The world’s greatest professional doubles tennis team, the Bryan Brothers, dominated the San Quentin Inside Tennis Team in every match they played on the prison’s tennis court recently.
Mike and Bob Bryan’s serve was too hot to handle for Geno Sevacos and Jason Mcginnis, who are members of the San Quentin tennis team. The S.Q. team was definitely overmatched. They began to volley well but were not able to score a single point, losing the match 4-0.
The brothers played a handicap match, and did this while holding each other’s hand. Then, Henry “M.C.” Montgomery joined in the middle of them and they still defeated the S.Q. team.
Then Ronnie Mohamed and J.T. Taylor both playing for the S.Q.’s tennis team, finally scored a point off Taylor’s nicely placed ball, which caused the crowd to cheer. Mac McCarthy and Montgomery joined in the middle of the brothers to assist in a handicap match and still the S.Q. team was not able to compete with them.
After the first round of games, the brothers demonstrated the side-to-side volley. Their father, Wayne Bryan, stated that this exercise sharpens hand and feet movements, as well as eye coordination. Bob said, “It’s called the RDC volley drill. It’s a volley drill when we’re moving laterally. It’s like reflex volley and we’re hitting them pretty hard and it works on your independence of hands and feet. So you’re hitting volleys from every direction, every height and your feet are moving side to side. We’ve been doing that since we were 4 years old.”
Troy Williams and Henry Townsend were next to play the brothers. The brothers played a handicap game by holding Gary Scott and JulianGlenn Padgett hands as they played. Despite the handicap match, the brothers were able to display their coordination and why they are the tennis double champions. Although the brothers are great players, they also have a compassionate nature by not slamming the ball on the S.Q. tennis team players.
Robert Kaliski, a director of the Strawberry Tennis Club at Harbor Point and chief financial officer of the Harbor Point Charitable Foundation, helped to organize the Bryan Brothers’ visit.
The Bryans came to the Bay Area for a jam session as a part of the charitable Esurance Tennis Classic, where they played San Rafael teenagers in a handicap match.
Mike said of his San Quentin visit, “We see a lot of stuff on TV and movies and San Quentin is a famous place in California and all over the world. So just going through the gates we definitely got a little quiet and didn’t know what to expect. But then coming out here and seeing you guys and seeing how nice you were to us and the respect made us feel a lot at ease.”
He added, “This is definitely a unique experience. We’ve played all over the world, at all different settings, but never been inside a prison. But we’re really impressed. All of the inmates are great players and they have a passion for the game. We learned a few things out here today. They’ve got some wicked shots. There’s only one court out here and there’s a lot of guys who want to play, so it’s pretty amazing that they share the court and that they get enough time to become the great players they are right now. I mean they’re a lot of 4.0. 4.5 and 5.0 players out here, which is pretty impressive.”
Bob commented, “Yeah, we had to bring our best stuff, take these guys down and I’m kind of blown away by the talent. I asked these guys if they played college tennis or high school and no one’s really played in school. It’s amazing. They’re all learning all of their stuff right here. So they’ve got good coaches. They’ve got good players to play with. I hope to come back. This was a thrill for us. Well, it’s safe to say for a lot of these guys that are in here had a lot of time to work on it.”
Bob expressed his thoughts concerning incarcerated men being able to play tennis. He said, “I really think it’s a good way for these guys to stay in shape and stay mentally fit. It’s awesome. Many people don’t realize the benefits that come from playing tennis. Tennis is a sport that calls for you to think about several things almost at once.”
Bob added, “It’s inspiring to see all the programs here: the media program, the tennis, people getting their degrees in school, people trying to better themselves. That’s what we try to do everyday. And we respect you guys for doing the same thing.”
Bob also explained how he met his wife, Michelle Alvarez, who is a Florida attorney. “My mom taught her tennis lessons when she was 10 years old. And I’m like 6 years older so I would always go down there. She’s a lefty so I’d go down to the court and help Michelle, the little 10-year-old with her serve. Then we went off on the tour and then to college and I didn’t see her for 15 years. Then Face Book came along and I saw her pictures and I’m like, whoa, she’s grown up. So I started sending her some messages.”
