San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Archives for January 2019

SQ All-Madden Football making best of short season

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SQ All-Madden Football On Nov. 3 the home team gave the Chosen a 44-20 beat down worthy of crime-scene tape.

  • All Madden and Chosen

“San Quentin has absolutely no shortage of athletes to fill the roster but this year has been difficult getting teams from the outside in to compete against,” All-Madden Head Coach Royce Rose said.

This year, the baseball program has cleared about 400 community volunteers to come play at San Quentin – the flag football program cleared 14 according to Branden Riddel-Terrell, the quarterback for All Madden and shortstop/pitcher for the SQ A’s.

On Oct, 20, three weeks before this game, the Chosen came into the prison with only four players. They picked several San Quentin residents to make a team and lost 14-8.

On Oct. 28, The Chosen showed up with two players and again had to recruit on the spot. They won 20-18 when The Chosen’s Cornell Swain sacked All-Madden’s quarterback in the end zone for a safety with only seconds left on the game clock.

For the Nov. 3, The Chosen came down the hill with eight players but still picked four reserves for the eight-on-eight flag football game.

Normally All-Madden plays about eight games a season against different community teams but this year has been a struggle. Hungry for a game, All-Madden made the best of it, playing like it was the last game of the season.

  • All-Madden Football 11-3-18
  • All Madden Football 11-3-18

The Chosen showed up with Myles Gates who played football while at San Francisco City College and professionally in Europe. (O.J. Simpson went to SFCC before transferring to USC)

What started as another competitive game wasn’t close as the point difference suggests. With All-Madden at full strength and The Chosen scrambling for players. All-Madden defense shut down Chosen with four sacks and five interceptions.

All-Madden cornerback Vincent Wilson picked off The Chosen twice, returning one for a 27-yard score.

“Takeaways and making plans is all I think about,” Wilson said.

With the game already decided near the end of the second half, Tyrell Pryce Sr. picked-sixed Gates for 70 yards.

Despite the score, the game ended with smiles and handshakes.

Eight emerging artists turn chapel into raucous concert hall

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  • Students in the Kurt Huget guitar class

On an otherwise quiet Sunday evening, nine guitars rang out in harmony and transformed San Quentin’s Catholic Chapel into a raucous concert hall.

“This was a great opportunity for us to communicate musically with no boundaries and just let our hair down,” said volunteer instructor Kurt Huget. He showcased eight emerging artists from his weekly guitar clinic as they all plucked and strummed their way through a handpicked playlist of crowd favorites.

“I just love these guys,” Huget said. “They’re so dedicated and open to learning from each other.”

The World Series and Sunday Night Football notwithstanding, a sparse but enthusiastic audience showed up to enjoy the Oct. 28 event. The intimate performance was sponsored through Bread and Roses Presents, an organization that coordinates over 1,000 volunteer musicians with more than 50 venues each month.

“We believe in the healing power of music,” said Lisa Starbird of Bread and Roses. “It always lifts my spirits, and that’s why we try and bring music to those that are isolated.”

Starbird said that this was the first Bread and Roses performance comprised solely of inmate volunteers. She’s anxious to keep this new tradition alive at San Quentin.

“It just makes me feel good to come to San Quentin and jam with the class each week,” Huget said. “It’s the most relaxed three hours of my life – believe it or not.”

Several artists also braved the spotlight to sing lead vocals.

First up was Treyshawn McCarthy, who sang Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”. “I was nervous at the beginning,” acknowledged McCarthy. “I didn’t think we were ready for this, but after the first song, I knew that we were.”

Gary Harrell, a guitar student who was not performing, emerged from the front row to join in and spice up the tune with his harmonica. Huget graciously shared his mic stand so Harrell’s harp could get some amplification.

McCarthy equally contributed his pipes to whistling chorus notes energetically in support of Huget’s vocals on Otis Redding’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”.

Thomas Washington hit all the high notes on “Under the Boardwalk”, with Johnathan Smith baritoning the title hook. Washington also sang lead on Santana’s “Black Magic Woman”, the Commodores’ “Easy”, and the Drifters’ “On Broadway”.

