After witnessing a steady increase in drug-addicted men being committed to prison, two San Quentin inmates set a goal: create a certified drug treatment counselor-training program and cultivate peer counselors.
Launching new prison programs always has bureaucratic hurdles but Rusty Trunzo and Dennis Pratt succeeded in overcoming those challenges with the help of Christian Institute.
With support from Sam Lawrence of Christian Institute, Addiction Recovery Counseling (ARC) began at S.Q.
Chaplain Earl Smith assisted by approving use of the Protestant Chapel every Friday.
Sponsor Kelvis Love began the first session in 2005, using seven instructional modules created by Christian Institute.
Immediately, the program was jeopardized when hurricane Katrina forced Love to go to New Orleans to help his family.
Claire Elizabeth DeSophia agreed to become Program Director and brought Sara Wilds of the STAND UP Program as a sponsor.
After completion of the first module, the program was again in jeopardy with no qualified person available to continue the students’ educational endeavor.
ARC found a fully certified California Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor (CAADAC) member, who is an H-Unit inmate, to continue teaching the class within the prison population. This example gave the men seeking to become CAADAC certified themselves a boost of confidence, after seeing a fellow prisoner actually doing what they aspired to do.
Richard Baez, the current Program Director of ARC says, “That the theory and reality of this program was that it would make more sense to have prisoners run the ARC program. Prisoners have more insight on how to deal with other prisoners, and they can better relate the reality of their particular situation.”
Other drug treatment programs inside and outside of prison have caught wind of ARC and have donated time, energy and resources to the success of the program.
Laura E. Bowman, Community Partnership Manager, for the last five years, is instrumental in connecting ARC with volunteers in the local community. She credits former S.Q. Warden Robert Ayers for allowing ARC’ existence.
“Warden Ayers is wise beyond his years for listening to the men who introduced this program that changed the lives of a lot of men.”
Trunzo has since been paroled.
Archives for August 2009
The Strong, Clear Voice of the Federal Court
The three-judge panel has thrown down a bold ruling in the Plata/Coleman v. Schwarzenegger battle. The legal triumvirate consists of United States District Judges Lawrence Karlton, Thelton Henderson and Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt.
Their ruling mandates that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) must comply with the minimal constitutional required standards for the mental and physical health care of every inmate housed in prison. The judges also ordered CDCR to lighten its load by reducing the body count by approximately 40,000, to a percentile capacity of 136.0 to 137.5 percent. Judges Henderson, Reinhardt, and Karlton ultimately found prison overcrowding to be CDCR’s primary cause for their severe and continuous medical violations.
EXPERT OPINIONS
Former San Quentin Warden Jeanne Woodford, who worked for S.Q. for 27 years and as acting Secretary of CDCR, was among the panel of experts who testified that she “absolutely believes that the primary cause [of medical problems] is overcrowding.” Woodford further stated, “I think it’s unbelievable that in this state we have the kind of overcrowded conditions that we have; that we do little or nothing to prepare people for the return to society.”
Joseph Lehman, who has 35 years of corrections experience with 15 combined years as head of corrections in Pennsylvania, Washington, and Maine said in his August 15, 2008 report that, “crowding” ‘is the primary cause’ of the inability to provide medical and mental health services. “It’s overwhelming the system both in terms of sheer numbers, in terms of the space available, in terms of providing health care.”
On January 23, 2008 the court appointed J. Kelso as the Plata/Coleman Receiver. Kelso reviewed inmate deaths to determine whether they were preventable. In 2007, of the 110 deaths not the result of homicide or self-inflicted injuries, 44 deaths (40 percent) were found to be preventable or potentially preventable.
Doctor Robert Shansky stated in his report that, “ CDCR’s medical care delivery system cannot provide a constitutional level of care because the prison system incarcerates more prisoners than can be adequately treated.”
Doctor Craig Haney followed in his report by saying, “This overwhelming overcrowding problem has incapacitated the system’s ability to deliver constitutionally adequate health care.”
Doctor Pablo Stewart, a licensed psychiatrist with over 22 years of experience in correctional psychiatry, testified on the nature of constitutional violations. He cited “inadequate suicide monitoring and prevention, inability to timely access appropriate levels of care, inability to access mental health care clinicians due to shortage, and inadequate medication management practices.”
CRITICAL MASS
Prison overcrowding pushes wardens to choose which emergency situation takes place over the others such as the recent riot in a Kentucky prison and at Chino’s Medium A prison yard here in California. Events such as these make health care less of a priority. Added to the fact that double and tripled bunk beds automatically produce less and less space.
