In 2014, Bryan Stevenson’s memoir Just Mercy was published. It was followed by a movie of the same name, starring Michael B. Jordan, as the young attorney Stevenson, and Jamie Fox, as the wrongfully-convicted Walter McMillian. But it wasn’t just the triumph of successfully pleading McMillian’s case to acquittal.
It was that Stevenson made a career out of finding and advocating for people just like Walter. People who, for many reasons but mostly just because they were poor, could not fight the system, even when there was overwhelming evidence that a wrong had been assigned, carried out, and perpetrated by a corrupt and lazy system.
According to the Georgia Innocence Project, “Studies estimate that between 4-6% of people incarcerated in US prisons are actually innocent.” 1
Six percent. That’s a grade of 94, which usually translates into an “A” and which doesn’t sound like an overwhelming number of “mistakes,” does it? There will always be legitimate mistakes made by good people just trying to do their jobs. And at times a lack of fair representation or people working too quickly in an overwhelmed system. Or perhaps people are willing to ignore the truth or support the lie – for convenience or cruelty.
But for whatever reason or excuse, of the nearly 2 million people currently in federal and state prisons, local jails, juvenile correctional facilities, and immigration detention facilities2 etc., somewhere between 80,000 and 120,000 of them don’t belong there.
That’s too many.
And I don’t have an answer or solution…
…because, unfortunately, movies, sensational headlines, and a limited measure of involvement in organizations that support victims of the courts comprise my knowledge of our prison system. Sad to say, but true.
So… what to do? Perhaps I could start by being more actively involved in the organizations that are doing something. Find ways to connect with people, innocent or guilty, who must endure sometimes endless days and nights in a lonely world that is often chaotic if not downright dangerous.
No, it’s not as powerful as visiting them. But it is a start.
Want to join me? After all, Jesus did mention it, didn’t he? … right along with feeding the hungry, taking in the sojourner, and caring for the sick.
On this fourth and last Monday, I pray a blessing over those in prison, both the guilty and the innocent, those paying for someone else’s wrong.
And I pray for you a blessed Christmas and, as always,
Notes:
- There is a lot more shame than these statistics. According to a National Registry of Exonerations study entitled Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022, innocent Black people are between two and nineteen times more likely to be convicted of crimes. But we’ll have to talk about that another day. ↩︎
- This information was gathered prior to 2025. I’m guessing that the number of people in immigration detention facilities is a lot bigger now. Ugh. ↩︎
Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash
Nancy Burton Wolfe 