"I will live a redeemed life, one of service and value to others."

September 15, 2017 7:22 AM

Michelle Jones is a new doctoral student at NYU this fall. Her BA is from Ball State, but her most recent institution was the Indiana Women’s Prison.
posted by Etrigan (38 comments total)

(via MeFi's own phire's excellent Fight Fire With Phire newsletter)
posted by Etrigan at 7:23 AM on September 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

This quote from one of the American Studies professors who raised questions about her floors me:

“We didn’t have some preconceived idea about crucifying Michelle,” said John Stauffer, one of the two American studies professors. “But frankly, we knew that anyone could just punch her crime into Google, and Fox News would probably say that P.C. liberal Harvard gave 200 grand of funding to a child murderer, who also happened to be a minority. I mean, c’mon.”

I don't know where to start with this. "I mean, c'mon" as an argument from a humanities professor at such a distinguished institution? The rest of the language is similarly uncouth. And the idea that a deterrent for Harvard would be some Rush Limbaugh type sputtering about this candidate?
posted by BibiRose at 7:28 AM on September 15, 2017 [22 favorites]

That quote is just so gross. I mean, seriously. He literally admits that they're pandering to racism. I guess maybe he gets points for honesty? But not really?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:35 AM on September 15, 2017 [9 favorites]

Harvard jumps shark. News at 11.

All I could do, reading this, is wonder how many sociopathic rich young white men are currently at places like Harvard and Yale with records wiped squeaky clean thanks to deep parental pockets, on their way to becoming successful, entitled white-collar criminals who dabble in a bit of the old ultraviolence now and again. Nobody ever seems to worry about what some Fox mouthbreather or right wing media scumbag would say about them.
posted by tully_monster at 7:38 AM on September 15, 2017 [31 favorites]

I want her to get her education and the degrees she has worked so hard for and I'm glad she was paroled with time served.

But it was very difficult to read the secondhand single sentence about her crime, so - trigger warning.
posted by annathea at 7:40 AM on September 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

One of the things I've always loved about and have been proud of is my alma mater's (BSU) partnership with the Indiana Women's Prison.
posted by cooker girl at 7:44 AM on September 15, 2017 [6 favorites]

It's hard to quantify whether justice is served, if this is the "right thing to do". In America, we are very much about punishing a person, leaving them few, if any, chances to be rehabilitated.
She's clearly done lots of work to make herself useful to society and become a better person, but even as die hard liberal I keep coming back to whether has she done enough, can she ever do enough. Ultimately, the scales can't be balanced, I think, but that isn't necessarily the end of the world. It's just a question (a damn big question), of how society should weigh these scales, when there's absolutely no way of fixing what was done.

I hope this turns out ok for her.

Here's the paragraphs from the article about her crimes:

Ms. Jones got pregnant at 14 after what she called non-consensual sex with a high-school senior. Her mother responded by beating her in the stomach with a board, according to the prosecutor who later handled her case, and she was placed in a series of group homes and foster families.

In a personal statement accompanying her Harvard application, Ms. Jones said she had a psychological breakdown after years of abandonment and domestic violence, and inflicted similar treatment on her own son, Brandon Sims.

The boy died in 1992 in circumstances that remain unclear; the body was never found.

Two years later, during a stay at a mental-health crisis center, Ms. Jones admitted that she had buried him without notifying the police or Brandon’s father and his family. At her trial, a former friend testified that Ms. Jones confessed to having beaten the boy and then leaving him alone for days in their apartment, eventually returning to find him dead in his bedroom.

Ms. Jones was sentenced to 50 years in prison, but was released after 20 based on her good behavior and educational attainment.
In her statement to Harvard, Ms. Jones wrote of Brandon: “I have made a commitment to myself and him that with the time I have left, I will live a redeemed life, one of service and value to others.”

