Editor’s Note: David Marsh was a staff writer for the San Quentin News for two years until his release on parole in June 2010. He is now a reporter and columnist for the weekly Valley Voice newspaper.
I guess it’s time to for me to live up to the commitment that I made when I left San Quentin in June of last year. I said I’d occasionally submit articles for publication in the San Quentin News, so here is one.
I am reviving “As I See It…” in the pages of your newspaper. I am also using the name “As I See It…” in the pages of our local weekly newspaper, The Valley Voice. I am a featured columnist for our weekly paper and my column has been carried on the front page. It’s not much money, but plenty of local exposure.
The S.Q. News is where I got my journalism “start.” Thanks to Joan, John and Steve, advisers extraordinaire. And thanks to Michael, Aly, and Luke for tolerating me. Special thanks to Arnulfo for being my good friend when I needed one.It bears noting that the first three columns I have written for The Valley Voice have each been on the AB 109 fallout and how it is affecting our counties.
I recently spent two hours interviewing our county’s probation chief, who is very much informed (as much as anybody CAN be) about the up-to-date rules and regulations concerning AB 109. Now, keeping in mind that the legislators in Sacramento are at this moment rewriting some of the language of what has to be one of the most ill thought-out pieces of legislation in our lifetimes! And that, gents, is NO exaggeration.
Anyway, my whole purpose in writing this piece is to share with you those things that I have learned about AB 109 in these past few weeks, a very considerable amount of info that pertains to a great many of you.
Almost everybody in H Unit will be affected by the new rules under AB 109, and a good many of you in North Block. Anybody who paroles after Oct. 1 should pay close attention here.
None of you are “non-non-nons” (non-violent, non-serious and non-sex offenders. Cause non-non-nons are the classification given to those who are sentenced to the county jails after Oct. 1, in lieu of prison.
Anyone who paroles from San Quentin after Oct. 1, who qualifies as a non-serious, non-violent and non-serious sex offender, will be released to county supervision as a “post release community supervision offender,” or PRCSO. This is a whole new classification of post-release offenders who will not be considered as normal probationers, nor subject to the usual terms and conditions of county probation.
The non-non-nons released from the county jails, however, will be treated as regular probationers. Sounds a bit confusing, I know, but if you read it through carefully a time or two, this will begin to make a little sense to you.
As PRCSOs, most of you will be offered the opportunity to give the county six months clean and trouble free, and you will be subject to early termination of your supervision status. Meaning you’re done!
If you mess up, or your supervising probation officer even thinks you’re about to mess up, you are subject to a 10-day “flash-incarceration” term in the county jail. No set limit on “flash incarceration” terms. Here’s the kicker, which many of you will probably find appealing. If you get “violated,” then the most that you can receive is 180 days in the county lock-up, with half-time.
After serving the 90-day-term, then you are released entirely from supervision. No more PRCSO status! Done! Over! At no time following your release from San Quentin are you subject to a possible return to prison. County jail only! Period! Short of committing a new beef, that is.
Your status upon release from prison is determined by the controlling case for which you were incarcerated. Those with violence, serious offenses or sex offenses can expect to be released to regular parole supervision as it has always been. Those who qualify as “PRCSOs” face a whole new set of post-release supervision rules, considerably softer, and designed to cut into the astronomical recidivism rates which have plagued the CDCR for so many years.
In my new status as a free-world press reporter (and still a current parolee), I have been attending the weekly meetings of our local Community Corrections Partnership Committee (of which the Sheriff, DA, Probation Chief, County Executive, Public Defender, Chief-of-Police, etc. are all members) and they even permit me to ask all the questions I want. And believe me, I have many. And they answer each of them.
Each county is required under AB 109 to form a CCPC, and each must conform to the same set of rules which I have briefly outlined here for you. The rules don’t change from county to county, from Tulare County (mine) to liberal San Francisco County. The rules are set by the state.
