Recap: Life after Life
Formerly incarcerated discuss experiences behind bars and the importance of second chances
This semester, we were honored to join the Duke Decarceration Project and Duke’s Criminal Defense Clinic in welcoming Shariff Ingram and Kolanda Wooten to Duke Law. Both Mr. Ingram and Ms. Wooten were sentenced to life in prison as children and later released, and they joined us to discuss their experience, the wider practice of incarcerating children, and re-entry after decades in prison.
Shariff Ingram is a criminal justice reform advocate and the Speaker Bureau & Policy Coordinator for The Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project in Philadelphia, PA. Mr. Ingram served 23 years in prison. He was sentenced to life without parole at the age 15 before being re-sentenced after the Miller v. Alabama U.S. Supreme Court decision rendered mandatory life without parole sentences unconstitutional.
Kolanda Wooten also shared her story. At the age of 37, she was released after serving 19 years in prison for felony murder. Despite the fact that she was not the shooter, she had been sentenced to life without parole at age 17 here in North Carolina. Her sentence was commuted by Governor Cooper in 2022. She currently works at Speaking 4 the Speechless.
Both described the difficulties they faced in prison as well as the barriers in reentry. Mr. Ingram also touched the violence faced in prison and the inherent racism in the system. Ms. Wooten spoke in particular on the stigma faced by our reentering neighbors and the lack of adequate mental healthcare both inside and out.
Additional highlights from the program:
Mr. Ingram on the way lack of rehabilitation prisons offer: “What is this doing to make our communities safer if we send these people to prison and they come home more traumatized and more violent?”
Ms. Wooten on the experience of being a child entering prison: “People on the inside took me under their wing, because they were like ‘you’re a baby.’ But I’m a baby that’s confused, a baby that’s just trying to survive, that’s trying to figure out how my life was snatched away.”
Mr. Ingram on why his work discussing his experience is so important now: “When we were in these places, people spoke for us….so now coming home, we have a duty or obligation to make the system better for the children that come behind us and to expose what goes on behind those prison walls.”