San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

University helps prisoners learn

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The University of Arizona English Department, with the encouragement of the state of Arizona, has initiated a writing and literary program to rehabilitate prisoners, reports The Arizona Wildcat.

They started the Prison Education Project, now called Prison Instruction to Change Minds (PRISM) last spring and enroll up to 20 inmates each term. The goal of the curriculum is to improve prisoners’ critical thinking and comprehension skills, gain rhetorical awareness, and engage with the texts to reflect on their lives and hopes for the future.

“Part of the overall purpose of the program is to reach out to a community that is underserved and give them a sense of purpose—that they are doing something constructive with their time,” said Marcia Klotz, project director and assistant professor in the department of English.

“There is something profound about having that kind of interaction, being able to come into a group that has such a deep appreciation for what you are able to help them with,” Klotz told Arizona Wildcat reporter Tori Tom.

The fall program which started Oct.4, is not an accredited course, instead it offers certificates of completion.

“I would love to have these classes count for credit,” Klotz said. “That’s the long-term goal.”

A high school diploma or General Educational Development certificate is a prerequisite to enroll in the classes.

The Arizona Department of Corrections population data showed the Tucson prison complex housed 4,963 inmates in September, of which 2,230 qualified for PRISM in Whetstone and Catalina facilities, according to the article.

“We would like to expand (the program,)” said Klotz. “There’s a lot more interest than we can accommodate.”

“According to a RAND analysis, every $1 invested in such [inmate] education generates at least $4 in economic return,” reports Fast Company.

“The state typically spends $71,000 a year to house an inmate. It costs about $5,000 total to help put one [incarcerated] student through community college”, reports Fast Company.

Bryan A. Smith, convicted in California in 1982 for attempted robbery, second degree murder, and attempted murder, is both a University of Arizona psychology graduate (class of 2012), and a mitigation specialist for the Pima County Public Defender’s Office.

Smith conducts local motivational talks to tell his story and convince inmates that they too can succeed academically. Smith said he, like other inmates, always assumed that he was academically inadequate and that “college is not for them.” 

The 55-year-old Smith, a former inmate at San Quentin State Prison, spent 26 years of his life behind bars, and obtained an Associates of Arts Degree in 2003 through San Quentin State Prison’s Patten University Project.

“Growing up, I never thought I’d be able to get a higher education,” Smith said. “But I realized at some point that ‘I’m going to graduate to get a degree.’ This energized my future and opened up my world.

“The reason why I am an activist for education in a prison system is because it is a very strong activity for personal transformation,” Smith said. “Taking those preparatory classes, getting the individual help, seeing my peers do it and the environment [all] helped me grow to learn about myself.”

PRISM plans to broaden the program for inmates next semester by having any retired or current faculty members come to lecture for a day.

The purpose of this expansion is to expose Whetstone inmates to more classes, in the event that they decide to pursue a college education upon their release from prison.

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NEWS BRIEFS: November 2018

Art Prison Program

Theater holds conference to bring Shakespeare to the incarcerated

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Actors performing on stage

Actors performing on stage

San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre will be hosting a “Shakespeare in Prisons Conference” for people dedicated to bringing Shakespeare to the incarcerated, reports James Herbert of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The conference is scheduled for March 2018. The San Diego site was chosen by the event’s coordinators, Shakespeare at Notre Dame and Shakespeare Behind Bars, reports Herbert.

The conference is working with the Balboa Park theater’s Arts Engagement and Globe for All outreach programs directed by Barry Edelstein, the Globe’s artistic director.

More than 150 people are expected to attend the conference. Here’s how the event is described:

Actors performing on stage “Taming of the Shrew”

Actors performing on stage “Taming of the Shrew”

“The biennial Shakespeare in Prisons Conference gives prison arts practitioners the opportunity to share their collective experiences, rejuvenate passion for their work, and build an expanded network of peers.

“Artists and educators engaged in transformational arts programs using Shakespeare in prisons across the U.S. (and the world) are brought together to explore and study the effects such programming has on prison populations.

“The conference promotes a collaborative learning forum where participants are exposed to a diverse array of programs that all strive for a common result; ‘the habilitation of the inmate’s mind, heart, body and spirit.’”

Suraya Keating, sponsor for both Shakespeare at San Quentin and Shakespeare for Social Justice and director for Marin Shakespeare Conference, plans to attend the San Diego event.

“The conference is designed to teach participants how to empower, heal and transform prisoners’ lives,” Keating said. “I will share how my particular approach and Shakespeare helps inmates tell their personal stories and express their voice, witnessed by a loving community,” added Keating.

