Page 6 P o rtla n d O bserver February 28. 1980
Behind the Walls
/»>• Z arry Huker »35021
David Wright H3V8I6
O.S.P. Correspondent
Assistant Editor
ED I 1 O K 'S NOTE: The d i f f i
culties don't end at the gate lor men
serving time at the Oregon Slate
Penitentiary. The days following re
lease are often trying as the days
spent behind bars. This is the first
part in a series that looks at the d if
ferent ways lour men laced the chal
lenges of Itte outside.
by Howard Goodman
He started with $100—that and
his prison-issue shirt, pants, socks,
shoes, T-shirt, shorts and belt. The
slate doesn't furnish coats, regard
less o f the season.
It was December and for Charles
LHutchinson, 32, it was re-entry
lim e. A fte r 4'/i years behind the
Vails o f Oregon State Penitentiary,
he was returning to live with the rest
o f us.
A man can be afraid to jump into
water, especially if he isn't sure he
knows how to swim. Nearly every
day in Salem, men and women leave
the state's penitentiaries; nearly all
of them wonder if they can make it
outside.
Many cannot. About one-third
return to state prisons within three
years because they run afoul o f
parole terms or commit new crimes,
according io corrections officials.
But to all—those who make it and
those wo don't—come similar pres
sures: Finding a job and keeping it,
making a home life, avoiding an old
crowd or an old drug habit.
They are people who already have
proven an in a b ility to live by
society’s rules. Now they must cope
with a world that didn’t stop chang
ing during the period when time
stood still for them.
And all to often, they must at
tempt it with too little preparation.
The ‘ ‘ gate money,” the bare $100
that many ex-prisoners start with, is
much less than even the cheapest
m onth’ s rent. While officials say
they attempt to counsel prisoners
about the difficulties they will face
on the outside, ex-prisoners say the
effort is, at best, hit or miss.
About 175 prisoners are released
each month.
Nearly every day they leave, step
ping through a side door at Prigg
Cottage, the correction division’ s
release center in southeast Salem.
There, tn a high-school-sized
building at the edge o f a broad farm
field, men and women prisoners
wait out the last three or four
months o f their sentences.
The lights o f Salem appear from
the Prigg Cottage windows, flicker
ing on the horizon across a bitter
distance. The air inside is heavy with
time.
People cotne to Prigg Cottage to
wait.
Sometimes the time is broken by
an interview with a counselor who
asks whether the prisoner has lined
up w ork and residence fo r his
release. Sometimes the prisoner, ac
companied by a guard, travels out
side for a job interview.
«
CHARLES HUTCHINSON sittin g am ong his friends at the Oregon
State Penitentiary prior to his release.
though perpetually trying to peer
out o f a tunnel. He looks like a man
placed on hold.
He is from O akland, C a lif.,
where his connng-of-age was typical
for those who end up at OSP:
Convicted at 19 of contributing to
the delinquency o f a minor, 90 days
in ja il. He says he was caught
buying liquor tor a 17-year-old.
C onvicted at 20 o f receiving
stolen goods. He says the case in
volved boxes o f stolen liquor. He
says he pleaded guilty and the judge
let him go.
Convicted o f grand theft auto, 60
days in ja il. Acquitted by ju ry of
murder.
Convicted o f assault. He says he
hit a girlfriend in a quarrel and she
called police.
His recent sentence stemmed
from a conviction for kidnapping
handed down five years ago in Rose
burg.
Hutchinson says he was with a
friend who put the squeeze on a guy
who owed him money. They picked
him up in a car. His friend held a
gun. The victim charged kidnap.
Hutchinson says his friend got
five years. He got 10.
According to the Roseburg News-
Review newspaper, however, H ut
chinson entered Oregon in a stolen
car alter escaping Irom a Contra
Costa County, C alif., prison farm
in October 1975 w ith nine other
men.
At the time, he was being held at
the county farm awaiting trial on a
robbery charge, according to Con
cord, Calif., authorities.
