San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Great Books Empowers Teenagers to Tackle Life’s Lessons

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For parents, connecting and building healthy relationships with their teenagers can be a challenging task. For an incarcerated parent, it can be downright daunting.
Phone calls are prepaid, expensive and limited to 15 minutes. Some families must travel hundreds of miles for a few hours of visitation in a crowded room. The travel can cost hundreds of dollars, limiting visitation to once or twice a year. The remaining means of communication, letters, can take weeks to make it through the prison’s mail censors.
Great Books for High School Kids: A Teachers Guide to Books That Can Change Teens’ Lives (2004) Beacon Press Boston, www.beacon.org, is a great resource for teachers and the incarcerated parent.
Authors Rick Ayers and Amy Crawford give teachers and incarcerated parents tools to guide maturing teenagers by engaging them on themes like abuse, identity, race, culture, violence, and spirituality.

“Revenge is an extremely dangerous thing to be a part of, and it has a lot of consequences for you and even your family”

The power that lies within Great Books is that it uses the show don’t tell method – allowing teachers and incarcerated parents to reach teens without telling them how to feel, think and live. Great Books permits teens to compare their own life experiences, knowledge and values to real-world issues through fiction and non-fiction.
“The stuff we were dealing with was real,” Ayers says, in reference to a class assignment asking students for an example of a revenge cycle similar to Aeschylus’s Oresteia.
One student, Francisco, reflects on how many of his friends have been victims of gang violence and, in turn, sought revenge. “Revenge is an extremely dangerous thing to be a part of, and it has a lot of consequences for you and even your family,” he says. “The cycle… keeps going… both are living the life of (The) Oresteia.”
“Francisco dug right into the sense of futility and frustration engendered by the cycle of violence in his life and found pieces of Aeschylus’s writing that speak directly to him,” Ayers commented.
Great Books empowers students by giving them analytical skills to think independently, make safe judgments and decisions in their life, all while instilling a value system within them to consider the impact their lives have on family, peers, the environment, and community.
Through class discussion, each teacher discovers students, even the quiet and hard to reach, are filled with an abundance of curiosity and desire to learn and express themselves. They have a wealth of knowledge and valid opinions concerning real world issues.
Certainly a teenager’s journey to adulthood can be fraught with risk and mistakes. During this period of life, youth absorb their environments, shape their own identities, and seek to establish their independence.
Great Books is a valuable resource for educators and incarcerated parents to influence the growing minds of teenagers, without imposing any added pressure.

Collette Carroll Dedicated to Changing Lives

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Collette Carroll is the kind of San Quentin volunteer who sees a serious need and fills it. The need was to prepare prisoners for their release into the outside world.
After eight years volunteering in the prison, she founded the organization that became known as the California Reentry Institute (CRI). It led to her being recognized and honored as a leader in reentry services for the incarcerated in California.
However, pre-release was not enough for Carroll. “It’s not good enough to just prepare someone for freedom; they need assistance and resources to put into practice what they have learned,” she stated.
In 2013, Carroll opened the social enterprise 2nd Chance Boutique, with the intent to make CRI self-sufficient. In 2014 CRI opened its own re-entry home, Roland’s House, named after her late husband. She describes the home as a safe place where the men in her program can receive the specialized services to ensure their successful future.
CRI was created when she realized the work she was doing was just scratching the surface. The program developed into a comprehensive 18-to- 24 month curriculum.
The men learn extensive insight into the causative factors of their crime and the impact on victims and focus heavily on emotional development. They are immersed in an orientation to the latest technology, professional career-building and basic economics. For many participants who have been in prison for several decades, society has changed drastically.
Carroll first started visiting San Quentin in 1994 with her late husband, Roland Peck, a volunteer of 25 years, to attend banquets in the chapel.
“It was through my husband and the chapel that I was able to meet and admire the men in blue,” Carroll said in reflection.
One of her first acts as a volunteer was to sing Christmas carols in the cellblocks to the incarcerated men. It was a tradition she continued with her husband until his passing.
In 2015, she was honored as a CNN Hero for her pre- and post-release work in San Quentin. The recognition is granted to individuals who make extraordinary contributions to humanitarian aid and improve their communities.
In that same year, the California Assembly awarded Carroll with an Assembly Resolution. In March 2016, she was honored as the Assembly’s 2016 Women of the Year.
Carroll commented that “awards, or any honors, are difficult to accept. It’s not who I am — it’s not about me — it never has been about me but I realize the spotlight allows me to give a voice to those that are doing the hard work, to be a voice for the people changing their lives on the inside. That’s my heart.”
“She is extremely dedicated,” said Community Partnership Manager Steve Emrick. “I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Collette over the years and building a relationship of trust. Importantly, Collette can be trusted by the men because she will always show up. It would take a natural disaster to stop her from meeting with the men.”
“We try to help people understand the causative factors of why they did what they did. We try to help them understand the pain and harm they caused their victims and the ripple effect of their actions,” Carroll commented.
The program helps inmates “to have empathy for the people they harmed and to believe that change can help — that they aren’t what they did — and to give them the skills to have a new life,” said Carroll.
She described her legacy like this: “If someone wants to change, they deserve the opportunity and assistance to try.”

