By Juan Haines Professional athletes have always earned higher salaries than the average wage earner. Yet, the lack of African-Americans in sports team ownership is a carefully crafted plan, according to Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete (2006) by William C. Rhoden. To show athletes are in a […]
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By Juan Haines Mexican nationals and other Spanish-speakers imprisoned in California face particularly high barriers to rehabilitation and getting their lives on the right track. That was the assessment of officials from the Mexican consulate in San Francisco who visited San Quentin Prison recently. According to Xavier Issac Delgadillo, who works in the Department of […]
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By Juan Haines San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, joined by more than two dozen prosecutors from around the country, visited San Quentin to discuss criminal justice policy with 30 inmates participating in restorative justice programs. “Our job does not end when the person we convict goes to prison, said Baltimore, MD, State’s Attorney Marilyn […]
Read MoreBy Juan Haines A state prisoner’s feature story won a prestigious journalism award after beating out over 200 entries from more than 100 professionals representing 29 media organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. The broadcast story titled Lady Jay Talks About Being Transgender in Prison won the 2016 San Francisco Peninsula Press Club award […]
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By Juan Haines Teachers and aides with the Prison University Project, at San Quentin, along with inmates and prison staffers, roared with laughter on Dec. 30 to a sing-along spoof of the Twelve Days of Christmas by Alex Brigg. The parody made fun of police harassment as the audience chimed in with, “On the Fifth […]
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By Juan Haines There is a book I read, but Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did not. If they had read Brown is the New White, Steve Phillips (2016) and had taken its advice, I believe Democrats would be holding both houses of Congress and the presidency in 2017. Phillips accurately pointed out some solid […]
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By Juan Haines A team of San Francisco’s leading prosecutors came into San Quentin on Dec. 16, seeking answers to very tough questions about public safety and got eye-opening answers from the kind of people they have convicted and sent to prison. A large part of the solution is curbing criminal behavior in children before […]
Read MoreIn a sample survey taken from San Quentin inmates, more than half think a Donald Trump presidency has the potential to make America worse, while about 20 percent think things would be better under a Trump presidency. About a third of the respondents said that a Trump presidency poses a direct threat to their future. […]
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By Juan Haines A diverse troupe of men, dressed as usual in prison blue, broke away from the everyday constraints of incarceration through the artistic expression of dance and dialogue. San Quentin’s Artistic Ensemble put on its latest performance in the prison’s Protestant Chapel on Nov. 18 for an audience of about 150 that included […]
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By Juan Haines In the early hours of Nov. 11, several dozen military veterans from all branches of service gathered on a prison yard. Free veterans and people from the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area joined them to pay tribute to this national holiday. Before the guests arrived, incarcerated veterans worked with military precision to […]
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