San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Dual Epidemics of COVID-19 and Influenza (the flu)

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The flu, a different coronavirus, will be back this winter, as usual, starting in November and getting worse December and January. As the early symptoms of COVID-19 (also a coronavirus) and the flu are very similar, the medical establishment recommends that everyone gets a flu shot.

“This winter, hospitals could well be in great demand so it makes sense that if we can minimize influenza as much as we can we’ll have more reserved healthcare capacity to look after patients who might be suffering from COVID-19,” said Dr. John Campbell.

https://youtu.be/utMREADbtAc

Further, the flu shot, designed to give you immunity against the flu, may give you increased immunity—although not total—against the worst cases of COVID-19.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health (NIH paper), “It might be possible also that individuals who received prior flu vaccination might show mild severity of COVID-19 because of flu-induced bystander effect of the generated immune responses, which itself might cross-react against SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19].”  

According to The Dual Epidemics of COVID-19 and Influenza (the JAMA report), in the 2018-2019 flu session, the U.S. had 35.5 million influenza cases, 490,600 hospitalizations, and 34,200 deaths related to influenza. 

As for the good news, the flu vaccination for 2018-19 prevented 4.4 million cases of influenza, 58,000 hospitalizations, and 3,500 deaths in the U.S.  This is with only about 50% of residents getting the flu shot, according to the JAMA report.

Of course, COVID-19 is a different respiratory viral infection. Still, as to the flu, the relative risk in this study was 4.4. In other words, the people in the vaccination group were 4.4 times more likely to avoid the flu compared with people who did not take the flu shot. 

So it is still very important that everyone gets a flu shot. Make sure that all your family members do so. That way even if you later get COVID-19, the hospital won’t be as full of influenza patients.

SQ Shakespeare troupe performs skits about trauma and healing

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The cast of the SQ’s Shakespeare Parallel Play

Nine original skits put modern personal trauma and healing on full display this past October. 

The audience discovers how Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors had inspired a troupe of actors to present original works of how trauma is passed down across generations until a choice is made to heal. The troupe used intimate personal skits to express complex emotions arising from bullying, death, jealousy, revenge, betrayal, cancer, to loss of a parent.

People in the audience participating in a piece

Music and laughter led by Oran “Artwork” Hutson were used to loosen up the crowd of more than a hundred. With interlude and supporting music by Quentin Blue (Lee Atkins, Mark Kinney, Dwight Krizman, Chris Koppe, Chris Thomas, Rich Morris) and additional interlude by Eric “Maserati-E” Abercrombie and Gino Sevacos.

Oran “Artwork” Hutson warming up the crowd

Audience Q & A

Q – How did the Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors inspire you?

A – My estranged relationship with my brother. He passed, and the whole play is about brothers that are never together.

A – The power of bullying and loss of a life – to do a show allowed honoring the dead and moving on… Suicide of my friend John.

Q – What really got me was how you incorporated the music – how did you do it?

A – Really lots of hard work. How to mix these two distinct mediums together. Dwight: 

A – all expression helps us get through this prison experience. Where is my humanity. The help of outside, telling and supporting our self-expression – of all types. Thank you for coming in!

A – We are a support group for each other and an alternative to other tools for coping like exercise, church, groups, and dope. We really hope that when these tragedies come, we can share our loss with the community of artists.

Q – “You guys are the cure for pain” – You have used performance to show us all the things we have experience. “Life is poetry.”

A – Take with you what empathy really is. Things like race, age and gender no longer matter. Empathy will allow you to both understand others and yourself.

Q – What touched me so much was the vulnerability shown – especially in an environment where others don’t have it. 

A – You want to talk about vulnerable, try to imagine coming from a Level 4 yard and having to put on a dress! The guys had fun, but I realize “this is what women go through” wow – this program has transformed me.”

A – Key is to open up and there is a lot of healing in this group, each of other has a way of healing and the different forms of expression we all have. 

A – We have to be vulnerable, to be able to change. If not able to hear what is broken, how can you fix it.

