tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82775543577248177822024-02-20T20:50:33.040-08:00Friends of TroyAdvocating the review and reduction of Troy Chapman's prison sentenceFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-40338052352128192622022-11-28T18:17:00.000-08:002022-11-28T18:17:16.397-08:00Troy Is Still in Prison Despite the Changes He's Made Within Himself and His Service to Other Inmates<p>Troy Chapman's latest commutation application, submitted in mid-2021, was denied earlier this year (2022). Other posts in this blog have explained the legal circumstances that have kept Troy in prison for the last 38 years (even as prisoners with longer sentences and harsher charges have been freed) despite his efforts to atone for his crime and help other inmates lead ethical lives. We've asked why the Michigan Department of Corrections has not at least sent his commutation application on to the governor with a recommendation that he may have earned clemency. </p><p>There's nothing more we can say, so we'll place here the text of Troy's last application so anyone coming to this page can learn more about Troy's background, his killing of Scott C., and what he has done in the ensuing 38 years. Certain names have been deleted to protect their privacy.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Question 3 </p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I am seeking commutation of my 60-90 year sentence for a second degree murder. I committed and am guilty of this crime. In committing it, I caused untold pain and suffering, not only to the direct victims, but to many others not mentioned in the descriptions below. I know that for every direct victim there are numerous unnamed others and I want to acknowledge them here. On the night of Nov. 24, 1984, I went to a bar in Lincoln Lake, MI, where a man I'd spent the night drinking with accused me of making a pass at his wife, grabbed me and we both (being drunk) fell to the floor. As we wrestled ineffectively, Mr. Scott Chandler intervened, pulled us up and apart, and shoved me about 10 feet across the floor of the bar. I drew a knife and when he crossed to where I was standing I stabbed him, taking his life.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This crime was the culmination of several years of worsening disintegration in my life. No single thing led to this unraveling but rather several things, driven by my own bad choices, and came together to create a perfect horrible storm in and around me that, once set in motion, fed on itself until it ended in my tragic decision to take Mr. Chandler's life.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Question 4</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I am requesting commutation because I've spent my time in prison understanding the magnitude of my crimes, what went wrong in my life, and becoming a person who not only can never harm anyone again but who is an active and committed activist against everything I represented prior to this crime.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When my troubles began, my life wasn't that bad on the outside — I had food, a place to stay etc. — but inside I was living in hell. It began after my stepfather, Kenny, drowned during a family outing when I was 11 years old. Kenny was the father of my three younger brothers, but not of me, and shortly before the accident he disciplined me and my younger brothers for wrestling around in our room when we were supposed to be in bed. I screamed at him that he wasn't my dad and then, secretly, I wished he were dead, thinking, if he was gone my real dad might come back.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Shortly after this he drowned and I became convinced it was because of my wish. This terrible certainty first occurred to me as I stood on the floating dock and watched him drown a few yards from me. As he called out for help and surfaced three separate times, I tried to take back the wish, then I tried to undo it physically by diving into the water to save him, but I failed.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My mother was devastated and went into a long depression; my three younger brothers were lost and confused and I believed I had caused all this. I tried to step in and be a father to my brothers but instead of addressing their grief, which I didn't know how to do, I simply attempted to discipline them (my idea of being an "adult"). This only caused them to act out more and drove a wedge between us when we desperately needed each other, and I felt like I had failed yet again.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Over the next two years I became more and more angry, confused, and guilt-ridden. By age 13 or 14, I woke every morning in mental anguish. Many adults in my life were mired in substance abuse and I chose to cover my painful feelings and the failure behind them by drinking and taking drugs that I stole from the adults around me wherever I could find them.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By the time I was 16 years old, my anguish and anger had hardened into rage and my drug abuse had become a desperate daily attempt at self-medicating. That year, at age 16, I committed an armed robbery and started down a path of crime that ultimately ended in my taking Mr. Chandler's life four years later. A neighbor had shown me a handgun and I turned it on him and ordered him to give me his money and drive me to a nearby town, where I intended to buy a bus ticket away from my life. En route I ordered him to stop at a party store, originally intending to have him buy more alcohol, then on impulse I robbed the store as well. During the robbery I attempted to call my sister from a phone in the store and heard someone (I know now it was the store owners who lived upstairs) reporting the robbery to the police and, after attempting to cover up my behavior by telling the police there was no robbery, I ordered the clerk, a young girl, to go with us and we drove slowly toward Greenville until the police stopped us and I surrendered.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I pled guilty to armed robbery and felony firearm almost two years later and spent a little over two years in prison.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When I came to prison as a teenager for the armed robbery I could have tried to turn my life around. Instead, I chose to continue down the same criminal path. When I was released to a halfway house in 1984 I checked out and did not return. I spent the next two weeks hiding from authorities and drinking before I committed this crime of taking Mr. Chandler's life.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After my conviction for second degree murder, the probation officer who did my PSI said there was "very little chance I could be rehabilitated" and should therefore be given "a very long" term in prison.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The judge agreed and used similar language when he sentenced me to 60-90 years.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Truthfully, I understand why they concluded this and I do <i>not</i> offer the above childhood trauma as an excuse for my crime. I include it here rather to demonstrate my insight into how my response to things that happened to me led to my criminal behavior. I had no such insight at the time of my sentence but, having acquired it later, I feel it is important to mention because it was the key to me changing: If <i>my response</i> to painful events in my life was a door to my criminal actions, then I could choose a different door going forward. Prior to this I told myself that people around me were "making" me behave in certain ways with their actions toward me. </p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When I gained this insight I became very serious about exercising this power to choose my response to the world around me, turning it into a non-violence practice in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr., where nonviolence is seen not only as a "refusal to shoot a man, but also a refusal to hate him." This practice of refusing to hit or hate is powerful in any environment: in prison it was transformative. I have had to rethink almost everything I believed about justice, manhood, my "rights" and hundreds of other life-guiding ideas in order to maintain my commitment to this practice. Yet I have accomplished it and the fruits of it aren't merely that I have lived this way for these decades in prison, but that it has become who I am as well as my mission in life. I have become a force for nonviolence and non-hatred in the world. I will never stop speaking about it, writing about it, creating and teaching classes about it, or searching for new ways to get people to take up the cause and find ways to resolve differences with mutual love and respect.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This mission has given me two things I desperately needed: a sense of deep meaningfulness and real work in the world and a way to atone in some small way for the harm I've done.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Question 5</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I've taken responsibility and am deeply remorseful for my crimes. Yet, these are only words. I have tried my best to give them substance by living a life built on them. </p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This began when I changed the question, "What does life owe me?” to "What do I owe life and my community?" as a guide to how I should live. I present my "accomplishments" in this light: as evidence that I have tried to turn my remorse into active atonement and to adopt this as my life's work, not as something I'm seeking reward for.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With this said, I know you want to see what, if any, actions support my words. Below are three examples:</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">a) The Wholeness Project</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">b) My work with Paws with a Cause</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">c) My continued education and personal development</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">a) The Wholeness Project</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I started the Wholeness Project at old Kinross in 2005 because I saw a need for a place where men could pool their wisdom and discuss the basic question of how to be good people and live more meaningful lives. To set up some guardrails for this "Ongoing Conversation" as we called it, I asked the men to think of life as four relationships — with Ourselves, Others, Nature, and the Transcendent/Sacred — and ask the question, "How can we create wholeness in these relationships rather than brokenness?" We focused on following our principles instead of our feelings even when our feelings seem overpowering. Our groups of 15-25 men had deep conversations in which we laughed together, cried, confessed when we weren't "keeping it real" and came alive over time with hope and reconnection.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Each session began with a quick check-up on everyone. If someone brought something like a death in the family or something they were struggling with, that topic could preempt the agenda. If not, then I or a guest facilitator would do a 10-20 minute presentation on some aspect of wholeness thinking and practice. This would be followed by questions and dialog. We also kept track of and acknowledged birthdays, accomplishments and struggles. Once a man with terminal cancer came to us seeking community and we spent the next several weeks asking him questions, allowing him to share his feelings about dying, tell us his stories and, when asked, helping him stand and remove his shirt so he could show us what the cancer had done to him. He died soon after and we continued to talk about our experience so the men could process it. Our rule was “Care first, teach later” and was based on my belief that these kinds of "humanizing" experiences were more important to wholeness, healing and development of empathy than any amount of information.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In 2011, I wrote a book to support these discussions, which was published by supporters of the work and is free to anyone in or associated with prisons. (See parole board file for copy.) After reading the book, MCF's Warden Burt gave me permission to start a version of the program as part of an Honor Unit she created. It's been very successful, bringing meaning and contemplative community to the men in this facility since 2014. I have trained others to facilitate the classes, created two other classes called, "Values over Violence" and "Duty, Honor and Wholeness." It expanded beyond the unit to the school building and became available to all MCF prisoners and was very successful in this larger venue as well.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To extend this philosophy of "being well by doing good,” I also created a community service aspect of the group where alumni of classes could meet to support each other, discuss the concepts further and plan ways to apply them to helping our community. We donated toiletries for prisoners who didn't have them, volunteered to clean areas of the unit, informally mediated conflicts, and advocated community consciousness and civic duty.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Has it had an impact? MCF's unit 5, where we were based before Covid, only had one serious fight since 2014 and very little other destructive behavior. I'm certainly not suggesting that this was due solely to our wholeness community, yet I do think the culture of respect we advocate has definitely supported the many other things Warden Burt and other staff here, particularly former PCs Van Slooten and Howard, have done to achieve this noteworthy outcome.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We had to stop classes due to Covid 19 but members of the group continue to advocate community awareness and do community service (cleaning and making sure people get toiletries if they need them, for example).</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If released I intend to continue this work in whatever community I go to and, after I am fully adjusted, reach back into prisons with video courses, as well as provide aftercare support for returning citizens based on this material.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">b) Paws with a Cause</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The second example is my work with Paws with a Cause, training dogs as service animals for people with autism and other difficulties. I've been doing this work for five years and just sent my 13th dog out.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After not being able to even touch a dog for 30 years, this has been one of the most rewarding and centering experiences I've had in prison. Needless to say, prisoners are closely screened for this program and it's a high-trust position. I have been in the program since it started at this facility.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When my cell-mate and I first interviewed for the job, staff thought we would do well but that I was too busy with the Wholeness Project, so they passed us over. Then on the day of the first dogs' arrival, our PC called us and said extra dogs had come in and they needed us to take one after all. We did, and though the extra work has definitely been a challenge to manage, with the help of a good partner (we work in teams), I have stuck with it. Each time one of the dogs leaves I feel a deep sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing that something I did with the animal will help people outside prison. Our outside trainers asked us to lay our heads on the dogs as part of their training because autistic children do this as a way to regather themselves when feeling overwhelmed. I don't have autism but I recall doing this as a young child with our family dogs and the sense of peace and well-being it gave me. It's a small thing, but to teach a dog to lie still so a child can experience that peace is a huge thing to me.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While it's rewarding, it's also challenging. Some have said it's like taking care of a two-year-old and I can see that. When they need to eat, they need to eat; when they need to use the bathroom — whether it's 2:00 am or 2:00 pm — they have to go. When they cry and wake you in the middle of the night because they're sick or scared, you have to deal with it.