Author Archives: William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

About William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Award-winning poet, playwright, and essayist. Author of three books of poetry, "Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present"; "Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats"; "The Black Feminine Mystique," and a novel, "Streets of Rage," written under his pen name Easy Waters. All four books are available on Amazon.com. Waters has over 25 years of experience in the criminal legal system. He is a change agent for a just society and a catalyst for change.

A Father’s Day Message…for Mothers

Posted on June 15, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Beware the self-fulfilling prophecy! One day, in the South Bronx, I observed the following: a young Latina mother with two boys, around ages 6 and 10, standing in front of a bodega. The mother seemed agitated. The older boy was … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged fathers, Fathers' Day, self-fulfilling prophecy, the ideal father | Leave a comment

Drop the Rock, that is, the argument using people convicted of violent crimes to make the case…

Posted on June 1, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The Rockefeller Drug reform movement argued its case for reform by using people convicted of violent crimes, stating that people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses were being sentenced to the same amount of time if not more than people convicted … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles | Tagged Drop the rock, fairness, Justice, murder and recidivism, nonviolent drug crimes, recidivism rates of people convicted of violent crimes, Rockefeller Drug Laws | 2 Comments

The Eleventh Muse

Posted on May 28, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The Eleventh Muse (For Maya Angelou) No stories of female griots? How so? You’re a part of that time honored tradition. Great God fashioned “Lucy” first, The progenitor of the human race. Children first heard stories sitting on your lap, … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged Maya Angelou | Leave a comment

A New Paradigm – Elevating the Voice of Formerly Incarcerated People

Posted on May 7, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

With the recent launch of JustLeadershipUSA, Glenn Martin, President and Founder of JustLeadershipUSA, is looking to elevate the voice of Americans impacted by crime and incarceration, especially people who have been imprisoned, by positioning them as “informed, empowered reform partners.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Malcolm X, Parole, Reentry, Slavery, Uncategorized | Tagged Alex Haley, Alexis de Beaumont, All of Us or None, Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, Blessed and Highly Favored: Memoirs of a Multiple Felon, But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, But They All Come Back: Rethinking Prisoner Reentry, Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, Citizens Against Recidivism, criminal justice system, disenfranchisement, Elaine Bartlett, Era of Reentry, Exodus Transitional Community, felon disenfranchisement, formerly incarcerated people, franchise, Frederick Douglass, George Pataki, Glenn Martin, Great Society, Gustave de Tocqueville, Harvey Brown, Inc., incarceration, Jennifer Gonnerman, Jeremy Travis, Julio Medina, JustLeadershipUSA, leadership development, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett, Lyndon B. Johnson, Malcolm X, mandatory minimum sentencing, Mass Incarceration, mass incarrceration, Michelle Alexander, New York, On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, parole releasing policies, Piper Kerman, richard nixon, Rockefeller Drug Law, slavery and imprisonment in the United States, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet, the glass ceiling, the green wall, The Life of an Ex-Con, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Theo Harris, Thirteenth Amendment, United States, United States Supreme Court, war on crime, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July | Leave a comment

Just Say Yes to the Ministry of Life! (Corinthians 4:7-18)

Posted on April 20, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

When we read the letters of the Apostle Paul to the various Christian communities he wrote, we see the theme of death bringing them together like relatives to a funeral. At times it seems like Paul was obsessed with death … Continue reading →

Posted in Jesus, Malcolm X, Relationships, Religion, Uncategorized | Tagged 11, Acts 9:1-22, Corinthians 15:31, Corinthians 4:7-18, Corinthians 7:29, death and dying, Delores S. Williams, Malcolm X, ministry, Paul, Psalms 28:13, Romans6:3-4, Saul, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-talk, the Cross | 1 Comment

We Are All on Trial with Jesus: And We Must Take a Stand (An Excerpt from a Sermon I gave years at Sing Sing Prison, and at Rye Presbyterian Church)

Posted on April 13, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In this age where one sensational trial replaces another, where we greedily consume the latest lurid details in the Lorena Bobbitt trial, the abused woman who took a pound of flesh from her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, or the trial … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Murder, Religion, Uncategorized | Tagged criminal justice and religion, criminals, death penalty, Jesus and Criminal Justice, Palm Sunday, The Trial of Jesus | Leave a comment

Andrew the Ambitious

Posted on April 3, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Nearly two months ago, when Andrew Cuomo, New York’s Governor, announced that he would use public money to finance higher education in prison, in some quarters people thought that the state was finally wising up and was going to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Justice Chronicles, Politics, Reentry | Tagged Andrew Cuomo, Andrew the Ambitious, building prisons, George Pataki, higher education in prison, Mario Cuomo, Mario the Magician, publicly financing higher education in prison, UDC, Urban Development Corporation | Leave a comment

No Right More Basic Than the Right to Vote

Posted on April 3, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on political campaign contributions, McCutcheon V. FEC, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote, “There is no right in our democracy more basic than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Politics, Reentry, Revolution | Tagged "no taxation without representation", Chiet Justice John G. Roberts Jr., disenfranchisement, felon disenfranchisement, McCutcheon v. FEC, political campaign contributions, right to vote, U.S. Supreme Court | Leave a comment

“I swear I wanna lock him up. I swear I wanna lock him up.”

Posted on March 27, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The U.S. has trained its citizens well into buying into the myth that the criminal justice system, that locking people up, is a panacea for crime, and for other social ills. Earlier today I overheard a woman talking on her … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged lock him up, Mass Incarceration, Parole, prison, prison marriage, Relationships, technical parole violation | Leave a comment

A Comparison of New York State Laws and Regulations and Slave Codes

Posted on February 21, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

A number of years ago, long before Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” while doing research for an essay entitled “From the Plantation to the Penitentiary,” I came across some striking similarities between New York Laws and Slave Codes. From … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Slavery | Tagged Correction Law, Michelle Alexander, Penitentiary, Plantation, religious services in prison, Slave Codes, standards of inmate behavior, The New Jim Crow | Leave a comment

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