San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Archives for April 2017

Code.7370 Graduation Day at SQ

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Justin Meskan spent the last seven years behind bars, but in August he is scheduled to get another chance at putting his life back on track, with the assistance of an innovative computer programming class taught at San Quentin State Prison.

Chris Redlitz addresses business executives, community members, and media outlets

Speaking on the occasion of Code.7370’s graduation day, March 23, Meskan, 35, said, “I learned a lot about how to work with other people, and coders, on a team level. I also learned about responsibility, getting to work every day and how to put my life first and get away from my old habits.”

Dozens of business leaders, tech executives, venture capitalists and government workers wandered through the classroom inside the California Prison Industry Authority building, talking to the graduates and looking over their shoulders while the coders were working on their presentations.

“This is the kind of program that we should be doing at all 35 institutions,” said Ralph Diaz, undersecretary of operations for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “These are the opportunities that we are seeking for all 35 institutions.”

Meskan sat in front of his double-screen computer as a multi-player chess game’s pieces floated on its screen.

International business analyst Fernando Figueriredo praised Meskan’s coding skills.

“I was extremely surprised considering that he has limited available material,” said Figueriredo, who consults for the Brazilian government on its farming practices. “When he’s outside, he will increase his knowledge, because of access to information.” He added.

“When I heard about this program, I thought it was a great idea to put the prisoners on the right side. There is a huge need for coders in the Bay Area. It would be a way to help local companies and a great way to give prisoners a new beginning.”

Meskan said he spends a lot of his spare time reading everything he can find that relates to coding.

Code.7370 computers cannot be connected to the internet, a fact of life which creates a huge challenge in teaching programming techniques, according to supervising instructor Jon Gripshover.

Meskan also met with RocketSpace personnel who appeared interested in the fact that he was getting out of prison.

RocketSpace employs former San Quentin prisoners Kenyatta Leal and Vinh Nguyen.

Leal was praised for “keeping everything running smoothly,” one of the RocketSpace executives said.

“If you treat a man as he is, he will remain as he is,” Leal told the graduating class and audience. “But, if you treat a man as he can and should be, he will become as he can and should be.”

RocketSpace is an incubator workspace for startup companies. It also assists larger companies that are looking at smaller companies for ideas.

The chief of Workforce Development for California’s prison industries, Milo Fitch, said, “These programs give us the kind of outcome that we want as a society. Most prisoners are looking for a way out. People who take advantage of these programs find that they can fit in with mainstream culture.”

California has about 100 different businesses in its prisons that employ about 27,000 inmates.

“The heart of the business is the offender who never comes back to prison,” said Charles Pattillo, general manager of California Prison Industry Authority. “Our programs have one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country, which is about 7.3 percent.”

Pattillo pointed out that the graduating class saves California taxpayers about $520,000 per year.

He credited Code.7370 to Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti.

“It’s surreal seeing Kenyatta here, not in blue,” Redlitz said. “We first met in a broom closet in the chapel, and he was serving a life sentence. There were a lot of naysayers, but the cooperation between this public/private partnership should be a model for the country.” Referring to the graduates, he joked, “This is not fake news. These are real stories.”

Pattillo added, “When they get out of prison, we don’t want to ever see them again. No one wants to see them come back to prison. We want them to get out and make us proud.”

Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs said he was impressed by the opportunity for the inmates to learn skills so that when they return to their communities they could fit in.

Jon Gripshover talks to students after the graduation

“It’s a challenge for me to provide opportunities for folks before they get to prison,” Tubbs said. “I’m not surprised by the coding skills of people in San Quentin.”

In addition, in attendance was entrepreneur Divine, who created BLAK card (Building Leverage Acquiring Knowledge).

Devine, an ex-offender and former drug dealer, said before meeting Redlitz and Parenti, he had only an eighth-grade education.

It was the third visit to San Quentin for vocalist Antoinette “Butterscotch” Clinton, a longtime fan of the Last Mile program, to support Redlitz and Parenti.

“I find myself getting emotional listening to the stories and through this program find a path that they are passionate about,” Clinton said. “It makes me happy to know that the cycle can be broken.”

