Archives for December 2019

A governor's commutation gives Laverne Shoemaker a second chance

December 11, 2019 by Marcus Henderson

Laverne Shoemaker overcame what some prison reform activists call “a living death sentence.”

Shoemaker was serving life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) until her sentence was commuted by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. After 26 years, Laverne (Dej) DeJohnette Shoemaker walked free in June.

“I am a ‘DROP LWOP’ advocate. I will not ever stop advocating for LWOPs and lifers. LWOP is a ‘Death

by Incarceration sentence,’” said Shoemaker. “When you are given that sentence, what they are saying is, you are irrelevant, you’re irredeemable, you’re beyond redemption. And that’s just not true.

“Look at me. I have 19 arrests, 16 convictions, three prior prison terms and the fourth was the life crime of murder. Sure it took over 10 years, but I did change. Now I’m a taxpaying citizen. We are all capable of transformation,” she added.

Shoemaker did not sit on her heels when she walked free. She began working with the California Coalition For Women’s Prisoners (CCWP), where she was named the first Charisse Shumate Fellow.

The Shumate fellowship highlights the life and legacy of Shumate, who suffered from sickle-cell anemia. She died in prison. Her supporters say her death was due to negligence on the part of the California prison system. Shumate was one of the founding members of CCWP. She was a lead plaintiff in the 1995 lawsuit that challenged California’s women’s prisons health care system. She also helped start The Fire Inside, the organization’s newsletter.

“I was blessed to live with this woman as a roommate. I was fortunate enough to see her in her high highs and her low lows,” said Shoemaker in correspondence with SQ News. “I saw her in action and witnessed her determination to make a change. She was famous for saying ‘It’s not a me thing; it’s a we thing.”

Shoemaker was resigned to living out her life in prison. But she credits Shumate for being one of the inspirations who helped to educate her about the need to stand up for the rights of everyone inside.

“In the beginning I did what most did. I jumped right into the criminal elements inside. I got involved with the prison politics. I racked up many 115’s (disciplinary write-ups) and SHU (administrative segregation) terms,” said Shoemaker. “I had seen people change and grow. But I had two dilemmas: one, I didn’t think change was possible for someone like me, and two, I didn’t know ‘why’ I should change.”

Shoemaker’s change came when she started being honest with herself and addressing all her childhood traumas.

“I began to see a human with value and worth under all the tarnish,” said Shoemaker. “The LWOP was not a factor. In all actuality, receiving the LWOP sentence saved my life. The truth is I was a very dysfunctional, unstable substance abuser.

“I was very dangerous and an extremely violent individual. But after a few SHU terms I changed my thought process. I went from I don’t care if I live or die and I’m a piece of sh#*t anyway to…..It doesn’t really matter ‘where’ I die, in the free world or prison, I’m still going to die,” she continued.

What began to matter to Shoemaker was what type of person she was going to be and what her quality of life would be like.

“My motto became, ‘When shall I live if not now?’” she said. “I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d ever get out. So every group, program, workshop facilitating, curriculum I created was for me and my community. Not for anyone else.

“I definitely learned who I was and who I am today. I’ve grown and learned the impact that we have on our victims and communities,” said Shoemaker. “I learned that by taking a life I have committed the most serious crime of humanity.

“I’ve learned that changing my behavior is the only acceptable atonement. Living today and every day for your victims is not just words you tell the BPH (Board of Parole Hearings).

That is what you have to you live by,” she added.

Shoemaker shared her re-entry experiences and goals for her fellowship.

“What I see is that we (lifers) are impatient and want to hit the ground running. We think we have the formula that we know it all,” she said. “I get it—we have sat decades and planned what we wanna do. But the hard truth and the reality is this is a different world.

“I began to see a human with value and worth under all the tarnish,”

“We need to take it one day at a time. The adjustment period is tough. We are new to the free world. The technology alone is mind-blowing. Some days I feel like a refugee. I guess the hardest part of being out is missing being back inside.

“Most will read this and think I’m crazy. But it’s true while inside you spend all your time thinking about freedom, but when you’re out here you spend a considerable amount of time thinking about back inside,” she added.

Shoemaker knows and understands her responsibilities. She is in the process of creating a curriculum for the LWOPs.

