Churchill: For Marquis Dixon, freedom wasn’t lasting – Albany Times Union

Booking photo for Marquis Dixon of Albany.

Booking photo for Marquis Dixon of Albany.

Marquis Dixon (photo provided by family)

Marquis Dixon (photo provided by family)

Churchill: For Marquis Dixon, freedom wasn't lasting

Albany

Nobody should have thought it would be easy. Nobody should have assumed Marquis Dixon's transition to freedom would go perfectly.

And it hasn't.

Dixon was released from prison days after a state appeals court in October reduced his infamous nine-year sentence for a sneaker robbery to a maximum of three years. The teenager came home to Albany, returning to his family's McCarty Avenue home in the South End.

Trouble found him quickly.

In early December, Dixon, 19, was cited for violating parole and sent to Albany County jail before being transferred to Hale Creek Correctional, a medium-security prison that specializes in substance-abuse treatment.

He returned to Albany and conditional freedom in February, but was again cited for violating parole just weeks later on February 27. He has since been held in Albany County jail.

On Wednesday, I talked with his mom. Aisha Dixon was fully aware her son's troubles would unleash the I-told-you-sos as in, I told you that kid was no good.

But Aisha Dixon insisted he was guilty only, for both violations, of staying out past his 7 p.m. curfew. She said the teen has chafed at his parole restrictions finding it humiliating, she said, to apply for jobs or register for college while wearing a bulky ankle bracelet.

"He's still the good kid he always was," she said.

Good or not, Dixon could be looking at more prison time before he's finally released and free of parole. He has a preliminary hearing on his latest violation Thursday and a final hearing on March 21, according to Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple.

It's likely Dixon will be required to serve the remainder of his reduced sentence, less than three months. He should be free and clear by summer, if not much sooner.

Then what?

That's the big question. We can only offer support and pray that he'll find his way.

There's no doubt Dixon's recent struggles are deflating for those of us who championed his cause because we believed his sentence was too harsh for a 16-year-old accused of a sneaker robbery. We would have liked to hear that Dixon is happily thriving.

But it often does not work out that way when prisoners return to impoverished neighborhoods. Many ex-cons struggle to find work and meaning. And Dixon carries the extra weight of community expectations and a heightened profile.

That profile cuts both ways. The attention probably helped his appeal. But it also means that we can pick up the latest issue of The Alt, a weekly newspaper, and find District Attorney David Soares continuing to bury Dixon and those who advocated for him.

"This is the guy you want?" Soares told the paper. "This is the guy you want to put on your shoulders? There are so many other worthy people."

Soares, noting that Dixon was accused of having a gun when he robbed another teen of sneakers, accused supporters of "an abandonment of facts" and distorting "the truth to fit a narrative."

But here are the facts as stated in the appeals court ruling by Presiding Court Justice Karen Peters:

"The crime, although serious, did not cause physical injury to anyone and the defendant neither brandished the object or uttered any direct threats of violence," she wrote, adding that Dixon "had no prior criminal record or history of violence."

Peters and the court's other justices reduced Dixon's sentence because he should have been given a chance at youthful offender status. The failure to do so was a "grievous error," the justices said, and they subsequently granted it.

Regardless, there's little point in again rehashing the facts and controversies of Dixon's case. It's really water under the bridge.

But whether New York should treat 16- and 17-year-old defendants as adults remains a pressing question. Only two states North Carolina is the other continue to do so, and there's a big legislative push, now backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for New York to join the civilized world and "Raise the Age."

Would Dixon's transition to freedom have been smoother if he had never been sent to an adult prison? We will never know.

But throwing teenagers in with hardened adult criminals certainly doesn't help their return to society. It all but guarantees they'll come to our streets and neighborhoods prepared only for a life of crime.

Guess what happens then?

cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill

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Churchill: For Marquis Dixon, freedom wasn't lasting - Albany Times Union