LOUISIANA
PAROLE
PROJECT
NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2019
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The Restoration of Roderick Thomas
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Parole Project recently spoke with client Roderick Thomas to get an update on his current employment, housing, and his overall satisfaction with life. Affable and soft spoken, Roderick is just one of the many LPP clients whose successful transition has defied naysayers of criminal justice reform. His story is not only impressive, it has exceeded even our high expectations. He has set a bar for those who come behind him and continues to make strides in the restoration of his own life as well as the lives of the men he works with and mentors.
Roderick is understandably proud of his new home. The house, which he bought a few months ago, is located on a semi-rural plot of land in a town just outside of Opelousas. An older home of the type commonly seen in rural communities across our state, it sits neatly on an immaculately maintained lawn. His home’s interior, once again, is impossibly neat and modestly furnished. Through diligent saving, financial planning, and a clarity of purpose after 43 years of incarceration, Roderick was able to achieve something most people find challenging. He put himself in the financial position to become a homeowner after landing an excellent job with the help of the Refinery Mission, a transitional housing facility where he lived after completing the Parole Project program. He credits the support of multiple mentors and community volunteers for providing the guidance he needed to make this huge step in life.
Roderick is grateful to his employer, DryMax Restoration for helping to afford the employment stability he needed to make the dream of home ownership a reality. At work, Roderick and his crew are responsible for the restoration, remediation and repair of properties destroyed by fire, flood and other disasters and to protect that property from future damages. He said he enjoys being able to salvage what is good, respectfully remove what is destroyed and rebuild anew. When asked if saw the parallels between his job and the rebuilding of his own life, he laughed and shook his head. “Well, I suppose I do. I didn’t think of it that way but it’s true. Maybe that’s why I like this job so much. I like taking things and making them new again. It’s like starting over, it’s a second chance isn’t it?” said Roderick.
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Click on the mic to link to the article and podcast.
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Click on the book cover to purchase your copy of
The Meaning of Life.
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Truth and Justice:
In conversation with
Kerry Myers of
the Parole Project
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Parole Project deputy director Kerry Myers was featured in an August 1st
ViaNolaVie
article and podcast about his work with Parole Project, criminal justice reform,
and being a contributing author of and
a data-driven case for abolishing life sentences. Kerry contributed six portraits of lifers or their families and loved ones for the book.
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LSU Law Clinic Intern Reflects on His Experience with Parole Project
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LSU Law student Hunter Thibodeaux with recently released Parole Project
client Jimmie Puckett. Hunter, who interned with us this summer,
played an instrumental role in the successful outcome.
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Never before my time with the Parole Project had I any experience with our state’s parole process. It is a subterranean area of the law, a basin into which the final decomposition of our verdicts flow, like how a storm drain empties into the sea. I can only reflect on what I saw during my time there but even with my lack of experience I could tell just how life changing this organization is.
For my part, I played a very small role in the Project, more observational if anything. It often involved me traveling with other staff to prisons. During our visits, I was tasked with meeting a few clients whose parole hearings were drawing near, and with them review letters that I had written on their behalf, highlighting their achievements while incarcerated. These letters would be sent to the Parole Board in advance of the hearings.
I do not know what it is like to spend decades in prison, to finally have a chance to be free after accepting that freedom was impossible. I only felt a small portion of that tension when, while speaking with them, I could see the longing for youth that would occasionally show in their gaze and speech. It seems that we regret our worst choices and decisions most poignantly in moments of great transition. Truly, almost every client I met already seemed elsewhere: they were with their daughter whom they had rarely seen; they were knocking on the front door of their parents’ house; they were walking out of the prison gates, being greeted by their longtime friend – and they had not yet had their hearing. They were like how I imagine those ancient, adventurous souls who grew up on islands untouched by the outside world, who were compelled by something to seek what lies beyond. But having no means to make the journey, they resigned to wondering.
After the meetings, which took very little time, I rejoined the others; and as I watched Andrew, Kerry, and other staff of the Parole Project answer questions, give advice, and alleviate concerns that our clients had, I could not help but feel that the role they played was like bringing the discovery of shipbuilding to these untouched islands, and showing all there that not only can the ship bring you elsewhere, but it had in fact already been used by people from your island. They shared a hope that arose from a deeply personal understanding of the longing that is felt before a parole hearing and they shared an excitement that arose from no longer having to resign to wondering. To me, that was the most important thing Parole Project offered.
The absolute value of Parole Project can never be determined; its affects flow first into the heart of every person who personally benefits from the work and time given by the organization’s attorneys and staff, and then into the community. But what I feel I can say with absolute certainty is that everyone at Parole Project gives his or her complete dedication to those who seek their help. None are more motivated and eager to see every client achieve a second chance at life. I am grateful to have played a small part in the process.
-Hunter Thibodeaux
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Newsletter by Ashleigh Dowden
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