But the incident still frustrates Martin. He said in an interview Wednesday that he had waited years for the chance to meet with White House advisors about criminal justice reform, only to undergo an experience he described as “humiliating.” When he and his companions arrived at the White House’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building on June 17 to discuss the issues of gun violence, policing and mass incarceration in the United States, he was singled out. At the first layer of White House security, several fellow guests received green passes. He was given a pink pass with the words, “Needs Escort.” He was eventually pulled aside by a Secret Service agent who at first told him he could not enter. He soon learned the special attention was because of his time in prison—the very experience that makes his voice so sought out by criminal justice policymakers around the country, including those who work for the President. In the 15 years since Martin was released from prison, he rose to become vice-president of the Fortune Society in New York—a leading nonprofit that helps former inmates reintegrate into society— and in 2014, he left to form JustLeadershipUSA, an advocacy group staffed by ex-inmates, which lobbies for better prison conditions as well as support for re-entry programs. He said in an interview with The Crime Report that his White House treatment underlined the work that still needs to be done to end the systemic discrimination that prevents ex-inmates from accessing jobs, housing, healthcare and other basic needs. While Obama and other elected leaders have called for reform, he said, the incident shows that actual change has been slow. “The truth is that their actions don’t appear to match up with the rhetoric yet. This is the chance to inject the voices of the communities who are impacted by this, but we’re still treated like threats,” Martin said. At the White House, it didn’t matter that Martin was an invited guest. He was forced to wait with Secret Service agents as the people with whom he was preparing to discuss the ramifications of mass incarceration walked by. “In some strange way it felt very prison-like,” Martin recalled. “To be stopped by a person dressed like he’s in a police uniform, and he’s not telling you why. And then you just go where you’re told without explanation.” He said he was told the person who invited him had to come get him. “I said, ‘So you think Roy Austin, Jr. is going to come downstairs and help me?” Martin said, referring to the director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, Justice, and Opportunity. He might never have gotten in at all, if a White House staffer had not happened to walk by, realized he was invited, and gotten him through security. He was still required to have an escort at all times. “They were apologetic and probably a little bit embarrassed about it,” Martin said of some presidential staff. “They said they recognized it as a problem with previous visitors.” Martin said he has since heard from other advocates with criminal records who have had similar experiences at the White House. “I know a lot of people who are tenacious advocates and have been through this, but haven’t done anything about it, because they didn’t want speaking out about it to hurt (their advocacy),” Martin said. “I guess they think it’s going to be embarrassing to the administration.” Please enable JavaScript to view the &amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://disqus.com/?ref_noscript”&amp;amp;gt;comments powered by Disqus.&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; <!– Comments –>   Read more