We recycle cans and bottles, why can’t we recycle people?

Q – I hope you guys get how you touched us from tears to laughter in an instant. Thank you for letting us in.

So when are you musicians going to put the album out?

Lesley Currier of Marin Shakespeare Company took a moment to explain, “There are now arts programs in all the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facilities, including Marin Shakespeare in many prisons.”

Marin Shakespeare’s Leslie Currier

Original Skits

In STAND TOGETHER by Raygeta, the parody of violence in a classroom and the jolt of a friend’s suicide – bullied for his differences. How to mourn such a loss, triggered by simple things to more violence calling for revenge and the cycle continues.

  • Actor Greg Jordan
  • Director Surya Keating talking to the crowd

MIND YO BIZ by Darwin “Tall” Billingsley dealt with how to express love, jealously, including great Hong Kong-styled martial arts, and finding a way to admit, that the attacker is the one that needs help.

HEAL TO CHANGE TO SAVE by Ronell “Rauch” Draper Presented as a mix the spoken word with dance and music. As read by Surya Keating the repetition of “Heal the world; To change the world; In order to save the world.”

Belize, Ben Tobin, Phillipe Kelly, Maurice Reed and Antwan “Banks” Williams showing the movement of trauma of Ronell Draper’s “Heal to Change to Save”

UNTIL THEN by Antwan “Banks” Williams was a conversation, facing a wall and asking, “Do you see me?”

“In April, my brother passed away. Does my pain want you to be closer? Your prospective will change with mine – too busy staring at what behind me or ahead of me….”

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO? By Andrew Wadsworth A conversation in a car about how to take care of a friend, retaliation, the blood debt cycle of violence while keeping of another promise to be a success. How to say goodbye at a father’s funeral. The power of a father’s love reflected in a son’s farewell. 

Andrew Wadsworth in “What am I Supposed to do?”

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL by Maurice “Reese” Reed was a meditation of Shakespearean style on how beautiful is Black. The use of movement to demonstrate the words made physically manifest.

FREEDOM: DISCOVERING WHO WE ARE OR ARE SUPPOSED TO BE by Markelle “The Gazelle” Taylor with musical backup by Gino Sevacos on how a boy took a stepfather’s bitter lesson on learning to read and created the defense of lying to survive. Translated into a man’s lesson of “Free in the mind. Free in the heart and no one can take that away from me.”

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY by Richie Morris earned the most heart-warming applause on the defensive skill of being invisible. How to learn to be seen by going all the way back into one’s past – to understand our path to crime and how to return to the community.

“I am no longer a ghost in my own life.”

The central path of music with a wide range of string instruments where music and word again mixed into a powerful magic of song. 

EVERYBODY NEEDS LOVE by Derry “Brotha Dee” Brown on the fear of cancer and how we men support each other through such times. The rhythms of prison life, the waiting, escort, group sign-in, etc. and how to deal with the consequences of aging in prison – God is called upon by the group. 

As a finale, the cast had the audience join in sing EVERYBODY NEEDS LOVE.

Marin Shakespeare Company began its program in San Quentin in 2003 and in San Quentin’s H-Unit dormitory yard in 2018. The program now has expanded to 11 prisons. Videos are hosted on www.marinshakespeare.org.

Shakespeare actress Mary-Ann

500 POUNDS OF HAPPINESS

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Most people consider happiness to be a feeling, without weight or substance. I know different. I witnessed the creation of 500 pounds of happiness before my very eyes at San Quentin State Prison in 2013.

It’s not easy to make happiness; nor can you buy it. In fact, it is so rare that a slight dusting of it engenders a wondrous sense of well-being. That’s why it is usually perceived as only a feeling, not something tangible.

I know the truth. Happiness is real. It has substance and weight.

The happiness I’m taking about did not materialize by waving a magic want, however, magic was used. Like with most true magic, it began as an idea converted into a wish wrapped in words and planted in the heart of another. There if all goes well, it grows overtime and bursts forth into action—a magical alchemy that transforms base matter into something precious. In this case, a daughter made happiness as a gift to her father.