The brothers support a kids charity, which is an after-school program. Bob said that the program “helps kids out because some kids don’t have any place to go to when school is out, where they can go and feel safe. My brother and I feel it’s important to give back and help. We have a lot of times here to give back and we do two charity events and we ask our buddies …to help us out and we raise money for inner city kids in Ventura County and all around the country. And, you know it means a lot to us to give back and help kids have a better chance to succeed in life.”
Mike and Bob have been the World No. 1 doubles players for over 240 weeks as of May 9, 2011.
The brothers attended Stanford University in 1996 through 1998. In 1998, Bob became the first player since Alex O’Brien in 1992 to win college’s “Triple Crown” of NCAA singles, doubles with his twin brother, Mike, and team titles.
The Bryans have a passion for playing music. They have their own band with Mike playing on the drums, Bob on the keyboard, and father Wayne on the guitar.
Mike and Bob’s mother, Kathy Bryan, is a former women’s tennis circuit player. She participated at Wimbledon four times. Their father is a tennis instructor who studied law during college. During tours, Wayne and Kathy involve themselves in various ATP Kids’ Days and clinics.
The Bryan Brothers worked out for their parents and for the San Quentin tennis team. Mohamed of the S.Q. team said, “It was like getting a visit from a star or an actor that you admire. It is a feeling that I cannot explain. It was a very joyful experience. They treated us like they have known us for a long time.”
Raphael Calix, a member of the S.Q. tennis team, said, “Playing tennis that day with the world’s best truly gave me an experience of freedom and of joy. They were gracious but relentless in their groundstrokes and serves. So for a brief time in history I had the opportunity of returning some serves and exchanging some ground strokes and volleys with the best in the world. This experience made me feel a deep appreciation for human kindness which for me I could only have on the tennis court.”
—JulianGlenn Padgett
contributed to this story.
Archives for October 2011
S.Q. News Editor Harry O Departs
After 23½ years in federal and state prisons, Michael R. Harris was released from San Quentin State Prison on Oct. 11, 2011. He has been active in numerous self-help organizations and was a leader in resurrecting the San Quentin News 3 ½ years ago.
Without going into the details of your case, can you tell me what happened?
I became accustomed to surviving on the hard streets of Los Angeles at a young age. I made a lot of money in the drug business. When I opened my eyes to all of the lives I had helped to destroy, it was too late. To this day, I’m still haunted about some of the things I’ve done. I started creating businesses in the community with the intent to help people, hoping this would remove some of the dirt I had done. When I became a so-called “legit businessman” I learned how to carry myself accordingly – ultimately I gained a sense of purpose. Then one day I found myself in handcuffs because I failed at processing a situation correctly.
Did you say that when you were first arrested you reverted back to the street hustler mentality of the past?
Yes, my attitude and demeanor was largely due to the mindset I had adopted while being housed in the notorious Los Angeles County Jail. It was easy for me to revert back into that street mentality.
Harris, once known as Harry O. on the streets of Los Angeles and in the music world, received 25 years to life for attempted murder and drug-related charges.
How would you describe your mindset when you started your 25-to-life sentence?
My ego was so strong that it wouldn’t allow me to see the reality. When I arrived at San Quentin for the first time back in 1988, I was still a beast.
When I arrived at Quentin, at that time it was a Level-IV. The atmosphere was intense and violent. I was still an ego-driven person due to all of the unfinished business that I left on the streets. My physical body was behind walls, but my mind was still in society. I was constantly thinking beyond prison. When San Quentin changed to a Level-II two years later, I was transferred to the newly opened Pelican Bay Level-IV prison, where I did 18 months. After that I was transferred to various other state institutions: Tehachapi, Lancaster and Soledad, than back to San Quentin in 2005.
Harris, who was once the puppeteer of a vast empire, found himself reduced to working as a porter at San Quentin. Harris was later assigned to clean the showers, a position he could have opted out of, but on his own chose to retain for over two years – an experience that he says, helped humble him.
What happened to help you see change?
It was natural for me to see that being locked up in a cage was unnatural. It took 15 years into my life sentence for me to really start seeing life from a different perspective. When you’re looking at things differently, they start to look different. And, I also learned how to respond differently as well.