“It’s hard to sing and play at the same time,” Washington explained after the show. “That’s something I have to work on; it was part of our repertoire in guitar class.

“I’d like to do it again. Every time you perform, it’s like a feather in your cap.”

The lone player of an electric guitar, Kevin D. Sawyer, unassumingly sprinkled twangy flavor throughout the entire performance, as well as being the featured soloist for “The Star Spangled Banner”. Huget introduced the national anthem as one of the most challenging songs for a guitarist to play.

Douglas Ingham sang the only original piece of the set, describing his “San Quentin Blues” as a tune dedicated to his late wife, Jackie, who passed away in 2008. “The song was actually written for her,” stated Ingham. “I was thinking the blues would make a great old lady, but they’ll only leave you crying.

“I played that song one time in class, and Kurt said ‘We have to do that one in the show’.”

He said he has written between 15 and 20 songs, some with lyrics.

Ingham also took the lead for Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome”.

The audience jubilantly sang along and offered by far the biggest round of applause for Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”. Harrell again splashed through with animated harmonica licks.

Louis Calvin, Billy Dooley, and David Farber rounded out the ensemble to give the corps of acoustic guitars its full-bodied punch.

Covering a total of 20 songs, the group played until it was time to vacate the chapel. The set ended with Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me”, and everyone joined in on the lyrics.

“Who booked this gig?” mused first-time performer Calvin. “It turned out to be a real sausage fest.”

UC Davis launches social media campaign to combat ex-prisoner perceptions

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A group of formerly incarcerated university students is launching a social media campaign designed to combat society’s negative perceptions of ex-prisoners.

The University of California at Davis students call their campaign “We Are All Students” (WAAS). The aim is to help others to respect former inmates for who they are as people.

“We are producing a year-long social media campaign that conveys the social situations and experiences of people who attend higher education in the shadow of incarceration,” Zach Psick told the San Quentin News. Psick is formerly incarcerated and is the project’s student campaign director. 

The digital campaign will consist of between 100 and 150 posts on social media platforms such as Instagram. Each post will portray a student whose life was impacted by incarceration or the legal system. The digital posts will include high-resolution photographs of about a dozen people. 

“The photos will illuminate their personalities and humanity by conveying their everyday experiences as students,” Psick said. “Protecting their identities will de-individualize their experiences and allow them to express themselves without jeopardizing their pursuit of better lives.” 

Psick said he was convicted of a crime 12 years ago, but the stigma around his incarceration remains. 

“I have been surprised by the emergence of groups representing formerly incarcerated scholars at all levels of academia,” said Psick. “I thought people like me were rarer.” 

Psick says that his probation officer wanted him to go to prison, not college. “He told me that repeatedly,” Psick said. “It was because a risk assessment predicted I would reoffend. Now I’m in my fifth year of graduate school.”

His accomplishments include a master’s degree in sociology, a B.A. in Communication Studies, and a certificate in Addiction Studies/Public Health. He has published reports on aging in prison and aging reentry populations in the International Journal of Prisoner Health and the American Society of Criminology, Philadelphia. 

“I had what they called a learning disorder,” Psick said. “My probation officer was surprised by my academic success. Students, professors, and administrators are often surprised, too.” 

These are the types of stories the digital campaign aims to highlight. The digital media content will be available free of charge.

“WAAS aims to support coalition – building between groups representing the interests of currently and formerly incarcerated people like those in Beyond The Stats—a collective of formerly incarcerated students enrolled at U.C. Davis—and the San Quentin News by producing and spreading information,” Psick added.

The WAAS campaign is also developing brochures, fliers and posters to distribute at probation and parole offices and community colleges. The printed material will contain information that people with felony charges need to know about college. 

Psick hopes that this information will help future classes of formerly incarcerated college freshmen.

The ladies of Beauty Behind Bars return to San Quentin

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The ladies from Beauty Behind Bars speaking to a prisoner on the Lower Yard

An all-women’s organization, aimed at inspiring incarcerated people to overcome their despair and anger, visited San Quentin on Nov. 3 for the second time in two years.