This forces prison officials to go outside the norms and use empty spaces, hallways, and gymnasiums. Structures not designed to be used by humans as “living pens.” Such usage is not approved under California building and safety codes. These makeshift housing zones quickly become cramped, unsanitary and toxic and the continuous understaffing potentially makes these living quarters volatile for the inmate.
This modality of prison “un-health care” ultimately effects those housed there as well as prison staff. These correctional officers leave their shifts possibly carrying staph infections such as influenza, tuberculosis and viruses like “H1N1”, home to their own families and friends.
THE COURT’S DECISION
In making their ruling the judges weighed many different measures to stop the problem but found them lacking. They did not accept the defense’s theory that the population reduction order might have a negative effect on public safety.
Also, various plans endorsed by the Governor were looked at which would subtract numbers from the prison population without playing Russian roulette with public safety. Measures studied included sentencing reform, good behavior credits, an increase in prison rehabilitation programs, and diversion of low risk offenders and technical parole violators.
Continuing on in this vein, the defendants argued that; resources in the community would not be able to handle the influx of released prisoners.
The court rejected this argument. The panel calculated this based on expert opinions, that releasing inmates would not have a major effect on the population of local jail facilities.
In addition, the judges said that supervision of parolees would not be affected because many of the ordeals related to parole arise from improper channeling of funds. This was pointed out especially concerning low-risk parolees and technical violations.
Judges Henderson, Reinhardt and Karlton also rejected the idea that resources for rehabilitation and reentry would be taxed by prison population reduction. The tribunal reasoned that a financial windfall of savings from reducing prison overcrowding could be used in a positive manner.
They suggested creating more needed programs geared toward public safety, such as more rehabilitation and reentry programs. The panel found no evidence connecting early releases with a rise in crime statistics. Evidence put forth to the court by experts noted that several other states have adopted “prison overcrowding reduction measures without harming public safety.”
The judges also denied the defendants’ request to exclude mentally-ill inmates from the release order. However they did agree that some could do better being cared for and treated inside prison. They found that most health care treatments would cost less and produce more effective results outside of prison.
After the decision was rendered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation stated its intent to appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The battle could take months and even years to resolve.
In reviewing the court’s decision, as a team each justice used a plethora of evidenced based expert information. And wielded focused judicial precision by sticking to and supporting every legal standard of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. Although, the most intensive opposition was the timing of events around the ruling.
The Federal court decision came days after Governor Schwarzenegger unveiled his own reduction strategy involving 23, 000 inmates.
But the court used the defendants’ own experts and plans to pump up their decision. The court decreed that prison overcrowding has become a catastrophic sickness with only one undeniable remedy, reduction of the population.
It is apparent; the inmate explosion is a financial negative in every section of CDCR. It has been most harshly felt by California’s prisoners, who have for 14 years received unconstitutional physical and mental health care.
The Captive’s Past
Stifled cries of yesterdays pain
Are haunting memories of a runaway train
The moans and groans of a troubled past
Are like a ship that’s been torn rattled and thrashed
The only resemblance of what once was
Are scattered pieces of a broken mast
The chains and shackles of the captives past
The flower fades and the grass is gone
The hills are barren and there is no song
Endless people are among the throne
With no direction or even a song
The past is master of an evil demise
For the lost sails captive hoping for reprise
Memories and pain fused with sin and stain
Have become black as night and blind our ways
There seems no hope from shackles and chains
From this captives past of a life of continual pains
How can I wash away the blackness of sin and blight
To set free this captive shackled by night
Which is framed within the hope of
His washing power
Made available this very hour
The prisoners of memories pain replete
Can only be loosed at Jesus feet
The power to take away the sting of
the captive’s memories past
Lies in a hope of a die that was cast
Deep within the belly of hell
Came a defeat that eternity would tell
That the captives past of memories hell
Could no longer confine them within its shell
Christ is the answer for you today
If you would only kneel and pray
To be free from the captives memory past
Is to believe that He is able to wash
the pain and memory of the captives past
I Write For My Children
I write for my children
In words only hearts can fathom.
I write for my children
Pen-drenched in love storms
And magical poems;
Each alphabet a teardrop,
Every page a river
I write for my children;
No longer can I see their glow—
A soft and tender sadness
Illuminates their souls.
I write for my children
To invoke their spirits,
Faint breaths upon my face
As sprinkles of giggles
Tickle my lobe.