White House escort insults and humiliates people with a record

June 25, 2015 President Barack Obama 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Obama, I write to you as a national leader, criminal justice reform advocate, and founder of JustLeadershipUSA, a bold new organization dedicated to cutting the US correctional population in half by 2030 on the guiding principle that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. Recently, I had the honor of participating in a strategic planning initiative that addressed both the intersection of, and possible remedies to, the issues of gun violence, policing, and mass incarceration in the United States.  On Wednesday, June 17, 2015, George Washington University Law School served as host to a select group of civil rights and religious leaders, scholars, elected officials, law enforcement officials and foundation officers brought together by The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and The Joyce Foundation. Our day culminated with an invitation to join members of your domestic policy staff in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for a discussion about their work on these issues. A day of thoughtful and inspired dialogue, however, quickly turned into one of needless humiliation and stigma for me. As each of my colleagues received green passes granting them immediate access, I received a pink ID bearing the label: “Needs Escort.” Its inspiration was quickly and unsurprisingly confirmed: anyone with a criminal conviction requires an escort at all times on the White House grounds. The staggering symbolism of the ordeal was not lost on me, Mr. President. In a country where 65 million people have a criminal record on file, being selectively barred from entering the White House for a discussion about those very same people was as insulting as it was indicative of the broader problem. Along with millions of others, I have watched with tremendous pride and optimism as your administration has stated that our carceral policies are patently counterproductive. Further, those policies disproportionately target communities of color, running roughshod over our declared principles of justice, fairness, and proportionality in the process. I submit to you that the treatment I received as an invited White House guest, and by extension all others with prior convictions, further erodes the life of those principles. In your letters of commutation you have concluded, “Remember that you have the capacity to make good choices. By doing so, you will affect not only your own life, but those close to you. You will also influence, through your example, the possibility that others in your circumstances get their own second chance in the future.” This counsel is as applicable to our nation’s corridors of power as it is to our most travailed citizens. The work of the mature democracy is to organize itself in such a way that best enables that process without undue hardship. Along my journey to national advocacy, I’ve disabused myself of several of our national delusions, the most poignant being the myth of the voiceless masses who require the spokesmanship of a noble and courageous few. I never met any of the alleged voiceless during my incarceration, only the deliberately silenced. In the corridors of our nation’s highest office, I found my voice and my person restricted in an agonizingly similar way to that which I encountered in prison. Rather than being debilitated, I walked away further emboldened and hopeful that when guided by a commitment to justice, power might listen. There is strong evidence to believe that is the case. In your March interview with David Simon you stated rightfully: “Part of the challenge is going to be making sure, number one, that we humanize what so often on the local news is just a bunch of shadowy characters and tell their stories.” There is no expression capable of fully capturing how uplifting these remarks are for millions of our country’s men and women. In the spirit of that conviction, I humbly request a meeting with myself and a select group of other formerly incarcerated leaders at your earliest convenience. Sincerely, Glenn E. Martin Founder and President JustLeadershipUSA     Read more

The real experts in criminal justice reform

The following piece by CCRC board member Glenn Martin first appeared on May 18 in the blog of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency For me, exiting a New York state prison in 2000 after serving six years was a rebirth. As a lifelong New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, my mission started to crystallize. I wanted to be a voice for the countless intelligent, earnest, and genuinely good people that I was leaving behind. Reflecting on the 2.3 million people in US prisons and jails and another 5.6 million under correctional supervision—mostly young black and brown men and women—I kept asking myself, “If prison is where we send bad people who do bad things, where do we send good people who do bad things?” I was first bound by handcuffs in 1995, and though I haven’t known their debilitating grip for years, the hypocrisy and destructiveness of our criminal justice system has remained with me ever since. When exiting the belly of the beast, my vision was crystal clear, even if my path was uncertain. Throughout my adolescence, strife was a familiar companion: poverty, crime, meager public support, and violence predictably culminated in a term of incarceration. After leaving prison, like the other 650,000 people who exit each year, I faced barriers to employment, enfranchisement, education, and equality, both mirroring and intensifying the challenges of my youth. I found opportunity in the advocacy world. There, I was valued for my professional skills, but also for the unique perspective that I brought to the work as someone directly impacted. I began to gain national attention as a staunch advocate for reform. My advocacy efforts eventually led me into policy as I testified before Congress and ultimately helped to advance legislation to remove barriers to jobs, housing, education, and voting in 10 states, co-authoring the Reentry and Employment Blueprint for Governor Spitzer, and leading the largest audit study ever conducted on race and criminal record discrimination. I knew that I was developing a distinct platform that, if fully realized, would become resounding enough to make a difference for me and millions of others. In 2006, I transitioned to the Fortune Society, where I eventually became Senior Vice President of Development and Public Affairs. All the while, I remained close to those I served, leading a series of significant community organizing efforts toward criminal justice reform. I learned quickly that those closest to the problem also have the most to gain from a successful outcome, and therefore spent countless hours mobilizing the support of those who had been most deeply impacted by failed drug laws. Through it all, I have been the first to admit that none of this could have been achieved without the support of thousands of directly impacted people. Yet despite being many of the best and the brightest people that I knew, I observed that these peers largely remained relegated to roles of symbolism or “trauma-porn”—spectacles meant to convince onlookers that the powerful had reserved a seat for the victims. In 2013, I resigned from my position at the Fortune Society, one of power and prestige, to found JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA), a membership organization whose mission is to cut the number of people in prison in the US in half by 2030, while proving that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. JLUSA dares to put new and authentic drivers in the seat of the reform locomotive. The vision is straightforward: the most compelling advocates of change are those that have been most affected by incarceration. Why, then, are we not seeking their counsel about what needs to change, where we can improve, and what strategies we need to implement to actually manifest such change? JLUSA is the culmination of such reflection. That communities and individuals impacted by incarceration and our criminal justice system will now have a formal space dedicated to tapping their leadership is a transformative idea whose time has long been urgent. I take no comfort in being the “exception.” For me, such a position merely confirms the horror of the “rule.” Correcting this unjust arrangement requires that other formerly incarcerated leaders be equipped with the range of skills and the unique approach to policy reform that have made my own success possible. I want to be clear: there are no “voiceless” people for whom I speak. I’ve learned that such slogans are little more than cheap gimmicks for crass, even if well-intentioned, political ambition. My goal is to amplify the voices and expertise of those who remain either deliberately silenced or willfully ignored so that they may speak on their own behalf. It’s time we acknowledge that the experts we so urgently need have always been close at hand. We’d all do well to listen.   Read more

