WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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The release of Robert Evans Lee from the Pendleton Correctional Facility became a public event in Bloomington last week. News outlets covered the release, as well as outrage from many in the local community. Lee was convicted in 1987 of murdering and dismembering 31-year-old Ellen Marks on the city’s west side. Although he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the crime, he got out after only 25. Lee was originally scheduled to be released in Bloomington, but public pressure forced the Department of Corrections to move him to Jennings County instead. Now a so-called free man, Lee will face a similar set of challenges to many who are released from prison with no job, no money, little community support, and criminal histories that make it exceptionally difficult to get re-established in society. For this WFHB feature exclusive, correspondent Joe Crawford speaks with the director of Indiana’s parole services division, as well as the coordinator of a local Friends of Prisoners Task Force, about what life is like for ex-cons like Lee when they’re released.