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yet it's also amazing and healing to be needed in that way by another creature. Maybe this is why there is rapidly mounting evidence of the positive impact of dogs in prison, helping with rehabilitation and success after release.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In addition to all the personal development this work has facilitated in me, it has also given me an entirely new and marketable skillset to take with me should I be released.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">c) Continued Education and Personal Development</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lastly, my continuing education and personal development has become a lifestyle that I can't imagine ever abandoning. Early in my sentence I realized that my thinking and lack of self-governance was my problem rather than anything outside myself. This was only an inkling, but the more I read, the more firmly convinced I became of this as well as another thing: that the remedy was not some piece of knowledge (or circumstance) that, once found, would solve my problems, but rather a lifelong habit of exploring virtue and confronting my own perceptions and rationalizations.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This may seem like an unsophisticated response to my crime and failures, but I have come to believe, with Aristotle, that being a good person is a habit and, like Ben Franklin, who made an actual list of "virtues" that he would practice throughout his life, I have made every effort to train myself in the habit of being in right-relationship with the world.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Before I came to prison I could count the books I'd read on one finger. Reading has since become such an integral part of my character that I can't count the books I've read. It's like gathering wood for a fire. Who counts the sticks? It's a daily task if you want the light and heat of the fire. Just as important is contemplation and writing — feeding the stick to the flame, banking the coals, and knowing when to stop and when to add more.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What are the practical results of this lifestyle? I once ran into someone who had been my best friend when I first came to prison. We hadn't seen each other for over two decades and after catching up on the news of each others' lives we really had nothing more to talk about and began drifting apart. At one point he said ruefully, "You've changed.” I don't know if he meant it as a criticism but it was said in reference to us not having much in common anymore because he <i>hadn’t</i> changed. This is a practical benefit of this approach to life: that I can hope to be a different (and hopefully better) person today than I was yesterday, maybe a little kinder, less arrogant, more creative, and more of a beneficial presence in the world</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In terms of specific skills, I would cite the ability to communicate in many different situations with many different kinds of people.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Another is the skill of teachability. I am open to and even eager to learn. Having once been unteachable, I know how important and beneficial this skill is. I think hiding my ignorance (or trying to) was a big part of my criminality. I wish I could have just said to someone, "I don't know how to be a man, or get a job, or ask a girl out on a date." Whether it's how to bag groceries at the local market or opening a checking account, I have no shame or hesitation now about asking people to teach me. I can't imagine a circumstance where this will not be helpful.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I will close with this: I used to think that a "no" of any kind was a restriction on my freedom, but I have realized that telling <i>myself</i> “no” is the only way to actually be free because it's the key to governing myself and not making others do so. As such, I've developed self-control that has allowed me to follow the rules in prison, and all the rules and laws on the outside should I be released.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is evident in my disciplinary history. Though I had several write-ups in the first decade of my incarceration (see enclosed disciplinary summary), I've been ticket-free since 1996.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Question 6</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If granted commutation I will be paroling to Lansing, MI. My longtime friend and supporter, XXXX, lives and works in Lansing and will help lay the groundwork (such as identifying possible rentals) prior to my arrival. She has also pledged to support me in everyday, immediate needs such as transportation, shopping for new clothes, identifying potential job openings, etc. As to housing, I intend to rent a room of my own, with XXXX's help. See her support letter in this package for contact information.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Also, my sister, XXXX, and her husband, live in Greenville and will be available for general support. Although I didn't know XXXX growing up (she was adopted out before I was born) she and I have developed and maintained a strong bond since she located the family in the '90s.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">XXXX, whose letter of support is also enclosed, has been in my life on a daily basis for the past two decades. She has pledged full support to me, including financial support for rent, transportation, and so forth. This will include all areas of need for as long as necessary. I intend to be self-sufficient as soon as possible but her generous support gives me a safety net that is invaluable. I have contributed to this arrangement by turning over to her all the stimulus money we recently received. Furthermore, I will keep track of all costs incurred by her and will repay it on a payment plan. Ms. XXXX is smart about and extremely disciplined in financial matters and in addition to her generous offer of financial support she will also be mentoring me in setting up a budget and managing my finances.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In addition, Doug and Matt Tjapkes of Humanity for Prisoners (HFP) have indicated they will be available for counsel and references, and general help in my success. I've known Doug and worked with HFP for many years, and their experience helping returning citizens succeed will be yet another pillar supporting my own success. One of the ways I intend to give back is by contributing to the good work of HFP and other groups that do similar work. Many such groups are headquartered in the Lansing area and I plan to contact them for support at first and to offer mine to them as I get on my feet. If I can use my life experience to help others not reoffend, I intend to make that experience available.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I am very appreciative of all these generous offers of support but my goal is to be gainfully employed as soon as possible. I have several marketable skills and will begin looking for work immediately upon release. I want to emphasize I am willing to take any job I can get and, if it isn't what I want, I will use it as a stepping stone to get that. With this said, some of my job skills include:</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">*Custodial Maintenance</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I am certified and have done custodial maintenance work in prison for many years with excellent work reports. This includes blood-spill training, which I certified for many years ago and have re-certified annually for the past several years as a requirement for my dog-training job. I enjoy working as a custodian and it provides many opportunities for employment. It can be done as an employee or as piecework. I am eligible for federal bonding which may help overcome reluctance to hiring an ex-felon.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">*Dog Training and Basic Husbandry</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have done this work with the Michigan nonprofit Paws with a Cause for five years, which has included weekly training by Paws staff and supervision by MDOC staff. I plan to offer my services as a volunteer at a local shelter/rescue and apply for a job with them. This work, however, can also be marketed as a freelance service in the form of dog-walking, -sitting, and basic training and so can be a source of supplemental income if not full employment. </p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">*Wholeness Work</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have also done wholeness and nonviolence work, writing, and teaching for much of the last two decades as part of my "Wholeness Project." I believe I can eventually support myself with this work but it's something I will continue to do even if I'm not employed by it. This will include offering classes online, which I have created and written guides for here in prison. It will also include continuing to write and creating an organizational structure around this work. This is my longterm goal after release and, eventually, when I've completed parole, I will offer these services back to prisoners and returning citizens.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I am aware that there is a danger of people getting out taking on too many commitments to "helping others" and being overwhelmed by it, but I've been doing this work for so long it is thoroughly integrated into who I am and not something I'm just dreaming about doing upon release. It's not something I do <i>because</i> I'm whole, but is the very process of my wholeness; my wellness is deeply connected to my service to wellness around me.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In conclusion, I want to say that the longterm relationships I have developed with many people both outside and inside are the core of my stability and wellness (as well as the best evidence of it). I have come to believe that these deep roots into the lives around us are the real measure of the fabled "Good Life," and they are only possible by being faithful and worthy of faith. This application is, in the last analysis, me asking you to have faith in me, in the power of good, and in the ability of people to change despite all evidence to the contrary.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have changed and if you see something in me and in the people who have stepped forward on my behalf, that tips the scales in favor of you putting your faith in me, I won't ever give you reason to regret it.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thank you sincerely.</p>Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-41296935203393607582018-09-16T04:05:00.002-07:002018-09-16T04:21:07.763-07:00Commutation Denied?<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(128, 128, 128); color: grey; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; margin: 10px 0px; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 20px;"><i>Quick summary:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>Troy's commutation application hangs in the balance as it has been forwarded to the governor's office by the parole board without a thumbs-up.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Please use the bullet points below and your own words to write a letter to Governor Rick Snyder and ask him to seriously consider Troy's application</b>.</span><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<i>Details:</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is in his final year in office, which is when executives sign most commutations. Troy Chapman is not eligible to see the parole board so commutation is his only hope for release before he is 81 years old.<br />
<br />
Troy applied for commutation in August. The parole board has forwarded the application to the governor without supporting it. Governors tend to take the parole board's lead in signing commutations.<br />
<br />
<b>We are at a critical moment, and can draw attention to Troy's application before the governor's office acts on the board's non-recommendation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Please help us by writing to the governor so Troy's application is not overlooked and put in the reject pile.<br />
<br />
Here is one line of reasoning you can use:G</div>
<ul style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(128, 128, 128); color: grey; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<li style="text-align: left;">Troy's commutation application has been forwarded to the governor's office without support from the parole board.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">The governor and legislature have advanced evidence-based parole and policies within the MDOC. In fact, the Michigan House has just passed an<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://wholewaypress.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e03f03b903299c07673a0deb3&id=e749d6e84a&e=fef2d14734" style="color: #00add8; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">objective parole reform</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>bill. That is good!</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Troy's application amply demonstrates remorse, atonement, insight into his crime, responsibility, rehabilitation, an excellent support system and a job waiting for him on the outside, and a long list of positive accomplishments. By the MDOC's own metrics, he is a great "risk."</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Urge the governor to commute Troy's sentence.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">If he won't commute, ask what evidence supports denial of the commutation after Troy has served 33 years of a 60-90 year sentence for second-degree murder that leaves him without access to the parole board.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Feel free to include your own experience of Troy's good work.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Include Troy's inmate number: 169076</li>
</ul>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(128, 128, 128); color: grey; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Write to:<br />
Governor Rick Snyder<br />
P.O. Box 30013<br />
Lansing, Michigan 48909<br />
<br />
cc the governor's "Legal Division" at the same address.<br />
<br />
Or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:" style="color: #00add8; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">email</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the governor.<br />
<br />
Questions? You can<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:mgorman50@comcast.net" style="color: #00add8; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">email Maryann Gorman</a>. Thank you for your help. And please let us know if you've written.<br />
<br />
P.S. Troy wrote this <a href="http://wholeways.blogspot.com/2018/09/duty-and-gratitude.html" target="_blank">wonderful piece</a> on the heels of receiving this news. </div>
Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-80912016425285703532017-09-16T09:54:00.001-07:002017-09-16T09:54:36.704-07:00Write to your reps and others about THISI'm finding some interesting statistics about the DOC's parole of lifers in Michigan. We've noted here before that Troy, despite not having a LIFE sentence, cannot see the parole board until he's 81 years old.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, lifers ARE being released by the parole board. I'm working on getting the exact number for 2017 now.<br />
<br />
I'm not suggesting these lifers shouldn't be released.<br />
<br />
I am wondering why they can see the parole board and Troy can't.<br />
<br />
A question for you to ask your representatives, Michigan house and senate justice committee members, Michigan justice advocates, law professors and anyone else you can think of:<br />
<br />
How can we get prisoners like Troy access to the parole board so they stop rotting in prison despite excellent in-prison records and decades between their crime and the present day?<br />
<br />
Get Googling to find one person today you can ask to help Troy!<br />
<br />
—Maryann Gorman Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-6149609254320204042017-09-07T06:08:00.002-07:002017-09-07T07:08:29.530-07:00A Plea from Troy: Can You Help?I am looking for partners to work with me to obtain my freedom.<br />
<br />
I am serving a 60 to 90-year sentence for killing Scott Chandler in a bar fight in 1984. Because my judge sentenced me to a 60-year minimum, I have less
access to the parole board than second-, or even first-degree lifers.
