San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

They risk their lives for as little as $2.90 a day

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California’s prisoners firefighters receive little benefit for their service on the fire lines

More than 3,000 California prisoners help fight the state’s wildfires and are paid well below minimum wages.

Inmates who work on active fires are paid between $2.90 and $5.12 a day, and get an additional $1 an hour during an active emergency, according to Fortune.com.

The major incentive inmates choosing to volunteer to serve their time at one of California’s 43 fire camps is the time off their sentence. When legislation was introduced in 2014 to include two—for—one credit to all inmates in CDCR, it met huge opposition according to a November article by Fortune.com.

“The extension of two-for-one credit to all (minimum security facility) inmates would likely make fire camp beds even more difficult to fill, as low-level, non-violent inmates would choose to participate in the (Minimum Support Facility) program rather than endure strenuous physical activities and risk injury in the fire camps,” said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)

The article also stated an affidavit from Vimal Singh, CDCR official, in which he points out extending early release credits would deplete the fire population.

“Prison is a uniquely coercive environment,” said David Fathi, director of the ACLU. “There is very little in prison that is truly voluntary. There is a power differential between prisoners and their captors and employers that creates a significant risk of exploitation and abuse. and we need to be alert to that.”

The Conservation Camp Program was established in 1945, and is estimated to save the state of California $100 million dollars each year, according to Fortune.com.

Statistics show that over the past 35 years six inmate firefighters have died from injuries sustained from fighting a fire. This notion beckons the call as to what price is an inmate willing to pay for freedom.

“Prisoners should not volunteer to fight dangerous fires, simply because the alternative is being locked in a prison cell,” added Fathi.

There were two memos produced regarding inmate fire fighters pay. In one memo there was a suggestion that the inmate pay would increase from $1, which has been the pay rate for the last 40 years, to $2 an hour. The memo stated that even at this rate it would still save the state over $24.6 million dollars in lieu of hired firefighters. The memo also cautioned that, “Less inmate fire crews would result in the reliance of federal, county and private fire crews during periods of high fire activity. These costs per 24 hour shift range from four to eight times higher than the cost of a comparable inmate crew,” according to the article.

“Prisoners are largely unprotected by the occupational health and safety laws that protect all other workers from dangerous working conditions,” said Fathi. “They’re not covered by OSHA,They can’t unionize for safer working conditions. When you put all those together it makes a prisoner a uniquely vulnerable workforce compared to everyone else who fights fires or does any other work in this society.”

Prisoners when released are unable to put their skills to use. Most firefighting jobs require employees to obtain an Emergency Medical Technician or paramedic license. In California most convicted felons can’t obtain this type of license until they have been free from custody for 10 years, according to the article.

When you couple the very high risk an inmate assumes it has created a decline in the amount of inmates willing to go to fire camp. A memo obtained by Earther from CALFire and California Department of Corrections

states that, “prisoners working in camps have declined by at least 1,000 people over the past 12 years,” the article stated.

CDCR has recently partnered a $26.6 million dollar firefighter certification and training program in Ventura County. The program will create an 18—month program which provides advance training to former inmates. The program can enroll 80 parolees but doesn’t give EMT licenses upon graduation. CAL FIRE has offered positions to two of the recent graduates.

Reyes introduced a bill in the legislature that would allow former inmates to join the California Firefighter Joint Venture Apprenticeship program. “Reyes believes that a criminal conviction should not be a life sentence, but rather that folks that have made a mistake, and demonstrated commitment and efforts to rehabilitation should have the same opportunities as everyone else,” said an official working for California Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloise_Reyes

California Professional Firefighters, a union of more than 30,000 members, has fought against this plan, according to the article.

Nghị Sĩ Bass Dẫn Đầu Sửa Đổi Hiến Pháp

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Tờ báo Los Angeles Senti- nel tường thuật là bà nghị sĩ Karen Bass đang dẫn đầu để thành lập một pháp luật mới gọi là chương trình “One-

Stop Reentry”, và thay đổi hình luật tư pháp.

“Chúng ta nên có một nơi có thể đưa ra thẻ tùy thân, để đăng ký cho trợ cấp, và liên hệ với dịch vụ y khoa, phương tiện giao thông—một nơi mà người có thể làm lại cuộc đời mau chóng,” bà Bass trả lời tại một cuộc họp vào ngày 13 tháng 7 tại Los An- geles về đề tài thay đổi hình luật tư pháp.

