From Gang Life to Prison Reform: My Fight for Change and Second Chances

Mr. District Attorney Alvin Bragg,

My name is Sheldon Preston Johnson. I have been incarcerated twenty-five years on a fifty year sentence. I am writing to you in the hopes of being given an opportunity to make a difference in the work you are currently doing. I am a product of systemic racism; intergenerational incarceration. A product of trauma, the school-to-prison pipeline and Crack-era Reaganomics.

At a ripe age of ten, in the fifth grade I was arrested and shuffled through mental institutions, group homes and then dumped into the streets. I am a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults); a biracial union of love where my parents were ostracized and stigmatized because of the opposite color of their skin. I do not pretend to be a victim, but a survivor of unprecedented adversity.

Enclosed is a program that I created specifically to begin dismantling the generational concepts and culture of violence that has made prison and criminality (making it easier for gangs to recruit), a normalcy. I am an ex-gang member who not only understands the ramifications of my actions but the ripple effect of the ideas and culture of violence that I perpetuated and infused, into the younger men & women, I recruited as gang members. The same concepts and culture of violence that evolved into criminality, making prison a ‘rite of passage’ for me and too many others.

In 1997, I was arrested and represented by ATB Attorney Steven Bartley who misinformed me of my maximum sentence if convicted at trial; and because of this inaccurate sentencing information I rejected a final plea offer/bargain of twenty-three (23) and proceeded to trial. After being convicted for two robberies I was punished for exercising my right to a fair trial and sentenced to FIFTY years (a de-facto civil death sentence). Mr. Bartley has established a pattern of providing inaccurate sentencing information (see, Mask v. McGinnis, 233 F.3d 132; and, Santos v. Artuz, 2013 WL 1981574, id. 25). I did raise these issues in previous post conviction motions. I do not deny that my actions deserve punishment and I acknowledge that I owe a debt to society. To the people I hurt and harmed, I am truly sorry.

Mr. Bragg, I believe in change. I am product of change. I believe that anything that does not change is not alive. I have spent the last twenty-five years in introspection, heavy reflection, self rehabilitating. I am an advocate against gang recruitment and violence. I have created a number of programs that are geared toward helping ‘At-Risk-Youth’ identify the culture associated with gang violence and addressing deep seated traumas that push these children into the streets where they end up making terrible life altering decisions.

I currently have an application before Governor Hochul for clemency (commutation of sentence), in the hopes that I will be granted the opportunity to take all that I have learned, in life, the streets and prison as a spring board to help alter the trajectory of young men & women lost in the maelstrom of tragedy and criminality. I hope that I will have the opportunity to return to and help rebuild a community I once did everything in my power to destroy. To become a beacon of hope to all those who believe change is impossible.

It is 2022, and Americans have endured enough: COVID, George Floyd, Breyonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, a rise in Asian-Amercian hate crimes, the invasion of Ukraine and the potential for World War III, should remind us all that we still have so much work to do to create better institutions in addressing not only systemic racism, but glaring gender, housing, mental health and educational crises–inequalities. We currently have American’s being executed by Firing Squad in South Carolina. Although we have made great strides toward becoming better human beings, the antiquated idea of an eye-for-an-eye will only leave us in a world full of blind people with a one-eyed King.The time is ripe for moral evolution.

I am interested in working with legislators and prison rights activist toward true Criminal Justice and Prison Reform. I am in contact with NY Senator Zellnor Myrie, Julia Salazar and Edward Gibbs and we are working on a few bills (Reentering Citizens Civic Engagement and Mandatory Dyslexia Screening). Prisons can no longer function as de-facto warehouses to disproportionately incarcerate men and women of color for decades without some form of post conviction review. Please help me make a change in the ways that people like myself for generations have been entrapped and rotting like strange fruit on the judicial branches of a biased criminal justice system. To pledge your support for my second chance at life, email NYS Governor Kathy Hochul @ ny.gov/governor (212-681-4580); or email my clemency lawyer to find out how you can help: Zeidman@mail.law.cuny.edu.

You can reach me directly through jpay@support.com: if you’re interested in hearing some of my solutions to this National crisis of incarceration and gun violence. Thank you.

Sheldon Johnson has been released.