“I will spend my last breath advocating for the LWOPs,” she said. “We are always left behind, overlooked, or at the bottom of every list—that is, if we even make the list at all.

“Yet we (LWOPs) are the pillars of the prison communities, we are the glue that holds the yards together.”

Her plans and goals for the fellowship are to honor her friend Shumate and not stop or back down.

“Charisse didn’t just com- plain or just file a grievance—no she went up against a system. And she got that system to listen. She made a difference,” she said. “She left some pretty big shoes to fill but I think collectively together we all can fill them. I promise to do her name justice!”

A profile of success: Antwan "Banks" Williams

December 11, 2019 by Kevin Sawyer

Ear Hustle cofounder has lasting impact on his community – both inside and out of prison

Antwan “Banks” Williams, 31, one of the co-founders of the celebrated podcast Ear Hustle, paroled from San Quentin in October. Imprisoned at the dawn of adulthood, he had to mature behind bars.

Williams said he “can’t fathom” what it’s like to be outside prison. “The sad reality is there are people in here that I may never see outside these walls.” He said he’s leaving with a heavy heart.

“A big part of who I am stems from the people in here,” said Williams. “All of you have shaped who I am. You guys have been my family.”

“I grew up in prison,” he added, “ and I don’t know what my life is going to look like without it.”

Antwan “Banks” Williams, Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods

Most of the men at San Quentin know Williams by the moniker “Banks,” a name given to him in the Los Angeles county jail by other prisoners who thought he was arrested for robbing “banks” because his bail was set at $7.3 million.

“I couldn’t bail out,” said Williams, convicted of one count of robbery, but with a gun enhancement.

Williams told a gather- ing of admirers in the San Quentin Media Center the day before he walked out: “I’ve been in this place longer than I’ve lived in any place my entire life.”

Tears flowed and emotions ran high as the men, volunteers and staff shared their stories of how they came to know Williams and their working relation- ship, friendships and bonds formed over the years.

Brian Asey first met Williams in 2011 when he transferred to San Quentin from Old Folsom. “I watched (Williams) grow from the hot-headed, emotional, hard person that he was to the mature and thoughtful man that he is today,” said Asey.

“I grew up in prison and I don’t know what my life is going to look like without it”

“It’s been amazing, and when I think about him leaving, I think about all we’ve gone through to put the pod-cast together,” said Sacramento State Professor Nigel Poor, a volunteer, co-host and co-creator of Ear Hustle. She said Williams was part of the creative influence and now that he has paroled, “I don’t know who’s going to be that creative person.”

Williams, like the other men who work in the media center, started out as a volunteer when there was little opportunity. “You have to gently fight your way into the media center and make it work, but there’s a camaraderie,” said Poor. “It’s going to be interesting to see how the media lab will be changing as more and more people get out.”

“I hope that (Williams) works with young people,” said Poor. He can inspire them, she said, adding, “I feel like that’s his calling.”

“When my specific tal- ents weren’t needed, people kept telling me I need to be there” (in the media center), said Williams, so he stuck it out by providing artwork and music, while keeping the workplace positive with his easy-going personality.

“He made this prison a better place and now he’s going to make this world a better place,” said Rahsaan (New York) Thomas, co-host of Ear Hustle. He described Williams as “talented and humble.”

“Banks (Williams) is like the talented little brother that I never had,” said Greg Eskridge, an inmate who volunteers at SQ Radio. “We all started this radio program together in this little room.”

Williams was sentenced to 15 years. He served 13 years, eight of which were at San Quentin, where he arrived on November 8, 2011. He left Old Folsom for San Quentin as a result of Assembly Bill 109, California’s plan to reduce its prison population. A number of San Quentin inmates had been moved to county jails. After his arrival, Williams met Earlonne Woods, the other Ear Hustle co-founder, who paroled last year.

Prior to his arrival at San Quentin, Williams served time at Kern Valley State Prison, California State Prison Corcoran, and Folsom State Prison.

Before his last day in prison, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) public information officers Alexandra Powell and Ike Dodson arrived to videotape Williams. They planned to video him parol- ing the following morning as well.

