20 Years in Prison, 23 Seconds with the Parole Board

Issue #3: The Shadows Aren't What They Seem

Apr 30, 2024

“Every human being is worth more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.
All life has dignity, guilty life too.”
—Helen Prejean

Letter from the Founder

Dear Readers,

Welcome to a rather controversial letter.

When strangers find out I work with the incarcerated, they inevitably dive toward a very popular question:

“Are you ever scared?”

I never hide my smile or laugh. (I do try not to roll my eyes.) With the shake of my head, I reply, “No, of course not. What is there to be scared of?”

It’s kind of fun to see how people react to my response. Sometimes they answer me; sometimes they knowingly smile back.

I think what they’re really asking is, “Aren’t you afraid of being so close to people who have committed violent crimes? Does it ever make you nervous or leery?”

No, because I am there to serve them. I am there to help them. I am there to love them.

Brace yourself:

The woman in county jail who shot a man during a robbery gone wrong . . . is still a human being with a soul.
The woman in prison who hired someone to kill her ex-boyfriend . . . is still a human being with a soul.
The woman in county jail who aided with human trafficking . . . is still a human being with a soul.

If you read those sentences above and bristled, if your brain immediately wanted to correct me for saying the above, then know that’s why I’m committed to Crime & Compassion: to open your eyes to the need. Yes, to change the narrative, but to truly open your eyes:

Why did the human being with a soul choose robbery? Choose murder? Choose human trafficking? Why?

“Because she’s evil!” is not the answer.

In fact, it’s safe to say that we’re not looking for a singular answer. According to the Department of Justice, “For women, there is not one single, dominant pathway that leads them to enter the criminal justice system. Rather, there are multiple ways in which their experiences contribute to their illegal behavior.”1 There are often a dozen answers, starting with:

Physical abuse
Mental abuse
Sexual abuse
Trauma
Poverty
Marginalization
Mental health disorders
Substance abuse & addiction
Dysfunctional, toxic relationships

Fact: “Mental health problems are overrepresented in the female prison population; approximately 80% have a mental health diagnosis.”2

“I knew it! So you feel sorry for the criminals! You excuse their behavior!”

I don’t excuse what people do. I want to shine a light on why they do it.

When you can look beyond the crime and see a human being with a soul, everything changes for you. You find empathy. Once you have empathy, you have nothing to fear. You aren’t “afraid” of a violent offender because you see the need.

So no, I’m not, nor have I ever been, afraid of the human beings I work with. I am afraid, however, of a society that cannot forgive, that cannot find empathy or compassion. I am leery of a society that cannot accept why these humans commit these crimes. Then again, perhaps most terrifying is being in a society that does know why but still chooses indifference.

After all that, maybe I should ask you, dear reader: What are you afraid of?

Your Bleeding Heart,
Shayla Hale
Founder & Host of Crime & Compassion

P.S. If you missed Episode 2: From Desertion to Redemption: The David Mike Story, please enjoy (and share!) right here.

P.P.S. Scroll down for THREE pieces written and submitted by women who are currently incarcerated. Their writings today are raw, thought-provoking, and beyond timely.

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23 Seconds

What can you do in 23 seconds?

Put on some lipstick? Comb your hair out quickly? Maybe was your hands? However, can you adequately read a person’s prison file and make proper judgment as to if they have grounds for commutation or parole . . . in 23 seconds?

Absolutely not, and yet this is my story.

September 13, 2022 was my 36th birthday and also the day I was on the docket for commutation (for the third time). For those of you who don’t know, commutation is asking the parole board for mercy and stating that either your penalty now appears to be excessive or that there are new facts directly relating to your case that were not available at trial, or a statute change.

I was sentenced to 20 years (violent, which means I serve 85%, or 17.5 years) for child neglect, and my co-defendant, or ex-husband, received 10 years (8.5 years) for the same charge. He smothered our daughter, and because her death was ruled as “SIDS/Co-sleeping,” we were charged for her passing away in my mother-in-law’s dirty home.

Was the sentence excessive? Yes. Was it just and fair? No. When compared with our neighboring states, such as Texas, I would have received intensive treatment programs, parenting classes, and counseling. I never would have gone to prison and lost custody of my three living children to DHS.

