LIFE BLOSSOMS Team
Project Manager
James is a state prisoner serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Pennsylvania where all life-sentences are non-parolable. He has been incarcerated since 1990. James attained his G.E.D. in 1992, and has college-equivalent education in psychology, sociology, and entrepreneurship. He also continues extensive studies in theology, ethnology, restorative justice, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Yahwism. From 1992-1994, he served as Chairman of Public Relations for the Pennsylvania Lifers' Association (PLA) at SCI-Huntingdon. James is a political activist for life-sentenced prisoners and a freelance journalist who writes about prison conditions, prisoner's/victim's rights, the need for parole-eligibility for meritorious lifers, and the promotion of crime victim/offender mediation. He is a certified instructor for both Laubach Literacy (1998) and HIV/AIDS Counseling (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 2000). From 2000-2001, he served as President of the PLA at SCI-Rockview. He often works with state legislators and policymakers as a consultant on prisoner issues related to crime and corrections. James is both a poet and author of A Life for a Life: Life Imprisonment: America's Other Death Penalty (Roxbury Publ. Co. 2004).
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James M. Moneymaker, Ph.D.
Project Coordinator for Families
Dr. Moneymaker currently resides in Albany, New York after having moved from Washington, D.C. where he taught at Marymount University (Arlington, VA.) and American University (Washington, D.C.). Dr. Moneymaker holds a Ph.D. in Sociology with emphasis in Criminal Justice and Deviance from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Dr. Moneymaker's interests lie in criminal justice and social deviance where he has published numerous articles and chapters in textbooks. He has published in areas ranging from researcher immunity and issues related to capital punishment; to animals and inmates: companionship behind bars, and the social and psychological problems of short statured persons. He is a consultant for the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. for the Leadership and Development Training Program for Probation and Pretrial Services Officers, as well as serving on the Program Evaluation Committee for Criminology and Criminal Justice, Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). Dr. Moneymaker has taught at several colleges and universities at both the undergraduate and graduate level primarily in the Washington, D.C. area, namely American University, Georgetown University, and Marymount University. Dr. Moneymaker teaches part-time in the Sociology/Criminal Justice Program at Siena College, Loudonville, New York.