Archives for May 2016

Outside guests and young incarcerated men flocked to Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll’s Financial Education Class to hear him translate investment jargon into terms they understand.
Up-and-coming filmmaker Taylor Laslie drove up from Los Angeles to check out the class. She heard about it from a Life of the Law podcast.
Despite being a 2012 Yale graduate, she knew nothing about investing.
“Yeah, I am one of the people who thinks about finance as being an elite game,” said Laslie. “My parents are lawyers and I am well-educated but I never thought about stocks, finance, and assets management. I’m similar to a bunch of the guys starting out in this program.”
Her lack of investing knowledge is the norm for Black people. Only 25 percent of Black households have over $10,000 saved for retirement, compared to about double that percent of White people, according to the telecast Nightly Business News.
“That means the odds are you will never be financially sound,” said Carroll. “You’re screwed…so what’s your alterative – drugs, robbery? When I heard that, I almost cried.”
Echoing the statistics of non-stock-owning African-Americans were other guests at the March 10 class, including Mario Catley, author of Why Not You: Nine Steps to Reprogramming Your Family’s Health, and his cousin, stay-at-home mother Travina Catley.
“I want to get educated; If I’m educated, I’ll be able to educate others as well,” said Travina. “This is something that we didn’t grow up learning, so it would be nice to be able to help others, so they grow up financially free as well.”
Carroll gained national fame for teaching fellow-incarcerated men the money management and investing skills he developed in prison after learning how to read and studying the stock market.
Now his classes are changing the landscape of investors. Of the 50 incarcerated men who braved the rain to attend, at least 17 were men under 25 years old.
Carroll commanded the attention of the class with his candid dialogue and use of prison analogies.
“It’s not about the money; it’s about style of management,” said Carroll. “If you can’t manage cookies and chips … then you can’t manage money. We are trying to change that tide. You can’t keep your mom from going to a home … you are broke. It ain’t your choice. We ain’t even in a position to take care of our elderly.”
Robert A. Bagwell, a 19-year-old Hispanic student with VL tattooed on his face, said “It’s fairly simple. It’s not that hard to understand the way they are teaching it.”
Laslie said, “Wall Street’s ability to take seemingly scary financial situations and turn them into understandable terms is incredible, because teaching is a really hard thing to do. It says a lot about his patience and passion.”
Joe Hancock, Carroll’s assistant teacher, handed out small packs of cookies to youngsters who could tell him what a P/E ratio is.
Carroll explained why he uses unconventional methods with his younger students. “The same old status quo doesn’t work. I’m here (in prison, so for him) the battle was lost. We’ll lose the war if we don’t do something different. It took me 10 years to realize I needed to make some changes. We have to find a faster pace to get them (young students) to see the need to make a change.”
Carroll also instructed the class on how to evaluate when a disaster could mean a company’s stock is undervalued.
“I find value by going into the storms, because people that run from a storm leave all their stuff behind,” said Carroll. “Oil is the crisis which means oil is the value. For the people in the streets, they love it because oil is cheap. With money they are saving, they are thinking of buying a new car…they are consumers. They aren’t thinking about benefiting from the very thing that is saving them money – lower oil stock prices.”
The San Quentin Prison Report, the prison’s TV-crew, filmed the class for a teaching tool in other places.
“It seems like it is a blessing that this gentleman has gotten the opportunity to educate himself in the system, and now he’s educating others,” said Catley.
More information about Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll can be found at www.wallstreetfeel.com

California’s new prison boss says he plans major changes to boost rehabilitation efforts and cut back on inmate abuses.
Scott Kernan said altering the prison culture is his top priority as the new secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, The Associated Press reported on Feb. 10.
It’s an us-against-them culture that often pits prison guards against inmates and outsiders, Kernan told the AP in an interview.
Kernan, 55, worked his way up through management starting as a correctional officer in 1983.
According to the AP, Kernan reported the prisons are less crowded, and state policy-makers are emphasizing inmate rehabilitation.
To accomplish this, Kernan wants training for rank-and-file correctional officers, leadership programs for supervisors, and a search for methods that have worked in other states.