“A big part of who I am stems from the people in here. All of you have shaped who I am. You guys have been my family”

“We’re here to capture Antwan’s (Williams’) experience as he prepares to leave prison,” said Powell. “We’ve been trying to tell stories of both those in prison and the people that make programs work.”

Powell said the CDCR is very interested in what pro- grams work inside of prison to influence successful reentry back to society.

Williams said it’s not the groups, programs or self- help groups that make San Quentin though. He said it’s the men that make it a “community.”

Dodson said he got to know Williams the first time the CDCR’s Office of Public and Employee Communications came to San Quentin to cover a story about Ear Hustle.

“I thought it would be cool to share that story,” said Dodson. “When you get to know people inside, you build a relationship. This is a very important moment for Antwan.”

“Anybody would miss where they’ve grown up,” said Poor, who teaches art at the Sacramento campus, in reference to Williams spending so much of his adult life in prison. “I hope (paroling) will be everything that he dreams it to be. It’s going to feel empty when I come to work tomorrow.”

California law paves the way for ex-felons to serve on juries

December 11, 2019 by Joe Garcia

Formerly incarcerated have hopes to fill jury boxes

The California jury system came a major step closer to fairly representing their communities and the criminal defendants they deliberate over thanks to newly signed Senate Bill 310.

Starting in 2020, most former felons who have served their time and been discharged from parole or probation will no longer be excluded from jury service.

“Over 30% of Black men were eliminated from the juror pool, simply because of a felony conviction in their past,” Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods told SQ News. “First seeing that as a young trial lawyer 20 years ago, I knew it was fundamentally wrong and unfair.

“The concept of ‘a jury of your peers,’ does that exist? No.”

Woods said he has still “never” looked at a client’s jury and seen what he considers to be a fair demographic panel. “It just doesn’t happen.”

Jennie Otis, a Deputy Public Defender in Woods’ office, agrees. “Even before voir dire, you never need two hands to count the number of Blacks available in the jury pool,” she said. “That doesn’t make sense in counties like Alameda.”

As a passionate defense attorney and Black man himself, Woods continues to advocate for a justice system that accurately reflects society’s diversity. Three years ago, he started working on and lobbying for SB310.

“Doing more research and finding out a felony convic- tion, no matter how old it was, prevented you from serving on a jury—that seemed asinine,”

said Woods. “Even those who had their felony convictions reduced to misdemeanors still couldn’t serve as jurors.”

State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) co-authored SB310’s current version and finally succeeded in getting it passed this year.

“There’s no way SB310 would have been possible without Senator Skinner’s hard work and commitment,” said Woods. “She carried the bill to the finish line.

“I thought it was going to take a lot longer, honestly.”

During the multi-year journey to get the bill passed, Woods testified twice before state lawmakers in Sacramento—at a Senate Public Safety Committee and an Assembly Appropriations Committee.

CSU Long Beach Professor of Law James Binall, J.D., L.L.M., Ph.D., testified along-side Woods at the Assembly.

“He is formerly incarcerated, has been convicted of a felony and is one of the foremost scholars on this issue throughout the nation,” said Woods.

Chief Deputy Public Defender for Solano County Oscar Bobrow also testified before the Senate about the positive impact SB 310 could make.

Furthermore, the Alameda County Public Defenders’ Office submitted their own letter of support and strategized responses against SB310’s inevitable opposition.

“We’re not done with the work. There are still other issues we need to address.”

As the legislative team leader for the Alameda office, Deputy Public Defender Peter Van Oosling worked behind the scenes to coordinate all the relevant information. “His work was critical,” said Woods.

Just this July, Woods penned an Op/Ed article for the San Francisco Chronicle, “A jury of your peers? Not for Black men in California.”

“That got a lot of atten- tion,” he beamed. “That was good.”

“I can’t tell you how often I’ve sat at the defense table with a young African American client who was excited to prove his innocence, only to see his enthusiasm replaced with hopelessness and dread once he saw the jury,” Woods wrote in the Op/Ed.

Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods

“It’s difficult to tell a young man that he shouldn’t feel defeated when faced with the fact that not a single per- son who will be deciding his future looks like him.”

Enthused by the potential improvement of future jury trial fairness, Woods wanted to make sure everyone involved in SB310’s pass- ing got credit for the team effort.

