Students in POLI 203: In response to the phone call from Marcus Michell, several students put together this resource page for those interested in getting involved. This is of course entirely up to you.
NC Department of Adult Correction Contacts:
Dr. Brooke Wheeler Superintendent of Education Services brooke.wheeler@dac.nc.gov (984) 225-6177.
Dr. Kebbler Williams Assistant Superintendent of Education Services kebbler.williams@dac.nc.gov (984) 204-2412.
Dr. Shanon White Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment shanon.white@dac.nc.gov (984) 255-6160.
Sharon Van Hoy Programs Development Coordinator sharon.vanhoy@dac.nc.gov (984) 255-6157.
To contact the Governor’s office, use the form on this page: https://governor.nc.gov/contact/contact-governor-stein
Select ‘Yes’ for ‘Does this email require a response?’
Under ‘Issue,’ please select ‘Education’
Message
[Feel free to alter this message in any way you desire! This is just a base if you’re not sure where to start. Personalize it, mention moments of the phone call that stuck out to you, why you think it’s important, etc. Make it your own :) ]
Subject: Elevating an Education Concern in NC Prisons
Dear [insert formal title and name],
I hope you’re doing well. I’m a [insert year] at UNC-Chapel Hill, and I’m currently taking a class on the death penalty taught by Dr. Frank Baumgartner. In class recently, we had the privilege of talking on the phone with Marcus Mitchell, a current death row inmate at Central Prison in Raleigh. He told us a bit about various stalled efforts to implement educational courses with the ability to obtain a GED, and how there have been cycles of being told that certain actions would be taken, only for things to repeatedly fall through.
I am emailing in support of Mr. Mitchell’s efforts for he and his peers to have access to a direct pathway to obtain a GED and further education, if they so desire. While I can see that your department offers different courses, my understanding is that there is no concrete opportunity for inmates serving on death row to obtain their GED. As we learned in class, 48% of death sentences have been overturned since 1972 (4,337 of 9,017 total death sentences). Here in North Carolina, the numbers are similar: Over 400 individuals have been sentenced to death since the 1976 Woodson decision, but just 122 currently reside on death row. Most were eventually resentenced to another punishment through court action. Without these kinds of programs and opportunities for education, those who have their sentences overturned are left without any resources or path forward upon release or transfer.
Education serves as a guiding force for many of these inmates, and the repeated disappointments and unfulfilled promises have caused many of them to lose hope and actually backslide in their efforts to make progress through rehabilitation. I urge you to not only create a concrete, feasible plan for inmates at Central Prison (and throughout NC) to obtain their GED, but also ensure that the process is completely seen through and sustainable, so as not to provide even more false hope to these prisoners.
[Optional paragraph about what resonated with you in particular]
I’ll leave you with something that Mr. Mitchell said that particularly resonated with me, and that I believe shows the urgency of the issue: “We are constantly in a state of despair…and just that light of bettering ourselves goes a long way.” I hope that you take this email into consideration, and I look forward to your response.
Thank you for your time, and best wishes,
[Your name]