Graduate Jad Salem


http://sanquentinnews.com/game-theory/

Code.7370 Certifies 12 Men As Web App Developers

SQ Health Care program sets the bar

William J. Drummond receives prestigious journalism award

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The University of California, Berkeley awarded Professor William J. Drummond, an adviser to San Quentin News, the prestigious Leon A. Henkin Citation for Distinguished Service in February for his work as a journalist and academic.

In a speech, Edward Wasserman, the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, cited Drummond’s work at the university including a first-of-its-kind course on race and media, his contribution to San Quentin News, and the relationship he established between the newspaper and the school.

UC Berkeley English Professor Donna Jones, Professor Drummond and Chair of the Academic Senate at UC Berkeley Robert Powell

UC Berkeley English Professor Donna Jones, Professor Drummond and Chair of the Academic Senate at UC Berkeley Robert Powell

“It was kind of like a lifetime achievement award,” said Drummond, who has a 33-year history at the university. “When I first learned about this award, I thought, ‘This is something I’ve been doing all my life.’”

He said one of his colleagues nominated him for the award, but he was shocked about winning it. “When I was a working journalist I didn’t think about awards,” he said, adding that he taught because he wanted to inspire students to do well and it was his way of giving back.

Drummond has been volunteering at San Quentin since 2012, first developing writing and journalism classes for the Prison University Project and later for the newspaper when the managing editor asked him to help. Before then, there had been no interaction between the prison publication and the journalism school. “These are two of the oldest institutions in the state but there is little interaction between the two,” said Drummond.

San Quentin was established in 1852 and two years later, in 1854, the University of California, Berkeley.

According to the university’s website, the Academic Senate recognized Drummond “for his exceptional and extraordinary service towards the academic development of students from groups who are underrepresented.”

“Throughout his career as an academic and journalist, Professor Drummond has worked tirelessly to mentor and foster the participation of under-represented minorities in the field of journalism,” the Senate said in a statement, adding that his students include a Pulitzer Prize winner and The New York Times’ China correspondent.

Drummond received his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965 and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1966.

As a 23-year-old cub reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Drummond’s big break came by chance during a phone call in June 1968 while he was covering the Democratic primary election between Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy.

When Kennedy was shot and fatally wounded, Drummond had been talking on the phone with someone who was at the scene. The person dropped the receiver, but Drummond was able to figure out what happened by continuing to listen on the other end. He wrote about Kennedy’s assassination in 10 minutes right before the 12:30 a.m. deadline.

“That was the big breakthrough and turning point in my career,” said Drummond. “Prison became my main beat.”

By accident, Drummond found that men in California’s state prison system were educating themselves. One of these men was Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther Party’s minister of information and author of the book Soul on Ice.

In October 1968, Drummond interviewed Cleaver and wrote an article titled “Eldridge Cleaver: A Black Militant Forged by Life.” Two years later he wrote “Blue Denim Jungle: Prison Race Trouble.”

Later, he worked for National Public Radio and won his first award in 1981 from the National Press Club for a story on Libya.

Drummond has won about 20 awards during his career, including most recently The John Gardner Legacy of Leadership Award in 2015, presented to him at the White House, and UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Award for Public Service in the 2014-2015 academic year.

Despite his many accomplishments, however, Drummond expressed his frustration with his profession in an interview with California Magazine in 2012. He said journalists were suffering from a “loss of faith” in the profession. “I found myself looking back on 40 years as a journalist, trying to identify a story I wrote, any story, that made anyone’s life materially better,” he said. “I wasn’t able to think of one.”

He said that his work with San Quentin News brought him back to the kind of journalism that he set out to do in the beginning of his career. He said prison journalists want to get better at what they do and as a result of that, working with them is “much more of a rush than anything I’ve ever done.”