“There is beauty in any and all situations,” said founder Tiffany Love-Harden inside the Inter-Faith Chapel on the Saturday afternoon. “My bars may be different from your bars, but we must all find the beauty behind bars. All of our prisons are not the same.”

Love-Harden added, “With this movement, the goal is to teach everyone to get off mental death row and onto blessed row.” 

Her presentation gave the incarcerated men a perspective on how some actions and some consequences may shape the generations to come.

“Something Mrs. Tiffany Love said about children, who grew up with adult issues, grow up to be adults with childhood issues they never forgot,” said Steven Bustamante, an incarcerated man in the audience.

Kamaria Payne, Dr. Sareya Byrd McKinney and Rhonda Brown made up the rest of the faith-based organization. 

The women hail from Tennessee and New York. They work together to spread a message of hope and perseverance to incarcerated men, women, students and free people nationwide. Their stories are of overcoming drug abuse, sexual abuse, death, identity awareness and mental depression. 

Payne told her father about coming to San Quentin. She said that she urged him to write a letter specifically tailored for the men at the prison. The letter was about the importance of maintaining a relationship with their children while incarcerated. After the letter was read, the packed room of more than 60 men and women, many in tears, gave her a standing ovation. 

“You can still make an impact in the lives of your children, no matter where you are,” Payne said. “Ask me how I know, because my father is currently serving year 25 of his sentence, and we have a beautiful relationship.”

The spiritual women shared some of the most intimate and delicate parts of their lives. Their soliloquies gave the men in blue an honest perspective from a woman’s point of view.

Treyontae “December” Hogg expressed inspiration through a song, I Cannot Avoid Myself. 

“The women from Beauty Behind Bars gave me a vision of how the daughters of incarcerated men feel about their fathers being away,” Hogg said.

Dr. McKinney, who is also a minister, delivered her speech, Breaking Free, with enthusiasm. She shared a story about losing many men in her family due to the heroin epidemic and the street life in Brooklyn. 

“I was protected in Hell and safe in dark places the way my father watched over me,” said McKinney, speaking of her father’s protection over her against similar fates the other men in her family experienced. 

After listening to McKinney, James Metters, an incarcerated man, said he learned how the women from Beauty Behind Bars saved young girls from making some of the same kind of mistakes they made as young girls.

McKinney said she reached out to young girls and shared her story, and she gives all the glory to God for the recovery of her family after a lifetime of struggles and surviving on her own.

“Who the Son sets free is free indeed,” McKinney said. She added while making the quote symbol, “Unapologetically.” 

Her “sister from another mister,” Rhonda Brown, complimented the four members of Beauty Behind Bars on their mission. 

Brown graced the men with her portion of self-confidence and self-awareness. Her struggles with identity and living the street life affected Mark Stanley-Bey, who identified with Brown’s story. He said her story made him want to donate some of his art to her project, I’m International Ministries.

Leaving the men inspired, Brown reminded them what she believes to be their true identity. The Christian woman said, “I am who He says I am.”

The women spoke at a group, No More Tears, founded by Lonnie Morris about 16 years ago. 

Morris said that he developed No More Tears to help reduce the tears of families who lost loved ones from acts of violence. 

“It means no more tears for pain, no more tears for anguish, and no more tears for grief,” Morris said. 

After the last presentation, No More Tears facilitator, R. “Neffew” Bankston, recited a poem, Shift. 

The session ended with Love-Harden performing a rap and sharing information to assist men who are up for parole, need shelter and other assistance that may help them when they return to the community. 

American Pride

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The months go by along with time,

We often don’t say thank you for

Everything we get,

We always need to remember it’s

Not all wasted time. I am one

To just not be grateful from myself

But I want to take the change

To thank others for there help.

I believe my higher power

Has me here because I need to

Believe in myself and others again.

Love here in my life hasn’t to

Have a bringing and the hatred has to have and end.

American pride has a name, but so do I,

I don’t knew a lots of things but today I will try.

I love you Bert 

By

Jacqueline Worley 

Central Women’s Facility

Coalition For Justice: furthering community reform in prison

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Every six months, new relationships are forged and the power of community becomes renewed through San Quentin’s Coalition For Justice (CFJ).

