In a ceremony at San Quentin State Prison, two local charitable organizations received $32,350.91 from a victim compensation fund.
California Prison Industry Authority oversees the Joint Venture program, in which Labcon workers earn the local minimum wage of $9 per hour.
Even though the inmates do not get all their earnings because of various deductions, including court-ordered restitution and fines, very few inmates earn the kind of money that workers for Labcon do.
The deductions after tax are:
20 percent of inmate income is provided to the state for room and board
20 percent is allocated to the inmate’s trust account for commissary and other expenses
20 percent goes to a family support program
20 percent goes to a mandatory savings account
20 percent goes to the victim compensation fund or court ordered restitution and fines.
Some of the inmates said they were happy to help worthy causes.
Half the money went to Community Violence Solutions (CVS), the other half to Sunny Hills Services.
“That’s great!” said Deanna Schlau of CVS, “the funds will help a lot of people.” Schlau is sexual assault response and volunteer coordinator with CVS. “Our services save lives,” Schlau said.
Schlau and co-worker Andrees Montilliano, executive director, participated in the ceremony to receive the funds.
It was “a really big check,” said an inmate worker. In fact, the check was about 2 feet wide by 4 feet long.
CVS has an office in Marin, where it provides counseling services for victims of rape and abuse, along with other services.
Speaking to the men, Montilliano said, “I want you to know that your hard work will help women and children.” Schlau said, “We provide advisory services from housing to mediation.” When counseling abuse victims, one important aspect is empowerment of the victim, indicated Schlau. She said, “We talk about taking control of their lives.” CVS maintains a 24-hour crisis center and receives calls night and day, seven days a week.
Montilliano said that CVS serves several Marin communities and receives referrals from a number of other organizations. CVS works with agencies such as law enforcement and children’s services.
“It’s a full-time job helping victims find medical attention, housing or counselors,” said Montilliano. Speaking of the many people who benefit from their services, Montilliano said, “We provide services of one type or another to over 1,000 people every year.” According to Schlau, CVS also has a number of volunteers who assist in their work.
The other recipient, Sunny Hills Services, operates Sunny Hills Children’s Center.
“What you’re doing is a really great thing — giving back to the community,” said Karen Bischoff of Sunny Hills to the gathered men.
Although the center’s focus is on children, it also provides services to adults. Bischoff said most of their contact is with women, and there is “hardly any domestic violence support for men.” However, according to Rusty Bechtold, administrator of the Inmate Employability Program, “You never know, some time you [men] may need that help.”
According to inmates, the ceremony was bittersweet because Labcon is closing its Joint Venture program at San Quentin. The packaging of “tipetts” and “culture tubes” done by Labcon workers is now going to be performed by a robot. Therefore, affected inmates will soon be losing their income and losing what some say is the best job at San Quentin.
According to Aly Tamboura, “It’s nice to have a nest egg when you get out.” He said that although he has some money saved for when he leaves prison, he would prefer that Labcon not close. Commenting on the financial state of most paroling inmates, Tamboura said, “When the state gives someone $200 at the gate, how do they expect them to survive?”
Tamboura was on a waiting list for about 18 months before he could get his Labcon job. Although he has saved some money, “It would be better to have a little more.” He said that the $200 given to newly released prisoners might be one night in a hotel and a meal – and asked, “What do they expect a person to do after that?”
Inmate Labcon worker Al Garner said, “I’d loved to have stayed for the 16 months I have left, but at least I have some savings for parole.” Speaking about Labcon he said, “The opportunity is – well there’s none like it. I’m going from $9 an hour to about 30 cents an hour,” he said referring to finding a prison job after Labcon is closed.
All the inmates are feeling a little bit at a loss, said Bruley Overda. “I’m proud that we gave all that money to people needing financial help,” he said. “We had a good thing.”
Report: Tough on Crime Era Resulted in Failure
Years of “get tough on crime” policies have failed, according to a study by Karol Lucken of the University of Central Florida. Lucken’s study condensed decades of analysis of mass incarceration policies.