One final note here. Don’t expect much in the way of rehabilitation and opportunities for ex-felons when you hit the gates. By the time each of the counties’ CCPCs have divided up the pot of money each county has received from the state, at the bottom of the funnel is the substance abuse programming and housing providers. As you probably already figured, not much of that money, at all, made it to the bottom.
That’s not merely “As I See It…,” those are the cold, hard facts!
Family Camp Ready to Open for the 2011 Season
Editor’s Note: David Marsh, now paroled, was a Staff Writer for S.Q. News and periodically submits articles for publication with his permission.
The shy ten-year-old boy takes several halting, tentative steps up the sidewalk leading to the closed door, his small hands tightly clutching two bags in one hand, a larger jar in the other. P.Nuttles! Delicious butter toffee peanuts! The currency of choice for successive generations of many YMCA summer-camp-bound youngsters.
The door opens, somehow the confused young lad stumbles through the sales pitch, and a sale is made! His eyes brimming with happiness, the boy bounds back down the sidewalk to his waiting Dad, his hand tightly clutching the money he has earned.
After excitedly counting the accumulating proceeds of his earnest efforts, he proudly heads off to the next door, his steps noticeably lighter, confidence in his abilities growing! Watching the boy, the father smiles, clearly savoring the moment.
This proud youngster is one of the lucky ones, said YMCA Camp Sequoia Lake Director Evan Gelsi. “The camp experience is intended to start long before the actual six days at the camp.”
The peanut sales, Gelsi explained, are part of the process that builds confidence and pride in the kids, happy in the knowledge that they have paid their own way on what, for so many children and teenagers throughout the Tulare, Kings and Fresno County area, has become a cherished annual rite of passage.
For over 700 kids throughout the three-county area, that tradition will continue on June 19 when the Golden State YMCA, operator of the five villages scattered around the shores of Lake Sequoia, opens for the first of its eight 2011 summer sessions. The sessions continue through July 29.
Sequoia Lake, a pine-forested 628 acre tract of land at the 5,500 ft. elevation, is located in the Sierras east of Fresno adjacent to the entrance to Kings Canyon National Park. The man-made lake was formed in 1890 with the damming of Mill Flat Creek and served for a number of years as a logging reservoir.
Valley YMCA’s, which have offered camping at the lake since 1912, purchased the tract from George and Anne Louise Hume, of Fresno, in 1922 for the sum of $30,000.
This year, according to Gelsi, 29, in his 10th year with the YMCA and 4th as the camp director, the camp will host an expected 2,200 campers from 13 countries around the world, including the 224 families who have signed up for family camp.
“Family camp,” according to Gelsi “is the fastest growing segment of our summer program.” Accommodations for family camp range from tent sites to apartments with multiple rooms and indoor bathrooms. Prices, based on a family of four, range from $888.00 to $2,200.00.
Y Camp offers an exciting slate of activities for campers of all ages, including fishing, swimming, kayaking, arts and crafts, hiking and an overnight campout, archery, boating, disc golf and theater, just to name a few.
“But perhaps most important,” says Gelsi, “are the friendships formed and the relationships renewed, and the memories that last a lifetime.”
Many of the children begin in the half-week-long PeeWee Camp program (2nd and 3rd grades) and return year after year through Youth Camp (3rd to 8th grades), then on into Teen Camp (9th to 12th grades). For the adventurous-on-wheels, the Y offers Skate Camp! Prices for the PeeWee, Youth and Teen Camps range from $350.00 – $500.00.
But core to the YMCA’s program is its annual camp scholarship program which this year raised over $120,000 through private and corporate donors. The scholarships are provided on an income-based, sliding scale that pays all but a small portion of the camp fee for families unable to afford the full price. Over 60 percent of the 700 kids from Tulare, Kings and Fresno Counties who will attend Camp Lake Sequoia this year will receive some sort of scholarship through the program.
In spite of the recession, according to Gelsi, the number of kids who attend the camp has remained steady, as have donations to the program.
Camp Lake Sequoia also offers a week-long session for diabetics, as well as Heroes Camp, which kids of military families attend free. The Heroes Camp program is sponsored by the Sierra Club and the Armed Services YMCA.