How does that happen, you wonder?

Magic requires courage, imagination, and perfect timing. My daughter has all three. She knew my birthday was approaching and because I am incarcerated—I had told her I was serving a sentence, like a time out that would last longer than she had been alive—she made a card to mail to me. But she wanted me to feel her love in more ways than a card can provide. As seven years of age, she knew that cards are good magic-delivery vehicles, but they can hold only a small amount. She knew there must be a better way to send her love to her daddy in prison.

Magic was the only option. Her chances to visit are few and when she does come here she has to share me with her brother and mother.

Fortunately, she knows she has a natural talent for magic. After all, she had won three first-place trophies in the state karate tournament. She knew that her daily rituals help her daddy learn to walk again after his accident and her mommy recover from cancer too.

The best way to send daddy love was with magic. All she had to do was find a way to plant it in the fertile soil of another person’s heart and use her sunny smile to speed the process along. As everyone knows, you just need to take the magic, cover it with bits and scraps of facts, water it with wishes and let the warm sunny rays of hope cause it to take root and grow.

She waited patiently for the opportunity during her last visit with me. She always knows when it comes, just like she knows when to hammer-blow an opponent in karate or steal a smile from grandma.

It was while standing in front of a vending machine in San Quentin’s visiting room that she found the host for her magic-a man daddy knew and called a friend. She conjured up her magic, opened her eyes wide and said, “Excuse me sir.” She asked the man to say “happy birthday” to me. Little could she guess how her magic seed would burst forth into 500 pounds of happiness a few days later.

Now, Aly had experienced such magic before. He had two adult daughters of his own and my little imp’s spell had transported him back in time to a pair of smiles meant only for him. In the glow of those memories, the magic seed grew in his heart. In exchange for the wondrous gift of time travel, he wanted to do more than merely pass along a birthday greeting. Like all of the family we call humans, Aly had his own magic, and he would put it to use.

He went to his treasure trove hidden in his small prison locker and gathered ten bite-sized chocolates – a rare treat. After the morning call of “Wake up, wash up. Don’t forget to brush up,” he came to my cell and with a beaming smile shouted “Happy birthday!” Then he handed over the chocolates.

In shock, I looked at the bounty in my hands. How could such a thing be possible – a birthday known and gifts given?

Aly divulged the source of his secret knowledge and we shared the magic glow of a daughter’s love. I was so filled with it; I turned to my cellie and gave him half of the sweet treasures. After all, he had been in prison for twelve long years without a single visit from his family – thus no access to such magic himself. We unwrapped the chocolates and ate them.

That is when it happened, the rare magical power of alchemy that alters base matter into something precious. This magic dwells in the human soul subordinates time and matter to its will especially when swept into action by love. The chocolate covered in smiles entered us, it was the catalyst. This syntheses of magic and matter transformed matter in to a new substance: 500 pounds of happiness. (I claim only 225 of them.)

This happiness was used to send Aly back in time to relive the glow of his daughters’ love; it helped my cellie to start his climb out of a deep pit of loneliness. And it gave me the strength to face the challenges of serving sentence with a warm smile.

This small girl’s magic gift would help all of us speed our time along.

By Wayne Boatwright

Veterans Healing Veterans organizes Shakespeare plays

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A group of San Quentin veterans joined with Shakespearean actors on Nov. 29 to portray the experience of service and sacrifice.

Veterans Healing Veterans actors and the audience warming up before the play

A banner greeted the audience VETERANS HEALING VETERANS FROM THE INSIDE OUT (VHV-FTIO), a group with a mission to represent the imprint each generation of veterans leaves on the next. Lesley Currier directed the performance, a joint enterprise between VHV and the Marin Shakespeare Company (MSC).

“Taking that leap of faith with us and try something new,” said Currier to the expectant audience.

The theme of “Patriotism and Politics” had the mixed cast performing emotional scenes of injury to taking of life with choreography to demonstrate loyalty, liberty, service and sacrifice.