My only relief at this point is commutation.<br />
<br />
You could help me in two general areas:<br />
<br />
1. Trying to find some way to get my case put back under the jurisdiction of the parole board. (Explanation <a href="http://friendsoftroychapman.blogspot.com/2017/05/its-2017-and-troy-chapman-is-still-in.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
2. Filing my commutation in July 2018.<br />
<br />
The work would be any one or more of these tasks: researching, networking and lobbying for anyone in a position to help. This includes Michigan legislators, current and former criminal justice system experts and leaders, inmate/defendent advocates, the Department of Corrections, and anyone else you think will listen.<br />
<br />
First, let me state the reasons you may <i>not</i> want to help me:<br />
<br />
I killed a young man (he was just 27 years old) who had his whole life ahead of him. Though I thought I was reacting rightly to his actions at the time, I've since come to see I was wrong about that. He died because of my tragic misreading of the situation. I had already been to prison once and was on walkway from a halfway house when I committed this crime. I had very little understanding of the enormity of what I'd done and I was so self-absorbed, whatever remorse I had was centered around me.<br />
<br />
I have no defense for this part of my life. I can only say that I am ashamed of it and I have developed the understanding of it that I lacked then.<br />
<br />
Knowing this, why would you consider helping me?<br />
<br />
In the 33 years since my crime, I've engaged in a life of self-confrontation and personal transformation. This began with the realization of how despicable my action was and deep remorse for it.<br />
<ul>
<li>I have no assaultive tickets in the 33 years of this sentence. </li>
<li>I have zero tickets since 1996.</li>
<li>I was 20 years old when I committed this murder.</li>
<li>All DOC metrics show me to be a low risk for reoffending and a high probability for success.</li>
<li>Psych reports, letters from respected people in the community, along with other objective evidence supports this conclusion. </li>
<li>I have a very strong support system in Michigan and Pennsylvania. If I go to Pennsylvania, I have a job and housing waiting for me, and though I don't have a specific job offer in Michigan, I have many skills and prospects and people to help. </li>
</ul>
One definition of commutation is: "a substitution of one
form of payment for another." I consider my debt to be unpayable, and
will continue to atone for taking Scott's life until the end of mine, no
matter where I am. If I'm ever released, I will continue to exchange
one form of payment for another — perhaps one of more practical value to
society.<br />
<br />
I know you can't make a reasonable decision to help based on the scant information in this message. I happen to be a writer, and reading some of my work would be a good way to learn more about how I've spent my time here. You can read my writings at:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://wholeways.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Whole Ways</a><br />
<a href="http://wholenessethics.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Wholeness Ethics Blog</a><br />
<a href="http://sacredmatters.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Sacred Matters</a><br />
My book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stepping-Up-Wholeness-Ethics-Prisoners/dp/0615522742" target="_blank">Stepping Up</a><br />
An <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95088503" target="_blank">NPR piece</a> I wrote and recorded<br />
<br />
Or you can contact me personally at:<br />
<br />
Troy Chapman<br />
#169076<br />
Muskegon Correctional Facility<br />
2400 S. Sheridan<br />
Muskegon, MI 49442<br />
<br />
or contact <a href="mailto:mgorman50@comcast.net" target="_blank">Maryann Gorman</a> for more info.<br />
<br />
Thank you. Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-72647092589999913102017-05-18T09:45:00.002-07:002017-05-18T16:37:29.130-07:00Some questions we have regarding Troy's case<br /><br />In my <a href="http://friendsoftroychapman.blogspot.com/2017/05/its-2017-and-troy-chapman-is-still-in.html">last post</a> I gave an overview of Troy's legal situation. <br /><br />
We are looking for people who are willing to think creatively about Troy's situation and we have a few questions that might make fertile ground for moving forward. These all relate to Troy's status as a person with a long indeterminate sentence, or LID.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>When Troy was sentenced in 1984, "<a href="http://www.ag.state.mi.us/opinion/datafiles/1980s/op06346.htm">Proposal B</a>" had been in effect for 6 years. At that time, he was eligible for parole under the old lifer law, which said 10 years or more would be treated as “life,” which at the time was eligible for parole in 10 years. Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelly issued an opinion in 1986 that interpreted Proposal B and took away the parole board access of people with long indeterminate sentences. This went on for awhile, with these two laws in contradiction. Then, the Lifer Law was altered to reflect this opinion. Does the fact that Troy and other LIDs had access to the parole board for eight years give him any standing? </li>
<li>Why isn’t there an equal protection claim for people sentenced to more time for second degree than those convicted of first degree? Certain numbers give more parole board access to first degree than to second. Is there a principle in law that lesser degrees of crime should receive lesser degrees of punishment? </li>
<li>If first-degree natural life is Michigan’s equivalent of the death penalty, this practice of over-sentencing second-degree cases is comparable to prosecutors and judges in death-penalty states somehow sentencing second-degree cases to death. It’s being treated as a “capital offense,” but this is contrary to the legislative intent of the second-degree statute. Is there any legal standing for this issue?</li>
</ul>
Please let us know if you have any thoughts on these issues or know someone who can help.<br /><br />—Maryann GormanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-78651621182077535342017-05-05T09:49:00.002-07:002017-05-10T16:03:45.715-07:00It's 2017, and Troy Chapman is still in prison. And we need your help.<br />
I created this blog ten years ago, hoping to attract support for Troy Chapman's bid for commutation of his 60- to 90-year sentence for second-degree murder. And we succeeded in getting that support from many wonderful people, some of whom have become lifelong friends.<br />
<br />
But Troy's commutation applications (four since 2007) have not been successful. Despite bi-partisan talk about reducing prison populations, governors are still hesitant to wield their pens for this purpose. We hope that, in his final months in office, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder will be an exception.<br />
<br />
<b>But the fact is, the commutation lottery should not be Troy's only hope. </b><br />
<br />
Here are the key points about Troy's case: <br />
<ul>
<li>He has been in prison since 1984 on a 60-90 year sentence for second-degree murder. Yes, he committed the crime, and yes, he took someone's life, which we know is irreversible, and terrible. </li>
<li>But due to a decades-old interpretation of sentencing law, Troy cannot see the parole board until he has served the minimum of his "long indeterminate" sentence. (For comparison, second-degree <i>lifers</i> in Michigan get to see the parole board every five years starting in their 10th year in prison.)</li>
<li>Troy will be 81 years old when he first sees the parole board if this glitch in Michigan's legal system is not addressed.</li>
<li>We believe Troy has earned, at the very least, a consideration of his case by the parole board — through his rehabilitation, active atonement and behavior in prison.* At 53, he is not the man he was when he killed his victim in a barroom brawl at the age of 21. He did not receive a life sentence, but his is a de-facto sentence to die in prison. </li>
</ul>
So why am I writing about this again and resurrecting a blog that has remained fallow for years?<br />
<br />
<b>We are looking for advocates who can help us shine a light on this situation, not only for Troy but for others like him. Legal researchers, anyone who can help us in communications and raising awareness, strategy, etc. </b><br />
<br />
There are thousands of Michigan inmates in Troy's situation — warehoused and ignored by the parole board because of ongoing adherence to a one-size-fits-all, 30-year-old ruling that is incompatible with the current goal of reducing the huge population of aging inmates.<br />
<br />
We have approached many good people with a lot of knowledge about this area, and have received replies that inspire reactions ranging from hope to despair. No doubt, it is a complex legal situation.<br />
<br />
<b>But this is a human-made conundrum that has a human-made solution. </b>The legal situation may be a bit of a tangle, but the fact is, if Michigan wants to give long-time inmates with good records a second chance, a way to get them access to the parole board can be found. <br />
<br />
If you would like to learn more about Troy and his legal situation, feel free to contact me via the comments section below or at mgorman 50 at comcast dot net. And thank you for listening and giving us your time. <br />
<br />
—Maryann Gorman<br />
<br />
*P.S. Troy has some published works that might help you learn about who he has become. You can check them out <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/can-love-save-the-world/through-my-enemys-eyes" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95088503" target="_blank">here,</a> <a href="http://wholenessethics.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://troykennethchapman.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. His books are available at <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Troy-K-Chapman/e/B005LGRDQM/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0" target="_blank">Amazon</a>. <br />
<br />Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-37096408206511391932014-05-24T16:42:00.002-07:002014-05-24T16:42:24.683-07:00New book by Troy Chapman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOkI8hRgwlSVWZH5vNampL6nbdu0kdI5QXDwBOKdI71mfwr1mNICqgZr9S5tLc3pU2VtTCj5Hf_Pd9vxtMyYwD9mbMEfvDBUZatq964sX9biYxZUqXi2QtJ4LVtOPv2cSDGLLBkwUzhs/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-24+at+6.38.21+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOkI8hRgwlSVWZH5vNampL6nbdu0kdI5QXDwBOKdI71mfwr1mNICqgZr9S5tLc3pU2VtTCj5Hf_Pd9vxtMyYwD9mbMEfvDBUZatq964sX9biYxZUqXi2QtJ4LVtOPv2cSDGLLBkwUzhs/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-24+at+6.38.21+PM.png" /></a></div>
Just a quick note to let you know Troy has published a new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Knitting-Birds-Other-Poems/dp/0615977553/">The Knitting Birds and Other Poems</a>. It's a lovely little collection of poetic observations and memories. Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-74401138654983067702011-08-30T17:14:00.001-07:002011-08-30T17:17:53.817-07:00Troy's first book is published!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinAzAPHLg7iSAd_sxPiMODJLPI6RCYCiX_oWBikXt27Jud-1-bkU6NFvnuWNXaNvn9CmTKRlbizqpTr1-WRUeClidUN_44nIrQcv5gO77mRc4vz9cZejFyfWQAXYeyZkUgzuC_JIHfep8/s1600/SteppingUpCoverforFacebook.jpg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinAzAPHLg7iSAd_sxPiMODJLPI6RCYCiX_oWBikXt27Jud-1-bkU6NFvnuWNXaNvn9CmTKRlbizqpTr1-WRUeClidUN_44nIrQcv5gO77mRc4vz9cZejFyfWQAXYeyZkUgzuC_JIHfep8/s200/SteppingUpCoverforFacebook.jpg.jpeg" width="125" /></a></div><br />
Hello to all the Friends of Troy,<br />
<br />
I know it's been quite some time since you've heard from us. While we have not updated this blog since Troy's last commutation application was denied by Michigan's governor almost a year ago, he has been hard at work on a book, advance copies of which <a href="https://www.createspace.com/3665734">are now available for purchase</a>!<br />
<br />
It's called "Stepping Up: Wholeness Ethics for Prisoners and Those Who Care About Them" and is published by my imprint, <a href="http://www.wholewaypress.com/">The Whole Way Press</a>. The book will also soon be available at Amazon.com. Whether you know someone in prison or are seeking wholeness yourself, we think you'll find this book valuable.<br />
<br />
This has truly been a labor of love. As many of you know, Troy has been teaching an ethics class at his prison, Kinross Correctional Facility, for several years. But he has been doing more than simply teaching about existing ethical systems. The Kinross Ethics Project is based on an ethical system for everyday living that Troy has developed himself from years of self-education and seeking. I'll let the back-of-book blurb speak for itself:<br />
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<blockquote><span style="color: purple;">"Men and women in prison are seen by society as problems and burdens. This book begins with a different premise: that you can be a solution, not only in the world but in your own life as well. It's about a way of living called wholeness ethics and it's based on the simple truth that we find our own wholeness only in right relationship with the world.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">"From the perspective of his 30 years behind bars, author Troy Chapman offers a roadmap for living this truth and moving toward soundness, well-being and the realization of one's larger purpose. Distilling experience to four essential relationships - with yourself, others, the transcendent and nature - Chapman shows how to consider each in the light of ethical thinking and restore wholeness to each one.</span><br />
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<span style="color: purple;">"With down-to-earth examples and language, compassion and good humor, this book will help you 'step up' to your true purpose, transform your life and your relationships, and help create a better world in the process."</span></blockquote>We have also created a new blog to accompany the book: <a href="http://www.wholenessethics.org/">The Wholeness Ethics Blog</a>. Bookmark us there for posts about the practice of wholeness ethics!<br />
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Troy and I are infinitely grateful to all of you who have been such wonderful friends to us. Without you, this book would not have been possible. <br />
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Peace,<br />
Maryann<br />
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"Like" us on Facebook!<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Troy-Chapman/142858812464993">Troy Chapman author page</a><br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stepping-Up-Wholeness-Ethics-for-Prisoners-and-Those-Who-Care-About-Them/268673839816209">Stepping Up book page</a> <span class="post-author vcard"></span>Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-71712325967484202812010-09-20T16:21:00.000-07:002010-09-20T16:21:14.095-07:00My Last Freedomby Troy Chapman<br />
