Maurice is now serving his 21 st year on parole in Texas. A highly successful businessman and philanthropic community leader, he is still denied the right to vote because of a conviction from decades ago.

Q: Are you from the Dallas area?

Born and raised here in Dallas. September 27 th, 1943.

Q: Tell me about what happened in terms of the charge and the sentence…

The sentence I am serving now is my third conviction for drug possession. The first two sentences I received, I received two years. The third sentence, I received a forty-five year sentence. I was indicted under the habitual criminal law. Which, at the time, carried a life sentence. But at my trial, they had to strike one of my prior convictions. That put me in a position where I could get a sentence anywhere from five years to ninety-nine to life. And I received a forty-five year sentence.

Q: What were you found in possession of?

Actually, they didn’t find anything on me. I was at an apartment with a lady-friend I had a relationship with. The police raided the apartment and found 35 capsules of heroin in a sleeping tablet bottle in her jewelry box. The dictates of what was going on, they didn’t want her, they wanted me.

They- it might seem melodramatic- but the arrest was all about trying to turn me into an informant and that didn’t happen. They took me to trial, and even though during my trial they never linked me directly to the house, the drugs, nothing was found in the house that belonged to me. During my trial, the manager even testified I didn’t live there. But they convicted my under the “law of parties” that I knew what was going on.

Q: What do you mean about turning you into an informant?

That’s what they told me when I got downtown. That if I agreed to go to work, they would let me walk out. And I refused it. So the officer assured me at that time that he was going to get me a life sentence. This was in December, 1977; the latter part of January. I have forty-five years.

Q: Did they intentionally arrest you or was it that after they arrested you, they tried to make you an informant?

It was set up for that. They had a search warrant that was a rubber stamp, the policemen testified during my trial that no surveillance was set up, they didn’t see any traffic coming in and out of her apartment, but that they knew I was there. From there, it just snowballed down hill. I was indicted. I had my grand jury testimony. The officer testified at the grand jury and I was indicted solely on that. There was no laboratory report. As a matter of fact, the analysis at that time, there was no laboratory back then unless you were going to trial. I checked my prior records and there was no laboratory report for my prior convictions either- it was always a plea.

Q: What were the other two convictions for?

Heroin. The same thing. I was a heroin addict.

I’ve been arrested multiple times in my life, but just three times I went to prison.

Q: How many times was drug treatment offered as an option?

Drug treatment was never offered as an option. As a matter of fact, my lawyer asked them to allow me to go to a program and the judge refused.

Q: For how many years were you struggling with heroin addiction?

Seventeen, eighteen years.

Q: How old were you when your use began?

I was in my mid-20’s.

Q: Had you tried entering treatment on your own at any point?

I had been to treatment in Ft. Worth under the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act in 1968. Under NARAC, a person addicted to drugs is considered an illness, but not here in the state of Texas.

My first trip to prison was 1973, my second was 1976, and my third was 1978. When I realized what was really going on in my life, I was in prison for the third time in less than five years on a forty-five year sentence.

Q: What did you realize?

It was time to make a change in my life. As a matter of fact, on my way to the police station, I quit in the car, I made up my mind I would never use heroin again.

Q: How do you view your experience with the criminal justice system? Are you thankful for it? Do you resent it?

I am thankful for it. As hard on me and as hard on my family as it was. Because I know if that hadn’t happened to me at that particular time I know I wouldn’t be alive today. As a matter of fact, I was in the courthouse one day and saw a prosecutor who had prosecuted me. And I stopped him and he had this weird look in his eyes because he didn’t know what was going on. And I thanked him for saving my life. He said, “What do you mean?” I told him he saved my life. He hadn’t of done what he did to me, I wouldn’t be alive today. He was basically in shock. But I was sincere. My drug addiction was so out of control, it was growing and growing and growing. It was just a matter of time before it would take me away.

Q: How many years actually serve for the third charge?

About seven years and eight months.

Q: So, when you were released you still had about 38 years of parole?

