Editor’s Note: This copyrighted story is reprinted with the permission of The Marin Independent Journal
A veteran of the state corrections system has been tapped to take over at San Quentin State Prison, where he started his career 30 years ago.
“It is an honor for me,” he said. This is my last job that I anticipate having so I like the fact that I’m going to complete my career at the place where I started.”
Michael Martel takes over (as acting warden) amid state budget problems and court battles over California’s lethal injection procedures and a plan for a $356 million Death Row complex at San Quentin.
He said he would focus his attention on the safety of inmates and staff and on complying with court orders, leaving larger policy questions to others. “Those are decisions that the Legislature and the public and the governor’s office make,” he said . “When instructions are given, I will try to make sure that we comply in an efficient and fiscally sound manner.”
The prison has struggled with heavy turnover in the warden’s job in recent years, with three chiefs from 1984 to 2004– but seven in the years since.
Martel’s predecessor, Vincent Cullen, was hired in January 2010 but replaced when he failed to be confirmed in an evaluation after a year as acting warden. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said Cullen would be reassigned to another job within the department.
“Mr. Cullen was effective at maintaining the sound operation of San Quentin during his time as acting warden, but it was decided that an alternate placement was more appropriate at this time,” Hidalgo wrote in an e-mail.
Martel, who became eligible for full pension benefits at age 50, said he does not anticipate retiring anytime soon. He is earning $122,000 a year. “Right now I have all the support of my family,” he said. “I have very good health. I still have a lot of drive. I still have a lot of ambition and goals.”
A native of Niagara Falls, N.Y., Martel worked in his family’s restaurant and attended college on and off before moving west and finding a job as a San Quentin corrections officer in 1981. He left the prison in 1986 and served in a number of jobs elsewhere in the corrections department, most recently as warden at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, southeast of Sacramento.
“What I lack in education, I have a tremendous amount of experience and common sense,” he said.
Martel is stepping into a “very tough job” and will face a number of challenges such as overcrowding and staffing shortages, said Jeanne Woodford, who was warden from 1999 to 2004 and head of the corrections department from 2004 to 2006.
“The warden is expected to really be addressing any issue,” she said.
“My only advice would be to continue to work with the wonderful community in the Bay Area,” she said, referring to the nonprofit groups that work with the prison population.
Archives for March 2011
Burton School Principal Bids Farewell to S.Q.
San Quentin’s principal, Ted Roberts, an educational trailblazer, retired from his post after 27 years of service with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Ted Roberts has been at the helm of San Quentin’s Robert E. Burton Adult School for many years. He witnessed first hand the structural changes in education within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), all the while climbing the ladder inside CDCR to be San Quentin’s lead advocate for adult education.
“When I started with the Department of Corrections there were 12 prisons in California,” Roberts said. “The atmosphere was very different back then, California as a whole was a much different place too.”
Roberts began his career with the California Department of Corrections at Soledad State Prison as a vocational instructor.
“I started at that prison in vocations in 1984 as a graphic designer. Back then Soledad was a violent place to work,” Roberts said. “But Soledad was also a training ground for me because much of what I’ve learned stems from Soledad.”
DIFFERENT WORLD
In 1988, Roberts moved on to Avenal State Prison, still as an instructor in graphic design.
“I got to open up a brand new shop and design everything. It was a whole different world,” Roberts said.
Avenal was a brand new prison when he started working there. “It was a level two that had dorm living, Soledad was a level four,” said Roberts. “Where Avenal was a new experience for me. Soledad was old and rigid,” said Roberts. “It was a lighter atmosphere altogether, but I didn’t like the 105-degree heat at all.”
His journey with CDCR began after he took inspiration from his father, Ken Roberts, who encouraged him to join the department.
“My dad worked in corrections for years. He was a sergeant,” Roberts said. “And he taught me everything about working with inmates.”
His father’s motto, treat people the way you want to be treated. “…respect will be given both ways,” said Roberts.