Bà Bass thuộc đảng dân chủ của quận Los Angeles, tập trung vào thay đổi hình luật kể từ khi tham gia vào chính trị, theo lời tường thuật của tờ báo Sentinel. Bà ta nói thêm hiện tại bà đang tìm cách sửa đổi luật pháp.

“Rất nhiều chính sách hình luật thật tốt; nó bảo vệ người thân của chúng ta và cộng đồng,” bà Bass nói. “Cùng một lúc, rất nhiều luật pháp của

chúng ta không có hiệu nghiệm hoặc là làm hại nhiều hơn làm tốt. Tôi cố gắng hết mình để thay đổi pháp luật này cho nó hợp lý và hiệu quả hơn để được công bằng và bình đẳng.”

Thêm vào đó, chúng ta cần đảm bảo rằng những người đãtrảnợchoxãhộixongsẽ tham gia vào một chương trình để làm lại cuộc đời đàng hoàng.”

Một trong những người có mặt tại cuộc họp là Susan Burton, người thành lập hội “Tìm Một Cuộc Sống Mới (A New Way of Life).

“Tôi rất là cám ơn bà Bass đã mở ra cuộc họp này, để chúng ta có thể bàn luận về những gì các nữ tù nhân và sự cần thiết của họ khi gia nhập về với xã hội,” bà Burton nói với ký giả Jennifer Bihm. “Tôi rất hiểu những gì sẽ xảy rakhiratùvàkhôngcósự đảm bảo.”

Chương trình gia nhập của bà Burton hướng về giúp đỡ các nữ tù nhân khi được về.

“Tôi đi qua 40 tiểu bang và thăm 36 nhà tù. Khi chúng tôi

thảo luận về những việc mà nữ tù nhân cần khi họ được thả về; hoàn toàn, tôi thấy họ đều mong muốn giữ gìn quyền làm phụ huynh,” bà Burton nói. “Tôi cũng thấy thêm rất nhiều nữ cựu tù nhân mong muốn tìm được việc làm nhưng họ lo ngại tìm được việc.”

Đề tài của việc làm, cư trú và gia nhập là những đề tài được bà Bass nhắc đến.

Thành viên John Harriel của Hội Hòa Nhập thứ hai cho biết, “Tôi không biết tôi là một người thiếu tự tin cho bản than khi lớn lên. Tôi không biết là mình muốn tự vận. Và tôi không muốn chính tay mình làm việc đó. Tôi muốn người khác giết tôi. Khi suy nghĩ lại, tôi không có người đàn ông nào dìu dắt, mang giày và đi làm mỗi ngày. Tôi thấy trước được mình sẽ vào tù khi còn là đứa trẻ bởi vì trong cộng đồng của tôi đi tù là một phần thưởng.”

Harriel cũng nói thêm ông ta đã làm lại cuộc đời với sự

giúp đỡ của phần tử trong hội. Ông ta đã thành công tìm được việc làm và hiện tại đã có nhà riêng, và làm người đỡ đầu cho các bạn trẻ theo lời tường thuật của tờ báo.

Một thành viên khác, Stanley Bailey, nói rằng ông ta lúc trước nghiện ngậm ma túy và đã ngồi tù 36 năm. Ông nói những tù nhân có tâm trạng bất thường là một vấn đề rất lớn trong tù và họ không nhận được bất cứ sự giúp đỡ nào.

Bà Bass nói thêm, “Tôi tin rằng chúng ta có thể giảm được việc đông dân số trong tù bằng cách hủy bỏ những luật lệ khắt khe cho tiểu án và hãy dành những luật lệ đó cho các nghi phạm với tội án nghiêm trọng và những người đe dọa sự an ninh cho cộng động. Chúng ta nên đầu tư vào việc ngăn ngừa tội án và can thiệp vào những hàng xóm và các trẻ em đang gặp nhiều khó khăn.

— Dịch giả-Tú Trần

Challenge to Oregon's treatment of trans prisoners may pave way for change

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Brady Hall is a transgender inmate in Oregon who petitioned the court to transfer from male housing to a female facility. (Transgender people do not identify with the gender with which they were born.) She wanted to move from Two Rivers Correctional Institution —a male facility in Umatilla County, Oregon—to a women’s prison. In her petition, she also sought medical care to receive gender reassignment surgery, according to an article in the Oregonian.

