Inmates must rely on one another in dangerous, life-threatening conditions
Inmate fire teams are doing a lot more than work behind the fire lines. They are working off prison time, reports the Auburn Journal.
The first permanent conservation camp was established in 1946 for low-level offenders who “have been volunteering to learn the trade of wildland firefighting and a host of other skills they can use upon release.”
Some of these skills such as woodworking, metalwork and welding are not recreational activities. They are a way to maintain equipment and earn money. Examples are making park benches and custom-inlaid tables.
Part of the August story was based on Growlersburg Camp 33, just outside Georgetown. This is where the inmates live and work as part of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to become firefighters.
In this camp, the report talks about Daniel O’Connor, 26, who is serving his fourth year of a five-year sentence for a DUI with great bodily injury. If he were not in this camp, he would be doing his time in prison.
O’Connor said fighting large fires “feels like you’re in a war zone sometimes. Just planes everywhere, flames are right there.” He also said, “You don’t know whether the flames are going to overtake you. It gets kind of scary.”
The report talked about the assistant camp commander, Sgt. Gerald Hoff. Before transferring to the camp, he worked at Pelican Bay State Prison. Hoff says the atmosphere at the camp is much different from that of a California state prison.
Hoff also said that gang violence or racial tension have no place in the camp — “they sleep together, they eat together,” Hoff said. Like other firefighters, they can also save lives, he added.
The Journal reported that fighting wildfires requires cohesive teamwork. Inmates have to rely on one another in very dangerous life-threatening conditions.
The Growlersburg camp has 112 inmates but can support 132. All inmate volunteer fire teams are trained at CAL FIRE facilities. The volunteers must pass a battery of physical fitness tests.
The department has 44 fire camps, which saves the state an enormous amount of money, the newspaper noted.
Archives for January 2015
U.S. Spends $60 Billion On Its Prisons and Jails
America spent more than $60 billion for state prisons and local jails, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report. That included some $40 billion by states and about $20 billion by cities and counties. The data includes fiscal years 2005-2011.
“Between 2005 and 2011, total spending by local governments fluctuated between $1.6 trillion and $1.7 trillion,” the Dec. 13, 2013, report said. Corrections spending fluctuated between $25.8 billion and $28.4 billion, or 1.6 percent of the total.
Local governments spent 84 percent of their total corrections expenditures on correctional institutions, such as local jails and detention centers, in 2011.
This is up from 80 percent in 2005. Local government spent the remainder of their corrections budget on other functions, such as supervising offenders in the community and maintaining and operating non-residential halfway houses. Local government also paid for current operations and capital outlay expenditures to operate and build correctional institutions.
Current operations expenditures consist of officer and employee compensation, utilities and any supplies or contractual services not covered by capital outlay.
Capital outlay expenditures include major repairs of institutions, constructions and purchase of equipment having a useful life of more than five years.
Local governments outspent state government in capital outlay expenditures from a low 34.1 percent in 2005 to a high 56.4 percent in 2010.
“Between 2005 and 2011, local governments annually spent the largest percentage of funds on education (36.0 percent to 38.4 percent), followed by health care and hospitals (7.3 percent to 7.7 percent), police protection (4.9 percent to 5.0 percent), highways (3.7 percent to 4.0 percent), public welfare (3.2 percent to 3.5 percent), and judicial-legal services (1.3 percent to 1.4 percent),” the report stated.
Costly and Broken Death Penalty System
More than two-thirds of all countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, Amnesty International reports. But some countries, including the United States, still carry out executions.
More than half of the world’s population lives in 58 countries where the death penalty is retained by their legal system.
At least 778 executions were reported in 22 countries in 2013, according to Amnesty International’s 2014 report on death penalties. That is 96 more than in 2012, according to a Sept. 15 story in The Times of India. “With at least 369 executions in the year, Iran leads the list,” the newspaper reported.
For centuries, civilizations have justified the use of various methods to perform executions. Even as early as the Roman Empire, death penalty sentences were carried out by crucifixions, drowning, beatings, burning a person to death, impalements and hangings.
According to the report, the oil-producing country of Saudi Arabia sent more than 79 prisoners to their death, followed by the U.S. with 39 executions. Other countries that reported the death penalty include Somalia, “where at least 34 judicial executions took place” in 2013. Iraq ordered more than 169 inmates to death.
The global figures for Sudan and Yemen show that more than 10 prisoners were executed in each country in 2013. Even though China has one of the largest populations on earth, the country classifies its death penalty as a state secret. However, the report said it is believed that “thousands of convicts” were sent to their death.
