Who We Are
More Than Our Crimes seeks to give a voice to the thousands of Americans, mostly people of color, who were once convicted of violent crimes and now have served a decade or more behind bars and deserve a second chance to live freely and contribute to their families and society. Our goal: to assure these individuals are included in the growing wave of reform proposals designed to end mass incarceration.
We work by sharing the stories of both individuals still behind bars and those who have won their release, humanizing them to those who only know their past crimes. We use these stories to educate as well as to advocate for humane and fair reform.
More Than Our Crimes was founded in 2020 by Robert Barton and Pam Bailey, who forged an unusual collaboration after meeting through a penpal letter exchange.
Robert Barton
Co-founder
Robert grew up in southeast D.C. and was convicted of murder at the age of 16; he was not the actual shooter in the crime but was present and thus judged to be as guilty as the one who was. He is serving a sentence of 30 years to life, but has used that time to read voraciously; write the first draft of a book; earn an associate degree in business administration; and—when he returned to the D.C. jail for nearly two years in a petition for early release, become both a mentor for the Young Men Emerging program and a 4.0 participant in the Georgetown Prison Scholars program. That petition, along with an application for parole, was denied and he is confined today to the U.S. penitentiary in Coleman, Florida. He regularly publishes with Pam Bailey, his collaborator, on a Medium blog.
Pam Bailey
Co-founder
Pam grew up in Chicago, where she began her career as a daily newspaper crime reporter. Today, she is a freelance journalist; founder of and writing coach for We Are Not Numbers, a youth program in the Gaza Strip; and—now—activist for reform of the justice system in the United States, beginning with D.C. Oh, and during the day, she works as director of communications for People Powered.
Anthony “Pete” Petty
Co-lead, outreach team
Pete was incarcerated at the age of 16 for 30 years. He was released in 2020, and since then has done everything possible to advocate for both his fellow returned citizens and his friends still behind bars. Pete works as a credible messenger (youth-support mentor) for the East of the River Police Community Partnership (ERPCP), coordinates the violence interrupter program for J&J Monitoring, serves as site supervisor in the Safe Passage program organized by InnerCity Collaborative, and is an advisory council member for Neighbors for Justice.
James Carpenter
Co-lead, outreach team
James was incarcerated at the age of 17 for 24 years. He was released in 2019, and now works as a credible messenger (youth-support mentor) for the East of the River Police Community Partnership (ERPCP), an advisory council member for Neighbors for Justice and a site lead with Safe Passage.
Colie “Shaka” Long
Co-host, Voices Unlocked podcast, and outreach team member
Colie first became an author, speaker and criminal-legal reform advocate while serving 26 years of incarceration. Now, in his role at Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, he supports program administration, returning citizens and prison scholars at the D.C. Jail. Since his release in July 2022, Shaka has also served as a Justice Reform Fellow for FAMM and is the subject of an upcoming documentary about D.C.’s second look legislation.
Herb Robinson
Outreach team member
Herb was released from prison in 2022 after serving 20 years in D.C. shelter homes, jail and federal prisons. He is a strong advocate for Alternatives to Violence training, in which he participated in prison, and is co-lead for the end-solitary-confinement task force convened by DC Justice Lab.