As a “violent offender,” commutation or parole is a three-stage process:

Stage One: The parole board reviews your file and decides if they want to pass you on to Stage Two.
Stage Two: You have a “face-to-face” with the parole board, where you and your two advocates (friends, family, attorney, etc.) answer their questions and get to speak on your own behalf.
Stage Three: Your file and the parole board’s recommendation go to the governor for their decision to either agree or not.

I’ve never made it to Stage Two, and now can only file for commutation every three years.

On my 36th birthday, I “knew” it was my year and that I would at least make it to Stage Two. In the 12 years, I had not one misconduct, I completed everything from parenting classes to gaining my cosmetology license, and I had a huge support system with my family and various volunteer organizations.

I couldn’t lose!

Due to the Open Meetings Act, my mother was able to watch the parole board via the internet. Once the four members reached my file, the only female on the board said:

“I have to recuse myself. I presided over this case.”

She was the DA over my case.

Once she recused herself, it was a resounding “No, no, no” from the other three members.

I never had a fair chance from the start. How is it fair to have the DA who presided over your case on the parole board? I could only imagine that if I were in the three other members’ shoes, I wouldn’t go against the person I work with just to free someone she put behind bars.

There are supposed to be five persons on the board; yet there were only four. If one has to recuse herself, how is it that they can operate with only three when it takes three “yes” votes to pass on to the next stage? Why isn’t there a substitute board member to stand in for the ones who have to recuse themselves? Why does there have to be judges and district attorneys who presided over our cases on the parole board?

We have the right to a fair and just parole board, but how can it be fair and just when the deck is stacked against us?

How is 23 seconds fair and just?

Written by Ashe3

Kindness Transcends Prison Stereotypes

I am normally an optimistic, happy person, but this past week I felt myself spiraling into a dark place, drifting further and further away from myself. I won't get into too many details, but suffice it to say, my change in attitude had to do with not having food to eat in my locker.

I work insane hours, and going to the kitchen to eat is not always an option, so I usually just make my own cheap little meal to eat instead. I live on a budget, which means I depend on going to the store every week to buy my Ramen noodles and refried beans. Because of a sudden change in the way canteen was forced to conduct inventory, by yesterday morning, I had no food left.

Last night, I could not go to the dining room because I had to attend a class, so at the end of the evening, I took my shower and prepared to go to sleep listening to the sounds of my stomach growl. At 9:00 P.M., there was a knock on my door. My friend Amber was standing there with a brown paper sack containing fajitas, chips, and tacos—the kind we never see here.

I almost cried!

A kind teacher had brought a celebratory end-of-semester meal for her students, and my friends had made me a generous plate since I couldn't be there in person. Although I didn't expect it, things like that happen all the time. The women love to surprise each other with thoughtful gifts, especially when they know it will make a difference to the other person.

Living in prison, it’s easy to become so independent and focused on providing for our own daily needs that we don't notice the impact we have on others. I am guilty of being a planner who takes pride in being prepared, but sometimes even best-laid plans fall short thanks to unexpected developments.

That's when life shows us just how valuable human relationships are.

A person can never fully understand the value of community until it is taken away. In prison, we have learned to form our own families. Real ones, full of rich, complex connections. We celebrate together, mourn together, laugh together, and dry each other's tears. We dance, act silly, and encourage each other to shoot for the moon.

The relationships I have developed in prison enable me to keep moving forward. They remind me I am still human, deserving of love and compassion. They give me purpose, something to fight for and the strength to endure. I don't know what I would do without my prison family.

I hope they know how much I love and appreciate them . . . especially for those delicious fajitas.

Written by Crystal4

The Shadows Aren’t What They Seem

The state of Oklahoma has the third highest imprisonment rate in the country, but we’ve held the #1 spot in years past. Sadly, thousands of our families are crushed by the abuse of power. Exercising authority by excessively sentencing women with mandatory serving time of 85% erects oppression among the female gender.

In society, the authenticity of our stories are overshadowed in such darkness that fear becomes a transition to nothing but pure deception, thus creating calloused hearts and leading people to believe in shadows that aren’t even real. (See Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.)

Today, I want to shine a light on those “shadows.”

Mass incarceration of women does not just consist of friends, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers in prison, but it also consists of the mass incarceration of children placed inside of a broken system, leaving them in an unhealthier condition than they were before, if any.

