Author Archives: William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

About William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

William Eric Waters is an award-winning poet, fiction writer, essayist, educator, criminal-justice scholar, and nonprofit executive. Writing as William E. Waters, he is the author of the epic poem Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass and three poetry collections: Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Feminine Mystique, and The Black Blood of Poetry. Under the pen name Easy Waters, he is the author of the novel Streets of Rage and the short-story collection Conundrums: Stories of Law & Justice. His work explores Black history, race, law, punishment, institutional power, accountability, redemption, and resilience.

Parole, higher education, felony-murder and more

Posted on July 22, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

CPR has been in the forefront, advocating for fair parole practices in New York since it was founded in 1999. Since then, other advocates and people who care about justice have looked at the issue of parole. Right now, the … Continue reading →

Waiting for Parole — Between Hope and Despair

Posted on July 19, 2014 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

One of the most powerful forces is hope, oftentimes counterbalanced by despair. In the criminal justice system, nothing inspires more hope than the possibility of being granted and being released to parole supervision. On the other hand, nothing drops one … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Shawshank Redemption | Tagged Coalition for Parole Restoration, death penalty, determinate sentences, Ex Post Facto Clause, George Pataki, Hollywood, hope, indeterminate sentences, legitimate penological goals, life sentences, lifers, murder, Parole, parole commissioners, parole supervision, politics, politics of parole, post-release supervision, Recidivism, the "Pataki Rule", The Shawshank Redemption | 4 Comments

REVIEW OF “JAILHOUSE JOURNALISM: THE FOURTH ESTATE BEHIND BARS”

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

Not much has been written about the history of the prison press. Indeed, until now, according to James McGrath Morris, the author of Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars, the only book was The Penal Press by Russell Baird. … Continue reading →

Posted in Criminal Justice & Punishment, Justice Chronicles, Literature & Cultural Criticism | Tagged Alfred Andersch, Billy Sinclair, Board of Pardons, Charles Chapin, concentration camps, Der Ruf, Erle Stanley Gardner, Forlorn Hope, Fort Kearney, Frank Moore, free press, Great Red Scare, Gruppe 47, Hans Werner Richter, Idea Factory, Industrial Workers of the World, Iowa State Penitentiary, Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars, James McGrath Morris, Japanese-Americans, Jesse James Gang, Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union, Karl Arndt, Leaves from a Lifer's Notebook, life sentences, Mumia Abu-Jamal, New York's Evening World, Ole Lindquist, Pell v. Procunier, postwar Germany, POWs, Presidio, Prisoner of War Special Projects Division, Procunier v. Martinez, reeducate, Relocation Camps, Russell Baird, Saturday Review, Sing Sing Prison, The Angolite, The Farm, The Penal Press, Thornburg v. Abbott, Tom Runyon, Turner v. Safley, Wilbert Rideau, William Keteltas, Wobblies, World War II, Younger Brothers | Leave a comment

Review of “No Man’s Land”

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

Prison is a place steeped in mythology, from the outright lies about it politicians tell to promote their “crime-fighting” policies to the propaganda prison officials print in their periodicals to justify its raison d’être; even prisoners, in their writings, contribute … Continue reading →

Posted in Criminal Justice & Punishment, Justice Chronicles, Literature & Cultural Criticism | Tagged Abandon hope all ye who enter here, Fielding Dawson, mythology, No Man's Land, prison industrial complex, prison mythology, prison rape, Sing Sing Prison, Snagg Prison | Leave a comment

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 Family, Memory & Personal Essays | 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 Advocacy, Research & Lived Expertise, Criminal Justice & Punishment, 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 Literature & Cultural Criticism | Tagged Maya Angelou, Poetry | 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 Advocacy, Research & Lived Expertise | Tagged 13th Amendment, Alex Haley, Alexis de Beaumont, All of Us or None, Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, 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 E. Martin, Great Society, Gustave de Tocqueville, Harvey Brown, 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, 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 Laws, 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, 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 Reentry & Community, Religion | Tagged 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, Relationships, Romans 6:3-4, 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 Criminal Justice & Punishment, Justice Chronicles, Religion | Tagged criminal justice and religion, criminals, death penalty, Jesus and Criminal Justice, murder, Palm Sunday, The Trial of Jesus | Leave a comment

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