The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that law enforcement officers can legally search a residence after one person living there initially denies them consent to conduct the search if another legal occupant afterward does give them consent to search.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court decided against a 28-year-old California inmate and gang member who had challenged the October 2009 search of his Los Angeles apartment, which was conducted when his girlfriend gave officers permission after he was in custody.
Walter Alberto Fernandez had claimed he was trying to leave his L.A. gang and criminal life behind him when his apartment was searched. Initially, police were investigating a robbery. After hearing screams coming from the apartment Fernandez shared with his girlfriend, Roxanne Rojas, and after seeing that Rojas appeared to have been beaten, they took Fernandez into custody. At the time, Fernandez told police, “You don’t have any right to come in here.” However, police returned to the apartment after Fernandez was arrested.
According to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle, Rojas consented to allow police to search the apartment after about 20 minutes of being questioned and threatened by police. They said they would take her son away from her if she did not consent to the search, she claimed. During the search, police found gang paraphernalia, a butterfly knife, ammunition and a sawed-off shotgun. Fernandez is currently serving a 14-year sentence after pleading no contest on firearms charges after being convicted of robberyand inflicting corporal injury.
The court’s split ruling said that the girlfriend’s eventual consent was sufficient, even though Fernandez had previously denied permission.
Alito is a former federal prosecutor with a history of supporting law enforcement in cases that appear before him. “Any other rule would trample on the rights of the occupant who is willing to consent. Such an occupant may want the police to search in order to dispel suspicion raised by sharing quarters with a criminal.”
Alito also warned of “practical complications” if the refusal to consent by Fernandez was upheld. The justice suggested a possibility where a refusal to give consent to search a dwelling could last through a long prison term. It would require police to have a search warrant, which could possibly hinder detectives who were trying to solve crimes.
Archives for November 2014
Community Program Funding Losses Could Threaten Youth Incarceration Reduction Efforts
Legislative changes are responsible for the mass reductions in youth incarceration nationwide, but a reduction of funding for community organizational programs could threaten the continued success, says the National Council on Crime & Delinquency (NCCD).
The authors of the report, Antoinette Davis, Angela Irvine, and Jason Ziedenberg, wrote about five components that have made legislative changes successful: revised supervision responsibility, reallocating finances, redefining crime status from felony to misdemeanors/non-violent felonies, using evidence-based practices, and inspiring stakeholders to support nonrestrictive facilities.
The legislative changes did not use a cookie cutter model. Legislation varied from state to state depending on their needs. In the past the juvenile justice systems across the country operated from a tri-lateral structure utilizing three entities: state, county, and local government agencies. However, as governments begin to implement less punitive means of punishment, new ideas are surfacing about how rehabilitation methods should be addressed.
Funding is always an issue and the reallocating of resources is one way governments are addressing this.
Mike Griffiths, executive director of Texas’ Department of Juvenile Justice, said, “We validated the proposal we put forward to the policymakers in 2009 that said, ‘Give local communities the resources and we will refer the youth away from the deep end of the system.’”
The NCCD reported on the fiscal incentives offered to some state systems. Nine states were mentioned in the report, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, New York, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, and Nebraska, as having established a fiscal incentive to serve more youth outside of the state juvenile justice system.
While there are always challenges incorporating the juvenile programs into the community, advocates for the project remain optimistic about its success. The biggest issue with implementation of community programs is finding the funding needed to support the youth in the community. Connecting with concerned citizens and business people to operate and foster the programs is equally important.
Federal funding for juvenile justice, as well as the Delinquency Prevention Act, has been reduced 83% from 1999 to 2010, according to a National Academy of Sciences report. An alliance of stakeholders for federal reforms is calling for government agencies to reallocate funds for juvenile justice.
The NCCD report went on to say that community-based organizations’ ability to expand rests in the hands of legislators and budget reform. Currently, no legislative plans for reform are being discussed openly. However, the hope is that legislators and advocates of budget reform will convene and discuss the reinvestment of federal funding.
The NCCD report stressed that funding reinvestment is imperative in order for juvenile justice programs to succeed.
