🔵 By Micah Matthews. Photo by lauragrafie.
1) How much time are you serving and for what crime?
I’m serving a life sentence, for kidnapping in the first degree.
2) How long have you been in prison?
I’ve been locked up since 2008, so all together 14 years.
3) Do you have any hope of getting out of prison?
Absolutely, the day I lose hope, is the day I will literally check out. It’s necessary for me to know, that everyone won’t see it, that everyone won’t join me, that everyone won’t have the vision, it’s necessary for me to know that. A lot of people like to complain, but they don’t want to do anything about their situation. I’m an uncommon breed. I know within myself even if no one else sees it for me, I see it for myself, that necessity. I believe if you put in the work anything is possible, so I have all the hope in the world that one day I’ll get out of prison. Either through the “Redemption Project” or the Justice System.
4) How do you deal with failure?
What do you mean?
Obviously you haven’t been successful on any of your appeals, thus far considering you’re still in prison. How do you deal with the courts denying your appeals?
When a judge gives you a sentence from the outset, that’s about the worst thing you can ever hear. So while other denials on appeal are a disappointment, there’s not much else any other court can say to really affect me. To me failure and/or a denied appel just means I have more work to do. So ultimately a failure just makes me work harder on my case and myself, which is always a good thing.
5) What type of opportunity would you like to see or have?
First and foremost, I would love another opportunity to be a productive member of society. In addition, I would like an opportunity to fulfill my purpose in life. While in prison however, I would like to see more opportunities to learn life and work skills. This is one of the reasons I created the “Redemption Project” and asking for support to get it implemented in I.S.P because the leading cause of recidivism and people coming to prison from the outside is being unprepared in life and/or when they are released from prison. There has been no great push to prepare inmates for their return to the outside world. Instead an emphasis has been placed on incapacitating the individual mentality so that when they return to the world they can ensure that they’re worse off than they came into this situation.
6) What have you done or learned while in prison?
One of the first things I learned was, you’re always one decision away from destroying your life. That led me to taking a long look a the man in the mirror and being honest with myself. During that critical time, I realized who I was and wasn’t. Once I came to that realization, I started the long process of working on who I wanted to be and slowly beginning to work on my flaws, reprogramming my mind and educating myself. I attended AA/NA to work on my addictions. I attended Toastmasters, to work on my social skills, public speaking and vocabulary. I attended Alternative to Violates (AVP) to obtain the communication skills and additional tools to control my behavior in hostile situation in a productive manner. I also went back to school and obtained my GED. In addition, I obtained a paralegal degree and wrote a book, which was very therapeutic. I’ve also taken several College courses and now I’m working to form the “Redemption Project” and the Justice-Again-Injustice platform. So yeah I’ve learned and done a lot. At the moment I’m working with others to build a non-profit organization that works towards justice reform and/or abusive prosecution in Iowa.
7) What hurdles and/or road blocks have you faced in prison and overcome?
I’ve faced many road blocks, too many to name here. But the first issues I had to deal with was education. When I came to prison, I was reading and writing at a 5th grade level. So I went to school, got my GED and continued to self-teach myself everyday by reading and studying legal cases. In addition, I had to overcome a lot of mental blocks. I had a lot of mental issues that I was never aware of until I got locked up. Prison doesn’t provide much help when it comes to mental illness other than pumping you full of pills, but I’m not with that. So I’ve done a lot of self-care and meditation.
8) What are your goals and dreams?
I have many goals and dreams. But the short answer is to continue to grow as a man and to fulfill my purpose in life. I want to brake generational curses and/or behaviors and of course my main goal at the moment Is getting my conviction overturned and becoming a productive member of society.
9) Do you have any family support?
Financially I have more family support then some and less than others. With that said, during the past 13 years there’s been very few that have been consistent. However, those who continue to support me motivate me and those who don’t motivate me even more, so it’s all good.
10) Do you want to say anything to the victim in your case?
I want to apologize to her and her family. I’m extremely apologetic for my action and the pain I caused them. I have done many things in my life that I’m not proud of, but I have never done anything close to what happens on the night that put me in prison. After a night of drinking, I don’t remember much. But I will always remember the pain in your face during my trial. When I see her, I saw my daughters mom, aunts, grandma, sister and all the women I respect and look up to and I felt a pain I had never felt in my life. It was at a point, I made a promise to myself I was going to change my life. There’s so much more I would love to say to her, but I’ll leave it there for now.