“The report also shows that at least 1,925 people were sentenced to death in 57 countries in 2013.” In that same year, 23,392 inmates were on Death Row globally. “The method of execution range from beheading, hanging, lethal injection to shooting.”
Amnesty International reported 98 countries have abolished capital punishment for all crimes. Most of these are in Western Europe and the Americas. Seven countries, including Brazil, Chile and Kazakhstan, have abolished it for “ordinary crimes.” In “these countries, death penalty can only be given for exceptional crimes such as crime committed under military law or under exceptional circumstances.”
The report identified 35 countries as abolitionist in practice. However, they “retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes, but there have been no executions in the past 10 years.”
Worldwide studies show in most cases, that persons sentenced to death are generally from an economically and socially backward section of society, Amnesty International wrote.
Opponents say, “It is possible for innocent people to get executed because of unfair and discriminatory application of the death penalty,” the report adds. In many cases, poor defendants don’t have resources to hire good attorneys to represent them, the report said.
“Many studies have suggested that there is no evidence to show that capital punishment has any affect on murder rates,” the report noted. There are critics who believe an execution is a denial of human rights and it “sends the wrong message, that killing is acceptable under certain circumstances.”
S. Q.’s Emergency Medical Strike Team
A rapid response unit known as the Strike Team was created at San Quentin State Prison to combat the various communicable diseases that could possibly affect the overall general population this year.
An emergency unit was needed and necessary to strike as quickly as possible in the event of contamination of a non-medical area in the prison, Public Health Nurse Allyson Tabor notified Correctional Lt D. Graham.
Each housing unit will be responsible for cleaning any contaminated area where the transmission of the various diseases could almost certainly shut down the entire institution for weeks, Graham said in an interview.
Graham described these diseases as scabies, lice, blood-borne pathogens such as Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, HIV, gastroenteritis cases (suspect Noro or C. difficile), chickenpox or the flu. Any one of these conditions can spread to others if not cleaned up properly.
S. Pulido, the program facilitator, recruited and trained the Strike Team in two weeks to combat and prevent these diseases from spreading.
The team will comprise 23 individuals selected and housed throughout the institution. Each unit will maintain cleaning supplies, hazardous material equipment and clothing in a designated keyed locker to be used if the problem should occur in the building.
North Block has three Strike Team members.
Eight specially trained handicap helpers will respond to the Reception Center, if there is an outbreak in that unit.
West Block will be assigned three Strike Team members.
H-Unit has two Strike Team members standing by to handle any epidemic problem.
East Block has five Strike Team members trained and ready to activate any clean up on Death Row.
The North Segregation Unit has two Strike Team members standing down until any one of the above communicable diseases affects that unit.
In case of a cell contamination, the inmate affected will be removed from his cell by the medical staff, while the cell is decontaminated. They are treated appropriately. For example, in a scabies case, the inmate is showered and treated with ointment, and all clothes and linens are replaced. The inmate is returned to his cell, isolated until the final shower and linen exchange is completed the next day.
In some cases, the inmate might be medically isolated in another cell while the strike team decontaminates the cell. An example of this is chickenpox, which requires the inmate to be moved to a negative pressure room for isolation.
The Strike Team will be notified immediately of a contamination event in their respective unit. They should response within 30 to 60 minutes. Each Strike Team member will dress in a special hazardous material suit, which may include gloves, mask and shoes. The cleaning materials and disposal bags will be obtained from the keyed locker.
All the bedding, clothing, and personal properties will be removed from the contaminated areas and placed outside the cell. Contaminated linen will be placed in water-soluble bags and yellow “infectious linen bags” and sent to the laundry sealed.
Personal items, if contaminated, may have to be bagged and sealed or discarded, based on public health recommendations. The Strike Team will clean and wash down the lower and upper bunk, walls, bars, toilet units, sinks and floors. The entire cell will be given a thorough cleansing.
Graham, Tabor, LVN Sepulveda and Pulido want the San Quentin population to know the Strike Team is ready. They urge personnel not to hesitate to report to the medical staff any symptoms associated to these diseases.
For further information, contact your unit lieutenant.
Counselor N. Lee Helps Inmates Seek Rehabilitation
Correctional Officer N. Lee began working approximately one year ago as the Correctional Counselor I inside North Block of San Quentin. During that time, Lee has helped hundreds of inmates seek rehabilitation through her service as a caseworker.
