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Kenneth E. Hartman (born December 28, 1960) is an American writer and prison activist. In 1980, Hartman was convicted of murder at the age of 19 for beating a homeless man to death in a Long Beach park,[1] and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.[2] While in prison, Hartman became known as a prisoner-rights advocate, and on April 15, 2017, Hartman was one of 2 prisoners to have their lifetime sentences commuted by Governor Jerry Brown.[3] Hartman was released from prison in December 2017. [4]
Hartman was one of the proponents of the "Honor Yard" in California State Prison in Lancaster; the program involves "600 inmates who have promised to avoid drugs, gang activity and violence against each other or prison staff and who live in a section of the prison separated from the general inmates" where they may take training and classes.[5] Hartman wrote about his experiences in prison and this program in his essay "A Prisoners' Purpose". In a 2009 New York Times editorial, he described the effects of the recession on the prison system.[6] He has also written against the penalty of life imprisonment without parole, calling it "the other death penalty".[7] In a December 2014 feature for Harper's Magazine, he described three decades of prison Christmases to illustrate the progressive attempts to dehumanize prisoners in the United States.[8]
His 2009 memoir is Mother California: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars (ISBN 0692358331).
References edit
- ^ Carolyn Kellogg (21 February 2010). "'Mother California: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars' by Kenneth Hartman". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Ellie Lawrence (14 November 2019). "Activist Kenneth Hartman Reflects on Time Incarcerated". The Colgate Maroon-News.
- ^ Marcus Henderson (1 October 2017). "Jerry Brown grants commutations to LWOPs". San Quentin News.
- ^ Rahsaan Thomas (15 November 2018). "CCWP advocates mount a fight to end LWOP". San Quentin News.
- ^ Greg Botonis (March 21, 2005). "Better Life Behind Bars; Inmate Working Against Chaos". Daily News (Los Angeles, CA). Archived from the original on October 21, 2012.
- ^ Kenneth E. Hartman (5 September 2009). "The Recession Behind Bars". The New York Times.
- ^ Voices from Solitary: Kenneth E. Hartman on “The Other Death Penalty”, 19 May 2010
- ^ "Christmas in Prison: Greeting the holidays in an age of mass incarceration" in Harper's magazine, December 2014 issue