When coupled with reports of the Vera Institute of Justice, clear conclusions can be drawn that demonstrate few winners in the “get tough on crime” era. According to the analysis, the get-tough era, or as some call it, mass incarceration, has failed in every respect. The perpetual prisoner machine is a broken-down clunker.
Lucken pointed out that financial considerations are bringing criminal justice operatives face-to-face with the reality of their failed policies. Unsustainable practices leading to mass incarceration have caused political jurisdictions to suffer financial strain. Because of their inability to carry the financial burden they created, politicians and bureaucrats are now changing course and their messages.
Public sentiment and penal practices are shifting. Pronouncements fanning public fear as a way into office are giving way to more reasoned policies. According to Lucken, “voters are moved by language that suggests they could be getting more bang for their investment,” when it comes to corrections.
The university report says “policies which defined the era such as the War on Drugs, minimum mandatory sentencing, habitual offender statutes, three strikes and truth in sentencing statutes, have been thoroughly analyzed and disputed.” In addition, according to Lucken, documented effectiveness of the programs has been found lacking.
Years of interpretation by many organizations leads to an inescapable conclusion that the failures are significant. There is a clear lack of success in criminal sentencing practices across the board. The studies show mass incarceration has no demonstrable affect on crime or recidivism. William Shepherd, chairman of the American Bar Association, said that over-criminalization has in fact produced negative results and made the problem worse.
Newly incarcerated people primarily come from three sources, according to the Vera Institute.
The first group are people who have been just been convicted of a crime. Then there are those who are on probation or parole, who violate the conditions of their probation or parole. This second group of probation or parole violators makes up 44 percent of the national prison population, according to the report.
However, research found when examining the probation/parole group who have committed a new offense in which the evidence is weak, the authorities simply declare the person “in violation of his parole” and do not have to prove anything in court. This makes up the third group.
As a punitive policy experiment, scare tactics of law enforcement propelled the get-tough era. Legal factors such as legislative and statutory changes to penal codes facilitated excessively long sentences, according to Vera.
In the last 40 years, the combined prison population of all states swelled by over 700 percent. During the same period, costs of running state prisons increased from $6.7 billion to about $50 billion.
Raphaele Casale’s ‘Dynamic’ Presence Praised by Inmates in Program
One of the San Quentin program leaders is Raphaele Casale, who began her career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the medical department.
“When I was in medical, I had no idea what self-help programs were,” she said.
When Casale found out about SQUIRES, she said, “Wow! Here the kids can talk directly with inmates about how things can go really wrong just by making one wrong decision. It’s very intense sometimes. These kids need to realize they have the power to choose the direction of their lives.”
“I grew up in Marin and saw San Quentin from the highway all the time. I never thought about what went on at San Quentin. It’s kind of funny,” she said, “San Quentin has helped me to help kids.”
Before working for CDCR, Casale was always interested in law enforcement support services and served as a community service officer for a year with Fresno County.
“Young people today have so many social pressures and are pulled in so many different directions,” Casale said, “That’s one reason they get into trouble. I wanted to work in the criminal justice system and help young people.”
Casale hopes she is able to make a positive contribution by being involved with inmate self-help programs. In addition, she said that she believes those inmates who are involved in correctional education and vocational training are improving themselves.
“These men are people who want to do the right thing and will, if given the chance,” she said.
Casale has multiple responsibilities over a range of prison activities including secretarial duties for the wardens office and overseeing the inmate music program. However, she says she loves working with the SQUIRES kids.
According to Casale, SQUIRES is a program that shows young men what’s in store for them if they don’t change their ways. She said that bringing the youngsters into San Quentin for a day in prison “is one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.”
“We are interested in trying to find a follow-up program so that after the visit here, there’s someone for them to talk with,” Casale said.
The Los Angeles-based About Face Cadet Corps provides some of that aftercare. Eduardo Sanchez, a group leader with AFCC, said, “This experience changed how I see prison.”
