A man named Mark Wilson has helped thousands of people incarcerated at an Oregon prison to pursue legal claims. His level of legal knowledge rivals some attorneys. Thanks to his work, the state had to dramatically step up its medical care.
He's incarcerated too. And right now, in what he believes is retaliation for his legal work, he is facing potential for more years in prison thanks to a misconduct charge based on a joke: a toy phone left on his desk by a prison staff member.
HuffPost's Jessica Schulberg talked to Wilson and many others about what's happening there. Her piece highlights not just the injustice of what's happening to him, but its far-reaching implications for others who he would help, if the prison would only let him.
We talked to Jessica about the piece.
How did you first start reporting on Mark Wilson?
I first learned about Mark while working on a separate story about a friend of his named Kip Kinkel, who also is incarcerated at Oregon State Correctional Institution. They are part of a tight-knit group of people sentenced to life in prison for crimes they committed while very young. Most of them grew up together in prison and have helped each other survive and build what they call a "pro-social" community. In 2018 and 2019, that group quietly met with lawmakers to advocate for a juvenile justice reform bill that would give second chances to people facing long sentences for crimes they committed before they were 18. Mark was an instrumental part of this effort, despite being ineligible for relief because he was 18 at the time of his crime.
The investigation into Mark started while I was still working on the story about Kip, but I didn't get a full understanding of what was happening until much later.
What does the potential retaliation against Wilson mean for other incarcerated people?
It means that people imprisoned at OSCI will have a harder time accessing the courts. When Mark lost his job, some of his clients were stranded without help. One client, a 70-year-old blind man who had worked with Mark since the early 1990s, had two cases that could impact his release date thrown out of court because he missed filing deadlines when Mark was in solitary confinement.
There are only a handful of incarcerated legal assistants in the prison of about 800 people, so even with Mark, the legal assistants were overloaded. Two of the remaining legal assistants told me they're afraid that if they do their jobs well, they'll get fired and end up in solitary confinement like Mark. One even told me he avoids suing the Department of Corrections "because it puts too much heat on you."
What's next for Wilson?
It's unclear! He is currently suing the Oregon Department of Corrections in federal court, accusing officials of retaliation. He is asking for his job back, the misconduct report to be vacated and monetary damages. Getting the misconduct report vacated would have major implications on his eventual freedom. His release date is currently set for January 2025 but before all this happened he was eligible for a sentence adjustment that could have moved his release up to this August. Now that he has a recent misconduct violation (his first since 1991, when he got in trouble for protesting prison wages), he is ineligible for that adjustment and even the 2025 release date is thrown into question. Before he can be released, he has to participate in an exit interview before the parole board, which can cite that misconduct violation as a reason to keep him in prison another 10 years. And if he goes back before the board in 2035, they can tack on another 10 years, based on the same misconduct violation.
As Mark put it, "they could keep me in prison the rest of my life based on this misconduct report."