I sold drugs because it was an easy way out. In retrospect, it took eight years of soul searching to realize that the choices I made were actually weak choices. I was conditioned to think the way I did. I started re-conditioning my brain by reading books about people, some whom came from like circumstances and made a positive contribution to humanity. After reading these types of books and experiencing their lives vicariously, I became ashamed of the person that I had once been. Today I believe that real power comes from patience, perseverance and finding true meaning in your life.
Was that really you? I’m referring to that beast.
That’s a good question. The best way to explain it is to say I had a split personality. One personality protected the other. I was conditioned to act a certain way when exposed to certain environments or situations in the past. With a lot of hard work, I was able to liberate myself from the negative conditioning and allow the true me to emerge. I am no longer that beast, thank God.
How have you grown spiritually?
In 1996 a food poisoning incident caused me to suffer a serious form of paralysis. While recovering in a prison hospital and unable to move, I had a spiritual awaking that caused me to have a conversation with my Creator. I have always been a spiritual person. In this conversation, I said, “If you allow me to live, I will change my life completely.”
When I got off the bus at San Quentin (the second time) I told myself I was going to go home from here. I immediately started looking for groups and programs to involve myself in. The first program I signed up for was T.R.U.S.T., which stands for Teaching Responsible Utilizing Sociological Training. For the last 15 years, I have been making choices that would move me closer to becoming a better person.
How do you believe the groups helped you in regards to dealing with the Parole Board?
The groups helped me to be honest. Before I stepped into the boardroom, groups like T.R.U.S.T., Keeping It Real, and V.O.E.G. (Victims Offenders Educational Group) helped me to be able to connect with the real reason why I was in prison – realizing that prison had become my reality. Looking at the part I played in the crime, I embraced the fact that it was me who put me in prison. I accepted the fact that the world I knew was no more.
The groups also helped me relate to how learned conditioning was implemented into my lifestyle. Groups enabled me to be in front of a crowd of individuals and say I am not a big shot. I am now able to listen to feedback objectively. I went through groups because they were a good tool to get what I wanted, not to mention they were a requirement for lifers. Yet by going through them, I got more than what I expected; I found my authentic self.
Is there any one person who has had an impact on your growth and development within the last 23 years of incarceration?
No. I believe my growth has been impacted or influenced if you will by a number of people and situations in many ways. I have also learned a great deal from negative things. Some people only look at the positive things for growth but I have learned from the negative things as well. One is learning how not to repeat those negative mistakes from the totality of the experience and examination that one goes through, if you do the work looking at all sides.
What are you planning on doing upon your release?
Plans are plans but what I’m passionate about doing is connecting with like-minded people, specifically young people who are poised to ultimately make some of the same mistakes that I have made in the past; by presenting myself as an example of why that’s not such a great idea. Just as important is connecting with people who are in the solutionary business as opposed to just focusing on the problems at hand and not actually elevating to the solutions that are needed, throughout this nation’s disenfranchised communities.
Is there any book in the making?
There are a few. One is called The Hearing, which is being designed in a memoir-type style. It utilizes the parole board as a vehicle to revisit my life experiences before and throughout my incarceration. Lessons and skills learned coupled with my rehabilitation efforts with a lens towards the entire California phenomenon for the last three decades. In terms of how urban neighborhoods cope with crime, lack of education, lack of opportunities due to poor economic training and access; coupled with how our present justice systems dispenses punishment. The other book is titled Mentorship by Like- Minded People, (about) individuals who have come from the same mind-set and or backgrounds, who have done the work on themselves and now use their past experiences to connect the dots for others. Motherland 2035 is a short story that I introduced recently in the Brothers in Pen series. The group’s new release, Six Cubic Feet, explores the past, present, and a bright future for Africa that I plan to develop into a complete novel. The third is called The Music Masters and my last one is called Doing Your Time.
Are there closing remarks you would like to leave with us?
If you don’t know how to process, it will affect the decisions you make. Two thoughts I would like to put out there: One of the keys, in my opinion, is to become your “best you,” not some one else’s version of what your best you should be. Learn to be OK with your best you; period. And the other thing would be to learn the difference between “Love & Respect,” which means different things to different people, but for me, I have found sometimes it’s pretty easy to love somebody today and not love them tomorrow. But one would be hard pressed to respect a person one day and not the next, so I prefer respect.
Tuesday morning about seven o’clock, Oct 11, 2011, Michael Harris departed San Quentin and was met at the gate by two federal marshals.