Inmate Von Miles said he especially appreciates Casale for her energy and diligence.
“She has a fresh perspective and brings a lot of heart to SQUIRES,” Miles said.
Other inmates agreed.
Her official title is Chief Sponsor, but Arnulfo T. Garcia (editor-in-chief of the San Quentin News) said, “Her title should be chief go-getter.”
Mentor Tommy Winfrey added, “She’s Dynamic.”
“We respect her and she respects us,” said Winfrey. “She is very straightforward and firm in her resolve to do the best job possible.”
–By Ted Swain
SQUIRES Program Mentors Youth to Make Positive Change
Drugs, gangs, schools, parents, girls, peer pressure and bullying are the typical subjects discussed with young men at mentoring workshops of the San Quentin SQUIRES.
San Quentin Utilization of Inmate Resources Experiences and Studies (SQUIRES) is a program where inmates come face-to-face with at-risk youth in a dialogue to resolve life challenges that the youngsters may be facing.
SQUIRES mentors work with youngsters who are referred from organizations such as the Los Angeles Police Department, the Omega Boys Club, Rotary Clubs, the San Francisco Public Defenders Office, T&T House of Champions and the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation.
Presenting a “day in prison” for kids skirting trouble, the prison program started in the 1960s as a way to show kids what can happen to wrongdoers when they endanger and harm society.
SQUIRES mentors meet the kids early on a Saturday morning and guide them through a day of discussion, deliberation and visual impact about the fate of troublemakers. Working in groups of eight or 10, the youngsters form a circle group session for counseling with the SQUIRES mentors.
In Receiving and Release, the youth are given a verbal orientation on the intake process, which for actual inmates would include an unclothed body search, in addition to a number of other steps.
They get a bag lunch with a bologna or peanut butter sandwich before going on a tour of the prison, including a talk at the Condemned Row entrance door. By the end of the tour, which includes lockup in a cell, most of the kids say they do not want to end up living here.
Not too long ago, the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation brought kids into the SQUIRES program. The foundation formed nine years ago following the shooting death of its namesake, Terrance Kelly. To deal with his grief, Landrin Kelly, Terrance’s father, formed the foundation with the purpose of encouraging young people to make better choices.
Landrin Kelly and his wife, Mary, run the foundation. Mary said the program started as an after-school activity program. The foundation offers homework assistance programs, violence prevention programs, a computer lab and a creative art class.
“We also have a culinary program so we can teach them to make a quick meal for themselves,” Mary said.
Offering life skills, including a high achievers program, the foundation aims to help young men and women have a safe future by staying out of violent situations. We want them to be “more conscious of life and the consequences of their decisions,” said Mary.
Hector Garcia, a group leader at the foundation, says he really loves working with the young men and women. It’s “just a God-given gift, being able to work with the community in this way,” said Garcia. He added that everyone could benefit from this experience.
Recently the University of California at Berkeley football squad came to SQUIRES for a truth-or-consequences session.
“One of the guys I talked to had a clean record until he was 17 years old. He made a bad decision one night, and he’s been here for 25 years,” said Cal quarterback Jared Goff. “It shows how blessed we are to have the lives we have.”
Another sponsor, the Novato Rotary Club, regularly sends kids to the SQUIRES program. Larry Levy, a long-time Rotarian, has been escorting young men to the SQUIRES program for many years. Levy said that one of his objectives is to create a SQUIRES program at other California prisons so that youth counselors, social workers and parents throughout the state can access the prison experience as an additional tool.
Terry Pace of the T&T House of Champions in Oakland operates a group home focusing on safety, structure, life skills and love.
“The kids come to San Quentin with a hard shell and the SQUIRES mentors get them to open up,” she said. Pace says the men start a “process of feeling.” For some of the youngsters, it’s the first time.
Jack Jacqua of the Omega Boys Club is a well-known staple of the SQUIRES mentoring meetings. Jacqua has been working with troubled youngsters in the San Francisco area for more than 30 years. He works with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and the court system to provide a safe and stable program for youngsters who need mentoring.
