#AIM #OutsideTheBox #Anti-LifeImprisonmentMovement

 My name is Bryan Hood, I am 39-year-old hardworking carpenter and devoted father to a beautiful 16-year-old girl and I’m trying to make it back home to her. What’s preventing me is the possibility of a life sentence for a fist fight I am accused of being guilty of one of which all parties are well and alive with no long-term injuries. Additionally, when I was arrested, I was a victim of police brutality and excessive use of force while suffering a mental breakdown.

After the cuffs were already placed on my wrist and my arms behind my back, I was bent over a garbage can for no reason and aggressively body slammed to the floor where I sustained a bruise to my chin and a cut on my elbow.

Unfortunately, all other arresting officers did not produce body cam footage, so this is also a call to the public that may have additional footage on October 17,2021 at 15 York Street Toronto at around 4 pm (York & Lake Shore) to come forward.

As a result of growing up with out a father and having abandonment issues my main objective in life was to be the father that my father wasn’t. Although it turns out the task wasn’t easier than I thought this remains the similar gap in our father/ child development because of past decisions I had made over 25 years ago.

To the cycle of fatherless households within the black community that needs to be broken and the over representation of black and Indigenous groups subject to police excessive use of force and lengthier sentences is not helping.

I am a representative of these statistics with a 12.5-year sentence (2.5 years in jail followed by 10 years of parole) for a fist fight to add to the list.

There exists provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada that allows the possibility for an accused to receive an indeterminate sentence (aka life imprisonment) for even the threat of an assault. 
“The prison . . . functions as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited, relieving us of the responsibility of thinking about the real issues afflicting those communities from which prisoners are drawn in such disproportionate numbers. This is the ideological work that the prison performs – it relieves us of the responsibility of seriously engaging with the problems of our society, especially those produced by racism and increasingly, global capitalism.” 
Angela Davis 
Of course, the individual who is unfortunately awarded these levels of ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Long-term Offender’ have proven to display a history of repetitive violent behavior yet the main question is whether or not we, as a collective society, are more concerned with retribution than of rehabilitation? Despite both, there exists an overrepresentation of racialized and Indigenous groups facing these harsh punishments within the prison system. It can be utterly ironic and contradictory in nature for our system of justice to opt for life imprisonment for those suffering from what has been termed “Post-Incarceration Syndrome (PICS) which are understandable responses to living in an oppressive, restrictive, violent, and dehumanizing environment” (Gorski, 2012). Also, “Prisoners who have experienced long periods of time in solitary confinement and significant abuse while in prison are most severly affected.”

T. Gorski outlines five clusters of PICS (definitions can be found in glossary): 
Institutionalized Personality Traits 
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 
Antisocial Personality Traits 
Social-sensory Deprivation Syndrome 
Substance Use Disorders 

The assessments used to determine one’s level of dangerousness largely overlook these symptoms that deeply affect one’s ability to navigate the world post incarceration. It’s most abundantly clear that severe punishment (retribution) has little to no affect in addressing the issues that arise in our communities. Whereas if not deepening problems in which severe retribution attempts to resolve, upon a prisoner’s potential release, these problems still persist as a rippling effect throughout generations 
By signing this petition you will be helping eradicate the continuity of these problematic practices; to incorporate cultural dynamics and generational trauma into current risk assessments which will lead to precise diagnoses and better targeted rehabilitation and to helping make the necessary amendments to a law which justifies what can arguably considered cruel and unusual punishment (as it pertains to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, subsection 7 and 12 and the violation thereof). Now is the time to stand up to the empty promises given later on down the road before the damages have already occurred. 

