The savagery of Life Without Parole (LWOP) sentencing

by Zaharibu

Originally posted in the SF Bayview of August 2021, and on their site here, on 25th July 2021.

What specifically has been problematic about my situation is that I did not commit the crime that I am imprisoned for. I was not convicted for killing the victim in this case. I was acquitted on the charge that I personally used a weapon in the commission of the crime.

Nothing at all has been fair or just about the prison experience. I do assume responsibility for the mistakes that I have made in my life and during my incarceration. 

Rehabilitation has everything to do with a person wanting to fix himself. The tools needed to give the people who are constantly working on themselves simply do not exist in prison.

There must be a clear and firm commitment by legislators and CDCR to provide the incarcerated population with the tools that are needed to contribute to the maturation process inside. Tools that include housing people in prisons closer to their families and loved ones, an increase in pay for workers, technological training, expanding the makeup of the board of prison terms to include members of the community that the person will be paroling to as well as psychologists and psychiatrists who are not employed by the state, as many of them write incredibly biased reports.

A lot of the people who come to prison come as children, psychologically.

Along with the self-help programs that are available in only some prisons, a lot of the people who come to prison come as children, psychologically. We develop this warped sense of what manhood is – and there are no programs available in prison. There was and still is a program in Solano prison, MANUP, that focused on the development of manhood. In my opinion, it was a very effective program.

There must be a recognition that in order to know if we have learned, we must be put in positions to practice what we have learned. If prison is about rehabilitation, once we have started to engage in the life-long process of working on ourselves and fixing ourselves – becoming productive members of society – at that point and in that moment we have outgrown the prison experience. 

There is nothing left for us to learn in prison. From that point on, our being in prison is just about punishment. To the extent that we are willing to do so, politics should be removed from the equation of who is released. 

Prisoners and their families should be allowed to provide testimony.

There are people who were found to be not suitable for reasons that are highly politicized. And, as a result, legislators should not make it a discretionary choice for courts to resentence prisoners.

I was found guilty of first-degree murder, but the jury found the personal use of the weapons allegation to be not true. The jury did not find that I was the actual killer or shooter. 

In spite of this, none of the recently enacted new laws are being applied to me. I have been consistently told that I do not qualify for any of the relief offered in these new laws.

Hearings should be held and prisoners and their families should be allowed to provide testimony of their stories. That record would be valuable in crafting legislation that would remedy those injustices.

In closing, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the efforts to create a just and humane approach for how crime and punishment is administered.

Please know that the work that you do is crucial to our fulfilling our democratic potential.

Send our brother some love and light: Michael Reed Dorrough, D83611, SATF, B3-6-4L, P.O. Box 5248, Corcoran, CA 93212. Supporters have a website for him at: Zaharibu.org.

Michael Zaharibu Dorrough finally out of solitary!

We received the joyful news that as of November 2015 Zah is out of solitary confinement! He is still being held at a Level iii which means he is not allowed out of his cell after 3 PM. But overall he sounded much better in his letter.

Although he writes it is cold up there (no heating in the cells), the food is usually hot, and not bad, and he has spent time out in the yard, which has helped his health too. He can also see the mountains when he leaves his cell. Also, he has been able to call regulary, something which still is very special, because for most of the 26 years Zah spent in solitary, he was not allowed to call.

The prison is about 6 hours from his family in Compton, which is too far for his elderly mother to travel, so we hope that he can one day be moved closer to her, but best would be if his case was overturned…

You can write Zah at this address:

Michael Reed Dorrough D83611

CSP-Solano B-7-131L

P.O. Box 4000

Vacaville, CA 95696-4000

Medical Alert: Zaharibu’s allowed extension cord was taken – he was moved to a single cell

Michael Zaharibu Dorrough was moved last week from his cell which he shared with his comrade and who helped him with the medical issues, to a single cell, because of his CPAP-Machine (to help against sleep apnea). It was a move against his will. 

The Assistant Wardens did not allow him to use his extension cord, which he has had since a year without any danger, and the rules are such that he IS ALLOWED to have it. Still, the AW’s took the cord and moved him to a single cell where they think he can use his CPAP-machine. But the cord is STILL too short! 

They have not done anything to ensure Mr Dorrough can use the CPAP Machine properly. They do not care. In fact, one of the Assistant Wardens is supposed to help Prisoners with Disabilities. She allegedly went out of her way to have the extension cord taken away. Why?

Please help ensure better quality of medical care for Mr Dorrough and hundreds, maybe thousands more prisoners held indefinitely in dark, dirty cells 23/24 hours a day 7 days a week. Please write in protest to: Medical Receiver Kelso, at CPHCSCCUWeb@cdcr.ca.gov:

Medical Receiver Kelso

California Correctional Health Care Services

P.O. Box 588500

Elk Grove, CA 95758

Telephone: (916) 691-3000

Fax: (916) 691-6183

E-mail: CPHCSCCUWeb@cdcr.ca.gov

Website: http://www.cphcs.ca.gov/contact.aspx

Zaharibu is now in cell 39. His address is: 

Michael Dorrough D-83611

CSP-Cor-SHu 4B-1L-39

P.O. Box 3481

Corcoran, CA 93212

USA

Please speak up for humanity! Be bold, clear and polite!

Thank you for caring!

New rules on Property, as well as YardTime and Food routinely denied/reduced at CSP-Cor-SHU

Zaharibu’s support suggests sending emails to the CSP-Corcoran SHU Ombudsman Cherita Wofford to let her know prisoners held in CSP-Corcoran SHU unit 4B-1L (maybe in other units also but this is what we know) are NOT receiving their rightful property that was ordered via vendors by their family, and they are receiving paper trays of food, which means a smaller portion every day. 

Also they routinely get NO YARDTIME.

ACTION:
Email of the Ombudsman: cherita.wofford@cdcr.ca.gov and cc it to: sara.malone@cdcr.ca.gov.

Here is what Zaharibu wrote:

“We routinely get beat out of everything that we have coming: 

– Yard 
– Personal property items that we are allowed to have (there is a new property matrix out since January and Zaharibu was denied boxer shorts sent in by his parents via a vendor!).
– We are fed on paper trays almost daily.

I have personally spoken to an associate warden here, and the guy who is in charge of implementing the SDP (step down program), both agree that we should get everything that we are entitled to, but neither of them will do anything, nothing at all, to enforce policy and ensure that we are issued those items that we have coming: receive our yard, and receive our full portion of food (something that is not possible on paper trays).”

(from a letter dated Feb 13, 2014).