Brandon’s father and grandmother could not be reached for comment.

posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:57 AM on September 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's been a banner week for courage and academic independence at Harvard
posted by Dr. Twist at 7:58 AM on September 15, 2017 [13 favorites]

I was at a conference yesterday for work and one of the panels was about the Illinois budget crisis political football of the state's economic health and its impact on the NPOs who provide social services for the state, more efficiently, effectively and at a lower cost than the state could provide for itself. And Susana Mendoza, our Comptroller, said (paraphrasing here): I hear people say a lot "I don't want my money going to a junkie" and I say to them "Well, your money's going to go to that junkie whether you like it or not. Would you rather the state took a dollar out of your pocket while you're watching or $14 when you're not?" Would you rather pay to intervene before they cost you 10x what it would cost to intervene?

We know that educating prisoners, training them in job skills, improving their social skills, addressing their mental health or addiction or metaphysical despair issues enables them to successfully rejoin our communities, And we know they are going to rejoin our communities eventually. And we are paying for their re-entry whether we want to or not--it behooves us to pay to prepare them for it.

Michelle Jones is extraordinary in how well her story shows what a little investment in communities could produce--much less what a little investment in prison rehabilitation and education services could produce. Just imagine if her school had had sexual assault resources. Or if she'd had young mother support services. Or abortion access and reproductive health education. Or her own mother had had family support services. Or if our foster system was equipped to deal with the psychological needs of the children in it.

Harvard definitely looks like a bad guy in this story, but there's a lot of shame to go around here. It's great that there were people willing to work with the women at the prison and I'm curious about the other inmate mentioned in the story.
posted by crush at 8:07 AM on September 15, 2017 [33 favorites]

She can't undo killing her son but as a society we can acknowledge her circumstances. She had a terrible childhood, an unwanted child, no parenting skills, and no resources. This can be a fatal combination for unwanted child.

That's she educated herself is so remarkable and it sounds like other women in the prison are also studying. The scales can never be balanced but I believe she should have a chance to live a redeemed life, one of service and value to others.

This article bugged me about how they went on and on about Harvard.

This is also why poor women need access to birth control and abortions.
posted by shoesietart at 8:21 AM on September 15, 2017 [19 favorites]

This article, combined with the news today about Harvard rescinding Chelsea Manning's visiting fellow invitation because it apparently now allows the CIA to make its decisions for it, makes me want to travel up to Cambridge and chain myself to the president's desk. Really fucking disturbing, all of it. But I shouldn't be surprised; Harvard doesn't care about people like Michelle Jones. Never has. It's more interested in continuing its grooming of the Ruling Class through legacy admissions.
posted by holborne at 8:40 AM on September 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

This woman committed a horrific crime.

But I'm confused - we have so much compassion for post-partum depression and PTSD, and we talk about believing the victims of rape. We applaud reformed gang-bangers, even when they've committed violent assault. If I'm reading correctly, a 17/18 year old raped (isn't that what "non-consensual" means?) a 14 year old girl. She got pregnant, and her family beat her for that (in the stomach - making the baby into the perceivable cause of the inflicted pain). It's not super hard to see how a young girl going through that might end up in a horrific place with a twisted relationship to the child.

Not only does this woman serve her time AND demonstrate "good behavior," with no further indications of violence (at least in the articles) but she strives to become a productive member of society and make other people's lives better. She does the work to get through a really hard application process. My guess is that if she went to work at a nonprofit, or a local community center, those same professors would be talking about how brave she is, lauding her process as a model for others, and probably using her as a case study. But she's "daring" to ask for her own place at a fancier table, so we start wondering if she's been punished enough. (Don't even get me started on skin color.) That is some hypocritical bullshit right there.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 8:55 AM on September 15, 2017 [64 favorites]

even as die hard liberal I keep coming back to whether has she done enough, can she ever do enough

That's a question for God, or Fate, or whoever you feel holds the cosmic scales. The fact is, she's going to be alive for the next fifty to sixty years, so, even if she can't, what do you expect her to be doing?

I'll be blunt (even though this is a little too identity-revealing): as someone who was in that very same program, I would have no problem with her participation. I'm very disappointed in Harvard for deciding not to take her.
posted by praemunire at 9:00 AM on September 15, 2017 [32 favorites]

I'll be blunt (even though this is a little too identity-revealing): as someone who was in that very same program, I would have no problem with her participation. I'm very disappointed in Harvard for deciding not to take her.