Inmate Vance Farland, a Shakespeare participant at San Quentin, said, “Shakespeare has helped me get over my fear of stage fright. It’s given me more confidence. It’s also given me more creativity in my writing.”

Gov. Jerry Brown approved $8 million in his 2017-18 budget to be used for Arts in Correction programs for all California state prisons.

Soledad’s Life CYCLE program brings victims and offenders together

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A unique program that brings crime victims and convicted murderers together to share their stories is an effective way to increase understanding and empathy, and it also reduces recidivism, according to a report on prison Restorative Justice.

Salinas Valley Californian reporter Chelcey Adami describes an encounter last year between Angie Ortega, the mother of murdered Lorraine Ortega, 23, and Johnny Placencia, 18, a man who murdered Manuel Ortiz, 21, in a gang-related stabbing. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how to prevent such tragedies from happening in the future.

Ortega and Placencia are facilitators in prison Restorative Justice programs. Ortega is the president of the Monterey County chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, Inc., and Placencia chairs the rehabilitative group called Life CYCLE for inmates at the Correctional Training Facility prison in Soledad. The two coordinate visits between members of Parents of Murdered Children and inmates in the Life CYCLE program to educate inmates about how losing a loved one to murder affects families. 

“We talk about our loved ones, we share. Sometimes they will talk to us about the crimes they committed, how they feel…It has completely changed my mind of what a prison is like, because I’m seeing the work of the young men in the prison and actually talking about their crime,” Ortega says.  “I’m seeing the impact of how it’s affecting them.”

Placencia says his group is about motivating inmates to assume personal responsibility and to make an effort to change. The effect is powerful when inmates hear decades later how parents still feel the loss, when they learn that the pain never goes away: that’s “insight we can’t read in a book.”

A study entitled “The Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Practices: A Meta-Analysis” by Jeff Latimar, Craig Dowden and Danielle Muise, concludes that the use of restorative justice practices, such as this victim-offender dialogue, lowers recidivism and increases restitution.

Jennie Burciaga, executive of the Monterey County Restorative Justice Partners, Inc., reports that juvenile offenders who voluntarily participate in victim-offender dialogues have a recidivism rate of 13 percent, compared to a control group that had a 65 percent recidivism rate.

“What we’re finding is when empathy, humanizing or connectedness is involved, [juvenile offenders] involved in these processes are significantly less likely to reoffend,” she said.

Jennifer Schafer, executive officer of the Board of Parole Hearings, agrees. She says that most of the time, inmates who commit these crimes are not thinking about other people. They’re usually very angry and in a phase of life where they’re focused inward. “Part of the transformation we see is people actually getting to a place where they have empathy for others. If they’re in a place in their life to make that transition, those programs can really help open their eyes to what they did.”

The state currently houses 35,000 lifers. In 2016, 728 former lifers were released due to major changes to parole laws as well as rehabilitative programs like Restorative Justice that transform prisoners’ lives.

“I see this as education, prevention, where we’re giving a voice to our loved ones, the victims that they left behind and the victim survivors,” Ortega said. “If they are released some day, they will have that empathy in their hearts and understand what murder does to victim survivors, to the families, and their own families, and spare a life.”

Denver urges former gang members to break the cycle of violence

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Providing former gang members with jobs is key to breaking the cycle of community violence, leaders of a Denver-based program report.

“Now we’ve got Bloods and Crips working together side by side,” said Pernell Hines, director of intervention and outreach for Impact Empowerment Group(IEG). “Guys who were enemies are now working right next to each other on a job site.”

“Since the group began matching people with employers last summer, some 85 individuals have been hired at a 55 percent retention rate,” reported Libby Rainey for the Denver Post. Around 40 are currently employed, said IEG’S executive director, Haroun Cowans. 

Walter Roberts, formerly incarcerated for drug sales, struggled to find employment because of his criminal history and received his first job at a warehouse, pallet and transportation company hours after arriving at a community employment program organized by IEG, the Denver Post reported Aug. 14.

“Now I’ve got a chance to start a new life,” said Roberts.

Roberts is one of many ex-cons and former gang members receiving a second chance through employment from a community employment program operated by Denver’s Impact Empowerment Group that empowers youth with leadership skills.

Cowans and his staff work to remove any obstacles that would prevent former gang members with criminal records from receiving employment. They do this before referring them to potential employers.

“Our goal is not just to get them a job,” Cowans said. “Our job is to stay with them, advocate for them.”

Other companies, like  Fleetwash, a truck washing company, are coordinating with Impact Empowerment Group to hire ex-convicts as well.

“People said they couldn’t be effective in our community, and I see them out working hard with a great job and future,” said Jerome Hairston, a program manager for Family Environmental. “It’s showing folks that one or two mistakes, they can overcome them.”