‘NO PLACE LIKE IT’
Born in California, Roberts has lived here most of his life. Even though the state is going through some rough times, he said, “There is no place like it. California has everything,”
Roberts attended Chapman University from 1998 to 2000 obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership. He said it was a wonderful study on how to lead an organization and have a good place to work. From 2000 to 2003, he attended California State University at Stanislaus for his Tier I administrative credential and then State University at Humboldt for his Tier II educational course studies.
“It’s basically the same credential and principles, I can work anywhere in California.” said Roberts.
“I met him after I began working here,” said Frank Kellum, now acting principal for Robert E. Burton Adult School of Education. “At that time I was working in the Maintenance Vocational Building (MVB) Bridging area. I really didn’t see that much of him up close at first. Later I got to meet him and see what his work style was.”
MEET WITH TEACHERS
Kellum has worked in education for 40 years. “I’ve got 20 years here at S.Q. prior to that I taught in public schools in the Bay Area.”
“They had a state audit, and Principal Roberts was very knowledgeable as to what needed to be done to have a successful audit,” Kellum said. “He did that by meeting with the teachers and explaining to them what we needed to do. Then Roberts would go back and check to see if it was done.”
Because of Roberts’ professionalism, Kellum said, his unit got a 100 percent. An audit consists of seeing if you are in compliance with state protocol rules and regulations.
“He would work with anybody. No hesitations about rolling up his sleeves and getting right into it,” said Kellum.
San Quentin’s Television Specialist and Supervisor of the San Quentin Media Center Larry Schneider said they shared a working relationship around technology.
“He was somebody who enjoyed new technology and wanted to see it applied to educational programs.”
Schneider said Roberts was goal oriented and would progressively attack obstacles to obtain completion of those goals. He brought in computer workstations for teachers at a higher level than most of the principals he had seen his 20 plus years of working at San Quentin.
“In light of California’s current budgetary restraints not having Ted Roberts’s knowledge and understanding makes it much more difficult for us to maintain the current levels of educational quality for the inmates at San Quentin,” Schneider said.
“He was a good one who didn’t like to personally appear on camera but Ted was very supportive of the television program itself.”
“I worked with Roberts for a year and knew him prior to my employment 18 months,” said Peter Ainsworth a Teachers Assistant for Robert E. Burton School of Education.
“Mr. Roberts always had our best interest in mind,” said Ainsworth. As a teacher in Japan Ainsworth and Roberts often-shared thoughts on both having taught there.
“His interest in other cultures was genuine and interesting because not a lot of Westerners have been to Asia,” said Ainsworth. “But we both enjoyed teaching and were aware of the short-comings of the Japanese teaching system.”
Ainsworth was an English teacher in Japan for 10 years and said the American educational political system is very different from the Japanese educational political system.
“In Japan I was indispensable but here in America there are many different things that determine person’s usefulness,” he commented.
He said that Roberts was personable with inmates without getting personally involved with them. “I learned a lot from him,” said Ainsworth.
Roberts also worked in Sierra Conservation Center from 1991 to 2001 as a Supervisor that trained inmates for conservation camps.
FITNESS TEST
“I had programs in three camps from the Mexican border to Sacramento that was my range,” said Roberts. “To be in a conservation camp you had to pass the physical fitness test then the firefighters test.”
Roberts was over all the vocational programs from building trades to office and computer refurbishing. He was also able to get back to his passion of graphic arts too.
“Trades to me are a small stepping stones to better yourself, because the majority of men in prison are told all their lives they can’t be successful,” Roberts said. I wanted to show them if you gradually start moving toward something that is small then you’ll eventually get it, and you’ll become successful.”
In 2001 to 2006, Roberts worked as the principal at Pelican Bay State Prison and said it was wonderful with many hard working people there.
“Small staff with volatile inmates,” Roberts said. “I saw a 19 year old get his GED the bad part is he was sentenced to double life.”
