Former Highline student James Jackson hosted a virtual seminar on April 29 featuring a panel of formerly incarcerated students from both Highline and The Evergreen State College.

The focal point of the seminar was on the impact of incarceration at a personal level, underscored by a panelists, who shared their experiences transitioning in and out of the system.

Jackson, who was formerly incarcerated himself, functioned as the principal facilitator of the panel.

“I currently serve as a community reentry education navigator,” at Evergreen, said Jackson. “I help students who are incarcerated and students who are transitioning into our campus communities around the state with college navigation.”

Jackson, who was president of Student Government while at Highline, said that his additional job is to inform the public about matters that influence incarcerated students.

“I am also responsible for educating our communities around the issues that impact incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and students to be more specific.”

Jackson found that those with the most inside experience were those who had the most inside experience, presenting a panel of four formerly incarcerated students: Carolina Landa, Parris Miller, Gail Brashear, and Jordan Silveira.

Landa, who was incarcerated in 2011 for delivery of methamphetamine, talked about her experience finding a place to live after she got out.

“I had to explain my whole background,” she said. “Something that happened so many years ago that wasn’t me anymore.”

Silveria, who was arrested for assault in the first degree in 2012, agreed that housing is a common barrier for those transitioning to the outside.

“I think it’s something that we can all relate to whether, you know, you’re an ex-incarcerated person or not,” said Silveria. “Just like you find yourself in positions in life where you put up walls. So I mean, this is something that we all face all the time.”

Such impediments are increasingly difficult to surmount when individuals try to adjust to post-incarceration life, and it is these obstacles that drove the panelists to advocate for disassembling the stigma through the law.

“I learned the impact of legislation,” said Brashear, who was sentenced to over 50 years in prison back in 1997 for first-degree murder, assault, and battery. 

“And I know that there’s a lot of people out there that want to, you know, implement change and stuff like that, but sometimes they really don’t understand the way that policies are implemented within the prison or in these different ways of restructuring sentencing.” she said.

The Washington state Court of Appeals ordered Snohomish County to grant Brashear parole in 2018 after the court found shortcomings in the Washington state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board’s reasoning for initially rejecting her parole the year prior.

“So I know it’s really hard because especially growing up inside a prison you’re always left with this burden of feeling like because you’re a felon, especially for some of our charges, that you’re never going to be able to pursue these things that are so passionate to you,” she said.

Brashear currently interns for the Washington State Senate, maintaining her passion and commitment to the field of public policy.

“Not only was I chosen out of a massive amount of people that applied but put in a senator’s office. She is the leader in sentence reform, juvenile rehabilitation, and human services,” she said. “So I got to work with her in her small office for four months and got to really understand the challenges of passing laws and legislation.”

Current legislation bolsters the obstructive nature of post-incarceration barriers. Landa said that changes need to be made to mitigate the reacclimating process. She’s been an advocate for legislative changes such as House Bill 1041, which supported effective re-entry into society by altering the procedure for acquiring certificates of discharge and vacating conviction records.

More recently she has backed movements to expedite the return of once-removed liberties from those with prior convictions, such as the right to vote or being allowed to volunteer at her son’s school.

“For me, it has been [about] being a mother, being present,” Landa said. “That’s a really important role. You know, my child is autistic, Zachariah. He’s everything. I started to learn, read books. Like, I wanted to be this present, you know, parent for my child. Everything that I do really is for him. And so me being able to be a stable unit for him really sets everything up differently for me moving forward.”

With all the panelists moving on in both professional and academic circles, they aim to mitigate the process for those who wish to follow in their footsteps.

“Transitioning people are expected to find housing and employment as part of their conditions,” Jackson said. “If they have no family support, imagine trying to keep up with those expectations.”

Jackson said that returning citizens are often thrown in the deep end when it comes to setting up a place to live, work, or learn.

“They may be returned to prison or jail for violating conditions of their supervision. So it’s almost like a setup,” he said. “Because if you don’t have strong family support and you’re just kind of thrown out there, you go right into homelessness and everything, it can be really hard to overcome those barriers.”