Assemblywomen Susan Bonilla and Collette Carroll

Assemblywomen Susan Bonilla and Collette Carroll

Re-entry Program Prepares Prisoners for Release

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A self-help program to safely re-integrate men into their communities before they finish their prison term recently graduated more than 40 inmates. San Quentin State Prison’s Garden Chapel served as a venue for the Feb. 5 graduation.
The idea behind California Re-entry Institute (CRI) is to begin the re-integration process while the participant is incarcerated and continue support services once released.
“I was empowered by knowledge, understanding and emotional intelligence,” said Philip J. Landis, 42, who was given a parole date late last year. “I gained tools to reach a deeper understanding of myself, to embrace change, and develop a plan to make a successful transition back into society.”
Landis is currently awaiting the governor’s final review of his parole.
CRI’s curriculum uses individualized case management and personalized parole planning to assist participants on issues such as emotional needs and addictions, as well as personal empowerment and financial literacy.
 

|“This gave me an opportunity to look at

the worst choice I made in my life

and take full responsibility for my crime”|

 
“It’s amazing the work they’ve done,” said Collette Carroll, CRI executive director. “They come every Saturday. They work hard. They share. They ask for case management. They are always stopping me and asking me questions; they’re anxious and invested. They’re dedicated to being the men who I know they are.”
CRI helps participants with personal transformation through its curriculum.
Victim/Offender Education Group (VOEG) helps offenders understand the impact on victims. Domestic violence prevention is taught by Melissa Davis of the Marin County Probation Department.
“VOEG led me to understand the causative factors of my crime and how it reached back into trauma that I experienced in childhood,” said graduate Roger Chavez, 61.”The crime impact statement taught me about the pain and suffering that I caused my victim and society,” he added, “This gave me an opportunity to look at the worst choice I made in my life and take full responsibility for my crime.”
Addiction Recovery Counseling (ARC) is also a part of the CRI curriculum.
“CRI helped me understand I had a problem with alcohol,” said Eddie Wills. “CRI teaches a little bit of everything. It prepares us for the shock of things we don’t know.”
Wills said he’s been incarcerated 33 years and has been to the parole board three times.
“It (CRI) gave me insight into who I am and where I come from and why I did a lot of the things that led me here,” he said. “We recognize the power of crime impact on our victims.”
Among the guests at the graduation were Susan Bonilla, Assemblywoman 14th District East Bay, (D-Concord), and several legislative aides.
“Graduation is a wonderful day. It speaks about stepping up. This is a significant day. You have accomplished something,” Bonilla said. “You have stepped up and done the work that you needed to do.”
Bonilla said that part of her work is to get programs like CRI in other prisons. “When I shake your hand I believe in you and with that handshake I hope to shake your hand in a different place when you are out,” she said before passing out certificates to the graduates.
Ryan Morimune, legislative aide and press secretary to Bonilla, said he was inspired and educated by what he learned. “A lot of people see recidivism but we don’t actually know what is behind it. So I learned it is about allowing people to do something different, be something different, allowing them the resources to make a safe and productive transition into a new life.”