César Chávez: símbolo del activismo y la justicia

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César Estrada Chávez, trabajador agrícola mexicano-americano, líder sindical y activista de derechos civiles nació, el 31 de marzo de 1927, en Yuma Arizona. Hijo de Juana Estrada y Librado Chávez, Cesar Chávez creció con sus dos hermanos Richard y Librado y sus dos hermanas Rita y Vicki, en una humilde casa de adobe. Su familia era dueña de una tienda de abarrotes y una pequeña finca que perdieron durante la gran depresión. A raíz de esta situación se unieron a otras familias pobres que se dirigían a California en busca de trabajo en los campos. La vida campesina en California se tornó muy difícil para la familia Chávez, ya que vivían en campamentos temporales en la que compartían la vivienda con otros campesinos y sus familias. Debido al tipo de trabajo, la familia Chávez no permanecía en el mismo lugar por mucho tiempo. Cuando el trabajo terminaba, se mudaban hacia otro lugar, donde el contratista les ofrecía el siguiente trabajo. Como resultado de este continuo movimiento, Chávez asistió a más de 30 escuelas diferentes. Chávez Únicamente estudió hasta el octavo grado y dejó de estudiar porque no quería que su madre siguiera trabajando en la agricultura además de no tener una estabilidad en una sóla escuela. Posteriormente, Chávez se incorporó al trabajo del campo.

El trabajo en los cultivos concientizó a Chávez sobre las condiciones laborales de los campesinos. El trabajo en el campo era laborioso, de poca paga y peligroso. Los accidentes con las máquinas de cultivo y la exposición a los químicos para erradicar las pestes causaban lesiones, enfermedades y en ocasiones, hasta la muerte. Además, los campesinos carecían de las necesidades básicas, como agua potable y letrinas.

Después de trabajar por dos años bajo estas condiciones, Chávez decidió unirse a la  Armada de los Estados Unidos, durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, con la esperanza de salir de la vida de trabajador agrícola. Al regresar a su vida como civil, Chávez describió su experiencia en la armada como “los dos peores años de mi vida”. Posteriormente, contrajo matrimonio con Elena Fabela, procreando ocho hijos. Con el deseo de un día enviar a sus hijos a la universidad, Chávez y su familia se fueron a vivir a San José, California, con su hermano Richard, en un barrio conocido como “sal si puedes”.

En San José, Chávez conoció a dos de sus mentores: Donald McDonnell, un sacerdote católico y Fred Ross, un líder comunitario. Chávez transportaba a McDonnell a los campos de cultivo para dar la misa a los campesinos. Chávez conocía mucho sobre las  condiciones deplorables en la que vivían los campesinos, sin embargo su conocimiento acerca de la parte legal era limitado. Chávez recibió de parte del padre McDonnell varios libros sobre la justicia social. Estos libros fueron de gran ayuda para iniciar un movimiento pacifico en beneficio de los trabajadores. La biografía de Mahatma K. Ghandi (quien llevó a la India a su independencia del gobierno británico a través de medios totalmente pacíficos) fue una gran inspiración para Chávez. Una de las cualidades más sobresalientes de Chávez fue el liderar con el ejemplo:  realizando protestas o efectuando huelgas de hambre.

Con el paso del tiempo Chávez conoció a Fred Ross y lo acompañó a las reuniones de la CSO (Organización al Servicio de la Comunidad). La CSO trabajaba en zonas urbanas de California, ayudando a la gente pobre a registrarse para votar, tener acceso a un servicio médico y luchar en contra de la brutalidad policíaca y la discriminación racial. En poco tiempo, Chávez formó parte de la organización CSO trabajandó  tiempo completo. Al término de diez años, en 1958 ascendió a director nacional. Al paso de cuatro años como director de la CSO, Chávez renuncia a su puesto y dos semanas después comienza un sindicato (grupo de trabajadores que se organizan, combinando su dinero y poder) para los trabajadores agrícolas.

Los trabajadores sindicalizados tienen más poder que los trabajadores que no pertenecen a un sindicato. Como miembros de un sindicato, los trabajadores pueden reclamar ciertos derechos y beneficios. Cuando un sindicato no está satisfecho con las condiciones de trabajo puede declararse en huelga, rehusarse a trabajar y paralizar una industria hasta que se cumplan las demandas de los trabajadores. Aunque otros sindicatos habían fracasado hasta ese momento, Chávez tenía la convicción que un sindicato podría mejorar las vidas de los trabajadores agrícolas, por lo cual creó la famosa frase “sí se puede”.

Al poco tiempo de vivir en San José, Chávez y su esposa Elena se fueron a vivir a Delano, California, donde empezó a sostener reuniones en las casas de los campesinos. Estas pláticas eran acerca de los problemas que existían en el trabajo agrícola, con el fin de crear un plan para formar un sindicato que peleara por los derechos de los trabajadores del campo.

