Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Saturday, May 03, 2008

Westword - The Latest On Casey Holden

Here's the latest excerpt from Casey Holden's story-from Supermax to a family of four. Thanks
again Alan for following this story.

"When you have a good job, you don't have a reason to do anything wrong."

A mere sixteen months ago, Casey Holden's life was neatly stored within seventy square feet of cell space in the Colorado State Penitentiary. Released in January 2007 directly to the street after four years of 23-hour-a-day lockdown and a decade spent mostly behind bars, the 26-year-old seemed to be facing insurmountable odds in his quest to complete three years of parole, find a job and walk the straight and narrow — an odyssey chronicled in our blog series "I Shall Be Released.

But the news from Holden just keeps getting better. After struggling with a low-paying job at a Grand Junction pizza parlor, while trying to keep up with mandatory drug tests, classes and restitution, Holden finally persuaded his parole officer to let him roam a bit further in his search for decent wages and a stable home life. Last fall he moved on to a company that helps supply drilling companies in the Western Slope's gas fields, then to the drilling operation itself. Now he's a floor hand, pulling down respectable pay — and he needs it, for the burgeoning family he's started.

Holden's brand-new twins, Asten Snow Holden and Brett Morgan Holden, just came home from the hospital this week. Mother Shauna Lee and babies are all doing fine. Holden's driving a new Jeep Cherokee and grabbing what shuteye he can between feedings and duties in the field. It's an astonishing turnaround, given the parole failure rate, but Holden insists it's just a matter of finding confidence and pursuing your dreams.

"If you want to go somewhere, it's on you to do it," he says. In his case, his dogged pursuit of a roughneck's wages made a big difference, he adds. Too many parolees get stuck working marginal, below-subsistence-level jobs, where the temptations to give up or go back to a life of drugs and crime can be overwhelming. "When you have a good job, you don't have a reason to do anything wrong."

These days Holden has plenty of reasons to do things right. And two more just arrived. – Alan Prendergast


Westword

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

good job ,i love it when another succeds and gets out of the system....charlie

Unknown said...

Wow i remember Casey from my first time down in YOS. Im glad to see his progress. Keep it up Brother.

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Anonymous said...

It's to bad that Casey is no longer doing good. I hear he is in trouble with the law again and is no longer with Shawna and has a restraining order against him for Shawna and the kid. I haveheard he beat her up in front of his children as well as had prostitutes in the house with the kids.Some people never learn. Lock him back up. Praying for the mother and the children. What kind of man beats a woman in front of children and has prostitutes in the house as well as grow marajunana.