Gelsi laments the steady decline in the number of families who participate in the peanut sales.
“The biggest factor,” he said, “is it creates an ownership factor in the camp experience. The kids earn self-confidence and come to camp with a sense of self-accomplishment.”
Peanut sales, so essential to the camping experience and the fond memories of past generations, once reached a participation level of over 60 percent of camp-bound youngsters, are now down to around 10 percent, said Gelsi.
So What Happens to a Seatbelt-less Parolee?
When you forget your mistakes, you are doomed to repeat them. As a parolee, I do not have the luxury of room for making mistakes.
Only three short months out from behind the foreboding walls of the fortress by the bay, the venerable San Quentin State Prison, I flagrantly broke the law!
I got a ticket for not using my seatbelt. And certainly I knew better. I mean, it’s hard to forget that you’re a parolee. Nonetheless, I didn’t buckle up and the local constabulary wasted little time in serving me up a painful reminder.
It’s only going to cost me a paltry $13, a fix-it ticket. It won’t even count as points against my driving record. It could have been so much worse, and such a ticket is often written up as an infraction costing much more than $13.
The most important lesson to be learned here is that it didn’t have to happen at all. And the critical part of the lesson is that all police contact must be reported within the first 24 hours. My parole agent had to be notified.
What would he say? Even more important, WHAT WOULD HE DO ABOUT IT?! I couldn’t help but be reminded that it didn’t have to come to this at all. I had allowed myself to slip on that all-important State Of Mind that all parolees must live with, constantly, if we are to beat the odds of that damning 73 percent recidivism rate.
Stuff like this that happens all the time to “normal” folks. Though quite inconsequential in their lives, it can be catastrophic to us, quickly resulting in a return trip behind the prison walls.
The truly sad thing is that this whole potentially parole-endangering mess just didn’t have to happen at all if I had remained focused on the immutable fact that never changes in my life today: I am a Parolee.
When I allow myself to overlook that predicament then I am doomed to mistakes and inevitable failure. Failure for me as a parolee, means a trip back behind the walls. Who, really, do I have to blame if that should happen to me? Only myself!
By the grace of God, I have an experienced parole officer who simply made a note in the log noting my mental slip-up. It could have been so much worse.
But I’ve learned! Not only do I always immediately buckle up behind the wheel now, but also I try very hard to remain focused on my status as a parolee.
It’s tough to beat parole. There are very long odds for us against success, even longer odds to realize that dream of an early 13-month release from parole.
But I remain convinced, perhaps now more than ever, that I am going to make it. Three months down and 10 to go!
Parole’s Ups and Downs
Parole is in transition. The folks in Sacramento would be the first ones to tell you this in case you didn’t read it in the newspapers. My parole agent(s) have been quick to point this out to me. But you’ll experience the confusion firsthand with your first visit or two to the local parole office.
Me, I paroled on June 11 and I’m currently working with my third agent. Yes, three in two months! I haven’t moved or changed my address once. I’m still in the same place. And No. 3 tells me not to get too comfortable because I’ll quite soon be meeting No. 4. Honest! Now that’s a sure recipe for confusion.
When you hit the streets upon paroling, a job will be primary on your radar, just as it was and still is for me. What you’re going to need are both an official state identification card or driver’s license, and a Social Security card. Can’t get a job without ‘em.
No longer can an employer hire you with just a printout from the Social Security office as in years past. Now you must have the actual card in hand. You can’t get the Social Security card without first having a driver’s license or an I.D. card.
A driver’s license will set you back $31, which you’ll have to pay in full. An identification card, on the other hand, will run you $25 and there are a number of ways by which you can get help paying for it. Your parole agent will give you a voucher for $19 simply for the asking, making your out-of-pocket cost $6. You can also get the same voucher from the local office of Health and Human Services (welfare office) or at one of several non-profit organizations such as Proteus or C-SET.
It takes about seven to ten days to get your I.D. card, and another three to six days for the Social Security card. The Social Security card is free – a bargain!