In 2006, Roberts migrated here and said there is no place like San Quentin, “this place is a great place to work but an even better place to live.”
He commented that most prisons are isolated with different yards but San Quentin is exceptional with wonderful volunteer programs and educational avenues.
“It’s thriving with energy for men here to better themselves, San Quentin is a game changer for rehabilitation in California prisons” said Roberts. “Plus it has a more settled population than most places.”
However, it was in 2005 when CDCR re-directed 400 vocational instructors. They cut approximately 800 teachers state wide in 2009-2010. “They eliminated all bridging, pre-release and English as a second language and a few more things,” said Roberts. “We lost some real good teachers here. It was a tough time.”
MOST PROUD
Roberts commented that Prison University Project and Marin Literacy help a great deal with the education of the men at San Quentin. Yet he is most proud of his work as the principal of education here at Robert E. Burton Adult School.
“Warden Ayers and Warden Cullen did a lot for the population. They were both smart leaders,” said Roberts.
He said he was happy that he was able to help the men at San Quentin develop their minds because that is what education does.
“I enjoyed making positive changes through education,” Roberts said. “By making them laugh and just saying hello to an incarcerated person will help them. Believe me it will.”
Judy Breen Leaves S.Q.
For the past dozen years, Judy Breen was a beloved and familiar literary presence at San Quentin.
“I will miss all of you…I hope that men will not be kept in here unnecessarily,” she said during her final interview at San Quentin. She has retired for medical reasons and is moving to New York.
Breen became interested in prisons during a London sabbatical from her San Francisco State teaching job.
When she returned home, she heard about the need for volunteer professors at San Quentin.
Breen is famous at San Quentin for her video literacy project (VLP) aired by SQTV book reviews. Some of the books reviewed by Breen are:
“Race Matters” by Corwell West, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, “New Jack” by Ted Conover, “This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff, “Incidents in the life of a slave girl” by Harriet Jacob, “Education of a Felon” by Edward Bunker, “The Road” by Cormack McCarthy and “Skeleton Crew” by Stephen King.
— Fernando Lemus contributed to this story
Remembering Caesar Chavez
As a young child I marched with Caesar Chavez in 1966 from Delano to Sacramento. My uncles were farm workers in the central valley in the 1960s and worked side by side with Caesar in the fields and in the struggle.
I heard people singing “De Colores” and yelling “Si Se Puede” or “yes we can” as we marched behind an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as the lead banner. Mostly the younger kids rode in the buses and walked a little. I remember eating bean burritos next to the bus with complete strangers. In the valley most American Indians worked the fields or starved. My uncles heard Caesar’s message and were compelled to help change the world.
My Uncle Joe Reyes and Dolores Huerta were part of the inner circle of the United Farm Workers (UFW). As a relative I was able to spend time at “La Paz,” the United Farm Workers’ compound in the Tehachapi Mountains and Caesar’s home until the day he died on April 23, 1993.
Since I marched in the ‘60s I am eligible to live at the compound and attend college there, something to this day I have not taken advantage of. I remember eating meals with Caesar at the table. He was such a humble, mild-mannered, human being who laughed heartily at a good joke, One thing that Caesar said that resounds to this day is, “The truest form of courage is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice.” Caesar practiced this throughout his life, sacrificing his body through the many fasts that he endured for the cause.
I can also remember picketing with my cousins in front of Safeway stores carrying placards while Caesar, shouted “Huelga” or “on strike”. I was at the cemetery in Delano as they laid this great man to rest. Everyone present from dignitaries to the common worker had tears in their eyes as Mariachis sang “de colores.” We could already feel the loss of a great spokesman for the farm worker and common man.