Since January of this year, the company has hired three people with a beginning pay rate of $16 an hour.

Several organizations and groups are working together to make this program successful, including the Department of Safety Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver, the city’s Office of Economic Development, the mayor’s office, the police department, and the mental health center.

Former gang member Hines and members of other gangs came together in 2015 to curb violence between the city’s Park Hill and Eastside gangs by providing opportunities to young people said the article.

Mike Calo, a district commander for the Denver Police Department and major supporter of the program, has spent most of his career working on gang issues, and now works in conjunction with former gang members to stop violence and reduce incarceration.

Calo has seen a de-escalation of gang activity in his district in the past year.

“These are young men I used to chase around and vice versa,” Calo said. “Now it’s their kids and grandkids, and we’re trying to break the cycle.”

CALPIA invests $12 million on prison vocational training expansion

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CALPIA Door

Vocational training programs in state prisons are being expanded by the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA), reports The Folsom Telegraph.

CALPIA reported the $12 million expansion will include all 34 California prisons.

Classes that will be extended include the successful Code.7370 computer coding program at San Quentin State Prison. It will expand to Pelican Bay State Prison and the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility. The maintenance and pre-apprentice programs will expand to Folsom State Prison (FSP), reports The Telegraph.

“Expanding pre-apprentice programs is beneficial for CALPIA participants so they can be job-ready when heading back to their communities,” said Curtis Kelly, PIA board member and Northern California Carpenters Regional Council district manager.

“By working with journeyman professionals, participants learn the highly marketable skills of a trade, set the groundwork for future employment through the trade unions, and work toward a long-lasting, meaningful career.”

In the 2017-2018 fiscal year, offender positions will increase by more than 135 percent, from 488 to 1,148, according to the report.

The vocational programs “have the lowest recidivism rates in the state. When you increase rehabilitative programming opportunities for offenders, you increase the chances for them to be successful and decrease the chances of them returning to prison,” said Charles L. Pattillo, PIA general manager.

The CALPIA Career Technical Education program started in 2006 and currently has a recidivism rate of 7.13 percent. It started as a pre-apprenticeship program with journeyman instructors that were contracted by local trade unions representing carpentry, construction labor and iron working.

Once offenders complete their course, they can work for trade unions upon release. To help the offender get started, initial union dues are paid, and necessary tools are provided.

“Specifically in Folsom State Prison, as well as the Folsom Women’s Facility, we have expanded the pre-apprenticeship programs such as roofing, carpentry, iron worker and these programs have been growing fast,” Pattillo said. “These programs benefit the offenders by giving them the opportunity to learn skills and keep them out of prison.”

One of the programs to be offered is general facilities maintenance and repair, a six-month program. Graduates will be able to take state employment examinations and qualify to work as custodians or maintenance technicians with the Department of General Services upon their release from prison. This program will be instituted statewide.

Another example is the iron worker program, a six-month course in welding, metal work, use of hand tools, and other diverse skills. Graduates of the program earn accredited certifications required by unions. This program is offered at FSP.

In addition to these programs, PIA will work with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to create three new Technical Industry Education programs. A metal/welding program will be offered at California State Prison, Solano (SOL) and Avenal State Prison. An optical program will be offered at SOL.

CALPIA is an independent state agency that operates more than 100 manufacturing, service, and consumable enterprises in all 34 CDCR prisons. CALPIA provides curriculum for offenders that offer 124 nationally recognized accredited certifications.

More information about CalPIA can be found at www.calpia.ca.gov.
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Prop 47 reduces overcrowding and saves over $100 million

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California Proposition 47, the 2014 voter initiative that reduced certain low-level property and drug-related crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, has significantly reduced the jail and prison population by 18,000 with 40,000 fewer convictions, saving taxpayers $103 million dollars in prison and jail related costs, reports the Bay Area News Group.

This $103 million in savings will go to cities and counties to fund the treatment of drug and alcohol addictions, and illnesses that create high risk for people who are released from jails and prisons. Alameda County will receive $6 million of that savings for their community-based re-entry programs, said the report.

Results from the study out of UC Irvine suggest the passage of Proposition 47 in 2014 “has had no effect on violent crimes, including homicide, rape, aggravated assault and robbery,” The Orange Country Register said.

“For each person that it costs $70,000 to house in prison, the voters said we want to move that money into treatment programs that will help people,” said Hillary Blout, staff attorney for Californians for Safety and Justice. “It took a lot of advocacy to make sure that the promise of the Prop reallocation number was real, it was at $50 million, then it was at $60 (million) and it took people going to Sacramento and banging on doors and making calls to get to the amount that it is today.”