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Well, as Maryann has already posted, our bid for commutation has been denied by both the Michigan Parole Board and the governor. As I’ve spent the past few days pondering this decision I keep coming back to a few things.<br />
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We don’t know why this decision was made instead of a more positive one. Perhaps we’ll find that out eventually. Whatever we may find out I’m fairly certain that I’ve done all that I can in the matter. There’s some comfort in this because I know I have done my part. On the other hand, there’s some frustration in it as well because I’m not sure what’s required of me at this point. Needless to say, it’s a sad time.<br />
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I have, throughout the process, been thinking about Scott Chandler and his family. Whatever the past 26 years have been for me, he hasn’t had them at all, nor has his family had them with him due to my actions. I think also about my own family, who were hurt as well by my actions. <br />
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Last night in the ethics group, we talked about the central premise of the group: that we should at all times do only what increases wholeness in ourselves and in the world. We talked about what that means and I spoke of how my crime tore up the wholeness of so many people. During this conversation, another of the central ideas of my life came up — that is what Viktor Frankl, Nazi death camp survivor, called “man’s last freedom.” He said we can’t always determine what happens to us in life or what our circumstances are but we can always choose how we will respond to those circumstances.<br />
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This outcome of continued incarceration is certainly not what I would have chosen if I had a choice. But I didn’t. What I do have a choice in is how I respond to it now. And so my question is, with all things being as they are, what response will increase wholeness in myself and in the world?<br />
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I don’t know the answer yet, but I think part of it is simply asking the question. If I can do nothing else or know nothing else, I know this: Turning my mind and spirit to this question rather than to the million other places it wants to run like water right now is in itself a wholistic act. <br />
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So I have my question. I think it’s not just the question for this situation but the question for all of life: What response will increase wholeness? I will continue asking it as I process and adjust to this.<br />
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I’ve said before but not for awhile how much <a href="http://friendsoftroychapman.blogspot.com/2007/02/who-are-friends-of-troy.html">all of you who call yourselves my friends</a> mean to both Maryann and me. Your support and encouragement mean more than we can tell you.Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-21393356497975033442010-09-18T10:06:00.000-07:002010-09-19T07:21:44.387-07:00Application Denied by GovernorI'm extremely sad to announce that Troy's commutation application was denied by the Michigan Parole Board and Governor Jennifer Granholm this week.<br />
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This is pretty upsetting because Granholm's last day in office is the end of this year; it's unlikely very many commutations will be signed by whoever is the next governor, if any. Troy seems to be managing the news. He told me "I'm working on being where I am, rather than trying to be somewhere I can't be." I wish I could deal with this with such equanimity.<br />
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Of course, it's not all that easy to get over a blow like this and he knows that too. If you want to send Troy an encouraging note, you can email it <a href="mailto:friendsoftroy@verizon.net">here</a> or, better yet, mail it to Troy Chapman, 169076, 16770 Water Tower Dr., Kincheloe, MI 49788. <br />
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Thank you to everyone for your support and caring.<br />
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Peace,<br />
MaryannFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-59923374973452234312010-06-30T15:58:00.000-07:002010-06-30T16:05:11.382-07:00A GlimmerIt's been a very long time since I've posted. The wheels of justice do grind slowly.<br />
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But there has been some positive movement in Troy’s case. Troy’s counselor received a request for a Parole Eligibity Report (PER) on Troy from the parole board. Whenever the board wants to consider giving someone an interview or hearing they request this form. The board has requested the info by July 8. <br />
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As a point of reference, no PER was requested the last time we applied, and Troy’s application was sent to the governor without a positive recommendation; this is moving off in quite another direction than last time.<br />
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This is a Good Thing. Say your prayers, please. <br />
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Peace, <br />
MaryannFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-57819613500883385552010-01-03T13:28:00.001-08:002010-01-03T13:41:29.466-08:00Second Commutation Application Sent to LansingHello, and happy new year. Last week, I mailed Troy's second commutation application to the Michigan Parole and Commutation Board. Inmates in Michigan are permitted to apply for commutation every two years, and it has now been two years since Troy's first application was received by the board.<br /><br />Applicants are not supposed to send the same documentation in support of their bids for commutation as they did in previous applications, and we adhered to this rule. And yet the package I sent was as thick as the first one! New documentation this time included news of Troy's popular <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95088503">NPR essay for the This I Believe program</a>, the fact that his Ethics Project was approved as an official program of the Michigan Department of Corrections, excerpts from the starter kit Troy wrote to help prisoners in other facilities start their own Ethics Projects, and last, but not least, the letters sent by <a href="http://friendsoftroychapman.blogspot.com/2009/05/bearing-witness.html">many of Troy's supporters</a> in the spring of last year expressing their sadness at the outcome of his first commutation application.<br /><br />We have more hope for this application than the last one. The men Troy has known who have received commutations have all applied more than once. And we have learned that the board is more receptive of applications from people who have served 25 or more years for second degree murder. At the time of his last application, Troy had served 23 years. The 25th anniversary of his crime was in late November of last year.<br /><br />As always, I thank you all for your support for Troy. Please keep this application in your thoughts and prayers, and also please pray for Troy and me and our friends and families as we endure this time of waiting to see how the board and Governor Jennifer Granholm will handle this request for clemency. And don't forget the family of Troy's victim, who have suffered much.<br /><br />—MaryannFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-84016066234887932912009-05-31T14:19:00.000-07:002009-05-31T14:53:07.269-07:00Bearing WitnessI have been blessed to receive several <a href="http://friendsoftroychapman.blogspot.com/2009/05/letter-writing-campaign.html">letters of support</a> on Troy's behalf that have been sent to the Parole Board and governor's office. They have warmed my heart and inspired me profoundly. I thought our supporters might like to share in the inspiration, so I am including some passages below.<br /><br />If you have yet to write your letter, please don't use any of the following verbatim. But please do take the time to write from your heart.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From an "outside" volunteer who attends the Kinross Ethics Program that Troy developed:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">"The most profound and emotionally touching experience is the open sharing and discussion of past failures that Troy promotes in the class. He encourages the analysis of decisions through the lens of integrity, character and fairness that causes the participants to evaluate past actions and come to grips with the consequences of those actions. In that process I sense genuine remorse and acute awareness of the depth and breadth of the hurt caused not only to the victim and the victim’s family, but also their own loved ones and society in general. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">"Troy’s leadership in helping men change lives is not restricted to the classroom. Troy is well known and respected by fellow inmates and officers alike in the compound as a guy who “walks the talk”. In all aspects of his life he inspires others prisoners to change thought processes and behaviors by applying the principles of ethics. He challenges himself and others to not let past failures limit their ability to be a beneficial presence in all relationships and interactions, whether it is with an officer, a fellow inmate or a family member.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">"I would estimate that in the four years the KCF ethics program has been in place nearly 100 men have positively impacted. The success of the program is due to Troy’s passion to help others, leadership ability and keen interpersonal skills. He has developed a succession plan with a core group of likeminded men trained to continue on with the program."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From a former fellow inmate:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> "I arrived at the Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan's upper peninsula in the spring of 2007. ... </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> "I heard about the Ethics program that was being offered by one of the inmates on the compound and I soon learned that that inmate was Troy Chapman. Initially I was skeptical, what could a convicted felon know about ethics? I kept hearing more and more about this “Troy” guy and his band of ethical thinkers and, intrigued, I signed up. That action opened up doors that up until that point I did not even know existed.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> "In Troys class, actually discussion group is a more apt description, I started on a whole new way of thinking about myself and the world around me. Under Troys tutelage I came to realize that I was part of something much bigger than myself. Up until then I had been acting in a very self serving manor, even in my pursuit of self improvement. He introduced me to the concept of being what he called a “Beneficial Presence”. In a nut shell this means to consider every action and every situation and calculate the most loving response to that situation and then act upon it. It is not always the easiest thing to do but it is always the right thing to do. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> "Thank God for Troy and his altruistic ways. He was able to lead me down his chosen path, selflessness and concern for others before himself. Troy is an exceptional human being and has come a long way from the person that committed the ultimate selfish act, homicide, some 26 years ago. I was fortunate never to have known that individual and therefore my opinion and judgment are not clouded by his past. I only know the Troy of today and I am grateful for the friendship that was fostered inside the fence and continues today. ...</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> "His continuing community support, preparedness for transition, and deportment while incarcerated should all, in my humble opinion, make him an exceptional candidate for parole."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From a Friend of Troy in Michigan who has personally corresponded with Troy:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255);">"Punishment is a concept with diminishing returns, and prisons spit out brittle, angry men. But Troy Chapman stands as proof that change is possible, even in the harsh environment of the cellblock. For a willing few, incarceration is a wake-up call – a chance to start life over from scratch. When I asked Troy how he became what he is now, he wrote back that he came to a place where he could no longer live as he was, and he had to find, or create, some kind of meaning in his life. “Grace” took it from there. I saw then, a man willing to take the risk of seeing himself for what he truly is – imperfect - and then set out to learn from his mistakes and evolve into who he was meant to be. Part of this journey involved sharing the special gifts he discovered. He has since, struggled heroically in his unique community, creating a small island of calm in the center of the insanity that is prison life. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 255);">"Daily, Troy leaves his mark on the world, but it is a small world, limited by razor wire and locked doors. And daily his life says by example: 'This is what I’ve accomplished. You can do it too. I’ll help.'"</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From Friends of Troy in Pennsylvania who have also corresponded with Troy:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">"During the past 24 years Troy Chapman has had a lot of time to think, to pray, to study, to learn, and to create. He has written music, created art, taught classes, and become a writer. Some of his articles were published, which is how we became acquainted with him. His philosophical questions about life, about our relationships with one another, and about God have resulted in more writings that have enriched the lives of those of us who have become aware of his story. His goal in life now is to be a good citizen in the world today, making positive contributions as opportunities which use his strengths present themselves. To that end he is currently teaching Ethics to other Kinross prisoners. If released from prison we have every reason to believe that he would continue his quest to make a positive difference in a world that surely can benefit from his example of personal transformation.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">"Today Troy Chapman has made friends with men and women outside the prison who will continue to be his friends whether or not he is released. He now has positive role models, as well as people willing to be mentors and people willing to support him through the transition from prisoner to good citizen and working member in society.