Realignment Explained
OFFICIAL CDCR RELEASE
As of Oct. 1, 2011, our Department and the State of California are undergoing significant changes to facilitate reducing overcrowding and recidivism, which as a by-product will ultimately reduce cost. There are many rumors and misinformation about how these changes will occur and what the impact is estimated to be. Below is a briefing synopsis of the changes that are occurring beginning on October 1st:
Earlier this year, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed Assembly Bill (AB) 109 and AB 117, historic legislation that will enable California to close the revolving door of low-level inmates cycling in and out of state prisons. It is the cornerstone of California’s solution for reducing the number of inmates in the state’s 33 prisons to 137.5 percent design capacity by May 24, 2013, as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
All provisions of AB 109 and AB 117 are prospective and implementation of the 2011 Realignment will begin October 1, 2011. No inmates currently in state prison will be transferred to county jails or released early.
Governor Brown also signed multiple trailer bills to ensure the 2011 Realignment secured proper funding before implementation could go into effect.
The 2011 Realignment is funded with a dedicated portion of state sales tax revenue and Vehicle License Fees (VLF) outlined in trailer bills AB 118 and SB 89. The latter provides revenue to counties for local public safety programs and the former establishes the Local Revenue Fund 2011 (Fund) for counties to receive the revenues and appropriate funding for 2011 Public Safety Realignment.
COMMUNITY, LOCAL CUSTODY
AB 109 allows non-violent, non-serious, and non sex offenders to serve their sentence in county jails instead of state prisons. However, counties can contract back with the State to house local offenders.
Under AB 109:
• No inmates currently in state prison will be transferred to county jails.
• No inmates currently in state prison will be released early.
• All felons sent to state prison will continue to serve their entire sentence in state prison.
• All felons convicted of current or prior serious or violent offenses, sex offenses, and sex offenses against children will go to state prison.
There are more than 60 additional crimes that are not defined in Penal Code as serious or violent offenses but at the request of law enforcement were added as offenses that would be served in state prison rather than in local custody
POST-RELEASE (COUNTY-LEVEL) COMMUNITY SUPERVISION
CDCR continues to have jurisdiction over all offenders who are on state parole prior to the implementation date of Oct. 1, 2011. Prospectively, county-level supervision for offenders upon release from prison will include current non-violent, non-serious (irrespective of priors) and sex offenders. County-level supervision will not include:
• Third-strike offenders- those whose third strike was for a non-violent offense would still be on State parole.
• Offenders whose current commitment offense is serious or violent, as defined by California’s Penal Codes 667.5(c) and PC 1192.7(c).
• High-risk sex offenders,
• Mentally Disordered Offenders
• Offenders on parole prior to October 1st
Offenders who meet the above-stated conditions will continue to be under state parole supervision.
The county Board of Supervisors will designate a county agency to be responsible for post-release supervision and will provide that information to CDCR by Aug. 1, 2011. CDCR must notify counties of an individual’s release at least one month prior. Once the individual has been released CDCR no longer has jurisdiction over any person who is under post-release community supervision. No person shall be returned to prison on a parole revocation except for those persons previously sentenced to a term of life.
PAROLE REVOCATIONS
Starting Oct. 1, 2011 all parole revocations will be served in county jail instead of state prison and can only be up to 180 days.
The responsibility of parole revocations will continue under the Board of Parole Hearings until July 1, 2013 at which time the parole revocation process will become a local court-based process. Local courts, rather than the Board of Parole Hearings, will be the designated authority for determining revocations. Contracting back to the state for offenders to complete an custody parole revocation is not an option. Only offenders previously sentenced to a term of life can be revoked to prison.
PRISON BOARD
After July, 1, 2013 The Board of Parole Hearings will continue to conduct
• Parole consideration for lifers,
• Medical parole hearings,
• Mentally disordered offender cases, and
• Sexually Violent Predator cases.
AB 109 also provides the following under parole:
• Allows local parole revocations up to 180 days
• Authorizes flash incarceration at the local level for up to 10 days
VIOLENT AND SEX OFFENDERS PAROLE REVOCATION
Inmates released to parole after serving a life term (e.g., murderers, violent sex offenders, and third-strikers) will be eligible for parole revocation back to state prison if ordered by the Board.
