Prison for Dummies.......Jailhouse Lawyers and the rare innocent man.

The recent story in the news of Joshua Kezer being released from prison after 17 years served on a wrongful murder conviction brings to mind a couple of things I'm going to cover in this Prison For Dummies post. Kezer was sent to prison by a dirty over zealous prosecutor and now failed politico Kenny Hulshof. Kezer is going to sue the pants off of anyone and everyone who played a part in railroading him to prison, and who can blame him. The entire case was based on jailhouse snitches, testimony by the original suspect also a criminal, and a closing argument that was mostly lies. Kezer lost 17 calendar years in prison, I wish him luck and godspeed.

So you say you are innocent, I must be the only guilty guy in the joint. Prison is full of innocent people, at least that's the story they tell anyone who will listen. Sure there are more than a few guys who don't belong, but most who claim innocence are just playing to the appeals court. Most of the guys who are playing the old "I was framed" game have a boat load of time. They spend every free minute of every single day, in the law library. These guys can quote case law and precedents better than F. Lee Bailey. The are also easy to spot. If you see a guy trudging across the prison yard, stacks of folders cradled in his arms like a giant paper baby, sporting thick ass state glasses in George Burns frames, 4 or 5 pens, minimum, in his shirt pocket, then you are observing the infamous elusive Jailhouse Lawyer.

Never ask one of these guys how his case is going, unless you have a few hours to spare. He will talk your ear off, throwing around words like tort, alford, fruit from a poisoned tree, until your head starts to spin and you feel faint from standing in the same spot for so long. Just avoid the jailhouse lawyer at every turn. As for the truly innocent convict, that's a rare creature. There is a difference in innocence and wrongful conviction. Kezer was an innocent guy, wrongfully convicted, even the judge who overturned his case called Kezer innocent, which is almost unheard of when a case is overturned. More often than not when guys get a conviction overturned it's because of a loophole or technicality. A judge erred or evidence was wrongly introduced. That's not saying the guy was innocent, it's more a case of playing the system.

Now that Kezer is free he faces a whole new set of problems. I was only gone for a little over 5 years, so I can only guess at how surreal the outside world seems after being absent from it for 17 years. He has missed out on a whole lot, and his first reaction might be to just go ape shit crazy trying to make up for those lost years. ex convicts usually react in one of two ways. The first is excess, making up for lost time. That means as many women as possible, as much booze, food, dope, whatever as possible. That path while common, and fun, will lead right back to the gates of prison.

The other reaction is to avoid any risk , real or perceived, of returning to prison. You isolate yourself, trust nobody, doubt everyone, cover your ass. That's the route I took, and while it served me well as far as staying out of prison goes, it also held me back, prevented me from reaching my potential. More lost years. in my case, I'm the only person I can blame. I made my bed, yada yada, etc. More than a few guys come out with a major attitude, a huge chip, mad at the world. For guys like Kezer, who never should have been in prison, anger is clearly justified. Most ex cons aren't innocent, so their anger is misplaced and just a furtherance of the criminal mentality that landed them in the joint to begin with. They will return to prison for countless violations of parole, and eventually a new case. They can't let it go.

In a few weeks, once Kezer has had his fill of food and whatever else he missed for 17 years, reality is going to set in. Reality is not your friend. The reality is he will find it near impossible to find a job. The market is flooded with square world folk who have never so much as jaywalked. A guy like me with a criminal history will never win out over someone equally qualified sans a criminal history. I can't say that is an unfair fact of life, it isn't, it's just a fact. Even though Kezer was found to be innocent, he has a 17 year lapse , no work history, 17 years where he didn't exist. Good luck with that.

You don't stop serving time when you walk through the gates. Your past is always with you. Again, I'm not saying that's unfair, it's part of the game, it's the territory that comes with living outside the laws and rules of society. You man up, and play the hand you dealt to yourself. If you are Kezer, if you were dealt a shitty hand from a stacked deck, I'm not sure what you do. I guess you sue, and try to get on with the remainder of your life.