Still no news from the courts. It's been twice the maximum time (approx. 22 months) that any of us thought would have to be endured. We have no choice but to wait and hope.
Brandon's yard is on lockdown right now - no visits for the last three weekends due to a guard being seriously injured. Brandon had nothing to do with this but when it occurs everyone on the yard is punished. Inmates are locked in their cells during these times for most of each 24 hour day and no collect calls can be made to the outside.
Brandon's mom and stepfather, Pat and Norm, tried to see Brandon on October 7 but got only as far as the table in the visiting room before everyone was sent home. Gene had hoped to go up this weekend since we've been out of town visiting family in Maine. Since Brandon's family and friends are his link to the outside world, we don't like to have extended time periods when we haven't connected with him in person. We've written to him and hope to see him next weekend.
On our way to Maine we made a detour and stopped to see Charles and Elissa Grodin in CT. They are two of the most gracious and kind people we've ever met. They are tireless in their support of us and in their efforts to put Brandon's plight in front of the public. We are blessed to know them.
That's all for now.
Warmest Regards,
Gene and Janice Hein
Brandon's yard is on lockdown right now - no visits for the last three weekends due to a guard being seriously injured. Brandon had nothing to do with this but when it occurs everyone on the yard is punished. Inmates are locked in their cells during these times for most of each 24 hour day and no collect calls can be made to the outside.
Brandon's mom and stepfather, Pat and Norm, tried to see Brandon on October 7 but got only as far as the table in the visiting room before everyone was sent home. Gene had hoped to go up this weekend since we've been out of town visiting family in Maine. Since Brandon's family and friends are his link to the outside world, we don't like to have extended time periods when we haven't connected with him in person. We've written to him and hope to see him next weekend.
On our way to Maine we made a detour and stopped to see Charles and Elissa Grodin in CT. They are two of the most gracious and kind people we've ever met. They are tireless in their support of us and in their efforts to put Brandon's plight in front of the public. We are blessed to know them.
That's all for now.
Warmest Regards,
Gene and Janice Hein
posted by Gene and Janice Hein at 4:55 PM
2 Comments:
I can't believe it's taking this long to hear anything. The whole situation is just unforgivable.
I could say that the injustice in this case is truly beyond the pale. And I could tell you that I am a criminologist and sociologist with a specific interest in how pre-trial and post-trial publicity affects the "justice atmosphere."
But what still eats me up about this case is a simple, personal fact: When I was 13, I was part of a group of kids who liked fire. We loved to flick matches. One day, in a matter of seconds, the back half of our church was on fire. While quickly extinguished, it just as easily could have spread and all sorts of "god forbid" scenarios were possible.
What if three parishioners were trapped, died, and what if a prosecutor decided that we should have been tried as adults. What if we hadn’t had the "social immunity" that affluent upper middle class kids got in those years as a matter of course? What if one of the parishioners had been a police officer or child of a police officer?
I might still be in prison.
In fact, what happened to me in reality is quite a justice story, but a story that illustrates what happens when justice is not devoid of compassion and understanding of the special case of juvenile offenders.
Our admittedly atrocious group of arsonists -- headed down a Brandon-type road with our acting out and lunacy but given the gift of mercy -- produced at least two physicians, a university professor, and a psychologist.
Brandon does not belong in prison.
This whole erosion of the idea of juvenile offenders is destroying lives. And I would only ask each and every person reading this to ask a fundamental question:
Were you ever at a place, or in vicinity, perhaps for the purpose of jerking around or perhaps not, when a situation might have swiftly escalated beyond your ability to control it?
The most tragic thing is that there are actually citizens who are so terrorized by myths and distortion and press sensationalism, that they actually feel that society is safer by putting a young man like Brandon Hein in prison.
Please, people, I beg you to consider that neither your real safety nor your anxiety have been made any less real by putting a kid, no more or less a jerk than I was, in prison.
Don't make kids pay the price for our fear.
One match, and a different wind direction, and Id are one of the old guys up in Pelican Bay with Brandon instead of running a University and teaching thousands of graduate and undergraduate students.
It just ain’t right.
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