Scott Taylor, director of the Department of Community Justice in Multnomah County, Oregon, said “As (states) go through this reinvestment, what they fail to do is maintain the infrastructure to allow the local (jurisdiction) to deal with these folks locally.” Presently, programs are being closed as incarcerated juvenile numbers decline. The irony is that due to the decline in juvenile incarceration, more money will be necessary to provide community-based organizations with the means to sustain these positive numbers.
Finally, Katy Weinsten Miller, Chief of Alternative Programs and Initiatives for the San Francisco district attorney’s office, said, “Even if you succeed in getting the money into the community, into community-based organizations, there’s still that question of how you design funding processes to make sure that it includes homegrown organizations, with people who lived that experience providing the service. We have this struggle in San Francisco where it often winds up being the best grant writers—not necessarily the most qualified organizations—that receive the biggest grants.”
Giving Thanks
Thanks from San Quentin News.
November is my third year as Editor-in-Chief of San Quentin News. I am blessed to be involved with so many people of good will. This Thanksgiving season, I give thanks for and to all our friends, supporters, advisers and staff. Through the efforts of our supporters’ time, energy, services and money, many people are educated about the prison system.
The steady progress toward the goal of getting this newspaper into the hands of all California inmates cannot be done without donations. We need money to print and distribute our paper, as the state does not pay for printing or distributing the San Quentin News.
I realize that making a commitment in time or money is difficult when there is no specific personal gain in sight. Most of our donors are not inmates. I also recognize that doing something to benefit prisoners may be condemned or ridiculed by some people. However, I point to my own experience as an example of why you are right to help San Quentin News.
Life in prison is always a struggle – and especially when you haven’t begun to unwind from your past life and move in the right direction. It took me many years to get beyond the heroin I was pushing into my body.
It wasn’t easy to overcome my addiction. Even when I was using, I wanted to quit. However, with no support or guidance, I couldn’t see the other side. I used to blame everyone for my mistakes. I blamed my father, the police, the probation officer, the DA, the judges. I blamed everyone but myself.
“Even when I was using, I wanted to quit. However, with no support or guidance, I couldn’t see the other side. I used to blame everyone for my mistakes. I blamed everyone but myself”
When I finally wound up in the prison system, I blamed CDCR. They had too many rules and they used them against us. Now, I look to the criminal justice professionals to help me fix things. Not just for me, but for all inmates.
Back then, the reality was that I could not see beyond my self-centered world. Because it was driving me crazy, I began to write about my life. I wrote down everything I could think of, whether it was good or bad. Somehow, the act of putting my life down on paper made me realize that I had to take a serious look at myself. Over time, I came full circle to the realization that the person responsible for my situation was me.
While I am not happy about my circumstance (serving 65 years to life), I have arrived at a place where I can actually thank the various people who put me here. It sounds funny I suppose, but my association with San Quentin News has allowed me to demonstrate to others that change is possible. Change for individual inmates and change for a criminal justice system that has proved to have many flaws.
At San Quentin News we focus attention on the experiences of inmates who participate in the nearly 70 different self-help, educational and vocational programs offered here. It has been shown that in terms of rehabilitation, vocational training and correctional education work better than long-term incarceration, San Quentin News is able to examine these programs and report on them for the benefit of inmates throughout the state.
With the help of San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Marisa Rodriguez we embarked on a new direction in our examination of criminality, recidivism, reentry and better understanding of prisoners. Beginning with Rodriguez, we had the opportunity to share our experiences, and gain input, from district attorneys George Gasćon of San Francisco, Stephen M. Wagstaffe of San Mateo County, Edward S. Berberian of Marin County and Jeff Rosen of Santa Clara County; along with Santa Clara Judge Philip Pennypacker, San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi and attorneys Thomas Nolan, Daniel Barton and Emma Bradford.
