I’m serving a life sentence in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A life sentence in Pennsylvania is really a death sentence if one doesn’t get relief in the Courts, is not granted clemency, or is not released by Compassionate Release due to a terminal illness. A prisoner with a death-by-incarceration prison sentence leaves the penitentiary in a body bag, lifeless, or dies in a hospital with handcuffs on. That’s a cold reality.
I’m a Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPS) helping those with mental health issues at SCI Phoenix, a multi-million dollar new institution in Pennsylvania. I’m also a volunteer hospice worker, assigned to spend four hours a day (11:00 – 3:00) with Mr. Earl Box a terminally ill lifer who was housed in the medical infirmary and was convicted of a homicide decades and decades ago.
Earl was diagnosed with a stage four colon cancer. Earl and his beautiful family were hoping and praying that he would be granted Compassionate Release to spend his last few months, weeks, days and hours with his family by his side back out in society before he would pass on.
Earl and I would talk about everything during my four-hour hospice shift with him in the infirmary hospice cell in the medical department. We spoke in detail about poetry, music, sports, movies, family, past joyful and painful memories, faith, the Black Lives Matter Movement and the importance of gaining a better education and taking full accountabilty for our actions and our horrible regretful choices in this life. Earl was a truly remorseful man and he believed in forgiveness. He wanted to be forgiven. Earl forgave those who abused him for the color of his skin growing up in the South during the Civil Rights Movement.
It’s amazing how a friendship can be birthed. I guess, it’s a miracle from the Creator above. Earl became my friend. Earl loved grooving to a tune. His agony and pain seemed to fade away as he was grooving to “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” with Otis Redding singing in the background on the radio. Earl loved soul music. It enlightened his spirit. It made him feel alive, even for just a few minutes, as the cancer was eating away at him to the bone.
Earl’s wonderful family would come to visit him in the Medical Infirmary as the tears of regret, sorrow and guilt flowed from his weary eyes. His body was frail in his weakened state of being dependent on morphine to ease the horrendous pain he was in.
Sadly, his Compassionate Release was denied by his judge. (All the following appeals were denied soon after.) The judge had no mercy for Mr. Box. Earl couldn’t even be granted Compassionate Release on his deathbed. Earl’s will to live ended and within days he was gone into the Great Beyond.
Earl’s story is a true picture of Death – by – Incarceration.
For me, I’m honored to have spent precious time with Mr. Earl Box. Our short time together made me a better man, a wiser human being and a more compassionate person. I hope to see Earl again in the land of perfection. I know he is truly free now from all the pain, guilt, regret, sorrow and the suffering he endured.
The system had no mercy for this man. A terrible reality.
I’m just so grateful I had a chance to help this man. I’m just so grateful this man helped me. I’m forever grateful for the friendship we shared. It will forever live in my heart till I meet Mr. Earl Box in the next life.
Larry Stromberg #DG6379
SCI Phoenix
Smart Communications / PADOC
PO Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
One Comment
Shut tf up April