Shakespeare Actress Janice and actor Chris Marshall
Actor David Bennet

VHV seeks to provide vets the opportunities to practice self-expression. In combination with MSC, these men wrote their own autobiographical skits.

Often the skits required veterans to recreate the most traumatic moments in their lives.

There was no lighting apart from the standard florescent tubes overhead, the only stage props were extra chairs, a podium, and the water fountain used to serve as a drum.

The plain environment matched the stark monologues used to reveal the truths experienced by veterans seeking to heal veterans in the present.

Veterans reenacting a battle

The veterans shared their stories with re-enactments of the full military life from recruitment, training, deployment, combat, return and retirement.

“Forged in the crucible of training,” said the narrator to set up various skits dealing with overcoming fears to move toward the sounds of chaos. He referred to honest fears of every-day skills like swimming, teamwork, discipline and gunfire.

Marin actress and Paul Stauffer reenacting a war scene

Marines, Navy, Army and Air force was honored with the common call of WE HAVE EACH OTHERS BACKS.”

The contradictions of what recruiters promise the experiences of military life were shared with skits over generations of military service.

Promises don’t live up to the PR…

When I joined the military…

WE ALL GOT different things than we expected….

Yet, always friendship, maturity, honor.

Bruce Bowman speaking

The dramatic monologues included exploring the complex emotions and experiences of fear, guilt and racism.

The audience listened intently as they took in the raw manifestation of both patriotism and pain of a skit of a woman’s experience of rape and the failure of the service, both female and male officers to investigate or punish the rapist.

Music too conveyed the experience of “promises promises promises”–interspaced with the reality of wounds, physical and psychic.

Who will hear me….

The whole cast provided the chance to hear real experience of rape and a shared commitment by the whole cast to “protect honor and respect all women always.”

Letters, poetry and prose brought to life service and sacrifices from the Civil War through World War II and express that physical are not the worst wounds.

Concepts that weave throughout the generations, racism, abuse of authority, fear, bravery, patriotism, loyalty, service and sacrifice.

Personal experiences from Rhodesia, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq expressed the full range of difficult to process emotions from personal fear to the guilt of taking of lives. 

George Orwell was quoted “in time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

The cast shared truths for the living and the dead. A common emotion was hatred for those that profited from war from corporations to illegal drugs. Another was the importance of ritual a to respect the dead.

Of the living, the themes of mental health and racism were faced by the cast. 

Racism 

– No medals of honor to blacks in WWII, until Pres. Bill Clinton in 1997. As with most such medals, of the seven given, six were posthumously awarded.

Mental Health 

– Vets are 16 percent of the homeless in the U.S.

– half of Vets with PTSD are currently getting treatment (often because of the stigma of mental health)

– Vets are incarcerated at twice the national average

– Vets commit suicide at twice the average

While acknowledging the ideals of our great nation “life liberty and pursuit of happiness,” still America “CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT.”

“I am so grateful to these men for giving of themselves and their hearts. Often the performance expresses events the participants may not wish to remember or re-live,” said Currier as she opened the floor to questions from the audience.

Veterans performing a healing ceremony

Audience Q & A

Q – What was the most difficult regarding the creative process?

A – Being able to share my story, without losing control – more we worked, the easier it became to live it without living it…

A – Very difficult to tell my story, even the ugly things, it was a new way to be courageous to perform.

A – We went through seven versions to prepare these powerful and true stories. It was a grinder. For us men doing time, we have to take this type of dedication to take these skills out to the world.

A – Military service kind of the opposite from the ‘creative processes of performing.

Q – How can others in prison see this performance?

A – MSC had a full filming crew and will post it on the Marin Shakespeare company website. 

A – When we can talk about it, we stop being victims or victimizing others.

Q –Do you encourage joining or avoiding military?

A – Despite what we’ve been through, we all still love our country.

A – Every citizen has to serve, therefore have a stake. This brings us together as a people. Military not perfect, it’s full of people and we bring our flaws with us. Good outweighs the bad.