County officials said the reallocation funds are part of a statewide effort to help the formerly incarcerated to overcome the obstacles they will face, which include discrimination in housing, employment, and denial of public resources. Formerly incarcerated individuals face multiple barriers to public resources, which contributes to the 44.6 percent recidivism rate, said the report.

In 2013, Alameda County Public Defender Brendan Woods started a program called “Clean Slate,” a program that helps those formerly incarcerated who have completed serving their probation, but still face many obstacles.

“People would call and say how can I find a job and how can I get the convictions off my record, can you help me,” Woods said. “And we couldn’t.”

Woods said under the Clean Slate program 5,000 people have gotten their felonies reduced and legal services to obtain their occupational licenses, which have eliminated other barriers to employment.

Los Angeles County, which houses about a third of California’s prisoners, will receive about $20 million of that funding to go toward an existing program called Office of Diversion and Re-entry that houses and treats people re-entering society after being released from hospitals, clinics, and jails.

According to the Los Angeles Times, in 2016, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office of Re-entry designed a pilot program to direct offenders to treatment, counseling, housing and employment. L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer created a program to specifically address drug use and treatment. Both Garcetti’s and Feuer’s programs will receive $6 million over the next three years.

But critics of Prop. 47 don’t share the same sentiments about its success. They say that voters should not have passed the proposition until those resources were already in place. However, the report notes there could not have been any programs without this new source of funding that came from prison savings.

Prop 47 savings underestimated

Texas sheriff scales back on immigrant deportation

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Sheriff Sally Hernandez of Travis County, Texas, made good on her campaign promise of scaling back her cooperation with federal immigration officials to screen inmates for deportation, reports the Texas Tribune.

“The public must be confident that local law enforcement is focused on local public safety, not on federal immigration enforcement,” Hernandez said. She said that her jail is not a place to house federal immigration offenders and that her policy will save taxpayer money, reports the Tribune.

However, the announcement sets up a battle between Hernandez and Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who have made a commitment to get rid of “sanctuary cities.” Sanctuary cities is a term used to define law enforcement officials who refuse to enforce immigration laws.

Hernandez said holding a person longer than required by law is a violation of that person’s rights and said her job is to protect public safety, the Tribune reports.

“This office will not increase our liability or set unwise public safety priorities simply to ease the burden of the federal government,” she said.

However, the sheriff’s office reported it will retain people with serious crimes like capital murder, first-degree murder, aggravated sexual assault or human smuggling.

Hernandez said she would comply with the government’s requests if their officers follow the law by obtaining a warrant from a judge ordering the confinement.

Governor Abbott’s response was different. In a tweet Friday evening, he stated, “The Governor’s Office will cut funding [for] Travis County for adopting sanctuary policies. Stiffer penalties [are] coming.”

 

Deportation Crimes Explained

Law enforcement implements new use-of-force policy

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Officers guarding the East Gate

Law enforcement agencies across the nation are being encouraged to employ a new use-of-force policy that stresses “de-escalation,” reports Tom Jackson of the Washington Post.

A new model policy recommends that police departments declare “It is the policy of this law enforcement agency to value and preserve human life,” Jackson reported.

The new policy states: An officer shall use de-escalation techniques and other alternatives to higher levels of force consistent with his training whenever possible and appropriate before resorting to force and to reduce the need for force.

The Los Angles Police Department (LAPD) doled out almost $81 million in the last fiscal year to settle lawsuits, the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to the Washington Post, that means “talking and trying to calm a subject, waiting for backups and supervisors to arrive, and trying to resolve a situation without gunfire, when the subject does not have a gun.”

The new policy was spurred on by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Fraternal Order of Police Officers Union (FOP) with the goal of creating a “National Consensus Policy on Use of Force” due to a high volume of officer-involved shootings, said former IACP President Terry Cunningham.

The two associations brought together a group of elite police organizations: The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives and other agencies.

“These are the people who are on the street every day doing the job,” Cunningham said. “You want to have their buy-in.”

Stakeholders like the Major Cities Chiefs Association support the new policy but objected to a component that allows the firing of warning shots or shots at moving vehicles under certain circumstances.

This question of whether to fire shots from or at a moving vehicle aroused controversy within the conferring agencies. The IACP’s own policy “strictly prohibited the use of warning shots” and firing from a moving vehicle. The new consensus policy allows for warning shots and allows shooting at a moving vehicle when the vehicle is being used to hit someone or the person in the vehicle is threatening the officer or others with a weapon.