“Our post-bar clerk, Kendra Clark, created a 50-state survey of laws regarding people with felony convictions serving on juries,” he said. “This document has been relied on throughout this process—including by legislators in Sacramento.”

Woods also mentioned Assembly Member Rob Bonta (D-Oakland, Alameda, San Leandro) as a prominent advocate of SB310. About Bonta and Skinner, he said, “They’re both good on criminal justice reform.”

Sex offenders under Penal Code 290 still do not qualify for jury service. And, the former felons that are eligible must be completely free from any kind of post-conviction community supervision.

“We’re not done with the work,” said Woods. “There are still other issues we need to address.”

Woods explained how, right now, lists of potential jurors are pulled solely from voter registration and California driver’s license identification card information.

“We need to expand the list we get our jurors from,” he said.

Woods hopes to explore expanding the jury pool database to include tax-filers and utility bill consumers. He also wants to see legislation that addresses adequate financial compensation for jury service, rather than the current system where most jurors feel they are sacrificing wages.

Besides the ACLU of California, other sponsors of SB310 included All of Us or None, A New Way of Life, and the California Public Defenders Association.

Alameda County top prosecutor in favor of rehabilitation

December 11, 2019 by Kevin Sawyer

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley

One of California’s top prosecutors says it’s important to keep deserving persons out of prison and to help deserving incarcerated people build a successful life upon release.

Progress toward rehabilitation and strengthening reentry programs for “justice involved” people was discussed at San Quentin by Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley on Oct. 13.

O’Malley visited the state prison to converse with incarcerated men about some of the programs she supports on the outside. One of those programs is Developing Impacted Lives (DIL).

“A lot of young people who would otherwise go to jail would go to the (DIL) program,” said O’Malley. “Part of what we do with DIL—we meet every month. This is for peer support.”

O’Malley said her office is also trying to help stop people from becoming involved in the criminal justice system. To help reduce crime and recidivism, she also recruits organizations to hire justice involved individuals whose lives are impacted by a criminal conviction.

“By year three, more than 50 percent of those put on felony probation are committing new crimes,” said O’Malley. “We had to own the failure.” In the post tough-on- crime era, programs like DIL have become an important component for prosecutors like O’Malley who are trying to increase public safety. “I’m very happy to be lifting it up” and supporting the program, she said. O’Malley acknowledged that just because someone gets out of jail or prison, it does not mean things will be different. She said, however, DIL is not always the starting point.

Someone without structure may not enter the program immediately, O’Malley said. “It’s not to tell them what to do with their life, but to get them to figure it out for them- selves.” She said the Family Justice Center allocates resources with justice-involved individuals to help them.

One example is Doug Butler, a former Oakland police officer who was convicted of murder and served 20 years in prison. He works with O’Malley’s office and other organizations to help others whose lives have been impacted by the criminal justice system.

“It’s a very intense program,” said O’Malley. “Mr. Butler interviews (justice-involved people), but what we really want to know is if they’re ready for the program.

“I do believe there are a lot of programs that understand the value of those who have lived experience,” said O’Malley. She said people like Butler can identify legitimate groups that work for those who are turning their lives around.

“Prepare yourself to be paroled,” Butler told the audience of about a half-dozen men. “We’ll provide you with the training.”

What O’Malley’s office does differently is direct inter- action by aligning individuals with programs like DIL. “In Alameda County, if they get known to us, they’re going to get linked in,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where they come from.”

The meeting included O’Malley, some of her staff, SQ News staff, and about a half-dozen students from the University of California at Berkeley along with their professor, William Drummond. They discussed other social issues such as the impact language has on those who are justice-involved.

“How do you build in a program that deals with addiction?” asked Drummond.

“We work with the community,” said O’Malley. “We try to identify the issues they may be having.” At that point, programs like DIL can pair individuals with those who have the same “lived experience” and are “justice involved.”

O’Malley did, however, caution that she has a primary duty beyond helping those who have been convicted of crimes. “I have to be very aware because we also have victims,” she said.

“The governor has put a lot of money into ‘Realignment’ (Assembly Bill 109) and reentry funds,” said O’Malley. She said grant money and Realignment money can be used to support programs like DIL.