We owe thanks to Nancy Mullane and the Society of Professional Journalists for their commitment to inmate journalism. Due to the efforts of Pam Benjamin of Mutiny Radio, San Quentin News is developing an additional outlet to get prison news out to the public. Thanks to Stephanie Foo from “This American Life” on public radio and Variety Magazine, San Quentin News is getting additional mainstream media coverage. Independent reporter Jessica Pishko also comes to San Quentin to cover what is happening behind bars. Thank you, Paul Cobb of the Post News Group for taking us under your wing. Thank you, Jon Spurlock and the Berkeley-Haas Project team, for giving us a direction and a plan for the future. In addition, thanks to The Columbia Foundation for helping us to reach more inmates. There are so many people who have helped our cause, and we thank you all.
I’m now at a stage in my development that I am very much aware of my dependence on others for help. The same is true for all inmates. We are all dependent on others. But ultimately, the public also benefits greatly. More educational opportunities and vocational training geared toward inmates will make streets safer and communities more comfortable by reducing recidivism rates. For me, it is very significant that the people I used to blame for my troubles are now among our biggest supporters. As one of Berberian’s staff said, “You men give us the tools we need so we can do our job better.”
Video Meetings to Replace In-Person Visits for Inmates?
A prison research organization is working to forestall a growing national trend that it believes may exploit inmate families for profit by reducing or eliminating in-person visits and replacing them with costly video visits.
Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), together with the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), recently sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to “address non-voice forms of communication…”
“Left unregulated, the video communication market is very likely to end up like the mostly unregulated prison and jail telephone industry…expensive and counterproductive,” said Peter Wagner, executive director of PPI, in an opinion piece in the New York Times. According to Wagner, video visiting in jails and prisons are already a reality in some facilities across the country. He said the profit motive involved is driving families apart instead of keeping them in touch.
Wagner argued on PPI’s website that “Charging unconscionable sums and banning free in-person visits is a step in entirely the wrong direction.”
In September, a Dallas County (Texas) Commissioner Court rejected part of a contract proposal by Securus, one of the largest providers of jail telephone service in the country, to provide video visiting using computers.
According to a PPI update, the contract called for jails to stop regular in-person visiting and require family and friends of inmates to pay for what it calls “expensive video visits.”
“The court soundly rejected the two most critical parts of the proposed contract: the ban on in- person visitation and the collection of commissions for video visiting,” PPI reported.
It was reported by Metro Pulse that in Knox County (Tennessee), the sheriff’s office stopped face-to-face visiting, deciding instead to replace it with video visitation. The system is free for visitors who come to the facility but cost 40 cents per minute to use from a personal computer.
Mark Stephens, Knox County’s public defender, said families drive out to jail facilities for free visits. He questioned why they cannot see inmates in person. “I think it is a cruel thing to do.” According to research done by Wagner, some customers pay up to $1 a minute for video visits. “This is such a uniformly bad idea,” said Wagner. “I’m kind of speechless.”
In a letter to the FCC last year, PPI expressed how “the video visitation market is rife with usability failures and poor service.” It said, “Usability barriers are particularly troubling in facilities where in-person visits are no longer permitted.”
PPI’s letter to the FCC concluded by saying a failure to regulate jail video visiting prices will open the door for this industry to “instantly subvert the FCC’s price caps on long-distance calls.”
Two years ago, the Washington Post reported the District of Columbia was replacing person-to-person visiting in its jails with video visiting.
“As our submission demonstrates, video visitation is here to stay. Increasing the number of ways that families can stay in touch is a good thing. But allowing companies to exploit families and undercut the FCC’s efforts to bring fairness to this industry is not,” said Leah Sakala, research analyst with PPI.
Public Needs to Know Problems Juveniles Face
Kid C.A.T. (Creating Awareness Together) launches Kid C.A.T. Speaks!, a monthly column dedicated to highlighting the inmate group’s service and the issues that impact youth.
Kid C.A.T.’s mission is to inspire humanity through education, mentorship and restorative practices. The members are men who committed their crimes when they were juveniles but were sentenced to adult prison terms.
Understanding what it means to be an at-risk youth, the men combine current knowledge and stories of transformation to illuminate the problems they faced and illustrate needed solutions.
Kid C.A.T. Speaks! will discuss issues small and large that affect youth, including law and policy, movements and programs that positively influence young people’s lives. It will also feature first-person narratives that share experiences and information about Kid C.A.T.’S efforts to help youth.