If you're inclined to do a stranger a favour, write the alumni/advancement department a (paper) letter expressing your extreme displeasure. You can cc the actual department if you want, but targeting the alumni/fundraising people is key.

I work in higher education (staff/administration), and change is driven by Advancement as much as it is by academia in many ways. If enough alumni start threatening to turn the spigot off, the central university starts encouraging hard pivots on long-held positions pretty darn quick.
posted by Shepherd at 9:05 AM on September 15, 2017 [14 favorites]

(That might work under some circumstances, but I think development calculates the likely donations of alumni of their graduate history program at somewhere between five and ten bucks...)
posted by praemunire at 9:13 AM on September 15, 2017 [10 favorites]

I'm amazed by the "who also happened to be a minority" in that quote. Not that someone would think it — we all know one way authorities justify taking a stricter stance with minorities is by telling themselves "well, I have to prove I'm being rigorous, I wouldn't want someone to think I was coddling her just because she was Black" or whatever — but that someone trying to paint themself as a reasonable liberal would say it out loud and on the record.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:25 AM on September 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I am so sad for her with the life she had that led to the choices she made as a too-young mother.

I'm also not sure I agree with reduced sentences for "educational attainment." Personal growth, good behavior, sure. But reducing a sentence from 50 years to 20 in part because she was working on her education? I'm not sure how I see the merit of that if "degree seeking" education is what they mean. Understanding self, healing self, becoming a conscientious citizen all make much more sense to me in the rehabilitation process. If others here have ideas about why college education matters enough to reduce one's sentence please educate me. My perspective isn't really about race or punishment. I'm just not sure why increasing one's knowledge of things outside yourself and your social relationship with the world is meritorious for sentence reduction.
posted by crunchy potato at 9:30 AM on September 15, 2017

I shouldn't be amazed. But I am. The brazenness of racist discourse in liberal academia just gets more and more blatant the longer I've been out of it, and it makes me wonder what things I take for granted now as Reasonable To Say over here on the industry side of things would sound just as blatant to a clear-headed observer.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:30 AM on September 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I was unsure what to make of this case until I read this:

Ms. Jones’s many supporters include Heather Ann Thompson, who won the Pulitzer Prize in history this spring, and submitted a recommendation letter on her behalf. There is also Diane Marger Moore, the prosecutor who argued that Ms. Jones receive the maximum sentence two decades ago and is now writing a book about the case.

“Look, as a mother, I thought it was just an awful crime,” said Ms. Marger Moore, now a lawyer at a large firm in Los Angeles. “But what Harvard did is highly inappropriate: I’m the prosecutor, not them. Michelle Jones served her time, and she served a long time, exactly what she deserved. A sentence is a sentence.”

If her prosecutor is standing up for her, then there aren't many people who are in a position to take Harvard's side in this. I'm also curious to know what praemunire thinks of the concern that "if this candidate is admitted to Harvard, where everyone is an elite among elites, that adjustment could be too much." Especially in contrast to the university spokeswoman saying the program “strives to create an inclusive and supportive environment where all students can thrive.”
posted by TedW at 9:31 AM on September 15, 2017 [29 favorites]

The University I work at has recent blood on its hands for reasons at least as ugly. . . but, after reading this, fuck Harvard. As an institution, they once again embarrass us all. Everyone, but especially those with some academic standing, should let them know how awful they look in public and in the eyes of their peers. The relevant deans office and their bosses aren't hard to find. (Paper letters never hurt.)
posted by eotvos at 9:38 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Proud day to be a Fighting Violet.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:41 AM on September 15, 2017

I read this story when it came out couple days ago, and am heartened to see it being recognized.
posted by polymodus at 9:47 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

This isn't just somebody turning their lives around and getting that Ivy League stamp of approval by being admitted as an undergraduate or something-- as legitimate as those stories can be. This is about a professional program at a research institution, where the caliber of Jones's research should speak for itself . As someone who also attended Harvard GSAS, I am pretty sure Jones's research to date is as original and substantial as they could ask for, and better than that of a lot of accepted candidates . Respecting that I haven't read Jones's writing, that is. But I think the NYT actually did a pretty good job of laying that out.
posted by BibiRose at 9:47 AM on September 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'm also not sure I agree with reduced sentences for "educational attainment."