VHV-FTIO will have groups in the ARC building on the Main Yard.

Native Hawaiian Religious Group holds annual feast

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San Quentin was treated to a Hawaiian celebration of food, laughs and music.

About 75 prisoners and two dozen Bay Area community members enjoyed the annual feast of the Native Hawaiian Religious Group (NHRG).

“This is the second best thing to having a spread on the yard,” said inmate Romeo Pacos. The gathering reunites Asian and Pacific Islanders and created a spirit of companionship beyond any normal prison experience, said Pacos.

The broad smiles of the Pacific Islanders were evident as they dined, danced, chanted and sang at the Sept. 27 event.

The feast honors the tradi- tion that three months out of the year, war was forbidden, and it was a time for renewal and celebration, explained the group’s sponsor, Patrick Makuakane.

Each of these three promoters leads a group that contributed to the feast:

ORIGAMI GROUP – JUN HAMAMOTO

The tables were decorated with white cloth covers and assorted color origami flowers made by the San Quentin Origami Group.

“This group gives me guidance”

“Without her support, we wouldn’t have any programs,” said a number of members.

SPIRITUAL CHANT & DANCE GROUP – PATRICK MAKUAKANE

Makuakane teaches chants, which further complement the singing and dancing to the upu heke – a double-headed gourd played like a drum.

Men entered the chapel floor with a Hawaiian call and stood on either side of Makuakane as he welcomed the guests. Next, the men performed a dance with swinging hips and dexterous arm movements like shooting arrows in various directions.

Ukulele Group – Adel Serafino

Serafino, known by Auntie Adel, runs the music group that engages the men in singing and playing the four-stringed ukulele and the eight-stringed ukarere.

“What you need to know is how dedicated these guys are. I’m so proud of them. Our hope is that their performance will inspire others to join with our community,” said Auntie Adel.

“I found out about the group from my godbrother, and he invited me to a concert of the program and I got hooked to learn how to play,” said Jerome Hermosura, imprisoned since 1995.

He is the newest member of the group, but was still invited to play a three-song set. “Auntie Adel gives us of her time and culture, and we are so grateful. She brings a sense of peace in a tough environment,” Hermosura said.

Auntie Adel invited all of San Quentin to join the group on Saturday afternoons in the chapel area. “We now have plenty of donated ukuleles; come join us,” she said.

THE FEAST

After the mandatory prison count, the feast was served, consisting of Tara root, sweet potatoes, barbecued chicken, peas, lettuces, chow mein, coconut and Tara tapioca deserts, topped off with assorted cookies.

The Native Hawaiian Religious Group reports it guides multicultural prisoners on a path toward self-discovery and is open to all inmates.

The group’s members presented different elements of the Pacific Islander traditional and with a confirmation that “This group gives me guidance to understand all races, not just my own.”

THE FINALE

The highlight of the feast was Makuakane’s outside dancers. Some of them have danced for his troupe for 25 to 30 years. The dancers moved gracefully and mesmerized the audience as their upper bodies swayed like seaweed underwater, their lower bodies like waves clashing onto the shore. A ukulele played and guided their movement as if their bodies were strings of the instrument.

Each dancer wore a floorlength colorful dress with multiple seashell necklaces and a blossom in her hair. They all shared an open smile. It was the dancers first time performing in a prison.

Hula dancers performing at Makahiki 2018

As an encore, the incarcerated men and dancers lined up together, dancing in tune and out of tune, mimicking a hot iron dipped into cold water. Perfection was not an expectation and fun was shared as the audience shouted encouragement to all the dancers as they moved to the music.