I learned many lessons as a child, teen-ager and young man listening to Caesar speak. One important lesson that I learned was that non-violence is a very important tool when used in acts of civil disobedience, and that standing up for the right thing is something that we must all do together. I was taught at an early age about community activism and non-violence, and for the most part have been involved — from the first step that I took on the journey from Delano to Sacramento. Though the focus has changed from the farm workers’ struggle to the continuing struggle of the American Indian, the fact is that Caesar Chavez’ teachings and outlook helped shape my life from a young age, and I will always carry fond memories of those days marching behind the banner of the UFW eagle and the Virgin of Guadalupe.
That march led to my living on Alcatraz as a teenage in 1969 and 1970, fighting for Native rights at the sides of my uncles, cousins and friends during the takeover of the former federal prison by Native tribes from across the U.S. After we left the island, my uncle moved on to the Wounded Knee takeover in 1971, I was not allowed to participate because of my age and the level of danger involved, but that has not stopped me being involved in the fight for justice for all people, especially the minority class that I now belong to, incarcerated Americans. Through the teachings that I have learned attending classes in the T.R.U.S.T. and No More Tears there are still positive non-violent means that we can take to change our surroundings and the lives of all who share this planet with us in a positive manner. To quote the sayings of my first march for justice, “Viva La Huelga” and “Si se puede”, or in other words, “Yes We Can”.
S.Q. Veterans Say Goodbye to One of Their Brothers
Joe Diggs was a friend, father and a mentor to the men of San Quentin. He left this world honorably in a ceremony befitting a soldier who served his country in the United States Army.
Diggs, 60, who was well known in San Quentin, passed away February 2, 2011, while at Vacaville’s prison hospice.
A memorial was held on Feb. 18, in the Garden Chapel for him and three other San Quentin men who passed: Phousaykeo Saysouribong, Robert (Bobby) Brown, and Jimmy Chapman.
The memorial for Diggs was a packed event that began with the Color Guard of San Quentin. The Viet Nam Veterans Group Color Guard consisted of Stanley Baer, Trenton Capell, and Garvin “Jo-Jo” Robinson. Stanley Baer opened the memorial service with a cadence. Then all three marched up the aisle, Capell and Robinson each carried a flag; one the American Flag and the other carrying the Prisoner of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA) flag.
In attendance for the first time, three active duty Army honor guard soldiers proceeded to have a memorial ceremony for Diggs and presented Diggs family with a United States flag. This special honor was facilitated by Laura Bowman-Salzsieder, Community Parterships Manager.
Diggs was incarcerated at New Folsom and then Old Folsom before he finally arrived at San Quentin. He said that coming here was a culture shock. “I’ve been in prison for 17 years, but I’ve been here at San Quentin for seven,” Diggs said.
“San Quentin by far has more to offer. You know that you’re a human being here,” said Diggs. “No one wants to be treated like an animal for years on end. It serves absolutely no purpose.”
Diggs commented that being involved with the programs here at San Quentin helped him grow as a person. “Here I feel like I can breathe for first time.”
Born in Houston, Texas, on Aug. 4, 1951, his family migrated to California years later.
“I don’t know when that was exactly, but it was so long ago that the train, the Santa Fe Chief, still came over the Bay Bridge,” Diggs said.
Diggs entered prison when he was 44 years old yet the last six to eight months of his life, he began developing complications with his heart. “I’ve got Cardio-Myopathy an enlarged heart,” Diggs said. Cardio-Myopathy literally means “heart muscle,” it is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium, the actual heart muscle for any reason. Cardiomyopathies are categorized as extrinsic or intrinsic. Where the primary pathology is outside the myocardium itself, it is extrinsic. However, intrinsic cardiomyopathy is defined as a weakness in the muscle of the heart that is not due to an identifiable external cause.
GOOD HEALTH CARE
In the mid-stages of his ailment, Diggs moved from his cell to San Quentin’s Central Health Services Building, (CHSB). Diggs said the health care at the CHSB was as good as the Veterans Administration Hospital.
“People don’t think so but the VA has pretty good health care,” he said. A soldier through and through Diggs instructed that the VA can take care of its own. “They have an obligation whether vets discharge honorably or not.”