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">"Troy Chapman has become an introspective, mature, and wise man, committed to nonviolence, who now has the education and skills to teach and to be a role model for others. We hope you will look more deeply at his record in prison and his potential for being a good citizen out of prison. We feel that he has, increasingly over the past 24 years, demonstrated that he has been rehabilitated and is prepared to assume a positive and productive role in society should he be given the opportunity to enter it again. Should his case again come across your desk for reconsideration, we ask you to look with favor upon him."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From Friends and correspondents in The Netherlands:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">"In his remarkable process he imagined himself in the place of that other young man he killed, cut off from life. He felt guilt and deep remorse. Then he tried to reflect and to feel what it meant for the parents and relatives. To lose in such way your son, brother, your friend.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">"That is not an easy and common thing to do for a criminal. But Troy Chapman realized that if he did not feel in the most deep way possible what his deed signified for the victim and other people, then there would be no way to live his life in the years to come.” He understood the laws of life, taking responsibility and having the courage to feel what he had done, asking himself: 'What does my decision, my acts in life mean to that other human being?'</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">"From that moment on we are deeply involved in Mr. Chapman’s beautiful writings about his inner experiences. He has developed himself as a great teacher, doing lovely work for the people within the prison and for many people outside. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">"As teachers to adult people, searching for the meaning of life, establishing qualities like peace, friendship and spiritual awareness in the life of our students, we are using quotations of Troy regularly. They are of great wisdom and at the same time so adaptable. That’s how Troy helps us all to transform ourselves as he did."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From Friends in France:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">"We visited Troy Chapman in 2003 and in 2006 and can only express, that we met a very well educated person, sensitive, intelligent and very alive. His interest in others makes us think that he probably would be very useful in helping others such as socially disturbed youngsters. All his experiences in life, especially the difficult ones, may be particularly helpful on one hand to understand these youngsters and on the other to show them how one can transform oneself.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">"It must not be an easy task to evaluate the transformation of a person. How does one evaluate the transformation of a person like Troy Chapman who worked hard on himself in jail for 24 years after having entered as a very young man of only 21?</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Do you think it is still possible after 40 years in jail to integrate into the wider society? Perhaps it is better not to wait for too long, especially for the ones who have worked in a remarkable way on themselves, because everybody should have an interest that the transformed prisoners find their way back into society."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From a Friend and correspondent in New York:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"Troy has accepted full responsibility for his crime, made no excuses and rejected the errors of his youth. He has become a mature individual through his strong effort toward atonement. There is strong evidence that he has succeeded in becoming a valuable, caring, wise and productive person.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"In view of all this I feel that he has served enough time to deserve being released as soon as possible and hope the board will see fit to show him clemency. He would not be a danger to society but a great gift to have among us.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"I would be delighted to have Troy live in my neighborhood or in my apartment as a kind of half-way house. He is an honest and inspiring person who I would feel privileged to socialize with. I would be very happy to testify futher in his behalf if asked."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">From a Friend who is a corrections employee in Minnesota:</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">"I have been deeply touched by Troy’s inspirational communications from prison, his blogs and his artwork which show incredible insight and depth. This is especially astonishing in light of the conditions in which he lives his life. I have worked in the corrections field since 1985 and have been inspired by many of my clients. However I have never seen this kind of commitment to the development of the human spirit. I have been an avid reader of books on spirituality from many traditions for year and you rarely see this kind of insight in people outside of prison. Given the extraordinary commitment Troy has given to creating a positive presence to people both inside and outside prison I hope someone soon sees fit to commute his sentence."</span><br /><br />I am so grateful to everyone who has taken the time to write and those who have promised to do so. You are lights in the world.<br /><br />—Maryann GormanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-14848490011325047952009-05-04T17:39:00.000-07:002009-05-29T13:26:57.952-07:00A Letter-Writing Campaign!Now that I’ve had time to recover somewhat from the sad news that the Michigan Parole Board and Governor Jennifer Granholm have denied Troy’s application for commutation of his sentence, I’ve decided it’s time for a letter-writing campaign.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A group of supporters of our size should not take this decision lying down.</span> It would be an absolute pity if we were not heard from, en masse. The Parole Board and Governor Granholm should know there are many people, within the prison population, in Michigan, around the United States, and around the world, who know — by having been touched by his wonderful writings and beneficial presence — that Troy is not a threat to the public and should be freed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Will a letter-writing campaign result in a changed decision?</span> I'd like to hope so but I just don't know. But it <span>will</span> definitely have a practical impact by creating a sizable file, at the Parole Board and in the governor’s office, of correspondence about Troy and drawing attention to this particular decision. It was in December 2007 that we applied for commutation. Prisoners have the right to request review of their sentence through this method every two years. That means our next filing will be in just seven months. So writing letters now is well timed. My point is that this is <span style="font-style: italic;">not just an exercise in venting our frustration.</span><br /><br />So this campaign can have great impact, but <span style="font-weight: bold;">we need you. Please be part of this. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Here are some tips:</span><br /><br />1. If possible, write your letter in the next month (this is my attempt to create some coherence; if you can’t write in that time-frame don’t let that stop you when you finally can write).<br /><br />Address it to the Parole Board:<br /><br />Michigan Parole and Commutations Board<br />Michigan Department of Corrections<br />P.O. Box 30003<br />Lansing, MI 48909<br /><br />And cc and mail to the governor’s counsel:<br /><br />Steven C. Liedel<br />Executive Office<br />111 S. Capitol Ave.<br />Lansing, MI 48933<br /><br />Please <a href="mailto:friendsoftroy@verizon.net">send me</a> a copy by email for my records.<br /><br />If you don’t want to include your full address, please at least sign with your city/state.<br /><br />2. When you first refer to Troy, mention his inmate number, 169076, so they can be certain what case you’re talking about.<br /><br />3. Expressing anger won’t help. :-) Express your disappointment, puzzlement, sadness, etc. at the decision, but don’t go venting anger.<br /><br />4. I suggest you discuss variations on the following, as long as they’re your personal convictions: that Troy is not a danger to the public, his service to fellow prisoners, the fact he’s served over 24 years for second-degree murder, his remorse and life of atonement and transformation since then, and his impact on your life or thinking.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">For background on what Troy has accomplished, you can go <a href="http://friendsoftroychapman.blogspot.com/2007/12/troys-commutation-request-package.html">here</a>. Scroll down to “Kinross Ethics Project” and “Accomplishments,” which is about 2/3 of the way down the page. The rest of the info on that page may also be helpful; it’s most of the text of his commutation application and includes his statement about his crime.<br /></div><br />Please feel free to <a href="mailto:friendsoftroy@verizon.net">contact me</a> if you want me to look at your letter before you send. If you wrote a letter to support Troy’s commutation application and would like to see your wording in that, I have it and can send it to you as a PDF scan.<br /><br />If you know anyone else who reads Troy’s work and cares about his case, please send this post to them.<br /><br />I know so many of you have given so much to Troy for years. I humbly ask you to please give just a little bit more. With thanks from the bottom of my heart (and Troy’s),<br /><br />—Maryann GormanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-41603743471503954422009-04-22T04:46:00.000-07:002009-04-22T08:00:22.466-07:00Message from TroyI received a letter from the governor’s office reading:<br /><blockquote>The parole board has completed its review of your self-initiated application for pardon or commutation of sentence and forwarded its determination to the governor. Based on the parole board’s recommendation the governor has denied your application.<br /></blockquote>I’m not sure what they’d want me to do to increase my chances. I thought about writing the governor’s office with this question, but will run it by our lawyer John first.<br /><br />As to how I feel? Well, certainly disappointed. Dispirited is probably a more accurate description. Determined also, though, to keep living to what I hold true.<br /><br />We will file again with them once the legal time limit has passed. Meanwhile, I will try to rubberize myself so I can bounce. We’ll discuss where to go next. I need to do the same with my personal work as I’ve been sort of floating on that as I’ve been awaiting the decision.<br /><br />I want to thank you all for your prayers and support. Never underestimate what that means to me and Maryann and know that it makes a world of difference.<br /><br />Other than that, it’s rainy and cold here today and for the next few days. Weather to match this mood, I guess. Of course, to continue this metaphor it is spring, and after the rain, sun and warmer days and renewal will come. Are coming, even now. More later.<br /><br />—Troy ChapmanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-3789356451886416362009-04-21T13:53:00.000-07:002009-04-21T14:11:22.236-07:00Governor Rejects Troy Chapman's Request for ClemencyIt is with great regret that I report that Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has rejected Troy's application for commutation.<br /><br />We will move on from here by requesting a resentencing hearing in the jurisdiction where Troy committed his crime. So his journey toward freedom is not over. If that should fail, prisoners are permitted to file for commutation every two years; the two years since Troy's last filing will be up this December. (It took over 16 months for this one to play out.)<br /><br />I have few words at the moment, but we couldn't have gotten as far as we did without the dozens of you who sent spiritual, financial and letter-writing support. My gratitude to you all is as profound as my grief at the outcome. Troy feels the same way. You'll be hearing from him soon.<br /><br />Peace,<br />Maryann GormanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-6185138610579455492009-04-04T11:44:00.000-07:002009-04-04T11:47:43.766-07:00An Honor at University of MichiganFirst of all, for anyone who's curious, to the best of our knowledge Troy's commutation application is still in the governor's office.<br /><br />In other news, I visited Troy last week and on the way up to see him, I stopped in Ann Arbor, at the University of Michigan. The university has a prison creative arts program which last year solicited prisoner creative writing. Troy submitted three poems that made it into the first “On Words: Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing.”<br /><br />I went to the university on March 26 because they were hosting an event featuring the editors and formerly incarcerated writers reading selections from the book. The guest editor, Joseph Bathanti, named Troy’s poem <a href="http://sacredmatters.blogspot.com/2007/02/knitting-birds.html">“The Knitting Birds”</a> as a first honorable mention. Two of Troy’s poems were read, “The Knitting Birds” and “The Prodigal.” (The third that was published, “Awakening,” was published <a href="http://sacredmatters.blogspot.com/2007/08/awakening.html">here</a>.)<br /><br />There were about 1,000 entries and only 30+ writers made it into the book. As Bathanti said in naming his choices for winning entries and honorable mentions, when you get to the level of the writing published in the book, they are all winners, and that is so true, but I have to admit I was proud as a mama bear to be there and see the little extra attention Troy’s poetry got.<br /><br />—Maryann GormanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-18686365801867406812008-10-07T19:03:00.000-07:002008-10-07T19:22:54.207-07:00Video Inspired by Troy's "This I Believe" Essay<object height="344" width="425">From <a href="http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/440.html">Brasscheck TV</a>. Thank you!<br /><br /><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S8IDoH_zoDU&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S8IDoH_zoDU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-12392595427872520012008-09-23T14:34:00.000-07:002008-09-29T16:52:08.387-07:00Troy Chapman on National Public RadioWe have some very exciting news... On Sunday, Sept. 28 somewhere around 9:30-10:00 a.m. ET, Troy Chapman can be heard reading his essay for the "This I Believe" radio series during Weekend Edition Sunday on National Public Radio.<br /><br />"This I Believe is an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives. These short statements of belief, written by people from all walks of life, are archived <a href="http://www.npr.org/thisibelieve">here</a> and featured on public radio in the United States and Canada, as well as in regular broadcasts on NPR. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow." (—from the series Web site)<br /><br />Troy joins others whose essays have been produced for radio, including authors, artists, musicians, statesmen and -women, academics, entertainers, and many more who are unknown outside their circle of family, friends and associates.<br /><br />Click <a href="http://www.npr.org/stations">here</a> for a list of local affiliates if you don't know where NPR is on your dial. If you miss Troy's piece or want to hear it again, after the broadcast date you'll find a page containing the essay and a link to listen <a href="http://www.npr.org/thisibelieve">here</a>. You might want to take some time reading and listening to other essays — such meaningful and thoughtful statements from people in all walks of life are good for the soul.<br /><br />Our sincerest thanks to series staff, especially senior editor Viki Merrick and curator Jay Allison, for choosing Troy's essay for broadcast and the extra work they did with the prison to record him. Also many thanks to administrators at Kinross Correctional Facility, who not only gave permission for Troy to participate in the series, but facilitated the timely recording of his essay.<br /><br />—Maryann GormanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-47608655155173438532008-08-21T13:05:00.000-07:002008-08-21T13:18:43.664-07:00Update on Troy's Commutation ApplicationIt's been quite some time since I've updated the blog, so I thought I'd post the latest. There's not a lot of news as of today except to say that we know Troy's application is being reviewed by the governor's office. There has been a tremendous number of people applying for commutation and pardon, so they are dealing with a lot of applications and this may take 60 to 90 days or so.<br /><br />So please join us in being patient and in praying for the strength to cope with whatever outcome we get. If the governor rejects Troy's application, we will seek a re-sentencing hearing within the jurisdiction where Troy committed his crime, so this is hardly the end of the road.<br /><br />Thank you for your support.<br /><br />Peace,<br />Maryann<br /><br />P.S. Note that I've added a related links box on the right. Humanity for Prisoners is an extremely worthwhile organization run by our dear friend Doug Tjapkes. I recommend you take a look at his new blog and consider supporting Humanity for Prisoners.Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-7262574530496421032008-05-23T14:12:00.000-07:002008-09-29T20:32:00.510-07:00Progress on Application for CommutationToday we received word that Troy's application for commutation has apparently been forwarded from the Executive Clemency Council to the Michigan Parole Board. What we don't know yet is whether or not this forwarding means the Clemency Council has recommended Troy for commutation or simply passed on the application without comment or with a negative recommendation. Our lawyer is going to try to find out. The system is not completely transparent, but this news is hopeful and I will update you if we find out more. I suspect the odds are that the council recommended Troy for commutation, but I can only base that on minimal knowledge of the process and the fact that hope springs eternal even in a pessimist like me.<br /><br />If you're interested in getting yourself up to that minimal level of knowledge of the roles of the Clemency Council, Parole Board and governor of Michigan in this process, please see the article reproduced in the previous post (scroll down or <a href="http://friendsoftroychapman.blogspot.com/2008/01/executive-clemency-council.html">click here</a>) or <a href="mailto:friendsoftroy@verizon.net">email me</a> with any questions you may have.<br /><br />As always, thank you all for your support, love and prayers.<br /><br />Peace,<br />Maryann GormanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-85593355383074554922008-01-19T02:58:00.000-08:002008-01-19T03:20:31.574-08:00Executive Clemency CouncilMany of you have asked how long it might take for us to receive notice that the Parole Board has addressed Troy's application for commutation. The article below, published in August 2007, gives good insight into the process. From it, I get the impression that this will probably take awhile; Troy has this impression too and is prepared for the wait.<br /><br />A lot of prisoners are asking for attention and it looks like the Executive Clemency Council is taking the applications seriously. Our lawyer will attempt to track Troy's application over time so we know where it stands. He thinks Troy's application package is meritorious and is optimistic. I agree with him, and much of the application's value lies in the letters so many of you sent on Troy's behalf.<br /><br />Thank you for your support and please continue to pray for and bless Troy's application with your loving attention. Troy is doing well... the hope inspired by legal actions like this presents both ache and comfort, but he's hanging in there, especially knowing we are pulling for him.<br /><br />(Thanks, Doug, for sending this article.)<br /><br />Peace,<br />Maryann Gorman<br /><br /><br />Applying for freedom<br />Many more prisoners seek clemency<br />by Sandra Svoboda<br />8/22/2007<br />Detroit's Metro Times<br /><br />With his appeals in state court exhausted and a last-ditch motion lingering in federal court, Fredrick Freeman is hoping one other avenue could get him released from Michigan prisons: a commutation or pardon from the governor. He's one of a skyrocketing number of Michigan prisoners requesting such action this year.<br /><br />Freeman, 44, is 20 years into his life sentence for the first-degree murder of Scott Macklem, who was shot to death in the parking lot of St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron in 1986.<br /><br />No physical evidence tied Freeman to the shooting. An eyewitness, under questionable circumstances, placed Freeman at the scene. And a jailhouse snitch testified Freeman had confessed, but then the snitch, who received favors from prosecutors, recanted his claim. All this and more has drawn legal, investigative and public support for Freeman.<br /><br />In a step toward possible commutation, Freeman's case is being considered by Michigan's newly formed Executive Clemency Advisory Council, which makes recommendations to the state Parole Board and ultimately Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Granholm's office recommended Freeman's case to the council for review, spokeswoman Liz Boyd says.<br /><br />The council, which examined Freeman's request at its meeting last week, will make a recommendation for or against the merit of Freeman's claim to the Michigan Parole Board. The council's decisions are not necessarily public, says Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, declining to say what happened to Freeman's application. If the parole board decides a prisoner's case has merit, it will hold hearings.<br /><br />The council's seven members represent crime victims, the public and law enforcement; a staff person from the Department of Corrections assists them. At their monthly meeting in August they considered 25 requests for clemency.<br /><br />Since its formation in February, the council has helped inspire an unprecedented number of requests for clemency, Marlan says. So far this year, the state has received 1,006 commutation requests compared to 358, 338 and 377 in each of the previous three calendar years.<br /><br />"We've gone out and publicly stated that we would be reviewing certain segments of the prisoner population for commutation or parole," Marlan says, referencing pressure to save money within the prison system. "We've publicly said that we'd be evaluating prisoners with medical issues for commutation or parole. Then the governor created the Executive Clemency Advisory Council so all three of those things have caused prisoners themselves to submit more applications."<br /><br />In Michigan, any prisoner may apply for a pardon or commutation of sentence to the state's Parole Board, which reviews the applications and makes recommendations to the governor. Public hearings must be held before the board makes a recommendation for executive clemency. Victims, their families or other interested persons who have told the Department of Corrections Office of Crime Victim Services they want information about prisoners ˜ including notification of parole hearings ˜ will receive updates.<br /><br />If the governor grants a commutation, the prisoner's sentence is reduced to the number of years served and the prisoner goes on parole. If the governor pardons someone, the sentence is effectively voided and the prisoner is freed.<br /><br />A pardon implies society's forgiveness. A commutation says justice is not served by keeping the prisoner locked up.<br /><br />Overall, prisoners' requests for clemency from Michigan's governors have had varying success with the last three administrations even as the prison population has grown and pressures to control costs have increased. Granholm, a Democrat in the first year of her second term, has granted 12 commutations and one pardon. John Engler, a three-term Republican, pardoned nine prisoners and commuted the sentences of 34 others. Jim Blanchard, a Democrat in office for eight years, issued five commutations and one pardon just days before he left office in 1990. He issued one other commutation during his tenure.<br /><br />"Liberal politicians must have one conservative issue to be electable. Often it becomes crime," says Ron Bretz, a professor at Cooley Law School in Lansing and president of the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending.<br /><br />William Milliken, a Republican who served from 1969 to 1982, commuted 94 sentences and pardoned another 23 prisoners.<br /><br />"It's an extraordinary power that a governor has," Milliken says. "It's something a governor has got to do, be willing to take a chance and the possibility of public criticism for this phrase 'soft on crime,' and do it."<br /><br />Nationally, the number of commutations granted varies widely by state. A 2003 report by the Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, S.D., found the nearly 2,000 commutations granted by former Gov. Bill Janklow led the nation from 1995-2003. Michigan during that time had 31, putting it 11th highest on the list. Three states had no commutation records ˜ New Jersey, Wisconsin and Rhode Island ˜ and 14 states' governors did not grant any commutations, the newspaper found.<br /><br />Historical perspective<br /><br />The first Michigan prisoner whose sentence was commuted is noted simply as "J.F.M." in state records. J.F.M. had served six years and five months for first-degree murder when released from Jackson Prison in 1861.<br /><br />A century ago, Gov. Fred Warner in 1907 released 18 prisoners who had been convicted of crimes ranging from statutory rape to sodomy to highway robbery to wife abandonment. Five of them had been convicted of murder, according to records at the Michigan Archives.<br /><br />Of the 72 Michigan prisoners sentenced to life who received executive clemency during the 19th century, 47 of them ˜ or 65 percent ˜ had committed murder, according a 1928 report from the Pardon Division of the Executive Office.<br /><br />Gov. George Romney commuted the sentences of 107 inmates during his six years in office in the mid-1960s. Several of those were for first-degree murder.<br /><br />Milliken granted commutations almost exclusively for men with first-degree murder convictions.<br /><br />At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, Blanchard and Engler used commutations to set aside sentences of several people convicted under drug laws that required mandatory life imprisonment for delivery, possession or conspiracy to possess 650 or more grams of certain drugs including cocaine. The law was eventually revised.<br /><br />In nearly five years in office, Granholm has granted a dozen, all for medical reasons. Seven of them have since died, according to Department of Correction records.<br /><br />The most famous of her commutations was Jack Kevorkian, the assisted suicide doctor who served nearly a decade of a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder. He was released in June after the Parole Board took into account his declining health. His attorney has said he suffers from hepatitis C and diabetes.<br /><br />Granholm earlier this year established the Executive Clemency Advisory Council and asked members to give priority to applications from sick inmates as well as elderly prisoners who were convicted of nonviolent crimes, Boyd says. Prisoners who could be deported are also a priority.<br /><br />The council has considered 140 cases so far. Of the first 115, the council decided 85 had merit and forwarded them to the Parole Board. From there, the parole board reviews them. Of the 85, the board decided to hold hearings on 33 of them. Three public hearings have been held, but the board has not yet made any recommendations to the governor, according to Marlan.<br /><br />Noting that Granholm's experience as a prosecutor ˜ she was Michigan's attorney general before becoming governor ˜ might foster a reluctance to release prisoners, Milliken, for his part, still thinks she should be releasing more prisoners.<br /><br />"I've urged our current governor to use it in a couple of instances and to use it generally but she has not used this extraordinary power as much as I think she should or any governor should," Milliken says. "She's in her last, final term. She ought to use it."<br /><br />Boyd says the governor doesn't have any immediate plans for a commutation schedule in the next few years.<br /><br />"Does she plan to grant more commutations during her final term? I can't answer that question," Boyd says.<br /><br />She acknowledges Freeman's clemency application ˜ which is based on his assertion of innocence, not the other conditions the governor has prioritized ˜ was sent to the council from the governor's office. But she won't say it indicates any special attention to his case.<br /><br />"We look at cases on their individual merits," Boyd says.Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-39693228058779442112007-12-02T08:25:00.001-08:002007-12-02T08:42:08.638-08:00Package Ready to GoIt's taken quite awhile to gather all the components of a package containing Troy's request for reconsideration of his sentence, but finally two identical binders of supporting information about Troy will be sent to his lawyer tomorrow. He will send one to the Michigan Executive Clemency Advisory Council, whom we hope will recommend that the parole board and governor consider Troy's petition for commutation of his sentence. The other will go to the prosecutor in the county in which Troy committed his crime.<br /><br />Much of the text of the package can be seen below in the next post.<br /><br />Many of you wrote letters on behalf of Troy, and they are in the package. Troy and I can't thank you enough for your support. Please help smooth the passage of these packages to their destinations and maximize their effectiveness with your prayers and love.