“We can put together what it takes,” said O’Malley. “Hopefulness is a lot of what we’re trying to do. The more I talk about this the more I see the wider opportunity.

“I’m happy to do all this stuff,” O’Malley said about her willingness to collaborate with those who are incarcerated. Her reason: to put an end to “Death by hopelessness.”

Around the nation, there are organizations that advocate to stop using what some believe to be belittling language that describes people with criminal records. “Justice involved” are those who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated, but the term can sometimes be interpreted to mean people who work within the criminal justice system.

At no time during the discussion did O’Malley use the words inmate, prisoner, offender, felon, parolee, formerly incarcerated or any of what some call disparaging words used to describe those who have been convicted of a crime.

O’Malley joined the district attorney’s office in 1984. She has been the chief law enforcement officer in Alameda County since her appointment by the Board of Supervisors in September 2009, according to the county’s website. She was elected to the position in November 2010, 2014 and 2018.

The District Attorney’s Office jurisdiction covers more than 800 square miles and operates out of nine offices, according to the DA’s website. Its mission is to “review and prosecute criminal violations of the laws, to protect consumers and the environment and to support and protect victims of crime within the County on behalf of the people of the State of California.” It has a staff of more than 150 attorneys.

The visionary who resurrected San Quentin News

December 11, 2019 by Kevin Sawyer

Eleven years ago, former San Quentin warden Robert Ayers Jr. pulled the San Quentin News from the dust heap and revitalized the inmate-run publication more than 20 years after it had been officially suspended.

Ayers’ decision was a gamble. But it paid off to the benefit of thousands of prisoners and other readers around the world who learn about criminal justice, incarceration, rehabilitation and reentry from stories advancing social justice, written by incarcerated journalists.

“At that time, I wanted to get some quality journalism out and hopefully have other institutions do the same,” said Ayers during a recent visit to SQ News. He said as warden, he was used to doing things without a lot of oversight. So in 2008, when the News was restarted, the California Department of Corrections allowed it, as long as it stayed at San Quentin.

“I believed at the time good things were going to come of this,” said Ayers. “I saw this as a vehicle for people to know who inmates are.” He said he wanted to take the mystique out of who inmates are because “inmates are not a subset of humanity.”

In October, Ayers and his wife Peggy accepted an invitation to visit SQ News and attend one of its weekly staff meetings with some of the newspaper’s volunteer advisers. It was the first time he’d seen the newsroom since it relocated to the prison’s media center.

Ayers greets SQN Advisers Linda Xiques and Joan Lisetor

The celebrated podcast Ear Hustle was far in the future when Ayers brought SQ News back to life. Ayers said, “I didn’t have any notion of a podcast or anything else.” (The newspaper and Ear Hustle share space in the media center, but have separate staffs.) Ayers said when he revived the newspaper, he did not envision a journalism guild to teach new writers or that the SQ News would become so big.

Ayers became a correctional officer at San Quentin in 1968. Then, he said the SQ News was a four-page paper. “There was very little news.” It was a publication about news on the prison yard.

According to Ayers, rumor had it that outside influences tried to guide the content of SQ News in the turbulent 1980s. The paper was shut down in the mid-1980s, along with every other prison newspaper in the state. “The reason it was stopped is because it couldn’t be censored anymore,” he said. “That’s the truth.” California courts had sided with inmate journalists in a number of cases in which prison administrators attempted to censor content.

Ayers left San Quentin in 1986 as a lieutenant. Over the years, he’s worked at Pelican Bay State Prison, California State Prison Sacramento, and filled in as warden at California State Prison Los Angeles. When he was offered the job as warden at San Quentin, he said it took him about 30 seconds to make his decision.

Ayers returned to San Quentin in the spring of 2006. He said it was a place that he had “kinship with.” But it was known for doing things its own way. “I wanted to change that, but I also wanted to do something about the inmate population.”

Ayers: “if it can be broadcast and printed out there, why can’t it be printed in San Quentin News?”

When SQ News was publishing in the 1980s, it didn’t do much for the prison population, according to Ayers. Upon returning to the prison, he wanted to “get the staff respect back” and do something that would benefit the entire inmate population. He said he wanted to provide a means for people to build other useful skills in another venue.