One week after the escape, a state
trooper near Grants Pass began to
pursue a car being operated errati
cally on Interstate 5, according to
police reports. The reports identify
Hutchinson as the driver.
Hutchinson sped to a rest area
near Azalea and broke into a nearby
farmhouse, waking a retired deputy
s h e riff and forcing him in to his
pick-up at the point o f a sawed-off
.22-caliber rifle, according to police
reports.
" O S P was ju st one big prison.
Now I ’m in a bigger o n e .”
Mostly they wait.
Eventually the parole board rules
and their papers clear. And they’ re
free to begin new lives o f parole or
freedom.
Then they stand like Charles Hut
chinson waiting for his ride to take
him from Prigg Cottage, parole
papers in hand, $100 in his pocket,
looking out over the flatness o f
southeast Salem farm land like a
foreigner on the border.
This is a story about people on re
lease. It’ s about Wendell Long, who
made it, free and clear from the
system. I t ’ s about Joe West, who
didn’t, and is back in the pen. It's
about Vernell Franklin, who finds
the leash of parole drawing tighter
the longer he is out.
And i t ’ s about Charles H u t
chinson, who, in less than two
months, was convinced that prison
has only been purgatory; the outside
was hell.
Charles Hutchinson: ” OSP was
lust one prison Now I’m in a bigger
one.”
He goes by Hutch.
He sits quietly, a strongly built
man with a firm, sinewy handshake
and a touch of doom in his eyes. He
speaks in a soft, careful drawl.
The eyebrows are arched, as
Hutchinson ducked to the floor
o f the cab, aimed the rifle at the
man's head, and demanded the man
drive him to Portland, according to
the reports.
They drove, with deputies behind
them. They stopped the truck in
forest country. Hutchinson fled on
foot in to the brush, reports the
state.
Hutchinson came out o f hiding
and surrendered to state troopers
five hours later, shivering and coat
less in the cold and snow, the news
paper reported.
At his trial, he asked for a change
o f venue because so few Blacks live
in Douglas C ounty. He said he
would be unable to have a jury of
peers. The court turned him down,
the newspaper reported.
Found guilty o f kidnap he was
sentenced tn December 1975 to 10
years in OSP, the newspaper said.
He did 494 years at OSP and he
did them well. It was a stunted life
in the joint, but Hutchinson found
ways to expand himself.
Not at first. He started his time
feeling angry and lost. A 10-year
sentence looked like forever. He
quit caring. He started fights. He
got tossed into solitary five times,
six times. He wasn’t counting.
But then, Hutchinson says, he be
gan to mature.
Out o f curiousity, he listened in
on a meeting o f the prison Toast
masters Club. Club members asked
him to make a speech. He got up,
wondering what he was going to
say, and spoke o f his arrests and his
anger. He revealed his loneliness.
His audience listened and applaud
ed. Hutch joined.
He took to clubs. They were
something to do. They were maybe
a way out.
He became president o f the anti
drug, anti-alcohol Keen Club. He
had access to a telephone and office.
He brought guest speakers into the
prison. He joined the Jaycees and
organized collections for the United
Way.
He completed his high school
education. He talked to legislators
during an unsuccessful prisoners’
campaign for conjugal visits.
He was, he discovered, articulate.
He found he had a way with people.
“ I went in as a young man,” he
says. “ 1 came out as a man.
” 1 feel like an old one,” he adds.
‘ ‘ They took all my young years
away from me.”
It was in December. A fte r 494
years, Hutchinson was paroled to
Salem.
He has no family or friends here.
He knows ex-cons, but it's a viola
tion o f parole to associate w ith
them.
He was paroled to an address—
his girlfriend’s—and to an employer
—Capen Janitorial Service in West
Salem.
His girlfriend drove to Prigg Cot
tage and picked him up. Their first
stop was a bank on Lancaster Drive
SE, where Hutchinson cashed his
$100 check. His parole papers were
his only I.D.
They drove next to see his parole
officer, who spelled out the terms o f
release. Then they drove home. And
things started going wrong.
The $100 disappeared fast.
Right o ff, he spent $60 for his
girlfriend’s rent. Then he spent $35
to stock the apartm ent w ith
groceries.
