San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Archives for April 2012

Senator Looks to Redirect Inmate Funds to Counties

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The state Legislature is considering filling funding gaps in county services for former state prisoners with mental illnesses by redirecting millions of dollars raised by taxing prisoners and their families.
The pending legislation, SB 542, would require an unspecified percentage of the Inmate Welfare Fund to be transferred to county probation departments and utilized for the coordination of mental health services after an inmate’s release from state custody.

FUNDS

The funds, now totaling $68 million, are deposited in a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) bank account and according to law must be allocated for “the benefit, education, and welfare of inmates of prisons and institutions under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections.”
SB 542 would amend the code to include “former inmates of institutions” as additional recipients of the benefits.
State Sen. Curren D. Price Jr., D-Los Angeles, who sponsored the legislation, visited San Quentin on April 11 to meet with prison mental health care officials and with a group of students from the Prison University Project, who voiced opinions on how best to use the funds.
Price acknowledged to the group that his office and other interests, which he declined to name, have inquired about the funds. He and State Science and Technology Fellow Dr. Le Ondra Clark listened attentively as seven prisoners voiced their concerns. There were many suggestions, including securing assistance for prisoners with mental health issues, reentry into society, and funding rehabilitation programs inside.
Price told them he wanted “to make sure that inmates are getting the services they deserve.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

The group agreed there is need to provide services for former state prisoners. But they told Price that the IWF should not be used to pay for services that are the responsibility of the state or county.
One prisoner suggested increasing the $200 given to prisoners when they parole “Two-hundred dollars is not enough money to parole with; it isn’t even enough to rent a room nowadays,” he told the senator.

USED FOR PRISONERS

Currently, the IWF is used pay for institutional canteens and staffing and maintenance of hobby craft programs. However, it has been years since inmate committees have had access or been able have input into the use of the IWF, according to prisoners.
The IWF is collected from prisoners and their families who are taxed 10 percent on all goods prisoners are allowed to purchase while serving sentences in state institutions. This tax also collected from the sale of arts and crafts prisoners produce.
The bill was referred to committee. It would allow the IWF to go toward the cost of mental health services for former prisoners, many of whom are under county supervision due to the prison realignment plan implemented by SB109. The services would include providing mental health appointments, transportation, and medications for former state prisoners.
Price gave no indication of what percentage of the IWF the legislation seeks. Some prisoners are concerned that they will be left out of the process and that state officials will raid the funds.
“We want to make sure that the money is being used for what it was intended for,” Price assured prisoners.
Prison University Project Executive Director Jody Lewen, who invited the senator to San Quentin, said, “Just because there are funds and people have a need for them does not mean that they have a right to them. That is the logic of theft.”

STAKE HOLDERS

After meeting with prisoners, Price attended an April 17 stakeholders’ meeting in the state capital where he recounted his visit to San Quentin, according to those present.
Ninety-one percent of the meeting attendees said in a survey they believed that the funds should not be sent to county probation departments to cover the cost of inmates with mental illness who are in county custody.
One stakeholder wrote: “These funds should not be used for programs the state should be providing with general funds. These funds should be used for things like arts in prison, college textbooks, theater groups, (and) gardening programs.”
In an interview, another person close to the issue commented that the bill is well intended in helping former inmates, but also that the legislation is looking in the wrong place for funding.

