Change Agents The Podcast

Shimere Love-Shanklin: From Struggle to Strength

• Reparations Media • Season 5 • Episode 2

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“Shimere Love-Shanklin: From Struggle to Strength”


Finding employment and opening doors that seem permanently closed is a barrier that people with felony records continually face. Shamere Love-Shanklin knows this reality all too well. In this episode, Love-Shanklin shares her reentry journey—navigating the challenges, embracing the triumphs, and reclaiming her identity after years of incarceration—and how her criminal justice reform advocacy work transforms the system designed to hold people like her back.

Produced by Aaliyah McFadden and Isabella Salinas [PRODUCER CONTACT/HANDLE] for Reparations Media NFP 

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Keywords: Illinois, Incarceration, systems impacted, justice reform, Chicago, Rockford, Activism, housing rights, employment discrimination, felony disenfranchisement, family separation, restorative justice, recovery, domestic 



SPEAKER_01:

Nobody really talks about the women who are behind bars, right? And my experience being in prison and being around so many different women changed my perspective on life.

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We met Sharmila Vashanglin on Chicago's South Side at the offices of the Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments, where she serves as coordinator. She tells us about the long road that led here and the challenges she faced.

SPEAKER_01:

I went in with the attitude like, I don't deserve to be here. I don't resonate with these women. We don't come from the same background, like nothing. But because I was forced in that situation, I was forced to interact with them or I was going to be a loner. And with that interaction, I realized, wow, We have more in common than we do differences. We're actually all

SPEAKER_00:

the same. This is an interview with Shymere Love Shanklin for Change Agents, the podcast, and I'm Aaliyah McFadden. My co-producer, Isabella Salinas, and I interview Shymere in a small conference room the size of an office cubicle. She's dressed stylishly. in a cute black top with ties in the back and a set of beautiful nails as she tells her story on reclaiming her life after being formally incarcerated. Shyamir grew up in Rockford, Illinois. She was raised alongside her two younger siblings by her mother and stepfather. My

SPEAKER_01:

mom worked extremely hard to take care of myself and my younger brother and sister. Growing up, Shamir struggled with her father's absence. I've never talked about it, like, in a space like this. I hate to use this word, but I hated my brother and sister because they had their dad in their life and I didn't have mine's. And I just couldn't understand. And it's like, even though I did not know who my dad was, I loved him, and I wanted to be with him, and I considered him to be like this superhero.

SPEAKER_00:

Shamir's stepfather was abusive towards her mother, and witnessing the abuse had a profound impact on her later in life.

SPEAKER_01:

Watching my mom be abused and was treated horribly by my stepdad, you would think that that's the type of man that I would want to stay away from. But it really was a total opposite. I watched my mom be abused by him, but I also watched my mom love him unconditionally and be with him throughout life. the trauma experiences that she faced. So I grew up dating men just like him.

SPEAKER_00:

This cycle of abuse led to Chimera's incarceration. At 24, Shamir was a young mother dealing with severe postpartum depression. It was a condition she had little understanding of and was also mishandled by her doctors. After years in an emotionally abusive relationship with the father of her daughter, she lashed out in an impulsive act and set fire to his porch. The fire spread out of control and engulfed the entire house in flames. It's a decision she regrets to this day. Shymere was charged with arson without the owner's consent and sentenced to nine years. She says the prison system failed to account for the trauma inflicted on mothers and their children during incarceration.

SPEAKER_01:

her being stripped away from me and me being stripped away from her was just the hardest thing ever. And during the two and a half years that I was gone, my family came and visited me twice. After that second time of them visiting me, I had to ask my mom not to come anymore because it just was, it was too hard. Like when they would leave and my daughter would kick and scream, begging for me to come with them. And it was like, it would just tear me up every single time. And I just couldn't, I

SPEAKER_00:

couldn't deal with it. Shamir says that the prison is particularly hard on women, voting upon the trauma that often led to their incarceration. Prisoners often lack adequate health care and mental health services. She says this experience is dehumanizing.

SPEAKER_01:

You have to deal with... women being treated like animals. And being denied access, the items, the necessary items that we need to take care of ourselves when that time of the month comes, it's like a different feeling. It's

SPEAKER_00:

like, wow, you feel so low. Shamir served two and a half years after her sentence was adduced through the Earned Release Program. She was eager to leave the trauma of incarceration behind.

