In 2013, Jerry Jule Harcum was handed a sentence of one-hundred and ten (110) years incarceration. During the sentencing his Judge stated, and it is quoted, “without anybody getting hurt or killed. …. He just needs to be kept away from other citizens.”

 Mired in the struggles that plagued, and still plagues today, Baltimore City’s less fortunate – struggles we must all know too well – Jerry Harcum committed a number of crimes for which he was convicted: kidnapping, armed robbery, carjacking, and assault. Throughout Jerry’s life were numerous encounters with law enforcement due to his drug-use, which started at age eleven. In 2003, after trying to turn his life around, Jerry lost his football scholarship at Bowie State University due to his drug problem. But prior to his current sentence, Jerry had never been to prison. His crimes were made in a desperation that consumed him, but started from childhood in the Baltimore City streets, where so many youths lose their way and wander guideless. Jerry lost his way and is deeply remorseful for the crimes he committed. He is a man who did wrong, and so took his punishment as a man does; he takes full accountability for his actions leading up to his conviction. He admits honestly to his crimes and the harm that he had caused to his victims, his family, his community, his city, and society at large.  

However, while he had done wrong, he hadn’t done anything permanent. No crime he committed caused irreversible harm to anybody. No wrong that was committed couldn’t be righted. Still, Jerry’s sentencing Judge gave him an inescapably long sentence. It is a sentence that still aims to see Jerry die behind bars. It is the sentence that Jerry Harcum still serves today, with no formal legal options available to reverse that punishment.

The United States of America leads the world in penal incarceration, using prison as punishment, and to remove citizens found guilty from society altogether. Inside of a prison, the challenges are many, between violence, coercion, further illegal dealings, substance abuse, sexual violence, facility misconduct, medical neglect - and the list goes on and on. The many challenges are personal and private, official and unofficial. The concrete jungle is a maze with the potential for danger around every corner. It is easy to end up at a dead end, or just dead, by feeding into the vicious pressures of the environment.

But along with being a place of punishment, some prison facilities operate as an opportunity for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is an important process in prison. It begins with taking responsibility for one’s self and respecting who you are. It is a necessary piece to becoming a model inmate, who refuses to break rules and laws by dealing in illegal activities, to stay in line with the admittedly harsh policies that guide the lives of incarcerated people. 

After one is willing and able to commit to change for the better, the work becomes utilizing various health and healthy-mindedness programs available across one’s facility, and an even greater region of prison facility rehabilitation programs. Such programs include anger management, de-escalation, general education degrees, seminars on weathering struggle, and more. In this way, the reality of prison can be a place where those willing to do the work they must can improve. It isn’t a fair environment, it is treacherous and largely ill-intentioned but it does give incarcerated folks an opportunity to get better, little by little. Millions of men and women are incarcerated in overcrowded, violent, and all too inhumane prisons across the United States, but even at the epicenter of inhumanity, you can find the human. 

The system isn’t fair and though treatment, education, or rehabilitative-centered programming is often severely limited, with hard work and sacrifice, one can stride forward in the system. But  prison is not law, it merely enforces the law. The legal justice system is the means by which any inmate, rehabilitated or not, gets their freedom back.  That is, freedom as right: right to live outside of bars, to see family, to work for resources and once again join your community -  the right to real life. It isn’t fair, but neither was Jerry’s crime. In that way, the process is all too human. 

But, Jerry’s sentence is still inhumane. In no way was justice served by throwing Jerry away to die in a cage. For a Judge to tell Jerry, at the age 28, that he deserves to die in prison is completely wrong. This is not what real justice resembles, as this sentence punishes Mr. Harcum beyond reason. Beyond reason means that the justice system will not take into account the work Jerry has put in, and the improvements he has made. Beyond reason means Jerry is legally stuck, despite the many opportunities typically available to those with even more severe crimes than the one Jerry was sentenced for. Jerry’s sentence is beyond reasonable – for the effect he had on his community, Jerry’s overpunishes him. Jerry admits that, though harsh, prison is the place where he bettered himself. His sentence is beyond reasonable, however, when it punishes Jerry beyond the chance to better his circumstances – when the rehabilitation offered by the prison system has run dry, despite having no impact on his legal options.

Jerry Harcum, having exhausted all legally available avenues, is still set to die in prison. Over eleven years of incarceration, he has been completely free of infractions and incidents, not causing any trouble since entering the system. He is a man of deep faith who spends much of his time on spiritual and moral development. After taking advantage of rehabilitation options inside, he is now a sophomore in the Georgetown University Bachelors of Liberal Arts program at Patuxent Institution in Maryland, an experimental degree program offered to some of the best and brightest incarcerated individuals in the state. Jerry has a 3.78 grade point average and is in progress to graduate with a degree in Interdisciplinary Social Science. Throughout his incarceration, rehabilitation has been his primary focus – not only for self-improvement but to remain an effective and dedicated father, albeit restricted, given his circumstances.

We hope you find it in your heart to end this torturous circle of injustice. We are asking for as many signatures as possible to present our petition to Governor Wes Moore – the Governor of Maryland – to grant Jerry clemency. 

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If you have any questions or feel inclined to provide assistance of any kind, feel free to email: monicabrockman@hotmail.com