Before taking the counselor position, Lee became a part of the Honor Guard. Only a few individuals are chosen to become Honor Guards. According to Lee, the purpose of the Honor Guard is to represent and serve the families of fallen officers.
Lee said, “We honor the families; we honor officers and their families through our service.” Being a part of the Honor Guard gave her an understanding that human beings share similar struggles and are connected in many ways, she explained. “Being able to connect in a time of pain and suffering is an honor for me. Our presence during this time signifies that their loved ones will be missed and honored for their works.”
In 2012, Lee faced a life-changing event. Without details, she mentioned that in order to escape misery, “I had to go within my soul and connect spiritually.” Lee’s advice for others going through similar difficulties is: “Keep working on yourself. Some people, in some way, are in prison mentally. True freedom comes from within.”
In her darkest hours, Lee prayed and found strength in a higher power. “When I did that, I got answers. It was obvious. I was overwhelmed with ease and felt liberated.” She said that faith would guide her journey through life.
Although Lee always believed in God, her faith was tested during her ordeal. “I’ve always known God,” she said, “but He has not been the leader of my life. Now He takes priority in my life.” Lee turned a potentially traumatic event into a positive opportunity to reconnect with God. “I had to go through this to find the light.”
Lee’s resilience through adversity also carries over in her work and the way she communicates with inmates. As a counselor, she helps inmates rehabilitate and achieve their goals. “I classify you guys (inmates) in specific programs so that you can succeed at your highest level. It’s not just programs; we try to make everything conducive to the appropriate level so you can reach your goals,” said Lee.
At times, more than 200 inmates are assigned as Lee’s clients; the majority are lifers. Through interactions, she realizes that most lifers share a common goal — to serve their sentence and return to society.
In order for lifer inmates to earn their freedom, they must reflect on the factors that led to their crime. Lee witnesses the challenges facing them when preparing for their parole hearings. “I understand the severity at the parole hearings,” said Lee. “I do my best to obtain the information to prepare inmates for the board. They have to do their part, so I do my part to the best of my ability,” she added.
“Being able to look in the mirror and say to myself, I did my best. Now tomorrow I have to do better. I have a lot of compassion for humankind. I approach every situation with compassion”
Despite the endless work and obstacles she faces, Lee takes an optimistic outlook on life. “At the end of the day, things are as they should be.” She added, “Being able to look in the mirror and say to myself, ‘I did my best. Now tomorrow I have to do better.’” Her motto is a reminder that there is always room for improvement.
Lee’s career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation also helped her realize that certain parts of the system are broken. Lee expresses concern about sentencing laws and says she cannot understand extreme sentencing. She finds it difficult to grasp why individuals are handed a “135 years-to-life” under the Three Strikes Law. She feels the law should focus on resources like education, trades, drug and alcohol programs, and prevention outlets for the youth instead of harsher sentencing.
During Lee’s early days as a correctional officer, others sometimes questioned her about her position. “I had to remind myself that there’s the law that we abide by, and there are also people’s lives that are at stake.”
She said a lifer who had spent over three decades incarcerated once told her to “be true to yourself.” She added, “His words connected with me. I was happy to know that he paroled the next day.” She further explained that to stay true to herself meant to stand firm in her decisions, despite the outcome, and that the important thing is to continue to learn from the experience.
Looking back on her career, Lee said, “I took a stand for what I believe in.” According to many who know her, Lee’s faith, fairness and balance contribute to her humility.
‘Ban the Box’ Movement Is Gaining Traction
San Francisco Board of Supervisors approves a resolution initiated by All of Us or None calling for San Francisco to eliminate hiring discrimination against people with criminal records
Numerous cities and counties have improved the chances for persons with criminal histories to get jobs, the National Employment Law Project reports.
Known as “Ban the Box,” the reform prohibits asking about criminal records in the initial job application.
The project report estimated that 65 million Americans – or one in four adults – had a criminal history as of 2011.
The report also shows that the background check industry has grown with access to the Internet at the same time that the numbers of workers with criminal records has risen.
“Implementing this new policy won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do…We cannot ask private employers to consider hiring former prisoners unless the city practices what it preaches,” said then-Mayor Richard Daley when he announced Chicago’s policy banning the box.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a revised guidance in April 2012 on the use of arrest and conviction records in employment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The commission recommended as a “best practice…that employers not ask about convictions on job applications and that, if and when they make such inquiries, the inquiries be limited to convictions for which exclusion would be job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity.”