Sus esfuerzos comenzaron a dar frutos en 1962 al fundar la Asociación Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo (The National Farm Workers Association)  con la ayuda de Dolores Huerta, una activista joven que apoyaba la idea de Chávez. Con el tiempo, la asociación se convirtió en la Unión de Trabajadores del Campo (United Farm Workers) mejor conocida como la UFW. Este sindicato fue el primer movimiento organizado para obtener los derechos de los trabajadores agrícolas estadounidenses. Posteriormente, en  1965, Chávez brindó apoyo a un grupo de campesinos filipinos quienes se declararon en huelga exigiendo un aumento de sueldo. Una semana más tarde 1,200 familias se unieron a la huelga. El sindicato creó una bandera de color rojo con un aguila en el centro, la cual levantaban con orgullo los trabajadores campesinos.

Chávez entendió que era necesario conseguir el apoyo más allá del área de Delano para que la lucha a favor de los trabajadores agrícolas tuviera éxito. Los huelguistas se expandieron en varias ciudades por todos los Estados Unidos, informando a la gente sobre las condiciones laborales inhumanas en las que vivían los cosechadores de uvas. Los seguidores de Chávez solicitaron en estas ciudades abstenerse de comprar uvas  como una manera de apoyar la causa. Chávez y sus seguidores tuvieron éxito al lograr un boicot (protesta en la que la gente se rehúsa a comprar un producto) que paralizó la comercialización de las uvas. La razón principal del boicot era exigir mejores salarios y condiciones laborales adecuadas. Este fue considerado una de las victorias más importantes del sector sindical en Estados Unidos.

Las iniciativas de Chávez a favor de los campesinos, lo llevaron a realizar una serie de huelgas de hambre. A través de estas acciones, Chávez  no solo demostraba su forma pacífica de llevar a cabo sus manifestaciones, si no también promovía la no violencia por parte de los trabajadores campesinos. En 1968, Chávez hizo su primera huelga de hambre en Delano, con una duración de 25 días. Durante esta huelga, Chávez recibió la visita de Robert F. Kennedy, candidato presidencial y hermano del Presidente de los Estados Unidos John F. Kennedy, quien apoyaba la causa y lucha de Chávez. En 1972, Chávez  ayunó en oposición a una reciente legislación aprobada en Arizona, que prohibía los boicots y huelgas durante los días de cosecha. El último ayuno que realizó Chávez culminó en agosto de 1988 y tuvo una duración de 36 días. El motivo de este ayuno era dar a conocer al público los efectos dañinos que los pesticidas causaban a la salud de los campesinos y sus hijos.

A pesar de todos los obstáculos que Chávez encontró en su trayectoria como líder sindical, su esfuerzo y perseverancia lo llevaron a obtener grandes logros para la fuerza laboral. Chávez continuamente  mencionó la frase “los ricos tienen dinero, pero los pobres tenemos tiempo”, haciendo referencia que las metas no se lograrían de la noche a la mañana y que se requeriría mucha paciencia y disciplina. Chávez luchó incansablemente y logró mejorar las condiciones de los trabajadores agrícolas.

El 23 de abril de 1993, Cesar Chávez falleció a la edad de 66 años. A su funeral, en Delano, asistieron más de 50,000 campesinos y partidarios de la UFW para rendir homenaje al valiente y humilde hombre que trabajó arduamente por la dignidad de los trabajadores agrícolas. Fue el funeral más grande realizado para un líder laboral en los Estados Unidos.

Titans of CNC Academy offers marketable skills to prisoners

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Wearing a T-shirt with Titans of CNC on its front and, in large bold letters, Made in the USA on the back, Titan Gilroy says he is on a quest to “bring jobs back to America.

Gilroy’s quest began by connecting with his spirituality while sitting in solitude, in prison.

A vocational student setting up a work piece for machining

At 18, Gilroy was a talented boxer who signed a contract with Top Rank Boxing. Hopes for a career in the ring were derailed when he became embroiled in a nightclub brawl that landed him a 16 year prison sentence, of which he served only three years because of good behavior.

After being released, he faced a problem many offenders returning to the community face—finding employment.

His first gig was as a machinist paid $9 an hour. It was not enough to support his family. Motivated by a serious work ethic, he developed new machining techniques for the shop. His pay quickly shot up to $14 an hour; a meager raise compared to the increase in company profits generated by his new techniques. Gilroy’s ingenuity inspired him to start his own company in 2005.