Jacqua said that the San Quentin inmate mentors are better counselors than the ones in the free world. He said it’s great to see how the youngsters open up when talking with the SQUIRES mentors. He points to the need to talk about feelings and says, “If the prisoners can talk about their feelings, then why wouldn’t the kids.”
Romania ‘Mana’ Jaundoo Expresses The Importance Of Working Inside S. Q.
Almost as soon as Romania “Mana” Jaundoo came to work at San Quentin, she was asked to become a sponsor for a youth-diversion workshop. She said she really likes working with the inmate mentors who volunteer for the program because they do so much good.
“They really pour their heart into helping young men,” Jaundoo said. “It’s a real team feeling working with these men. They’re so dedicated.”
Jaundoo co-sponsors SQUIRES with Raphaele Casale.
“The point of SQUIRES is to communicate with the young men who come to the workshops,” Jaundoo said. “I feel lucky to be part of that process.
“The SQUIRES mentors have such resolve. It isn’t often you see a grown man cry. The mentors and the kids keep it real in these workshops.”
Referring to how Jaundoo works with the kids, mentor Rasheed Lockheart, 36, said she “gives them a real sense of accountability, but she does it with compassion.”
Officially, Jaundoo is a correctional case records analyst for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
Prior to CDCR, Jaundoo was a cosmetologist. However, she said that since 18 years of age she wanted to be involved in law enforcement.
“I was doing some volunteer work over a weekend, and ran into a lady I knew,” Jaundoo said. The friend told her that CDCR was hiring.
“All my family is in law enforcement, and I have always seen it as a good thing,” she said. “It seemed like it was meant to be. It all happened so quickly.”
She submitted an application and was hired a couple of months later, she said.
“I was excited to take the job,” Jaundoo said. “I thought I would be scared but I was totally up to the challenge. It’s everything I thought it would be.”
She said that when she began working in the prison system, there were several things that surprised her — particularly the degree of segregation between the races.
“That was really a shock,” she said. “We’ve come a long way on the streets, but in prison it’s really bad.”
Jaundoo says working at San Quentin has lived up to all her expectations regarding her level of responsibilities. Her work involves calculating facts and figures and there’s a lot of training through headquarters.
She is married to a San Quentin Officer and they make a “Husband and wife team,” she said.
Although her job and the SQUIRES program bring her in contact with many inmates, she said she’s never concerned for her safety and sometimes feels safer in San Quentin than she does in the free world.
“I’m very comfortable in here. On the outside, I am always alert to my surroundings. On the streets, I always have my guard up,” she said.
Jaundoo said that she wouldn’t have made the many accomplishments with SQUIRES without the grooming and foresight of Correctional Officer E. Pulliam and Correctional Counselor II, M. Rodesillas. “They had faith in me,” she said. “They recognized that this was a calling for me before I knew it.”
–By Ted Swain
A Spiritual Leader’s Message of Change
Renowned spiritual leader Sita Lozoff told a San Quentin audience that people can change their lives and be free, no matter where they are.
Sita visited San Quentin 10 years ago with her husband, the late Bo Lozoff. Many men in attendance remembered meeting them. She returned July 31, when the Catholic Chapel was alive with chanting, meditation and spiritual harmony as Lozoff inspired the men to change their lives.
Bo Lozoff’s book entitled, We’re All Doing Time, published in 1985, is often referred to as the prisoner’s bible.
Bo Lozoff died in 2012. However, Sita said she has been carrying on the work of their organization, Human Kindness Foundation. Sita has been having what she calls “conversations” with inmates since Bo’s passing. Sita said that she felt Bo was speaking to the men through her.
Catholic Chaplain Father George Williams introduced Sita. Williams first met Bo and Sita many years ago in Boston. Williams said he was studying for the priesthood at a time when the church was going through trials and tribulations of its own. He said that he had begun to question whether the priesthood was really his path.