Hunger Strike Is Cut Short
California prisoners’ latest hunger strike was cut short after authorities created new criteria to determine gang affiliation and programming opportunities were expanded for administratively isolated prisoners, authorities reported..
The hunger strike originally started in July and peaked to 6,600 prisoners in at least 13 facilities, lasting three-weeks, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said that he did not understand why the strike was restarted, asserting that the department was working to meet the demands of the prisoners.
According to the group, 513 of the 1,111 prisoners imprisoned at Pelican Bay have been in solitary confinement for 10 or more years, and 78 have been confined for more than 20 years without access to light or open space for prolonged periods. “Just imagine being locked in a bathroom for 24 hours, seven days a week, year after year after year for no legitimate reason,” one prisoner said.
Prison officials say that those prisoners aren’t technically in solitary confinement; they have access to the yard 10 hours a week and are allowed to watch television and converse with other prisoners. “That’s not solitary confinement,” CDCR spokesperson Terry Thornton said.
A Sept. 22 letter from state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, to Inspector General Robert Barton requested a review of the corrections department’s “response to the issues raised by the inmate hunger strike that ended in July of this year.” The letter was issued by the Senate Rules Committee. It asked that the review be completed within 30 days.
Gov. Jerry Brown said the state is trying to deal effectively with prison gangs. “Don’t be fooled by people complaining that they need to get back in the main population if these are the very same people that are calling for people to be knifed and killed and for retaliation to take place in the streets,” Brown said.
At its peak, the hunger strike including prisoners incarcerated at Calipatria, Centinela, Corcoran, California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility in Corcoran, Ironwood, Pelican Bay, San Quentin, and Salinas Valley state prisons. There were also reports of hunger strikers in San Bernardino County Jail.
A memo was made available to all prisoners, warning that partaking in the hunger strike would subject participants to disciplinary action. The memo asserts prisoners “identified as leading the disturbance will be subject to removal from general population and placed in an Administrative Segregation Unit.” The department also considered removing canteen items from participants’ cells, including food.
Medical staff monitored the prisoners’ health condition during the hunger strike.
New Poll Reflects Support For Amending Three Strikes
A heavy majority of Californians favor amending the Three Strikes Law, according to recent public opinion polls.
A Field Poll in June found 74 percent favor more discretion in sentencing to help ease prison overcrowding; 24 percent were opposed.
The poll come on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling ordering California to curb prison overcrowding.
The poll found 79 percent of those surveyed consider the matter serious. California Watch director Mark DiCamillo said, “Voters really are less supportive of the prisons and budgets that are given to the prisons. They’d much rather fund K-12 schools or higher education.”
The poll asked voters whether the Three Strike Law, which passed in 1994, should be modified to allow judges and juries more discretion when sentencing a criminal for a third felony.
The poll also found the public’s willingness to exclude nonviolent and non-serious offenses and property crimes as a third strike.
A vote on an initiative to change the law is expected next year, spearheaded by the Stanford School of Law’s Three Strikes Project.
After the proposed initiative language is approved by the attorney general, voter signatures can be collected to place the measure on the ballot. Observers expect the initiative to exclude non-serious offenses, such as petty theft, receiving stolen property, or possession of .08 of drugs from counting as a third strike.
The initiative is expected to be made retroactive, with nonviolent and non-serious offenders eligible for re-sentencing.
The Legislative Analyst Office estimates incarceration cost of those strikes now under the law will total $19.2 billion over 10 years. Additionally, the auditor has concluded amending the law to eliminate life sentences to 4,000 nonviolent and non-serious offenders will save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
The San Jose Mercury News reported the initiative supporters have secured the financial backing of David W. Mills, a Stanford law professor and former investment banker. The newspaper also reported the initiative is expected to limit third strikes to violent or serious crimes.
In a Tree 738 Days
Take it from a woman who lived in a redwood tree for two years and eight days to make sense out of this statement: “Take your worst attributes, turn them into something positive, and then focus on something that can make a difference in the world.”
Julia Butterfly Hill stood off corporate loggers, the authorities, and being called a terrorist by the media while perched in a redwood tree located in the northernmost part of California, named “Luna” for a record-setting 738 days.
The ordeal ended when she came into an agreement with Pacific Lumber Company, regarding its clear-cut logging policies.