To put it in a callously rational way:

If someone can successfully make it through a degree program they've indicated an ability for short- and intermediate-term self-restraint and a long-duration ability to maintain a focus on the long-term consequences of their behavior, which indicate a reduced risk of reoffending. Probability of reoffense is surely relevant to questions of early release.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:50 AM on September 15, 2017 [25 favorites]

One of the key metrics of rehabilitation, aside from remorse and contrition, is to become a contributing member of society, right? That is exactly, precisely what she has become. As a society, if we prize stigma and retribution over rehabilitation and reintegration, we are lost, lost, lost.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:51 AM on September 15, 2017 [10 favorites]

> I'm also not sure I agree with reduced sentences for "educational attainment." Personal growth, good behavior, sure.

Why isn't working on one's education part of personal growth? What is the pursuit of intellectual knowledge and the broadening of one's perspective if not that? How is it separate?
posted by rtha at 9:56 AM on September 15, 2017 [11 favorites]

Also, fuck Harvard and fuck John Stauffer.
posted by rtha at 9:56 AM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Just to clarify: it seems the Harvard department recommended admission, and the university administration itself rescinded the offer. So Jones received an acceptance letter only to have it revoked. That must have been devasting.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 10:05 AM on September 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the practical stance of reduced recidivism. It is probably my own bias talking as educational performance/achievement was valued in my upbringing to the detriment of a lot of other things that, as an adult, I think are important. I have worked in the prisons and seen a lot of racism, punitive attitudes, corruption and control. I am glad for her that she has been deemed eligible for release and I'm hopeful that the publicity is leading to even better opportunities for her. It was very hard to read about her crimes, but she has to carry them with her constantly and I am quite sure that is also hard.
posted by crunchy potato at 10:06 AM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

The idea that she isn't prepared for an "elite" PhD program is ridiculous. The kids being admitted right out of BAs or Masters with no non-school experience: a lot of them aren't prepared (and I include myself).

She's so well-prepared - both academically and psychologically. The isolation of graduate study is peanuts compared to prison.

So pitoo-ey to Harvard, and congrats to NYU.
posted by jb at 10:23 AM on September 15, 2017 [11 favorites]

I actually expect it would be a very strenuous adjustment for her. She was in a radically different world from Harvard before she went into prison, and then she went about as far away as it's possible to go and still remain in the U.S. And it's a very demanding program. But, considering that the university's pastoral care for grad students verges on the nonexistent, it's absurd to imagine denying an otherwise qualified candidate on the grounds that she might not thrive there psychologically. If she had a recent history of violence or even of incapacitating mental illness, there might be an objective basis for thinking she wouldn't be able to cope in the program. Otherwise, it's a fig leaf. She has certainly shown a capacity to do high-level work under extremely unfavorable circumstances.
posted by praemunire at 11:05 AM on September 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

Although I'm not sure this happened:

So Jones received an acceptance letter only to have it revoked.

If there's a two-step admissions process, it isn't (or wasn't) visible from the outside. My acceptance letter didn't contain any language about its being conditional on the university's final approval, which it's hard to imagine would be omitted if that were the case. She probably didn't get an acceptance letter, but someone leaked about the revocation.
posted by praemunire at 11:08 AM on September 15, 2017

"ut reducing a sentence from 50 years to 20 in part because she was working on her education? I'm not sure how I see the merit of that if "degree seeking" education is what they mean. "

From the Obama White House's "My Brother's Keeper" task force and related programs to reduce recidivism -- it has a whole bunch about educational access, which is one of the most important factors in reducing recidivism that's directly under the inmate's control. (Outside support systems are also really big, but you can't really control your family.) Educational attainment while in prison is very commonly used in parole decisions; it's a reasonable proxy for good behavior (since you generally have to stay out of trouble to stay in the programs) and personal growth (disciplining yourself to learn thing that aren't directly relevant to your immediate needs). But more importantly, it shows the prisoner is thinking about a life after prison, and employment after prison, and taking concrete steps towards finding employment and building a new life when they're released. Parolees with job skills are much, much less likely to return to prison.