“To deliver up bodies destined for profitable punishment, the political economy of prisons relies on racialized assumptions of criminality . . . on racist practices in arrest, conviction, and sentencing patterns. Colored bodies constitute the main human raw material in this vast experiment to disappear the major social problems of our time. Once the aura of magic is stripped away from the imprisonment solution, what is revealed is racism, class bias, and the parasitic seduction of capitalist profit. The prison industrial system materially impoverishes its inhabitants and devours the social wealth needed to address the very problems that have led to spiraling numbers of prisoners.” 
Angela Davis 

Here is one prisoner’s account who is currently being threatened with this heart-wrenching label and indefinite sentence: 
As a result of spending my last 15 years in correctional custody and receiving a 12.5 year sentence for a fist fight in jail which both parties walked away with minor injuries, makes it clear that our justice system values lengthier sentences more than they do rehabilitation. 
This may seem to be a lie, especially in a country that takes pride in the treatment its citizens are awarded but it’s the truth. And the reality of this extremely long sentence is considered (according to the law) deserved because of my lengthy record. Now, I am chosen to be a candidate for the harshest sentence this country can give; a sentence considered to be even worse than those given to convicted murderers, again, for my accumulation and pattern of fist fights. 
By no means do I try to minimize all the pain I’ve caused for there has been a few whom have needed ice for their bruises or stitches for their cuts and there’s not a day that goes by in which I am not literally tormented by the decisions I’ve made. But the facts remain: two men fist fighting ate the lesser of evils in comparison to the vast amount of extremely fatal violence that is happening in our city; for those two men, after their tensions have died down, can shake hands. 

My journey has introduced me to all the factors that consider me to have been an at-risk youth and before I was able to find where I belong, our justice system decided I should be in jail for the rest of my life. 
Ironically, being locked up awarded me the opportunity to look deeply within and despite all the places I’ve searched, within myself is where I had finally found my endless supply of happiness. And because I also found the courage and beauty in just being myself, I strongly believe that my sentence has already served its purpose especially when with it came a love for writing and an unquenchable desire to learn.

I also found the confidence to pursue my many aspirations in regard to authoring multiple pieces of literature including a series of children’s books that focus on stories of integrity, morals and values. Yet the most exciting of all my projects is the 12-week curriculum I developed addressing the causes and reduction of recidivism which I am honored to say is going through the process of seriously being considered for accreditation at a well-known university. It’s one thing to write but to have one of my pieces played at the 41st annual Harry Jerome Awards; to have another selected through ‘Beyond Bars’ to be published in Hazlitt magazine (a publication of Penguin Random House Canada Limited); and to be asked to perform at this year’s National Volunteer’s Week awards ceremony, not only shows me how much they are appreciated but also gives me a sense of purpose and more importantly, a sense of belonging. 
I like to consider myself being at the cocoon stage of my journey towards becoming the best version of myself bur according to the justice system, this is where my journey should end. 
I wish to be and am fully capable of being a productive member of society (which is evident in my becoming a certified unionized carpenter) as opposed to just being another tax payers burden. 
I mostly wish to fill in the missing piece of my daughter’s development; for ever since she’s started to perform her passion for dancing; every time she’s accepted an award or have surpassed key milestones in her life, there’s been an empty chair in the audience. A void that has only been filled with broken promises.  
I am accountable for a domino effect of pain and I also wish to make amends. 
By signing this petition you will be helping me to once again regain my much earned and deserved freedom; to raise awareness to a law that pools a very large amount of offenders into a mostly undeserved category; and most importantly, to help rekindle the broken bond between a loving father and a growing daughter who is still trying to find out where she belongs. 

Please sign and share 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
Post-Incarceration Syndrome symptoms 
“Institutional Personality Traits: resulting from the common deprivations of incarceration, a chronic state of learned helplessness in the face of prison authorities, and antisocial defenses in dealing with a predatory inmate milieu 
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): from both pre-incarceration trauma and trauma experienced within the institution 
Antisocial Personality Traits (ASPT): developed as a coping response to institutional abuse and a predatory prisoner milieu 
Social-Sensory Deprivation Syndrome: caused by prolonged exposure to solitary confinement that radically restricts social contact and sensory stimulation 
Substance Use Disorders: caused by the use of alcohol and other drugs to manage or escape Post-Incarceration Symptoms.” (T. Gorski) 

Sincerely,

Bryan Hood

Email: Bryan.g.hood@gmail.com 

Mailing Address: 160 Horner Ave.

   Etobicoke, ON M8Z 0C2