Yesterday, I had the opportunity to give a speech and participate in a question and answer session with 120 Criminology students at Chico State University in California in a class taught by sociology professor Dr. Nandi Crosby. Below is an excerpt from my speech:
Thank you Dr. Crosby for extending the honor to me to be able to address your criminology students today. It is truly a blessing to share my ideas on a subject that is dear to me with the future officials and policy makers of the criminal justice system.
My name is Halim Flowers, I am Emmy award winner, a publisher and author of nine books, and currently a federal prisoner. I am 34 years of age and I have been imprisoned for 18 years. I was arrested at the age of 16 for aiding and abetting a felony murder and charged as an adult in the District of Columbia pursuant to D.C. Code Title 16 Section 2301(3)(a), a statute which allows the U.S. Attorney’s Office to “automatically waive” juveniles charged for violent offenses straight to the adult criminal court system without a hearing. This law was enacted in the District of Columbia in the year of 1970 as a result of violent juvenile offenders actions during the 1968 Dr. King Riots.
Even though the person in my case who was indicted as the shooter had the charges dismissed against him, I was convicted as an accomplice to his murder and sentenced to a term of 30 years to life. Over the last decade the United States Supreme Court has held that it violates the “Cruel and Unusual” clause of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution to give juveniles under the age of 18 the death penalty in Roper v. Simmons, Life Without Parole for non-homicide offenders in Graham v. Florida, and statutory Life Without Parole sentences for homicide offenders in Miller v. Alabama.
In the year of 2000, the voters of the State of California chose to enact Proposition 21 which allowed juveniles charged for violent offenses to be waived to the adult court system without any hearings to determine suitability for juvenile justice treatment. Now, 15 years later, with the US Supreme Court rulings in reference to offenders under the age of 18 having to be afforded a “meaningful opportunity” for eventual release, how do we prepare violent juvenile offenders to successfully transition back into our social and economic society after entering penal colonies as teenagers and leaving prison in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s? And, with the 21 juveniles arrested in the Baltimore Riots yesterday, do we enact laws to further facilitate their assimilation into America’s adult correctional prison culture for the next 2, 3, 4, or 5 decades or do we formulate a process that extends a meaningful opportunity for restorative justice for juvenile delinquents which addresses victim’s impact awareness and civic responsibility?
In closing, I would like to read to you a quote from the author Charles Dickens famous book “Great Expectations”. Charles Dickens wrote, “In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice.”
DOB- 09-01-80
Washington, D.C.
30 years to life
Contact Information-
Halim Flowers
#11967-007
Federal Correctional Institution Gilmer
P.O. Box 6000
Glennville, West Virginia 26351
My name is Halim Flowers and I am an author, poet, blogger(CriminalU.co), and at-risk youth advocate. I have been incarcerated for 18 years, since I was 16 years of age for aiding and abetting a felony murder in a case where I was not the shooter and the person charged as the gunman had his case dismissed and was never tried for this offense. I know it sounds crazy but it is my destiny for now and I embrace. My passion in life is learning and helping to enlighten and inspire others, especially helping to develop the character and lives of young men. I was featured in an Emmy award winning documentary about my experiences as a child at the adult D.C. Jail titled "Thug Life In DC"(See Thug Life In DC at YouTube) and I have authored nine books in the genres of self-help, prisoner reform, juvenile justice, memoir, and poetry(See Halim Flowers at Amazon.com). I very contrite for my past criminal offenses and seriously committed to helping our youth to understand "Victim's Impact" and breaking the "school-to-prison pipeline".