California’s Prisoner Segregation Scrutinized

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Big changes are on the horizon for California’s solitary confinement policies.
In the wake of hunger strikes, public protests and a complaint to the United Nations, California prison officials are gearing up for policy changes expected to dramatically reduce the number of prisoners in solitary lockups.
State prisons chief Matthew Cate announced April 24 that “the department is already projecting a decreased need for segregated housing for gang members and has cancelled the proposed construction of 50 segregated exercise yards for gang members at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi.”
Cate said that cancellation saves about $2.9 million.
He said changes “are expected to begin in fiscal year 2012-13.” They include:
• Offer graduated housing and privileges as incentives for positive behavior, and impose consequences for gang-related behaviors;
• Offer a step-down program for inmates to work their way from a restricted program back to a general population setting;
• Provide support and education for inmates seeking to disengage from gangs;
• Employ a weighted point system to enhance the integrity of the gang validation process;
• Use segregated housing only for those gang associates and suspects who engage in additional serious disciplinary behavior; and
• Offer programs designed to promote social values and behaviors in preparation for an inmate’s return to the community.
“The department manages arguably the most violent and sophisticated criminal gangs in the nation,” Cate said. “The department’s prior prison gang strategy was developed more than 25 years ago and relied primarily on suppression. Tested national models available today utilize a combination of prevention, interdiction, and rehabilitation measures.”
On March 20 the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law petitioned the United Nation to investigate and urge an end to solitary confinement. The petition came in the wake of 6,000 persons in 13 California prisoners conducting hunger strikes last summer, claiming the practice are “inhumane and torturous,” The Associated Press reported.
The petitioners say California’s solitary confinement policies violate “international rules governing the treatment of prisoners.”
On Feb. 20 the Occupy movement demonstrated outside San Quentin objecting to solitary confinement, among other things.
“Certainly there are a small number of people who for a variety of reasons have to be maintained in a way that they don’t have access to other inmates,” Chase Rioveland, a former head of corrections in Colorado and Washington state, told the New York Times. “But those in most systems are pretty small numbers of people.”
Mississippi corrections commissioner Christopher B. Epps told the New York Times he used to believe difficult inmates should be locked down as tightly as possible, for as long as possible.
But Epps said while he was fighting a lawsuit over prison conditions he changed his views and ordered changes. “If you treat people like animals, that’s exactly the way they’ll behave,” he said.

Recent State Study Criticizes Offender Classification Practice

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The current practice by California prison officials of categorizing and housing some prisoners in higher level institutions than necessary has been blasted by a new report funded by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. (CDCR)
The report found that current administrative practice—called classification—creates a criminogentic effect that make offenders more dangerous than they were before entering one of the state’s 33 prisons. In addition, the report points out that CDCR’s classification methodology allows favorable factors that would dissuade placement in higher-level institutions to be ignored— resulting in many well-behaved prisoners being miscategorized. Nearly 68 percent of California’s prisoners are housed in higher security facilities. Once these miscategorized offenders are released from prison, their likelihood for return is greatly increased, according to the report.

SECURITY LEVELS

California prisons have four security levels and prisoners are assigned to a specific institution based upon their classification score. Prisoners assigned to institutions that are Level I or Level II generally live in dormitories and need little supervision, while prisoners assigned to Level III or Level IV live in cells and require constant supervision. Notably, celled housing is far more costly to construct and operate than dormitories.

CLASSIFICATION PROCESS

During the classification process, prisoners are given a preliminary score based on their social history and criminal record. Annual re-classification adjusts that score relative to their in–prison behavior, with points added for misconduct or subtracted for good behavior. However, instead of relying on demonstrated behavior, prisoners are often over-classified by the application of Close Custody designations and Mandatory Minimums, two components that override preliminary scores to determine prisoner placement.

CLOSE CUSTODY

Close Custody is a designation reserved for prisoners considered an escape risk and make up nearly 40 percent of the state’s 144,000 prisoners. However, the report found no evidence to support the continued use of the Close Custody designation as 27 of California’s 33 prisons have electric fences and no prisoner has ever escaped from an institution with a lethal electrified fence.

