San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Quan Says Education Is Crucial

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To effectively fight crime society needs to concentrate on its children, according to Oakland City Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Jean Quan.
“We know as educators…if you don’t read at third grade level you’re likely to drop out of high school, and a high percentage of those [high school dropouts] end up in the criminal justice system,” Quan said on a visit to San Quentin Aug. 6.
Speaking from her past experience on Oakland’s School Board, Quan said state administrators use the correlation associated with third-grade literacy rates to project future prison space requirements.
She also offered hope to parolees, saying Oakland has a jobs program for ex-convicts funded by the Economic Recovery Act (the stimulus bill). To qualify for the Cypress Program at Mandela Training Center, Quan said prisoners must get their G.E.D. while incarcerated. They also must submit to drug testing.
Quan also discussed Measure Y, which she wrote in 2004. It includes a variety of crime prevention programs, including Project Choice in San Quentin that brought her in to speak to the group. Project Choice was started in 2006 and sponsored by Volunteers of America. According to Darnell Hill, a facilitator for Project Choice, said “the group is a vital support system that offers one on one case management for young men paroling to Alameda County between the ages of 18 and 35.
 
Project Choice offers coping skill classes that assist men in gaining the insight on “thinking errors” that influence criminal behavior. Classes are held in education building A (Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m. and Friday from 1 to 3 p.m.). Classes are consistent until paroled.

Another Ball Game

The curriculum consists of five books that promote responsible thinking, produce personal growth, influence constructive behavior and build safer communities. It’s one thing to encourage young men to change their criminal lifestyle, but it’s a whole other ball game when you offer the tools, skills and support for one to make the “choice” to change from destructive criminal to productive citizen.”
Measure Y also aimed to keep fire stations open, hire 63 additional police officers to patrol designated neighborhoods in Oakland, and to fund various crime prevention programs.
Since 80 police officers were laid off in August, Oakland Police Department, fell below the threshold number of officers under Measure Y’s funding mandate. Quan therefore encourages Oakland voters to approve a revision of the measure on the November ballot to maintain funding for all beneficiaries of Measure Y.
Quan pointed out that laying off police officers in today’s economic environment is a major concern, most of the layoffs targeted desk jobs or low level subordinate positions. “There are actually 30 more cops assigned to the streets than before the layoff,” she said.

‘More Than 80 Cops’

“The Measure Y programs probably prevent more crimes than the 80 cops,” she said. “The combination of the crime prevention programs with (the street presence of) those [police officers] who know the beat are more effective preventing crime.”
 
“Right now the city’s budget is 50 percent cops. My typical cop cost me $100,000 a year, and they make $17,000 in overtime, and when I pay the other benefits, it costs me a quarter of a million dollars for one cop – car, gun, pension, pay, overtime. For a quarter-million dollars, I can do an after-school program at an elementary school. For a half-million dollars I can do an after-school program at a middle school. If I do an after-school program at a middle school, burglaries, vandalism, and petty crime is going to go down 40 percent.”
Although Quan agrees that the number of police officers in Oakland is extremely important, she believes that tax dollars are more efficiently spent on crime prevention programs targeting youngsters.
Quan indicated interest in developing a project in Oakland similar to Harlem Kid’s Zone, directed by Jeffery Canada in New York City. Harlem Kid’s Zone provides low-income families with parenting support through highly motivated social workers.—Juan Haines contributed to this story

