Herland W. Bouwens was offered a plea deal of 3 to 7 years in State Prison , he choose to have a Jury Trial and lost at Trial. Judge Reed of Ontario County sentenced him to 15 years plus 5 yrs consecutive on top of 5 years parole due to minor misdemeanors which occured when he was 19years old. Which ranged from buying beer with a fake ID to a possession of a small quantity of pot.

Herland has lost a Grandfather and a Grandmother since his incarceration. His Father is a kidney transplant recipient who has been in and out of the hospital the last year for pneumonia.  Herlands son who now is 17years old( and is living with his Grandfather due to problems at home with his mother and her boy friend )would love to give his DAD a hug, throw a football, race motorcycle together ,watch a movie, have dinner , introduce him to his girlfriend, have a picnic, experience life together, ❤️.  

This sentence Judge Reed gave my son can be considered cruel and unjust punishment for the accident that occured. A police officer broke his leg while Herland was on the ground surrending, it was unfortunate that this occured.

NYS Parole took Herland off of his prescibed medication , that had been setup by Doctors at the Willard Drug Shock Treatment facility. Because NYS could not test Parolees for opioid use they took individuals off of their prescribed medication. This, was done after  he had been on parole for over 4 years and he had to detox by himself with no assistance from NYS Parole. The incident that lead to his violation of parole was after the removal of the prescribed medication. Due to the fact that he eluded law enforcement for a few months ,it seems they had a grudge against him. 

In the Ontario County Court house, Uniformed Police Officers stood in the court room in front of others during the proceedings, intimidating jurors and making sure Judge Reed saw them, everyday of Herlands Trial.

Even stranger is the fact that during these proceedings the officer who was injured proceeded to purchase Judge Reeds Home. I do not have information on the actual time frame of purchase, during incident, before or after , perhaps at the same time as trial.

I would like to mention , Herland has no weapons charges and was not carrying any weapons during this incident or any others. Nor has he any record of robbery, murder or weapons charges. Yes he had a fake ID at 19 and a small baggy of pot but certainly I do not agree with Judge Reed that he is a Horrible person and deserves to be in Prison for basically almost 25 years. Manslaughter isnt even 25 years. 

Please sign this petition to bring Herland home. He has been incarcerated now for 10years, he has been bounced around from Maximum Security Prisons all over NYS,and currently is in a Minimum Security prison. I have had to work 2 to 3 jobs at a time to send him commissary, pay for phone calls, text messages and even to visit has been a struggle. 

This was an Unjust Sentence due to VENGEANCE. 

Help me bring (Herland) a Father, a Son ,a Grandson, a Brother , a friend ---‐ home from the hell he is still in.

I would like to ask for your prays and support so Herland can be free to love his Son and his Family and to serve his Community. 

In signing this petition you also are sending a message to NYS Justice Department that we desperately need to REFORM SENTENCING. 

 Our Prisons should not be being used to house addicts and individuals with mental disabilities. This system is only inflaming the problem not changing it. 

Bring Herland home and reform our sentencing laws before more young people are caught in the revolving criminal justice door.

 

Thank you for your support.

 

Christine Bouwens 

cbouwens3@gmail.com