The past decade has seen dramatic changes in the treatment of juveniles under the age of 18 when they commit crimes. Senate Bill 9 (Yee), which prohibits the sentencing of young offenders to serve life without the possibility of parole, acknowledges that juveniles have the capacity to rehabilitate and have a greater possibility of earning parole.
SB260 (Hancock), signed into law in 2013, recognizes the age, maturity and neurological development at the time of the offense and corresponding culpability. SB260 holds young offenders accountable, yet provides an opportunity for earned release through a Youth Offender Review Board when they have served a minimum of 25, 15 or 10 years of their determinate or indeterminate sentences.
Currently, Kid C.A.T. believes the most important issue is Assembly Bill 1276 (Bloom). It acknowledges that inmates under the age of 22 will benefit from housing in low-level security facilities where self-help, education and vocational programs are more available.
In Level 4 facilities, younger inmates can be exposed to pressure from prison gangs and can become victims of violence or manipulation. Under these conditions, they must focus on survival, not rehabilitation.
Kid C.A.T. recognizes that society has a responsibility to create safe environments that provide opportunities for young people. In our communities, there are volunteers and programs that offer youth access to education, employment and life-changing opportunities.
The column will focus on the persons and organizations that work to fulfill that vision.
Kid C.A.T.’s goal is to inspire youth to make positive personal transformation in their lives.
The Beat Within Collaborates With Kid C.A.T. in a Writing Workshop
Giving at-risk youngsters the opportunity to write about themselves on their own terms opens the way for more personal support aimed toward their recovery, according to a couple of organizations that united for a writing workshop geared toward juvenile offenders.
The two organizations were Kid C.A.T. (Creating Awareness Together) a San Quentin self-help group, and The Beat Within, a San Francisco-based bi-monthly magazine.
The Beat Within began as an idea in a San Francisco courthouse, according to an article in the Vallejo Times-Herald by Lanz Christian Bates. It is a publication started in 1996 that has expanded to more than 200 volunteers who operate in juvenile halls across the country. David Inocencio, a San Francisco social worker, told the Times-Herald that The Beat Within is way for young people to have a voice. He said that he wanted youngsters to be their own storytellers.
Youngsters submit poetry to sections of the magazine called Pieces of the Week and Co-Pieces of the Week. The Standouts section gives young readers the opportunity to give personal accounts about themselves.
A section called The Beat Without has a connotation of the “blues,” but its honesty illustrates that young minds are able to clearly identify what troubles them, which is one of the first steps toward change, according to the 12-Step model. Magazine staffers respond to the youngsters’ writing by means of a section called From the Beat.
As an example: Bones, a young writer, submitted: What Would Make Me Happier, “I would be happier if I had my freedom. If I had my freedom and never came back no matter what I did, good or bad. When I come to jail, I stress a lot because I can’t see my family. I’ve been in jail five times and am tired.” From The Beat responded: “As you well know, there are consequences when you make bad decisions. The flip side of this is that when you make good decisions, you can be rewarded, especially with hard work and consistency.
“I think the young people truly benefit from reading the stories and relating to them,” Inocencio said in an e-mail interview. “I shared with the young people in San Mateo that we were doing this workshop with men in San Quentín and they were so surprised and looking forward to hearing what Kid C.A.T. members had to say.”
Kid C.A.T. members are offenders who were of a young age when they committed their crimes. However, through their pro-social curriculum they are able to show that they have made progress in becoming responsible and rehabilitated men.
My father — Who is your dad? My anger — What makes you angry? Words from the wise, quote of the week and I am proud — What and/or who are you proud of?
These were prompts that San Quentin’s Kid C.A.T. members wrote about at the workshop. Their writings will appear in The Beat Without section.
Kid C.A.T. members wrote about what it means to be a good dad and described if they were fathers, the choices they’d make in child rearing. Their responses also addressed understanding anger, how to express it and what drives anger from a personal perspective.
Antoine Brown, 36, said that the workshop was something that he could relate to because he wanted to give the young readers insight into how to make stronger decisions about their lives. “I want to just go from what I feel in my heart,” he said about how he decided to answer the prompt.