MANDATORY MINIMUMS

Mandatory Minimums further restrict the placement of identified prisoners based solely on their commitment offense. Although commonly perceived as more dangerous, prisoners “convicted of violent crimes tend to be better behaved in prison” than others. The report found Mandatory Minimums over-classifies many well-behaved prisoners, placing them in higher security levels than necessary. Notably, prisoners serving life without parole were found to be 21 percent less likely to commit future acts of violence when compared to prisoners serving shorter sentences.
The report noted recent studies of the federal prison system found that moving a prisoner up just one level from minimum security “doubles the prisoner’s chances of being rearrested within three years.” In California, another study found that Level III prisoners housed in Level I settings are 31 percent less likely to return to prison.
The report concluded a prisoner’s in-prison behavior is the best predictor of future conduct and recommended prison administrators rely on that factor instead of Close Custody designations and Mandatory Minimums to determine their prison placement—noting that prisoners with classification scores at or near the threshold of each security level could safely be moved down one level. The report also found many older prisoners may be safely moved to lower security level prisons.

Life After Murder by Nancy Mullane

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Why would five convicted murderers offer a news reporter unfettered access into their life after spending decades behind bars?
Radio reporter Nancy Mullane uses her journalistic skill as a guiding force to give a unique perspective on how California’s criminal justice system works.
“Life after Murder: Five Men in Search of Redemption” is an eye opening and honest explanation of how a paroled murderer can live in the state of happiness and bliss while suffering from fear and anxiety.
She sifts through the emotional journey that these men and their families endure, writing; “No one really goes to prison alone. An invisible rope stretches from the heart and mind of a prisoner out through the bars of his cell, up into the sky, over the hills and water, dropping back down to earth far away, inside the lives of the people left behind. As the years pass – five, 10, 20, 30 – the fibers of that rope become frayed, and sometimes they snap.”
Mullane goes into extensive detail uncloaking the events that catapulted these men into murder, how imprisonment drove them to transform their thinking, what it feels like – that first day out, the challenges that parole imposes on an ex-offender, and what it means for a man to become self-sufficient.
Mullane took five years to study and decode the mysteries behind prison culture – simultaneously navigating through the intricacies of state government in order to tell a story about the mechanical life that these men left in their wake. “…if anyone knows how to pace himself, how to take one step at a time and be patient, it is a man who has served an indeterminate sentence,” Mullane explains.
She becomes more than just a storyteller as she tags along with Don Cronk, Phillip Sieler, Eric Rameriz, Jesse Reed, and Richard Real to show that their deeds in service to the community and survival are rooted in redemption. The book is scheduled to be released this June.
Juan’s Book Review

Over 17 Years Since Singer’s Tragic Death

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Last month marked the 17th anniversary of the tragic death of singer and songwriter Selena Quintanella, known as “La Reina de la musica Tejana” – The Queen of Tejano music.
Selena was born and raised in Texas. She started singing at age three and had her own band by the time she was nine, called Selena y Los Dinos. Selena signed her first recording contract, with EMI/Capitol, in 1989, and her popularity quickly grew. She was named “Top Latin Artist of the 90’s” and “Best selling Latin artist of the decade” by Billboard magazine.
In addition to her musical success, she was also an actress, dancer, model and designer. She enjoyed going to schools to encourage education, and was involved with civic organizations such as D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education).
Selena’s rise to the top was cut short at the age of 23. On March 31, 1995, she was murdered at a Days Inn hotel in Corpus Christi, Texas by Yolanda Saldívar, who had been president of the Selena Fan Club. The Quintanella family had recently fired Saldívar when they discovered she was embezzling money from the club.
Saldívar received a life sentence; she will be eligible for parole in 2025. She is in protective custody due to death threats from other prisoners.
On April 12, 1995, then governor George W. Bush declared Selena’s birthday of April 16 as “Selena Day”.