Again, the days when the handy computer printout would get you by are long in the past. A printout from the DMV will not get you a card at the Social Security office. Gotta have the actual I.D. card, with picture, in hand, in order to apply for your Social Security card. So plan on making the local DMV one of your very first stops.
Bus passes are at the discretion of your parole agent, but until such time as the state passes a budget, there are simply not many to be had.
It’s economics, folks, money! And there ain’t none for anyone these days, and especially for parolees. Not in a state that can’t even pass a budget on time.
I’ll continue to research and report on what few avenues still remain open to us, as well as any changes as they happen.
Build your parole plans around a determination to succeed. The limited opportunities that remain still exist for the most determined among us.
Nobody ever said that parole would be easy, but I’ve got two months down now, and 11 more to go until I reach my goal of an early release at 13 months. I’m gonna make it, this I do know, and you can, too.
Judges Back Kelso’s Rule
A federal panel has refused to eliminate the receiver overseeing California prison health care.
The ruling clears the way for federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso to proceed with his $1.9 billion construction plan to add medical beds to the state’s 32 prisons.
The decision was announced by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 30.
Kelso was appointed by U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson of San Francisco under authority of the federal Prison Litigation Reform Act. The move came as a result of a decades-long class action lawsuit filed by inmates challenging poor health care in the state’s adult prisons.
Kelso’s job was to bring prison health care up to acceptable constitutional standards. Initially the state did not object to the appointment of a receiver in 2006, and admitted that it was unable to remedy the problem within its prisons. Only when the state’s economy collapsed did legal efforts begin to rid California of the receiver.
California faces a projected budget shortfall of $19 billion through June of 2011.
Prisons chief Matthew Cate claimed Henderson had no authority to appoint Kelso, and that Kelso then had no authority to order the construction of 10,000 additional beds, at a cost of approximately $6 billion.
With the onset of the state’s financial crisis, Kelso responded with his current, more modest proposal for two new hospitals and 3,400 beds intended for acute and long-term care.
“The problem has not been with a lack of plans, but with the state’s ability to execute them,” the appellate panel said in its ruling. The court ruled that the appointment of the receiver was the least intrusive way to ensure inmates’ rights.
“The state to this day has not pointed to any evidence that it could remedy its constitutional violations in the absence of the receivership,” the judges declared.
Re-Entry Program – What It Means
The clients are inmates, and many are soon to be paroled. In large numbers, two evenings each week, they file steadily through the door of the California Re-entry Program in a seemingly unending stream.
For those who come through the door, their quest is for information vital to their success or failure on parole. Information which, for most, can be found in no other place behind the walls of this budget-challenged prison.
THROUGH THE DOOR
Twice each week many will come through the door seeking information in areas as diverse as post-parole employment, housing, college and financial aid assistance or child support information. For others, it’s information from the DMV, Social Security, drug and alcohol treatment facilities, dress-out clothing or bus and train schedules.
Whatever their needs, the small army of well-trained, friendly and enthusiastic volunteers of Director Allyson West’s unique program are well-equipped to make the connections between those who are soon to be paroled and the array of service providers in any of California’s 58 counties.
“The need was obviously there,” said West. “The inmates have so few places they can go for information.”
In addition, West regularly brings a representative from the Marin Employment Connection, occasional speakers and related service professionals into the institution to conduct seminars and instruct inmates in the development of resume building skills, sharpening interviewing techniques, how to expunge one’s record and related health issues.
About 25 volunteers of the CRP serve the needs of approximately 150 to 200 clients who come through the door each month, Tuesday and Thursday from 6;30 to 8:30 for H-Unit, and Tuesday evenings for residents of North Block. The CRP began servicing H-Unit in 2006.
For many of the volunteers, some of whom are exploring possible careers in social work or law enforcement, the experience is both preparation and training for eventual employment.
The volunteers come from a range of backgrounds as varied as the differences in their ages, from Tom, in his 70s, to Aliza at 22. Each is asked to commit to the program for a minimum of six months, says West, and some have been with the CRP for much longer.