The self-help program’s latest cycle produced 23 graduates. These men gathered on Feb. 13 alongside their volunteer facilitators and incarcerated mentors to receive their certificates, celebrate together, and reflect on their personal transformation.

“We don’t just teach social justice here,” said CFJ President Darnell “Moe” Washington. “What makes this group so different is that we go further and teach about going back to your community and building that community up. That’s the best part of what we do.”

The graduation ceremony gave every member a chance to speak about what CFJ meant to them. “It’s a long, tough process,” said inside mentor Royce Rose. “I like to see how it starts off and then see how we came together and became a community—then I can say, ‘I watched it happen.’”

“I take away countless things from being involved with you guys,” said outside volunteer Nathaniel Moore. “Together, we all get a better understanding of why people think and do the things that they do.

“I’m always learning and building from what you folks say. There’s a real reciprocal value in it for me, and I appreciate that.”

CFJ’s curriculum focuses on seven key forms of justice: procedural, retributive, distributive, transitional, community, restorative, and transformative. Three days each week, volunteers, students and mentors work together to understand how these things connect and define communities as a whole.

Moore chose to speak about “ a type of justice which often gets pushed aside—transitional justice.” He described how governments, city groups and individuals can all come together to lift and repair society – even after traumatic events, such as a violent race riot, leave a community in social disarray.

“Things that initially seem like far off pipedreams … can actually happen,” stressed Moore.

Maryann O’Sullivan came on board CFJ for this last six month cycle. As a social justice advocate and volunteer over the years, she continues to address her own personal transformation. “I’ve learned to face my own racism,” she said. “I’ve seen the layers—it doesn’t go away.”

“I realized I wasn’t listen- ing to people who don’t sound like me — you know, ‘White and educated’ — and I’m embarrassed by it.” O’Sullivan gestured toward herself, “I’ve got all this gray hair, and I’m just learning this now.”

Volunteer Bill S. said, “Seeing and hearing you guys reach deep down into your experiences—there’s so much wisdom and great inspiration there. Every time one of you shared, I could see it affecting the other people in the group.”

Paloma Mathern thanked CFJ for “welcoming me into your community. I feel like I’m living a whole new life by coming in here.”

Karen Lovaas has been a driving force behind CFJ for years. “Most prisons do not allow people to sit together and talk the way we talk,” she said. “We have to give credit to San Quentin for that, but I want you guys to know—I’m not here to support prison, I’m here to support you.”

Lovaas teaches an under- graduate class, Rhetoric of Criminality and Punishment, at San Francisco State University. Her curriculum includes bringing her SFSU students in to sit and experience CFJ for themselves.

“I was so messed up, I had to be removed from society.

“I was teaching yesterday, and we were talking about you guys,” Lovaas said. “You are alive and in the hearts of the people who’ve met you.”

Graduate James Vick proudly held up his certificate for all to see. “This is something I can actually say I’ve earned,” Vick said. “No one can take this away from me.

“I was so messed up, I had to be removed from society. Now I can go to any community and they’ll welcome me because I know what to do to be a part of that community. This group taught me how to do that.”

Emonte Johnson seemed a bit uncomfortable as he accepted his certificate and faced the room. “I might be the only young one in here,” said the 22-year-old. “I didn’t like talking and only started talking near the end. I appreciate all the hard work y’all gave me. I need that.”

Henry Gonsalves said, “Now I got the itch to try and make a change. I see now that if it doesn’t affect your family, it affects your friends.”

Chan Park said CFJ be- came “the one place I really looked forward to every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I see you guys on the yard,” he used Vick as an example, “and I say ‘Hi’ in a different way than I did before.

“It took me 27 years to find my own humanity—it’s something I had to earn. I had to be willing to admit that for a long time during my life I was not a human being.”

Kenny Vernon has been a part of CFJ for the last four years and now co-leads a team of 10 incarcerated men- tors. Each mentor is responsible for following up and being available to two or three CFJ students during the six-month course.

“Mentorship is all about developing a relationship with these guys and building a friendship along the way,” Vernon said. “That’s community.”