SPEAKER_01:

I picked up life where I left off. When it came to me finding employment, I could not find a job at all. I couldn't find little crummy jobs, or I don't even want to call them crummy because a job is a job, right? But when it comes to income and stability, those jobs didn't support me in a way that I needed to be supported, especially coming home and picking life up where I left off with my five-year-old daughter. Right? I... Didn't have a choice. Even if I was approved for an apartment, I really couldn't afford to live on my own because I wasn't making enough

SPEAKER_00:

money. Frustrated, Charmere decided to attend college to become a paralegal. Despite her efforts, she still faced employment obstacles created by her arrest record. Eventually, she scored, not as a paralegal, but as a PRN or a nurse on call. Despite sharing her background, she was hired on the spot.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm two and a half hours into orientation. We break for about five minutes, comes back. The instructor comes and says, Miss Love, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. So I'm looking around and I'm like, is everything okay? Is there an emergency? What's going on? He proceeds to tell me that unfortunately your background came back and we're gonna have to withdraw our offer of employment. I kind of fell back in my seat and I'm like, I feel like there's been a miscommunication between you and HR because I explained my background situation with HR, and they specifically told me that they were going to work with me. They didn't care about that. It wouldn't be a hindrance to me, and they would work with me. He said, again, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Shyamir was devastated. You didn't respect me enough to pull me to the side and tell me this. And I just felt so embarrassed, ashamed. Like, I just kind of like start beating. I just felt all the emotions in that moment. I'm not going to lie to you. The rejection. You know what I'm saying? Nobody likes to be rejected. And I just felt that. And again, it felt like I was just released yesterday. And it's like, what more do I have to do to prove that I am no different than you are? I am not the mistake that I made. And it's like, why are you treating me like this?

SPEAKER_00:

Shymere collected herself, determined to let the world know how incensed she was about the barriers before her. She went live on Facebook to let it all out.

SPEAKER_01:

So, at what point do I get viewed as normal? Like, what more do I have to do for people to say, okay, well, she is a human, you know what I'm saying? Because... Being a felon, like you're automatically viewed as the villain, the bad person, once a felon, always a felon type mentality. And I get it, you know what I'm saying? People feel like they have to take a chance on me or am I worth taking a chance on at all, you know? But I am, you know, because for one, I am human. And for two, I made a mistake, but I am not a mistake. In six months, I applied at 12, 15 jobs. And each one of those jobs have told me no. And it's because of my background. And the no's that we get, just the everything. Like, I'm so tired, y'all. Yeah, I don't know. I cried, but whatever.

SPEAKER_00:

Have a good day. Job barriers are only one example of the permanent punishments that formerly incarcerated people face. Others include barriers to housing, education, and even what pets you can own. Shamir was determined to overcome them all. The video went viral. Shortly after it was posted, she heard from the coalition to end permanent punishments and was offered a job as coalition coordinator. The position has offered her a chance to advocate for meaningful and impactful change.

SPEAKER_01:

What we've done is we've combed through legislation and we've discovered that there's almost 1,300 bills that serve as barriers, that serve as these permanent punishments that we speak

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so highly of. The Coalition to End Permanent Punishments is working to pass legislation that will eliminate these barriers. The

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organization has passed 15 bills. The most recent one that passed and went into effect January 1 of 2024 is the Free Act, which is families' rights to estate equity. Prior to that being passed, if you were a convicted felon, you could not serve as executor over your family's estate.

SPEAKER_00:

With the work that Shymere is doing, and will continue to do, she hopes for further change.

SPEAKER_01:

I would like for individuals with an arrest or conviction record to be seen as people. Because right now, it's like we're in this box, we're in this bubble. Society views us as less than, and not as equal. normal people who just made mistakes. Your neighbors, your family members, your brothers, your sisters.

SPEAKER_00:

In prison, Shamir began to journal about her experiences. What began as a cathartic way to address her trauma has evolved into a novel, Rewriting the Narrative, Advocating for Myself, which is set to publish in 2025. Reunited with her daughter and newly married, Shyamir has found a path forward. Through her work with the Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments, she hopes to give others a chance to find theirs.

SPEAKER_01:

We were sentenced one time by the judge. He did not tell us that that sentence came with interest.