Conditional Release pt 1 (3:35) Izell Robinson

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This is Izell Robinson, inmate number 210006, from Minnesota again. It was brought to my attention that it'd be good to bind up and express the concerns I had about pumping in Minnesota—the practice of adding to a guy's sentence called conditional release. And they have a temporary, ten-year period of conditional release, or a lifetime period of conditional release that they usually add to guy's sentences, usually for crimes of sex offenses and for DWI convictions. So any type of sex offense conviction or DWI conviction, uh, uh, inmate or a guy that's convicted of that, uh, is subject to not only being sentenced to the time that, you know, the sentencing guidelines call for, but after being sentenced to that time, the sentencing guidelines call for [inaudible] in court, um, the secretive conditional release period will be added to their sentence. And oftentimes you're not told about this conditional release, uh, period, you know, when you take a plea bargain or when you're in court. You don't usually see it reflected 'til after you're convicted and you're in prison, and they tell you that a ten-year or, in some cases, a lifetime conditional release has been added to your sentence. Um, this specifically has happened to me as of recent. I was sentenced to 201 months in prison according to the Minnesota sentencing guidelines, and that's all the sentencing guidelines call for. And then somehow after that, this lifetime conditional release period was also extended onto my sentence. And to me, this practice of lifetime conditional release is unconstitutional at best. And I say this because it amounts to a life sentence, because here in Minnesota, they treat the conditional release as parole, meaning that I'm going to be a part of the system in some type of way even after I complete and expire off my original sentence of 201 month the Minnesota sentencing guidelines call for. And because of that reason, I'll never have a chance at true rehabilitation or a chance to adjust successfully back into the community as a true citizen, because I'll never have the rights that a citizen is given, especially here in Minnesota when if a person is on any type of probation or parole, you're not allowed to vote. So I'll never be allowed the right to vote. Um, I'll be never be allowed the right to obtain public-assisted housing, and I'll never be allowed to write to obtain or work on certain jobs, because I'll be consistently held down by, you know, this, uh, lifetime parole that they're calling conditional release, even though that's not what the sentencing guidelines call for in my case. These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.