Brown, who as a juvenile was sentenced as an adult and sent to prison, added, “I found out that life is full of constant struggles. But I never gave up on myself, realizing that change could only come when I decided to change the condition of impure feelings and thoughts that existed within my heart and mind.”
The name Kid C.A.T. conveys the growth of its members from childhood to adulthood while evoking a sense of youthfulness. Its message is that of a mature nature behind the implication of the acronym C.A.T. (Creating Awareness Together).
The Kid C.A.T. members say their goal is to “demonstrate the human capacity of redemption, disarming the stigma in relation to youth, crime and incarceration; to work towards restoring that which has been harmed by the men’s poor choices, in the form of providing services to inside and outside communities; and to pioneer a community effort of improving social values in regards to youth and what is important to their well-being and development.”
“Going forward, with the permission of San Quentin, hopefully we can continue to work together to bring The Beat Within writing workshop to Kid C.A.T. on an ongoing basis,” said Inocencio. “They’re so hungry to engage. We all like to share stories and these men have so much to share.”
Juvenile Imprisonment Now Declining Since Tough-On-Crime Laws
After two decades of “tough-on-crime” laws and huge surges in juvenile imprisonment, there are now sharp reductions in youth confinement, a national advocacy group reports.
U.S. Justice Department data show youth confinements dropped 41 percent between 2001 and 2011. Several states have cut confinement rates by half or more. Juvenile facilities have closed in a dozen states, with more than 50 closed in the past five years.
The California Division of Juvenile Justice now houses 800 youth, compared with 10,000 a decade ago.
The report by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency sought opinions from a number of important stakeholders regarding the changes, including advocates who had successfully pressured their local justice systems to adopt reforms.
Judges, probation chiefs and district attorneys expressed their beliefs that declining youth crime and rising costs were key drivers of the current trend. The successes were driven by legislation, incentives built into state budgets, decisions to confine youth close to home and supervision strategies that relied on positive relationships between youth and families.
Even though there has been a drop in incarceration rates overall, many states have seen a higher proportion of youth of color in out-of-home placements and secure facilities. The March report suggests that even the most successful states need to identify and employ new strategies to strengthen links between families and youth in order to reduce out-of-home placements for youth.
Photos Retrieved From the San Quentin Archives Enhanced and Displayed at the Haines Gallery
A group of San Quentin inmates has pushed the limits of how art may be defined. Participants of the San Quentin Prison Report Archive Project took archived photos of San Quentin’s past and added commentary. Their unique results were on display at the Haines Gallery in San Francisco from Sept. 4 through Nov. 1.
Artist Nigel Poor, along with Shadeed Wallace-Stepner, Managing Editor of the SQPR Archive Project, headed up the endeavor, which began on Oct. 15, 2012. The project had its origins in an assignment Poor developed, with her co-instructor Doug Dertinger, for a class on art appreciation of photography. “We tried to develop a project where the men could create without actually taking photographs,” commented Poor.
Poor and Dertinger normally teach a class at the University of California, Sacramento, but teaching in prison did not allow them to assign students to take their own photographs. So they turned the hindrance into the catalyst for a new art form.
The show at the Haines Gallery comprised three parts. One part of the exhibit was reproductions from the photographic archives of San Quentin. The second part was photos from a class assignment in which the San Quentin students wrote commentaries on reproductions of photographs from famous artists. The third part was the final result of the SQPR Archive Project that included the work of Wallace-Stepter, George “Mesro” Coles, Kevin Tindall, Harold Meeks, Ruben Ramirez and Tommy “Shakur” Ross.
The prison archive photographs were mostly violent scenes taken by correctional officers on clunky old cameras. These photos became more interesting over time, said Poor. “The men in prison make these photographs art by placing their experiences on the dry images of the archives,” she added.
Poor, an artist who works in the medium of photography, has had success showing her work in museums and galleries throughout the country. “I see myself as a facilitator, archivist and a collaborator,” she said. “It is our project, not mine. We couldn’t do it without each other.”
