Diana’s Story: Fighting to Bring Jason Home Alive

In 2004, Diana’s world shattered when her son was killed in a home invasion. That tragedy was only the beginning. Her eldest son, Jason, then just 16, was brutally beaten by a group of 30 youths. He survived, but the coma left him with permanent frontal lobe damage. Mentally, Jason never fully recovered.

Trying to find stability, Diana got him into programs and a facility—but violence followed him there, too. Developmentally challenged and isolated, Jason fell in with gangs. The Latin Kings and later the Nepas used him as a pawn; he was cut so badly once he needed over 50 stitches. Arrests piled up, and he became the fall guy in situations he could never fully understand. Today, Jason is serving 18-to-life, fighting for clemency.

Prison has been relentless. In Sing Sing, he clashed with the Bloods with no protection from the guards. In Sullivan, guards turned their heads while he was assaulted and sodomized. Additionally, guards let others rob him while he was in the hospital and later ignored injuries or ridiculed him ..injuries so severe that he now lives with a colostomy bag. Every move from one prison to the next, brought new dangers. Every ticket or fight was just Jason trying to survive in a system where the culture is brutal and divisions run deep.

Diana has continued to fight taking her story all the way to the legislature just to get her son the medical care he needs. Senator Salazar and her staff person, Mark Mishler have been helpful.  Yet she fears her son will come home in a body bag if nothing changes.

“I worked for the Supreme Court for 26 years,” Diana says. “My son is trapped in a system designed to break him. I just want him to come home alive.”

After so much heartache, Diana continues to fight not just for the only son she has left, but  for an end to prison violence everywhere.