The Man in the Suit

You’ll need to take a look at the picture accompanying my post this morning. There you’ll see three smiling, happy, professional people who obviously like each other. One of them is a correctional educator by trade, one is a returning citizen who landed in correctional education and reentry programming and is an expert at helping people who are justice-impacted transition home successfully, and the third is an incarcerated student.

Yep. You probably guessed it. The man in the suit is actually incarcerated. Hard to tell who’s who, isn’t it?

Leonard Bishop was sworn in as an ANC commissioner at the DC Jail this week. ANC stands for Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Neighborhoods in DC have elected commissioners who work as advocates for them with the city. Oddly enough, the neighborhood that Mr. Bishop now represents has historically not had a commissioner since the only two residential buildings in it were the jail and a homeless shelter. A few years ago, an advocacy group made the argument that since the residents of that ANC were mostly residing in the carceral space, they should be allowed to run for the office. The first incarcerated ANC commissioner was elected (also one of my former students), and once he was released, continued in the role until now.

And now it’s Leonard’s turn. To do good. To be an ACTIVE member of the community. To make decisions. To be seen. To be heard.

And he cleans up nice, doesn’t he? :)

I was honored to be invited to his swearing in ceremony, and in his speech, he talked about opportunities given (he’s been incarcerated a very long time from a very young age) and about places where none were afforded him. He talked mostly about the people who care about him, who thought him “worthy,” and smart, and all the things he actually is. He talked about hopes and dreams and the future.

The neighborhood he represents now has more than just a homeless shelter and a jail. Mr. Bishop will be representing DC residents who also live in a new residential apartment/condo building across the street. Some of those residents work inside the jail, and Mr. Bishop will be their representative. I want you to reread that sentence. If you work in corrections, it’s mind boggling.

Today I want to celebrate Leonard for his bravery and perpetual manner of looking at life as a series of opportunities filled with good people. I also celebrate a city that is forward-thinking and is willing to give it a shot. And I celebrate citizens who see their incarcerated brothers and sisters as neighbors. And I celebrate the correctional professionals that have said, ok, ANC commissioners need a phone and a computer and an office space, and made those things available to the first incarcerated commissioner and will continue to do so because guess what? No problems. Just solutions and good will.

Cheers to everyone who makes it happen, and to any system out there who can be brave enough to take note and change the way we approach incarceration, cheers to you too.

And mostly. Ultimately. With all my heart…cheers to the man in the suit. He’s gonna knock it out of the park.