<br /><br />Peace,<br />Maryann GormanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-23638620878876530112007-12-02T08:23:00.000-08:002007-12-02T19:07:15.602-08:00Troy's Commutation Request PackageHere is the text of most components of Troy's Application for Commutation of Sentence as of 12/07.<br /><br />In addition to the text below, there is also a table of contents, a letter from a supporter in Michigan offering practical housing and job assistance to Troy upon his release, examples of Troy's published writings, and last — but not least — your letters of support.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. About Troy Chapman</span><br /><br />Troy Chapman was 20 years old when he committed the crime for which he is incarcerated (second-degree murder), and he is not the same man today that he was then. At that time in his life he was, in his own words, "on an insane roller-coaster of addiction, violence, and despair," that had begun at a very early age. When he was 16,he committed armed robbery, and it was after he walked away from a state “halfway house” near the end of his sentence for this crime that he took Scott Chandler’s life in a bar-room brawl, and was convicted of second-degree murder.<br /><br />After he killed Mr. Chandler, Troy set out on a mission to understand and change himself. In the more than two decades that have passed since then, he has adopted a "transformative mode of being," which consists of perpetual self-confrontation, daily introspection, and outreach and service to others. He has dealt with the causes of this crime at their root — within his own heart — and the results of this are obvious in his life. His exemplary behavior has had many positive results both within and outside of prison walls.<br /><br />Troy is an accomplished writer whose works have been published in national magazines, been reprinted internationally, used in classrooms, and published in many smaller newsletters and journals. Starting in 2001, working with editor and friend Maryann Gorman, Troy turned his writing skills into a newsletter, Inspirit, which was published for dozens of subscribers for three years. Today, Troy continues this work by writing essays for his blog, Sacred Matters, which is maintained by Maryann Gorman. Through it, Troy continues to reach out to others with a message of hope and peace. He is determined to show others how to live with love and compassion as greater forces in their lives, and his writings are an expression of this determination.<br /><br />Troy is a teacher. Having helped other prisoners learn English as a second language as part of a literacy project early in his incarceration, Troy went on to develop a spiritual dynamics class, a writer's workshop, and an ethics class for fellow inmates in the mid- to late-90s under the aegis of the Jaycees. Most recently, Troy has developed the framework for and teaches The Ethics Project at Kinross, a class that helps prisoners understand how to make ethical choices in their daily lives. The Project produced a seminar on practical ethics for other inmates in November 2006 and is ongoing.<br /><br />Troy is an artist, musician and songwriter. He has written dozens of songs and plays many of them in church services and other ministries in the prison. He is the music leader for the 50- to 75-man church service at Kinross Correctional Facility. (See this package for a list of his many other accomplishments while in prison.)<br /><br />Troy has changed drastically since his crime. He is one of the true success stories of our criminal justice system and has done everything we could hope someone sent to prison would do. He has taken, and continues to take, responsibility for his crime and has done everything within his power to change. Indeed, his entire reason for existence stems from his recognition that taking a life has required a life of service as a form of atonement. The question we as a society must answer is: Can we ever forgive him and allow him to return to free society? We believe that we should and we know that if we do Troy will be an asset and not a detriment to our world.<br /><br />—Friends of Troy Chapman<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. APPLICATION FOR PARDON OR COMMUTATION OF SENTENCE</span><br /><br />Troy Chapman #169076<br />Answers to Questions 3-6<br /><br />3. Briefly describe the circumstances of the crime(s) for which you are requesting a pardon:<br /><br />In November 1984, I walked away from a corrections center in Grand Rapids, where I was incarcerated for armed robbery. I was in a bar in Lincoln Lake when [PW], a man I had been drinking with, accused me of making a pass at his wife. We fought briefly, though not very effectively as we were both intoxicated. As we wrestled on the floor, Scott Chandler, an unofficial bouncer at the bar and a friend of [PW], and who was also intoxicated, pulled us up and separated us. In doing so, he shoved me backward and I ended up about 10 feet from where he and [P] stood.<br /><br />I drew a knife and held it up in front of me. Witnesses were unsure as to whether I yelled “Stay back” at this point or later and I don’t recall. Scott Chandler moved across the space between us and when he was standing over me I thrust the knife toward his stomach. He backed up, holding his stomach, and I stood looking down at the knife in my hand. Scott put his hands on the wall then sat down on the floor in front of me. I remembered I’d left the car keys on the bar, so I walked over, retrieved them and ran away.<br /><br />I didn’t know until after my arrest that Scott Chandler had died. I thought I had stabbed him in the stomach. I learned later that the knife had in fact angled upward and entered his heart and he’d died within minutes. With this said, however, I know that Scott’s death was a direct result of a long pattern of destructive behavior in my life. Although no one was physically harmed in my first crime, I terrorized those victims and scarred them psychologically. I know this is also true of the other victims in this case, including [KG] and others in the bar that night. I didn’t go into the bar with the intention of taking a life but my general disregard for others is what led to this result.<br /><br /><br />4. Provide a brief statement explaining why are you requesting a pardon or commutation:<br /><br />It was certainly right that I be sent to prison for a long time. Yet my sentence of 60 to 90 years is effectively a natural life sentence. The purpose of any sentence is punishment, incapacitation, rehabilitation and deterrence. It is up to others to decide how much punishment is appropriate but there is no further need to incapacitate me as someone likely to re-offend. I am rehabilitated and deeply committed to nonviolence and peaceful resolution of problems. As to deterrence, my punishment has helped me develop better self-understanding; the behavior that brought me to prison is no longer a part of me. I am also committed to sharing my life experience with others and teaching the principles of nonviolence to those who may think as I did when I committed this crime. Both the time I’ve served and my testimony about it can serve as a deterrent to anyone who hears it.<br /><br /><br />5. Provide a brief statement explaining why you should be granted a pardon or commutation:<br /><br />It has become my life’s work to share my experience with others and help them avoid the mistakes I’ve made. I’ve already had an impact on many lives, as the enclosed letters of support demonstrate, but I can provide this social assistance to a far greater degree on the outside than on the inside. As a prisoner, I am an unnecessary expense for the criminal justice system. I have demonstrated that I am not going to be a repeat offender and that I can live within the law.<br /><br />This crime changed me. I have spent my time in prison examining and confronting my morality, character and view of the world that led to it. It didn’t happen immediately, as I continued creating problems during my early years in prison, but I’ve changed steadily and my last major misconduct was in 1996.<br /><br />I’ve taken responsibility for my crime and would like to do so more fully by becoming a contributing member of society and an example to others in word and deed. I know that it was my own character and thinking that led to this crime.<br /><br />In addition, as you’ll see from my answer to #6 below, I have a plan for what to do with my life and realistic plans for transitioning from here to there with a specific individual identified who will help me find work and a place to live.<br /><br />I am sorry for the choices I made and the devastating consequences they’ve had on numerous lives. The central anchor in my life today is my commitment to making wiser choices and responding to life in ways that make me more of what I admire and value in others — namely, a decent person who is beneficial to others rather than the curse I was in the past.<br /><br /><br />6. What are your home and job placement plans in the event you are released?<br /><br />If released from prison I plan to go to Muskegon, Mich., to connect with Doug Tjapkes, who has offered to assist me in finding a job and a place to live (letter enclosed). I have state certification in custodial maintenance and so will seek employment in the area, but I am open to doing any kind of work initially. I have food service experience, writing/editing experience, I type an average of 45 words per minute, and am also a competent artist and have worked in many different media; work in any of these areas is a possibility. I am also a quick learner and have a good work ethic (as can be seen by my employment records here in prison) and these traits open up other job possibilities.<br /><br />When I’m established in these basic areas I will begin seeking opportunities to pursue my life’s work in violence prevention and conflict resolution. Many people are working in these and related areas and it is my plan to volunteer my services to established organizations, to tell my story and to help in any other way I can. (Please see the appended description of the Kinross Ethics Project, which I developed in 2006 and which is ongoing, for an idea of the way I teach ethical living.)<br /><br />It’s my hope to ultimately find employment in this area of social assistance work and I’m confident that if I’m patient and willing to earn the trust of people in this community, that will eventually happen.<br /><br />I know of a man who works with ex-offenders in California; he advises them to think of themselves as guests in the communities they return to, and to see full membership in a community as something that must be earned. This describes the attitude I have toward society and that I will carry out with me. I think it will help me succeed not only in the area of finding employment but all areas of my life outside.<br /><br />—Troy Chapman<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. The Kinross Ethics Project</span><br /><br />I created the Kinross Ethics Project in 2006 to give prisoners (including myself) a space to explore the ongoing question of how to be better people and live better lives. During weekly meetings I give a presentation on some aspect of ethical living and then we discuss this as a group.<br /><br />With each new group we run through an eight-week syllabus to establish a foundation, then we begin functioning more as a support group/workshop exploring various principles and how to practice them in daily life. As people transfer out or stop coming for various other reasons, I rerun the eight-week syllabus with a new group and restart the cycle.<br /><br />The group is attended by a volunteer from the local community and is supported by staff here at Kinross such as the chaplain (our supervisor) and the warden.<br /><br />Following is a syllabus and brief synopsis of the class for your review.<br /><br />Week One: General Introduction<br /><br />We introduce ourselves and I talk about the rules for discussion. I stress that we will disagree but need to do so respectfully. I talk about religion and the fact that this is an interfaith group. The rule here is everyone can speak from their own religious beliefs but we don’t speak against anyone else’s.<br /><br />I then inform the group that we’re not here to study ethics as a philosophical or academic topic but as a practical matter. I give examples of ethical choices we all face countless times each day and how these choices affect the health of our communities and our own personal well-being.<br /><br />Week Two: An Introduction and Overview of Ethics<br /><br />This session covers terminology and three different types of ethical systems:<br /><br />• Reason-based ethics (based on the belief that what’s good and bad can be discovered by reason alone);<br />• Prescription-based ethics (rules that are prescribed by an authority);<br />• Relation-based ethics (ethics that arise from and are discovered through relationship).<br /><br />I talk about these as complementary rather than competitive systems; there is a time for reason, a time for rules, and a time for relation-based ethics.<br /><br />I then introduce the ethics espoused by the group, a combination of reason-based and relation-based systems. I talk about Joseph Fletcher’s “situation ethics” (calculate the most loving thing to do in any situation and consider it your duty) and Thomas Aquinas’ “natural law ethics” (all things have a role to play in the natural order and if we know what this role is we can determine what is right behavior for that thing). We talk about our role as human beings and I ask them to identify their own purpose and begin thinking about whether their values and actions are serving that purpose or undermining it.<br /><br />Week Three: Ethical Thinking<br /><br />This is a discussion about two types of thought that I call structural and informational. Structural thoughts are those that determine how we process information; they are our deepest beliefs about reality and act as a “program” for our thinking. Informational thoughts make up the content of our minds on a daily basis. “I’m a victim” is a structural thought. All the various grievances and evidence of mistreatment gathered up by someone who thinks they are a victim, as well as the flawed reasoning produced by this thought, are informational.<br /><br />The point is that we often don’t examine our thinking below the informational level and thinking on that level is always self-affirming; it always “makes sense” in light of the structural thought behind it. I encourage the men to go behind the content of their thinking and question the assumptions and beliefs that produce this content.<br /><br />Week Four: The Ultimate Good<br /><br />This session is about identifying a standard we can use to determine right and wrong. If we identify the “ultimate good” we know that all other goods are aspects of this. I identify the ultimate good as love/right-relationship and encourage the group to test various behaviors and thoughts against this standard and to define right-relationship. For instance, is it loving to steal from or do violence to people?