I write for my children
To rescue my drowning faith
In a pool of regrets.
I write for my children
In a language that dances
On lyrical islands
And miracle streams.
I write for my children
Because writing is a blanket
I weave around their hearts.
I write for my children…
Recent Deaths On the ‘Row’
Michael Dee Mattison, 55, received on death row from Los Angeles County on April 14, 1980, died of natural causes at an outside hospital facility on July 17, 2009.
Fred Harlan Freeman, 69, received on death row from Alameda County on October 7, 1987, died of natural causes at a community hospital on July 25, 2009.
Miguel Angel Martinez, 39, received on death row from Los Angeles County on December 28, 1998, died of natural causes at a community hospital on July 26, 2009.
David Arisman, 61, received on death row from Los Angeles County on January 27, 1999, died of natural causes at the California Medical Facility Hospice Unit on September 5, 2009.
‘So Tell Me, What’s So Bad About San Quentin? – New Arrival Says Many State Prisons Are a Whole Lot Worse’
Having just arrived at San Quentin on July 29, 2009, some would say that I have not really experienced the ‘Q’ at all, that the grin permanently etched upon my face is nothing more than honeymoon glow. I would argue the opposite.
My first morning on the yard was a definite shock—sensory overload. There was simply too much to do, and everyone was doing. Everyone had a plan, it seemed. Men wore hats declaring their memberships in various groups and clubs. A man practiced Yoga and T’ai Chi, his slow, deliberate movements giving a surreal quality by the early morning S.Q. fog. A mixed group of prisoners played tennis on the immaculate court, the sound of which played havoc on my childhood memories. A bulletin board in North Block listed all the programs I could join—the television even ran a scrolling channel proclaiming more activities.
As I walked the track that first morning, I smelled the salt of the ocean, saw palm trees blowing in the breeze; a man playing a trumpet—its crisp notes ringing clear and true.
A scoreboard in right-center field proclaimed the area as, “San Quentin’s Field of Dreams.” A baseball field in prison? Where was I? What was this place that had everything?
Well, not everything. Some-thing was definitely missing—a few somethings in fact. Where are the guns, the oppressive regulations, and the lockdowns? The overwhelming atmosphere of heavy, disconsolate dread that I’d lived under for the past 22 years–factions of opposing prisoners, engaged in a perpetual standoff under watchful hawk-eyed gunners. They had vanished, like the bayside fog beneath the late morning sun. None of the several hundred men on the yard that morning seemed the slightest bit concerned with me or what I was about, at least not in a negative fashion. Within a half hour, I had a tennis racquet in my hand, laughing my way to a sore belly with a cosmopolitan group of prisoners—stone walls disappeared, we could have been at any number of community tennis clubs.
By the evening of my fifth day in S.Q. I was signed up for the upcoming Patten University semester, enrolled in Non-Violent Communication, signed up for two Arts in Corrections classes, and joined the Pirates Baseball Team. Everywhere there was a current of moving forward—of dedication to a higher set of ideals—of prisoners taking charge of their own lives, dropping age-old habits steeped in nonsensical prison mentality. S.Q. has that elusive factor in successful rehabilitation: the Therapeutic Environment.
So, yes, I do walk around with a smile on my face all the time—even when it seems as though we are being harassed, I consider the alternative; I could be back in the war zones. Perhaps it is being new here which makes it all seem so profoundly innovative, and worth the little hassles. Or, maybe it’s just that I retain a degree of perspective that tends to be lost after the years. Whatever the case, there exists here something which is special and unique, and worthy of our genuine participation in all it has to offer. After all, the rest of the system is waiting, poised to lock us up in one of the non-programming warehouses, con-tent to allow us to feed on the miseries of one another until, at last, we die without ever having realized hope.
The Shocking High Cost of the State’s Prison System
On November 4, 1995, Leandro Andrade stole five videotapes worth $84.70 from a Kmart store in Ontario, California. For that and past crimes of burglary, transporting marijuana and petty thefts he was given a 50 years-to-life sentence.
There are approximately 167,000 men and women incarcerated in California’s prisons. Each year it costs $49,000 dollars to house, feed and care for each of them. According to Charles B. Reed, Chancellor of the California State University system, in an article published July 27, 2009 in the San Francisco Chronicle, Reed states that the costs to taxpayers for one year of tuition for each year of tuition for each CSU student is $4,600. “Therefore we could send 10 students to college for a year for what we pay to house one prisoner. Of course our children have to get there first, and with the massive cuts to K-12 education our legislators have undertaken it doesn’t look like we’ll be sending as many students to college anyway.
