Rich, white people going to jail? Insert punch-line here.
The
issue of white-collar crime and prison is typically presented in the
popular culture as a target of comedy and derision, the subject of
Hollywood films for generations. But to the Rev. Jeff Grant and his
wife, Lynn Springer, it’s hardly a laughing matter.
Grant
is a former corporate lawyer who fell into an addiction to painkillers
and liquor, and he served 14 months in a federal prison on a
business-fraud conviction. He and his wife of six years, Springer,
established an organization based in Greenwich helping families coping
with incarceration, The Innocent Spouse and Children Project. The
couple, Weston residents, is planning various upcoming events, including
a panel discussion on the issue of white-collar crime and the impact of
incarceration on families that is in the works for later in the spring.
Springer
has seen the devastation that can hit a family when a parent or loved
one is sent to jail for embezzlement, fraud and other financial crime.
“It’s
not an under-served community, it’s not even served at all,” she said.
Springer said she has seen wives and children of white-collar prison
inmates — with little knowledge of the social-service bureaucracy —
struggle to pay for food and heating due to the asset-seizures by
law-enforcement agencies that typically follow embezzlement and fraud
cases.
“These people are suffering, and no one is
advocating for them. In particular, for family members there’s the pain
of exclusion, ostracism, a sense of shame,” Springer said.
Those
who are sent to prison from the ranks of the upper-middle-class or
wealthy, coming from professions in accounting, medicine or law, are
also worthy of “compassion and spiritual comfort,” Springer said.
Rehabilitation
and redemption are the other goals of the organization. “We feel we are
in the business of hope,” Springer said. Grant ministers to a
congregation in Bridgeport after earning a divinity degree, and he
lectures and writes on the subject of transformation and new beginnings.
Specifics
of the panel discussion Springer and Grant are organizing are still
being formulated. Springer will be joined by other panel members who
know the subject of incarceration inside and out. A screening of a Woody
Allen film, “Blue Jasmine,” which centers on a character whose husband
is a corporate swindler, is being planned.
One
expected guest on the panel to discuss the topic of crime, punishment
and redemption is one of the most famous examples of corporate crime in
recent years, Dennis Koslowski. The former CEO was convicted in 2005 for
stealing nearly $100 million from the Tyco corporation, and he served
over six years in jail. Koslowski recently gave an interview to The New
York Times about his new life as a free man, after he was allowed to
leave “the gated community I used to live in.”
He told the newspaper: “I was piggy…. But I’m not that person anymore.”
The
Innocent Spouse and Children Project, and a related organization, The
Progressive Prison Project, are based out of Christ Church Greenwich on
East Putnam Avenue.
_________
(m) 203-339-5887
Lynn Springer, Advocate, Innocent Spouses & Children
lspringer@prisonist.org
(m) 203-536-5508
George Bresnan, Advocate, Ex-Pats
gbresnan@prisonist.org
(203) 609-5088
Jim Gabal, Development
jgabal@prisonist.org
(203) 858-2865
Babz Rawls Ivy, Media Contact
mediababz@gmail.com
(203) 645-9278
__________
Donations
We
are grateful for donations from individuals, religious groups,
charities, foundations and the like. Donations can be made by credit card/PayPal or by sending your check payable to: “Progressive Prison Ministries,
Inc.” P.O. Box 1232, Weston, Connecticut 06883. Progressive Prison
Project/Innocent Spouse & Children Project are missions of
Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. We are a CT Religious Corp. with
501c3 status - all donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted
by law. Thank you for your support and generosity.
If transformation and redemption matter to you, a friend or a
family member with a white-collar or nonviolent incarceration issue,
please contact us and we will promptly send you an information package
by mail, email or via Dropbox. The darkest days of a person's life can be a time of renewal and hope.
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