Poor noted that there has been a long history of photographers working with archives and re-appropriating them, but the SQPR Archive Project is unique.
The photographs in the archive document all aspects of life in San Quentin, not just the violence. “For someone doing time we forget we are living in here. I look at the photos as part of life. My perception comes from what I lived through,” says Wallace-Stepter.
Poor commented that she likes to think that the project allowed the men to have some control of their individual experiences in prison by adding their thoughts and commentary to the photos.
“People are fascinated by the writing of the men,” said Poor.
“When I see violent images it gives me the opportunity to explore my thoughts and feelings surrounding the incidents,” said Wallace-Stepter, adding, “I usually don’t have these opportunities.”
Poor said, “These thoughts and feelings are what adds complexity and nuance to the image.”
“To give a true representation to the image, I have to be honest,” explained Wallace-Stepter.
Poor said she is amazed by the way the men are able to look at some horrible imagery and describe it in a respectful manner.
She has a theory on why the men in the project are so good at adding interesting commentary to the photographs. “In prison in order to survive, it helps an individual to be able to pick up on details or non-verbal cues. In photographs to really see what is there, you have to do the same. The guys in here are really good at that.”
Wallace-Stepter validated this statement by saying, “Being in tune with my feelings and intuition has helped me survive in here.”
The SQPR Archive Project has combined history and personal commentary to create a new art form unique to San Quentin.
Musicians Premal and Miten Perform For a Packed House at San Quentin
Several hundred inmates packed the San Quentin Catholic Chapel, chanting sacred mantras with Deva Premal and her band.
“Spirituality is our theme. Mantras are powerful and they reach out,” Premal and partner Miten said later. “We offer tools for meditation and inner peace so that the energy of the mind can be channeled in a good way. Music with mantra stays with you.”
The couple has been writing, singing and playing beautiful music together for more than 23 years. They performed on Sept. 12 at San Quentin.
They came as a five-piece band – most of them flying in from Germany – to begin yet another leg of their current U.S. tour.
Having gained global popularity, the group also tours in countries as diverse as England, Spain, Russia, Israel and Australia. To date, they have recorded 17 CDs.
Their musical compositions blend mystical Vedic chants, ethnic melodies and mesmerizing vocal harmonies to create an atmosphere of healing, spacious joy and shared connection.
Highlights included Premal’s exquisite voice, Miten’s acoustic guitar arpeggios and the exotic sounds from flutist Manose.
Catholic Chaplain George Williams introduced the band. He explained that their performance was part of the chapel’s monthly devotional concert series called “Music from the Heart.” The series also includes cultural presentations meant to celebrate different religious and cultural traditions.
As the band began playing, singing and chanting, a sense of wonder and appreciation filled the audience. The men clapped enthusiastically after each song. Deva gently encouraged them several times not to clap, but settle into the silence. Later into the set, a rich cloak of silence enveloped and an incredible sense of deep peace permeated the space.
A tender moment surfaced when Miten told a poignant story about a song he wrote called “Native Son.” It captured the essence of longing to connect with his son who was thousands of miles away.
Styles of music included reggae, easy listening and blues. At one point an energetic rendition of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Gotta Move” thrilled the crowd and a litany of cheers and clapping erupted.
The band’s technician, Caroline, called the experience at San Quentin her “favorite show of the year.”
In an interview after the 90-minute concert, Premal and Miten expressed their reactions.
“We’ve performed in other prisons and enjoy the opportunity. We’re grateful,” Premal said. “We feel a connection with inmates. We see them as beautiful and shining. We look for the dimension of silence where there’s no distinction between us. There’s nowhere to go but in. We always feel like we’re home – people are all the same everywhere we play. “
The band’s unified vision is: “Love is the only prayer.”
“We began just playing for friends. We played in the moment and it just mushroomed. We never looked at it as a career. We just love what we do.”
Reaction from the audience included:
“Last night I had more fun in a church than I did on the streets abusing alcohol and drugs,” said Frank Mabry III.
“There were moments during the performance where I was able to let go – felt overwhelmed by the moment – and bawled my eyes out. I felt the love they brought to the moment,” said Rudy Camozzi.