THREE STRIKES LAW
Let’s look at more numbers. From 1994 to October 2005 California incarcerated more than 87,500 individuals under the second and third strike provisions of the Three Strikes Law. A total of 7,500 of those received 25 years-to-life sentences, according to Professor Elsa Chen of Santa Clara University. First, let’s focus on the 80,000 prisoners sentenced under the second strike provision, those getting out in the relatively near future. At the current cost of $49,000 per inmate per year. It costs taxpayers $3,920,000 every year these men and women are locked up.
Compare this to the costs of K-12 education. The National Center for Education reports that we spend $9,391 dollars per year for primary and secondary education. Round this up to $10,000 dollars, which translates to approximately $130,000 to give each child a high school diploma. So, the amount we Californians spend to keep all second-strikers in prison each year is equivalent to the amount of money we would spend to give 301,538 students a high school education. I think politicians’ priorities are in the wrong place.
EDUCATION DOLLARS
Now let’s look at the cost of imprisoning third-strikers, many of whom are serving 25 year sentences for crimes like petty theft, forgery and burglaries resulting (like Andrade above) in monetary losses to the victim of less than $1,000. It will cost $9,187,500,000 to imprison this population for the length of their sentences. That’s a lot of possible educational dollars our children are being deprived of. It should be evident what a colossal waste of taxpayer monies that corrections has become. We are strangling our future to punish people. There’s got to be a better way.
In a bulletin entitled “Common Sense Corrections Reform Can Allow California to Avoid Early Release” by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary Matthew L. Cate, he outlines his plan to cut $1.2 billion from the corrections budget. I was stunned by this statement: “The administration has developed a proposal in coordination with local law enforcement that is smart on crime.” If that were true they wouldn’t resort to scare tactics every time the spectre of prisoner releases comes up.
The CDCR ideology is guided by the desires of the guard’s union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. The union wants to keep as many people as possible locked up to ensure job security for its members. That’s smart on crime from the union’s point of view, but it is costing your children their education.
I don’t suggest just releasing vast numbers of inmates. What I am suggesting is that we must overhaul our current sentences and educate and rehabilitate those getting out so they’re less likely to come right back.
The CDCR is mandated to do just that and has been for years. But in the same bulletin the Secretary of CDCR admits that only 1,600 inmates out of 167,000 have earned a GED and completed vocational training that will enable them to rejoin society once again as productive members. By any standard that’s a dismal failure.
GREAT OBSTACLES
We have to get smart on crime from the public’s point of view. To do this we have to change the way we administer corrections, change from a model that propounds retribution to one that supports education and rehabilitation. The two greatest obstacles facing newly released ex-felons are finding employment and housing. Without a job no one can afford housing, yet the average California parolee has a seventh grade education. There is little expectation that anyone will secure meaningful employment without a high school education at the minimum.
We don’t need more guards or prisons. We can’t afford them, for one thing. What we need are more teachers and classrooms and we need to make certain everybody we incarcerate is compelled to get a basic education. Many changes would have to take place in order to implement such a plan: sentencing laws changed to give incentives and time reductions to prisoners who successfully complete educational and vocational programs, (saving taxpayer money while bolstering public safety).
Parole must become a support and aftercare mechanism to assist parolees in obtaining jobs and housing instead of being a means for keeping prison beds full. This is not being Soft on Crime. This is being Smart on Crime, because a parolee with a job is paying taxes, not wasting yours. And, in the illuminating light of reason, wouldn’t we all feel safer knowing that parolees’ will come out of prison with the education, skills and support he or she needs to find a job and a place to live. That way they won’t be as likely to break into yours.
Back in the Day
November 23, 1979 – After a four-month suspension for “slanting the news,” the SQ News was officially back in business. On Aug. 31, Michael Satris of the Prison Law Office filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Marin County Superior Court on behalf of the San Quentin News reporters. Subsequent negotiations with prison officials allowed the newspaper to continue publication.
June 13, 1980 – A U.S. District Court judge ruled that “brutality, overcrowding, idleness, poor physical facilities” and last summer’s long lockdown at the Washington state penitentiary at Walla Walla constitute cruel and unusual punishment. “There is just no question,” that overcrowding constitutes such punishment, he said.