“They stand before you as men that are assets, men that have people out there waiting for them. I am excited about what lies in front of them,” Carroll proudly expressed to the inmates and guests in closing the ceremony.
For Carroll, CRI is a legacy that reaches back to her husband, who volunteered at San Quentin for nearly 30 years before he passed away. She shared this moment with the new graduates of CRI. “If it was not for my husband, almost 16 years ago, volunteering me to come in to start a self-help program here, the fire would not have been ignited, the spark would not have been lit, and I would not have had the experience to share with you men. When I was in my darkest moment, when Roland passed away, people said I was a light in your dark place. You were the light in my dark place.”
Graduates:
Shai Alkebu-Lan, Edward Buchanan, Cleo Cloman III,Lee Conley, Kevin Fuqua, Gary Harrell, Jorge Heredia, Ernest Hill, Eddie Hollingsworth III, Claudius Johnson, Richard Lathan, Donavon Norwood, Peng Nampha, Ruben Ramirez, Alexei Ruiz, Tyrone Shirriel, David Stephens, Isaiah Thompson, James Vick, Martin Walters, James Wortham, Ian Charles Brown, Roger Chavez, Ronald Coleman, Kevin Demings, Andrew Gazzeny, Lemar Harrison, Eddie Herena, Glen Hill, Richard Honea, Phillip Landis, Nguyenly Nguyen, Kevork Parsakrian, Daniel Plunkett, Arthur Robinson, Danny Sanders, Marty Spears, Mark Tedeschi, Somdeng Dan Thongsy, Quinton Walker, Eddie Joe Wills, Richard Zorns.
–Rahsaan Thomas contributed to this story

San Quentin Poetry Volunteer C.D. Wright Passes at 67

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Poet C.D. Wright passed away on Jan. 13, 2016 in her home in Barrington, R.I., at age 67.
She left behind a husband, son and a world of aspiring poets. Her unexpected death was a mere two days after she gave the second in a series of poetry workshops with writers of the San Quentin group Kid C.A.T.
During one of the first poetry writing workshops with the men of Kid C.A.T., she explained that she began writing poetry at 7 years old. “I wasn’t really good at anything else,” she told the group.
A former poet laureate of Rhode Island and winner of a MacArthur fellowship, Guggenheim fellowship, National Book Critics Circle Award and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, Wright’s poetry appeared in The New Yorker and regularly in many other national publications.
Anouthinh Pangthong recalled, “You could see the joy on her face when she taught about poetry. Ms. Wright made learning poetry interesting and exciting. She will be missed.”
A professor of English and of literary arts at Brown University since 1983, Wright sought with her poetry to reach atypical audiences, subjects and students. Famous for her mold-breaking style, Wright completed a collection of poetry titled “One Big Self” (2003) following interviews with more than 300 inmates at Angola state prison in Louisiana.
“My poems are about desire, conflict, the dearth of justice for all,” Wright once told an interviewer. The men recalled that her passion for language and her down to earth style made her an excellent teacher, and her awareness of injustices was palpable.
“The moment I met Ms. Wright I was immediately impacted,” said Adnan Khan. “I shared a poem about being disconnected from my culture. She had so much wisdom and intellect to offer me. She said she was genuinely moved, which moved me and inspired me further to continue to express myself through poetry.”
Some of her published works include “Rising, Falling, Hovering” (2008), “Cooling Time: An American Poetry Vigil (2005),” “Tremble” (1996), “Just Whistle: A Valentine” (1993), and “Translations of the Gospel Back Into Tongues” (1982).
“She was a force,” said volunteer Karin Drucker. “When I last escorted her from the prison, she seemed thrilled to have spent time with a group of people who loved language as much as the Kid C.A.T. men do. She treated them like writers, not ‘inmates.’”

