DR. CARMEN JOHNSON

From the beginning of February 2020 until now, Carmen has been working with Life After Release after her own unexpected wrongful conviction and incarceration. She took a political hit and spent three years in the federal prison camp for women in Alderson, West Virginia.  When LAR Executive Director asked Carmen to coordinate LAR's court watch program, Carmen accepted. "I don't want anyone to go through what I went through." Since then, Carmen is now the Director of Court Watch & Judicial Accountability and has sat in over 3200 bond review hearings in the District Court of Prince George's County, Maryland as of today. She has trained over 150 people how to court watcher including 12th graders and law students that work under her guidance.  

Carmen also give lectures to Law Students from Howard University School of Law, Berkeley School of Law, UDC School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, American University Washington College of Law and Law School of Yale University with the list is growing.  She promotes this wisdom to the law students, "I expect you to go off to become great attorneys and great judges. I need you to keep your moral compass and continue to do the right thing with your career, your gifts, and talents by the injustice and racial disparity that you see in the courtroom when you court watch every day. Never let anyone go through what I went through.

https://carmensstory.org/         

https://helpingourselves.org/