Some 66 jurisdictions, including Chicago, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Memphis and Baltimore, were highlighted in the report as locations that have adopted Ban the Box.
“Just in the first three months of 2014, 11 cities and counties across the nation have adopted these policies emphasizing an applicant’s qualifications rather than his or her past mistakes,” the report said.
The momentum in support of Ban the Box hiring reforms continues to grow. In the report, the campaign to Ban the Box on San Francisco’s application for public employment was led by “All of Us or None,” a national organizing initiative of formerly incarcerated people.
“We cannot ask private employers to consider hiring former prisoners unless the city practices what it preaches”
“In 2005, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a resolution initiated by All of Us or None calling for San Francisco to eliminate hiring discrimination against people with criminal records by removing the request for criminal history information on the initial job application for public employment,” the report said.
“An individual’s past convictions can only be considered after an applicant has been identified as a finalist for a position. The exception is for those jobs where state or local laws expressly bar people with convictions from employment, in which case the city conducts its background review at an earlier stage of the hiring process.”
Similar policies have been adopted in other Northern California cities such as East Palo Alto, Berkeley, Richmond and Oakland.
Oakland, working with All of Us or None, adopted the policy in 2010, per the NELP report.
The report stated, “The city conducts background checks on applicants after a conditional offer, but only for those positions required by law or the city has made a ‘good faith determination’ that the position warrants it. The city also notifies the applicant of the potential adverse employment action, provides a copy of the background report and provides the applicant an opportunity to rebut the accuracy or relevancy of the background report.”
Richmond’s new ordinance, according to the report, prohibits inquiry into an applicant’s criminal history at any time unless state or federal law requires a background investigation or the position has been defined as “sensitive.”
San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim wants to make this question, “Have you been convicted of a crime?” virtually obsolete on job applications in the city, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Dec. 10, 2013.
A Sacramento Bee headline on June 27, 2012 read: “A Job is Best Crime Prevention Program.” The Bee article said, “The job hunt is tough for everybody these days. But imagine having a criminal record. Many employers, including cities and counties, won’t consider hiring someone with a criminal past, no matter how long ago the crime was committed, how minor the offense might have been or how thoroughly the applicant has turned his life around.”
Extra Harsh Sentences For Pregnant Women Slammed
Women’s rights and civil liberties organizations are calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to renounce the practice of enhancing the sentences of women convicted of felonies while pregnant, particularly those with drug convictions.
Jessica Pieklo, senior legal analyst for the news blog RH Reality Check, reported on the criminalization of pregnancy. Pieklo highlighted a case involving Lucy Weld of Dandridge, Tenn., who received a sentence of 151 months in prison for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.
Presiding Judge Thomas Varlan announced at sentencing that Weld would receive an additional six years because her crime was committed while she was pregnant.
Following Weld’s sentencing, U.S. Attorney William Killian issued a statement supporting the judge’s decision. “Through this prosecution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office sends a message that, should a child, born or unborn, be exposed to a substantial risk of harm through the manufacture of methamphetamine, we will pursue any available enhancements at sentencing.”
A coalition of organizations seeking drug reform policies, women’s rights and civil liberties said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that changes to the current sentencing structure should be made to renounce enhancement penalties.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia were represented by organizations concerned with the change of the current practice. These organizations argue that sentences that are enhanced due to pregnancy are contrary to science and evidence-based research, which shows the punishing of pregnant drug offenders harms public health, Pieklo reported.
“Opening the door to enhanced penalties for pregnant women will unquestionably make women of color — a group already subject to extraordinary disproportionality in criminal punishment and sentencing — even more vulnerable to state and federal control and punishment,” said Cherisse Scott, founder and CEO of the Tennessee-based organization SisterReach.
In April, the Tennessee Legislature passed Senate Bill 1391, an amendment to the state’s fetal homicide law. This law allows the judicial system to prosecute women for the illegal use of narcotics during pregnancy, if her child is born addicted to or harmed by the narcotic drug. The bill was an amendment to the previous law that favored the decriminalization policies concerning pregnant women and drug convictions.
Legislators passed the Safe Harbor Act in 2013, giving women that are pregnant the opportunity to seek treatment for their addiction. The incentive for joining the program was retaining custody of their children. However, the passing of SB 1391 allows state district attorneys the leverage they need to bring criminal charges against these women under the current law.