Bruce “Brother J” Bowman recalled his own journey through CFJ. “When I first decided to become a mentor, I wanted to try and give back something,” he said. “But I had no idea how much I was gonna receive.”

Mentor John “Yah Yah” Parratt shared this with the graduates: “Life becomes worthwhile when you have worthwhile goals.”

Mentor Kahlil Dallas noted that, “I’ve seen everybody in here make personal progress. Whoever came up with this format—where we cross- check and reference each other’s experiences and get to know each other—it’s a great idea.”

In closing, mentor Richard Zorn said, “Look at it this way, guys: We gave you a little knowledge to go with the wis- dom you already have.”

CFJ’s 2019 graduating class also included: Manny Archibeque, Ralph Arreguin, Armondo Hernandez, Brian Holliday, Arthur Jackson, Joshua Jeffords, Johnny Johnson, Don Leschke, Anthony Marzett, Daniel McCoy, Loren Mears, Matthew Medina, Raymond Mosier, Christopher Rigsby, Aron Roy, Anthony Satriano, Benjamin Tobin, Cedric Webb and Richard Williams.

Wake Forest University gains experience with Prison Letter Project

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Wake Forest University law students are providing North Carolina prisoners legal help through its Prison Letter Project and gaining experience in the process.

The letter program is a part of the school’s Pro Bono Project. The school’s law library is the only publicly accessible law library between the state capitol and the Tennessee border. 

“We’re not allowed to give them legal advice and give an opinion,” Suzanne Cavanaugh, Prison Letter Project coordinator, told San Quentin News. “But I can bring the horse water and hope that it drinks—and say ‘Here it is: if you were sentenced in November and this became effective in August, you can do the math.’”

A lot of the prisoners find out about the project mostly through word of mouth, noted Cavanaugh. Most of the letters ask for up-to-date legal information to deal with their court cases.

“I think it’s a miracle that these prisoners are resourceful enough. A lot of the letters they send us have a correct citation in them, and they say, please send me this case,” Cavanaugh said. “I wonder how they even get that. I think that’s amazing.”

Most of the letters come from male prisoners but not females and Cavanaugh wonders why. They also receive letters from people housed in the Cherokee reservation prison system.

“Doing these letters has a dual purpose: we are helping inmates, but it’s also honing our research skills,” Cavanaugh said. “It’s a great way to look at something and say, ‘Gee I’ve never heard of this, and I’m not sure where to start.’ It forces you to go through [the] motions of how to look up something.” 

The students field mail where prisoners are trying to figure out the statute of limitations, how to delve into elements of a crime, what does the state have to prove and what kind of evidence is dismissible.

“The problems prisoners are asking us to research are not that different from problems as an attorney in the criminal justice system,” Cavanaugh said. “A lot of times it feels like we’re sending back bad news, like: it doesn’t seem like this was an error, or no, this isn’t a reversible error.” 

Cavanaugh is still upbeat about the work that they do. Even when they receive letters without clear questions, students figure it out and get an idea of what kinds of citations the prisoners might want.

They even deal with mail where prisoners don’t ask for anything.

“Some people just want to be heard; they just want to tell their story,” Cavanaugh said. “We write back and say we’re really sorry you’re going through this, let us know if there’s research we can do.” 

The project was started by Professor Liz Johnson in 2013 to ensure that prisoners had the correct information they need to present to the courts. The project has grown to teach law students to have a life-long commitment to do pro bono work.

Cavanaugh would like to know if what they are doing is helping, because the students don’t see the end results. But the project does seek to reach more North Carolina prisoners. 

“There’s a lot of people out there that don’t know that we exist and could be reaching out to us,” Cavanaugh said. “We are just a wealth of resources, and we’re law students who just want to get out there and help.”

Prison journalism gaining traction throughout the nation

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Prison journalism is gaining popularity in California and America, including San Quentin.

For several years, inmates from coast to coast have been receiving instruction on how to write as journalists for prison publications.

Several prisons within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) already have newspapers and newsletters. Others have contacted the San Quentin News to inquire on how to start their own publication.

