The winners of the (wildly generous) Soros Justice Fellowships have been announced, and I'm so pleased that one of them is the amazing Mary Heinen, a friend of mine from the Prison Creative Arts Project. Nobody could be more deserving. Heinen has been a teacher and inspiration to me in more ways than I suspect she realizes, and I'm eager to see how this next adventure of hers will unfold -- for all of our sakes.
From her Soros citation:
Heinen will organize, educate, and support people returning from Michigan correction facilities so that they can advocate for themselves and determine their own needs.
Heinen went to prison in 1976 after being charged with felony murder. Within months of entering prison, she became an outspoken advocate for women. She was the lead plaintiff in the landmark case, Glover v. Johnson, which secured gender equity in prison educational and vocational programming. While incarcerated, Heinen earned a paralegal degree and two bachelor degrees and assisted thousands of women and their families with legal issues. Heinen was released in 2002, when Michigan Governor John Engler commuted her life sentence.
Since her release, she has served on the Working Group on Reentry in Lansing, the statewide Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative, and the Reentry Roundtable in Grand Rapids. She is the cofounder of the Prison Creative Arts Project, which provides university workshops and networking opportunities for incarcerated youth and adults in Michigan and hosts the Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners.
The Soros Justice Fellowships have been awarded to 18 people, providing them stipends ranging between $74,000 to $108,750 for projects lasting between 12 and 18 months. The fellowships were initiated in 1997 as part of the campaign by the Open Society Foundations to "curb mass incarceration, reduce harsh punishment, and ensure a fair and equitable system of justice in the United States." Heinen's co-fellows are pretty amazing as well. I'm especially excited by the investigative projects of Petra Bartosiewicz and Chandra Thomas and the organizing work of Michelle Tyon.
Image Credit: Open Society Foundations
I had the great pleasure of meeting Mary last year when I invited her to come speak to the pediatricians at our community hospital after we began caring for the newborn babies of incarcerated women. It was heartbreaking to see how scared we all were at the prospect of taking on such a task, but after discussing with Mary what women go through in prison, I think we are more compassionate and, as much as we are allowed to, ready to make their experience in the hospital after giving birth at least a little more meaningful.
Posted by: Andy | June 02, 2011 at 09:59 PM
I like this story, Andy, thank you for sharing ... and I'd be interested to learn more about the program for caring for newborns born to incarcerated moms. Was it an official arrangement with a facility? Or more of an ad hoc outreach effort?
Posted by: Anna Clark | June 07, 2011 at 02:00 AM