According to attorney Tara Herivel, Hall is a woman in a male prison and that is understood as being extremely dangerous and problematic. “This is an area where, as we’re expanding our ideas as a culture of what gender identity is, it’s also expanding in the legal arena,” Herivel said. “I think it is a very important first step.”

In May, Circuit Judge J. Burdette Pratt in Umatilla County ruled in favor of Hall’s petition and ordered that she should be housed in either a single cell or in a cell with another transgender inmate. The judge agreed that Hall had proved that the Corrections Department had showcased “deliberate indifference” to her safety by housing her with male inmates, according to the Oregonian article.

The judge also said that correctional officials “must do everything within their ability” to stop inmates and correctional officers from verbally or sexually harassing Hall. She was also approved for gender reassignment surgery and is awaiting the procedure.

Hall, however, did not get everything she requested. The judge denied her request to transfer to Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, the only female prison in Oregon. This was partly because the judge felt that she would be safe within her new living arrangement and partly because of her criminal conviction. In 2007, she was charged with sex crimes, which included sexual abuse of girls. Hall can still request a transfer at a later date, according to the article.

Nevertheless, Hall’s case may pave the way for transgender inmates around the country to be granted safer housing conditions. Transgender prisoners are often forced to live with people of the opposite gender.

“When I first got here I had a couple of inmates that didn’t want me to live with me because I’m transgender,” said S. Gustafson, a transgender inmate at San Quentin State Prison. “It wasn’t until I met my current cellmate that things got a little easier.”

“I feel that the guards here at SQ treat me with respect,” said Gustafson. “The only hang-up was that it took me several weeks to get my female clothing.” She also said that she believes that transgender people should be housed alone or with other transgender individuals.

“I feel the transgender policy can be a little bit better, as far as cell living,” said E. Herrara, who prefers the name Sage, adding that she thought that transgender inmates in a male prison should be provided shower curtains for privacy. (San Quentin recently added curtains.)

Herrara said she feels safe at San Quentin.

“I don’t feel it would be any easier at a female prison, personally,” she said. “For LGBTQ women, it’s the same way.”

Inmates housed in CDCR may be asked standard questions by their correctional counselors, such as how they identify (i.e. straight, gay, transgender, etc.).

These questions result from Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) policy, enacted to ensure inmates’ housing and safety concerns are met. When asked these questions by counselors, inmates are encouraged to be open and honest.

Louisiana taking steps to keep families connected

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A new program is helping Louisiana girls keep in touch with their incarcerated fathers.

“Not being able to see my father has been traumatizing,” said Dominque Jones, whose father has been in prison since before she was born. She organized a program that helps girls cope with the strain of life without their incarcerated dads.

“When I was 16, my paternal grandfather passed away, and that was the first time I saw my biological father outside of prison bars — shackled and chained and escorted by two correctional officers at his dad’s funeral,” Jones, 36, said in an interview with TheAdvocate.com.

The program is called Daughters Beyond Incarceration (DBI). One of its events was a Father’s Day gathering June 15 in New Orleans called a “crawfish boil” for young girls of incarcerated dads. The program relies strictly on fundraising. It currently has 30 members.

DBI was created to advocate for policy changes and removal of the barriers that make it difficult for daughters to communicate with their fathers, according to the June 16 article.

“I get frustrated and angry,” said Sun’Shyne Mathieu, 16. Father’s Day is “going to be a real tough day for me. Everybody’s going to be posting pictures with their father’s gifts and everything, and I have to send my graduation pictures and diploma in an envelope, and that’s not right,” Mathieu added.

DBI has also teamed up with Navigate Nola, which is a New Orleans based activist group, which made this occasion and photo shot possible. They displayed a photo exhibit of portraits of the members, soon to be displayed at all New Orleans Recreation Development Commission’s (NORD) programs and all NORD sites.

Jones pointed out it costs around $100 to visit her father at the Angola prison. That includes gas, money on the phone for their conversations, and feeding her two children. When you are a single mother this can be particularly stressful, according to the article.

“Could you imagine your father being transported to University Hospital or Tulane Hospital and you not know?” asked Jones on the fact that the prison has no notification responsibilities on her father’s medical treatment.

DBI is currently working with Southern Poverty Law Center advocating for prison policy changes to create a free phone call system and even become involved with schools’ PTAs, according to the article.