SF Seeks to Build New County Jail

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San Francisco officials have taken the first steps to modernize its jail system. The plan was prompted by the aging condition of the Bryant Street jail. Officials believe that it is unstable and could not survive an earthquake.
The Department of Public Works (DPW) wants to purchase the entire block where the Hall of Justice is located at an estimated cost of between $7.7 and $9.4 million. The total cost of planning and building the new jail, including a new Superior Court building, is estimated at $425 million.
The County Jail system is designed to house 2,360 detainees. San Bruno houses about 1,100 prisoners and Seventh Street holds 464. The jail at the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street accommodates about 900 detainees.
If the land were purchased by 2015, officials would begin construction in 2018 and will open the jail for intake by 2019.
City officials have not contacted the owners of the land about offers.
The San Francisco Examiner contacted one of the owners, who commented, “Why build a jail on such precious land?”

Environmentalists Visit ‘Green Life’

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Last month, two world-renowned environmentalists paid visits to the Green Life program at San Quentin. One might think the environment would be the last thing that a person doing time would have on his mind, but the Green Life teaches prisoners about issues like sustainable growth, environmental justice, and waste management.
Manuel Maqueda and Julia Butterfly Hill are both interested in how prisoners are dedicating themselves to caring for the planet.
Maqueda originally studied law and economics in Spain. But when he moved to the United States, the worldwide misuse of plastics caught his attention and he redirected his career. Maqueda got involved in a documentary studying the environmental havoc wreaked by plastics on islands in the Pacific.
“It is not a good idea to make a product that is only needed for a short period of time with a material that will last forever,” he said.
Maqueda said his visit to San Quentin was an opportunity to converse with like-minded environmentalists. He also talked about artist Chris Jordan, who created a photograph depicting 2.3 million prisoner jumpsuits – one for every incarcerated American – as a visual representation of mass incarceration in the United States.
Conservationist Julia Butterfly Hill’s visit was her second to San Quentin. “What touched me about the men I met inside of San Quentin is the courage I experience in this space,” she said. “It takes courage to care about this world, the way that you do, under the circumstances you are in. That really touched me.”
Butterfly Hill sat in a circle of convicted felons as she spoke about her transformation into an activist fighting against the deforestation of America’s rainforests that began with occupying a 1000-year old redwood — an experience that ended up lasting 738 days. She attributes the success of her occupation to her stubbornness, which grew out of overcoming a rough childhood.
“The greatest obstacle to success is in the mind,” she said. Butterfly Hill compared her transformation into the person she is today to that of a caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a butterfly. The body and mind must literally undergo real change, she said. “That’s what happened to me.”

Native American Sues for Ceremonial Tobacco Right

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A San Quentin prisoner is suing the California prison system for denying Native Americans the right to use tobacco during religious ceremonies.
Daniel Trevino, a member of the Comanche Nation, filed the suit in the Northern District Federal Court in San Francisco. The defendant is the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
The prison rules manual provides an exemption for the use of tobacco products for inmate religious ceremonies. However, many institutions, including San Quentin, routinely issue rules violations for possession of tobacco, even to be used for religious purposes. Trevino stated that recently arrived Native American prisoners report that tobacco is used in other institutions without men being issued rules violation reports.
In South Dakota two inmates, Blaine Brings Plenty and Clayton Creek, have also sued the warden of the corrections department because of the tobacco ban in that state.
Richard Moves Camp, a traditional Lakota healer said during a federal trial “denying the use of tobacco by Native Americans would be equal to taking bibles away from Christians.”
The South Dakota lawsuit was filed in 2009 the California lawsuit was filed in 2011.
South Dakota, as well as California, has an exemption in their respective prison rule books providing for the use of tobacco during religious ceremonies.