—David Lȇ contributed to this story.  Boatwright

Illinois shut down prison debate team after successful public event

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After a successful public debate on reforming, the Illinois parole system, prison officials shut down the Stateville Debate Team in April.
The goal of the team was to use debate as a tool to “connect prisoners to the broader debate community” and provide an opportunity to learn and practice the principles of debate, said Katrina Burlet, director of the Justice Debate League (JDL) and coach of the Stateville Debate Team.
JDL hosted a public debate on reforming the Illinois parole system with an audience of about 75 people “including state government and department officials, state legislators, university professors, and activists,” said Burlet in The Crime Report.
JDL found the debate response phenomenal.
“Legislators started seriously working on parole legislation. Many of them wanted to return to learn more from the debate team members,” Burlet said.
Within a month of the debate, prison authorities shut down the team. “I have not been allowed since then into any facilities operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections,” Burlet said.
Illinois prison authorities cancelled the Debate Team because of concerns about “security” at the prison. Speaking on National Public Radio in June, Illinois Department of Corrections Head John Baldwin acknowledged the debate program “was really well received, but this was about somebody who chose not to follow basic corrections safety and security practices.”
“Prison discipline was used to break spirits so that the men of the debate team would never try something like that again,” Burlet said. On Aug. 28, the Uptown People’s Law Center (UPLC) of Chicago filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Stateville Debate Team over the retaliatory actions taken by the Illinois Department of Corrections against the debate sponsors and prisoner participants. UPLC is part of JDL, which provides an opportunity to learn and practice the principles of debate.
Kyle Robertson, a UC Santa Cruz professor and volunteer coach at San Quentin’s Prison University Project Debate Group sat down with San Quentin News to discuss Stateville’s Debate Team.
SQN – Why do you think debate groups are important?
I think that one of the main reasons to have a de- bate program inside prisons is to help inmates participate in public conversation about things that matter to them, such as the parole system.
SQN – After reading about the prison administration disbanding the Stateville Debate Team, what would you do different?
I find this story depress- ing, and I feel horrible for the author and her team of students at Stateville in Illinois. They were doing exactly what they should have been doing. Assuming that article is accurate, the reactions of the Stateville administration shows, I think, that they don’t respect the knowledge and ability of their own in- mates to generate compelling arguments about au analysis of the parole system.
SQN – Why do you think that?
They underestimated the team’s skills, and they over- reacted to the possibility that people in power might find the inmates’ ideas compelling. I hope the administration reconsiders their actions.”

Boatwright

Mental health bomb-shell report on care inside state prisons

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The chief psychiatrist of California’s prison system is accusing state officials of misleading both a federal court and lawyers for prison inmates fighting to improve mental health care inside state prisons, according to court documents.

Dr. Michael Golding sent the 160-page report to the court-appointed federal receiver overseeing reforms inside California prisons. Golding filed the report without his superior’s knowledge.

Dr. Golding’s “lengthy, detailed report” contains “serious allegations” that data reported to the federal court overseeing the medical and mental health care of California prisons “is inaccurate and has been presented in a materially misleading way,” reports The Sacramento Bee.

For example, the Golding report refutes the state’s claim that its psychiatrists have seen patients at an on-time-rate of 96 percent in some cases, where the actual frequency is allegedly only 20 to 30 percent, according to Michael Bien, the lead attorney for the inmates.

The Golding report prevented the signing of a stipulation in which inmates’ attorneys were to agree to reduce the state’s 405 psychiatrist positions by 79 to a total of 326.

“We almost signed it,” Bien told The Bee reporter. Now, that stipulation is “off the table and a hearing is expected in coming weeks on the allegations.”

Corrections officials of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) declined to address Golding’s accusations.

INMATE MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS

About one-third of CDCR inmates participate in an in-prison mental health program, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) report on the 2018-19 California Budget.

California expects to spend around $690 million on various inmate mental health programs in 2018-19 as required under court-approved guidelines, according to the LAO Report. The care given to one-third of the CDCR inmates (more than 40,000) in prison mental health programs is subject to the oversight of a Special Master appointed as part of the Coleman v. Brown case (In 1995, a federal court ruled in the Coleman case that CDCR was not providing constitutionally adequate mental health care.) For example, Enhanced Outpatient Program (EOP) inmates are about 6 percent of the inmate population (approximately 7,500 inmates at current occupancy levels). EOP inmates are those diagnosed with serious mental disorders but do not require inpatient treatment.