Coalition members wrote a letter to the Department of Justice, asking that it publicly acknowledge and denounce enhanced penalties for women who are pregnant during the commission of a crime.
“The action supported by the federal prosecutor in Tennessee is based on the profoundly discriminatory principle that pregnant women may be subject to separate, unequal and harsher penalties than others,” wrote Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women. If charged under the law, a woman could face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
“Becoming pregnant and either continuing or terminating a pregnancy is a fundamental right for which no person should be subject to punishment directly or through enhanced penalties,” Paltrow concluded.
Prop. 47 Win Sent a Message
‘The Proposition 47 victory is a repudiation of four
decades of tough-on-crime policies, and marks the end of the era of politics of fear’
California voters clearly want an end to excessive prison sentences and the “politics of fear,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California concludes with the overwhelming approval of Proposition 47.
“The Proposition 47 victory is a repudiation of four decades of tough-on-crime policies, and marks the end of the era of politics of fear,” the ACLU’s Allen Hopper said in a Nov. 7 news release.
Nearly 60 percent voted in favor of the change, sending “a loud message” to Sacramento, Hopper commented. “The question is whether our political leaders in Sacramento are listening.”
“Voters want smart criminal justice strategies and recognize that longer sentences, especially for low-level, nonviolent crimes, have not made our communities safer,” wrote Hopper, director of criminal justice and drug policy for the ACLU of California.
“California’s recidivism rate, one of the highest in the country, is perhaps the best indicator of the degree to which the state’s harsh sentencing laws have utterly failed to keep any of us safe over the past 40 years of prison and jail expansion, constantly ratcheted-up punishment and the abandonment of even a pretense of rehabilitation as a component of criminal justice,” he wrote.
Hopper noted the Legislature failed to act and “for far too long, the politics of fear and the power of the law enforcement lobby have dominated Sacramento.”
“Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) tried twice…to pass bills similar to, though much more moderate than, Proposition 47. (He) was unable to get a bill reducing the penalty for simple possession of drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor out of his own chamber, due to the opposition of the statewide associations of sheriffs, police chiefs and district attorneys”, Hopper wrote.
Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a compromise bill that would have made similar changes. Proposition 47 was an initiative designed to do the same thing — reclassify many minor crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
“Lawmakers must abide by the will of the people…The Legislature and the governor should work together to ensure Proposition 47 is implemented in an honest, timely manner, and should rebuff any law enforcement attempts to divert the money earmarked for rehabilitation and treatment to still more jail construction,” said Hopper.
The state’s sentencing scheme needs re-evaluation, the ACLU report said. “It’s time for a comprehensive review of our penal code and sentencing laws, starting with the intricate web of sentencing enhancements that the Little Hoover Commission investigated in 2007 and declared ‘complex and confusing,’ with over 100 enhancements strewn throughout more than 20 separate statutes,” cited Hopper.
“Perhaps it’s time for a sentencing commission…not controlled by the same law enforcement interests that have stymied reform for decades,” Hopper commented.
“It’s time for a serious look at sentencing laws in California with an eye toward real reform and the same investment in innovation that drives our technology sector. And it is time to end, once and for all, the era of the politics of fear,” he added.
Senseless Laws Resulting in Harsh Penalties
Several well-meaning laws lack common sense, resulting in inflexible, harsh penalties.
That is the conclusion reached by Jonathan Blanks in the Post Everything website of The Washington Post newspaper.
Some broad statutes have created “a system that can’t distinguish grown men from schoolchildren, serial rapists from amorous teens or drug mules from kingpins. Such a system is dysfunctional —stupid even,” wrote Blanks in his June 25 article titled America’s Stupidest Criminal Laws.
For example, some Drug-Free School Zone laws punish selling, manufacturing and sometimes just possessing illicit drugs within a specified distance of a school, park or daycare center with a higher punishment for the underlying drug offense.
Many black and Hispanic neighborhoods with high populations have overlapping zones, negating any deterrent effect and slanting enforcement against minority communities, Blanks noted. Heavy penalties are applied whether or not kids are involved and even if school is out for the summer.
Sex offender registries can include someone convicted of public urination or a 17- or 18-year-old who had consensual sex with a 15- or 16-year-old girlfriend or boyfriend. Thereby, hard line laws against child predators could bar the wrong people from certain areas, he pointed out.
The war on drugs was supposedly meant to give harsher mandatory minimum sentences to kingpins. However, the writer says they were used mostly on low-level dealers and “mules.”