He attributes his success in building a multi-million dollar company to his faith in God. He combined innovative machining techniques with the ability to communicate to both government and corporate America an understanding of the challenges parolees face in finding employment.

Titans of CNC Academy’s Main floor at San Quentin’s Maintenance Vocational Building

Gilroy noticed that a lot of machining jobs were being out-sourced to other countries.

He knew that part of his plan— helping incarcerated people develop well-paying jobs skills— would bring jobs back to America.

Titan America in Rocklin teamed up with California prison officials and industry experts to create Titans of CNC Academy. Its graduates can earn from $25 to $40 per hour. “You can earn even more if you’re a top-notch programmer,” Gilroy said.

Titans of CNC Academy lessons are available online for free through a reality show on MAVTV called TITAN—American Built, which features programs about businesses that help to revive American manufacturing. The software is free to any school that wants it.

Prison administrators say they want parolees to have viable work skills so they won’t return to a life of crime.

The plan’s architect, Michael Valdez, said the strategy is working.

Titans of CNC Academy is part of the state’s Career Technical Education (CTE) program. Valdez is its vice principal and statewide manager.

“It’s not cheap; we had to upgrade from the 1940s technology. All of the trades have been upgraded. The funding came from federal grants. Those grants, along with departmental savings, allow us to pay for the upgrades,” Valdez said.

Recidivism rates are falling for CTE participants, according to Valdez. He cites a drop from about 70 percent in 2012 to about 45 percent today.

Titan Gilroy overseeing a student as he
operates a CNC machine

“When the investment began, there were 181 programs that provided training to 5,500 inmates. Today, 304 programs provide training to 9,000 inmates. But, we need to do more,” Valdez said. “There are 129,000 men and women in California prisons.”

“It is important for us to be creative to get folks access to CTE training near their exit so the skills are viable,” Valdez said. “That’s not to say longer-term inmates should not get the training, too. Longer-term inmates could learn the skills so, that the ‘each-one-teach-one’ method takes place.’ ”

Carlos Smith, 49, has been at San Quentin since 2014. He is serving a life sentence.

“I’m taking this course because I’ll need a trade to show the board that I am employable. But more important, this state-of-the-art training gives me a usable trade that I can take to the streets. This new stuff gives me the advantage that I need to be successful. It also makes me feel like I’m giving back to the community, instead of tearing it down. Titan has a beautiful spirit. He comes from the same cloth as we do, being an ex-convict. If he can do it, I know that I can, too.”

With 22 years of machining experience, local Bay Area resident Jason Johnson will be teaching the class.

“I think it’s great. It’s offering the guys a trade and learning a trade,” Johnson said. “They will be getting back into society to make the most of the time they’ve spent in prison.”

On the first day of class, a top software designer helped get things underway as Gilroy and Johnson walked around helping the students learn a machining program. Students used touch screen laptop computers to manipulate drawings from 2-D to 3-D as the Titans of CNC Academy film crew documented the events for its online classes.

Fernando Lopez, 36, has been incarcerated four years and will be released shortly.

“This class is the opportunity for me to do something better when I get out,” Lopez said.

Machine Shop instructor Jason Johnson

The students learn how to make the part with the correct dimensions and various patterns.

Philip Senegal, 49, is getting instruction from Gilroy on how to use the program.

“I have no computer skills at all,” Senegal said. He has been incarcerated 28 years. “This is interesting and challenging.”

Daniel Lucas “Luke” Colondres, 30, has been incarcerated 6 years.

“This is a job opportunity on the streets, and it means doing something constructive with my time while incarcerated,” Colondres said. “When I get on the streets, I want to step right into a job, so I don’t have to struggle.”

–Juan Haines

April 2017 News Briefs

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Vermont — Disability Rights Vermont filed a lawsuit in federal court in February, alleging that some state prisons are holding inmates in segregation even when it puts the inmate in danger. The lawsuit claims a man is in solitary confinement despite extensive and significant histories of self-harming behavior, particularly when put in segregation, reports Elizabeth Murray, Burlington Free Press. DRV is asking for a permanent order that mandates appropriate medical treatment settings whenever an inmate needs to be separated from general population inmates.

