We're Still Here Spotlight: Phillip Ocampo

We’re Still Here is a multimedia project featuring stories from people sentenced to Death By Incarceration in Pennsylvania. The first installment includes an essay by Phillip Ocampo, who’s featured alongside his mother, Mrs. Dee Dee, in Amistad’s 2023 documentary No Way Home.

Phillip opens his essay with a description of a tattoo on his left arm: a portrait of his daughter, Ziany, who was just 1 year old when he was sentenced to die in prison. His other daughter, Delilah, was 2 months old. “My family is the love of my life,” Phillip says, as he begins this meditation on the relationships that have formed him into the man he is today.

Phillip’s story mirrors the experiences of countless people in our communities: he was born into a family where love was abundant and material resources were scarce. He went to live with his grandmother in North Philadelphia as little boy because his mother, a movement leader and prominent community activist, was entangled in a cycle of addiction. She had turned to drugs to cope with the pain of losing her brother to gun violence.

As a teenager, Phillip was drawn into the culture of drug dealing by some of the older guys on his block. Two months after his 18th birthday, he was part of a group that robbed a drug dealer’s house, and the dealer came home in the middle of the robbery. A fight broke out, and one of the guys in his group shot and killed another guy. That was it for Phillip and his friends: the mandatory minimum sentence for felony murder is Life Without Parole.

Now 48 years old, Photo is almost 30 years into his Death By Incarceration sentence. When you ask him how he’s grown into such a kind and gentle man, he credits his relationship with God—and of course the women who raised him: “Ultimately, I saw how my mom was transformed through her faith. I thought, “I want to give my life to the God who helped my mom turn her life around.” 

From raising puppies in prison to Zooming into his grandson’s basketball games, sitting with the queer folks at church in defiance of discriminatory attitudes to making handmade handkerchiefs for his granddaughters, Phillip is driven by love. “I believe we have the power to heal one another through relationships. I know that because I’ve experienced it firsthand—through my relationship with God and with my family. I’ve seen how my family’s love, especially my mom and grandmom, has changed the entire course of people’s lives. I can’t wait to get home and join them in showing that revolutionary love to people in the community I came from.” Read Phillip’s story here.