Before his death Diggs expressed his desire to be with his family and about compassionate release for terminally ill patients.
“Some people as they get older can’t take care of themselves. They should stay in prison hospice care,” he said. “But those of us who have family should be let go to pass at home. That’s compassion. Right now as an elderly prisoner, I’m forced to die in prison when I’m terminally ill and pose no threat to society. Where’s the compassion in that?”
While at San Quentin, Diggs was a member of the Prison University Project, Viet Nam Veterans Group of San Quentin (V.V.G.S.Q.), Veterans Issues Group (VIG) and a member of Reaching Beyond the Walls. Diggs worked in education and expressed pride in being the lead clerk for the “Veterans Information Project” (VIP) at San Quentin.
The Veterans Information Project in San Quentin provides incarcerated veterans with all possible information regarding benefits available by virtue of service.
HELP EACH OTHER
“For me working to help other incarcerated veterans gain information is important,” Diggs said. “When you get here and you’re a vet, the (VIP) is here for you. I mean that’s what we vets do. We help each other no matter what, and I’m proud of that.”
However, when it came to discussing the prison industry complex Diggs said that California’s prisons are not serving their purpose.
“We all know some people need to be locked up, but the way we imprison people especially in California we need to be look into why we’re doing this to each other,” said Diggs.
Diggs said there is a responsibility of society to civilize people in prison and overall fact is rehabilitation is not happening in California prisons.
He said lifers should be released because statistics show, “Lifers rarely come back.”
Nevertheless, it is unsound political practice where the parole board and the Governor purposely ignore these facts. This keeps California’s prisons overcrowded, unsanitary and dangerous.
“Lifers who have taken the initiative to improve themselves through self-help programs, getting the GED or AA degrees are the ones that must be let out,” said Diggs.
He commented that California’s legislature must look deeply into new methods of incarceration. Not to use incarceration as a platform for lawmakers in Sacramento to scare the public into voting in laws that help further bankrupt the state.
“No professional jailer like the parole board commissioners, ex-police officers, district attorneys, or judges can truly teach a person how to stay focused while in prison, so when they get out of prison they stay out of prison,” said Diggs. “Only a lifer can do that.
However, this is a business, yet lifers who have done the inner work are denied parole and the people who haven’t, short termers, are released. Those are the ones who you see on the news killing folks, not lifers.”
Trenton Capell has been incarcerated for 14 years and a resident of San Quentin for a year stated that he met Diggs in the Veterans Group.
POSITIVE IMPRESSION
“It was inspiring to know him because even at a the dire time of his life and when he was having trouble getting to his job down in education Diggs always made his commitments,” Capell said. “His name really fit in here because he really dug in.”
Capell added that Diggs made a positive impression on his life that he taught him to fulfill his commitments.
“I met Diggs on the way here on the bus from Folsom in March of 2005,” said Malik Harris, a six-year resident of San Quentin. “In our first meeting I realized right away there was a lot of fire in him, real passion.”
Harris moved in the cell with Diggs to take care of him when he saw his condition had worsened.
“I don’t see what the big deal is when I saw he couldn’t stand under his own power, I knew in my mind there was no one who was going to take care of him better than I,” said Harris.
Right when you met him, Harris said, Diggs said what he meant and meant what he said. He did not pull any punches.
“Since he was here in 2005 he took care of me, I had to take care of him. If you care about someone on the level as I cared about Diggs that’s what I was supposed to do,”
Diggs is survived by two sons and two daughters.
OBITUARY
It seems like yesterday, seeing Phousaykeo “Luong” Sapsourivong busy cleaning the showers for the men in North Block. It was a job that Luong quietly and humbly did faithfully for all of us.
Luong passed during a peaceful Sunday morning, Jan. 16 at age 53. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
He was suffering from Hepatitis C and a skin disease that left rashes and sores all over his body.
With the assistance of Catholic Chaplain Father George Williams, the Asian community will schedule a memorial service for Luong. Notices will be posted in North Block.