Volunteers undergo four hours of training and must submit to a background check. Some elect to work both nights, some only one, but each will put in about 3 to 10 hours per-week of home research and information gathering to meet the never-ending needs of their CRP clients.
“This program would not exist without the volunteers,” said West, whose paid staff includes one part-time employee. “Without the hard work and dedication of all of them, none of this would have been possible for these past seven years”.
For North Block, the program operates out of building B in the old laundry building, and West assists about 20 inmates each week with preparation for Parole Board hearings as well as long-term parole planning.
CONTINUING PROBLEM
The CRP was founded by West in 2003 and is entirely funded through grants from charitable foundations and private donations of just five or ten dollars each. Funding is a continuing problem, says West, and additional sources must be found if the non-profit program is to continue operating beyond the end of the year.
The economic downturn has dramatically cut into the money available from charitable foundations that normally provide the bulk of funding for programs for the homeless, legal advocacy groups and a program such as the CRP.
The loss of the CRP would be a tremendous blow to the countless inmates who are critically dependent upon West and her unique program.
Allyson West has been involved at San Quentin for the past decade, initially as an algebra instructor for Patten University.
Prison Smokers Are Facing A Bleak Future All Over
When Virginia instituted its long-planned smoking ban in prisons in February, it brought half the number of the 50 states which have outlawed the use of tobacco products by staff and inmates on prison grounds.
A number of the other 25 states that still permit tobacco products on prison grounds have some sort of partial ban in place, with some sort of exception such as staff smoking areas. Georgia will become the next state with smokeless prisons when its ban takes effect in December.
Most states have relied on a phased-in approach in order to achieve a total ban, rather than a much harsher “cold-turkey” approach.
By banning the use of tobacco products in prisons, states hope to realize huge savings in health care-related costs for inmates, as well as an eventual reduction in insurance premiums for healthier staff.
Attempts by Arizona lawmakers to outlaw smoking in prisons were defeated last year. But state Representative Bill Konopnicki, the bill’s sponsor, said plans were underway to re-introduce the legislation this year.
The American Civil Liberties Union supports some bans through its National Prison Project, citing an inmate’s right to breathe non-contaminated air.
For some reason, states along the country’s southern border from New Mexico to Florida still allow some form of tobacco in prisons.
Going Home to See Becky
David Marsh wrote this column shortly before being paroled
FORGIVENESS: I will be leaving this place soon, in a matter of days, God willing. Yup, parole date coming up for me, again! Hope to make this one, on June 11th.
And as a single father with three children, two of them minors, who is at the tail end of a sentence of nine with half-time, I would like to believe that I am ready. Time to get home to my kids, Becky, David and Nolan.
But I know in my heart that I am not yet truly ready, because I still have no idea what I will say to them, even now after all this time I’ve had to think about it.
I will be seeing my little girl soon. Becky. Her name is Becky, my only daughter. A wonderful child who has never caused her dad a bit of trouble. Hard to believe in today’s times, but I swear it’s the truth.
Always and still her Daddy’s girl, but no longer Daddy’s little girl now because while I’ve been gone, my Becky has grown up. She’s a truly beautiful young woman now. While her Daddy was in prison my little girl has grown up, turned eighteen and became a young adult. A very pretty young woman my Becky has become.
WHAT I MISSED
There have been many eventful moments that were pretty darn important to this exceptional woman/child that her Daddy has missed. Such as her high school prom, her graduation, and her very first date, just to name a few.
And all the times that she was down, sick, hurting or scared. Or she simply needed advice, the kind that only a father should give.
But her father wasn’t there. For he has been here, for a very long time, while she has hurt alone. This daughter that I love with all that I am. My Becky.
THE PAIN ENDURES
I’ve been thinking very hard about what I will say. And it hurts because no matter what I say, it can’t be enough to erase the pain. Both hers and mine.