“An inmate publication means any journal, magazine, bulletin, newsletter, newspaper, or other material published by inmates,” the California Code of Regulations, Title 15 states. “Inmates may participate in the publication and distribution of an inmate publication only with the institution head’s specific approval.”

The San Quentin News has been training inmates to write as journalists for more than a decade, leading to creating the Friday morning Journalism Guild class. Advisers John Eagan and Yukari Kane have been instrumental in cultivating the development of many emerging journalists.

The road has been opened for San Quentin, but there are 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States. Many of these prisoners have media restrictions placed upon them, so getting their voice out is limited. However, volunteers and organizations on both ends of the country are assisting them.

On the East Coast, University of Massachusetts journalism professor Shaheen Pasha volunteered in 2013 to teach inmates journalism at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Corrections in Northampton, Mass., according to the Daily Collegian.

“There were so many of them (students) that stuck out to me while teaching there,” Pasha told the Collegian. “They were all so smart and so professional. 

“Right now, I am looking at other places that are already doing the type of work I am interested in, like the San Quentin newspaper.”

Earlier this year, she spent two days at the San Quentin News office, meeting its inmate journalists and learning about San Quentin’s media center.

The CDCR has several little-known newspapers and newsletters published by prisoners, volunteers and staff. 

Here & Now is published at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility. California State Prison Solano has Solano Vision. At Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, there’s Chucky. The women at the California Correctional Women’s Facility have Fire Inside. High Desert State Prison has its High Desert Sun (and the Seagull). North Kern Valley State Prison publishes The Pioneer and Mule Creek State Prison has the Mule Creek Post.

Mule Creek Post

In 1974, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote the opinion in Martinez v. Procunier: “When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded. If anything, the needs for identity and self-respect are more compelling in the dehumanizing prison environment… It is the role of the 1st Amendment and this Court to protect those precious personal rights by which we satisfy such basic yearnings of the human spirit.”

“Prison periodicals, in many instances, have provided that medium,” wrote James McGrath Morris in his book Jailhouse Journalism. “They have afforded an opportunity for men (and less often, for women) deprived of all the rights most people take for granted to voice their ideas, thoughts, and version of the truth without interpreters. Truth is always a precious and elusive thing but more so in prison.”

Prison newspaper and magazine publications in the U.S. numbered around 250 in 1959, but fell to fewer than a dozen by the new millennium, according to a 2014 article in The Nation.

A handful of prison publications survived, such as The Angolite at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, The Echo at Texas’s Huntsville prison, and The Prison Mirror founded in 1887 at Stillwater Prison in Minnesota. Some of The Mirror’s seed money was reportedly bankrolled by the Younger Brothers of the Jesse James Gang.

Many remaining prison publications are relatively new. America’s first-known prison newspaper, Forlorn Hope, was published in 1800, “born in the squalor of an 18th century debtors’ prison,” McGrath wrote.

“The dearth of prison publications is ironic in that the inmate population grew to record levels in the 1990s,” Morris wrote. “…(T)he success of prison officials in suppressing confrontational prison periodicals, are certainly part of the explanation for the absence of a strong prison press.”

The San Quentin News was founded in 1940 by Warden Clinton Duffy. The last time it was shut down was in the late 1980s. Before it was revived in 2008 by then-Warden Robert Ayers Jr., it was the winner of the American Penal Press award for the Best Prison Newspaper in 1966, 1967, 1972 and 1981. In 1968, the News won the Charles C. Clayton award, named after the man who was reportedly the first person to teach journalism inside of a prison. He was also the founder of the award competition sponsored by the Southern Illinois University Department of Journalism from 1965 to 1990. 

According to a story written by Pasha in the Nieman Reports, “San Quentin State Prison is a good example of an institution that has found a balance between giving the inmates a voice and maintaining stability at the prison.” She added that the paper “is widely seen as a model for prison journalism and innovation, through its administration’s willingness to engage in rehabilitative programming and educational opportunities.”

In 2014, the San Quentin News was presented with The James Madison Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for “accomplishing extraordinary journalism under extraordinary circumstances.”