Boise, Idaho — The trial in a lawsuit by former inmates against the nation’s largest private prison company, CoreCivic — formerly called Corrections Corporation of America — began in February. The lawsuit claims that CCA purposely understaffed the prison in an effort to boost profits in what they dubbed a “ghost worker” scheme, and the understaffing led to an attack in which the plaintiffs were stabbed and beaten by other inmates, The Associated Press reports. The allegations against CCA include that company officials, including the vice president, knew that the understaffing was compromising safety of inmates and staff and that the understaffing meant the prison was often in violation of its $29 million annual contract with the state. The CCA lawyer explained that the inmates were not hurt that badly in the surprise attack and that they could have hidden in their cells but instead wanted to fight. He said the unit where the inmates were housed was actually staffed by more employees than was required under CCA’s contract with Idaho on the day of the attack. On Feb. 23, a federal jury found that CoreCivic had a longstanding custom of understaffing the prison, and the company was deliberately indifferent to the risk of serious harm that’s posed to inmates. However, jurors also found CoreCivic doesn’t have to pay damages because the inmates who sued failed to prove the understaffing happened in the hours before they were attacked by a prison gang.

Columbus, Ohio — (SAT Press Release) Planned changes to the state’s administrative rules include limiting solitary confinement to 30 days for all individuals with serious mental illness, juveniles and pregnant women, according to an SAT press release. Disability Rights of Ohio and the American Civil Liberties Union said the changes are an important first step but do not go far enough.

Gainesville, Fla. — Families Against Mandatory Minimums praised the introduction of legislation designed to reform the state’s drug laws. The law builds on previous legislation that raised trafficking thresholds for certain drugs, reduced mandatory sentences for certain drug trafficking offenses, and allowed departures from mandatory minimum sentences for lower-level drug offenses.

Phoenix, Ariz. — (2-16-17) One-time Death Row inmate turned prisoner-rights advocate Shujaa Graham performed Life After Death Row at the Herberger Theater, Eric Newman of The Arizona Republic reports. The performance is about Graham’s 11-year experience in the California prison system, part of which included time spent on Death Row for a wrongful murder conviction. Born in Louisiana, Graham grew up on a plantation in the segregated South of the 1950s. After moving to Southern California, he spent much of his youth in juvenile institutions and was sent to Correctional Training Facility in Soledad upon turning 18. Graham taught himself to read and write and studied history. He later became a leader of the Black Prison Movement within the California prison system as the Black Panther Party expanded.

Harrisburg, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed a new $25 per resident fee on municipalities relying on state police coverage. Over half of the state’s 2,500 municipalities rely full-time on state police protection.

Unconstitutional policing conducted by US police departments

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The country is engaged in a critically important conversation about community-police relations, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report.

Some of the more than 18,000 police departments across the United States are engaging in unconstitutional policing, according to the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Pattern and Practice Police Reform Work report published in January. Their actions, the report said, are severely undermining both community trust and public safety.

The division has entered into 40 total reform agreements in pattern-or-practice policing cases.

Twenty of those agreements have been court-enforced consent decrees, and 20 have been settlement agreements, typically known as memoranda of agreement, between the United States and the local jurisdiction.

Of the 18 reform agreements resulting from investigations opened since 2008, all have been consent decrees, but for those in four jurisdictions (Missoula, Mont.; Suffolk County, NY.; Miami, Fla.; and Alamance, NC).

The United States Department of Justice is using police reform, police-community trust relations, and public safety as tools to accomplish these policies:

a. Investigate cases that begin with the launch of a formal investigation into a law enforcement agency to determine whether the agency is engaged in a pattern or practice of violating federal law. An investigation most often consists of a comprehensive analysis of the policies and practices of policing in a particular community, although an investigation may also focus on a specific area of policing practice.

b. If the division finds a pattern or practice of police misconduct, it issues public findings in the form of a letter or report made available to the local jurisdiction and the public. The division conducts a thorough and independent investigation into allegations of police misconduct and substantiates any conclusions it draws with evidence set forth in its public findings.

c. The division negotiates reform agreements resolving those findings, usually in the form of a “consent decree” overseen by a federal court and an independent monitoring team. The lead independent monitor is appointed by the court and usually agreed upon by both the division and the investigated party but reports directly to the court. If an agreement cannot be negotiated, the division will bring a lawsuit to compel needed reforms.

