Archives for April 2019

Bringing dance to the Big House: Gangnam Style

April 30, 2019 by Aron Kumar Roy

The No Limits Dance Crew pumped up the crowd with their Gangnam Style performance in San Quentin’s H-unit Chapel.

Left to Right: Steven Minor, prisoner dancer, Jonathan Terry, Britton Schutte and Salvador Hernandez

The seven-person dance crew garnered cheers from the crowd as they danced to the song “Gangnam Style.”

“We’re so good its criminal!” one dancer yelled right before the first of four showings began.

The No Limits Dance Crew with San Quentin staff performing a dance in front of an audience

Ms. Bridges, a clinician with the Enhanced Outpatient Program (EOP), created the dance crew as a therapeutic tool to treat the participants’ mental health issues.

She brings to the program 20 years of dance and choreography experience, as well as a degree in dance.

“I think it’s really helpful for me to focus my mind on something creative and peaceful,” Bridges said.

The men in blue learned many coping skills from being involved with the No Limits Dance Crew.

“It was a mindfulness exercise,” said Britton Schutte, “concentrating and being in the moment, almost like a meditation.”

“I’ve been wanting to exercise for a long time; exercise is good for fighting depression,” said dancer Matthew Paradise.

Dancing also helped the inmates gain confidence while staying clean and sober.

They mastered the choreography with just one month of practice.

“I used a lot of my coping skills,” Salvador Hernandez said.

The crew members brought varying levels of dance experience to the team, but they all brought open minds and great attitudes.

Geovanne Jimenez started dancing just four weeks ago. He appreciates the camaraderie that the crew members have built.

“Before, we used to just see each other and didn’t really talk. Now we get along and know each other,” Jimenez said.

Jonathan Terry brings previous dance experience to the crew.

He was involved in a dance program while incarcerated at Salinas Valley State Prison.

“You gotta stay smooth,” was Terry’s tip.

“If your day’s going bad, you could go dancing, and it brightens up your day,” said crew member Steven Minor. “I think they should have dancing on the whole yard!”

Business guru John Hamm visits San Quentin’s The Last Mile

April 30, 2019 by Juan Haines

BOOK REVIEW

When business guru John Hamm came to San Quentin in early January, it wasn’t his first time at this historic land- mark. Hamm is a huge fan of the entrepreneurial program, The Last Mile (TLM). He believes that it is one of the best chances for inmates to succeed, once paroled.

Hamm was at San Quentin to lecture TLM students enrolled in its computer coding program, called Code 7370. He’s given the same lecture about staying focused and path-finding countless times to CEOs and other business executives.

Hamm stood in front of a white board where he’d listed the habits of highly effective people no matter where they are — prison or free.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey is a guide for better living. It took me a weekend to digest the book that in more than two decades has sold in the over 25 million copies worldwide. The book is well organized and written in accessible language that stuck with me – it might stick with you too, pushing you to live a principle-centered life.

Hamm tells the students that the first order of business is to take charge of their lives.

“You get to choose how you feel and how to react to what happens to you.”

Hamm explained that not reacting to everything that happens, means being proactive. “How many times have you said, ‘I wish I didn’t say that?”

Hamm pointed out that choice is both easy and hard at the same time.

“There’s no need to say something immediately. You can drive a Ferrari 30 miles an hour,” Hamm said. “These kinds of people are elegant. They are thoughtful. There’s a mastery of this kind of proactivity.”

Hamm told the students that understanding why the habits in the book are important and then living by them is especially challenging for incarcerated people.

“That’s why I have such high regard for you guys. You are in here, planning your lives outside of this place.”

In the outside world, he said, there are not the chronic situations of control and lack of choice as found in prisons. He described prison as the ultimate place of patience: “At the end of the day, we only control ourselves.”

Hamm stressed the importance of team building. Effective people develop the habit of keeping the end goals in mind when thinking and planning, which can’t be done single-handedly.

To make “it” happen, the book includes phrases like “Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” which requires “empathic listening,” and “independence to be interdependent.” He suggests living by the “Win-Win or No Deal” philosophy for success.

Readers also learn the need to have good relationships and to value them.

Central to the book’s teachings is knowing your personal values and principles. These help to set priorities, essential in determining what needs to be done and what should be done.

The lessons worked for me. After the two-day class ended, I felt energized and ready to be more effective in my everyday life.

California Death Row prisoner qualifies under new felony murder rule

April 30, 2019 by Harry C. Goodall Jr.

