Maryland Parole Partnership

In Episode 5, “Alonzo Turner-Bey – Race Disparities” get to know Alonzo and his personal views on second changes. Alonzo spent over 31 years on the inside for a crime he committed as a young person.

Over the years, he educated himself, went to school, and began showing up for others even as an incarcerated person. Not only that, evidence shows that there is a serious race disparity among Black people who are incarcerated. Black people are incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of white Americans. And Black people make up less than a third of Maryland's population but account for 72.4 percent of state prisoners in 2023. Alonzo is fully aware of his own errors in his youth, but that doesn’t mean the legal system itself has corrected its own. Race plays an enormous role in the prison population and there’s no one better to tell that story truthfully and share the work he’s been doing to fix it, then Alonzo Turner-Bey.

The Alonzo Turner-Bey video transcript is available here.

In Episode 4 of the "Life After a Second Chance" series, learn about Wayne Brewton-Bey and his views on forgiveness and second chances.

Incarcerated for over 38 years, Wayne has dedicated his life to supporting survivors of crime. As a human service worker and prison reform community leader, Wayne is very open about how remorseful he is about the past, but is ensuring that he does all he can to be supportive of others who may have be survivors or people victimized by crime. He leads victim awareness programs in Baltimore that brings survivors and perpetrators together for mediation, reconciliation, and forgiveness. When Wayne is not doing prevention and awareness work, he can be found spending time with a young boy by the name of Trui and a cat he rescued named Dylan. Recently, his organization celebrated 500 days without a homicide, and it’s this kind of reformation and community building that makes him proudest to do this work.

The Wayne Brewton-Bey video transcript is available here.

Incarcerated at the age of 15, Gordon Pack was just a kid who made some poor decisions that led to over 42 years of being inside. That time inside led Gordon to give up on things he always wanted like being married or having children. Decades later, Gordon was eventually released through the Maryland Juvenile Restoration Act. Hear directly from Gordon about restorative justice in this episode of the Maryland Parole Partnership "Life After a Second Chance" series.

Since being out, Gordon has dedicated himself to restorative justice and recommitting his life to service through his community by speaking to anyone who will listen on what it means to give people a second chance.

Even though Gordon gave up on a lot things, he was successful in getting married to his now wife Anne, and the two are the parents of their first child Muhsin, born just days after the recording of this interview. Discover who Gordon Pack is and the most he is making out of his second chance.

The Gordon Pack video transcript is available here.

In "Anthony Muhammad – Community Engagement” (Episode 2), you'll learn who Anthony is and what he did with his second chance. Anthony was incarcerated as a 15-year-old in Baltimore City. While on the inside he worked tirelessly to rehabilitate himself and exhibited such growth during his sentence that the judge who released said he was the first violent offender she seen with absolutely no reservations about releasing back into the community.

Holding himself accountable, Anthony has dedicated his life to undoing his past wrongs and ensuring other teenagers don’t make the same mistakes he made. As a teenager, Anthony acknowledged his participation in crime in the community, but as a man he and his peers are doing everything they can to be the solution. He serves as a mentor to young men, a community activist, and an inspiration to all who are seeking to make the most out of a second chance.

The Anthony Muhammad video transcript is available here.

In collaboration with the Maryland Parole Partnership, the ACLU of Maryland is proud to introduce the “Life After a Second Chance” series. A project that puts real faces and real voices behind policies that do not serve our communities and what it means to give people who are incarcerated a second chance.

In this premiere episode, "Bobby Stewart – Medical Health & Elders Inside," you'll hear directly from Bobby - a father, grandfather and great grandfather, who was incarcerated for 42 years, and in that time lost his son. In his words, he wonders what kind of a mentor and father he could have been before his son’s death if he was released at least 10 years earlier. Bobby also mentions the vulnerability that elderly people face inside and how difficult things can be without efficient access to medical care or medical parole.

The Bobby Stewart video transcript is available here.

Watch highlights from the press conference calling for legislators to pass the Maryland Second Look Act. The video transcript of the press conference highlights is available here.

The Maryland Second Look Act builds off of the Juvenile Restoration Act and allows individuals who have served at least 20 years, and have demonstrated their rehabilitation, the ability to have judges take a second look at their sentence. The Maryland General Assembly must pass SB 132 before the end of the 2024 legislative session. Lives and futures depend on it.