This was only fair, as Hutchinson
saw it.
He and his girlfriend were a true
couple. He was a prisoner when they
met. She wrote him nearly every day
he was inside. She’d visited twice a
week. She’d seen the parole board
on his behalf, talked to the warden.
They’d discussed marriage.
But now she showed a new
edginess. Too much was happening,
too fast, she said. On their third day
o f living together, she asked H ut
chinson if he had any place else to
go.
“ I s till don’ t know what hap
pened,” he said several weeks later,
trying to sift the puzzle for meaning.
“ Things were fine when I was in
side. I guess she just wasn’ t ready to
face the relationship in reality.
Then the job fell through.
“ I lost the contract,” said Joseph
Evans, owner o f Capen Janitorial.
" I had hired Charles, but I told him
it was contingent on the flow o f
business.”
Evans said H utchinson would
have worked on a cleaning crew at
the state Highway Division building
across State Street from OSP. But
the state canceled the contract,
Evans said.
“ I ’ m sorry about it , " Evans said.
“ I hope he finds something. I saw
him at church Sunday (Salem
Mission Church o f God in Christ)
and I know he's trying to hang in
there.”
Hutchinson's situation after three
days on the outside stacked up like
this: No place to stay, no job, assets
totaling $5.
He swore he wasn’t going back to
the pen. He thought about running
away. In California, he could be far
from this trouble. But a clear-cut
parole violation like that was an
awful risk.
Desparate, he called a friend he’d
made during last year's campaign to
gain conjugal visits for prisoners.
The campaign had failed, but Ron
Huntley, then a legislative aide with
an interest in prisoners’ and
minorities’ problems, looked like a
man who might help.
“ 1 honestly feel that i f Charles
hadn’t called me he’d be back in the
the jo in t,” Huntley said later. “ And
that scares me.”
Huntley telephoned around. He
learned Hutchinson could work on a
tree farm on the Coast Range. But
he’ d need work clothes, bedding
and two weeks’ supply o f food.
Where to get it?
Huntley had heard o f a $200,000
fund the Legislature had authorized
to help prisoners meet one-tim e
costs for rent and job-related ex
penses.
After an hour’ s phoning, Huntley
tracked down the corrections
a u th o rity who held the purse
strings. Then Huntley and Hutchin
son went shopping.
Hutchinson picked up some work
clothes and a sport coat for free at
the Elks’ Lodge. They were his first
civilian clothes in 4'/z years.
" I saw a man totally despondent
and ready to split light up like a
Christmas tree when he tried on that
sport coat,” Huntley said.
A t the Veteran’ s center, they
picked out used clothes, dishes and
cooking utensils. They set them
aside in a box. At a K-Mart, they
selected work boots.
Larry Daniels, a prison official,
wrote checks totalling $81 for the
clothes and cooking gear, Huntley
said. He spent another $30 for
groceries. The Salvation Army gave
Hutchinson a $15 food voucher.
Ted W inters, a friend and ad
vocate for ex-cons, lent Hutchinson
a rain slicker and sleeping bag and
drove him to Alpine, a small town
southwest o f Corvallis.
Four days after his release, Hut
chinson was planting trees. Just in
time: I f the parole board had learn
ed he was without a job or address,
they almost certainly would have
sent him back to prison.
It’ s hard work on the mountain.
The men carry 40-pound sacks
around their waists as they climb
hillsides, bending to implant seed
lings. Men with lighter skins than
Hutchinson’ s acquire dark bruises
around the hips.
Five-hundred men attempted the
job during Hutchinson’ s first two
weeks, he said. He said he was one
o f the seven who stuck it out.
Hutchinson began at $5.50 an
hour. He was paid for 794 or eight
hours o f work each day, although
travel time often extended the day to
12 hours.
At night the men rarely had the
energy to set up camp properly.
Tents leaked in the rain. Dinners
were hurried encounters w ith
canned food. There weren’ t any
showers. The atmosphere was
charged with fights and rip-offs.
