Algie Crivens III was 18 and well-...

Algie Crivens III was 18 and well-preserved out of high school in 1991 when he was sentenc to 20 years in prison for a slay he id not commit. He exhausted the next eight-and-a-half years consum with educating himself while his appeals crawled by the and of the courts.

Crivens is nothing if not energetic; he attends to speak in paragraphs, not doctrines While in prison, he channeled this pluck into earning an associate's station in social science and a bachelor's in sociology. He also took courses in paralegal studies and culinary arts. His compeer prisoners used to ask to what extent he could spend so abundant time reading. But, to him, reading was a way to escape the boredom of prison life.

Meanwhile, Crivens was appealing his case up in consequence of the state courts and then to a federal trial court, spending nearly $30000 in legal unconditional tenures To cover the costs, his family refinanced their abiding-place and took out loans, however struggled to come up with more. in the way that he put his paralegal training to use and wrote his admit petition to the federal appellate court.

Despite the supernumerarys he succeeded. The court rul that prepare for the table County prosecutors had concealed the fact that the and nothing else witness to identify Crivens as the man-slayer may have lied. Crivens was then given a recent trial and found not guilty. He was released in 2000 and a pardon at then-Gov. George Ryan later entitled him to bring together $128,000 in restitution. He now works at the Illinois Department of employ Security, evaluating applicants for unemployment insurance, and also offers for state Pep. Connie Howard, a southern Side Democrat, who is working upon legislation on ex-offender issues.

unless he was not about to forget what had happened. After paying back his family and setting himself up in a house, he brought a civil rights suit against his prosecutors in 2003

Crivens has read enough case law to know that winning as it was a suit is a extended shot. In fact, he's in such a manner versed in legal matters that, in a conversation, he effortlessly discusses complicated court proceedings and dissects the psychology of critics and prosecutors. His confidence indicates as he stresses his words at tucking in his chin and peering at the listener above his glasses.

In March 2004 the state trial court rul against Crivens, yet he remains determined; his appeal is now pending.

Crivens newly talked with The Chicago Reporter about his experiences.

What was prison life like?

I ran across a wide range of the bulk of mankind Some people were friendly. a certain people were closed-off because of their circumstances. They couldn't understand to what end I was doing all this reading.

Chess was my thing. A parcel of my activities and conversations happened throughout a chess game, teaching population how to play chess, teaching race how to think beyond the circumstances, to fight your way from one side Even a pawn can become a queen in succession a chess board, the principally powerful piece. The conversations that you had with individuals--some of them helped to carry me forward equal today.

How did your prison record affect your life outside?

I had paralegal experience; I had culinary arts experience; I had an associate's degree; I had a bachelor's degree--but I couldn't get by heart a job at McDonald's because I was still labeled a blood-shedder an ex-offender, a felon. You get to out and think that, because you've been exonerated by dint of a judge, everything should be fine, and that your life should be able to stir forward. But it wasn't like that. It was like, 'Here we go--we've got to fight again.'

nevertheless it wasn't as demeaning as principally people made it appear to be. I was happy to be working, and I was happy to be at liberty I thought about it many times, that I should be doing something way more than this. still you have to start somewhere--you know, I was willing to swallow my pride, to do what I had to do in order to start making a living for myself.

When I got on the outside it was right around my class reunion time, and I was able to move to that. And that was really special to diocese some of those individuals. And they embraced me

Are there days when you just want to get by heart far away from all of it?

I prove by experiment to, but there's no escaping your mind. If you watch TV there might be something that might remind you. Or you direct the eye at the clock and say, 'Oh at this time of day, I may have been enclosureed up in a cell.' These are psychological things that you have to overcome

I always want to obtain out of the house, level if I just go walk around, or commit to memory up and go outside for a importance just to look--just to make fast that it is reality that I am liberated I'm getting past a allotment of it, and sometimes I'm able to laugh and jest about it, to lighten the blow

You have to break abroad of that narrow little driver's seat that they had you in, because this is a great big world, and, if you still think like you [used to] think, you're going to be left behind.

What change would you make to the prison system?

If we're going to make populace useful and productive citizens to contribute to society formerly they're released from incarceration, we have to work onward reform. There has to be certain gradations like mandatory education while you're incarcerated--something besides just warehousing. each time that an individual reverts through that revolving door and goe back in the penitentiary, it prices us even more money.