<br /><br />I conclude with the idea that the good and the right are the same thing — i.e., doing what’s right morally will ultimately make oneself and the world more healthy. I deal with the wrong idea that we can get ahead by harming others and share my notion that whenever we harm others we violate ourselves. So while it may seem we get ahead in the short run, there’s always a hidden cost in the long run.<br /><br />Week Five: Three Aspects of Right-Relationship<br /><br />Here we talk about three aspects of right-relationship:<br /><br />• Reverence — seeing the potential and value of a person or thing;<br />• Goodwill — wanting people and things to unfold in accordance with their intended purpose;<br />• Assistance — taking some action to facilitate this unfolding.<br /><br />At this point I talk about intrinsic value, which is the value of things with no reference to how they may or may not serve us. I teach that all people have intrinsic value and should therefore be treated with respect whether we think they “deserve” it or not.<br /><br />Whenever we fail in any one of these aspects of right-relationship, we fall into unethical behaviors or thinking.<br /><br />Week Six — The Four Basic Relationships<br /><br />Here we look at the idea that we are always in relationship with everything whether we want to be or not, the idea that life itself is relationship. We talk about interconnection and interdependence and I discuss the four basic relationships of life:<br /><br />• With God as we understand him;<br />• With others;<br />• With ourselves;<br />• With the physical world and nature.<br /><br />We talk about what it means to practice reverence, goodwill and assistance in each of these areas.<br /><br />Week Seven — The Circle of Moral Inclusion<br /><br />The circle of moral inclusion is about who we include or exclude from our moral concern and calculations. The idea is that the fewer people we consider to be morally relevant, the less mature we are. We begin as infants with no one in our circle but ourselves. Then, as we grow out of this self-centeredness, we include our family, our gang, our neighborhood, race and so on.<br /><br />My teaching is that to exclude anyone from our moral concern, to consider any aspect of life unimportant, is unethical. We talk again about interconnection and I challenge the men to reject the idea that only those who are like us or agree with us are “our people.”<br /><br />Week Eight — Where Do We Go from Here?<br /><br />During this closing session we briefly review the course and talk about how we will continue to practice these things in our lives. We discuss self-confrontation, stopping ourselves in the moment of doing or thinking something harmful or, conversely, holding ourselves accountable to do things we know we should do but may not want to.<br /><br />The concept of self-governance is a big part of the class throughout and at this point we talk about how not effectively governing ourselves from within has led — rightly — to losing our freedom. I talk about it as a breach of contract in that the continuous cost of freedom is the responsibility to govern oneself. When we fail to do this we effectively give up the right to freedom.<br /><br />We also talk about living an engaged life where we continue to seek truth and live it. Finally, we talk about the three commitments and three renouncements that are suggested but not mandatory. Each person may make them or not in their own lives. They’re a starting point to commitment in other areas. A copy of them is included in the enclosed flyer.<br /><br />—Troy Chapman<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Troy's Accomplishments</span><br /><br />1985-1987<br />When Troy first went to prison in 1985, he immediately enrolled in community college courses offered at the Michigan Reformatory. He studied art, learned to draw and paint, received 30 credits toward an associates degree, and served as college librarian.<br /><br />Troy was transferred to the Michigan Training Unit in 1986 and, though the state discontinued its college program, Troy continued to study on his own. During this time, he was also asked by staff to recharter the Jaycees chapter at that prison. This entailed re-writing the by-laws and constitution of the chapter, reorganizing its internal structure, overseeing various chapter projects — self-improvement classes and community improvement projects — and general management.<br /><br />1988-1990<br />When he transferred to the Dunes Correctional facility, Troy continued to paint, donating and selling his work, and also became involved in a literacy project with volunteers from Michigan Literacy. This included appearing in a training video and tutoring other prisoners in reading and language skills. Because Troy was interested in Spanish, he worked with those who were learning English as a second language. Troy also taught himself to play guitar and to read and write music; he has composed dozens of songs and performs them at prison concerts.<br /><br />1991-1994<br />When he was transferred again to Carson City, then to Kincheloe Temporary Facility in the Upper Peninsula, Troy continued to paint but focused more on writing. He explored novel writing, producing two full-length drafts, and wrote an autobiography using the creative nonfiction format (unpublished) during this time.<br /><br />1995-1999<br />Transferred again to Kinross Correctional Facility, where he is currently incarcerated, Troy's first published article appeared in Prison Life. In 1999, he published another article in a national ecumenical Christian magazine, The Other Side ("Why I Love My Jailers"). He enrolled in and completed a course in writing through Writer's Digest School and won second place in a state art show in Paris, Michigan, for a watercolor ("The General Store"). In his early years at Kinross, Troy ran an ongoing Spiritual Dynamics class, a Writer's Workshop, and an Ethics Class, all as Jaycees programs. Troy received his custodial maintenance certification at Kinross, a state certification that he can use "on the outside" as a profession.<br /><br />2000-2002<br />In 2000, Troy met editor and writer Maryann Gorman; in 2001 they created The Lifeful Way. This was an organization devoted to spiritual awakening, consisting of a Web Site and hard copy newsletter (the newsletter is since discontinued). Troy created the philosophical basis for the Lifeful Way, helped organized the Web site, wrote a study guide, wrote for the bimonthly newsletter, and continues to author the Lifeful Way's offshoot, the Sacred Matters blog. In 2001, Troy published the article "Through My Enemy's Eyes" in YES! magazine, which has been used in college and high school classrooms and has been reprinted nationally and internationally, in publications such as The Christian Sentinel, the Irish Journal of the Anthroposophical Society, and Ode (the Netherlands).<br /><br />2003-2005<br />Troy then went on to publish My Neighborhood (The Other Side magazine), The Broken Promise of War (The Other Side), Why I Go to Church (U Can Change the World (India)), and a column for Progressive Health newspaper. He organized and wrote an e-mail workshop for The Lifeful Way, "Ten Steps to Increase Your Peace," in which 24 people participated. An allegory Troy wrote appeared (credited) in a book published in 2003 by internationally recognized Zen teacher Cheri Huber, "When You're Falling, Dive." Until the cancellation of the prison newspaper KCF Link by the Michigan Department of Corrections, Troy also was employed as a writer for several months with this award-winning prison newspaper; prior to his employment with the paper, he had written many articles for it on a volunteer basis.<br /><br />2006-2007<br />In 2006, Troy created an ethics class for fellow inmates that he still leads, and which produced a well-attended seminar on practical ethics for other inmates in November 2006. He recently started a writing class for inmates, which he co-leads with another prisoner. With the help of his friend Maryann Gorman, he maintains a blog, Sacred Matters. Troy's story of his discovery of "the third side," from YES! magazine, is retold in the new book "The Power of a Positive No" (2007) by William Ury, an internationally renowned mediator who is co-founder of Harvard University's Program on Negotiation.<br /><br />Troy served on the board for Keryx, a volunteer Christian ministry, for several years; he is the music minister for the 50- to 75-member Protestant service at the prison, and he initiated a project called Kid's Christmas, which donates crafts made by prisoners to be sold for money to buy Christmas presents for underprivileged children. He worked for a time in Kinross's organic garden, which donates produce to the local population, until scheduling conflicts with other activities prevented this.<br /><br />—Friends of Troy Chapman<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Use of Troy’s Writings</span><br /><br />Troy’s writing — inspiring, original and practical — has been reprinted or used internationally by editors, authors, and leaders of religious organizations as touchstones within articles, magazines, books and sermons.<br /><br />Published shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, Troy’s article “Through My Enemy’s Eyes,” in the Nov/Dec 2001 issue of YES! magazine, was especially well-received. Obviously meeting a need in a wounded world for an inspiring and practical example of how to move beyond left-right, good-bad dichotomies, this article garnered an amazing response. Troy received positive correspondence about the piece from over 100 readers of the magazine, and got word from two educators that they were using the article in philosophy and religion class syllabi. “Through My Enemy’s Eyes” has been reprinted internationally, in the Journal of the Anthroposophical Society in Ireland, Ode (the Netherlands), the El Dorado Sun, the Christian Science Sentinel, and Quaker publications such as Transforming Power: Alternatives to Violence.<br /><br />The article inspired one educator and writer from Bangalore, India, Dr. Neeraja Raghavan, to correspond with Troy and write an article about his life example in the Indian publication U Can Change the World. Most recently, Troy’s story of how he found the “third side” in conflict, as he related it in the YES! article, was retold in the new book The Power of a Positive No (2007, Bantam Books) by William Ury, who is co-founder of Harvard University's Program on Negotiation, an internationally renowned mediator and the author of the popular negotiation book, Getting to Yes.<br /><br />Troy covered a similar subject in his first published article, “Why I Love My Jailers” (The Other Side magazine, Nov/Dec 1999). This piece — about love as the great liberator and his only personal power behind bars — was reprinted in Roy Masters’ New Insights newsletter; Troy received supportive and grateful letters from several readers who went on to become longtime supporters and friends from the publication of this article.<br /><br />The themes of practicing love and waging peace wind through Troy’s work and have been used in the sermons or writings of ministers and laypeople who have read his work in magazines or online. Troy’s words have been quoted in the sermons and newsletters of religious establishments in Philadelphia, Pa. (Ethical Humanist Society); Roswell, Ga. (Unitarian Universalist); Allenton, Wis. (Roman Catholic); Baltimore, Md. (the Jonah House); and Rochester, N.Y. (United Methodist) — to name only those known to Troy’s supporters. Outside of the Judeo-Christian tradition, Zen Buddhist monk and teacher Cheri Huber used an allegory written by Troy about the “true self” in her 2003 book When You’re Falling, Dive.<br /><br />In addition to their use in publications, Troy’s writings and his personal example have also been used in jails in Maine for mentoring and creative writing classes (see the letters section of this package).<br /><br />There is a hunger among good, peace-seeking people for the wisdom Troy shares in his writing — wisdom garnered over long years of study, introspection, and relating with compassion to his fellow inmates, the guards and others at his prison, as well as friends and family in the world. Troy’s influence could be multiplied many times were he permitted to carry on his ministry of atonement and compassion outside of prison walls.<br /><br />—Friends of Troy ChapmanFriends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8277554357724817782.post-90148995926538900652007-08-12T04:26:00.001-07:002007-08-12T04:40:33.562-07:00A Note of Appreciation<span style="font-size:100%;">Hello everyone. It's a beautiful day here at Kinross. The sun rose this morning behind a heavy mist and is now burning its way through the veil. The seagulls — a constant presence here in summer due to the abundance of free scraps — are arguing seagull politics outside my window. And I'm sitting here on my bunk with my first cup of coffee. It's my favorite time of the day.<br /><br />I'm thinking as I do often nowadays, of how close we are to filing a request for commutation from the governor. As I think about the path we've traveled to get to this point, I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for the role you have all played in this.<br /><br />When Maryann and I started this journey we were alone and felt pretty small in the world next to the Goliath of my situation. Then we looked around and noticed our families and a small group of friends were with us. We took heart and continued, still feeling small but not quite as small as we did in the beginning. Since then, this group of friends and supporters has continued to grow as more and more of you have come to stand with us and hold us up to this point.<br /><br />Without your prayers and encouragement we would not have been able to sustain our efforts and maintain our hope to get this far. Without your unbelievably generous financial support we wouldn't have been able to hire an attorney to lead us through the legal maze and develop a realistic strategy for moving forward. Then, when we asked for letters, you came through again and they have poured in.<br /><br />As I read these letters I am extremely humbled and reminded of the abundance of grace in my life. Whatever happens in this legal situation, I want you to know that I've already been blessed beyond anything I deserve by your belief in me, your support and your friendship. I want to thank you for that blessing. I am indebted to you beyond anything that words can express.<br /><br />Now as we move forward from here I ask you to continue to extend your prayers to the family of Scott Chandler, the man whose life I took. His family was deeply and unjustly harmed by my action, and should be remembered as we make our request for clemency. So think of them when you think of me and what we're trying to do and thank you for caring. Know that this alone is an act of healing and is a thing of great value in our world and in my life. Many blessings.<br /><br />Troy<br /></span>Friends of Troy Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04369949485936818075noreply@blogger.com0