Another organization working to highlight some of the stresses girls with incarcerated fathers may face is Navigate Nola, founded by Danielle Wright. Wright said these daughters face anxiety, sadness and fear. These factors can contribute to the girl having problems in school. Wright said she is working to highlight these issues instead of letting the girls be subjected to school discipline.

Jones said she hopes to purchase a home for her organization where girls could have recreational activities like art, yoga and dance. This would help the girls gain a sense of normalcy, she said.

Federal judge slams prosecutors for mishandling evidence

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A federal judge has held prosecutors in contempt for failing to preserve evidence in a case involving recorded conversations between prisoners and attorneys.

Some 110 defendants alleged the recordings violated 6th Amendment protections. Three defendants had their sentences vacated or indictments dismissed, the ABA Journal reported in August.

Judge Julie Robinson of Kansas City, Kan., ruled in favor of the defendants, citing a special master’s investigation of recordings made by inmates attorney-client phone calls. She said the investigation proved the Attorney General’s Office’s failed to cooperate in preserving evidence.

Contempt

“Under his discretion, management defied the court’s order and directives, continued to fail to preserve such that years of documents were potentially lost, and then only produced what they (Attorney’s General Office) chose to produce,” Robinson ruled.

The judge declined to rule in favor of a per se 6th Amendment violation of right to counsel for the defendants in the case but cautioned that the individual defendants named in the suit whose calls were recorded at the Leavenworth Detention Center, could raise prosecutorial misconduct claims individually based upon her findings, according to the article.

The center is operated by CoreCivic Inc., formerly the Corrections Corporation of America.

It was estimated that over 1,429 attorney-client calls were received by the U.S. Attorney’s Office upon request by the federal prosecutors between 2010 and 2017, according to findings by Judge Robinson.

She noted that when requests were made to the prison for recorded phone calls by federal prosecutors, there was at least a 28 percent chance the calls contained attorney-client privileged calls, the article stated.

Removal

Two attorneys for the U.S. Attorney General’s Office were released from their official position. The judge found that they had “knowingly and intentionally” listened to recorded attorney-client calls in one or more of their cases, the judge noted.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that those lawyers were “rogue” attorneys.

The judge also found that the U.S. Attorney’s Office “willfully misconstrued” a preservation order, avoiding the preservation of some evidence. The office did not act on the formal litigation hold order until May 2017. Some of the computers’ hard drives were wiped clean. These facts were determined by David Cohen, special master in the case.

The article said a former attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s office testimony of a lunchtime discussion on record disclosed the following:

“Their conclusion was that phone calls placed by detainees to their lawyers weren’t privileged because they were on notice the call was being recorded. The group also concluded that if the lawyers were ‘stupid enough’ to talk to their clients over the phone, prosecutors had no obligation to disclose the recorded calls.”

The case is United States v. Carter.

Conditions unsafe for the incarcerated in some southern prisons

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Many prisons in the South lack air conditioning and this creates life-threatening conditions in heat spells, the Prison Policy Initiative reports.

“The lack of air conditioning in Southern prisons creates unsafe — even lethal –conditions,” the report stated. “Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can cause dehydration and heat stroke, both of which can be fatal.”

Some courts have ruled that prison standards on incarcerating people in extreme cold or heat violates prisoners’ constitutional 8th Amendment rights. Those states include Arizona, Mississippi and Wisconsin.

Ninety-five percent of households in the South have air conditioning, but almost none of southern state prisons do.

“The lack of air conditioning in Southern prisons creates unsafe — even lethal –conditions”

“People outside of prison who experience extreme heat have the options that prisoners lack — they can take a cool shower, drink water, move into the shade, or go to a place that is air conditioned,” quoted Prison Legal News in a 2018 article. “For prisoners, those options are generally unavailable.”

Heat related illnesses can be exacerbated by certain prescribed medications. These are but not limited to Zoloft, Cymbalta, Prozac, and Lexapro, (do not stop taking any medication with- out your doctors permission). There are also certain medical conditions that can lead to heat related illnesses such as diabetes, and obesity. Heat has a greater effect on those that are older. This demographic has an increased risk of cardiovascular, and respiratory illnesses.

“Everyone understands that if you leave a child in a car on a hot day, there’s a serious risk this child could be injured or die,” said ACLU Director David Fathi to The Intercept. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing when we leave a prisoner locked in cells when the heat and humidity climb beyond a certain level.”

Most prisons are constructed from heat retaining materials such as concrete and rebar. This can contribute to higher temperatures inside prison cells.