Demetrius Howard is on California’s Death Row for a crime in which he did not kill anyone. He was never accused of firing a shot, but based on California’s felony murder rule then in effect, he was eligible for a death sentence due to his participation in the crime, reported The Appeal.

The felony murder rule was revised in 2018 so that participants in a crime do not face a death penalty unless they directly killed, or encouraged the killing, or otherwise “acted with reckless indifference to human life” when commit- ting their crime.

Howard has maintained during his trial and over time that he never intended for anyone to be killed during the crime. However, Howard is ineligible for re-sentencing under the new felony murder rule because his jury found he had acted with reckless indifference to human life, according to a Death Penalty Information Center online post by The Appeal.

“I am no saint or some angel. I’ve made my share of wrongs, but I haven’t killed no one [or] told anyone to kill someone,” Howard wrote to The Appeal.

Howard’s case stems from a 1995 conviction in which an- other man, Mitchell Funches, shot and killed Sherry Collins during a robbery. Funches received a sentence of life with- out parole in his trial; Howard landed on Death Row in his court trial.

Nineteen other states have similar laws, allowing capital punishment for people who are not charged with murder nor the intention to murder. Texas has executed at least six prisoners when there was undisputed evidence that they never participated in the actual murder, according to the article.

Howard’s conviction was delivered in San Bernardino County, which is one of a group of five Southern California counties nicknamed “the new death belt,” because from 2010 through 2015 those counties imposed more death sentences than 99.5% of U.S. counties, according to The Appeal. At the time of Howard’s trial, there were 10 active death penalty cases in San Bernardino County.

“That’s higher than I’ve ever seen it. At any given time in the past the number pending seemed to be about six,” said Dennis Kottmeier, then District Attorney, referencing the number of active death row cases in his county. He attributed the high numbers to state laws passed in 1990 and 1993 that expanded the list of crimes eligible for capital punishment, as well as higher violent crime rates.

According to a 2017 report by the California Attorney General, San Bernardino’s high number of capital punishment cases did not lower the county’s overall murder rate, which has remained higher than average from 1997 through 2017, despite a declining rate statewide.

Nevada man commits suicide after his pleas for execution are denied

April 30, 2019 by admins

A Nevada man who pleaded for his execution killed himself when his wish was denied.

Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, was found hanged in his cell on Jan. 5 at Nevada’s maximum security prison in Ely, prison officials told the New York Times.

“I’ve been very clear about my desire to be executed… even if suffering is inevitable,” Dozier said in a handwritten note to a state court judge. The judge postponed Dozier’s execution in 2017 over concerns that the “untried” combination of drugs could “leave him suffocating, conscious and able to move,” according to The Associated Press.

Dozier was convicted in 2002 for killing a man in Las Vegas. At first, he appealed his death sentence. But after two years, he changed his approach and instead pushed for his execution date.

Dozier had insisted the state set a date, even if it meant a painful death from a cocktail of lethal-injection drugs. The cocktail contained a mix of drugs including fentanyl, which led manufactures to intervene, saying that they would suffer “grave reputational harm if its products were used in the execution against its wishes,” according to the Times.

The complexity of Dozier’s case has placed Nevada at the top of the national death penalty debate, shedding light on the practices of some states attempting to use drugs that pharmaceutical companies do not want used for executions, the AP reported.

Dozier had abandoned his appeals for the death sentence he received in 2007 for the separate murders of two drug associates in 2002 in Phoenix and Las Vegas, the AP reported.

“Just get it done, just do it effectively and stop fighting about it,” Dozier told the AP in a telephone interview last August.

Filmmaker Edgar Barens, who was working on producing a documentary on families affected by the death penalty, told the Times that “the prospect of eking out his existence on Death Row for the rest of his life was unfathomable to him.”

Dozier’s mental health had deteriorated after several delays and after being frequently kept in isolation or on suicide watch, attorney Tom Ericsson told the Times. “He was just so beat down by the prison system and ready to call it a day,” Ericsson said.

Attorneys argued that Dozier’s deterioration was attributed to unconstitutional treatment of their client, the AP reported.

Alabama Death Row inmate loses memory

April 30, 2019 by ANTHONY FAULK

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a second look at the case of a Death Row prisoner who says he no longer remembers his crimes.

Prisoner Vernon Madison suffered a series of strokes which impaired his memory, CNN.com reported Feb 27. The court ruled previously that no one can be executed who doesn’t understand why.