States Rethink Prison Solitary Confinement

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In 1831, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville visited the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, where prison officials were pioneering a novel rehabilitation, based on Quaker principles of reflection and penitence. They called it solitary confinement, and it’s where we get the name penitentiary.
Now, 180 years later, “at least 25,000 prisoners” — and possibly many more, various sources say — are in solitary confinement in the United States, with little consistency in the amount of time they will spend there. The United Nations reported that more prisoners are held in solitary confinement in the United States than any other democratic nation, according a recent article in the New York Times.
“By 2005, 44 states had supermax prisons or their equivalents. In most, prisoners get out of their cells for only a few hours a week. They are fed through slots in their cell doors and are denied access to work programs or other rehabilitation efforts. If visitors are allowed, the interactions are conducted with no physical contact,” the Times concluded.
Some prisoners seem to adjust to isolation, according to a report by Craig W. Haney, a psychology professor the University of California.
But Haney added that “the rigid control, absence of normal human interaction and lack of stimulation imposed by prolonged isolation can cause a wide range of psychological symptoms, including insomnia, withdrawal, rage and aggression, depression, hallucinations and thoughts of suicide…Worse still is the fact that for many of these men, the real damage only becomes apparent when they get out of this environment.”
A New York Times story on Pelican Bay, a supermax prison in California, reported most prisoners claim they suffer from nervousness, anxiety, lethargy or other psychological complaints. Seventy percent said they felt themselves to be at risk of “impending nervous breakdown.”
Because of what has been learned about the adverse psychological affects of isolation, humanitarian groups have argued that, its use should have been ended long ago. However, because of their extensive staffing requirements, the economic factor has brought attention to the use of these facilities.
California, Mississippi, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Ohio and Washington State are reevaluating the use of long-term isolation and re-evaluating how many prisoners really require it, how long they should be kept there, and how best to move them out.

Model Prisoner Vang Paroles After 17 Years

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After half his life in prison, Touly Vang is scheduled to parole from San Quentin. He is determined to be a positive role model and a voice that speaks out against gang violence in the Hmong community.
“When I was found suitable for parole I was basically in disbelief,” Vang said. “I had to hear it a couple of times to make sure it was what I heard.” When it registered, Vang said, he thought about his family and friends who helped him prepare for his parole board hearing.
“I thought of the family of the victim, Khao Heu. I thought about his mother and sister,” said Vang. “I thought was I worthy, if 18 years was enough after I took a human life.” When asked if that answer had been given, Vang said yes it had. Now his goal is to give a lot more back to the Hmong community.
“I was self-destructive and angry. I tried to find my way and couldn’t,” said Vang. “Prison taught me to be independent but also to be humble and seek others’ advice.”
Vang credits San Quentin’s programs, Addiction Rehabilitation Center (ARC), Non-violent Communication (NVC), Guiding Rage into Power (GRIP), Impact, Kairos, and Prison University Project (PUP), for instilling the direction he now has. “Impact’s violence prevetion module is what clicked for me today. When I’m angry I know violence isn’t going to straighten out the situation,” Vang said. “I know not to meet the same energy with anger.”
He thanked Jacques Verduin, a volunteer who teaches GRIP, and Katargeo for helping him. “Jacques is an inspiration. His help is genuine,” said Vang. “With PUP I stepped out of my comfort zone going to college. They challenged me and taught me self worth plus the value of education.”
Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, his family fled to the Philippines after a civil war broke out there. Later they would move again. “We came to America,” said Vang. Suddenly he found himself lured into a new battle zone, one of gangs and violence.
“What drew me to gangs was the camaraderie,” Vang said. “It was hard being first generation Hmong. I could hardly speak English. The gangs offered me a sense of belonging. It was like family.”
Yet when his parents and siblings found out they did not approve. “It was a culture clash between the old and new,” said Vang. “They weren’t happy with me. They were very disappointed.”
Today his family is very proud of him, Vang said, especially his plans to speak out against gangs in the Hmong community. His message to Governor Brown regarding juvenile justice is clear. “San Quentin’s education and self-esteem programs should be the model.
“Locking up kids and throwing away the key is not the answer,” Vang said. “There’s a disconnection. People are not connecting to their kid’s cry for help.”
“At 17, I came to prison. Now I’m 34, I have 11 sisters and three brothers,” said Vang. “I have a long way to go still, but for now I just want to be with my family and have some sticky rice and fish.”

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