Letter To Editor by Todd Haxton Jr.

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Dear SQ News,
My name is Todd Haxton Jr. I read the articles of your organization [Kid CAT] helping youth with programs and vocations. I was 16 years old at the commission of my crime. I have been in the system for 10 years. I’ve been working hard on rehabilitating myself, growing as a man. I need help in a lot of areas. I’m in a position where I have few resources at my disposal. The prison that I am housed in doesn’t have any programs and for certain programs you have to be CCCMS to participate. I don’t meet the criteria, so I am on the outside looking in.
I’m reaching out to your organization asking for help. Can you please send me information to help me participate in your organization or can you please send me in the right direction to help me? I really take my life seriously and I made a bad mistake. I need to do everything I can to succeed and I don’t want my victim’s life to be in vain.

Dear Todd Haxton Jr.,

My name is Miguel Quezada. Currently I have 18 years in and, like you, I came into the system at age 16 with a life sentence. Let me commend you for your sincere desire to change your life and make amends under difficult circumstances. My first 14 years in prison were spent in Level IV and III prisons with minimal programs and long lockdowns. While I tried to do something different with my life and time, it was difficult without access to rehabilitative programs.
Growing up in the adult prison system is a struggle. The way you can help yourself is by taking advantage of available resources. For several years, I read books: history, psychology, political science, novels and newspapers — anything that could feed my mind. Begin by going to your library and looking for “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho and “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl.
Also, I studied myself by writing about my life: past, present and future. In our circumstances, reading and writing are a good way to grow on a personal level. Your life story is important and you can make a difference by sharing it with others who might be headed down the same path.
Kid CAT publishes writings and shares them with youth who are in the juvenile justice system. If you would like to take part in one of Kid CAT’s projects, write to The Beat Within, P.O. Box 34310, San Francisco, CA, 94134.
You’ve already started the work by wanting to do something different with your life. Kid CAT hopes the information in this response is useful for you and any other juvenile lifers and youth offenders.

Victim-Offender Education Focuses on Spanish-Speaking Men

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On his second appearance before a parole board, Jose Segura was given a release date. He attributes this success to being able to express himself clearly through what he learned in the Spanish Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG).
VOEG is a program that puts offenders and victims of crime in dialogue so they can discuss the impact of crime on families and communities.
“When I committed my crime, I had a belief system called machismo. This belief system taught me to have a big ego, be tough, never ask for help or let another man push you around,” Segura said. “VOEG helped me see and transform the rage inside of me. I learned that asking for help or expressing my emotions is acceptable. It’s not something that makes me weak.”
Segura, sentenced to 15 years to life, has been incarcerated for 20 years.
Trained facilitators Lesli Pastora Reyes, Steve Granville, and Lucia De La Fuente visited San Quentin State Prison once a week to teach VOEG.
The Spanish VOEG class is the brainchild of two incarcerated Mexican-Americans, Arnulfo T. Garcia (San Quentin News editor-in-chief) and Jorge G. Heredia (San Quentin News Spanish interpreter).
“Long before I started doing my own VOEG, I always believed in order to get the real work done, people needed to be able to express their feelings in their own language,” Heredia said. “If you get a person to express himself in his own language, he’ll be able to talk about his own issues in life, reconnect with himself and seek development as a human being.”
Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez, founder and executive director of Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos, was invited to the final class as a guest speaker.
Barrios Unidos is a multi-cultural organization that provides youth with educational opportunities and job training through experienced community workers.
“Our vision of safer and stronger communities can only be realized by leaders who are not afraid to face today’s challenges prudently and expediently,” Barrios Unidos’ mission statement reads.
Alejandrez, who spoke about his 26 years of traveling to the nation’s prisons on a mission for peace, reflected on the men in Spanish VOEG.
“I see a group of peace warriors, ready to return to their communities,” said Alejandrez. “Having programs like this gives one the opportunity to look into their life. We need these types of groups that use the circle process that heals our pain. It does society no good to keep someone locked up with no future.”
Garcia said for community leaders like Alejandrez to come inside the prison and give the Spanish VOEG class positive feedback helps other men understand why they should take the program.
“Nane was able to connect with the men in an honest way,” Garcia said. “It’s easier to express things like empathy, love or relationships in your native language.”
Tare Beltranchuc, 46, said that the VOEG process helped him understand why he became a violent person.
“What it helped me to do is connect through empathy,” Beltranchuc said. “Once I was able to see and deal with the internal issues, only then could I begin to heal myself and truly understand the hurt I placed on my victims.”
Alejandrez said the VOEG circle process has power through the act of listening.
“I was very moved to hear these testimonies. It gives me hope. A big change will come as we see people like I see here leave these places and return to the community.”
The facilitators and Alejandrez were presented with a certificate of appreciation for their dedicated public service.
“As long as my relatives, and we are all related, who have educated themselves on how to live in peace are still behind bars, I’ll keep doing this,” Alejandrez said. “They should have the ability to go home. And a $200 gate only is not going to do it. We should have a welcome committee waiting for them and then take them to where they need to go.”
Other graduates of the 18-month VOEG program are:

