YACOLT — The irony wasn’t lost on Christopher Randon.
The 31-year-old inmate at Larch Corrections Center has nine months left on a nine-year prison sentence, but the bid behind bars didn’t stop he and 70 other inmates from celebrating Juneteenth, which commemorates the days slaves were first freed in the 1860s.
“I think it’s important we celebrate the freedom we’ve attained,” he said. “I recognize the irony that I’m not 100 percent free, but it could be worse.”
Larch, the minimum security prison in Yacolt, is often where inmates serve out the last few years of their sentences, and many have shown good behavior, superintendent Lisa Oliver-Estes said.
With many inmates facing the prospect of becoming free after years in prison, the Juneteenth celebration put their stories against a much bigger backdrop, Randon said.
“It’s about understanding how far we’ve come,” he said. “Being knowledgeable (of the past) so you’re not going to repeat it. Baby boomers stepped forward and often the younger generation doesn’t do enough due diligence to understand how hard it was for our grandparents, and how much easier it is for me now.”
Juneteenth is celebrated every year on a weekend on or near June 19. It was on that day in 1865, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, that a U.S. general rode into the city of Galveston, Texas, and informed its slaves.
Congress ratified the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, in December 1865.
At Larch, the holiday was celebrated at the cafeteria with poetry, family visits and lots of food. Inmates took pictures and heard from recently freed inmates who spoke about how they were faring on the outside.
One speaker was Karlton Daniels, who served over 22 years in prison and went on to co-found Circle of Change, an organization that helps recently freed men and women develop skills for work and life.
Daniels said the inmates at Larch were already learning accountability and how to quell conflicts, skills that would suit them well for management jobs. Those sentiments were echoed by Mickeil Silvera, who was recently freed from Larch, and has since found work in Seattle.
“We all got a chance to go home. If you say, ‘There’s no opportunity for me when I get out’ — can that,” he said. “Put in the work here, so when you touch down, you shine.”
Randon spent the event listening to the speakers and visiting with his mother, Naomi Randon. He hoped to enroll at college when he finished his sentence and study environmental engineering. He currently spends his time as a teaching assistant helping other inmates earn their GEDs.
Normally their visits are limited to the visitation center. The celebration let him and his mother be together in a different way, around others, eating and laughing. Besides the poetry and the talks, everyone ate popcorn and played along in a quiz that got a lot of laughs.
“It means a lot because, normally it’s just us. Here we can see and enjoy what’s going on — even in this ruckus,” he said.
But, even in the fun, he and other inmates said they would need help in the changing world. Some with many years behind bars say they are coming into a world that already seems more troubled than usual.
“(Larch) is a little isolated. But we’re between two large population centers, and every person here would appreciate more support,” he said.