What attracted her to this issue was the awe-inspiring affect that a giant redwood tree gave her when standing next to one for the first time.
Butterfly’s defiance gained her worldwide recognition as an environmentalist willing to use all means necessary to protect America’s rain forests. She said, “I had to figure out how to live in this world, being me.”
She addressed San Quentin’s Green Life group recently about what it means to be an environmentalist. She said, “I cannot control what life throws me, but I can control how I react to what is thrown at me.”
I’m probably one of the only
people who would tell you that you
don’t need to change, but you may
need to change your focus.
The Green Life is San Quentin’s version of a green movement, consisting of prisoners and conventional environmentalists who seek ecological sustainability for communities and individuals.
“I’m probably one of the only
people who would tell you that you don’t need to change, but you may need to change your focus,” Butterfly told the group.
She explained how the trials and tribulations of growing up poor and her steadfast stubbornness was a perfect combination for focused rebellion against the corporate loggers, who planned to clear-cut ancient redwood forests containing some of the tallest living things, some thousands of years old.
Butterfly’s message to the world: Listen to Mother Nature. She warns that we humans are destroying things in the environment that are intrinsic for the existence of humanity.
Read about Butterfly’s experience in, The Legacy of Luna.
Back To Family Holds Graduation
Kerisiano Asuega’s wife lives in Los Angeles. Because she could not make the trip to San Quentin, it created a rift in their relationship. An innovative program run by Centerforce and its Back to Family class healed the rift. The program paid the expense for his wife to come to participate in an eight-hour couple’s enhancement workshop designed to bridge the gap created by incarceration.
Asuega and 47 other men graduated from Centerforce’s Back to Family in a ceremony on September 23, which was held in H-Unit’s visiting room, highlighting the end of a five-year program that officials are looking to extend.
“This is important work and being a father is one of the most important roles in life,” said Centerforce Executive Director Carol F. Burton, addressing the crowd of grateful men. “I want to congratulate you all for completing the 12-week course.”
Burton has been at the helm of Centerforce for three years. She sat as the course instructors and guests took turns speaking to the graduating fathers.
A central part of the Healthy Marriage, Responsible Fatherhood program, the Back to Family course is a 12-week parenting class offered to men in H-Unit as part of the Stand-up curriculum started by former Warden Robert Ayers Jr. Men learn the communication skills needed to overcome the challenges incarceration imposes on relationships.
“The information they gave us was good. It will help me have better communication skills with my kids and family,” said Braulio Reyes who will parole shortly and is enthusiastically looking forward to reuniting with his family.
For the past five years Back to Family held three classes each school semester taught by a dedicated team of professionals. Each instructor added his or her expertise, building a people-friendly atmosphere, which made the program a cultivated success.
On the 2010-2011 team were Dolores Lyles, Family and Children Services manager; Suzanne Gothard, Couples and Family Services specialist; Teresa Lee, program assistant, and Arnold Chaves, Spanish Class instructor.
The project, which was funded by a grant from the United States Department of health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, served 448 unique men as of the 3rd quarter of its fifth year at San Quentin. In addition 70 men and their partners participated in all day Couples Enhancement Workshops, focusing on effective communication.
Centerforce hopes to bring the program back to San Quentin when they receive replacement funding.
Job Opportunities Open For Trained Machinists
For most people coming out of prison, a criminal conviction makes employers most unwilling to hire them.
It has become increasingly difficult for ex-offenders to find work. In the current market, employers can afford to be highly selective, with one exception—skilled machinists. The tight labor market for skilled machinists is accomplishing what years of pleas and programs from penal experts and social scientists failed to do: It is persuading America’s manufacturers to hire ex-convicts.
Representatives from Bay Area manufacturer Conhagen, Inc of California, recently visited the Vocational Machine Shop program (VMS) at San Quentin State Prison. Shop instructor Richard Saenz invited them to speak about available employment opportunities.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that there isn’t a dire need for experienced or qualified machinists,” stated Vice President and General Manager Len Cucciare. “Even in this down economy, if you’ve got the skills, you won’t find many problems getting a job as a machinist.”
That comment got the students rapt attention. “I’m impressed by the environment of your shop. It is well equipped and extremely clean. It’s even better equipped than us!”
