On a sunny afternoon on the mainline San Quentin Lower Yard recently, three of the resident seagulls who regularly inhabit the lower yard died in a horrific traffic accident. An electric vehicle speeding on the lower yard, at a whopping three miles per hour, ran them over.
The vehicle driver seemed genuinely remorseful of the accident and looked to be in shock. “What happened?” he asked.
The lackadaisical, half-tame birds were distracted by food on the ground that they were devouring, and never saw it coming. The vehicle killed them instantly.
The 30 or so Lower Yard resident geese stood in a semi-circle and watched intently as the driver put the dead birds in a plastic bag and dumped them in the back of his vehicle. As he drove away, the geese honked and lifted off, following the vehicle. You might say the accident created a big flap in the bird community.
S.Q.’s Prison Hobby Craft Last in the State
California Department of Corrections in the mid 70’s established a hobby craft program for incarcerated inmates.
San Quentin’s hobby craft program is one of the last left operating in the state’s penal system.
For over 30 years the hobby shop was located on the bottom floor of the “old hospital building.”
Once construction began on the new hospital , the hobby shop was moved to the converted “old” laundry building, and has been there since 2006.
The hobby program and gift shop are run by hobby manager Andrea Williams for Condemned Row, and Chris Howard supervising the mainline.
The hobby shop is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.. The gift shop is open from Wednesday thru Sunday from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m..
In order to participate in the hobby program you must be privilege group A and fill out an application form. Acceptance into the program is limited by the availability of space.
There are approximately 50 mainline prisoners who use the hobby shop, plus 50 who do in-cell hobby. In addition to those in Condemned Row, the total number of inmates participating is 350.
Items made in the hobby shop include woodcraft such as jewelry boxes, clocks, chess boards, miniature pianos, pool tables and cable cars.
In-cell hobby craft consists of beaded jewelry, oil-on-canvas paintings, pastels, greeting cards and artwork done in both pen and pencil.
Prices vary from greeting cards for two dollars to paintings and jewelry boxes that sell for several hundred dollars.
Prisoners use the money made from sales to purchase materials needed to continue their artwork. Most use the money made from sales to send home to their loved ones.
A sample of most of the art craft made in S.Q. can be seen and bought at S. Q.s gift shop located near the front entrance of the prison.
S.Q.’s Sweat Lodge First In the Nation
In the spring of 1972 San Quentin became the first state prison in the United States to build a Sweat Lodge on Prison grounds, achieved through a long and arduous process beginning with a 602 and culminating in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Herb Sample, a life-term prisoner, argued before the courts that Native Americans should be allowed to practice their religion.
Previously the only options for a Native American prisoner to practice religion were through the Catholic or Protestant chapels.
Sample, a California Indian and a member of the Yokut Nation, argued equal protection and infringement of religious rights.
Three themes are central to Native American religion: purification, offering, and vision. The Sweat Lodge ceremony accomplishes all three.
The Sweat Lodge is an integral part of Native religious practice, which consists of heated rocks being brought into a dome-like structure, built from willow saplings. Water is poured upon the super-heated rocks as prayers are said in Native tongue.
The sweat lodge has been used for prayer since time immemorial in the United States.
The first Sweat Lodge in San Quentin was built with the help of Archie “Fire” LameDeer, a well-known and respected Lakota Sioux medicine man and healer, who wrote a 20-page blueprint for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation explaining the procedures and protocols for building and maintaining a Sweat Lodge. These protocols are still adhered to.
The Sweat Lodge at San Quentin and indeed all Sweat Lodges statewide are considered sacred ground and have been designated as such by the federal court order issued in 1972.
LameDeer,obeying his vision, came to California in the 1960s to build a “Western Gate,” a Sweat Lodge in the Western part of the United States. In order to fulfill a prophecy foretold by ancient ancestors long before the Europeans arrived.
After the first Sweat Lodge was built at San Quentin, one was built in state prisons in Nevada and Arizona. Later Sweat Lodges were built in prisons throughout the United States.
Sweat Lodges outside of California were not personally built by LameDeer, but by Native American spiritual leaders associated with Native spiritual practices who followed LameDeer’s protocols and procedures.
The Sweat Lodges in California as well as countless lodges throughout the United States have served to keep Native American prisoners in touch with their cultural roots and spiritual practices.
It would be next to impossible to tabulate the countless Native men and women who have changed their lives in a positive manner due to the influence of the Sacred Sweat Lodge ceremony. A Native practitioner believes that the water poured on the super-heated stones extorts pain locked within them. This essential belief has helped many Native American’s lead clean and sober lifestyle with the purification that comes from the Sacred Sweat Lodge.