Ayers said he believed the newspaper needed to be under the education department. “It was a hard sell to the principal at the time,” he said, so he went to the vocational printing instructor, John Wilkerson. “He was on it.”

One of Ayers’ key objectives was to provide good guidance. He said he wanted to build ethics. “Once you build that, a warden is not needed.” He said the advisors to the newspaper are providing role model status to the men who associate with and learn from people who are productive. He said when the men can look to people like that and form their own mind, that goes a long way because “the media is still a pillar of our society.”

Warden Ayers invited retired journalist John C. Eagan to spearhead the rebirth of the newspaper. Later, Ayer’s assistant, Lt. Rudy Luna, brought on retired journalists Steve McNamara and Joan Lisetor on board. McNamara was former owner and publisher of the Pacific Sun. Lisetor was an adviser to the newspaper in the 1980s. They all answered the call and are still volunteers with the SQ News along with dozens of others.

“This was not a small thing to take on,” said Ayers. “I’m not saying all of the resistance (to starting a newspaper in prison) was unfounded.”

When the News was being revised, Ayers said there was early dialog with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) about what it was going to allow to be printed.

Ayers argued that the men watch television, listen to radio, subscribe to newspapers and magazines so they already had access to information. “What are they going to print that’s going to set the world on fire?” he said.

When the newspaper was revived, “We were basically ignored because they (CDCR) didn’t know we existed,” said McNamara. “Since we’ve become much more visible, we’ve reached a good accommodation.”

Ex Warden Ayers, Steve McNamara and San Quentin News staff outside the SQ media center

The role CDCR represen- tatives have with SQ News:

• Check the factual content of material sourced directly or indirectly from CDCR or relating to the California criminal justice system.
• Check for content that actually or potentially endangers the safety of prisoners, CDCR personnel, the prison system or the public.

• Content deemed questionable is flagged with observations or suggested changes. Warranted revisions are made by the newspaper staff with the guidance of its professional advisers.

The SQ News requested that review of the paper by the CDCR, before publication, to not include re-writes or calls for changes in the newspaper’s content selection, writing style, balance, identified opinions or other aspects of journalistic choice. These are the purview of the newspaper staff with the guidance of its professional advisers.

“People all fear what they don’t know,” said Ayers. “One of the fears of starting a paper is there are those who think it will be an inmate rant rag. But when it’s the truth you can’t swat that away.”

There was never a story he worried about. “As far as I’m concerned, if it can be broad- cast and printed out there, why can’t it be printed in SQ News ?” said Ayers. There was, however, a story about administrative segregation that raised concern. Some people didn’t want it called “the hole,” but he asked what sense does that make because everyone out on the yard calls it “the hole.”

Regarding humanizing the men, Ayers said he wanted the men to humanize each other. “Everybody in prison, whether it’s staff or prisoners, tend to buy into the notion that men are inmates.”

When Ayers restarted the paper, he wanted people to be proud of it and to “remain open.”

“You’re doing your job,” he said to the News staff. “I think you’re part of that” (prison reform). “My only recommendation is to be open to growth.

“I still look at it online,” said Ayers. “This is certainly not something we were doing 11 years ago, and it won’t be the same two years from today.”

The staff and advisers all thanked Ayers and applauded his “courageous decision” to restart the newspaper.

“I think a lot of running a prison can be, and usually is, a mine field,” said Ayers. “You don’t always know where those mines are hidden. You don’t want to be the one to step on one and have it blow up.” He warned that once you take that big step into the unknown, “Have clarity in your own mind.”

Former SQ Warden Robert Ayers, Peggy Ayers, and SQN Adviser Steve McNamara

Ayers stepped off, and left a legacy that he now shares with his predecessor, Clinton T. Duffy (SQ warden 1940-1952), who established SQ News in 1940. If not for Ayers, though, the News may have remained dormant for decades longer.

Editor’s Note: Today, SQ News prints 30,000 newspapers each month and distributes them to all 35 CDCR prisons, four juvenile facilities, university and public libraries, to hundreds of donors that include individuals outside of California. It publishes the quarterly magazine Wall City, the newsletter Inside SQ News and the website sanquentinnews.com. The state of California does not fund the paper. It is funded by grants from foundations and generous private donations. You can follow us on Twitter: @SanQuentinNews.