Bo was able to cut through the meaningless and get to the only thing that mattered, said Williams.
“Don’t be a priest for the church,” Lozoff said, “be a priest for God.”
In the chapel, Sita described the spiritual journey that she and her husband traveled.
In the heyday of the hippie movement, Sita and Bo were in the middle of LSD experimentation, protests and social movements. She said she remembers when she and Bo were “sitting in the middle of hundreds of black people, and we were the only white people in the crowd.”
Sita commented that it was “a little unsettling when the speakers started preaching to ‘Kill whitie.’”
The chapel crowd laughed when she said, “I was a little concerned.”
After she and Bo were married in 1966, Bo founded the Prison-Ashram Project. They began going to prisons and auditoriums and engaging in conversations about inner peace. They wrote letters of advice, compassion and instruction to hundreds of inmates around the United States.
Juan Haines, managing editor of the San Quentin News, said when he was in Soledad State Prison he heard Bo interviewed on KPFA. “His explanation of spirituality and inner peace made sense,” Haines said.
At the close of the radio interview, Bo offered to send the book to any inmate who was listening. Haines wrote to him in North Carolina and received the book two weeks later.
“It was plainly written, easy to understand and it wasn’t religious,” Haines said. The book incorporates elements of all the great world religions and ties them together.
As the title indicates, Lozoff’s message is that we are all imprisoned—whether physically in prison or not—by unhappiness, mortality and limitations on our love and understanding. It is like a guidebook on how to live life, according to Haines, on how to meet challenges and understand adversity.
“I’ve read that book one time and still here it is 30 years later, it still resonates with me the same way,” Haines said.
The prison project founded by Lozoff has become the Human Kindness Foundation. It’s a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to encourage more kindness in the world. The project encourages inmates to use prison time to focus and develop their spiritual growth.
Although Bo wrote several books, more than 400,000 copies of We’re All Doing Time have been printed, and many present and former inmates revere it. The book has been hailed around the world for its street-wise presentation of spiritual truths from all traditions.
The Village Voice reported “We’re All Doing Time is one of the 10 books everyone in the world should read…”
We’re All Doing Time is scheduled to be reviewed in an upcoming issue of San Quentin News.
Execution by Alternative Means
‘This isn’t an attempt to time-warp back into the 1850s or the wild, wild west or anything like that’
Hangings, firing squads and gas chambers are being considered as means of execution by some states because of the unavailability of lethal injection drugs.
The drugs are in short supply and death penalty states are looking to make sure they can still execute people effectively, The Associated Press reports.
Controversy is widespread because of scenes like the January execution of Oklahoma inmate Michael Wilson. The issue has prompted legal actions and some drug companies’ refusals to sell the lethal drugs to prisons.
“I feel my whole body burning,” were Wilson’s final words. Capital punishment opponents claim those words clearly indicate the process is not the clinical, painless operation portrayed by some state officials. Some elected officials say recent legal challenges and shortage of drugs make lethal injection too vulnerable to complications.
“This isn’t an attempt to time-warp back into the 1850s or the wild, wild west or anything like that,” commented Missouri State Representative Rick Brattin. He said he just sees a potential future problem and wants to be prepared.
Virtually all death penalty states switched to lethal drugs because of the negative perception of hanging, electrocution, gas and firing squads. However, despite the desire to make it more palatable, the horrors of execution seem inescapable. Another example: the recent Ohio execution of Dennis McGuire took 26 minutes to complete, with him repeatedly gasping for air.
The European Union threatened to impose export limits on propofol if it is to be used in executions.
The EU is anti-death penalty, and sentiment against export of drugs used in lethal injection runs high, the AP reported. The drug propofol was suspect in the death of pop star Michael Jackson.
Many legislators are tapping into a popular feeling that “those who do terrible things deserve terrible things to happen to them,” Michael Campbell, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, told The Associated Press. However, Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., says, “These ideas would jeopardize the death penalty, because, I think, the public reaction would be revulsion.”