A fan could possible make a difference in regulating heat, but a fan in a Texas prison commissary costs $20, an astronomical fee when prisoners in Texas are not paid for their labor.

“It routinely feels as if one’s sitting in a convection oven being slowly cooked alive,” said Benny Hernandez, a Texas prisoner. “There is no respite from the agony that the heat in Texas prisons inflicts.”

Prison Policy Initiative believes air conditioning should be a human right and not an amenity or privilege. When it’s withheld, it can subject people to conditions that can constitute cruel and unusual punishment. In some cases, death sentences, according to the article.

California legislators want to streamline re-entry

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New “one-stop” program would acknowledge many hurdles for returning citizens

Congresswoman Karen Bass

Congresswoman Karen Bass is spearheading legislation to create a one-stop reentry program, as well as criminal justice reform, according to the Los Angeles Sentinel.

“There should be a place where you can get your ID, sign up for benefits, get connected to medical services, get transportation — a place where people can get their lives on track quickly,” Bass said at a July 13 legislative hearing in Los Angeles on criminal justice changes.

Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, has concentrated on criminal justice reform most of her political career, according to the Sentinel. She said she is currently working on reform legislation.

“Many of our criminal justice policies are good; they protect our loved ones and communities,” said Bass. “At the same time, far too many of our laws are ineffective or do more harm than good. I am committed to reforming criminal justice so that it is sensible, effective and consistent with our notions of equality and fairness.

“In addition, we need to ensure that those who have paid their debt to society have reentry services and opportunities to live productive lives.”

Among those attending the hearing were Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life.

“I’m really thankful to Karen Bass for holding this hearing, so that we can dis- cuss women and their need (upon reentry to society),” Burton told reporter Jennifer Bihm. “I know what it could mean to leave prison and not have safety.”

Burton’s reentry program is geared towards helping women function after prison.

“I’ve visited 40 states and 36 prisons. When we talked about what women need when they are leaving; overwhelmingly, I saw women who were desperately trying to maintain their parental rights,” said Burton. “I saw women who wanted a job but were worried about how they would be employed.”

The topic of jobs, housing and reunification were topics that Bass mentioned.

Witness John Harriel of reentry program 2nd Call said, “I did not know that I had low self-esteem grow- ing up. I had no idea that I wanted to commit suicide. I didn’t want to do it by my own hands. I wanted some- one else to do it. When I think back, there were no men leading the way, putting on their boots and going to work every day. I envisioned going to prison as a young man because in my community going to prison was rewarded.”

Harriel said he pulled his life back from the edge with the help of two support members. He has successfully gained a union job and is now a homeowner and a mentor to the youth, accord- ing to the article.

Another witness, Stanley Bailey, said he is a former drug addict who spent 36 years in prison. He said people with mental health issues make up a large part of the prison population and don’t receive the help they need.

Bass commented, “I believe we could drastically reduce prison overcrowding by repealing harsh mandatory minimums and reserving the toughest sentences for serious criminals who threaten public safety. We should invest in community-oriented crime prevention and intervention efforts for struggling neighborhoods and at-risk youth.”


Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Spring 2018, Population Projections.

Formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs successful in business

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Entrepreneurship does not define where you have been, but where you are going. Formerly incarcerated Teresa Hodge, Marcus Bullock, and David Figueroa have all launched successful businesses despite all having a troubled past that led them to prison, reported the ABA Journal.

“It was as if prison provided a moment of clarity—a place to plan and figure out life and to determine how to start over—and yet somehow there was this huge disconnect from that vision and desire to actually being successful,” Teresa Hodge told the ABA Journal on how her vision started in prison.

Teresa Hodge launched R3 Score, which is an algorithm based score and report that uses your education level, along with arrest record, facts from your life and volunteer work to create a score. The score is much like a credit score with 300 being the lowest and 850 the ceiling. These scores could be used for bank financing, commercial contracting, and occupational licensing or other opportunities.

“I kept seeing that over and over in prison: the spark in someone’s eye saying. ‘I’m going to make it,’” said Teresa Hodge. “And then the return of someone whose light had been dimmed by reality.”

After his release from prison, Bullock filled out over 141 job applications for various positions.

“The question on the application was ‘have you been convicted of a felony within the last seven years?’ said Bullock. “I want to create my own destiny instead of relying on someone else. I’m naturally an entrepreneur, I sold candy in school.”