S.Q. Inmates Raise Funds For Haiti

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A variety of inmate art work donated by men at San Quentin State Prison was sold at auction in order to raise money for earthquake survivors in Haiti. The benefit named Quentin United for Aid Kindness and Empathy for Haiti or “Q.U.A.K.E. for Haiti” raised more than $2650.
The benefit was hosted by Suzi Jestadt and held at the First United Methodist Church of San Rafael. Jestadt said that it was important for her to support the positive endeavors of the men of San Quentin and reported that one guest thanked her for, “opening up my eyes.” Guests from as far away as South Africa attended the benefit. A guest, whose South African name translates as Patience, brought five original pages of Cole Bienek’s comic book entitled Chronicles of Truth. A 96-year-old lady placed the successful bid on John Sklut’s life-like painting of a bird.
San Quentin’s aid to Haiti follows the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that impacted the lives of millions of people. The purpose of the benefit was not only to raise money in order to aid the people of Haiti in their time of need, but to sustain awareness of the crisis they continue to face.
Wikipedia is quoted as saying that “As of 12 February 2010, an estimated three million people were affected by the quake; the Haitian Government reports that between 217,000 and 230,000 people have died, an estimated 300,000 injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 homeless. The death toll is expected to rise.”
After the Men’s Advisory Committee circulated trust withdrawal slips and the Day Of Peace Committee donated most of its reserve funds, men who had no money to give began asking, “What can we do?” Initially we were limited to trust withdrawal slips and institutional fundraisers, art work and hobby crafts. But we decided to think outside the box.
The men involved in the San Quentin Film Project not only contributed to the inside organization of the benefit but created a song and music video entitled “This Is For Haiti.” The goal of the producers is to have the sound track downloaded and 100% of the proceeds designated to an organization working on the ground to provide direct relief and services for the Haitian people.

EXPRESSED CONCERNS

Early on, TV networks, major papers and radio stations reported how thousands of tons of desperately needed food, water and medical supplies were not reaching the people. Some organizations are said to charge an exorbitant amount of administrative fees. So naturally many of the men who participated in the Q.U.A.K.E for Haiti benefit expressed concerns. The sentiment of the men of San Quentin was and is, “If we are going to give up our heart, sweat and time, we want to make sure that it reaches the people. And we want to make sure the world does NOT forget about Haiti.”
For men who make on the average of 20 cents per hour for their labor, $2650 dollars is a lot of money. But let’s take a look at what has already been and could be accomplished. This benefit connected the talents of otherwise forgotten men with a compassionate community for a worthy cause. This project has built a bridge between the inside and outside communities as items were donated for auction by outside musician Michael Franti, filmmaker Kerry Yo Nakagawa, graphic artist Michael Schwab, mixed martial artist Cung Li and a computer graphics company named Zoltron. Music was performed at the event by renowned guitarist Jose Neto.

Substance Abuse Program Withers

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Among the prison programs on the chopping block because of the $1.2 billion cut in the budget of the California prison system are those dealing with substance abuse. The $250 million slash in rehabilitation programs will translate to an estimated 30 to 60 percent reduction in substance abuse-related staff positions. The cut in this area is especially ominous given the commonly held belief that substance abuse is a huge contributing factor to criminal activity. Prisoners themselves fear that any reduction in the already inadequate substance abuse treatment will result in unsafe prisons and unsafe communities.
According to California’s Little Hoover Commission, an estimated 80 percent of parolees are substance abusers. Therefore California’s prison population of some 160,000 would require at least 128,000 treatment slots. The plan, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) Fact Sheet, is to reduce the current number of treatment slots from 12,000 to 2,000 and to streamline in-prison substance abuse treatment services.
Robert P. Morales is a certified California Association of Alcohol and Drug Counselors (CAADAC I) who has taken the 255 hours of training for the practicum, passed the written exam and spent well over 4000 hours as an intern in a substance abuse treatment program called ACT.
Although ACT is not directly affected by the budget cut, Morales is deeply concerned about the effect of the cuts in state-funded programs. He believes that California’s citizens, incarcerated and free, will feel the impact both among prisoners remaining in prison and those being released from prison without adequate treatment.
“People become a part of their environment,” Morales said, “Prisoners come in damaged. They get involved in programs and make progress. Taking away treatment creates idle time that can revert the individual to criminal and addictive thinking.”
The streamlined version of in-prison substance abuse treatment will cut the current 6-36 months of substance abuse treatment to three months. According to James Houston, another prisoner who is also a certified CAADAC I counselor, “Drugs and alcohol are life-long issues for the long term user. It takes about a year after the person has stopped using for his brain to start back functioning normally.”
Information provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse notes, “There is no predetermined length of treatment. However, research has shown unequivocally that good outcomes are contingent on adequate lengths of treatment… participation for less than 90 days is of limited or no effectiveness.”
Public safety depends on expanding programs that work. The CDCR fact sheet noted, “The return-to-prison rate after two years for offenders who complete both in-prison and community-based substance program is 35 percent compared to the 54 percent for all offenders.” Drug counselor Houston believes strongly that substance abuse treatment slots should not be reduced, the streamlined substance abuse treatment approach should not be pursued, and those who need treatment should get it. Houston said providing prisoners the help they need before they are released is the key to safer prisons and safer communities.

