Abolition Dialogue: Formerly incarcerated men share their thoughts on punishment, re-entry and moving beyond prisons
Shermond Esteen Jr. and Terry Pierce both spent decades of their life in prison. They reflect on what true rehabilitation and abolition looks like in New Orleans.
Behind This Story: Louisiana currently has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the world, but our communities don’t feel any safer. What are the alternatives to mass incarceration? Our Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellows spent several months researching abolition concepts and talking with local advocates and formerly incarcerated people to learn more about why so many people are locked away, what impact that has on communities and how we might be able to change course. The result is our Scrap the Cells reporting series, which includes a community info guide, interviews and short documentaries sharing information and local perspectives on prison abolition. Have questions or comments? Email us at ledeneworleans@gmail.com.
By Nijah Narcisse
What is it like to rebuild your life after decades in jail? How is incarceration shaping lives in our communities, and what are the alternatives? As part of their Scrap the Cells series on youth incarceration and prison abolition, our Community Reporting Fellows sat down with Terry Pierce and Shermond Esteen Jr. to learn about their experiences being incarcerated at a young age and the challenges (and joys) of re-entering the community decades later as an adult. The two men also shared their visions for a Louisiana without jails and prisons, and what investments are needed to get us there.
Right now, more than 50,000 people in Louisiana are incarcerated, or a rate of 1,067 per 100,000 people, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. That means Louisiana locks up a higher percentage of its people than any independent democratic country on earth.
While prisons in urban centers like New Orleans and Orleans Parish Prison get the most attention, a 2021 Vera Institute report found that Louisiana’s carceral system relies on small, rural jails, where most people in the state are incarcerated and where access to services like education and work-training programs is limited. According to the report, the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections pays local jails $177 million annually to hold more than half the people in the state who have been sentenced to prison.
Shermond Esteen Jr. learned how to bake while incarcerated at B.B. Rayburn Correctional Center in Washington Parish, one of the facilities where he served 20 years of a 33-year sentence for possession of five ounces of marijuana. Esteen now owns and runs Nonno’s Cajun Cuisine & Pastries on Bayou Road, where he is committed to hiring, training and supporting people who are formerly incarcerated.
Esteen said he and other formerly incarcerated people face intense stigma when they get home. That makes finding work and getting back on your feet difficult, he said.
“The first thing you can’t do when you come home… is put ‘formerly incarcerated’ on an [job] application,” Esteen said. “Soon as they find out you were convicted, they fire you.”
For both Esteen and Pierce, abolition work looks like creating a world where people aren’t defined by the worst thing they’ve done. It looks like mentorship and giving support, forgiveness and hope to others, particularly young Black men, they said.
Each of us needs someone “to embrace you and say I’m proud of you,” Pierce said.
Esteen and Pierce are featured in two short documentaries produced by the Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellows. See their stories below.
Watch: Work In Progress, Not in Punishment
Watch: Building Recipes for Re-Entry
This project was a collaborative effort. The Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellows — Elisha Davis, Donald Jacobs, Kennedy London, Morgan Love, Lavonte Lucas and Liza Montgomery — led interviewing, cinematography and direction for the short documentaries.
Fellowship Editors Carolina Murriel and Natalie James edited the project and provided production support. Fellowship Instructor Kathleen Flynn provided video instruction and production support.
Program Director Alexis Reed and Fellowship Coordinator Jay Marcano supported project management and production. Marcano led research and editing for the documentaries.
The Community Reporting Fellowship at Lede New Orleans is a paid community journalism training program that equips creative professionals from underrepresented communities, age 18–25, with skills, tools and resources to meet information needs in their communities.
Nijah Narcisse is a New Orleans born-and-bred creative writer and journalist, and an alumni of the Community Reporting Fellowship at Lede New Orleans. Narcisse is Fellowship Producer at Lede New Orleans supporting the publication of fellowship media content. She produced this article.
This article is available to republish under a Creative Commons license. Read Lede New Orleans’ publishing guidelines here.
Support Lede New Orleans and its community-centered reporting by becoming a supporting donor.
To get weekly emails with New Orleans stories and events, sign up for Lede New Orleans’ newsletter.