Bullock created Flikshop, an app that allows family and friends to take a photo and add a message that is print- ed on a postcard and sent to a correctional facility for a cost of 99 cents. He received a grant to help him launch the business by Unlocked Features, which is affiliated with John Legend, a recording artist and criminal justice advocate.

According to the article, Bullock goes into prisons frequently to teach inmates basic entrepreneurship skills to launch their own business.

“I’m never going to tell them it’s going to be easy, but this is the first step,” he said. “Now, entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. But for those who want it, let’s give them an opportunity to provide for their families.”

“They can leverage up and learn about business and marketing,” Bullock said. “If we do this right, we’re changing the world, we’re changing the narrative.”

David Figueroa took his dreams and has built a crew of three, a foreman and two men, recently released from prison. His company is called Second Chance Renovations. His goal is to hire ex-cons and give them the opportunity he never had.

“Every time that I checked the box that asked whether you were a convicted felon, I never got a call back.”

He feels that ending the cycle of mass incarceration starts with each potential employer.

“People think they’re thugs, scum. But they still have kids,” said Figueroa. “They still have bills. I think the system is rigged to keep a certain amount of people in prison.”

According to the ABA Journal, Figueroa has accomplished his goals since his release from prison 14 years ago. He had his gang tattoos lasered off, found a lovely woman he married, has a career, a job he loves.

“I used to be really heartless. I had no emotions, said Figueroa. “Once I had my children, it completely changed me.”

The ABA Criminal Justice Section has been working for over a decade to remove the barriers that most ex-cons find when released from prison.

“There can be lifelong consequences for not only a felony conviction, but also for a misdemeanor conviction,” said Lucian Dervan, chair of ABA Criminal Justice Section and associate professor of law at Belmont University College of Law.

Yet many former inmates don’t attempt to have their prison records sealed or expunged even when they are eligible because they don’t know how to do it or lack the legal help they will need.

A study by the Harvard Law Review found that only 6.5 percent of legally eligible ex-convicts that could ex- punge their record in Michigan had actually done so within five years.

“Affording these individuals a way to expunge or seal their nonviolent convictions recognizes both the accomplishments of the individual in building a life free from further contact with the criminal justice system and the need to reduce the collateral consequences of a conviction,” stated Resolution 109B, which was passed this January by the ABA House of Delegates.

California expands higher education access for prisoners

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A new program offering bachelor’s degrees to prison inmates is thriving in Los Angeles County.

“It’s about making people who can reach all their potential,” said Bidhan Roy, an English professor for the program at Lancaster in the Mojave Desert.

The bachelor’s program allows each student to take up to two classes per semester. It currently relies mostly on donations and/or private money from the nonprofit Renewing Communities. This nonprofit gave the school $256,984 as a three-year grant for the classes.

California now spends nearly $81,200 per year for each prisoner housed in a state prison. It only costs an additional $5,000 for a prisoner’s full time college enrollment, according to Wayne D’Orio for The Hechinger Report printed in USA Today on July 12.

Many of prison college education programs were gutted when President Clinton and then Sen. Joe Biden barred prison inmates from gaining Pell Grants to pay for college classes.

The Obama administration installed a pilot program to allow Pell Grants for some prisoners. As a result, the number of prisoners in college programs grew from 1,504 in 2016 to 5,000 prisoners in 2017, according to USA Today.

Since 2014, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports the number of inmates who received passing grades increased from 5,725 to 13,301 the following year.

Some lawmakers are trying to remove the ban entirely on inmates receiving Pell Grants. It would affect about 463,000 nationwide prisoners, said Brian Walsh of the Vera Institute of Justice.

California is the only state that offers community college classes in almost every prison, the report noted. The tuition for these classes is paid by the state’s taxpayers. The number of students in these colleges in 2017 was 4,500, a number that was zero in 2014, according to the article.

There are teachers who feel some students need remedial education before college classes. Some “may have not read an entire book in their life,” said Jody Lewen, executive director of the Prison University Project (PUP) at San Quentin.

PUP has conducted college classes at San Quentin for nearly 20 years. Lewen added, although the faculty she has met has been “fantastic” taking their work seriously, she worries the quality of the education may be threatened by some colleges wanting to expand too quickly, according to the article.

Cerro Coso Community College is another degree- rich college. It has expanded its degree program to seven degree programs. It currently has close to 900 prisoners enrolled. That demographic makes up nearly 18% of the college population. The college serves two prisons and has 45 classes at these two prisons.