Remarkable Woman Who Began SQTV

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Most San Quentin inmates have never heard of Wanda Ramey. Nonetheless, she is a presence in their lives every time they turn on their TV. Ramey and her husband, Richard Quierolo, first came to San Quentin Prison in 1960 to film a story on prison life. This led to a continuous relationship with the prison that led to the birth of SQTV, the prison-run closed-circuit TV station.
Ramey died of cancer in August at age 85 but her legacy lives on. She was one of the nation’s first female anchors in the western United States. She was co-host of the first local television noon newscast in America and she broke the line that kept women from doing hard-news gathering. She was recognized in both radio and television as a genuine pioneer, paving the way for women who today have an easier entree into an industry that was dominated by men, women such as Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and Jane Pauley. Ramey was also the first woman volunteer allowed inside San Quentin.
Ramey’s husband, Richard Quierolo, developed an interest in the mechanics of his wife’s career, becoming a TV cameraman and often working with and for his wife. Ramey covered President Kennedy’s assassination, and interviewed more than 1,200 well-known personalities, including Ronald Reagan, Carl Sandburg, John Kennedy, Caryl Chessman, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. Of all these interviews, Ramey remembered one of her first as the most memorable: Eleanor Roosevelt, the woman who was Wanda’s own inspiration and role model growing up.

A ROUGHER PLACE

Ramey and her husband taught television journalism as well as film and television production skills to many prison inmates. He helped prisoners learn the particulars of cameras while she filled them in on the details of narration and coordination. And this was back when San Quentin was a much rougher place than it is now.
In 1965 Ramey’s S.Q. students thanked and honored her by naming her an “Honorary Inmate.” That same year, as part of a film workshop taught by Ramey and her husband, a group of inmates produced a sports documentary. During the summer of 1966 a documentary on emergency farm labor was shot on location in the San Joaquin Valley by a small and select group of their students.
In 1967, a group of about 50 of their trainees produced a telefilm, The Cage that was broadcast on KQED. According to San Francisco Examiner columnist Dwight Newton, “It is … a grim, sometimes gripping, semi-real, semi-fanciful half-hour drama of four convicts captive in a barren, bunkless, chairless, concrete cell…” The prison allowed the telefilm to be produced because of the potential therapeutic value to the participants and of the possibility of obtaining funds to acquire equipment for the prison’s film workshop.
Larry Schneider, a state-employed TV specialist who has worked at SQTV for over 23 years, gives full credit to Ramey and her husband for what they did here. “Wanda, out of love for her husband, always said it’s all about Richard. They were a team.”
Lonnie Morris, a long-time resident of San Quentin who worked at SQTV in the early 90s remembers, “The thing that stood out to me about Wanda is that she cared about us as human beings and she loved her husband. Wanda was like a mother to us.” Morris’ eyes began to tear up as he recalled Dick Quierolo using a walker to come to visit. “He was up in age, around 77 at the time, but always had a smile. One time Dick came to see us in a wheelchair. We asked what he was doing and Dick said, ‘I had to come see my boys.’”
E. Phillips is a musician and artist who works as an editor at SQTV. Phillips said, “ I found skills I never thought I had before. If SQTV weren’t here I would not have the creative outlet that I have now because creative arts is what really drives me. Working at SQTV has given me a specialized and marketable skill that expands my opportunities on the outside.”
Marvin Andrews, Buckshot Maples and a new generation of film students are all reaping the benefits of a community service commitment that began nearly 50 years ago with Wanda Ramey and her husband.

