Classrooms and reentry programs are key to solving problems associated with jail and prison overcrowding, according to San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi during a San Quentin News forum with inmates.
On Dec. 20, Mirkarimi sat in a circle of 26 inmates—each with more than a decade behind bars, and most serving life sentences for crimes ranging from first-degree murder to forgery. The topic of discussion—rehabilitation, incarceration and reentry.
Alissa Riker, director of San Francisco jail programs, accompanied Mirkarimi.
“If our goal is to have a good reentry program, it won’t happen unless the programs for reentry are set in place,” Mirkarimi said. “We need more room to educate a wanting jail population.”
Mirkarimi said San Francisco jail administrators are particularly interested in ideas that could benefit people serving shorter sentences.
Riker asked the men what made them want to participate in the programs.
Inmates began explaining that it wasn’t until they involved themselves in prosocial programs centered on helping participants understand the root cause of criminal thinking that they were willing to take advantage of substance abuse and education programs in prison.
“What I’m hearing from you only magnifies what our challenges are,” Mirkarimi said.
Inmate Dave Basile, 61, said after he went to The Hole in 2009, he realized that many of the things he believed in were wrong. “I noticed when I started taking programs and college classes how limited I was,” Basile said. “There was a paradigm shift in my belief system and I realized that many of the things I had believed in were lies. Therefore, the veil of ignorance that had kept me limited soon began to lift from my eyes.”
Inmate Darnell Hill, 45, talked about how getting an education while incarcerated was the beginning of his transformation into a socially accountable person. “I felt bad because I sacrificed my relationship with my mother, who was always there for me, to commit crime with a father, who was never there for me, and I only had a seventh grade education at the age of 22,” he said. “I came to a level of sincerity with myself and realized the only way I could better myself was through education.”
Hill earned an Associates Degree from the Prison University Project, a Biblical Studies degree from Patten College, and a degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. “I felt getting an education helped me overcome my criminal thinking and behavior,” he said.
Mirkarimi said the test for whether the in-jail programs are effective is what happens after the person is released. He asked the inmates: “How do you help people who serve short jail terms? Is it a government duty to take care of reentry?”
“The responsibility for taking care of reentry ought to be a responsibility of everyone — government, offenders, victims, and the community,” said former inmate Richard Lindsey. “We have to develop a new way of looking at this problem. Restorative Justice is bringing a new way of looking at it. To inspire people to want to change, we need to integrate formerly incarcerated people into the system to give it credibility.”
Lindsey paroled from San Quentin in April 2013 after serving nearly 30 years for second-degree murder.
“As I see men released, I see a lot of frustration because there’s a gap in resources to needs,” said Richard Baez, director of the Addiction Recovery Program at San Quentin. “Just because a person has the resources doesn’t mean they’d take them. We need to find a way to turn the light bulb on to want to change.”
Mirkarimi said he was concerned with how to classify inmates once they are first booked into jail, particularly the mentally ill. “The criminalization of the mentally ill is not a solution,” he said. “Jailing the mentally ill is not good. The needs of custody and the needs of the offender must be reconciled for the best results.”
Making inroads in improving public safety is a top priority, Mirkarimi said. So finding the right programs is the biggest challenge.
In 2003, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office opened Five Keys Charter School, the first public high school embedded in a jail system. Five Keys is founded on connecting the community with criminal justice policy, a focus on family, recovery from substance abuse, education and employment, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Since opening, “the school has awarded more than 600 high school diplomas, certificates of completion or equivalency diplomas,” reports the Chronicle. Graduates of Five Keys (one year out of jail) do not return to jail 24 percentage points lower than the 68 percent of inmates who do not attend the school—saving San Francisco about $1.5 million each year – after deducting operating costs of the school, the newspaper reported.
“We want to encourage a lot of volunteerism into the San Francisco County Jail,” Mirkarimi said. “We are always trying to harvest volunteers from the community. I believe this is important, not only for the offenders, but for public safety.”
Mirkarimi said he recognizes class problems in San Francisco. He said that when people are just getting out of jail they typically cannot afford to live in the city. “Those who are in the jail system are at the lowest rung of class. We need to change how people see those on the lowest rung.”
–B. Woodard and K. Sawyer contributed to this story.