“Until the 1800s, juries not only determined facts of laws — that is, whether the law was broken — but whether the law in question was just in the first place,” wrote Blanks. The Fourth Amendments of the Bill of Rights provide rights during criminal investigations.
Those protections have eroded over time, Blanks wrote. However, change is starting to come. State and federal lawmakers are recognizing that such policies can get awfully expensive.
Many states have amended their Drug-Free School Zone laws. Some reduced the penalty; others require the offense to be “at least tangentially tied to exposing children to the drug trade.” Still others have lowered the law’s geographical reach, according to the Sentencing Project, wrote Blanks.
The Smarter Sentencing Act would reduce some mandatory minimum penalties for non-violent drug offenders, if passed into law. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., proposed the act in the U.S. Senate.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission is also considering if recent sentence reductions for all non-violent drug offenses should apply retroactively to all applicable federal inmates. More than 50,000 may be eligible, which could save hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Throwing the book at offenders with well-meant but misguided lawmaking has wreaked havoc on correctional budgets while breaking up families and damaging local economies in the process,” wrote Blanks.
He urges policymakers let judges decide who is punished and how severely, instead of blind punishment. Such a system could lead to fewer mistakes than subjecting everyone to the inflexible categorical judgment of legislators and prosecutors, concluded Blanks.
Jai Uttal Performs ‘Music From the Heart’
The Music from the Heart devotional concert services hosted Grammy-nominated artist Jai Uttal in the Catholic Chapel for the fourth time on Dec. 7.
Those who attended were encouraged to chant sacred Sanskrit mantras along with the musicians.
According to Jai, “Mantras mean that which transforms the mind. When we sing mantras, the mind comes back to the heart.”
Kirtan is a particular style of singing that has become popular in devotional circles. Jai is considered one of its foremost exponents. “Kirtan,” said Jai, “is when you sing phrases that are names for God. They are sung with music and rhythm. The essence is God’s name. Singing is the meditation.”
Jai’s drummer, Radhanath, played intricate rhythms on a two-headed clay drum that hung like a guitar over his shoulder. In Sanskrit it is called a mridanga-anga (body) mri (earth). Radhanath exuded confidence, grace, passion and devotion as he playfully danced while singing love songs to God. When asked to perform repeated solos, he energized the audience with his expert hand drumming. “Kirtan is being sung all around the world. Holy places (temples) in India are crowded now because Westerners are taking an interest in Kirtan,” he said.
One of the many Kirtans taught to the men during the performance was “Om Namah Shivaya,” a popular Sanskrit chant. When asked what it meant, Jai explained that one translation is “Thy will be done.” For more literal translations, he said that “Shiva (God) is the Lord of transformation and assists us from darkness to light. Om is believed to be the first word of creation, Namah means ‘bow to’ and Shivaya represents the ocean of mercy and benevolence.” It translates to ‘I bow to God within.’”
Jai played a small organ-like instrument called a harmonium while his powerful melodic voice rang out clearly through the chapel. When asked why he sang in Sanskrit, an ancient language, he replied, “I love Sanskrit mantras. Words are another form of God. The spirit of God is there.” Jai’s personal experience is that “Art and music in India are designed to open the heart and connect with Spirit. I see every instrument that one can play can be devotional music for God.”
In an interview afterward, Jai was asked how Kirtan affected his life. His reply: “It’s saved my life. I was deeply into drug addiction and drinking, and Kirtan maintained a thread of connection to God. It pulled me out of that life.” He went on to say, “Yoga practice is expanding and Kirtan is so linked to yoga. Kirtan addresses the anguish of the heart, and our society is becoming desperate.”
The female vocalist in the performing trio, Kalimba, appeared peaceful and poised as she sang accompaniment. In her words, “It’s like an honor to come back because people are consciously working on themselves. The truth is we are already incarcerated in a human body. But people in prison are aware they’re incarcerated, and there’s an opportunity to better oneself.”
Jesuit Father George Williams and San Quentin facilitator and Chaplin Intern Susan Shannon are the co-creators of the Sunday evening devotional concert series. She was questioned how she thought the San Quentin community received Jai.
“I knew Jai would be a good fit. His love of all the faces and names of God come through his voice. The point of these devotional music nights is to create and unite us all with the resonance of our hearts, all responding to that oneness of love and joy which is available to us when we do our inner work together. My hope is that we sing together and resonate with that light of devotion. This is such an inner and outer blessing, which promotes healing and interconnectedness between all of us present, and all of us not present.”
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