I was released Sept 28, 1984. Sept 28, 2005 I will have been on parole for 21 years and I still have seven years to go.

Q: What does it mean to be on parole for that long a time? What responsibilities do you have?

The primary responsibility is that you must do what you agreed to do in your parole paperwork. I haven’t had any problems with the police in all this time. This is the first time since I was a teenager that I haven’t been involved in the criminal justice system as a violator of any kind.

Q: Do you still meet with your parole officer?

No. Approximately 17 years ago I was placed on annual. I write in, let them know where I live, where I am working. If anything occurs- change of address or something else- I let them know. I am thankful I don’t have to go every month. Most certainly. As long as I live by the conditions of the parole, I’ll be fine.

Q: How do you feel about being on parole for 28 years after you’ve served your time?

I am really not happy with it, to the point that when you try to make a difference in the community in which you live, your opportunities are limited. Where you live, what you do, is limited. Certain situations you try to get involved with where they do background checks and things like this, you know you can make a difference, but you have to side-step it because they’ll check.

Q: What would happen if they ran a check on you?

I think 99% of the time, it would stop right there. Because of going into prison. What I’ve done since prison, it wouldn’t mean too much.

Q: Who would run the background check?

Different organizations. For example, a few years ago I was asked to serve on the board of a community trust fund- a business association to help small businesses through grants. At the time, I was operating two businesses in South Dallas, but I knew a background check was going to be run, so I just refused it. To me, it didn’t make any sense to fill out an application and tell them I was willing to serve when I knew what was going to come back from my background check. So you still have your guard up even though you are out here trying to make a difference.

Q: How would you describe your career since you got out? What business are you involved in?

I’ve been involved in a lot of things since I’ve been out, a lot of community things. At first, it was anonymous, because I wasn’t looking for accolades or anything for the things I was doing. But it came to a point where some friends said if you’re going to do this, we have to tell who is supporting us. I had a friend who was doing gang intervention with the city of Dallas. I got involved with the West Dallas Community Center. They have a youth program. I help sponsor several things. I was co-founder of the South Dallas Rescue Center, we feed the homeless four days a week. We started out feeding red beans and rice and it grew to a situation where we could provide a hot meal four days a week.

Q: What kind of businesses did you own?

Record stores. In 1986, I opened up Mr. Blues Records and Gift Shop at 1500 Martin Luther King. In 1993, I grew to open another store in North Dallas, but I moved it back down to South Dallas. I had a chance to get more involved because I joined the Black Chamber. The Chamber was an experience I will never forget because eventually I was elected to the Board of Directors. I got to be involved in a lot of things going on around Dallas. The crowning moment of that was I received the Quest for Success Award from the Black Chamber in 2002.

Q: It wasn’t a problem being on parole?

I never did discuss that with them.

Q: How would you describe the experience in prison?

Prison is hard. It is very difficult, because when you get to prison, you’re not your own self person anymore. You’re not allowed to make decisions for yourself. Your whole day’s activities revolve around a work schedule. I didn’t have any problem with the inmates, I was well known from the streets, so guys start to gravitate toward you. I was bitter, I can’t lie about that. Because I wasn’t happy with what happened to me and the way it happened.

When I had the opportunity to take a vocational class, a horticultural class, I met an instructor. He started to talk to me when he saw I was sincere. I give him credit, more than anyone else, for changing my thought pattern about the person I was and the person I would be after I left prison. He questioned me about what I was going to do when I got out. At the time I didn’t know and that’s what I told him. The only thing I could tell him was that I wasn’t going to use drugs anymore. He didn’t believe I had been a drug addict. I told him for a period that’s what I did.

I knew leaving prison, that I didn’t want to go back to prison again. I wanted to be productive. I wanted to help people in any way that I could, to straighten their lives out. The business I was in, I made a lot of money. I gave a lot of money away. When my business was really at its peak, when guys got out of prison and came by my store, I would give them $200 because I knew the plight they was in. It was just the mere fact that it was a person coming out from incarceration and me being incarcerated three times, I knew financing was always a problem. It’s just something that you do. A feeling deep inside, that this person might make it all the way, that giving him $200 might be the incentive he needs.

