Resurrection after Exoneration
01.09.2008
Reprieve is supporting the launch of much needed initiative in the US that assists former prisoners who have been exonerated and released from prison with rebuilding their lives. The project is called “Resurrection After Exoneration,” and is located in New Orleans, Louisiana.
RAE’s founder is John Thompson, who spent 18 years on death row for a crime he did not commit before being released in 2003.
Mr. Thompson has been awarded an Echoinggreen Fellowship to establish RAE, and his first priority has been to acquire a building in New Orleans with the support of Reprieve, to provide residential accommodation and services to the 33* exonerees of the Gulf Coast area.
Unlike prisoners released on parole or probation, there are no state sponsored programmes to help exonerees adjust to the world outside the prison gates and they frequently flounder when confronted with freedom. Exonerees are released from prison empty handed, and even where they can get compensation for their wrongful conviction, this typically takes several years to obtain, and by then, it can be too late. Post traumatic stress disorder, homelessness, addiction, personal and family breakdown, and unemployment are prevalent in the exonerated community in the US and the ultimate tragedy is that exonerees can end up back in prison for the sorts of criminal charges typically attendant upon these conditions.
John Thompson’s RAE project is designed to put an end to such tragedies by providing a halfway house for the recently released exonerees and other long term prisoners to live in when first released, and a package of life skills programmes and practical support to help this group with the challenges that they face. His program is aimed at first helping exonerees and will then expand out to help all returning long term prisoners.
As Mr. Thompson put it: “What we’re going through out here is all about what we went through in there. It’s hurt all of us. Don’t get me wrong, it hurt but it’s history. And until we put it to sleep, it’s gonna keep haunting us. So we have to deal with the effects of it and look for solutions.”
Bo White is released from Angola, Louisiana State Penitentiary, after 37 years. Pictured here with his Innocence project lawyer Ava de Montagne
Greg bright and Earl Truvia after their release from Louisiana State Penitentiary, with lawyer Emily Bolton
If you would like to learn more about RAE, please go to http://christop.bizland.com/rae/id15.html.
To make a donation to Reprieve please click here.
If you would like your donation to go specifically towards the RAE initiative, please make a note of this on your donation form.
* This figure includes 25 Louisiana exonerees (since 1990) plus three others from Louisiana who have been released but not yet exonerated. It also includes 3 Mississippi exonerees and two others from Mississippi who have been released but not yet exonerated.
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