  • Oscar Aguilar
  • Arturo Avalos
  • Vincente Gomez
  • Edurado Gonzalez
  • Manuel Granados
  • Manuel Murillo
  • Juan Vega
  • Marco Villa

Grupo Educativo Ayuda A Reos Latinos

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Después de 20 años de encarcelamiento con una condena de 15 años a vida, Jose Segura, fue encontrado elegible para obtener su libertad condicional en su segunda visita ante un comité de audiencias.
Segura, quien fue parte de (VOEG) Grupo Educativo para Ofensores y Víctimas, atribuye a las clases de VOEG en español el poder expresarse claramente ante el comité.
VOEG es un programa que facilita el diálogo entre ofensores y víctimas para tomar conciencia del impacto que sus crímenes han causado a sus familias y comunidades.
“Cuando cometí mi crimen tenia un sistema de creencia llamado machismo. Esta creencia me enseño a tener un gran ego, ser fuerte, nunca pedir ayuda o dejar que otra persona se aproveche de mi,” comentó Segura. (VOEG) me ayudo a ver y a cambiar la ira que vivía dentro de mí. Aprendí que el pedir ayuda o expresar mis emociones no me hace una persona débil”.
Los facilitadotes de VOEG Lesli Pastora Reyes, Steve Granville, Lucia De La Fuente, visitaban la prisión de San Quentin una vez por semana para apoyar a García y Heredia a facilitar el proceso educativo entre los participantes.
El grupo en español fue posible por el ingenio de dos presos México-Americanos, Arnulfo T. García (San Quentin News Editor-in-Chief) y Jorge Heredia (San Quentin News Interprete).
“Mucho antes de haber participado como estudiante en el grupo de VOEG siempre estime que el trabajo en uno mismo es posible solamente cuando uno expresa sus sentimientos en su propio idioma,” dijo Heredia. “Si logras que una persona se exprese en su propio lenguaje, entonces podrá hablar de sus propios problemas, reconectarse consigo mismo y buscar el desarrollo como ser humano.”
García comentó que la presencia de lideres comunitarios como Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez motivan a los participantes a entender la importancia de involucrarse en este programa.
Alejandrez, fundador y Director Ejecutivo de Barrios Unidos en Santa Cruz fue el invitado para hablar con los graduados. Barrios Unidos es una organización multi-cultural que ofrece oportunidades educativas y entrenamiento laboral a jóvenes a través de trabajadores de la comunidad con experiencia.
“Nuestra visión de comunidades estables y seguras solo pueden ser visualizadas por lideres que no temen enfrentar los retos de hoy de una manera prudente y rápida,” declara la misión de Barrios Unidos.
Durante la sesión, Alejandrez hablo extensivamente acerca de sus visitas a las prisiones durante los últimos 26 años, apoyando a detener la violencia en las calles y las prisiones. Posteriormente, Alejandrez hizo hincapié sobre los participantes de la clase de VOEG en español.
“Observo un grupo de guerreros que apoyan la paz listos para reintegrarse a sus comunidades,” menciono Alejandrez. “Tener programas como éste es una gran oportunidad para que las personas puedan realizar una introspección en sus vidas. Necesitamos esta clase de grupos donde las personas se reúnen en un círculo para procesar y sanar sus heridas. La sociedad no se beneficia al mantener a una persona en prisión sin futuro.”
“Alejandrez estableció una conexión honesta con los participantes. Es mucho mas fácil expresar empatia y amor en tu propio idioma,” expreso García.
Tare Beltranchuc de 46 años de edad, comento que el proceso de VOEG fue de gran ayuda para entender el por que llego hacer una persona violenta.
“El proceso de VOEG me ayudo a conectarme con mis victimas a través de la empatia,” explico Beltranchuc. “Una vez que pude identificar y enfrentar mis problemas internos, empezó mi proceso de sanación y honestamente entendí el dolor que le cause a mis victimas.”
Alejandrez identifico que el proceso del círculo y el escuchar atentamente son dos elementos muy importantes de éste programa.
“Me conmovió y emociono el escuchar los testimonios de los presos, ya que me da mucha esperanza. Un gran cambio resultara cuando veamos gente como la que veo hoy, abandonar estos lugares y reintegrarse a sus comunidades.”
Los facilitadotes y Alejandrez recibieron un certificado de apreciación por su dedicación al servicio público de esta prisión.
“Continuare visitando las prisiones por mis parientes que se encuentran en la prisión, quienes se han educado así mismos sobre como vivir en paz,” menciono Alejandrez. “Deberían tener la oportunidad de irse a sus hogares.”
Programas como VOEG han ayudado a muchos prisioneros a entender y expresar de una manera más eficaz sus emociones, así como encontrar una manera de establecer una conexión y sentir empatia hacia sus victimas.
Prisioneros como Segura, quienes han sido elegibles para obtener su libertad condicional todavía tienen que esperar aproximadamente 5 meses por la decisión final del Gobernador Jerry Brown.
Los integrantes del primer programa de VOEG en español son:
Oscar Aguilar
Arturo Avalos
Vincente Gomez
Eduardo Gonzalez
Manuel Granados
Manuel Murillo
Juan Vega
Marco Villa
-traducción por Miguel Quezada

