After Life (2019)

After Life (2019)

Adult memoir
"Because of the mandatory sentencing laws, Judge Gibbons had no
leeway in sentencing. The crimes of which I'd been convicted carried
life in prison...Furthermore, there would not even be a chance for me
to redeem myself at a parole hearing, because the federal system has
no parole. I had just received an unexecuted sentence of death."
Imagine for a moment that you're in the position of Alice Marie
Johnson, author of After Life. No matter how long you live the only
way you'll get out of prison is after death. Your grieving family in
the courtroom won't see you alive except through prison visitation,
which won't even be a possibility if you get incarcerated far enough
away to make travel prohibatively expensive. You'll miss out on all
the family milestones: weddings, graduations, births, and deaths.
Basically the "justice" system has given up on you. You're in
that
limbo between death and determinate term sentences. They're not
going to either pull the plug or release you--just warehouse you.
Even if you totally turn your life around it won't make a difference.
Recall back in December we looked at Brittany K. Barnett's A
Knock At Midnight? It was a real eye opener for me. I'd never before
realized how many people serving life without possibility of parole
sentences have been locked up forever due to draconian drug laws and
prosecutors willing to twist the truth to get convictions, how many of
them pose absolutely no threat to the rest of us and could be
contributing members of society given support rather than
condemnation. I'd also never tried to imagine what life without
possibility of parole would feel like.
Maybe I was a little more reflective because of this whole
pandemic thing. Maybe being unable to spend in person time on
Christmas with my kids and their significant others made me more open
to pondering on a total end to family Christmases. But that pondering
made me want to learn more about these travesties of justice. So when
Barnett alluded to Alice Marie Johnson's After Life: My Journey from
Incarceration to Freedom, I put it on my must read list.
Alice was born into a very loving, very determined family. Her
parents were able, through heroic efforts, to escape sharecropping to
give their children a better life. Her mother was able to parley food
service jobs into ownership of her own restaurant.
When she was fourteen Alice lost her virginity. At fifteen she
realized she was pregnant. Her parents were devastated. Their
solution [and remember this was fifty years ago] was the marriage of a
teen to a boy only a couple of years older who still felt entitled to
sleep around. It was a marriage that was on again, off again, a
marriage that brought five children into the world.
Even though her first baby was quickly followed by a second
Alice was able to graduate not only from high school, but from a
secretarial course. She had even been awarded a scholarship. Her
husband said, "Don't even think about it."
Alice did the best she could to make a good life for her
family. Even when she had five small children, was living apart from
her husband because of his infidelity, and had lost her job because of
a company shut down, she hated being on welfare and was persistant in
finding a job that she felt would enable her to be a good role model
to her children.
Finances were sometimes tough. Her then ex husband saw no need
to provide child support. At one point, fearful of losing the home
she was raising her children in, she was given the chance to earn much
needed money.
"My involvement was a form of protection. Since I wasn't
selling drugs on the street, no one knew me. The dealers knew only of
a voice on the other end of a phone line. I'd give them a number to
call, and then someone else would call them..."
Eventually Alice was caught up in a drug sweep. Questionable at
best moves by the prosecution and the dubious testimonies of dealers
offered sentence reductions for snitching magnified her neglibible
role into one so major the sentencing judge had no option other than a
life sentence.
But behind bars Alice did not give up on herself the way society
had given up on her. She became someone who worked tirelessly to make
life behind bars for her fellow inmates. After Life documents her
amazing journey.
I want you to read this book and then ask yourself two questions
as I did.
1) What would you have missed out on if you'd been locked up for
the past couple of decades? For me this would have included most of
my children's lives, decades of a beautiful marriage, serving my
community as a school board member, some amazing friendships, and
getting into the graduate school program of my dreams.
2) Can you truthfully say, especially if, like me, you are
white, that you have NEVER, done anything that under other
circumstances could have gotten you into the criminal justice system?
I can't. I started drinking way before my legal birthday. Many of the
people I know tried drugs. A lot of times it's random stuff like skin
color or family income (or lack of) that puts some people in the
system and protects others from it.
Is this what justice for all means? I don't think so.
On a purrrsonal note, yesterday was Eugene's birthday. I think he had
a good one. I made him what I call a restaurant breakfast: eggs,
bacon, and biscuits. We went for a drive and got strawberry
milkshakes. For supper I made us ribs, purple mashed potatoes, and
beautiful multicolor carrots topped off with molasses cake which he
much prefers to a traditional birthday cake. I gave him his 2021
combo hunting/fishing license. The kids chipped in to give him a
weights set. We were in the process of converting Adam's old room
into a man cave for him like I've turned the girls' old room into my
studio. Then that pandemic put that on hold. But once it's safe to
move around the state...
One more week til classes start. So my main focus will be reviewing
last semester's statistics to get ready for this semester's. (Jules)
My hooman daddy's birthday. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to our one and only Eugene.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway





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