Hutchinson would wake up in the
chill o f 3 a.m. unable to return to
sleep.
“ It’s completely lonely up there,"
Hutchinson said during a New
Year’ s week visit to Salem. “ I'm
one of the only guys who speaks
E nglish.’ ’ Other workers spoke
Spanish, he said.
After two weeks, Hutchinson had
$200 and got a ride to Salem. He
gave $35 to his girlfriend to help pay
her phone bill. He bought presents
for her and her son.
“ Things were so sad,” he said. “ I
wanted them to have a nice Christ
mas.”
He borrowed money for a bus
ride to Portland, where he stayed
with friends and looked for a bettei
job. He said he applied at about 20
firm s. A ll said they w ouldn’ t be
hiring until April.
“ A lot o f times on the mountain,
1 wanted to run out,” he says. "B ut
1 can’ t let myself down or the people
who are countingon me down there.
I ’ll hack it as long as I can.”
He hopes a better job will crop
up. He says he’s shown he can work
hard. Now, i f he can only get a
decent job, he might keep clear of
prison for good. W ithout one, he
might slip.
“ 1 still feel that with a little bit o f
help, I can become a productive citi
zen,” Hutchinson says painfully.
“ But now I’ m at the bottom with
nothing.
“ One o f my biggest fears is going
back to prison,” he says. “ I saw a
lot o f people returning who thought
they wouldn’t come back.
“ I t ’ s a disgusting-looking road.
But I feel I got to survive it.”
(Reprinted from the Oregon States
man.)
Lucid walls of time
Edited by Julius D. Snowden, 38013
Ah, love, that soft, sweet, vibrant force which
energizes the mind, gives life to the body, and
enlightens the soul
Ah, the sweet, soft voice of the fair maiden
in the distance, beckoning her love to her knight
who is off to fight the battle.
My being is your being, my mind your mind, my love
your love.
Her hair as gold as the sun, high above the earth
on a warm spring day.
Her eyes as blue as the sky, crystal clear as a
mountain spring, and as beautiful as the saphire.
For with both of us together, combining our ever radiant love
what wrong can bestow itself upon us?
Her spirit, moving freely among the universe,
carrying her love to her man wherever he may be;
carrying him through obstacles he may come across
Let us be as one, and the world shall be a better place
in which to live.
E
X
O
By Steven H. Daniels
• I
D
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S
' '■'//<s-AsSr.}/// '( (///<■#//< '/ t t i f a n e / t / t r a / m r / i / f y e r / / e t
1518 N E KILLINGSWORTH
EXODUS
PORTLAND OREGON 97211
FEBRUARY
284-7997
GENERAL STATEMENT TO BLACKS OF OUR COMMUNITY
FEBRUARY BLACK HISTORY MONTH
During the month of February 1980 (BLACK HISTORY MONTH) three major
unprecedented acts took place as positive steps for Black people.
1- The President of the United States proclaimed the month of February as
BLACK HISTORY MONTH.
2- Nationally, Blacks rallayed on a telethon in support of the United Negro
College Fund.
3- Nationally, the news medias published facts of how Blacks had excelled in
just about every facet of American life, and had contributed in major ways to
America's superiority and leadership in the world, sociologically and
technologically.
Now, lets remember that not all of us participated in, nor did we contribute to
these three major LAND MARKS in Black History; however, from March 1st,
1980 to February 1st, 1981 it will be you and I individually and collectively
who will be writing Black History, you might say that each of us is a plank in
the platform of Black Culture, so in order to have a strong Platform each
plank must at least support its own weight.
After all is said and done, it is performance that demonstrates the results of
any measurement.
In all we do, let us perform...
1- To demonstrate respectability of self and others
2- To demonstrate responsibility of self and to others
3- To demonstrate accountability to self and others
4- To demonstrate positive attitudes to self and others
5- To demonstrate Honesty and prudence to self and others
6- To demonstrate a positive contribution to our culture.
Performance is the language all people clearly understand, let us through
performance speak loudly..UNTIL NEXT YEAR...
Thomas Boothe, Ph.D
(
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