This follows a scathing report by Inspector General Robert Barton, who says the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which is the guards’ union, “encouraging a code of silence.”
The Inspector General report found that guards at High Desert State Prison had created a culture of racism and used a startling amount of force against inmates, among many other problems.
The new training will include stress management and diversity classes for all employees and a national executive training class for wardens, Kernan said.
“The more training officers have, the better suited they are to contributing to a better correctional system,” said Nichol Gomez-Pryde, a spokeswoman for the guards’ union.
The union, however, filed suit against the department and the Inspector General’s Office over the months-long investigation at High Desert.
Kerman also said California is on its way toward regaining control over its prison medical system. CDCR lost control of its medical department more than 10 years ago by federal court order due to inadequate prisoner care.
The following Q&A with Secretary Kernan was provided by the CDCR’s Public Information Office on Feb. 23:
Q. What do you see in store for CDCR staff?
A. I see an evolving role for all CDCR staff in a fast-changing criminal justice system. The expectation of staff to singularly keep an inmate, ward, or parolee behind bars is evolving to an expectation that all staff be professional role models and participate in the rehabilitation process. We have to understand the incredibly difficult environment that staff work under each day and give them the training and tools to protect public safety, emotionally survive themselves, while also changing the lives of the inmates under our charge. That is public safety at its core.
We cannot tolerate abuse or bias toward inmates just as we can’t tolerate abuse, violence, and bias from inmates against other inmates or staff. I have difficulty accepting when our critics paint us with a broad brush of being insensitive, biased, racist, and abusive. But I also challenge us to not paint the same broad brush toward inmates. I know that a vast majority of staff come to work each day and do the right thing. We have to figure out how to continue to evolve our profession and help an inmate who will ultimately be our neighbor.
Q. What challenges are there in managing inmates after all the population reduction measures?
A. The monumental shift in criminal justice practices in the last five years has greatly impacted our population demographics. We have a tougher inmate with greater supervision needs and more complex challenges that require response if we are going to protect public safety. No matter that complexity, 90 percent-plus of inmates complete their sentence and are released to our communities.
Our challenge is to address the individual inmate’s criminal thinking and give them the skills to not perpetuate their criminality and create more victims. If we did that 20, 30, 90 percent of the time, think of the victims we would save, the money California taxpayers would save, and the lives we would change.
Q. How do you see CDCR’s rehabilitation efforts working – both inside and outside the walls?
A. Inside, we rebounded from significant cuts in our in-prison educational and Career Technical Education (CTE) programs. We hired teachers and vocational instructors, updated curriculum, invested in learning technologies, and expanded college education programs throughout the system. Our Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) expanded cooperative agreements with the private sector and implemented a number of cutting-edge programs that are both profitable and rehabilitative.
I will see that we build on the improvements and expand these programs. The evidence clearly shows that an inmate with an education, CTE certificate, or experience in a field that is transferable to the private sector is more successful.
Outside, CDCR is taking a larger role in coordinating with federal, state and local agencies to supervise and program offenders to prepare them for transition to society. We are building on our existing collaboration with agencies and developing new partnerships. I see the partnerships addressing housing and employment needs, access to medical and mental health care, transitional services for long-term offenders, and re-entry services for offenders preparing for release.
Q. What can CDCR do to further reduce recidivism?
A. The public and private sectors are implementing promising and innovative programs that are evidence-based and creating results in reducing recidivism. CDCR is tapping into these resources. I am open to innovative and creative ways to impact our inmate population positively. We will once again strive to be a national leader in the corrections industry by being open to change, listening to what works, and shaping corrections policy.
Q. You have an extensive background with the agency. How do you see that helping you do your job?
A. I spent nearly 30 years in CDCR and worked from a Correctional Officer to my current appointment as Secretary. I remember living with my mom at San Quentin as she pioneered the female role in a previously male-dominated system. She influenced my great love for corrections and all the employees that are dedicated to the department. I made plenty of mistakes in my career and learned from them all.
I am humbled to be appointed to this leadership position and strive every day to improve our organization. I’m extremely proud of the work we do and understand that we must continue to evolve and expand our strategies to improve prison operations and public safety. I am positive about the future and our contribution to the larger criminal justice system.