October 8, 2025
A few weeks after his 18th birthday, Jonathan Baake was charged with illegal possession of a firearm – given a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. He had a hard time adjusting to prison life and was transferred twice to higher security correctional centers.
That has his mother on edge. She reports that Wallens Ridge has been on lockdown off an one for months – keeping inmates away from jobs, educational and therapeutic programs and preventing emails, visits and calls. When her son is finally out of his cell, Stephanie Baake says, the place appears no safer.
The post Critics challenge new prison policy, punishing all inmates in a pod for violations by one first appeared on Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation.
