Summary(0:20) Experience of incarceration and community supervision -- (0:48) Susceptibility to deportation due to his felony conviction -- (1:25) Experience of being detained -- (1:40) Determinate versus indeterminate sentences -- (2:26) Civil versus criminal matters -- (2:44) Advocacy effort required to get him out of immigration detention -- (2:59) Effect of detention on his young children -- (4:39) The differences between incarceration and detention -- (5:18) Stigma associated with deportation in the Caribbean -- (6:08) Tension between documented and undocumented detainees -- (7:36) Navigating jailhouse politics -- (8:57) Imprisonment rates in South Jamaica, Queens -- (10:02) Committing a robbery on 96th Street and Park Avenue -- (11:10) Bias in sentencing and hypocrisy in the justice system -- -- (12:36) Learning about himself, becoming part of the solution while in prison -- (13:47) Being sent to maximum security prison and having the opportunity to return to society -- (14:40) Punishment of victims of broken systems -- (15:36) The importance of resources -- (15:58) Negative choices made when faced with limited options -- (18:16) Mentorship from men within prison -- (19:46) Programs within the prison system -- (20:20) Attica Rebellion of 1971 and prisons as a microcosm of society -- (20:52) Goal to not let mentors down and to rebuild a legacy for his family -- (21:29) Re-entry as a blank slate -- (22:25) Finding employment and obtain education after prison -- (24:05) Working as a case manager for people who were HIV/AIDS positive -- (25:26) Finishing undergraduate education, being detained while trying to finish his Master’s degree -- (26:12) Desire to work in policy over direct services -- (26:34) Working as a policy associate at a litigation and policy law firm -- (26:50) Managing the leadership training program at Just Leadership -- (27:21) Imagining a fairer justice system -- (31:15) The relationship between being a perpetrator and a victim -- (31:49) Taking into consideration a person’s life and history when deciding sentence -- (35:40) The way justice is used as a shield for what is actually a punishment system -- (36:30) The need to humanize the people who have been impacted by the system -- (38:51) The problem of “Othering” -- (41:12) Meeting with the Minister of Justice of the Swedish government -- (42:45) Hopes for the future.
NoteAudio interview conducted on November 2, 2016, by Carmen Lopez at Central Library. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection.
SubjectImprisonment ; Prisons--New York (State) ; Parole ; Criminal law ; Justice ; Parole boards ; Determinate sentences (Criminal procedure) ; Immigration ; Due process of law ; Psychic trauma ; Punishment ; Guyana ; Deportation ; Detention of persons ; Indeterminate sentences ; Social advocacy ; Education ; Mentoring ; Prisoners--Employment ; AIDS (Disease) ; HIV-positive persons ; Violence ; Firearms ; Solitary confinement ; Sweden
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TitleOral history interview conducted with Khalil Cumberbatch on 2016 November 02.