August 29, 1980 – Five shots were fired by the gunrail officer in East Block in order to break up an assault on a correctional officer. The incident was sparked when a cell search turned up illegal tools and a tattoo gun. The two inmates in the cell attacked the officer.
September 5, 1980 – Ten shots were fired on the C Section yard to stop an altercation between prisoners. Seven inmates were treated at the prison hospital for birdshot wounds.
September 19, 1980 – Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. has vetoed the so-called habitual criminal bill which would have permitted a 20-year-to-life sentence for anyone convicted the third time of a serious felony. It was the first measure intended to increase sentences that Brown has ever vetoed.
November 14, 1980 – An inmate out of Santa Clara County was stabbed and killed on the lower yard. James Dance, 32, was stabbed once in the neck at approximately 9:40 a.m. and pronounced dead at the prison hospital.
August 2009 News Briefs
SAN FRANCISCO, 7-30-09 – California state courts have been ordered to close one day each month as part of the state’s budget compromise. The courts, including the state’s Supreme Court, will close the third Wednesday of each month in order to save the court system $84 million.
SACRAMENTO, 7-30-09 – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has given the go-ahead on planning for a new Death Row at San Quentin State Prison. Legislators had attempted to block the construction because they feel that the state’s plan to double-cell up to two-thirds of the inmates will not withstand a federal court challenge.
ROME, 7-30-09 – A Rome-based human rights watch group announced that there were 5,727 executions worldwide in 2008. China remained the world’s top executioner, while executions in the U.S. were down.
BEIJING, China, 7-31-09 – China, with 13 million abortions, continues to be the world leader in that category. The official China Daily newspaper also reported that 10 million abortion pills are sold every year.
IRAQ, 8-02-09 – Three American vacationers hiking in the mountainous, poorly marked border area with Iran were arrested by Iranian authorities after wandering across the border. The two men and a woman were hiking near a popular waterfall.
WASHINGTON, 8-03-09 – A nearly two-decades-long search came to an end when the remains of Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher’s jet were found in the Iraqi desert. The pilot was shot down in the opening days of the Persian Gulf War.
MANILLA, Phillipines, 8-01-09 – Former President Corazon Aquino died of cancer at the age of 76. After the assassination of her husband, Aquino rose to power more than 20 years ago in a peaceful revolution that brought down the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
NORTH KOREA, 8-05-09 – Former President Bill Clinton flew to North Korea and returned home with two Bay Area journalists who had been imprisoned since March 17 for entering North Korea. They had been tried and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor
WASHINGTON, 8-07-09 – Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Latina member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor, who was confirmed by the Senate on a 68-31 vote.
ISLAMABAD, 8-05-09 – Reports claim that top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has been killed in a U.S. missile strike. Mehsud is suspected in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as well as numerous suicide bombings across Pakistan.
WASHINGTON, 8-14-09 – Critics have accused President Obama of losing control of the debate over national health care. In town hall meetings across the nation, Obama has struggled to squelch doubts about the program rather than promote its virtues.
LIMA, Peru, 8-16-09 – Peru has become the world’s largest counterfeiter of U.S. dollars, based on information from the U.S. Secret Service. The Peruvian imitations are nearly perfect, including the watermark. Police seize approximately $10 million each month in the capital city, Lima.
WOODSTOCK, NY, 8-16-09 – A 40-year anniversary concert was held at Woodstock, the site of the “concert that defined a generation.” A few of the original musicians were on hand to entertain a crowd estimated at 15,000.
GAINSVILLE, FL, 8-18-09 – For the first time in 63 years, the population in the state of Florida has declined. Economists blame the recession for the loss of 58,000 residents in the past year.
WASHINGTON, 8-19-09 – Robert Novak, the syndicated columnist and TV commentator who “outed” CIA operative Valerie Wilson in 2003, has died of brain cancer. Novak was 78.
WHITE PLAINS, NY, 8-14-09 – Les Paul, 94, who invented the solid-body electric guitar, has died to complications from pneumonia. Paul was also a performer who had 36 gold records to his credit.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, – More than 10 million Brazilians have symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases, according to a recent survey. Of that figure, 6.6 million are men and 37 million are women. While 99 percent of women sought treatment from a physician, one in four men sought out pharmacies only.
LOS ANGELES, 8-25-09 – The winning bid of an E-Bay auction for the right to purchase a burial crypt above that of Marilyn Monroe was a Japanese man who offered $4,602,100, then later withdrew his bid. Thee was no immediate word on whether any of the other 11 bidders whose offers exceeded $4.5 million will step in to make the purchase.