Electrocution is an alternative to lethal injection for condemned prisoners in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Wyoming lawmakers recently offered a bill allowing execution by firing squad. Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington state still allow inmates to choose hanging. Arizona, Missouri and Wyoming also allow gas-chamber executions.
Since 1976, the Marin Independent Journal said there have been three firing squad executions in the U.S., all of them in Utah.
Some states are also beginning to use other drugs and will not disclose where they come from.
Marin County DA Given Insight to Life Behind Bars
Marin County District Attorney Edward Berberian and two staffers, Deputy District Attorney Leon Vousharian and Assistant District Attorney Yvette Martinez-Shaw, were guests at the fifth San Quentin News Forum held on Friday, May 29.
A principal object of the forums is to provide all parties in the criminal justice system a first-hand opportunity to examine the issues of crime, policing, prosecution, prison, re-entry and changing lives.
“In 1935 the Supreme Court declared that a prosecutors job is more than merely winning every case by racking up convictions; it also included seeing that justice is done.” “Pressing Pause on Marijuana Convictions” NYT Opinion July 30, 2018
Arranged in a group format, the forums are held like roundtable discussions with participants sitting in a circle. Berberian, Martinez-Shaw and Vousharian sat among the 21 long-term prisoners and volunteer advisers.
Law enforcement personnel who have participated in the forums have said the forums are valuable as a resource for first-hand information regarding the entire criminal justice system. Berberian and his co-workers represent a new era of criminal justice professionals. Because of their interest in the process from initial custody to reentry, all three prosecutors wanted to know about the many programs available at San Quentin.
Berberian and his staff asked about the goals of each program and how it worked to achieve its purpose. It was clear that everyone thought San Quentin stands out for its progressive approach.
Arnulfo Garcia said, “Mass incarceration is not the solution as was previously thought.” With reentry and realignment considerations, many challenges now complicate the criminal justice system.
Overcoming those challenges takes on new importance, said the DA. One part of the solution is the education and vocational training experiences available at San Quentin. Overcoming new challenges also involves learning from the inmates, he told the group.
Inmates, district attorney and guest discuss possible solutions to criminal problems
The DA has been to San Quentin previously about prosecution business, not about learning. Berberian said it was “refreshing” to speak with prisoners who hold themselves accountable. The longtime prosecutor said this experience would give him a better perspective when men come before his office for release.
Berberian indicated it was a new experience for him. He said, “This is the first time I have been in a room with so many inmates.”
Forum moderator, JulianGlenn “Luke” Padgett directed attention from one man to another as the men told the prosecutors about their crimes and how they came to acknowledge responsibility for them. Vousharian said he was impressed with the accounts.
The DA’s staff spoke freely about their role in the prosecution process, and the men talked about their crimes and experiences with the system. Every man had a unique story. One of the most important aspects of the path each prisoner takes is the initial custody experience. Moreover, that was an important piece of the puzzle Berberian and his staff wanted to examine.
“How did it feel when you were first taken into custody?” asked Berberian. Inmate after inmate told his impression of first being in custody. As inmate Michael Nelson expressed, “I haven’t thought a lot about incarceration, but I have thought a lot about my crime.” According to Nelson’s accounting of that time, “One of the hardest things I have ever had to do is call my aunt and tell her I committed a murder.”
Talking about the initial custody experience, Nelson said when he was arrested, “It was all very raw.” He was arrested four hours after committing murder, he said adding, “I didn’t know how to deal with it.” Taken to Juvenile Hall, Nelson stayed there for a while, was then transferred to the Youth Authority and then to state prison. Because he was only 15 when he committed his crime, he didn’t know “about hating someone because of their race.” He said those are all things he learned in prison.
According to Berberian, “In the past, the job of district attorney was separate and apart from prison and reentry.” However, he said, he needed to know all aspects of prosecution, incarceration and reentry so that he could do his job better. Berberian explained it was his job to represent the public, so being an advocate for inmates is not in his job description. On the other hand, he explained he needed to “know what tools are available” so he can do his job the best he can.