11) What do your kids think about you being in prison?
I’m not sure. That’s a conversation I haven’t had with them yet. They’ve never made that subject the topic of any conversation, but I’m sure they feel some type of way, and one day I will have that conversation with all or at least some of my kids and allow them to express how they feel and how me being incarcerated affected them, and I will definitely ask them to forgive me.
12) Why do you think you deserve another chance at being a productive member of society and what do you want to say to the people who say you don’t deserve another chance?
Like most people I made a mistake and I’ve paid for that mistake for the past 14 years. In addition to doing my time, I have worked my ass off not only to obtain another opportunity to be a productive member of society. To those who say I don’t deserve another change, I say, if people can be let out of prison (ISIS) to commit additional crimes against America, and men who sexually assault kids, are given a second chance, surely I deserve an opportunity to right my wrongs. There’s many athletes and celebrities that commit crimes everyday just as bad or even worse than what I did and they get another chance. Not only do they get a second chance, they are celebrated, Deshawn Watson, Kobe, Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson and Donald Trump, just to name a few. Should I not get a second chance because I’m not a celebrity? Of course not, mercy is rooted in our history and tradition, in all religious texts, and the foundations of our legal system and needs to be exercised more than it’s talked about, and not just for celebrities and/or people with power.
13) What do you want the world to know about you?
I want the world to know, I’m truly not a bad person. I’m just misunderstood. I grew up in and became part of a dysfunctional environment. Thus all my life my understanding of life, people and myself was dysfunctional. It was hard and took a lot of time, but I’ve worked extremely hard to change all that. I stand in my truth, I see and understand my wrongs and I’ve healed and moved on from dysfunctional relationships, surrounding and life styles. I’m far from the man I used to be, I’ve evolved from who my criminal record and my crime indicates I am, I’m much more than an inmate, I’m a man that now knows his purpose and I’m extremely apologetic to everyone that I’ve ever hurt. I’m not perfect, but I’ve put in the work to be much better.
14) What about the tax payer who says, “You deserve to be in prison.”
This may sound crazy, but I agree. I believe all crime deserves some time and/or some type of punishment. I committed a crime, therefor I deserve to serve time. However, I would also like to say, serving time for my crime is one thing, but allowing me the opportunity to also give back to the community I once damaged and took from, is the ultimate form of justice.
15) Do you fear you will die in prison alone?
That thought crosses my mind all the time. In fact, that thought is what helped me keep my edge. The edge I need to continue to fight my ass off to obtain my freedom. With that said, I’ve never believed God meant for me to die in prison. I was always of the mindset that this was just a timeout so to speak, to get my mind right. I’ve done that and now I’m ready to serve my purpose in life and give God and all those who stood by me a return on their investment. When I first received life in prison, I believed it was the end of my life, but now I know it was simply the beginning of a new and improved life.
16) Why do you have a life sentence, without a capital murder case?
Iowa is one of the very few states that gives life sentences for non-capital offenses, which is odd considering Iowa’s Sen. Grassley promotes and supports life with parole in other states. In addition, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has declared: “Everyone deserves a second chance.” However the last time clemency was granted in the state of Iowa was in 2013 and she has done nothing to change life without parole for non-capital offenses or to get life with parole in the state of Iowa. In addition, I was convicted using the wrong standard of law. What does that mean? Well every crime has specific elements and the state is required to prove these essential elements in order to legally obtain a conviction. In my case for example, the state was required to prove 1 (a) Substantially increase the risk of harm to the victim, (b) Significantly lessens the risk of detection, or (c) Significantly facilitates escape. However, the state omitted the essential elements (substantially) and (significantly), which watered down the jury instructions and lessened its burden of proof. If you want to know more, you can find additional information on Change.Org.
17) If someone wanted to contact you and/or help, what can they do?
You or your family and friends can go to Change.Org and sign the Justice against Injustice petition. In addition, support the “Redemption Project” by also going to Change.Org and signing the petition for the “Redemption Project”. You can also contact me directly, through Corrlinks, or write to me at Iowa State Penitentiary. Support this cause by sending emails to Governor and Senator of Iowa about my case and the growing number of “wrongful incarcerated” in Iowa, using defective jury instruction, or contact me directly with any additional assistance and/or support. Thanks for your time and consideration.