San Quentin Ceremony Honors AIDS Victims

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About 50 visitors, staff and prisoners gathered in the San Quentin Garden Chapel to mark World AIDS Day.
The ceremony was held “in loving memory of the more than 685,000 people who have died of AIDS-related deaths in the United States and in support of the more than 1,200,000 people living with HIV in the United States and their families,” according to the event program.
“Shame is one of the greatest impediments to getting tested inside of the prison system,” said prisoner Allen Ross. “Many youngsters that come into prison view HIV through a stereotypical lens. That prevents young men from getting tested.”
Centerforce peer health educator Tommy Ross said when he was growing up, HIV/AIDS was seen as something only affecting people like actor Rock Hudson — White, rich and gay. Later, he said, “I saw the rapper Eazy-E being Black, rich and heterosexual. What I discovered is that it’s not who you are; it’s the behavior. After that I got tested.”
There is no reason not to get tested, said T.J. Lee from Positive Force, a program run by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
“I was at a U.S. conference on AIDS, where there was a weird undertone when I mentioned being positive for 16 years to a group of African-American men. After my admission, one friend came out and said he had been positive since he was 12. He was 24. Then they all started admitting it,” said Lee.
San Quentin’s Dr. George Beatty, whose HIV/AIDS work has spanned over 25 years, stated that “there are 896 incarcerated people known to be HIV-positive, maybe another 150 that may be infected that don’t know it.”
Beatty said HIV has been greatly reduced within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“CDCR has concentrated people with HIV where the experts are. The vast majority of HIV cases here are doing great.” Guys are “doing better here than people on the outside, probably because we have a group of people that are into rehabilitation and taking responsibility for their lives.”
“Everyone with HIV should be on treatment. There is no excuse for going undetected, no excuse for getting sick,” concluded Beatty.
Nurse Practitioner Ingrid Nelson, who works with Dr. Beatty at the HIV clinic at San Quentin, attributed better care to medication regiments that are far less complex than in the early era of HIV/AIDS.
“When I started practicing, medications were a lot more toxic. They’re better, easier meds now, and we are a lot smarter about how to use them. We have one pill once a day regiments. If they miss a dose, it could make the meds not work anymore. Stay on medications,” she urged.
The ceremony included performances by musician and prisoner David Jassy and spoken word artist Bri Blue.
Blue said she was humbled by performing for the cause. “I have family members who have died of AIDS … My dad was an inmate here. It just gives me a clear view and level of understanding of what people go through,” said Blue.
The event was sponsored by Centerforce, LCA Monitoring Success, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Project Inform, AIDS Project East Bay, Eden I&R, Inc., and Christopher Noceti.
“We all have an HIV status,” said Centerforce peer health educator and host Angel Falcone. “One in eight people live with HIV and don’t know it, One in four 13-24 year olds pass it on. Find out your status. Get tested. The time to act is now.”