In a recent Journalism Guild class at the News, several inmates said the reason they transferred to San Quentin is because of its newspaper.

Kid CAT Chairman Si Dang’s 2019 youth address

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For many of us who are incarcerated, the ultimate dream is freedom. The question of whether we will achieve that dream, however, often lies in our pursuit of it. 

Kid CAT members

My name is Si Dang, and I am the new chairman of Kid CAT. Over the last 22 years, I have pursued my freedom in a variety of ways, many of them dysfunctional and leading me right back to where I started: without freedom and with no meaningful change in who I was. 

It was not until six years ago that I finally tapped into my courage and begin facing my personal issues, which ultimately lead me on the road towards my pursuit of freedom and the change I was after. 

It is now my purpose as the new leader of Kid CAT to bring that change and pursuit of freedom to all of our members and the youth, which we represent. 

It is my hope that I might serve Kid CAT with a spirit of accountability and change that inspires each of us to find the courage to not only pursue our most important dreams, but achieve them.

In fact, it is with this spirit in mind that I would like to thank our out-going chairman, Charlie Spence, for his many years of service, leadership, and mentorship to our organization and members. 

It is under Charlie’s guidance that our organization has thrived and Kid CAT successfully achieved many of its goals and objectives in 2018. 

For example, in 2018, Kid CAT officially implemented the Power Source curriculum in its Youth Offender Program (YOP) “BE-IT.” At the same time our First-Step Childhood Development curriculum graduated over 40 individuals and has now entered into a new cycle with new participants. 

We also helped raised over $15,000 for Project Avary, and raised close to a $1,000 in support of The Beat Within program through our Foodsale.

Additionally, in October we hosted our annual banquet to raise awareness of the “forgotten” voices of youth, highlighting youth violence and the power of restorative justice to heal. 

Both inside and outside guests shared their personal stories while representatives from the Huckleberry House, Project Avary, The Beat Within and long-time Kid CAT volunteer, Bev Shelby, spoke about the importance of advocacy and volunteerism within our communities and institutions. 

In 2018, five Kid CAT members who served life sentences paroled, two of which were commuted by the Governor. They are all now being productive members of their communities. 

Additionally, this past Thanksgiving, five more of our Kid CAT members had their life sentences commuted by the Governor, bringing the total to seven commutations. 

With the departure of our members, we invited five new faces into Kid CAT all of who are (YOP) inmates. All of who have shown tremendous potential and willingness to carry on Kid CAT’s mission of creating awareness and community service. 

Going into 2019, we are excited to get to work. Some of our goals include expanding our charity work with the Huckleberry House, Avary Project and The Beat Within.

With our partners, we hope to bring greater awareness to the issues of homelessness, youth with incarcerated parents, and the overall challenges that youth offenders face in the juvenile justice system. 

Additionally, it is our organization’s goal to expand the accessibility of Kid CAT Speaks page in the San Quentin News as a platform for more youth offenders to share their voices and send messages of hope and gratitude.

We also plan to increase accessibility of our Childhood Development curriculum to more incarcerated individuals in other prisons.

Since making our Childhood Development curriculum available, three of our paroled Kid CAT members hosted an orientation of the curriculum at Lancaster State Prison. We also held a joint training with volunteers from Tracy State Prison who will be starting a Kid CAT curriculum there. 

It is also our goal to advocate for provisions that would allow youth offenders to earn milestone and RAC credits toward their youth offender date as opposed to their minimum eligible parole date (MEPD). 

Throughout the new year, our organization will be working toward becoming more transparent in our individual and collective efforts to uphold the integrity of our goals and vision. 

It is our objective to begin to hold each other more accountable for our actions while administering higher standards of professionalism within the organization. 

It is our hope that transparency and accountability will translate into a stronger group and individual commitment in supporting and advocating for all youth offenders. 

In closing, this year, Kid CAT would like to inspire everyone to pursue their dreams and find the courage to face the new challenges that may stand in their way. There is nothing that one cannot achieve without hard work. 

We encourage all of you to take advantage of new opportunities and work to create meaningful change in your lives and, in the process, make your dreams a reality. 