Don Specter Brings the Fight to the U.S. Supreme Court
Editor’s Note: Excerpts of this story are reprinted with the permission of The Pacific Sun.
Don Specter has spent his entire legal career fighting on behalf of the state’s least sympathetic population: prison inmates. For him, it’s about saving lives. Many of us, on the other hand, don’t care if convicts live in filth with untreated diseases as long as they stay locked up somewhere. We pass increasingly draconian laws to put away more and more people, stuff our prisons to bursting, then build more lockups only to fill those to overflowing as well. We do this, at tremendous expense, in the belief that we are reducing crime. It’s a belief that has no basis in fact, as Specter has shown in court time and again. So while hearts may not bleed for the inmates—even the thousands who are mentally ill and developmentally disabled—in a state that runs a $25 billion budget deficit, Specter contends that our present policies make no fiscal sense either.
But the state, Specter has found, does not respond to logic. He has been battling a series of California administrations in court for more than 30 years in the course of his work at the Prison Law Office. He began volunteering there while still a law student, served as staff attorney for four years, then took over as director in 1984. Since then, he’s expanded the staff from one attorney to 10, keeping the nonprofit organization afloat with grants and monetary awards from the raft of cases the group has won.
When she first started working at San Quentin, there weren’t even windows, says Jeanne Woodford, who started as a correctional officer in 1978 and served as warden from 1999-2004, when she became director of the state Department of Corrections. She’s now on staff at the UC Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice. “The windows were all knocked out of the housing units. It was freezing cold. Staff and inmates were constantly sick with pneumonia. There were sewage spills constantly. The conditions were unbelievable. And as a result of [Specter’s] lawsuits, the state was forced to renovate much of the infrastructure.”
For the last two years, Specter has been named by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the top 100 lawyers in California. He was California Lawyer Magazine’s Attorney of the Year in Constitutional Law in 2009. He recently returned from arguing a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court concerning overcrowding in California prisons, where 155,000 inmates are crammed into a system designed to house 80,000. The teeming overpopulation has made it impossible to provide prisoners with basic healthcare.
I went to see Specter on a drizzly day.
You’ve been fighting the state of California in court for 20 years trying to get [officials] to improve prison conditions caused by overcrowding. You’ve been winning just about every case but they’re kicking and screaming every step of the way. At the same time, they’re desperately looking for ways to reduce the budget deficit. It seems it would be in the state’s financial interest to reduce the prison population.
Right. But it’s not in their political interest. They’re all worried about appearing soft on crime and having that used against them in an election. Former governor [Schwarzenegger] had an opportunity at least twice to settle the case and both times he got cold feet. He acts like he’s the Terminator, like he’s not afraid to do the right thing no matter what the consequences, but on this issue he just chickened out.
Could you talk about what other states have done to reduce overcrowding and how much money they saved?
Some states have sentencing commissions to look at their sentencing structure and make sure that only the highest-risk prisoners are the ones who go to prison. But, in California, that is far from the truth.
Why does California have such a high recidivism rate?
We send 70,000 people back to prison on parole violations every year. We send them back for only a short period of time, so they take up an enormous amount of resources and only stay for an average of 60 days, which does nothing to rehabilitate them or deter them or keep them off the street for any significant length of time. So, there are a lot of things the state could do to reduce the prison population, cut costs and make the public safer.
I’d like you to talk a little more about the various remedies to prison overcrowding. One of the ways it seems nobody is arguing with is releasing the elderly.
And they’re not doing that, either. But, yeah, that’s certainly one of the groups that pose less risk than others. Another group is the technical parole violators—people getting sent back to prison for missing an appointment or failing a drug test. They’re not committing any kind of serious crime. Also, there are a lot of people who go to prison for less than a year and prison is designed to keep people for a longer period of time—so why even send them to prison in the first place? They could stay in the county jail, they could go to work in furlough programs or halfway houses.