d. When the court finds that the law enforcement agency has accomplished and sustained the requirements of the reform agreement, the case is terminated. In recent years, the division’s reform agreements have included data-driven outcome measures designed to provide clear and objective standards for measuring success and determining whether the law enforcement agency has met the objectives of the agreement.

e. At all stages of a pattern-or-practice case, from investigation through resolution, the division emphasizes engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders, including community members and people who have been victims of police misconduct or live in the neighborhoods most impacted by police misconduct, police leadership, rank and file officers, police labor organizations, and local political leaders. Each of these groups brings a different and important perspective and plays a critical role in accomplishing and sustaining police reform.

f. In keeping with the focus on systemic problems, the division’s reform agreements emphasize institutional reforms such as improving systems for supervising officers and holding them accountable for misconduct. It also emphasizes ensuring that officers have the policy guidance, training, equipment and other resources necessary for constitutional and effective policing; creating and using data about police activity to identify and correct patterns of police misconduct; and institutionalizing law enforcement agencies’ engagement with and accountability to the community.

At the time of this publication, the division had 18 open reform agreements, 14 of which are court-enforced consent decrees.

FDA impounds approximately 1000 vials of Texas execution drugs

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State’s supply runs out after nine executions, it sues to have feds release impounded drugs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has detained a shipment of approximately 1,000 vials of drugs intended for executions in Texas. After waiting for nearly a year and a half, Texas officials demanded an end to the delays, filing a lawsuit that seeks to force the federal government to turn over the drugs, according to a report by the Dallas Morning News.

“My office will not allow the FDA to sit on its hands and thereby impair Texas’ responsibility to carry out its law enforcement duties,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Lethal injection drugs have not been manufactured or sold by American companies in recent years, and European conglomerates no longer sell to the U.S.

“Amid the drug shortage in 2012, Texas switched from the three-drug cocktail it used since 1982 to a single overdosing injection of pentobarbital, a barbiturate, but that drug, too, is in short supply,” the report states.

The FDA intercepted a shipment of sodium thiopental, another barbiturate that the state had attempted to import from a foreign vendor since July 2015. Government officials said that the drugs lacked the required warnings and directions for use and that they needed federal approval.

According to the report, the state responded to the FDA, explaining that the drugs were legal for importation for law enforcement use. In April 2016, the FDA issued a tentative decision denying admission of the drugs. Since then, the agency hasn’t issued a final decision and has kept the drugs.

“Because FDA’s delay is unreasonable, the Texas Department of Correctional Justice (TDCJ) requests the Court to declare that the delay is unlawful and compel the FDA to render a final admissibility decision,” the lawsuit states.

Texas officials have turned to compounding pharmacies to make drugs. The state has also sought product from foreign providers. It has restricted public access to information about where and how it gets drugs used in lethal injections.

“The Texas Department of Correctional Justice lawfully ordered and obtained the necessary license to import drugs used in the lethal injection process, yet the FDA stopped the shipment and continues to hold it without justification,” the report said.

TDCJ spokesperson Jason Clark said that the agency has enough drugs on hand to complete the nine executions scheduled for the first six months of this year.

From that point forward, “We cannot speculate on the future availability of drugs, so the agency continues to explore all options including the continued use of pentobarbital or alternate drugs to use in the lethal injection process,” Clark said.

–Charles David Henry

Prisoners strike to end ‘prison slavery’

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Inmates at dozens of prisons across the county were on strike calling for reform to end the practice of slavery in prison, The Intercept reported.

“There are probably 20,000 prisoners on strike right now, at least, which is the biggest prison strike in history, but the information is really sketchy and spotty,” said Ben Turk, in September 2016. Turk represents the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, who helped coordinate the inmate-led strikes on the outside.

The incarcerated strikers are hoping that their strikes will repeal the exception in the 13th Amendment that authorizes the “involuntary servitude” of incarcerated people, The Intercept said.

According to The Intercept, the issue that unified the protesters is a $2 billion a year prison labor industry. The industry employs about 900,000 incarcerated people, paying inmates from nothing to pennies on the hour in some states.

Inmates across 11 states and 20 prisons joined the protest. Across 24 states, 40 to 50 more prisons pledged to join in the strikes, said Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, a former inmate and supporter of the strike demonstration.

