Hello

My name is Lorenzo Davis III, and I’m serving a death penalty sentence here in Illinois under Truth in Sentencing. Abraham Lincoln is more than likely turning over in his grave because of such barbaric sentencing schemes here in Illinois.

I am a first time offender who at the time of my offense was a 38 year old law abiding citizen, married with four children, one grandchild, working at a slaughterhouse forty-plus hours a week and part time at Eagle Ridge Elementary School as the boys' fifth and sixth grade basketball coach.

I served this country for nine years in the U.S. Army as a Field Medical Specialist who actually was stationed in Ankara, Turkey at the start of the Gulf War, training with the NATO units.

I would like to know where is my second chance, because here in Illinois, its constitution states that our sentences should be geared toward a return to useful citizenship. I was given a 65-year sentence to be served at 100%, which means at the completion of such sentence I will be 103 years old.

Lincoln must be really turning over in his grave, because of the shame that Illinois has been placing on its citizens, and we are not a southern state!

My name is Alex Fowler. I’m apart of Lewis’s Prison Education Program at Sheridan Correctional Center. I’m a person who believes in redemption and rehabilitation. No person should be defined by our worst mistakes.

Currently, I have served 16 years of a 30 year sentence. Since I entered into IDOC custody I have taken every opportunity that has come in front of me.

During my time I graduated from Lake Land College, obtaining my Associate's degree in Liberal Studies (ALS) and soon to graduate from Lewis University with a Bachelor's degree in Professional Studies, with a minor in Business Administration as well as completed numerous other programming.

In the deepest, darkest, harshest places I will continue to strive to show I'm more than my offense and rehabilitation does happen. However the individual has to want it. This is what I want, Change.

The people should know that our
efforts are not to simply get out of prison.

Our please to the people is to understand that we want to earn our way back; we want the opportunity to earn our way back.

It is not simply to be free, but to
contribute to society by helping to reduce harm.

We ask to engage with the public in
discourse and/or that the public engage with policy makers to produce a humane criteria to return that is clearly defined and diverse in thought.

Are they really serving justice, or it’s just retribution?

How you say the system work when it violates the Constitution?

Got us servin’ all this time its an informal execution

Got problems that need fixing, yet there’s so many solutions.

The ones closest to the problems got the answers if you ask.

Prosecutors are so distant, with too much power to have

Reason for the mass incarceration, you can ask John Pfaff

Recommending all this time, but don’t got a release path. 

So, bring back parole, with a board that could judge with love or empathy or sympathy

Or consider all the above, because we’ve been doing the work …

It’s only being recognized within, not by a judge. 

Yet the system promotes change, if you read the mission statement

It say prison meant to change, rehabilitation.

Can you tell me what’s the standard? I don’t mind the hesitation 

‘Cause I know when they’ve been sayin. I think its on the legislation. 

Speaking of change since we changed, why they named risk assessment

If the system did what it supposed to, we’d an investment, asset to society, to prove we learned our lesson.

Should named it a chance of success? Let’s make that adjustment.

Are they really serving justice, or it’s just retribution?

How you say the system work when it violates the Constitution?

Got us servin’ all this time its an informal execution

Got problems that need fixing, yet there’s so many solutions.

Illinois is leading the nation when it comes to wrong conviction.

You ain’t got to believe me, do the research, that’s my witness

System taking people’s lives without a sense of forgiveness 

Voiced it in appeal, but they denied the petition.

Got some problems that need fixin, so we work on ourself

Understanding trauma, prioritizing mental health.

Gotta take initiative ‘cause they ain’t providing the help

The system ain’t a system for justice, it’s a system for wealth.

Yet they put the blame on us like we ain’t trying to win. 

Don’t go off what you hear, come in here and see we different men

Challenge your perspective, stereotypes keeping us boxed in.

And that’s just a few answers to what is justice from within. 

So, are they really serving justice, huh?

My name is Darius Johnson, and I have now been incarcerated for the past 17 years (since I was 18 years old). I'm a man who has made drastic transformative actions to become a better man, not just for myself, but for my family and society as well. But with these transformative actions, I will never have a chance to show or put true use to the actions I've taken to transform my mind because of my very long-term sentence.

I truly believe that society needs to see my work behind the fact that I am a certified Paralegal (in civil and criminal law), and that I do have a Bachelor's Degree in Professional Studies with a minor in Business Administration. I know that if the opportunity to show and prove my transformation from a troubled teenager to a smart, determined, and transformed man was provided, I would guarantee to prove my transformation.

Parole in Illinois should be for everyone incarcerated, not just some. Brothers and Sisters that have been incarcerated prior to 2019 should have a chance to be eligible for parole as well. Parole is just one of the many tools that can be used to show and prove the transformation of their minds and growth, and I'm in full support of seeing brothers and sisters incarcerated free.

