by Landis Reynolds #157028, currently incarcerated at the Correctional Industrial Center
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After serving approximately 36 years in prison, Jackie Taylor (IDOC #880373) was released in 2021. After Taylor successfully completed community corrections, he was making progress in his reintegration and started his own company. Unfortunately, Taylor experienced A debilitating stroke that in many ways was an omen of the difficulty that lie ahead. As many parolees have found happenstance can be your greatest undoing. With mere months left until he was to successfully complete parole he was pulled over in a vehicle where the driver was found to be in possession of a controlled substance. Taylor was locked up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The young woman openly admitted that Taylor had no knowledge of the presence of the narcotics and the charges were dismissed. Happy ending? Not quite. Despite being exonerated for drug possession the Indiana parole board refused to release Taylor from jail unless he went to a faith-based rehab even though he had no history whatsoever of substance abuse. Stuck in a difficult situation, he acquiesced. Taylor identifies as an atheist. Naturally, a devout Christian rehab was not a conducive environment for him. It was only when he and the facilities administrators begged the parole board that Taylor was released to regular parole supervision. After serving 36 years, with no support system whatsoever, he faced a common problem amongst parolees: trying to rebuild his life with no resources, no support, and under the crushing stigma of conviction.
Taylor was forced to parole to the only address that would accept him, a sister of an acquaintance from his distant past. Little did he know the address he was to be paroled to was a known drug den. Taylor lived in a small camper in the backyard in an attempt to distance himself from the illicit environment that often spilled too close for comfort with frequent disturbances and visits from law enforcement. Knowing the environment was not conducive to his successful reintegration and that his freedom was on the line, Taylor went to his only resource for help, his parole officer, Agent Hysell. Despite his pleas for assistance, and his parole officer’s knowledge of his drastically limited resources and support network, he was told to “figure it out” just before his parole officer went on an extended vacation. Within days Taylor found himself homeless sleeping on a park bench. Taylor was contacted by another parole agent, Nublitt, in order to take a drug screen weeks later. Agent Nublitt knew that Taylor was sleeping in a park and took no action to help. After submitting the drug screen Taylor tested positive for THC and methamphetamine. It was later figured out by a laboratory that the presumptive positive for meth was in fact a false positive. Taylor readily admitted hitting a vape pen he thought was regular nicotine and later found out that it was actually THC based which is further evidence of the struggles with technology when transitioning to a foreign world after an extended incarceration. Though agent Nublitt had no apparent solution for Taylor’s homelessness, he had a solution for the failed drug test…. Having Taylor immediately incarcerated.
He was charged with three technical violations: failure to report change of address; failing a drug screen; and failing to follow special instructions. Taylor was literally violated for voluntarily leaving a criminal environment and choosing to sleep on a park bench instead of jeopardizing his freedom. When he faced the Indiana parole board weeks later, instead of applauding his efforts he was told to serve the balance of his sentence of 22 years for being homeless and testing positive for THC. Taylor is in his 60s, making a 22-year sentence effectively a life sentence. Adding insult to injury, the parole board’s determination actually violates the Indiana law and the internal policies of the Indiana parole board, which requires progressive sanctions for minor technical violation, in lieu of reincarceration and limit reincarceration in extreme cases to no longer than 60 days. Taylor was punished for successfully paying his debt to society. Taylor was punished for being voiceless and resourceless in a system rigged for arbitrary reincarceration. The very agencies charged with teaching accountability to the law themselves routinely break it, to the detriment of not only parolees struggling to rebuild their lives under immensely difficult circumstances, but also to the detriment of society at large. This is not just an injustice for Taylor, it is an injustice for all.