“All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.”-Walt Disney

RJ forum discusses the topic of intellectual disabilities and healing

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Mrs. Leigh Ann Davis flew in from Texas to speak at a Restorative Justice (RJ) symposium at San Quentin on the topic of supporting people with intellectual disabilities. She also stressed the importance of overcoming shame and speaking out against abuse as paths to healing.

“Shame is a huge issue we are not dealing with,” Davis said. “Shame is the prison and we have to find our way out.”

Davis is the director of criminal justice initiatives for The ARC, an organization that works to help people with disabilities. The ARC has 630 chapters nationwide.

The symposium took place at the Catholic Chapel on Dec. 1. Incarcerated person Lenny Beyette emceed the San Quentin Restorative Justice Interfaith Roundtable event. He introduced Davis to a crowd of 40 community members and 80 incarcerated men.

Davis said she is passionate about teaching people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to speak out against their abusers. She noted that she had difficulty speaking out against her own past abuse because of shame.

Dressed in a red sweater and with her blonde hair tied in a ponytail, this Christian woman with a Master of Science Degree in social work told the audience her stepfather had molested her from the ages of 5 to 10. “I didn’t really tell anyone, because of the shame, until I was 13,” Davis said. “I went to church camp and I started believing that I do have value, but I still find myself in that prison, like “Who are you to get up and talk to people?” and that all came from that trauma.”

Davis never sought her stepfather’s arrest.

“For me, justice isn’t about someone being in a building; it’s about someone getting healed,” Davis said. “If him wearing (prison) blue meant coming here and doing restorative justice, then I would want him to go to prison. But most prisons aren’t (as rehabilitation oriented as) San Quentin.”

Davis said she has taken steps to make sure her stepfather isn’t molesting others.

Her talk transitioned then to what she described as an invisible population: people with intellectual disabilities (ID).

At age 24, Davis started helping people with intellectual disabilities. People with ID have an IQ under 75. Their mental health issues can’t be healed with medicine and they lack the ability to take care of themselves. ID can come from “in vitro” blood poisoning or fetal alcohol syndrome, for example.

One in six men experience sexual assaults, according to Davis, and those with mental health issues are even more likely to be victims of such violence.

Her talk resonated with several incarcerated men who said their daughters have been molested.

“She (Davis) impacted me with her level of honesty and sincerity when talking about a subject people usually steer away from,” Kerry Rudd said. “It was helpful. With my daughter, she’s been going through a lot, but today helped me have a better understanding.”

Lloyd Payne, stepfather of a 7-year-old girl who was molested, asked about what he could do to support her.

“With my daughter, she’s been going through a lot, but today helped me have a better understanding”

“Be there for her to have conversations if she has questions,” Davis said. “Be a consistent male role model and make sure she gets therapy. Emotionally healthy as you are, you can pass that on to her and if she needs to cry, she can do that with you.”

RJ facilitator Darnell “Moe” Washington discussed connection. “We have a problem in America and the problem is disconnection,” he said. “We are all connected. When you see something happening in another community and think that it has nothing to do with you, it does. Look at the opioid crisis, mass shootings. If this is affecting all of us, why ain’t we all fighting this as one?”

Part of the symposium involved both incarcerated people and community members sitting in circles to discuss shame and support for disabled people. These dialogues were confidential but whatever happened in the nine different circles left an impression on the guests.

“This is my first time coming to anything like this;” said Dr. Kristian, a psychologist who also sponsors a Criminal Gang Anonymous program at California Health Care Facility, Stockton. “Today has blown me away. The men asked me to get involved with RJ to see if we can bring it to my facility. I’m excited to go back to work on Monday and say this is what happened on Saturday.”

Karen Newton, who works at a non-public school with kids who have mental health issues, said, “I work with kids involved in gangs, involved in shootings; I’ve been punched in the face. But it’s not who they are; it’s what’s happened to them. I’m told we don’t want them in prison because they’ll end up like the people in prison. I want them to be like you—you, but just not in here.”

Davis said, “I feel like you guys have what it takes and we need this out in the free world where we struggle to have these types of conversations.”

—Al King contributed to this story

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