New center at Purdue University Northwest aims to help exonerees regain freedom and independence

MUNSTER, Ind. (CBS) — False confessions, a rush to judgment, or a witness that just got it wrong — those are just some of the factors that contribute to wrongful convictions.

As CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reported, a new initiative launched in Northwest Indiana Thursday is aimed at not only helping exonerees get their freedom, but also regain their next steps.

Imagine serving years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit — only to be released without zero assistance and not even an apology. The new Center for Justice and Post-Exoneration Assistance at Purdue University Northwest, or CPJA, is trying to change that.

Dr. Yusef Salaam was present at the launch of the center Thursday. Salaam was one of the five teens who were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman who had been jogging in Central Park in New York City in April 1989.

“There was no DNA evidence,” Salaam said. “There was nothing to match us to the crime other than false confessions that some of us made.”

It is cases like Salaam’s and so many others that inspired Nicky Jackson to help the wrongfully convicted not only regain their freedom, but their independence.

“If you’ve been wrongly convicted in the state of Indiana, we have no services – zero – and I just found that to be egregious,” Jackson said.

Jackson, a criminal justice professor just launched the newly CPJA.

“There’s not even an apology; no ‘I’m sorry.’ And I think that is really very shameful, and we need to do a better job,” she said. “I mean, they literally come out of prison with whatever is in that clear bag of theirs. That’s it.”

Jackson was talking about people like Freddy Gonzalez, who walked free from an Illinois prison after more than 30 years last month for a murder he didn’t commit. He is now beginning a new chapter– aimed at reversing the miscarriages of justice.

“We are here to help people who are sitting in prison right now who are saying, ‘We are innocent and need your help,'” Jackson said.

The center has already started reviewing possible cases of innocence and is constantly looking for more. For more information, follow this link.