Is county jail also the option for technical parole violators?
You could do that, or you could make them do community service, you could put them on electronic monitoring. Or, if they failed a drug test, maybe you should give them treatment for their drug addiction rather than sending them back to prison—that would be a radical notion [sarcastically].
And would these alternatives be more or less expensive than prison?
Prison is the most expensive alternative. During the trial a couple of years ago, probation officials and sheriffs all testified that if you gave the local officials the money you would save by not incarcerating these people and let them develop programs for substance abuse, day treatment centers and increased parole supervision, they could reduce the prison population that way, too.
I do not know what percentage doesn’t belong in prison, but I could tell you that about 20 percent of the prison population is mentally ill. And if you provided them with good treatment in the community, some percentage wouldn’t be there. Right now, about one percent of the population is developmentally disabled and they suffer terribly in prison. It’s doubly bad for them because they’re made fun of, they’re discriminated against, they live horrible lives because they don’t get the help they need to function properly. Developmentally disabled prisoners can’t fill out sick call slips because they can’t read or write. There’s no staff that will help them. They get robbed and beaten because they’re vulnerable.
And you’ve brought cases like these?
We just finished a trial in May in which the court found that this treatment I just described is pervasive throughout the system. The judge issued an order to improve the situation and we’re working with the prison system now to develop a better system.
I’ve known a few people who have volunteered at San Quentin in various capacities and they all seem to get a lot of satisfaction out of working with prisoners.
Well, these guys are regular people that have done bad acts. And I know a lot of people who aren’t in prison who have done bad things, not criminal things, but bad things. So some of them are nice, some of them are not, but a lot of them are very grateful for the services that anybody coming in can provide.
Veteran Brings Joy to Children at San Quentin
Vietnam Veteran and Hell’s Angels William Mclean was instrumental in bringing joy and smiles to the children of the incarcerated by purchasing presents for San Quentin’s Annual Christmas Toy Drive.
The Toy drive at San Quentin last December almost did not happen. Yet, thanks to some strategic planning from Mclean, the toy drive was a success.
William, 61, also known as Willie was born in San Fernando Valley in 1950.
“I joined the Army when I was 17 because I was getting into a lot of trouble so my mother signed a waiver and with her blessing I went in,” Willie said.
He served three years in the army with an honorable discharge. In Europe in 1968 he served for two years in the Second Armored Calvary. Then he went to Viet Nam and finished out his tour.
“I was with the Big Red One, First Infantry Division, they are now in Afghanistan,” said Willie. “I was in 11 Bravo 10 (11B10).”
As a veteran, Willie has supported the San Quentin Veterans program for the last two years. He makes no excuses for contacting the Oakland Chapter of Hell’s Angels for a donation to support the toys for kids. They donated $1,500.
In 1993, Willie and the club brought a whole truckload of presents to the San Quentin toy drive.
“I wasn’t in prison then,” said Willie. “Now that I am and after I heard about it I was introduced in 2008 to Debra Sheldon who used to work in the education department.”
WALT DISNEY JOB
That same year in the visiting room Willie saw the toy drive and asked about it. “I told the vet guys my club would help if they needed it,” he said.
Willie joined the Hell’s Angels in 1983 while he was working in the movie industry. “I worked for Walt Disney for about three years and Universal Studios for five, I was a grip.”
As a grip, Willie mounted and moved cameras around for shows like Universal’s “Ba-ba Black Sheep” and “The Incredible Hulk.” At Disney, he did the same job for “Ghost Busters” and “MacArthur” with the late Gregory Peck.
Although it was in 2009 when Sheldon relayed information to Purcell that the toy drive was not going well. Purcell brought it to her attention that Willie’s club, the Hell’s Angels, would be willing to help.
“Debra contacted me and I contacted the club, and they had a toy drive,” Willie said. “My daughter Desireé brought the toys down to San Quentin.”
