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CARL'S CORNER 21 MAY 2005. CARL'S PEARLS.

CARL'S CORNER

"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you

never

know how soon it will be too late."

women inmates Wednesday 25 May 2005, three serving life sentences for homicides with no chance of parole, and the fourth one serving a 35-year sentence, with as well no chance of parole, at the Homestead Correctional Institution Maximum Facility For Women in Florida. This institution holds 553 female inmates in one building, and 1,494 male inmates in another building.

This was a heart-wrenching experience, and here are the interviews in a Saturday special "Carl’s Corner," edition.

All the interviews were filmed by ISLAND TV and CAPSULE MEDIA. My thanks to the Homestead correctional authorities, to cameramen Josué Prévalus, Calvin Williams, and to Michel Petithomme and Anne Chavanes of YOUTH ALTERNATIVE CHOICES which made this possible.

I have interviewed each female inmate individually and will have my personal outlook at the conclusion.

Patsy L. Jones, inmate number 460869, is a black female, 32 years old, sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole. Patsy has used many aliases such as Gangsta Bitch, Angela, Cheryl, Delores, Deoris, and Yovone all with the last name of Samuel.

Patsy has commited armed burglary, carjack with a deadly weapon, dealt in stolen property, kidnapping, and commited first degree murder.

Patsy has a pleasant personnality, 5’4" tall, black hair and brown eyes. She has been in jail since November 7, 1996.

CARL .- Hello, Patsy. Thank you for accepting this interview and deciding to help future generations with your insights and experience, in order for them to avoid making the wrong choices like you eventually did. How is life behind bars? Please differentiate with freedom on the outside and behind bars, or just tell us about your life. Please free to share with us anything which is on your mind.

PATSY.- I really don’t know where to start. I was an only child raised by mom and dad in a close-knit relationship with my family. I had everything I wanted. I was active with my church songs in the choir and the usher board. It seemed like I was born an adult. I learned a lot of things from a lot of people.

No one has ever taken advantage of me or touched me wrongfully. My dad was afraid to mess with his daughter. I could not wait to get old enough to do the things that I dreamed off. When I turned 12 years old I got loose, I stole my mom’s car and was gone for a month. I was finally caught and sent to Juvenile Hall. My mom got a lawyer to get me out.

Every stage in my life I made the wrong choices. I hung around with big boys. They showed me how to steal, fake someone’s name…. It was like once I started I was going full force. My family had no control over me… At times I had no control over me. It was like running a race with no finish line.

I knew my family loved me. Still I continued in abusive relationships with drug dealers and other types of men. I thought that’s the way they expressed love because they had not been loved. They beat, slapped, choked me then showered me with "I love you’s," "I am sorry’s," with jewelry and money. I had to have the baddest and be the baddest to be known among the rawest. My peers, my cousins always needed me behind their parents’ back.

My peers feared their parents but I was too far gone to fear mine, only respect them. I respected them enough to be always their little girl, even when I drove up in a new car, dressed in my Sunday’s best, in the middle of the week. Being respectful by day, robbing, scheming by night. I would cover the bruises on my face from either the guys that I played with their feelings, stealing their money, or not wanting to accommodate them…

I could not tell Momma about these things. I was in too deep and I did not want my daddy to fight my battles anymore. So I held all my hurt, pain inside and dealt with all my faults.

CARL.- Well, Patsy, you said it all in a nutshell. Tell me, would you say that crime is rising among juvenile girls? That they are becoming more violent ? Do you think that violence in your home contributed for you being in jail today?

PATSY.- Yes, crime is rising among young people, and they are definitely becoming more violent. In my case I had no violence in my home, and I blame only myself.

CARL.- Patsy,I certainly admire you for recognizing your errors in life and not putting the blame on others. Does becoming promiscuous as a teenager had any effect on your conduct? Did drugs or alcohol have any influence on your behavior?

PATSY.- Yes, definitely! They all did. Peer pressure as well.

CARL.- Thank you so much, Patsy, for your input which will help educators and parents in coping with those problems . All the best to you .

Sarah B. Allen inmate number 162735 is 27 years old, female, brown eyes, 5’9" and of mixed bracial background: a black father and a Caucasian mother. She has a life sentence with no chance of parole. Specifics of her crime were not discussed. Sarah is easy to be with and has a pleasant personnality.