“I had body aches, soreness and a headache when I arrived at the event. I was hoping there wasn’t going to be a lot of shrieking. When I left, I felt refreshed and my headache was gone. It was a healing experience,” said Dan Myers.
Expressing Gratitude From Inside San Quentin
The San Quentin community is thankful for many things, here just a few:
Brittany:
I am most thankful for love and the power that it has to heal. It is so easy to take for granted the comfort of knowing you are loved by someone. In the midst of all the craziness life brings, I’ve learned to take a moment and drown out all my worry and anxiety with gratefulness. Happy Thanksgiving!
Trenise Ferreira:
This time of year, I am reminded of all the blessings I have had in life. Beyond the obvious things I am thankful for (my parents, family, friends, etc.), I am thankful for the educational endeavors I have had in life. Spending four years at USC was the best thing to happen to me out of high school, and my time there prepared me to excel in graduate school at UC Berkeley.
My graduate program has afforded me the unique opportunity to visit San Quentin every week and to work with the unique men that comprise the San Quentin News staff. My experience at San Quentin has really changed my perspective of California’s penal system and has made me acutely aware of the privileges I was granted from birth that have guided me down the path I have taken in life. I have spent nearly a near volunteering at San Quentin, and it truly is one of the best, most humbling life experiences I have ever had.
I am very thankful for the perspective that volunteering at San Quentin has given me.
William Drummond:
In 2011 I taught a PUP class that began my involvement with San Quentin News. Since that time, I have grown as a journalist, as a teacher and as a human being. Could not ask for more.
Ms. Williams:
I love that we have a day on which we can say “Thanks.” Truthfully, I have much to be thankful for.
Sevio Gonzales:
Feliz dia de accion de gracias a todo mi familia o cinocidas. Amor de mi corozon.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Mr. Shimel:
Winning isn’t everything, family is, which includes my students in my class room.
Kevin Valvardi:
Despite being in here and so far away from my family and friends, I can still find plenty of reasons to be thankful each day.
Jose G. Camacho:
Thank God for the lovely day of Thanksgiving; that my family and other families may share quality time and eat turkey in abundance.
Abdul Salaam:
I thank Allah, to all praises due for letting me seek peaceful solutions for everything. I give thanks for positive encouragement.
John Vernacchio:
Having to come to prison at 55, I am so thankful for all my great experiences in life. Past loves, travel, toys, friends and most of all, family.
Luis Cardenas Orosco:
Saludos para mis hijos, mis hermanos, mi mama, primos y primas, para mis amigos y mi compadre Nau.
Vicente Gómez Galvan:
Envio saludos para mama y papa, para todos mis hermanos, primos, primas, hermanas y sobrinos, para mis cunadas, para Goyo Magana y toda su familia.
Jose Vieyra:
Saludos a todos los seres anorados, queridos y respetados. Con todo carino para la familia y amigos.
Jose Dias:
Lesmando saludos a toda la familia y amistades.
Martin Gómez Galvan:
Saludos para toda la familia y amigos.
Guadalupe Aranda:
Saludos para toda la familia alla en Long Beach, CA. aqui estamos dispuestos a cualquier evento para deleitarlos con nuestra música.
Jose Velásquez:
Estimada hermana Maria te manda saludos tu hermano que te quiere mucho.
Upu S. Ama:
I am truly grateful of life’s many blessings: family, friends, health, etc. What I am most thankful for today are the many people whom have been instrumental in my rehabilitation process. From the outside community members who reaches back with a helping hand to the inside community members who has been just as helpful. Being here at S.Q. I am reminded thru my peers on Death Row as well as my peers that I have lost along the way, that I have been blessed with a special opportunity, an opportunity to better myself; to help better those around me, and together help better our community. For that, I am truly thankful for such an opportunity!
Somsak Uppasay:
I have been blessed to have an extraordinary support team of friends and family who have stood by me during my time of great need. And so I would like to express my deepest respect, love and appreciation for their unconditional love, especially my parents and sisters who have never given up hope on me even when I did not believe in myself. Their positively, humble spirit and attitude have provided me with a new set of eyes, mind, and heart. I owe so much to them as my family. I am so humbly appreciative to each and every one of you for the sweat, the struggles and the sacrifices you have made on my behalf.