In June, the Andrew W. Melon Foundation gave Cal State LA a three-year grant of $750,000 to continue the bachelor’s program offered at CSP Lancaster.

One of the students in Lancaster, Bradley Arrowood, is now free on parole.

“When I was a kid, I was told I’d never amount to any- thing,” said Arrowood. “Had I not gone in for this offense, I was either going to end up dead or kill someone else.” In 1995 he was sentenced to life without parole, and I “de- served every bit of my sentence,” Arrowood, now 49, said.

The Lancaster program was started by Bidhan Roy, an English professor, while he was volunteering at the prison. He saw the ambitions of the students and persisted with Tiffany Lim, Cal State LA administrator to start a Bachelor’s degree program.

The success of the pro- gram is because of the students’ willingness to learn and transform their lives. Many of them know that as a lifer serving a sentence for murder, or attempted murder, it’s unlikely they’ll have a career, said CDCR Lt. Richard Ochoa. But their studies also impact their family members, encouraging some of them to aspire to college too.

Pennsylvania under scrutiny after prisoner dies in custody

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Family of deceased raise questions about cause of death in legal action against prison administrators

Everett Palmer Jr. died in custody from injuries that York County Prison in Pennsylvania deemed were self-inflicted, reported The Washington Post.

“There was so much mystery and unanswered questions in a way that violates every policy and procedure the state has,” said Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney representing the family.

Palmer, a Black man, was arrested in Pennsylvania in 2016 for driving while under the influence (DUI) and causing a single-car crash. Emergency responders at the time said they could smell alcohol on Palmer. His blood alcohol level tested 0.148—whereas Pennsylvania’s legal limit was 0.08.

Palmer returned to Lancaster County in 2018 to clear up the warrant for the DUI, and ended up being detained and sent to York County Prison.

Palmer was in single-cell housing on April 9, where he was reported to have been in an “agitated” state while repeatedly hitting his head on his cell door.

When custody officials noticed Palmer’s behavior, they placed him in restraints and then took him to the prison clinic for evaluation. The coroner’s report said that’s when Palmer was “noted to be unresponsive.”

Staff’s attempts to resuscitate Palmer proved unsuccessful. He was then pronounced dead early the next morning.

Palmer’s official cause of death was “complication following an excited state, associated with methamphetamine toxicity, during physical restraint. ” The manner of death was undetermined, according to the coroner’s report.

His death has prompted a possible grand jury investigation into his death.

“My son was a perfectly healthy young man, and my son is not going to bang his head on a cell. My son was not a troublemaker, not at all, he was a very gentle, kind man,” his mother, Rose Palmer, told the Washington Post.

The county contracted with an independent firm, Forensic Pathology Associates (FPA), to perform an autopsy, York County Coroner Pamela L. Gay told the Post. She said that the result for methamphetamine toxicity meant that the level of methamphetamine in Palmer’s system “was sufficient enough that it could have contributed to the death.” Yet she questions how Palmer could have got the drug while in custody. These findings prompted the family to pursue civil and criminal charges against York County Prison.

They continued to have questions regarding his death a year later.

“My brother was a good man, he comes from a good family, if he did something wrong with regards to the DUI then clearly he should be held accountable for that. But that should not be a death sentence,” said Dwayne Palmer, regarding his brother’s death.

When the Palmer family did get Everett’s body, it was missing his brain, heart, and throat. At that point, they hired an independent pathologist to determine what had happened; the independent pathologist, after investigating, said Palmer’s death should be considered a homicide. At first, the coroner’s office denied removing Palmer’s organs; it took several months before they admitted that they had removed the organs and that FPA had them. Gay, the county coroner, said that “it was not uncommon for those organs to be removed and kept by a lab.”

“We’re gonna get answers to what led to his death, and we do that with everybody. We’re going to do this the right way,” Gay said.

In recent years, police and law enforcement have been scrutinized for their handling of African Americans during police stops, arrests, or while in jail.

Sandra Bland was another such suspicious death. She died in a Texas jail cell in 2015. Her death was classified as a suicide. A traffic stop led to her incarceration. She was videotaped being confrontational toward officers. An officer was recorded during the incident threatening Bland with a Taser. The video recorded him saying he would “light you up.” Within three days of her arrest she was dead. The emergence of this video prompted nation-wide outrage while her family sought answers.

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