Berberian said he was not a supporter of relaxing the Three Strikes Laws. “I want to have all the tools I can have,” he explained. Experiences of inmates from initial custody to final release were all important to the prosecutors.
Troy Williams said, “Being taken into custody is no joke.” He said the initial custody experience affects your entire experience of being incarcerated. Williams had a “real bad attitude” when he was first taken into custody and convicted. In addition, Williams affirmed the prosecutor’s belief that San Quentin is unique in the number of rehabilitation and self-help programs available.
Williams said when they asked him where he wanted to go, “I told them to get the (expletive) out of the way!” Berberian said, “I’m getting the sense that the jail experience is worse than the prison experience.” On the other hand, Williams said that coming from other prisons to San Quentin was like night and day. He said, “I woke up with a whole new attitude.”
The many programs at San Quentin was one of the major topics of discussion. Berberian asked if the programs had an effect on Williams’ attitude, to which Williams answered, “Before San Quentin, I didn’t have the tools to change.” According to Williams, that was his “aahh” moment.
Those programs are near the other end of the incarceration, or reentry. They were very much of interest to the prosecutors. As Williams said, “The day I came to San Quentin gave me a whole new life.” Talking about the many programs here at The Q, Berberian said, “It’s important for me to have information about the programs so I know what’s available.”
Berberian said he was keen to learn about the San Quentin experience with its 70 plus educational, vocational, self-help and health programs available to inmates.
Some men related to a vast contrast between the beginning and end of incarceration. The beginning is a “shock,” said Kris Himmelberger.
“Jail, that’s the worst,” said Himmelberger. Speaking of those first days, Himmelberger said, “I couldn’t believe it.” He indicated he wanted to stay at the county jail after conviction to fight his case, so he took the advice of another inmate. “I threatened the judge,” he said. Probably not the best advice, but it became clear to the prosecutors that incarceration has many facets.
Asked about initial incarceration, one inmate said, “When I got to the county jail, the other inmates wanted to know what gang I was in.”
Martinez-Shaw said it was unique to the forum that every participating inmate accepted responsibility for his crime. DA Berberian commented it was surprising and very refreshing to see men own up to their actions.
Berberian thanked the forum members for allowing him and his staff to examine the many issues regarding the criminal justice system. He said, “This forum has provided us an opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge by directly interacting with prison inmates.”
As Martinez-Shaw said, “Learning from you men provides us information we need to know so we can do our job better.”
Criminal Justice Reformers Praise Affordable Care Act
While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has received criticism nationwide, criminal justice reformers say affordable health care for ex-prisoners is an important component to criminal justice.
“One of the biggest pieces of justice reform in a generation was set in place by President Obama,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). According to Newsweek Magazine, there is no direct connection between the ACA, also known as Obamacare, and jails or prisons. However, “Obamacare stands to alleviate one of the most troubling aspects of incarceration—how ex-offenders, once released, receive affordable health care,” said the Magazine.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, to assist newly released inmates from San Francisco County Jail, last January, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi introduced legislation to the Board of Supervisors that would make it standard protocol for the sheriff’s office to help inmates sign up for Obamacare.
“The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department will be one of the first county jail systems in the nation that’s officially designated to enroll inmates,” Mirkarimi said in a San Francisco Chronicle article.
Obamacare would save taxpayers millions of dollars by reducing the number of newly released people who receive treatment in emergency rooms, according to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department.
“Enhancing access to integrated health care for the uninsured is not only a wise public health move, but it’s also wise public safety strategy,” Mirkarimi said in the Chronicle. “There is nexus between repeat incarceration and poor chronic health, especially people suffering with mental illness or substance addiction.”
According to the Chronicle, when inmates were released and needed medical or mental health care, they had to fend for themselves. Often, that process led them back to jail or prison, as they were unable to find affordable health care.