Although I am haunted by the grief, shame and guilt within my heart for the harm that I have caused to an innocent life, I am rather thankful to be able to have the opportunity, an opportunity to which I do not serve, to learn and grow into a decent human being.
Through this tragic experience created by my actions, I have learned to have faith in myself and overcome my fears of disappointing my friends. I have utilized the course of this experience as a life lesson to help me become a better person, a better brother, a better son, and a better human being.
Thaddeus:
I’m thankful to be here at San Quentin so I can take advantage of all the self-help programs and basketball games with positive folks from society.
Frankie Smith:
I’m thankful for surviving cancer twice and living another day. I’m thankful for God allowing me to see this day for what it really is, a true blessing.
Kara Urion:
I am grateful for the endeavors of the San Quentin News and I am incredibly grateful for the community here at San Quentin. In particular, this year I would like to give thanks for the life and teachings of Bishop M. Thomas Shaw.
Chris Markham:
I’m thankful for God allowing me to see this day for what it really is – a true blessing.
Johnny Gomez:
The thing I am most thankful for is that after being away from home for 18 years is that I still have the love and respect from my son Johnny Jr.
Andrew Vance:
Thanksgiving is a day for thanking everyone who has given.
Richie Morris:
Thanksgiving is a time to remember the great blessings we enjoy, being thankful for family.
Mike Endres:
I am thankful for my mom Pearl, my sister Vonda, my nephew Eddie, my niece Amy, and my friends Rich and Brenda, for all their love and support.
Claudius Johnson:
I am truly thankful to be alive and to be reborn in my way of thinking. All praises to the lord father.
Eric Wilson:
I give thanks that I was able to survive my prison experience mentally. I was able to be found suitable and re-enter society again.
Roger Chavez:
I would like to give thanks to my God, my parents and all my family members. Thank you for supporting me through out the years of my incarceration.
Adnan Khan:
I am thankful for the education and opportunities San Quentin offers, which fulfilled my lifelong quest for purpose in life.
Dwight Krizman:
Being thankful has become a way of living for me. Even in prison I can choose to live in gratitude. Life for me is as it should be…simply because it is.
Bob Kaser:
I am thankful for my family and friends, and especially for my recovery in the unity of Alcoholics Anonymous. And for the serenity prayers.
Vichau:
I want to give thanks to the Chau family for being there and supporting me, Much Love.
Louie Light:
I’d like to give thanks to my loving family who’s always supported me, no matter the circumstances. And most of all my caring girlfriend Jo who’s give me nothing but love, respect and devotion in our relationship.
Sonny Nguyen:
Thanksgiving reminds me of all the blessings I have in my life. Thankful for the family and friends who support me in my life.
Ricky Gaines:
Thanksgiving always reminds me to count my blessings and not my problems. To be thankful for life, family and opportunity.
Osbun Walton:
I am truly thankful for Mr. Shimel and the inmate student assistance and the outside tutors. I also give thanks for the Tuesday and Thursday night classes because both inmates and outside tutors truly makes a difference in my education.
Salvador Solorio:
There is much to be thankful for. Even though I am imprisoned, I know that things could be a lot worse for me. Prison food at times sucks, but I am thankful for every meal I get, even a Thanksgiving meal at San Quentin.
Nate Collins:
I am thankful for good health and being at an institution I can address my core issues. I am thankful to be around positive like-minded people.
Rob Ritchie:
I am really thankful for my great health. I am thankful for my family that supports me through all my time of incarceration. And I am thankful I am in a prison where I don’t have to carry a knife.
Wade E. Mormon:
I am thankful for the outside tutors That educate us, and also the professional athletes that come in, and lastly I am thankful my good buddy Sal that helps me with my guitar.
Damon Cooke:
I’m grateful and thankful for everyone who has helped me re-establish my direction, focus and drive. Today with your help, I am a new man.
Darrell “Waylo” Williams:
I’m thankful for having my family with me through this trial and tribulations in my life.