­­­­ –Rahsaan Thomas contributed to this story

Artist Rhona Bitner Visits San Quentin to Capture Its Memory

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A respected artist visited San Quentin State Prison to take large-scale color photographs of the North Block Dining Hall where Johnny Cash performed in 1958 and recorded an album in 1969.
“It means a lot to stand where Johnny Cash played as I reach the end of this nine-year project,” Rhona Bitner said.
Bitner’s project, Listen, which images American popular music, led her to travel across the United States photographing iconic and historic locations from juke joints to studios to prisons.
“Listen is about our collective experience Rock n’ Roll,” Bitner said.
The series of photographs includes Electric Lady Studios in New York, Jimi Hendrix’s recording studio, Austin City Limits studio stage in Texas, and Elvis Presley’s music room at Graceland.
Bitner’s career began at New York University’s art program, where a professor encouraged her photography. It was then that she discovered she belonged in a darkroom.
“Making photographs is like breathing,” she says. “I’ve had a camera in my hands since I was 6 years old.”
Bitner’s photographs have been displayed around the world. She’s had individual exhibitions at Yezerski Gallery in Boston in 2012 and Blondeau Fine Art, Geneva, Switzerland, in 2011.
Her work also has appeared in group exhibitions, including une breve histoire de l’avenir in the Mussee du Louvre, Paris, 2015; Mythomia, curated by Stephane Malfettes, Rouen, France, 2014, and Pictures are Words Not Known, Photography Museum, Lishu, China, 2011.
“It isn’t about me. I want the work to speak to the viewer,” Bitner said, describing her work. “I shoot film, so at the moment when I am making a photo of you, the light bouncing off your face is the same light exposing the film in the camera. There is a physical connection. There is an inherent beauty in that.”
San Quentin News photographer Eddie Herena asked Bitner what makes a good picture.
“So many factors can contribute to a good image. There are the technical aspects like focus, light, exposure, and making sure there’s not a pole or a tree right behind your subject’s head,” Bitner said. “The photographer needs to adapt to what is in front of him, always. Then there’s the question of what is situated where in the frame, primary and secondary… and not to forget what’s around the edges. But just as relevant, I think that the photographer must believe or trust what he sees, so that the audience will as well.”
Herena said, especially for a newspaper, he needed to avoid situations when the sun is on the person’s back. “It creates shadows, which darkens the person’s face and you don’t get a clear image,” he said. “I now know that sometimes I have to change my position in order to get a picture that can be used in the newspaper.”
Bitner said what she hopes to achieve with her photographs is for people to remember the places and people of her work.
“It’s an attempt to contain that memory and hold onto it for ourselves.” She added, however, “Books are very important to me, they would be my legacy. I hope to publish my photographs so they can live beyond me.”
Bitner’s work can be viewed at: www.rhonabitner.com
–Rahsaan Thomas contributed to this story

