October 17, 2020. Greater New York Area. Susan Li poses for a portrait outside her family home. Her father, Stan Li, died of Covid while incarcerated at Fishkill Correctional Facility in the spring. The last time Susan had tried to visit him, she only had student ID with her, and was denied entry. A few months later he was dead. Stan Li was incarcerated when Susan was in middle school, and her childhood was marked by his absence and the subsequent financial and social changes for their family. She spoke to him and wrote him often, and was heartbroken by his loss and confusion surrounding his illness and care.
October 17, 2020. Greater New York Area. The incense holder from the alter Susan and her mother keep for her father.
October 17, 2020. Greater New York Area. A birthday card from Susan’s father.
October 21, 2020. Queens NY. Sabrina Scott’s husband Todd Scott has been incarcerated for 32 years, he is currently 52 years old. Sabrina posed for portraits at her home in Queens after working her job at the Queens YMCA where she counsels homeless people. She and Todd were friends as children, where she says they both suffered from abuse from their family members and struggled in their community during the height of the war on drugs and all its fall out. She had a crush on Todd when they were teenagers, but she was older and a teen mother, when she found out that at 18 he had been accused of being present when gang members executed a police officer in a famous case in Jamaica Queens. Sabrina maintains that her husband was there, but did not kill the officer, and that his conviction was based on coerced testimony from the police. The couple reconnected while Todd was inside via his family, who Sabrina is friendly with, and married a year ago. Since then Sabrina has worked tirelessly to help with his parole case. The evening these portraits were taken, Sabrina found out Todd had Covid at Elmira prison, and had been sent to the SHU where they isolate the ill (the same process as solitary confinement.)
October 21, 2020. Queens NY. Sabrina Scott’s husband Todd Scott has been incarcerated for 32 years, he is currently 52 years old. Sabrina posed for portraits at her home in Queens after working her job at the Queens YMCA where she counsels homeless people. In December, right before Christmas, Todd had recovered from Covid, but Sabrina found out that his parole had been rejected again. She sights the power of the fallen police officer’s brother in law enforcement circles including with parole boards, that makes it nearly impossible to get him seen objectively for parole despite his good behavior record. One major argument of activists against elder incarceration is that sentences of 25 years- life are now routinely treated as life, instead of the intended 25 years. The discretion of how to apply these parole eligible years is left to parole boards, who are not elected and frequently composed of police and prosecutors.
October 21, 2020. Queens NY. Pictures of Sabrina and Todd Scott hang in their home. Sabrina Scott’s husband Todd Scott has been incarcerated for 32 years, he is currently 52 years old.
October 21, 2020. Queens NY. Pictures of Sabrina and Todd Scott in their home. Sabrina Scott’s husband Todd Scott has been incarcerated for 32 years, he is currently 52 years old.
November 19, 2020. Queens, NY. Nawanna Snipe Tucker and her adopted daughter Deanna Montgomery spent an afternoon at home helping Deanna with her virtual classes, making “dream boards” where they wrote their dreams for the future, and cooking dinner together. As Nawanna cooked dinner, she got a call from the pro bono lawyer helping with her husband’s wrongful conviction suit. They are hopeful that the long is on their side and that Curtis could be released soon, but years of navigating the system have left Nawanna with little faith. Nawanna’s husband Curtis Tucker is currently incarcerated at age 55 at Otisville. She says he’s never afraid, but he’s very afraid of covid. He’s reported lack of access to sanitary conditions and PPE.
November 19, 2020. Queens, NY. Nawanna Snipe Tucker and her adopted daughter Deanna Montgomery spent an afternoon at home helping Deanna with her virtual classes, making “dream boards” where they wrote their dreams for the future, and cooking dinner together. Nawanna’s husband Curtis Tucker is currently incarcerated at age 55 at Otisville.
November 19, 2020. Queens, NY. Nawanna Snipe Tucker sits in her home. Nawanna’s husband Curtis Tucker is currently incarcerated at age 55 at Otisville.
November 21, 2020. Queens, NY. A card from Elizabeth's father who is incarcerated. Elizabeth and her father
have now created a relationship, and he’s shown her the many arts and crafts he’s made for her during his years inside.
November 21, 2020. Queens, NY. Elizabeth keeps plastic flowers, baby shoes, and painted fabrics, that her father Jose Antonio Medina made for her during the decades that he was incarcerated and she didn’t know he was alive.
November 21, 2020. Queens, NY. Elizabeth keeps plastic flowers, baby shoes, and painted fabrics, that her father Jose Antonio Medina made for her during the decades that he was incarcerated and she didn’t know he was alive.
December 22, 2020. Brooklyn NY. Roslyn Smith, 58, poses for a portrait in Fort Greene park a few days before Christmas. It will be her 2nd Christmas home after being incarcerated for 39 years. Roslyn is an outspoken critic of elderly incarceration and specifically how it effects women, and how traumatic experiences and addiction often land women in prison in the first place. She has worked hard from the outside to raise awareness about the plight of women still incarcerated at Bedford Hills where she served most of her sentence.
December 23, 2020. Brooklyn NY. Cynthia Carter Young posed for a portrait in her home in Brooklyn. Carter-Young’s brother, Leonard Eugene Carter, died of COVID just two weeks before his scheduled release. Leonard Carter had emphysema, and before his death had told his sister that they didn't have enough masks and sanitizer to protect themselves inside. After he was granted parole, he was sent to Queensborough correctional facility which serves as a holding center for prisoners scheduled for release. There he contracted COVID and never recovered.
December 23, 2020. Brooklyn NY. A portrait of Cynthia Carter Young's brother in her home in Brooklyn. Cynthia remembers her brother as a jokester and a sharp dresser. She is enraged by his needless death, after he was infected after covid delayed his release proceedings. She has been outspoken about the fact that even without the illness, elderly people pose no threat to society.
October 14, 2020. Adirondack Correctional Facility, New York State. Edward Mackenzie, 65, poses for a portrait at the Adirondack Correctional Facility in Ray Brook, New York. The facility, formerly a youth detention facility, was converted into a “prison nursing home” to separate elderly male prisoners from the general population during Covid, but the Department of Corrections has been staunchly criticized for doing so because of allegations that the center is drastically under prepared to handle the health needs of elderly incarcerated people, and that mixing a high risk population together further threatens their health.
September 20, 2020. Michelle Lind, who’s husband Robert Lind is still incarcerated at 75, poses for a portrait in her backyard in upstate New York. He’s served 36 years so far. Robert was involved in a shootout with police that injured no one, but he won’t come up for parole until 2032. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and had a severe bout with Covid in the spring. When he was sick, she was not told where he was or what his condition was. Robert works as a teacher for an anti violence program within the prison. If he is not granted compassionate release or clemency, Michelle says, the only the way he will come home to her is in a body bag.
September 24, 2020. Bronx, New York. Nawanna poses for a portrait with her adopted daughter Deanna Montgomery in the hallway of their apartment building. Curtis wants to adopt the child too when he comes home. Nawanna’s husband Curtis Tucker is currently incarcerated at age 55 at Otisville.
December 19, 2020. Kingston, NY. Michelle Lind spent the day with her granddaughters Aubrey and Scarlet, and her daughter, packing up her home ahead of a move to another town which she hopes will be safer, because Kingston is becoming increasingly plagued by shootings and violent crime.