“Why Those Who Have Transformed Themselves in Prison Should Be Freed”
Paul V. Cortez is an incarcerated musician whose compositions have been featured in Trinity Church Wall Street. He has authored two self published books, God's Hand Reaches Down (2020), and For Treason of Innocence (2024). He earned his Master's degree in 2022, while incarcerated, through New York Theological Seminary. He is currently serving a 25 to Life sentence in Sing Sing Correctional.
The carceral system has long been one of the primary drivers for crime and criminal thinking. It has never been a deterrent. One of the reasons is the carceral system's failure to foster healing in those who have been convicted of a crime, while simultaneously failing to acknowledge those who have remade themselves, and deserve a second chance at freedom despite their prison sentence. Because the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision inhumanely houses incarcerated people in facilities that are mostly archaic, run-down, roach and rodent infested, with tap water causing H. pilori, and in cells unfit for a large dog, let alone a person, it is implausible that DOCCS has incarcerated people's health of mind, body, and soul in their best interest. Furthermore, the mandated programs that incarcerated people must take to fulfill requirements of "rehabilitation" are outdated and stale. Most incarcerated people take them just to get it over with and meet the requirements. However, the programs that do make a difference were started by incarcerated men and women who remade themselves despite DOCCS' systemic obstacles. These programs, such as Project for A Calculated Transition's (PACT's) Challenge to Change program, or Exodus' reentry program, or the Youth Assistance Program (YAP), were all started by people during their incarceration. Yet the men and women who have been most proactive in remaking themselves while assisting the incarcerated population around them, are never acknowledged by DOCCS for their transformation. Instead, they are left languishing in prison cells for decades well after their metamorphosis.
This engenders a sense of hopelessness in not only those who have made the change, but also for those peering in on the outside who may be wondering of what benefit would it be to take the right path. If exemplary behavior is overlooked without merit, how can others, who need encouragement, be persuaded to change? Many of the incarcerated leaders of self-transformation have spent nearly two decades or more earning every certificate to every program mandated or offered voluntarily. They have earned every degree available from Associates degrees, all the way to Master's degrees. They have learned new trades and have developed incredible skills. They have become pillars of faith in the incarcerated population, encouraging others toward spiritual development. They have been husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers, big sisters and big brothers, all through the wall. They have inspired communities with their efforts to reach out beyond the wall and touch the lives of others in need. If incarcerated people who have transformed themselves were freed, then a fire for change would ignite for those who have yet to give up their criminal mentality. Other incarcerated people would see the merit of self-transformation and follow a similar path of positive programming, education, and spiritual development. Families that need the guidance and wisdom of their incarcerated loved ones would gain immensely. Communities that were once scarred by the crimes of those who made bad choices, would now be able to heal by those who have remade themselves and are now reaching out to repair the communities they once destroyed.
It is about time that we let go those who have made themselves. We need incarcerated people who have changed their lives to be given a second chance at freedom even if their prison sentence calls for an additional five, ten, or twenty plus years or more. It is about time to bring our people back home from the inhumanity that is prison and let them be the shining examples that they are on the inside to those on outside world as well.
Written by Paul V. Cortez