CARL.- Hi Sarah, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I thank you for bringing your input to this interview and what wrong turns you took which brought you to life behind four walls . My name is Carl and I have a television program called "Carl’s Corner." However, instead of a regular interview, I would very much like to hear in your own words what brought you to life behind bars? What is the one most important thing which can be done to decrease the dilemma society is facing when it comes to juvenile delinquency or crimes? Please share with us who is Sarah B. Allen, and anything you wish to declare will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

SARAH.- So, you would like to know what wrong turns I made in my life ? Let’s see, where do I start ? I have made many mistakes but the one that had the most impact and paved my path to prison was my association with a gang… Trusting the wrong people, believing in the wrong people, and most important accepting their values as my own.

I was young when I first started hanging with gang members and I was vulnerable. I had only met my father a couple of times so I had basically no father figure. I came from a mixed background. My father was black and my mother white. I had to fit in the best way I could. My mom was mentally slow or disabled , so it was hard when there was not anyone to really understand me.

I turned to the wrong father figure who taught me his way of life…I latched on to him and I thought I had found a family. That type of life style took its toll on me. I dropped out of school in the tenth grade and I really don’t know how I made it that far. I was smoking weed, drinking on a daily basis. .. I have done a lot of things in my life and I have often thought of the "whys," "hows" and "what ifs…."

Now that I have grown up in prison I have had plenty of time to look at where my life went astray. I was a follower who followed well… I never understood how precious life was until mine was taken away from me. I believe that being involved with a gang was one of the biggest mistakes of my life….This is the decision that I will regret for the rest of my days.

I am grateful that I am no longer that child with a need to fit in, in search of a father figure, gullible and weak minded. One thing prison did was open my eyes…Like I said before, life is too precious even when learned the hard way, it still holds true.

CARL.- Sarah, thank you so much for your input. You are still very young at 27 years of age. Hope springs eternal and I agree with you that life is a precious gift. All the best to you in the future and please, continue to keep the faith. Life is meaningless without hope.

Jessica L. Carter. Inmate number P14817 is a white female, 30 years old, sentenced to 30-35 years with no chance of parole.

Jessica’s offense is driving without a license and commiting vehicular homicide. She has been in jail since July 30, 2001.

Jessica has a charming personnality, she is is 5’2" tall, with blond hair, brown eyes, and weighs 118 lbs.

CARL.- Hi!Jessica, my name is Carl Fombrun and welcome on "Carl’s Corner." It’s a pleasure to meet you regardless of those sad circumstances which brought you behind bars. This is an opportunity for you to tell the public at large anything you wish us to know about you. Normally I love to talk, but I will gladly listen to your story which may be of help to others in avoiding the same pitfalls you went through.

JESSICA.- I am incarcerated with a 35-year sentence for vehicular homicide. I have only been in trouble one other time which was a misdemeanor DUI. I did not live a life of crime and I am a prime example on how you can end up just like me in the blink of an eye, by making wrong choices in life.

Growing up, I was very successful. I was in the top 10% of my graduating class and received an academic scholarship to college. I was a gymnast for 16 years and a cheerleader for my junior high and high school years. I also modeled some. Now, I am just an inmate.

I had a close knit family that was torn apart when my mother died of a heart attack suddenly 2 days after my graduation. I could not cope with it and I pushed my family away. Instead of getting counseling I got drunk and high. It eased the pain or so I thought. , until the drugs and alcohol eased off and the pain was still there.

So I got drunker. This lasted for about 8 years while I struggled to resume a normal life, worked and went to college to try to achieve the goals I had worked so hard to attain in my youth.

Eventually, I quit school and everything became a party to me but I was just dying inside. When I was 25 years old I came to Florida on vacation with a friend and we had a car accident and a guy my age was killed in the car I hit. I would never hurt anyone, and here I now sit knowing that a young man lost his life because of me and my mistakes.

It hunts me day and night and will for the rest of my life. I have done 3 and a half year of my sentence, and I wonder what happened to my perfect little life and how I can make this right. But I know that will never happen because nothing will ever be right again, because he is still gone.

I try to find some purpose to go on but it’s hard when you are locked away in a prison for practically the rest of your life. My father died two years ago and my friend who came to Florida with me died a few months ago.

So much life has been lost around me, and there is not a damn thing I can do about it, except reach out to anyone who will listen, and hope you take heed to the warning signs of bad choices and learn to make the right ones.

There are many women here who should not be in jail but for their bad choice. Bad choice is all it takes. So don’t let it be you. You never know what you have until its gone…

CARL.- Thank you Jessica for sharing with us your story and your personal thoughts. You are a great communicator. Life is a continuous growing process and I can only congratulate you for being part of the equation.

Georgia Roberta Miller, inmate number 530138, is a white female, 28 years old, sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole.

Georgia is sentenced to life imprisonment for first degree murder. 5’6" tall, 152 lbs., brown hair and hazel eyes. She has been in jail since May 6, 1994.