Madison was convicted for the shooting death of a Mobile, Ala. police officer in 1985. He suffered strokes in 2015 and 2016, and has been diagnosed as having vascular dementia, the story reported.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts. Chief Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the majority’s opinion: “The state court, we have little doubt, can evaluate such matters better than we. It must do so as the first step in assessing Madison’s competency—and ensuring that if he is to be executed, he understands why.”

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court liberals in a 5-3 vote. This is the second time in six days that Roberts joined the more progressive justices in reaching a decision favorable to a Death Row prisoner, according to Steve Vladeck, a professor of law and CNN Supreme Court analyst.

“I don’t think that’s a sign that the chief’s views on the death penalty have changed, but it’s further evidence that he has become the swing vote on the court’s most divisive cases,” Vladeck said.

Only eight justices had heard the case because Chief Justice Brett Kavanaugh had not been confirmed at the time of the case was argued.

Madison was convicted three times for shooting police Cpl. Julius Schulte during a domestic disturbance call. Madison was on parole and shot Schulte twice in the head, according to court documents. In 1994 a judge sentenced Madison to death after a jury had recommended life without parole.

Celebrating the holiday homecoming of incarcerated women

April 30, 2019 by San Quentin News Contributer

Nancy Skinner with volunteers and formerly incarcerated women at the event

After prison, women face different reentry barriers than men do, primarily be- cause women have much greater responsibilities (as caregivers, parents and relationship supporters to family, intimates and their communities and social net- works) than men do.

When women go to prison and jail, the roles they have served become lost to the people who relied on them. Compounding this problem is the reality that women do not receive the same types of support they give others while they are incarcerated and most in need of continuity and help.

Women having a discussion at the event about the trials of reentry

Aminah Elster, a current Elder Freeman Policy Fellow at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) and a returning woman almost two years ago, explains, “I can vividly remember visit- ing my ex-husband in prison and the long lines of women who were always there to vis- it men who were incarcerated and show them love and sup- port, but when I was imprisoned for almost two decades, the few visits I received came from women family, friends and outside organizational supporters. The reality is that most currently and formerly incarcerated women do not experience an equal level of commitment, support and consideration as our male counterparts.”

Most current penal polices neither respect nor promote the continuance of family and interpersonal bonds while women are incarcerated. As a result, women experience a lot more shame, blame and loss of prior identities due to the numerous roles they once played in the lives of those around them being disrupted by incarceration.

All of these combined factors create greater hurdles to reintegration and the reestablishment of a woman’s place in the community when she returns home. Most often, women cannot easily resume their previous roles and struggle to receive adequate enough support to create new identities in the community as returning citizens.

A study by the U.S. Department of Health and Hu- man Services on women returning home from prison noted that women need to be supported with relational models in reintegration that are sensitive to their racial, ethnic and cultural back- grounds. They also need programs that promote their self-worth and provide role models and mentors to help them navigate their reintegration and reentry.

Women building sisterhood and networking

Organizations like LSPC, which was founded in 1978 to support the continued relationships of incarcerated parents and children, and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), founded in 1995 to address institutional abuse and systemic conditions women face while incarcerated, are work- ing to develop programs and models for reentry services that reflect the unique needs and challenges of returning women.

According to Policy Manager and Event Coordinator Sabina Crocette, “LSPC developed the idea of celebrating and welcoming women home from jail, prison, detention and other forms of incarceration for the holidays each year as a means of acknowledging their importance and value as returning citizens and members of the community, who need to be respected and embraced throughout their journeys back home.”

“A Woman’s Journey Home: Challenges for Fe- male Offenders and Their Children” (2001). U.S. Department of Health and Hu- man Services. The report can be found at: https://aspe.hhs. gov/basic-report/womans- journey-home-challenges- female-offenders-and-their- children.

Hall of Fame baseball player offers support to a childhood friend

April 30, 2019 by Aaron Taylor

Chandler with close friend Alfred Cinnie

Imagine being a back-up point guard on a high school basketball team that also has a future Hall of Fame Baseball Player on the roster…

Now imagine needing that player to write a letter that says you’re ready to return to society 35 years later.

This is the connection of Leesester “Papa” Chandler and Hall of Fame baseball player Kenny Lofton.

Chandler and Lofton both grew up in East Chicago, Ind. Chandler grew up in the West Calument Housing Projects, while Lofton lived just outside the projects.