“Health care for former inmates should be viewed as a public safety issue”
Under Mirkarimi’s plan, the city will save about $2,500 per year for each inmate it enrolls, as county jail inmates are more likely to have chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma and arthritis, as well as substance abuse and mental problems, according to the sheriff’s department.
“Health care for former inmates should be viewed as a public safety issue,” said Jeanne Woodford, former warden of San Quentin Prison and senior fellow at Berkeley’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, in the Chronicle.
The U.S. has had an “epidemic of incarceration over the last four decades,” said Josiah Rich, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Brown University.
Rich said there is little argument over why the national prison population soared from a stable 200,000 inmates to over 2,000,000 in the past few decades. He said that President Ronald Reagan defunded federal mental health programs more than three decades ago and as a result, many people landed on the streets. Today, many of those make their beds in prisons and jails.
According to Rich, in the early 1980s, the number of inmates began to skyrocket as many of the patients were not treated, and were picked up by the criminal justice system.
“We just take them to the end of incarceration, and drop them off a cliff and say ‘good luck,’” Rich said in Newsweek. If all you have is a hammer, pretty soon, everything looks like a nail.
San Quentin Embraces Restorative Justice
A new approach to criminal justice is gaining worldwide support and San Quentin is an important part of the movement, a university psychology professor told a recent symposium.
“The Restorative Justice movement is spreading across the world, and you guys are an important part of the program,” said keynote speaker Dacher Keltner, PhD., of the University of California at Berkeley. He explained the intersection of his Berkeley research and concepts of the Restorative Justice movement.
Restorative Justice promotes values such as respect, care, trust and humility.
The March 8 symposium was attended by San Quentin’s Restorative Justice community, which includes many outside volunteers and sponsors. Principal oversight of the San Quentin program is in the hands of Mary Elliott, Ph.D. She said the movement of Restorative Justice is non-denominational, and not affiliated with any organization.
As liaison between the Berkeley Law School and San Quentin, Elliott advocates for the San Quentin project and connects with over 60 other organizations about Restorative Justice.
Elliot pointed out the differences between traditional approaches to justice and the Restorative Justice approach. She said the criminal justice system is retributive and seeks justice through punishment, blame and administering pain.
She also said, “The current system tends to exclude the victims” by setting up an adversarial system between the state and the offender.
In the Restorative Justice approach, justice is sought by identifying the needs of the stakeholders and seeking repair by promoting responsibility and healing on all sides. It prescribes cooperative dialogue among persons most affected, which include the victims, offenders and the community.
Keltner runs a 500 person laboratory at Berkeley called the Greater Good Science Center.
With hundreds of people doing research in areas such as care, sympathy and communication by the medium of voice, many of the studies involve subjects which are used regularly in the Restorative Justice programs. One of the most important is the emotion of care.
“The science of care” studies the effects of care upon various human interactions and its resulting effects. Keltner indicated the emotion of “care” is very important in making decisions. He spoke of breakthroughs in the study of “sympathy,” for example.
According to Elliott, the mission statement of the project at San Quentin is to encourage Restorative Justice principles, processes and goals with all the stakeholders. That means that offenders, victims and others impacted by a crime are part of the solution. Listening to and understanding the other party is very important to the healing process, she said.
“The United States is the world’s biggest human rights violator, and the biggest violations are in American prisons,” commented a volunteer sponsor, Yoyo Tchoukleva.
Sponsor Rose Elizondo has been part of the San Quentin project for eight years. She is a professional mediator and says that we all need to be movement builders. “Building the Restorative Justice program around the world” is a key to changing the world, she said. Elizondo said that story telling is powerful, and “nothing is more powerful than when a victim tells their story.”
According to Keltner, the healing offered by the Restorative Justice not only heals the mind, but it is good for one’s body and the entire web of relationships we each live in.
“The Little Book of Restorative Justice For People In Prison,” a book about the program for inmates, says, “Just one event, such as a crime, can impact a community for years to come.”