CARL.- Hi! Georgia, welcome on "Carl’s Corner." I thank you for seeing the importance of appearing on this program, and your story is important in the sense that it will help others to make the right decision in life. Please help us understand, how come today, you are behind the eight ball, serving a life sentence for murder with no chance of parole.

Georgia.- I did make the wrong decisions in life, and by telling my story I would like to believe it will help other teenagers and pre-teens, in making the right ones. That’s all I can offer from prison.

I can’t really sit and say "in 1987 I did…" because my memory is so clouded that dates were never a priority. I only know, at one point, I was suddenly so angry and that is where it all started.

My actions were never meant to hurt anyone but when you hurt it just so happens the people close to you suffer. Drugs were never my scene though I did drink. As a teenager, the first or second time that I got drunk I ran away from home. My intent was honestly to go home the next day but a detective picked me up after I slept under a friend’s bed all night.

I went through "up and down" phases. These were such good times when I seemed to feel okay. Eventually I went back into a full rebellion. Wrong choices everywhere I turned. I skipped school, drank more and was more concerned about proving myself to other kids and worried so little about the family that loved me.

It was then that my ex-boyfriend killed another girl and now I pay for it too. I chose not to face the issues that bothered me and instead I tried so hard to do what I knew was wrong. That tension of living put me in a position to watch death take someone as young as me. Sadly, it did not stop there. After my arrest, I rejected the support my family offered, and when all of these things finally caught up with me it was like a landslide.

It did not start with "wrong" music, drugs, outside influence or abuse. None of those things touched my life until I opened myself up to them. I honestly believe that my wrong decisions started with ME. They came from a twisted feeling of what the world owed me and from being angry.

There are people who blame everything and everyone else for chaos in their life and one day you look around and see that only you could have done it. It’s clear and probably too late to change it.

CARL.- Thank you, Georgia. It really pleases me to hear that you do not have a victim’s syndrome. It took courage on your part to admit your mistakes in life, and hopefully you will have a kinder destiny in jail.

You are serving a life sentence with no chance of parole, and you are already doing a lot by sharing your humanity with others. Thank you and please keep up your spirit. All the best.

Those in-depth interviews with four unfortunate ladies filled me with sadness, anger and at he same time with hope for humanity.

Sadness, anger. : Once one takes the wrong guidelines in life, one can stay on the wrong path forever. The United States is one of the rare countries left in the world, which may give one a second chance. God bless America.

Hope. : That everyone of those young ladies finally realized that they were the architects of their own destruction, and this will help future generations in avoiding the same pitfalls.

Life is not a bowl of cherries, and the first learning process in correct behavior begins at home, school and grades.For those who did not have those opportunities, the last chance is with a Juvenile as well as an Adult system, which should be more effective with repeat offenders.

There is maybe something someone could have said or done then, which could have prevented the path that led those young ladies in a maximum security prison today.

Crime in this world is still rising as well as the use of drugs, alcohol among teenagers,violence and sexual promiscuity.

I take at face value what inmates Patsy L. Jones, Sarah B. Allen, Jessica L. Carter, and Georgia R. Miller have told me.

We are living in a manipulative world and prisons are a reflection of our lives in a free society. Not once did I feel out of place with those women. They spoke their hearts out and this could be anyone of us in their place.

I was not there to judge them but to listen, and I understand that Society has an obligation not only to them but also to their victims.

Crime cannot be left unpunished, but the delicate line is the final decisions by the courts and juries of this big country which will affect us all.

My heartfelt thanks to everyone of those female inmates, with malice towards none.

May the Almighty have mercy on us all.

Last Thursday night 26 May 2005, I had the pleasure to be present at a cocktail party at the Parrot Jungle on the Mac Arthur causeway in Miami Beach, offered by the new Haitian Consul General Ralph Latortue and his staff, to the Haitian community in Miami. A good time was had by all in company of a diversified group. Everyone was invited to participate for the common good of the Haitian nation.

My friend Joey Jean-Baptiste was the organizer of this event, and I compliment him for his good taste in public relations, and the choice of Parrot Jungle which is a prime location in South Florida.

Last Friday night 27 May 2005

was the exhibition of Creole International Fest and Members of the Art Industry in South Florida at the Embassy Suites hotel north of Miami, organized by A.C.T.I.O.N Foundation.

I intend to make a report on this in French for "Planète Québec."

JIMMYZ’ AT THE FORGE

432 Forty-First Street

Miami Beach

I will respond present. Wishing a "fantabulous" weekend to all !

CARL

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