Funds have been tremendously cut, case workers are overworked and underpaid, and children are traumatized from being separated from their loved ones—most likely producing anger or mental instability, thus resulting in a life of crime in the future. There are women, mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers who have been sentenced to a considerable amount of time when they’ve been wrongfully convicted or convicted yet completely innocent.

Here’s an example: a woman is waiting in the car while her boyfriend robs a home, and he decides to shoot and kill someone in the house. That woman was not present for the murder, nor did she murder anyone, but she will be convicted of murder.

When the range of punishment for what is considered a violent crime more than likely expands up to life, it is extremely complicated to show your time to be excessive and to prove to society that you have been rehabilitated without that opportunity. Because of this, it is even more complicated to show that there are any sentencing guidelines for the Court to go by when sentencing. Sentencing guidelines are vital in each conviction, especially when dealing with degrees. For example:

In the state of Oklahoma, we have murder in the first degree and murder in the second degree, which is clearly a lesser charge, but both of their punishments range up to life. (See O.S. 21 § 701.7 and O.S. 21 § 701.8.) We also have manslaughter in the first degree, which carries up to life in prison as well.

So the question is, how do you decipher whether someone deserves 20 years or life?

There are degrees for a reason. There are women here for murder who were in the midst of being abused almost unto death and defended themselves. This is why State Bill 1470 is so important. Also known as the Oklahoma Survivors Act, SB 1470 aims to help survivors of domestic violence, and it’s retroactive.

Many women here are thought of as cold-blooded killers due to the title of their conviction. Here in the state of Oklahoma, we have a law where the courts are able to charge, try, and convict you as a murderer regardless of your actions due to the commission of a felony (O.S. 21 § 701.7). This certain law has been abused many times in the Oklahoma court system for the simple fact that they are convicting women who are innocent and/or convicting women of crimes that do not fit.

Others have been labeled as someone who has permitted or enabled child abuse, claiming that they should have known their child (or children) was being abused, whether or not they were present at the time of the crime. We see many cases where the actual perpetrator, which is usually a man, receives a lesser time than the woman. We have cases where women are convicted of murder due to an inconclusive autopsy report and accused of inflicting some type of force among the child. Mothers have been and are still being convicted who have experienced the death of their child due to a legitimate accident or an unknown illness because of the hospital’s inability to diagnose or conclude the cause, ruling almost everything as blunt force trauma to the head, shaking baby syndrome, child abuse, child neglect, and/or SIDS, a natural death at the hands of no human being.

The percentage of incarcerated women in the state of Oklahoma is repulsive and should be of great concern. Oklahoma imprisons more women per capita than any other state in the US at a rate of 108 per 100,000.

To try to bring some clarity or understanding to this statewide epidemic, criminal justice professors and some sociologists and criminologists seem to believe that the way female criminality is defined is different than the way male criminality is defined. They believe there is more tolerance for male violent behavior than there is for female violent behavior because female violent behavior is rare. They see it as aberration and seem less worthy of a second chance, even though many of these women have long abuse histories or had male co-conspirators (another thing seen very frequently).

These professors and professionals also seem to think in part there’s an assumption that men commit crime because they’re somewhat ruthless or because of economic need. For women, committing a crime is seen as just a violation of feminine nature, so the idea that a woman would commit a crime just seems deviant by virtue of violating the norm, but also deviant by violating larger cultural norms of femininity.

If there is any truth to these theories, it is sexist, biased, and discriminatory against the women in the state of Oklahoma, not to mention unconstitutional, and potentially against the 14th Amendment by violating substantive due process for equal justice, and should be intolerant.

According to Oklahoma’s “Crime and Punishment” statutes, the courts are able to convict you of a higher crime by the commission of a felony, overriding your actual offense. Instead of respecting the existing statute fitting the action of the offender, prosecutors are given free rein to wrongfully convict without giving the jury the right to choose a lesser-included offense, allowing opportunity for excessive sentencing and leaving no room for future relief.

It has been said that due to the nature of the crime, the approval of any sort of relief is immediately rejected without investigation as a result of preconceived judgment.

Though ignored by the judicial system when it comes to youthful offenders, scientifically, juveniles (up to 21 years of age) do not mentally understand nor can they fully appreciate the consequences in taking risks involving crime, especially if the co-conspirator is an adult man or an adult. Period.