“Kenny and I played sports together since we were 8 years old, starting with Pop Warner football, all the way to high school at East Chicago Washington,” Chandler said. “We all had it rough in that area, whether you lived in the projects or not. My first interaction with the police was my eighth grade prom. I’d driven without a license, but my mother had a lot of connections to the street with officers, so I was let go with a scolding.”

Sports gave Chandler a way to have some discipline in his life. If he didn’t follow the guidelines laid out by his family, he’d have to live someplace else.

Chandler played football and basketball in high school; he transferred from E.C. Roosevelt to E.C. Washington, where he and Lofton reconnected on the court. While at E.C. Roosevelt, Chandler played against future NBA Champion Rick Fox.

Moving to California in June of 1987, Chandler worked and played street ball. It just so happens that four of his high school teammates were already in Los Angeles, so they won several street tournaments.

In June 2000, Chandler was arrested and charged with illegal possession of a handgun. Having been convicted previously for a kidnap-robbery years earlier, under California’s Three Strikes Law he was given 25-to-life.

Chandler has taken self- help groups during his incarceration, including CGA (Criminals and Gangsters Anonymous) and Restorative Justice, as well as being a mentor in West Care. West Care is a substance abuse program.

“As I was getting ready for my Board of Parole hearing, my cousin’s wife, Michelle, asked if she could help me in any way,” Chandler said. “I asked her if she could ask Kenny if he’d write me a letter of support. My childhood friend…my teammate and now family member said it wouldn’t be a problem at all to help me out. When I got the letter, I was truly humbled…I hadn’t spoken to him since we were in high school but to know that our friendship still endured across time and space….Man, that meant a lot.”

Currently, Chandler is waiting for his sentencing reduction hearing.

Here is an excerpt from the letter written by Hall of Fame baseball player Kenny Lofton:

“…I am writing this letter on behalf of Mr. Chandler (Papa) as we call him… (we) grew up in the same neighborhood and going to school with him, interacting with him was such a great pleasure…I can guarantee that if he’s released, he will become a great pillar in the community. Sometimes it takes us men to fall down in order to bring ourselves back up to where we should be…”

One man’s journey to inner freedom occurred through sports

April 30, 2019 by Aaron Taylor

Brian Holliday, 25, from Orange County, Ca., is serving a six-year sentence for a robbery. Holliday also had issues with race relations based on being placed in a facility where the inmate population self-segregated. Since arriving at The Q and getting involved with the San Quentin Athletic Association (SQAA), his thinking has evolved…

SQN: What’s it been like being a college student here at The Q?

BH: It’s given me an opportunity to be enrolled in college. I wasn’t going to do this on the street. It’s a chance to get a free education, real college level.

SQN: Did you have a high school diploma before coming to prison?

BH: Yes, after I was expelled from the Saddleback school district in Orange County, Ca.

SQN: Which classes are you enrolled in?

BH: English 101A, I had to start from English 99A, then 99B.

SQN: Is that where you read some African American literature for the first time?

BH: Yes. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letters from the Birmingham Jail’; I also read Emile Deweaver’s essay.

SQN: How has playing sports at The Q changed your social views?

BH: First off, it was the integrated sports. Before The Q, I never played sports with Blacks or Asians in prison. I came from California Rehabilitation Center (CRC), and it’s still racially segregated. However, here at San Quentin, I have some good people around me. I saw it was cool. Brandon Riddle Terrell, a fellow player on the team, re- ally helped me to adjust and helped me see what this was about…

SQN: What self-help groups are you in?

BH: Criminals and Gangsters Anonymous, Coalition For Justice, and Youth Offender Program.

SQN: What type of work do you do?

BH: Building maintenance, CTE (Construction Technology Employment), and Computer Literacy… I completed that at CRC.

SQN: What’s the program like at CRC?

BH: It’s not integrated except for bunks. Everything else is segregated.

SQN: And how has The Q and the self-help groups helped you transition in your thinking?

BH: I play baseball, softball and soccer, basketball a little, as well as handball. Taught me to deal with personalities and learning patience… I was still having racial issues at first. I had a Black coach and Black team mates and taking orders at first was tough. … But the white guys on the team helped me to see that it wasn’t the skin shade that was getting me. It was me learning to expand my thinking and accepting constructive criticism and look past the color.

SQN: What advice would you give a young person coming into CDCR at this time, under the current changes, who was seeking to get home as fast as possible?