A lot of people have helped me since I’ve been out of prison this time. A lot of people helped me that knew me before, that saw I wasn’t going to continue that downward spiral and a lot of people have helped me that didn’t know me then, and some have helped me today that probably still don’t know about my past. I am not ashamed of my past, I think it is part of the growing process. Not everyone is in the position to live a rosy life. A lot of stuff happens to us that we don’t know or think about, about the environment that we came out of, what society has in store for a person, coming from certain areas of the city, certain areas of the neighborhood.

Q: How have things changed since the 70’s and 80’s?

I think the most important thing and I don’t think it’s really a change, I think it’s the way things are done in the prison system, there are too many people coming out of the prison system illiterate. There are people coming out of the system without vocational training. If a person goes to prison and he has any kind of time where he could get a GED, then that should be the primary concern, to get him educated. If you send him back out not being able to read and write, with no education like he went it, you are sending him back to being destitute again. You don’t really have too many choices when you come out. Getting into the job market is difficult if you haven’t been in the prison system. If you don’t have a trade, and you can’t read and write, these guys are going back to the streets.

Q: So there are fewer opportunities now?

I had the opportunity in 2003, I had made contact with the professor that taught me and I wrote him a letter to let him know the things I had been doing. Professor Langley invited me to Huntsville to speak to the faculty. My understanding at that time was they were trying to do away with the vocational programs in the prison. I haven’t spoken with him for a while, I don’t know if that came about. I encouraged them to continue to do what they were doing. I let them know that professor Langley made a difference in my life. If they can turn one life around, it’s worth it. There were some state representatives there and I had a chance to speak with them. But you don’t take vocational training out of anywhere!

Q: What would have happened if you had never had the courses or a mentor like Langley?

At that time, I had never, coming from segregated neighborhood, I had never had a white friend. I always felt that I was Maurice, that I could handle any situation, that I didn’t need to talk to anyone. That I could just be me. After professor Langley and I got to the point where we could talk about not just class, but life on a regular basis, I realized that you can’t go through life without having someone to talk to. I left prison as the age of 40. Prior to that, I had never had a plan. He brought this to my attention. “You’ve got to have a plan Maurice.” When I got out, I wanted to get involved with drug rehabilitation when I first got out. I found out how difficult it was for a person with no background experience to get some finances so I went to work. In a couple of years, I was able to open up a record store. It just took off from there. A snowball down hill, everything I touched turned to gold. Especially after I got on an annual [parole supervision] and I could travel- it took me a little over two years.

I got a chance to be in the record industry. I was selling so much music they started inviting me and my family to conventions to learn about music. I went to different cities, Chicago. There had never been a black independent retail association in the history of the business. We went into Chicago and set that organization up- National Urban Retailers Association, NURA.

Q: Is there anything else in particular you would want to say?

Well, yes. I think with the trip the Texas Justice Network is making to Austin, I pray it is fruitful, because I am not the only person that has been out for excess of ten years without any problems who is still on parole. We need to do something about that. How long do you pay? It is a cloud over your head. If I left here right now and got into any type of situation, and I went back to prison, all this time has been lost, I would have start back in September of 1984, that doesn’t make any sense.

Q: So if you served time, it would be 28 years?

All over. I would have to go back and do it.

I know guys, on a technical violation, get seven, eight, ten years. Somewhere it has got to stop. I think the time is right. I am grateful, that someone even had the foresight to put this up on the table. If prison is about rehabilitation, what more point of view can you have for rehabilitation that when you have someone out of prison for a large number of years and being productive in society? When you are out of prison ten years, you are a tax payer. You are paying some form of years. Even being out 20, going on 21 years, I can’t vote. When it comes to the polls, I have to ride on by.