On Wednesday, 2008 around 9:45 p.m., my name was called to pack it up. I knew where I was about to head still I asked the officer on duty and he confirmed Jackson State Prison. I wasn't sad, mad, happy, or anything. I had no emotions since my sentencing.  I've been numb and ready for this nightmare at the end. Before I left the dorm I said my goodbyes and I love you’s. I gave all my leftover commissary to a guy named William who's been a dear friend to me while I was there. Mr. Davis gave me one of the most genuine hugs ever and told me he was going to be praying for me. Jay Butler, Haiti ..read more

The trial court told Mr. Ofeldt that he could represent himself even though the court was aware of the extensive record of his mental illness. I represented him on his appeal ..read more

Men designed the United States criminal justice system for reincarceration of chattel. Consider: the conveyor belt. A conveyor belt is an essential tool in the material handling business -- continuous moving strips used for carrying materials from one place to another in an endless loop. Mostly belts convey large numbers of materials quickly, heightening efficiency in the transporting of ubiquitous goods. People incarcerated once are prepared for reincarceration by the very system that is titled “justice.” The United States recidivism rate is 70% within five years. The formerly incarcerated tr ..read more

You try evermore to quell me with your oppression guided by your Righteous-given Supremacy, titling me as your private property, trying to erase my essence. Concrete and Bars. I don’t worship you or your god. I am mine own self with wings and dreams of Heaven. You keep on yelling. Artwork by Glynn B. Cartledge ..read more

The P2P series (Prisoners to Paper dolls) examines formerly incarcerated people’s lives. First, I paint full body portraits of them in oil. They stand in portraiture, arms extended while gazing placidly at the viewer – suspended in space and grounded only to the paper doll stands. Then I design and sew each paper doll’s clothing. The series does not end there. I have 8 portraits completed, 2 more on the easel, and preparations for 3 more. I also have made and catalogued 40 jail cell collages; and gathered a myriad of other materials. Most interesting are the personal photographs of the formerl ..read more

Nothing is more discomfiting than sitting in a jail cell having broken a socially imposed code of conduct. Yet each person awaiting in the 6’ x 8’ concrete jail cell deserves not humiliation but dignity. For me, creating a collage of a jail cell is an expression of humanity in situ, a meditative process of cutting, pasting, and assembling disparate materials to form an intention. It is also a codified language that allows me to pull from a variety of sources and condense them into a single image. A cathartic violence to the process eschews calmness that allows the broken-up pieces to be restru ..read more

My work comes from a deeply personal place I occupied for many years. I tell stories of the formerly incarcerated. The stories are not a new or unique but they come from a privileged standpoint of real-time experience. I speak about the old time, long time universality of criminal injustice, which targets the least privileged among us. America set up social rules and norms for us to follow. It then delves out punishment for what it sees as violations of those norms. Those of us comporting with those norms are offended by those who do not agree with our personal sensibilities.    As a ..read more

As a criminal attorney, whenever I represented someone who was held in custody – whether it was a federal crime or a state crime -- they were housed at the county detention center in the county where the trial was to be conducted, aka the jail.  We were allowed contact visits with our clients. I went to the jails often, having a policy of visiting my clients once a week. Attorneys could visit their clients at the jail via a phone with a glass partition lined up beside many others, in small private rooms – the way you have probably seen on tv or movies — or in the housing unit where they l ..read more

Art has always been a part of my life. My father and mother were painters and collectors. I have been a maker ever since my father enrolled me in my first art class. It was at Miss Iris’s Hale Street basement apartment in Georgia. I was five years old and I have been a maker ever since. After a long career as a criminal defense lawyer, I returned to painting and began studying with established painters and artists. I found my voice by merging those two lifelong interests, criminal justice and fine art practice. I have been fortunate to have good teachers who guided me. My current work began wi ..read more

Prison rapes, especially in the male population, have always been a troublesome and alarmingly frequent. A causal problem resides with all those working and living in institutions. It has been proven that if sent to prison, an incarcerated  faces a 1 in 10 chance of being raped. The Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1992 reported that up to 20% of the population were raped. Yet nothing was done. Then in 2001, the Human Rights Watch, a research and advocacy group wrote a piece, "No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons.”  In response, in 2003, the United States Congress passed PREA, the P ..read more