When Calvin Duncan was 19 years old, he was arrested for a murder he didn't commit. Now, he's helping to tell the stories of other men who have found themselves behind bars for life.
From left, Gordon Newman, Frank Green, Sammie Robinson and Terry Pierce open up about life in the Angola Louisiana State Penitentiary.From left, Gordon Newman, Frank Green, Sammie Robinson and Terry Pierce open up about life in the Angola Louisiana State Penitentiary.When Calvin Duncan was 19 years old, he was arrested for a murder he didn't commit.
Since becoming a free man in 2011, Duncan has dedicated his time to telling the stories of those still inside, through an immersive digital experience called Duncan, like many of those young men, was supposed to serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole. ThenWhen Duncan finally left prison, he couldn't forget the men still locked up. He wanted to find a way for the public to get to know them like he did. That's what led him to meet Marcus Kondkar — a sociologist professor at Loyola University in New Orleans — whom he co-founded The Visiting Room Project with.
"For 23 years, my job was to assess people sentenced to death and also people that was wrongfully convicted," he says."I saw them mature into productive men. And they became the mentors of the prison — the cooks, the horsemen. They became the preachers; in some cases, like myself, became lawyers, jailhouse lawyers."Duncan's success story of getting released is rare, especially in the state of Louisiana. The chances of getting a life sentence commuted or overturned there.
"A lot of us are volunteering to the hospice program," says Terry Pierce, one of the interviewees in The Visiting Room Project."We're nursing people who, just like us, came here young and are dying in prison. Hospice gives us a glimpse of what we are headed for."Duncan wants people to see prisoners as more than a number
"Because when you're in prison, one of the things you don't do, you don't show weakness. You grow up as a kid not even being able to express yourself. To finally get a chance to say out loud this is who they are, that was the thing that they was most grateful about, is being given that opportunity."And as for his own hopes for the project? He wants people to stop seeing prisoners as numbers and data.
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