It was kind of funny, Willie said, because they did the toy drive and received so many gifts Sheldon had no place to put them.
“All year long we notoriously seem to end up in a bad light. But at the end of the year we coordinate and organize events and one of the things we do is toy runs,” he commented.
At San Quentin, Willie said, when you do something wrong they never forget, but when you do something right they never seem to remember. “But last year might be the first time they did remember,” Willie said smiling.
In 2010, Ronald “Yana” Self of the Veterans Information Project contacted him. Self told Willie they were having another rough year. Self connected him to Lieutenant Evans, who is now the Veterans sponsor.
DONATED THE FUNDS
“Lt. Evans said the sponsors who had promised to do it, turned out they couldn’t,” Willie said. The one week they had was not enough time to organize the drive, so the Hell’s Angels donated the funds to San Quentin.
Willie a four-year resident of San Quentin has experienced great highs and lows in his life. He and his wife married in 1982 and that following year his baby boy William McLean was born. Then in 1984 his daughter Desireé was born. Yet it was in May of 2008 on the Marin Freeway when a man pulled a gun out and shot William.
Incarcerated when it happened Mclean said, “Allegedly William threw a burrito out of his car, it hit another guy’s car, and something kicked off the road rage on the freeway,” said Willie. “The man pulled a gun out and shot my boy to death.”
Administration tried to get him to his son’s funeral, but that never happened.
Willie said one thing is for sure. There is always room to go up, and there is plenty of room to come down, but he never thought he would ever be in San Quentin State Prison. He commented that some people in prison cannot do for their kids and that children reflect on their parents in prison.
“Those kids don’t remember all the guards they remember the toys.” Willie said he and the Hell’s Angels enjoyed helping the vets of San Quentin with the toy drives and looks forward to helping in the future, and he wants people to remember. “There are good people in prison who do good things.”
Obituaries
San Quentin resident Jimmy Chapman was remembered as a friend and a good man.
Chapman worked in Prison Industry (PIA) for over nine years. Douglas Collier, who lived with Chapman during the last three months of his illness.
“He wasn’t a veteran or part of the church, but he was a human being…he was a good man,” Collier said.
Collier added that the administration talks about compassionate release but that did not happen for Chapman.
“I talked to Jimmy and he said, ‘Don’t let me die in here,’” Collier said. Friends for 20 years they both shared a cell at San Quentin in previous years
“I’ve got Jimmy’s shoes on right now. Sometimes I don’t know why I’ve got them on,” said Collier. “I do it because it’s all I’ve got to remember him by.”
Jimmy Chapman was born May 31, 1947 and passed Feb. 11, 2011.
Kairos Leader Passes
A volunteer leader of the Kairos program at San Quentin died April 16 at his Santa Rosa home of Leukemia at the age of 80.
He was Robert “Bob” A. Stratton, a long-time leader of the Cursillo Christian movement which sponsored the Kairos program.
Stratton was a Navy submariner and letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service.
Stratton helped found Redwood Empire Cursillo, bringing the group’s weekend retreats to Sonoma County.
“I think it was a life-changing event for him,” said his wife, Carol Stratton of Santa Rosa. “It seemed to help get him in touch with his spirituality.”
He visited San Quentin about once a month with his wife and stayed in touch with parishioners he met there for decades.
“That really made an impact on the lives of the inmates, a couple of whom I had an opportunity to meet here last month,” said Stratton’s son, Tim Stratton. They described Stratton as a good listener who helped them figure out how to change their lives, Tim Stratton said.
“He taught us all to wrestle — not that big-time stuff you see on TV, but real wrestling,” Tim Stratton said.
Stratton also spent his retirement meeting with friends made while carrying letters and volunteering as a docent at the USS Pampanito in San Francisco.
In addition to his wife Carol and son Tim, Stratton is survived by sons Bob Stratton of Santa Rosa and Brian Stratton of Dixon, brother Bill Stratton of Lewiston, Penn., three grandsons and a great-granddaughter.