There is a process of maturation that takes place in all individuals of the human race. This is why there are certain laws in place. For example: According to the law, at the age of 15, you are able to apply for a work permit to obtain valid employment with minor stipulations, and you are also able to receive a driver’s permit in which someone with a valid driver’s license must be present. In order for you to test for a driver’s license, you must be at least 16 years of age. In order for you to rent or buy a home, you have to be 18 years or older. In order to purchase beer or liquor or tobacco products, you have to be at least 21 years of age.

These laws were put into place for a legitimate reason and should apply to every aspect of the law to charge, try, and convict any juvenile as an adult, especially with life sentences under the 85% law. To serve 85% on a life sentence is a practical life term with no meaningful opportunity of freedom. According to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Lumpkin quoted, “Life is not 45 years, it is your natural born life,” illustrating that a life sentence is without consequential hope for any significant chance of release.

Exposure in the overestimation of prosecutorial immunity is a must. It has allowed prosecutors to engross in a conception or image by imagination that has no objective reality. This is a comprehensive and ordered mental arrangement of principals, concepts, and assumptions based off pure inferences (guesses), establishing circumstantial evidence instead of personal knowledge or observation, which is sophistry and fantasy made into a theory shaped by circumstances. Prosecutorial misconduct is rare, and is almost never acknowledged, as if it does not exist, leaving prosecutors with free rein to err in the Court without any consequences.

Society must be mindful not to fall into mystical beliefs of the justice system, continuing to be a part of the problem instead of the solution. Not to mention, ignored criminal activity that lies within the justice system, perverting its very being. Justice is the fair (impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced) and proper administration of the law, but the negligence of this truth has slowly strayed from truly healing our communities. When it gets to the point where the truth does not matter, the system has gotten away from the very oath that it has taken; they’re doing away with integrity, leading the justice system down a path of uncertainty.

In conclusion, society may be blinded by the light of an egotistical system, covering up the real truth and intention, displaying a self-painted picture, and creating a story believable to the eye but deceptive in many ways.

We have women here whose hope has withered away, and young women who are headed down the same path. We must not fall into the trap and become weak, aiding the problem which exists in the midst of us all. Let’s open our eyes and our ears with clarity, seeking knowledge to refrain from being easily deceived with its advantages so that real criminal justice reform can be taken seriously for the sake of our future and generations to come.

Written by Sharee5

5 Quick Things

I’m reading . . . The Troop by Nick Cutter. This. Book. Is. Terrifying! I love it. And also am more petrified of tapeworms than I ever thought possible. Thanks, Nick!

I’m (still) listening to . . . an audiobook called Disarming the Narcissist by Wendy T. Behary. I’m almost done, though, and it is so eye-opening. I almost didn’t read it because I’ve read some other books on the topic and thought I knew plenty. I was wrong.

I’m (re)watching . . . The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. Now that Part Two is out, I just had to go back and review. I have never forgotten his incessant blinking during the interviews when he lies. Fascinating. I’ll let you all know about Part Two!

I’m teaching . . . an advanced fiction writing class at the women’s prison with my friend through Poetic Justice! I’ve been meeting with the co-facilitators at Mabel Bassett on Sundays to prepare for the class, which starts May 12. We are currently sifting through writing samples and applications!

I’m learning . . . how to start a nonprofit. I have no idea what I’m doing, but boy am I trying hard. Crime & Compassion was started as an LLC, and it’s crystal clear I need to make some adjustments. If anyone wants to give me advice on the topic, please email me at info@crimeandcompassion.com.

After a 13-year career in publishing, Shayla Hale said goodbye to her authors so she could advocate for the incarcerated. Now a bleeding heart, she volunteers with Poetic Justice at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center. She also enjoyed two years as a volunteer chaplain for Oklahoma Jail & Prison Ministries at Oklahoma County Jail. Shayla is the founder and host of Crime & Compassion, a podcast that tells the stories of those who were written off. Her heart’s desires are to unconditionally love the incarcerated, to encourage their creativity and storytelling, and to fight with and for those affected by the US justice system. Forever a literature lover, Shayla is also an author and public speaker. She lives in Norman with her chef husband and three spoiled dogs.

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