Needs to be Said, We’re Here for the Telling: Death Row Shadows' First Let’s Talk Event

Written by William Bryant Rozier

There’s this theory about poverty that can be applied to the criminal justice world, as well as having a relationship with it.  Being poor begets more poor, that the doctor’s visit you’re putting off today will cost you more when you have to pay for that surgery years later, or sooner than later, that could’ve been avoided.  Poverty, with all of its related causes and effects, has a deep well. 

The analogy came to mind when I read some crime stats on the website for the Fort Wayne-based collective Death Row Shadows (DRS), started by father and daughter Omowale-Ketu and RasAmen Oladuwa.  DRS was created to explore the knowledge and education of the criminal justice system, by, among other things, recording the oral histories of those who’ve been incarcerated.

Poverty begets poverty, but if you’re caught up in the system and you’re poor

According to DRS, and listed on their site at DeathRowShadows.com, 76% of people, three out of four, held by jails have not been convicted of any crime…one major reason is because they cannot afford to post bail.  So the incarcerated remains, conflating numbers and deepening that well.  80% of women, that’s eight out of ten, who are incarcerated are mothers who are primary caretakers for their children…thus children are predominately susceptible to the domino effect of burdens placed on incarcerated women.

Right there, in those two stats, lie infinite alternative universes of lives delayed, not led, and encumbered.  What’s ultimately the cost of mass incarceration? 

DRS’ premier event, Let’s Talk About It: The Hueman Stories, a Ted Talk-style conversation centered on the impact of mass incarceration, drops November 21, 2019 at 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Wunderkammer, 3402 Fairfield Ave.  The $10 ticket can be purchased through Facebook Events as well as contacting RasAmen Oladuwa at 260.222.7020 or through email at DeathRowShadows@gmail.com.  Student discounts are available, just contact RasAmen; if you want to come and have no money, Ms. Oladuwa will be able to work with you.

The event will start with a social hour where attendees will have the opportunity to have their personal stories with mass incarceration be recorded for the project…an mp3 audio file will be emailed to each participant.  Next, four guest speakers, all connected to the criminal justice field to varying degrees, will provide their brief but personal and relatable history.  No parts of an academic lecture will be heard.

DRS plans for future events involve smaller, community-sized venues and groups, more intimate settings, according to RasAmen, as well as a lecture series for schools.  (And if Ketu is involved, there might be a book.)

RasAmen is the marketing half of the team; Ketu served as the talent scout for the event and is slated to be the first guest speaker of the night.  A former death row inmate, he was arrested in Massachusetts at age 21 for a murder he confessed to but did not commit.  He walked out a free man after his appeal was affirmed by the Supreme Court, overturning the sentence.

While Guest Speaker Shirley Cooper was serving her 50-year sentence as a prisoner of the Indiana Department of Corrections, she became a trusted legal advisor and jailhouse lawyer for other inmates. She was released in 2014, having served only 21 years, and is a member of Faith in Indiana, the faith-based statewide organization working to create a movement for racial and economic equality for Indiana families.  The Fort Wayne chapter’s focus is on treatment instead of incarceration.

Guest Speaker Rachel Gross of North Manchester parlayed her life-long interest in incarceration matters into a founder role when she, along with her husband Bob, who was previously incarcerated, started the Death Row Support Project, which has facilitated more than 10,000 pen pal relationships across the country.

Rounding out the guest speakers is Foundation One, founder of Unity Barbershop, who has dedicated the last 25 years of his life, working with all folks and groups who perpetuated and have been affected by crime and violence, along with those associated with the criminal justice field.  He’s been one of the consistent presences for our community; his self-reclamation-through-education project was started in 2009.

More info about the Death Row Shadows, again, can be found at DeathRowShadows.com.