AN INSPIRATION

Author’s Note: I work at SQTV as a video production technician. After researching and reading about Wanda Ramey, I am inspired and in awe. With tears in my eyes, I state that if I only grow to be a fraction of the person she was, I will have lived to be a great journalist and human being of substance.

Reconnecting

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By Troy Williams
Contributing Writer
Twenty-five years ago my mind did not fully grasp a connection to all of humanity. I could neither recognize potential nor power in the image that I viewed in the mirror. This hurt, angry and misguided child, traumatized by a host of environmental failures, was a lost-boy in America.
Fifteen years ago my mind did not fully comprehend a purpose in life. I lacked the knowledge, wherewithal and support needed to transcend the conditioned responses shaped within me from adolescence. Still hurt and angry, this confused young man stood at a crossroad with a vision for change but ultimately chose a selfdestructive path as a means to get there. Less than one year ago I was completely disconnected from the means and resources required to fulfill the vision expressed in this article.
Today, it is with great honor, humility and acknowledgement of purpose that I introduce myself as a writer and filmmaker.
I’ve written several short stories and movies scripts. Thanks to the collective imagination of visionaries, I’ve been given a second chance to mend some of the wounds caused by an unwise crossroad decision.
I often use script development as a way of expressing the creative voice of my imagination. Many writers use different methods to develop a story. I would like to take you on a journey through one of the processes I’ve used to draft a script for a docudrama.
Before we begin, let me walk you through a few preliminaries. A docudrama is a documentary type film that utilizes renactments of real life events. I’ve got a feel for an interesting story, its contradictions, its characters and their conflicts. I’ve thought about structure, meaning, and how everything changes over time. I’m ready to take a few notes.
This story is based, in large part, on individual life experiences. In essence, what I present here is a point of view that expresses a vision for transcendence.
The main ideas are framed in the form of questions the film will attempt to answer. Can the School of Hard Knocks produce fruit? How can the imagination be used to reconnect fallen fruit to the tree of humanity?
The binding thread that will run through this film is the concept of imagination. Lesson Six of Napoleon Hill’s book entitled “The Law of Success” begins as follows: “IMAGINATION is the workshop of the human mind wherein old ideas and established facts may be reassembled into new combinations and put to new uses.” This film will explore how old ideas and established facts have been reassembled, through the workshop of human minds, into new combinations and are now being put to new uses.
After the main ideas have been decided, they must be arranged into sequences. A sequence is “a series of shots joined by some common elements.”
*Central Idea: We see innocent children playing in a park, adolescents standing on an urban city street corner, news reports of crime levels, robbery up, murder rate up, education spending down, high school drop outs increased. The central idea that the writer wants to make is that our innocent children are being failed. Children are being left behind.
*Setting: We see a corporate board room, a prison yard, college classrooms barbed wire, camera equipment, school corridor, and video editing suite. Here the attempt is to link prison with the elements of a college that prepares individuals for the corporate world.
*Action: An inmate leaves a prison cell, checks in with the guard at a desk, walks into a video production class, greets his friends.
*Mood: Transformation has begun. Camera crews are filming. Inmates dialogue with at-risk youth via cinematic expressions about the consequences of negative behavior. Film screenings and focus groups are conducted. A teenager stands at a fork in a road. Here, the binding element is not just films but also the transcendence and positive attitude of the people and the setting.
Reenactments will also be used to unify the sequences and emphasize perspectives.
The chronological progression of this film will be used to show the development of character over time, trials, and tribulation, how the face of prison culture has changed at San Quentin, and how the old ideas of behavior modification and cinematography have been reassembled into a new combination called Positive Image Modification.
Elements of a search motif are also included in the logical progression of this film. There is a deliberate exploration of discovery and inquiry into the effects of Positive Image Modification. The goal is to find solutions to the violence that plagues our communities.