MASSACHUSETTS, 8-26-09 – Ted Kennedy, 77, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, died of a brain tumor. Fans say he will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, where Kennedy served for 47 years.
NEW YORK, 8-26-09 – Author Dominick Dunne, 83, died at his home of bladder cancer. A columnist for Vanity Fair, Dunne rose to fame for his daily coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1994.
JERUSALEM, 8-31-09 – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was indicted in a corruption scandal that led to his resignation last year.
TOKYO, 8-31-09 – Japan’s ruling party was dumped in national elections. Japan is mired in the worst economic slump since World War ll, and is suffering record unemployment.
DUXBURY, VT, 9-02-09 – Vermont became the fourth state to allow same sex marriage, joining Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa. New Hampshire will become the fifth state on Jan. 1, 2010.
WASHINGTON, 9-06-09 – Van Jones, President Obama’s green jobs czar, announced his resignation in a middle-of-the-night E-mail. Jones, 40, a San Francisco Bay Area activist, had been under fire for derogatory comments about Republicans and because his name had appeared on a petition questioning the Bush administration’s advance knowledge of the Sept. 1, 2001 terrorist attacks.
KABUL, 9-05-09 – A U.S. air strike on two hijacked gasoline tanker trucks killed more than 70 civilians, according to Afghan police.
WASHINGTON, 9-06-09 – Unemployment rose to 9.7 percent in August, the highest rate since 1983. Economists expect it to top 10 percent.
WASHINGTON, 9-07-09 – The U.S. sold more than 2/3, or 68.4 percent, of all the weapons purchased worldwide in 2008. Weapons agreements signed by the U.S. were valued at $37.8 billion of a worldwide total of 55.2 billion in 2008. Italy was a distant second at $3.7 billion, while Russia was third with $3.5 billion.
As I See It
I am a reporter for the SQ News. Have been for a year or more now. I’d have to say that I have certainly had some enjoyable and, at times, enlightening moments through my work on the paper. And then there are those other times, where the going has on occasion gotten just a bit rough.
I’m often reminded that the paper is printed under the auspices of the Education Dept., and as such is meant to be a learning experience. And I’d have to agree that it has been just that, often on a daily basis.
In my wanderings throughout the mainline part of the prison, I am often approached by both inmates and staff wishing to express their opinions regarding our paper, which is their paper. Many of them have expressed an opinion that our newspaper has often fallen short of reflecting the true realities of prison life as we know it to be. The bad as well as the good, from both sides. As I see it, there are a number of reasons why this continues to be the case.
Despite the fact that our paper is some 12 issues old now and counting in its latest incarnation, it is still in fact a baby. And as much as I would like to see the baby get up and walk, I suppose we’re still in the crawling stage. And all of the impatience in the world is not going to hasten the learning process for us on the staff, or for the prison administrators, who, like it or not, are the ultimate arbiters of what is going to appear on these pages.
It’s a feeling out process, of what the staff would like to see on its pages, and what the administration feels we ought to know. And sometime, somewhere along the way, we’ll all most certainly meet someplace in the middle. And in the process the paper will continue to develop its own character and to take on a life of its own, as well. And I have faith that we reporters will begin to earn a reputation for credibility and honesty for our paper, amongst our peers here behind these walls, amongst the staff and administrators who interact with us day in and day out – and who are our partners in this sometimes uneasy alliance, and amongst the very broad spectrum of our entire reader base.
And someday in the not-too-distant future, I hope that you, the reader, will be able to pick up the paper to read it, confident in the knowledge that in its pages you will generally find an accurate and honest portrayal and understanding of what our prison life is really all about behind these walls. The very best that we are able to do for you.
And our paper will be able to comprehensively explore a wide variety of such sensitive issues as the transfer of inmates out-of-state, the pending and imminent release of a number of inmates from California’s overcrowded prisons and the myriad issues that the many Lifers behind these walls must contend with in their quest for freedom. And, yes, we’ll even post articles dealing with the occasional violence that erupts behind these walls in ways that don’t glorify the incidents.
I hope to see all of these things in the coming year, the second year of our existence. And in the meantime, we on the staff will keep up the struggle to bring you, our readers, the truths, the realities and the triumphs of our lives behind the walls.
It’s not easy, no siree, not at all! But then no one told me it would be. But it is, and has been, a learning experience. And I suppose that I’m grateful for that.