BH: Look, I’m here. I’m on the baseball team. There’s self-help groups… there’s no politics at The Q. At the end of the day, I’m not coming back to prison… so don’t let anybody prevent you from getting yourself in a position to get home. Do your time, put your blinders on, and do what’s best for you.

SQN: You get to speak to a 13-year-old Brian… but you only get one sentence to say to yourself. What do you say?

BH: Be you.

SQN: Thanks for doing this interview.

BH: No, thank you.

Sports Pics around the Q

April 30, 2019 by Aaron Taylor

1,000 Mile Track team member during an evening practice

If your state or county facility has a sports program, and you’d like to see your stories mentioned in the SQNews Sports section, have the athletic director email the story to sqnews@gmail.com. Please include first and last names of everyone involved as well as photos.

San Quentin Warriors have a new head coach

April 30, 2019 by Aaron Taylor

The San Quentin Warriors come into the 2019 season 3-4 against the Golden State Warriors coaching staff—the biggest game of each season, and also having the coach for the last two seasons step down to attempt to become a player on the team again. On 2/10/2019, while watching the Lakers v. Sixers on ESPN/ABC, we touched on these issues with the new coach of the San Quentin Warriors, Anthony Evans, in the following interview.

SQN: Coach, what’s your philosophy for upcoming season? I’ve heard that the old playbook is out. Is that true?

Evans: Yes. The old play- it looks like algebra to some of the players. With anything with more than one moving part—it only takes one moving part to throw the whole thing into chaos. For that reason, we’re going back to a more freestyle form of basketball.

SQN: With The Q becoming a non-designated yard, does that mean any special consideration for players arriving here seeking to get a spot on the team? Has anyone tried to say to you that you have to have certain types of people on the team?

Evans: No. When I came into the meeting for consideration of becoming the coach, I established that there’s no strings attached to the position. No one has a guaranteed spot. There’s 15 jerseys and each one is up for grabs. I run this team as I see fit, period. There are no quotas, no limitations, no reserved seating, none of that. We’re looking for the elite players on the yard.

SQN: So, does that mean that each player on the team is there based on their ability to play the game and their knowledge of the game?

Evans: Yes and no, for the most part, yes. Its ability, effort and the style of basket- ball that I envision.

SQN: Does a person’s attitude have a role in making the team?

Evans: Yes! Cancers spread.

SQN: How do you deal with a player that receives a 115? (Rules Violation Report) I noticed the past two sea- sons, the previous coach has sat some big name players on the bench for some big games due to this issue…

Evans: Being an assistant the past two seasons, I was in full agreement then, and that policy still stands.

SQN: It’s the worst kept secret at The Q that there have been or are currently players that are either openly or secretly members of the LGBTQ community involved in the sports programs. How do you approach this issue with the Warriors?

Evans: Same as the military: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. There’s no locker rooms, nor do we ask what a person does in their personal time away from the game. It actually has zero to do with the game, so, no, it’s not an issue. If it becomes an issue, we’ll address it in a closed team meeting and deal with it. We’ll ask about that persons’ medical status – in confidence – and if it’s possible that they can expose others, then we’ll address that – in confidence. We’re not here to openly embarrass people, nor to expose their personal business. My duty is to protect all players my team and the visitors, on the court. We’re here for self-help, empowerment, community enrichment, and all that’s founded on playing basketball.

SQN: What are your goals for the team this season?

Evans: We’ve from a team to program over the past two years, so now it’s about adding “a winning program” to the resume.

SQN: I noticed you went and found two really good veteran players and brought them onto the coaching staff; what do they bring to the table that you think will improve the team?

Evans: Fifty years of experience on the court; a working knowledge of the game. Some veteran leadership and some teachable skill sets

SQN: Rapid Fire questions… I’m going to say something and you give the first word/phrase that comes to mind, okay?

1. March Madness: Excitement!

2. Bob Myers: Wonderful! 3. 1⁄2 Man 1⁄2 Amazing (Anthony Ammons): Bedrock of the team.

4. Kurt & Kent Lacob: The ultimate humanitarians. 5. LeBron James: Best in the game.

6. Bobby Knight: Great tactician, but I would never have sent my child to Indiana!

7. Kevin Durant: Still growing

8. Harry Smith (ATL): Work in progress

SQN: Thanks for the time coach.

Evans: Looking forward to a competitive and exciting season. I thank all the coaches, former coaches and peers who thought me worthy to be the coach and I was humbled by that. I hope to reward their trust in the program.