Youth Offenders See Benefits in SQ Programs

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Jared Elkins was 13 years old the first time he found himself behind bars for burglary. At 14, he was placed in a group home. The 20-year-old San Quentin State Prison inmate said, “Since then I haven’t been out of prison for longer than six months.”
Elkins, serving a sentence of 10 years for a gang-related firearms violation, is one of several young prisoners designated eligible to be transferred to a medium security prison like San Quentin through the Youth Offender Program (passed as Assembly Bill 1276 in 2014). The program is designed to keep offenders under the age of 22 away from high security prisons, where opportunities for programs are few and typically more violent than lower security prisons.
Elkins said that if he went to a higher level prison, he felt like he would have gotten into trouble and gotten more time added to his sentence. However, once he got to San Quentin he quickly got onto the waiting list for self-help programs. “When I get out, I hope I can establish myself in a career and take care of my son who is two. To do this I need job skills and other help.”
“I’m signed up for Restorative Justice and a Kid CAT Youth Offender Support Group,” Elkins said. “I’m interested in college and taking vocational courses like welding, plumbing and construction. I earned my GED in the juvenile hall. Now I really want to learn things that will help me when I get out. I don’t want to come back to prison.”
“We are one of the few prisons that are open for the youth offender program. The warden is very supportive of bringing young men here,” said Steve Emrick, San Quentin State Prison Community Partnership Manager. “We are also relying on men in programs that see them [the young men] to encourage them to get involved in these programs.”
Most other Youth Offender Program participants who arrived at San Quentin are seeking to better themselves with educational and self-help classes.
Rodolfo Medina-Barragan, 18, serving 21 years for an attempted murder he committed at 17, said he has earned his GED and is on a waiting list for Patten University Project. “I am glad to be here. So far a lot of guys have spoke[n] to me and invited me to different programs. When I get out I would like to continue to go to school.”
Efrain Lara, 19, convicted of assault with a deadly weapon that he committed at the age of 17, was sentenced to seven years. “At 12 years old I was working in the fields with my dad. My only job at 17 was in the grape fields. If I have to, I’ll do that when I get out, but I need an education and trades so I can get better jobs.”
“When I came in to prison at 20, I went directly to level four maximum security,” said Kid CAT Chairman Tommy Winfrey. “I realize now that I was looking for role models in my life, and I was influenced by the violence and negativity I saw around me.”
Louis Scott, 47, incarcerated 19 years, is one of several Restorative Justice Group facilitators who are helping these young men navigate the opportunities available at San Quentin. “Amazingly I find them very receptive,” said Scott, who is serving 199 years to life. “It’s important to capture them right now while they are fresh inside the system and give them a positive path to follow, as opposed to the negativity that a lot of us [were] subjected to when we first came in.”
The Rand Corporation found that when prisoners receive correctional education while incarcerated, it improves their ability to stay out of prison by 43 percent compared to prisoners who do not get an education in prison.
San Quentin has a large juvenile lifer population that has been incarcerated for an average 20 or more years. They understand the challenges of entering the prison system at a young age and are eager to help the participants of the Youth Offender Program have a different experience.
Medina-Barragan illustrates the point: “All I know about the level three is that there is a lot of violence and people can die there. I’ve never been there, but since I was in the juvenile hall and county jail that’s all I heard about prison.”
“The department and the inmate population recognized that these young men need to be supported and redirected from trouble to receive a second chance in life,” Emrick said.

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