Not every law enforcement agency agrees with the new consensus policy. One deputies’ association called it “a ridiculous piece of claptrap,” according to the Washington Post.

“It is the policy of this law enforcement agency to value and preserve human life”

In a joint statement, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the Major County Sheriffs’ Associations said “the model policy does not have national consensus” and that they would not be supporting it.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens of Orange County and Greg Champagne of St. Charles Parish, La., said the policy was “well-intended” but that “a one-size-fits-all policy is impractical; what is proper and accepted in one city or county may be contrary to law and/or community tolerances in another.”

Responding to their statement, Cunningham said the policy “isn’t an IACP policy. This is a national consensus policy. We see administrators asking for it, and we see communities asking for it.”

A collaborative statement on de-escalation by IACP and FOP said, “We cannot reasonably expect law enforcement officers to walk away from potentially dangerous situations and individuals in the hope that those situations resolve themselves without further harm being done.”

California approves first-ever sex-reassignment surgery for prisoner

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Jarvis Juvan “Lady Jae” Clark and Crystal Gary

For the first time in the United States, a sex-reassignment surgery has been approved and financed for a California prisoner, reports The New York Times.

Shiloh Quine was convicted in 1980 of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery for ransom, and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Years later, represented by the Transgender Law Center, Quine filed a civil rights lawsuit against the California prison system. Following a lengthy court battle, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation authorized Quine’s surgery and a subsequent transfer to a women’s prison facility, reports the Times.

“For too long, institutions have ignored doctors and casually dismissed medically necessary and life-saving care for transgender people just because of who they are — with devastating consequences to our community,” Kris Hayashi, executive director for the Northern California-based Transgender Law Center, said in a statement .

“With this surgery, the state is fulfilling one part of a landmark settlement that was a victory not only for Shiloh and transgender people in prison, but for all transgender people who have ever been denied the medical care we need.”

Medical Equipment

Quine’s lawyers said the surgery was performed in a Bay Area hospital and that she was transferred to a women’s prison upon her recovery.

However, not everyone is in agreement with the surgery, especially the daughter of Quine’s victim, who disagrees with public funds financing the surgery of a convicted felon.

“My dad begged for his life,” said Farida Baig, who tried unsuccessfully to block Quine’s surgery through the courts. “It just made me dizzy and sick. I’m helping pay for his surgery; I live in California. It’s kind of like a slap in the face.”

Quine’s surgery has set a precedent for other transgender inmates to apply for the state-financed, specialized surgery, according to a Jan. 9 report in The Washington Post.

Liz Gransee, speaking on behalf of California Correctional Health Care Services, said 64 prisoners have requested gender-reassignment surgery. Requests have been granted for two male-to-female and female-to-male surgeries. Thirteen requests are still awaiting a decision; 5l have been denied.

Marci Bowers, a California transgender physician, and Fred Ettner, an Illinois physician, in 2015 told Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post that male-to-female surgery costs between $40,000 and $50,000. Female-to-male surgery costs around $75,000.

Despite Quine’s lawsuit, Jean Tobin, director of policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told the Post she expects state governments will resist paying for gender-reassignment surgeries in the future.

A nation’s wealth does not spare women from violence

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In eight of the world’s wealthiest countries, women undergo death by violence at rates as high, or higher, than men, despite declining levels of violence overall, according to the study, “A Gendered Analysis of Violent Deaths” done for the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In rich countries like Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Slovenia and Switzerland levels of violence are on a downward spiral, but their murder rates for females either outpaces or matches males when those who conducted the study applied a formula called a “gendered” measurement, reports The Crime Report.

“Among the types of violence affecting women globally, intimate partner homicide remains a concern. … Germany and Switzerland are among just six countries in the world, all European, where more women than men were killed by firearms,” the study authors, Mireille Widmer and Irene Pavesi, wrote.

The study noted that the rate of homicides due to domestic and intimate partner violence “have proven particularly difficult to reduce.”

The authors of the study reached their conclusion by comparing disaggregated gender data against homicide rates of the general population, reported the article.

The research showed that there were more men than women killed in the United States and around the world. However, their research objective was to find a method to measure how women experience risk in different parts of the world, mostly in industrialized countries, which have seen a decline in violence.

In the most volatile and conflict-ridden countries, the report found both men and women suffer high numbers of violent deaths. However, in Afghanistan the rate of female deaths rose by 70 percent between the years of 2009-2015 and civilian deaths by 47 percent.

The study suggested this may be because the Afghanistan murders were aimed at women who were prominent human rights defenders or other women working in public life.

In their preliminary analysis, authors Widmer and Pavesi said the study indicated little progress has been made in industrialized countries when it comes to reducing domestic violence.

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