The use of imagination is critical in visualization. The dictionary definition of imagination is, “the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality. Visualization is the act or process of putting these mental images into visible form.
Here is where we consider the many possibilities of the visual interpretation of a point to be made in a sequence.
For example, the picture of KeKe standing in front of a row of obituaries accompanied by the following audio:
“Wise Up. It Ain’t Worth It.”
This visual is an example of positive change in Mr. Markee Carter and it exemplifies the concept of Positive Image Modification. He is a man who has lived of the brink of self-destruction, sharing the wisdom of his experiences, in essence holding up a sign that reads, “Stop. Wrong way. Do not enter.”
This film keeps in mind the cultural and emotional resonance of visualization.
1. Hip hop artist Lazarus (Marvin Mitchell) and Black Myth (Henry Montgomery) sit on a prison yard discussing life.
2. Two young men get into an argument over a CD player. Several other men join in on each side and everybody squares off to do battle.
3. Lazarus and Black Myth intervene with some conscious hip hop lyrics before the men come to blows. “Take two steps to the left to elude death. It’s roulette out in them streets so who’s next. You choose best to leave the block and lose less than those dudes who bust shots and use meth.”
4. Prison riot diverted. The men come together and settle their differences like thinking men.
The cultural and emotional resonance here takes us back to a time when hip hop was an endeavor of consciousness.
The opening of a film must hook the audiences’ attention and quickly define what the film is going to be about.
This film will open with a re-dramatization sequence. A small child witnesses violence in the street as he walks home from school, his parents argue and fight in the home as he watches violence on television. The scene cuts to a takeover robbery. Several young men enter a place of business waving guns. “Everybody down. This is a robbery!” Sounds of police sirens echo in the background. These visuals are accompanied by personal testimony . “November 14, 1994, I was arrested on a 28-count criminal complaint that stemmed from a botched takeover robbery. Facing life in prison, I made a commitment to change. And I did change. January 27, 1995, all charges were dismissed.” The scene dissolves to a man talking to a classroom full of students. “If I could do it all over again, I would of done things differently. I would have made different choices. Now, it’s time to give back. We can take our experiences and create cinematic expressions that others can learn from so they don’t have to make the same mistakes we did.”
The title that appears over the man connecting an external microphone to a camera is: Re-Connected.
In order for the rhythm pace of this endeavor to be maintained, it is critical for all members of society to come together collectively as a network. So, whether it’s a yard full of convicts who, when the clock strikes 6:10 p.m. on June 18, stop what they are doing and raise their hands in support of Silence the Viotive lence Day. Or documenting how, after a prison riot, OGs formed a Day of Peace Committee that works to prevent violence. Or the making of a TRUST documentary that reflects the struggle of the work needed to be done. We need and appreciate your continued support. After all the negative press that presents prisoners as monsters it is important that intellectuals give balance to those images youth will model.
Also in the works is a presidential town-hall meeting for the purpose of forming human to human connections in order to explore the fears and possibilities surrounding what may very well be America’s first African American president. Viewers will see the prison population as a microcosm of America. Through a prisoners perspective the nation will realize how far we have come and how far we need to go. We hope to relay a message of who we think would best serve our disenfranchised communities.
In reality, the climax of this program is only reached with change in our communities. But for the purposes of the film we will end showing youth developing their own cinematic expressions and dialogue that bear witness to positive Image Modification. After all, everybody has a story to tell.
Today , I’m RECONNECTED because today I have a sense of purpose. I have a sense of who I am. I have a clear sense of direction. Thanks to the collective effort of visionaries, I can say that I have produced several short movies.
The message to be learned and presented in this article is that film discovers how the workshop of the human minds have been key instruments for reconnecting fallen fruit to the tree of humanity

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