Student John Hill asked, “Would your company be interested in hiring any of us?” Cucciare replied, “When we received Mr. Saenz’ survey letter, my first inclination was to ignore it. But something kept tugging at me to read it, and now that we’ve had a chance to visit with you, I’m glad I did. I would have no problem interviewing any of you for consideration of employment.”
Another question included salary range. “We are a non-union shop. Depending on your experience, our wages range from $18 to $25 an hour,” Cucciare stated.
Conhagen operates a 21,000-square-foot repair shop in a Benicia Industrial Park, near San Francisco. The facility is capable of pump repair, turbine repair, gearbox and reciprocating equipment repair. It also has an extensive field and manufacturing services.
Law Professor Speaks On Mass Incarceration
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on prison overcrowding also declares that prisoners have a right to be treated with dignity.Law Professor Jonathan Simon explains that California’s massive prisons, filled with over twice the designed capacity, take away the dignity from individuals.
That system created an atmosphere that is inherently harmful to the individual and makes a person worse, mentally and physically, than when he entered the prison system, maintains Simon, a University of California at Berkeley professor.
The Brown v. Plata court decision determined that this is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment, Simon said in an editorial published in the journal Punishment & Society.
Simon notes the court used the word “torture” to describe the conditions in California prisons. As an example, he explains that prisoners with chronic illnesses are placed at risk for worse problems because of their incarceration.
Simon quotes from Principles of European Prison Law and Policy: Penology and Human Rights, to explain how European philosophy is entering American opinion about prisoners’ dignity. The quote says: “The apparently minimalist notion that prisoners must have their humanity respected has produced rights to prison regimes that promote individualization, normalization, and the preparation of all prisoners for the possibility of return to the community.”
Budgetary and Social Impact of Realignment
California’s 58 counties are expecting $5.6 billion through June 2012 to pay for Gov. Jerry Brown’s realignment plan that shifts responsibility from the state to individual counties for the incarceration, treatment and parole of some offenders
FUNDED THROUGH TAX
The realignment plan is funded by extracting a portion of the state’s sales tax and an increase of $12 on the vehicle registration fee. Counties have access to an additional $602 million for new jail construction made accessible through public safety legislation passed in 2007. A special legislative session was held earlier this year to expedite the application process for this funding in response to the implementation of the realignment plan.
The state’s 2012 budget allocates $9.8 billion to its prisons, about 11 percent of an $85.9 billion budget – $224 million more than last year, but less than the record $10.1 billion of 2008.
Gov. Brown assured county officials that a constitutional amendment would be on the November 2012 ballot to guarantee realignment funding regardless of possible budgetary shortfalls.
UNIVERSITY POLL
A poll by the LA Times and University of Southern California found 80 percent of voters support realignment. Nearly 70 percent support the early release of some low-level, non-violent offenders. These offenders account for the highest recidivism rate for any category studied in California.
The poll signals that voters are frustrated with a system that spends more on prisons than colleges and universities, yet maintains a recidivism rate of 67.5 percent.
“It’s not going to work if we just go from prisons to bad jails,” said Craig Haney, a professor of the psychology of law at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is author of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report on the psychological effect of incarceration.
LACK OF SERVICES
The Prison Law Office’s Sara Norman questions whether the plan can be carried out correctly. “If the programming isn’t there, if substance-abuse treatment, job retraining, things like that, are not available to them, it could be a big mess,” she told National Public Radio.
It covers not only criminal justice, but it covers child welfare, mental health, jobs programs, and its the largest shift that we’ve ever seen in the states history
“Given that what we had was completely broken and was the most expensive, overcrowded and least effective in America, there’s some hope that this will change it,” says criminal justice professor Barry Krisberg, University of California, Berkeley.
“It covers not only criminal justice, but it covers child welfare, mental health, jobs programs, and it’s the largest shift that we’ve ever seen in the state’s history. Even so, the keystone of realignment is the reversal of the state’s tough-on-crime approach, to what state corrections officials say is a ‘smart-on-crime’ strategy,” Krisberg surmises.
PUBLIC SAFETY
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate said, “Increased bed space will assist local jails in implementing much needed reforms called for in the Public Safety Realignment law.”
The realignment plan responds to the U.S. Supreme Court order to cut prison overcrowding.
Thirty-two of California’s counties also have court-imposed caps on jail populations.
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