She’s still waiting for her father for all of this time, and somehow she’s still smiling. For my Becky’s beautiful eyes are looking to the future, and to those many special moments that she and I will yet still share together. Not focused on the past and the treasures that we have missed, and that are forever lost to us. Somehow she has learned to forgive me when I cannot even forgive myself!
As for me, I am still feeling the pain as I struggle with the awareness of all that she and I have lost these past years. It’s called guilt
MUCH TO LEARN.
But still, I am aware that I can learn much from my Becky. About letting go. And about forgiving. And I think that maybe she will teach me something about forgiving myself, which has to be the first step. Then maybe together we can really begin the healing process, she and I.
For as I have already noted, she is so very special. That’s my Becky! She is waiting, as are my beloved sons, David and Nolan, so very special in their own right. And, God willing, it’s time for me to go!
Please, God, help me to be ready!
I’m Out On Parole: So What Do I Do Now?
I’ve left behind the walls of the prison, having paroled on June 11. But I’m still fighting to reach freedom, one slow step at a time.
I’m homeless for now, for the first time in my life, and I’m 54 years old. I’d never have imagined that there is such complexity to being successful at being homeless. But there is, and it’s a struggle to learn it.
Until June 11 the folks at San Quentin cooked my meals, gave me a bed to sleep in, even did my laundry if I’d let ‘em, and gave me a job on the newspaper to keep me busy and out of trouble. The trouble part didn’t always work out as most of you will remember from my Ad Seg. “AS I SEE IT” column in the May issue of the S.Q. News. But San Quentin tried and, for the most part, I did, too.
On June 11 I gave up my job as the News Editor on your paper. But a reporter’s blood runs thick through my veins and I still have some writing left to do. If God, and the editors of the S.Q. News are willing, I intend to carry on as a contributing writer reporting on a couple of issues that will affect a great many of you in the coming weeks, months and years and, for some even, days! The issues are parole and homelessness.
For the past couple of nights I’ve slept, showered and even eaten at a homeless shelter for men. A very eye-opening experience, let me tell you. In so many ways, the types of people that one meets in prison can be found at the homeless shelter. Including a few folks just like me, recent parolees.
I’d never really given it much thought, but it’s so very true that when the doors of prison finally open up for you, it’s just like all those experts and their studies said it would be. The euphoria of freedom at last is quickly and thoroughly overwhelmed by an avalanche of anxiety, awe and yes, even fear! A sense of “Oh, Hell! What do I do now?”
Ten days into my parole and I’m still asking myself that very same question. But I’m quite self-motivated, and my feeling is that I won’t be homeless for long.
As the days and weeks pass I’ll share with you some insights and avenues for parolees as I find them. I’ll ask plenty of questions from the people at the parole office, as a good reporter does. And I’ll share the answers with you, just as honestly as I can, that you might be better able to prepare yourself for freedom when the time comes.
No non-revocable parole for me? No sir! In fact, I had some pretty tough special conditions throw at me, including a crazy restriction against driving a car, although I’ve never had an alcohol related driving offense. How am I to work?
But I will, and God willing, I’ll give them back this number in a short 13 months, watch and see. And as it unfolds I’ll share some insights on how to do that, also. Because we can beat this parole thing, both you and I. And in the process, the recidivism rate, as well.
No one said it would be easy, and certainly I never expected that it would be. There are moments when it seems like it’s gonna’ be too much for me. But it ain’t.
I dug myself a real deep hole this time, I did! And now I’m climbing back out, slowly but surely, one step at a time. And filling the hole back in as I go. I WON’T fall back in this one!
MEMORIES OF FREEDOM
Will these walls that now surround me
Be my future, then my end
These cold steel bars before me
Are my truth, I can’t pretend
Are my memories of freedom
Just a taste, forbidden fruit
Are my visions for the future
Out of reach, perhaps quite moot
Will this gate that does not open
Keep my spirits trapped within
Do you keep me here in prison
As my punishment for sin
Just perhaps I’m not the person
You locked up so long ago
If you took the time to know me
It is possible you’d know
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 6
- Next Page »