“The Evolution of a Prison Reformer”

On November 10, The Crime Report posted a profile of CCRC Board member Glenn Martin and the organization he founded, Just Leadership USA.  Just Leadership is dedicated to cutting the US prison population in half by 2030 and to training formerly incarcerated individuals to become leaders in promoting criminal justice reform.  Martin himself spent six years in the New York prison system, and later served for more than a decade in key positions at The Fortune Society and Legal Action Center. The profile describes Martin’s participation last October in an unprecedented meeting between Obama Administration officials and leaders of the community of formerly incarcerated individuals, organized by the Attorney General Office’s Interagency Reentry Council.  The meeting focused on sentencing reform, but it presented an unusual opportunity to challenge some stereotypes about who should be at the table when reform is discussed. At its core, Martin said, Just Leadership challenges some people’s broad assumption that formerly incarcerated people “can’t read or write” or smartly weigh in on the socially and emotionally tangled issues of crime, courts and corrections. For the most part, the individuals leading that discussion tend not to have been imprisoned. Although many of them play significant roles in the courts, corrections and policing, some harbor ideals and opinions that are not always grounded in fact, Martin argues. “You don’t achieve a moral argument for reform if you do what [so-called] progressives have been doing for years, serving up the ‘perfect prisoner’ who is the first-time, non-violent drug offender . . . .  That person . . . actually doesn’t go to prison. I’ve never met him. That’s the person who went home from the courthouse. By the time [most] people end up in prison, they have multiple convictions.” Just Leadership, whose partners include the Columbia University Center for Institutional and Social Change, will host its first 10-month-long training in early 2015, and is inviting applications from former prisoners interested in playing a part in the national debate over crime, courts and corrections policy and reform.  The training will focus on organizational development, fundraising, marketing, public relations and other skills that will help them make their voices heard in Just Leadership’s campaign to halve the nation’s prison population by 2030. Martin contends that hoped-for reduction is not as far-fetched as it may seem, considering that New York State has cut its prison population by about 25 percent over the last 15 years. But Just Leadership’s core goal is to “shift the paradigm” of the criminal justice debate by appealing to the compassion and common sense of Americans, Martin said. Once ordinary citizens hear the real stories of individuals who have been incarcerated, and about the multilayered impact of mass imprisonment on society, “we’re going to get the system to tip,” Martin predicts. . . . . While serving time in prison, Martin said he realized that Americans were being “bamboozled” by standard explanations about who goes to prison and what happens to them once they get there. While “the concept of rehabilitation has deteriorated into rhetoric without substance,” Martin said, those inside were far from totally demoralized. “The people I shared cells with maintained hope, dreams and aspirations, just like any other American,” he recalls. “Many of them also had a keen understanding of the policies and practices that led to mass incarceration and, more importantly, what we can do differently.” Read more