Forced to father through the limitations of the legal system
By: Sanhita Sheth
He heard his grandsons call out, “That's Mufasa!” and he knew exactly who they were referring to. After spending so many years in prison and having many years of his youth taken away from him, Leo has struggled to identify with the title “grandpa.” His fierce love for his grandsons continues to lead him as he transitions back into free society and reclaims his freedom with the nickname “Mufasa” that his grandchildren bestowed him.
Father’s Day is an annual holiday celebrated worldwide. It acknowledges and honors fathers and father figures who have a powerful and positive influence on their children and society. The bonds that are formed between children and their parents are invaluable, and recognizing and nurturing these relationships is vital. However, mass incarceration rates in the U.S. have resulted in struggles to maintain and protect the paternal bonds between children and their incarcerated fathers. Analysis from 2024 estimates over 1.9 million people in prisons, jails, facilities, psychiatric hospitals, and more (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024.html) across the federal, state, local, and tribal criminal legal systems. For incarcerated fathers, these confinements have hindered their ability to serve as parental figures to their children and maintain proper communication and relationships. Despite overall crime levels decreasing in the past few decades, the number of youth with a father in prison was over 1.5 million in 2017 (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/06/13/fathersday17/). These imprisonments have helped expose the ripple effect created when one person is incarcerated, demonstrating how it affects not only that individual but their family and loved ones, too. The effects on children are severe, including increased risk of suspension, expulsion, and poverty. For these children, Father’s Day is not a day of celebration; rather, it’s a day of mourning, as they are unable to spend the holiday with their father. Making it more difficult is the fact that in recent years, different jails from around the U.S. have been trying to replace in-person visits with low-quality video calls (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/06/13/fathersday17/).
For any child, having their father locked up away from them is difficult, especially on Father’s Day; however, this ill-fated situation may have an even stronger impact on those children who know that their father has been wrongfully convicted and held for a crime he didn’t commit. The Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) has been working for over 20 years now to help free innocent people, reconnecting and rebuilding family bonds, including incarcerated parents with their children. Many of IPF’s clients know first-hand the pain and struggles resulting from being separated from their children for years at a time. IPF Client Leo Schofield will be celebrating his first Father’s Day outside of prison this year, while client and fellow father Thomas Gilbert is still fighting for freedom after 50 years of wrongful incarceration.
Leo with his wife, daughter, and grandsons
Leo Shofield Jr. -
Leo Schofield Jr., a long-time IPF client, was recently released from the Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami, Florida, under parole. He served a sentence of 36 years after being wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife. Leo’s incarceration immensely impacted the way he was able to father his daughter Ashley, who is now 23 years old. The shift from having limited access to his daughter to now being in his grandson’s life in the way he always wanted to was highlighted when Leo recently shared, “It was in 2000. She was four days old. Four days, and I held her, and now I'm holding her sons.” As a result of her father being in prison her whole life, Ashley spent a lot of time behind barbed-wired fences in order to talk to and connect with her father. Leo had expressed how it was like his daughter was “forced to be raised in a prison” and that she knew a lot about the prison system because of his confinement.
Fortunately, with newly reclaimed freedom, Leo noted how the prison system would not have the power to touch and influence his grandsons in the same way ever again. After spending so many years in prison and having many years of his youth taken away from him, Leo has struggled to identify with the title “grandpa.” His fierce love for his grandsons continues to lead him as he transitions back into free society and reclaims his freedom with the nickname “Mufasa” that his grandchildren bestowed him.
Father’s Day in 2024 will prove to be one of the most emotional Leo has had in decades because he will finally be allowed to spend it with his daughter and grandsons without being confined to an institution. His excitement and eagerness were expressed when he said, “So, I'm thinking that this Father's Day is going to perform well. There's no doubt about it. It'll be the best that I've had since being a father.”
Thomas Gilbert –
Thomas Gilbert, whose freedom IPF is still fighting for, has been incarcerated for over half a century now for a crime that he has been innocent of since day one. The legal system has been fully aware of his innocence for decades but has still failed to achieve his freedom and justice. This incarceration has not only taken a major toll on Thomas’ physical and mental health, but it has also negatively impacted his family. Because of his wrongful imprisonment, Thomas has been deprived of serving as a father figure to his son, Okoye, who is now 32 years old. For Thomas and his son, Father’s Day has never been a day where the two could connect and cherish their time together; it has always been a day where they have been forced to remain separated. Through a recent interview, IPF was able to discern the kind of pain Okoye has experienced while growing up without his father in his life. Okè noted, “It’s just been so long. The only thing I really know about him is just people telling me about him, little things here and there.”
No child should ever have to be forced to grow up without having their parents in their life due to a wrongful conviction. Okoye shared how he now has children of his own and would like for them to be part of his father’s life as well, adding, “I think my kids would enjoy that.” The significance of a grandparent being a part of a grandchild’s life is just as important. The first time Okoye was given the ability to talk to his father via a phone call was when he was 18 years old, at which point he was already an adult; it would not be for another 14 years that he would meet his father in person for the first time.
Okoye holding a photo of his father, Thomas Gilbert(L) and uncle, Ralph Gilbert (R)
Father’s Day is a milestone that many may take for granted. For those fathers who can spend the holiday with their children, this is a luxury that is not given to parents who have been wrongfully incarcerated and separated from their children. Leo and Thomas are just two of many people who have been wrongfully incarcerated and forced to love and parent through the many limitations placed on them by the prison system. Children who have been obligated to grow up in the absence of a parent due to wrongful imprisonment have been punished by the legal system, as it is because of it that they have been deprived of having either their mother or father with them during their formative years. On this Father’s Day, we ask for your support of our organization and others like us who work toward a future where no father will be apart from his child due to a wrongful conviction.