Generally "educational attainment" w/r/t parole refers not just to a BA or other advanced degree, but to a GED, a simple literacy program for someone who entered prison illiterate, and various sorts of job training programs. Illinois's most popular, and hardest to get into, prison educational program is a woodworking shop that makes all the state seals for courtrooms and other fine woodwork. It's pretty niche, but basically all those guys can find jobs when they're released. Food service programs are also pretty popular, since restaurants aren't too picky about back-of-the-house employees having prior convictions (or even being legally allowed to work), and prisons have big in-house food service needs, so it's easy to create a training program for well-behaved inmates who can get certified in food safety, and then start as dishwashers and bus boys and then move on to prep cooking and so forth.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:41 AM on September 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

Her paper is really interesting, btw, if you didn't notice it linked in the NYT story.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:58 AM on September 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

The focus on Harvard and their dumbfuckery made it challenging to get through the article, but I am glad I did read all the way to the end where she says, in essence, everyone who is worried about her keeping up in a high-pressure academic environment is seriously underestimating the various coping skills required by/acquired through long term incarceration.

The pessimist in me says she will likely encounter other assholes like the ones who referred her Harvard admission for further review, and those who ultimately saw fit to over-rule the accepting department. But if I am inclined to listen to her own words, I guess these wont be the first people she will have had to overcome to get by and thrive.

Wishing her all the best.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 12:18 PM on September 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

The coping skills developed in one high-stress environment don't necessarily translate to another. I can't immediately find that Ta-Nehisi Coates article where he wrote about his impulse towards physical violence in a dispute with some editor or another and how simultaneously understandable and disastrous it was, because he was importing his street self-defense style to an environment where conflict is usually displaced onto another plane--but it's a good example. (I hope I'm remembering it correctly.) So, yes, I think it's going to be a struggle for her, even at NYU, but I think she's earned her chance to try it.
posted by praemunire at 12:36 PM on September 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I see that as a problematic framing in the first place, because the whole narrative of "Can some individual handle/cope/adapt/survive an academic environment" presupposes the status quo of academic diversity itself. The reason the administration and those two "neutral" (meaning, structurally racist) professors are cowards is because they balked when the rubber meets the road. There's a sentence in the middle of the article by the more supportive professor that says this, on being progressive only when you don't have skin in it. The narrative of individual "adjustment" is a profound ideological distortion that services that, and the conservative elements of academia wield it to continue inflicting social harm.

The other narrative about work as a form of redemption and correction is similar ideological bullshit. It is an incoherent rationalization. All it proves is that people coming out of prison "reintegrate" are capable of conforming behavior, internalizing self-discipline, etc. It is a narrative told from above, and denies the final reality of why incarceration happens, and it denies their voices and their telling of their stories.
posted by polymodus at 1:34 PM on September 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

I just came to this article today and was floored, though I shouldn't have been, by the put-the-bigotry-right-out-there baldfacedness of the quotes from Stauffer, along with his just-as-baldfaced shrugging acknowledgment of the reality that, to Harvard and its administration, only elite lives matter -- and only elite applicants escape the burden of being prejudged by their status.

Are the cards stacked against Michelle Johnson, even at NYU? Of course they are, but not through any fault of her own. You can see that even in this thread, with the voices that coo guarded congratulations at her while quickly and patronizingly dismissing any odds that she will actually succeed (though she has already proven far beyond any doubt, without any help from Harvard or Yale, that she is beyond capable of intellectual rigor, discipline, persistence, and determined monasticism -- all essential ingredients for academic success).

Multiply those voices by all the powerful folks who would hold the sword of Damocles in her situation (or in any similar situation, with students who had or have far less stark stories to tell than she does), and you have the exact fate of non-elite students at most elite institutions in this country in sharp focus.
posted by blucevalo at 8:01 AM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]