My name is Steven Lopez. I have been incarcerated for 23 years. At 20 years old, I was unaware of the legal system and the harms imposed by a judicial system meant to correct the people who commit crime. When I tried to use the resources provided by Illinois Department of Corrections, I was told I had too much time. Serving 60 years I was ineligible to receive educational classes or corrective programs.

For 21 years, I had to self-educate myself and change the behaviors that caused my incarceration. Now in a position to attend Lewis University and have the opportunity to achieve a Bachelor's Degree, I have been regenerated. Attending college in prison has given me purpose and opened my eyes to look at my community and how I can create change.

My name is Henry T. Lovett. I have been in custody since the age of 17, for 34 consecutive years. I believe that I have “aged out” and that I restored myself to useful citizenship. Justice to me is defining in a concrete fashion: “What is rehabilitation?” Like many others in prison I am capable and anxious to contribute to society in a positive and productive way.

Greetings, my name is Ricky Patterson. For 23 years I’ve fought for my constitutional right - as a citizen of the State of Illinois - to be restored back to useful citizenry. Which is promised in Article 1, Section 11 of the Illinois Constitution.

Over this very long 23 years I have sought education at every opportunity. Even while held in maximum security institutions like Menard and Stateville when education for “long-term offenders” was seen as not worth investing in. This ideal is mostly due to those considered long-term offenders not being eligible for any relief — in spite of their efforts at transformation — due to Illinois’s archaic sentencing structures. Where truth in sentencing has totally eliminated the possibility of parole for greater than 30 years.

Ironically Illinois abolished the death penalty and while giving a life sentence requires a court procedure, virtual life sentences (25–60 years without the possibility of parole) are given out freely. This has created a generation of prisoners who are sentenced to death row ON THE LAYAWAY PLAN. Who will die before they serve their 25–60 years prison sentence.

Project Sound Off stands in the gap believing as I do that the convicted should be given a chance to be restored back to useful citizenship - Earned Reentry, please support these efforts.

My name is Mr. Anthony Smith, and I've been incarcerated for three decades and counting for a crime I did not commit. I am not bitter anymore about it, because of how my educational growth and perspective on life, people and family has expanded. I am prayer-filled and hopefully optimistic that the information being provided will provoke action, participation, and a resurging energy to right the wrongs that's being done to so many of us.

Not having a chance to present ourselves to a parole board or resentencing committee does not honor our state constitution (Art. 1, Sec. 11). If anything, it minimizes the respect and potency of a document that was meant to protect and secure all of its citizens from abuse or unjust actions. Let our voices be heard. Let our votes count, and let our legislative policies be for all.

Thank you!

I am Devon Ferrell, from the Southside of Chicago, and have been incarcerated 22 on-going years serving a natural life sentence without the possibility of parole. As a 20-year-old emerging adult at the time of the offense for which I'm convicted, I now understand how immature and unrealistic my expectations were for trying to recklessly carve out a healthy and successful life through crime and violence. I also understand how the lack in ability to recognize resources and opportunity created circumstances for mysefl that eventually exposed me to the justice system.

Now at 45 years old and after earning a B.A., M.A., barber’s license, and obtaining employment at Lewis University as an adjunct professor, published writer, poet, and artist, my life work has not been to rehabilitate myself, but to use my time to resist the dehumanization of families and communities I once contributed to and what I experienced behind the walls of prison. And to engage…

Illinois being a Death By Incarceration state inflicts unnecessary suffering on families and communities by prohibiting opportunities to formally demonstrate transformation and preparation for returning to society. This is the gravest injustice perpetuated by the criminal legal system.

Prison saved my life on accident. At 17, I was wrongfully convicted for 1st degree murder under the theory of accountability and sentenced to 32 years at 110% (the extra 10% being 3 years of mandatory supervised release).

Throughout my time here I put all my efforts into education. Not only academic, but emotional, social, and experiential all aimed at discovering why I am. What I found is that I was conditioned by the world to perpetuate violence, expected to be harmful. So in every stage of growth I found healing. Healing of my thinking, feeling, perspective, perception, behavior, and expectation for self and others. Now I create healing spaces throughout evert institution. I am a certified barber, a 2027 Lewis University Graduate, the author of much of the CBT material in Building Blocks, Cave, and Nelson Mandela Day. I am not 17 years and broken, I am 41 and healing. I am driven, focused, talented and amazing. I deserve a second chance because I never truly had a first. My name is Sam Wells and I am an inevitable success story.

Spoken word piece “Still I Becoming, to Become.”

So to every politician in the state of Illinois,

I ask you to listen,

not to statistics,

not to headlines,

not to fear…

but to people.

Because prison does not only punish.

Sometimes it buries.

And buried people

begin to believe

they are meant to stay underground.

You build policies.

You sign laws.

You debate crime in rooms

where the microphones work better than the neighbors do.

But I need you to understand

what incarceration feels like

when the cameras leave.

It feels like missing funerals.

Like hearing your mother’s pain

through a twenty-minute phone call

you can barely afford.

It feels like your child

learning how to stop needing you.

It feels like becoming invisible

while still alive.