According to the Wall Street Journal, some 400 inmates staged a peaceful protest in a Michigan prison, and 150 inmates suspected of being the “ringleaders” of the protest were transferred to other prisons.

The details of the prison strikes are obscured due to prison security, which makes it difficult to obtain information.

“What people have to realize is that these men and women inside prison — they expected to be retaliated against, but they sacrificed,” Glasgow explained.

While outside supporters in many U.S. cities coordinated demonstrations in support of the inmate-led strikes, the strikes gained little attention from mainstream media, The Intercept said.

“A nation that imprisons one percent of its population has an obligation to know what’s happening to those 2.4 million people,” Ethan Zuckerman, the director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT said. “And right now, we don’t know.”

David Le: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y78HMlWo6k

Largest private prison population

Prison reform could free 30,000 inmates says CSJ

Jamie Lindsey establishes All Faith Religious Grounds

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A new religious site for Odinists, called the All Faith Religious Grounds, is now open at San Quentin.

Jamie Lindsey said he is a well-known and outspoken spokesman for the Odinists, known by both the prisoners and correctional officers. When Lindsey first arrived at San Quentin in March 2013, there were no religious grounds for him and his fellow kinsmen to hold their blots each month.

He said that he stayed in contact with the chaplain’s officers, associate wardens and anyone else who would listen to him. In December 2015 his persistence finally worked, as he received an All Faith Religious Grounds on the lower yard.

Lindsey said he and his fellow kinsmen could turn this location into what they need. They had to break up concrete to make way for a new fence, get lockers and tables and plant plants to make it a place of worship. On June 21 they celebrated Summer Solstice, feeding more than 50 people. The Odinists practice hospitality whenever possible.

When asked what being an Odinist meant to him, Lindsey replied, “Odinism and Odin are like air, earth, fire and water. You need all to live. Also, I enjoy hanging out and working in the grounds with my fellow kinsmen.”

He hasn’t been able to go to the grounds that he helped to develop as much as he would like to, because of his end-stage liver disease along with other medical problems, he said.

He said he would like to give a special thanks to his fellow kinsmen and especially his daughter Rocsi. “Being part of this has changed me in a positive way,” Lindsey said.

Governor Brown pardons more than 850 since taking office

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Gov. Jerry Brown has given more than 850 pardons since 2011. This trend contrasts with the three prior governors, who granted a total of 28 pardons, reported Laurel Rosenhall of CAL Matters.

Clemency applications sent to the governor describe youth indiscretions, lives of poverty, drug addiction, drug deals, accidental shootings and drunken driving. Applications also describe transformations showing devotion to living clean, steady jobs, responsible parenting and sobriety.

Governor Brown’s actions reflect a swing back in favor of mercy as in Illinois, Michigan and at the federal level. President Obama commuted more sentences for people convicted of federal crimes than any president since Woodrow Wilson.

“The social landscape is definitely changing,” P.S. Ruckman Jr., political scientist and editor of Pardon Power blog said. “There is kind of a sea change going on, with respect to the attitudes about clemency and pardon power.”

Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Riverside), who has been critical of Brown’s progressive approach to criminal justice, is not complaining. She said, “I’ve looked at who he is pardoning, and I can’t find one particular case that jars my anger. They’ve already done their time. It’s not lessening their punishment, and they had to prove to the court that they are upstanding citizens and have stayed out of trouble. So I don’t view that aspect of his role as governor as being soft on crime.”

A pardon does not erase a criminal record but restores rights to people convicted of felonies to get certain professional licenses and serve on a jury. A pardon is not a commutation, which reduces a prison sentence.

After the Civil War in 1868, President Andrew Johnson granted a Christmas Day Pardon to everyone who could have committed treason by rebelling. Christmas time amnesty was common in the late 1800s, when prison wardens would make lists of inmates who should be freed on the holiday.

Governor Brown was criticized when he pardoned celebrity Robert Downey Jr. on Christmas Eve 2015 for narcotics crimes after Downey donated money to Brown’s re-election campaign. Most pardon recipients are regular people who say in their applications that a pardon will allow them to get a better job, go hunting or volunteer in a school.

Gabriel Chin, a law professor at University of California at Davis, pointed out that America is the land of second chances. “If somebody does something when they are … 19 or 20, are they still going to be under this shadow when they’re 80?”

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