Most EOP inmates are housed by CDCR in Intermediate Care Facilities (ICF), where interaction with other inmates is substantially restricted according to the LAO report.

While San Quentin has an EOP dorm of approximately 100 inmates in its H-Unit dormitory yard with another 100 expected in early 2019, the LAO Report did not reference the conversion of these dorms.

Boatwright

New CA laws may erase pot convictions

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If other counties follow San Francisco’s lead, district attorneys’ offices across the state can erase pot convictions under California’s new legal marijuana laws.

“Our vision is to help government clear all eligible criminal records starting with convictions under Prop. 64,” said Jennifer Pahlka, executive director of Code for America, a non-profit with the goal of making government more efficient, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The November 2016 passage of Proposition 64 prompted San Francisco’s District Attorney (DA) to announce in January that his office would dismiss and seal more than 3,000 misdemeanor marijuana convictions dating back to 1975. As of May, the DA has only been able to prepare 962 motions to dismiss, with the courts granting 428 of these according to the Chronicle.

Dealing with the city’s 4,940 felony marijuana convictions, however, is more difficult. District Attorney George Gascón announced a partnership with Code for America to use a computer algorithm to identify which felonies the courts can reclassify.

“A lot of what we do is antiquated….We’re very excited to partner with Code for America,” said Gascón at the press conference. By using this new algorithm, the DA’s office will not have to use attorneys to pull the file and review each case.

In contrast, it costs Contra Costa Public Defender’s Office over $400,000 per year to clear about 1,100 convictions in 2016, according to Safe and Sound a report by Californians for Safety and Justice.

“We heard from prosecutors around the state…(they) don’t have the resources” to review, reduce or seal decades of marijuana convictions, said Gascón. With this algorithm, that argument goes away.

Gascón said he hopes their work will serve as a template that other jurisdictions can use to review past cases in states where marijuana is now legal, reports the Chronicle.

Criminal justice reform advocates have long complained that marijuana convictions dis- proportionately affect the poor and people of color. In San Francisco, even with similar use patterns, Blacks were more than four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession as Whites according to a 2013 American Civil Liberties Union study.

Thiết Bị Giám Sát Đang Bành Trướng

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Trên toàn quốc, có đến gấp hai lần số vòng đeo chân dùng để giám sát tội phạm đang được sử dụng hiện nay so với 10 năm về trước. Hầu như tất cả các quận hạt trong California đều sử dụng thiết bị theo dõi này, trong khi đó thì các công ty tư nhân hưởng lợi.

Pew Charitable Trusts báo cáo rằng trên nước Mỹ đã có hơn 125,000 trường hợp đang mang vòng giám sát điện tử (viết tắt là EM). Chích quyền địa phương sử dụng EM cho rất nhiều trường hợp như, điều kiện đặt ra cho những người có án quản thúc và thành phần tội phạm thanh thiếu niên.

Ít nhất 51 trong số 58 quận hạt của California có chương trình EM.

Securus là một trong những công ty lớn nhất trong lãnh vực cung cấp thiết bị EM và công nghệ giám sát. Theo In These Times, hệ thống satelite sử dụng trong việc giám sát đang hỗ trợ Securus theo dõi hơn 6,000 tội phạm cho Bộ Học Tập và Cải Huấn của California (CDCR).

Sử dụng thiết bị EM là một phương thức giúp giảm giá giam giử tội phạm cho nhiều chính quyền địa phương. The U.S. Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice nghiên cứu về thành phần tội phạm có mức độ nguy hiểm cao ở California nhận định rằng những tù nhân mới được thả có điều kiện thích hợp với việc sử dụng thiết bị giám sát này có đến 38% thấp hơn so với những người không đeo thiết bị giám sát sẽ tái phạm tội.

Trong khi đó, các nhà bênh vực cho hệ thống hình sự và nhiều tòa án thì lại tỏ ý lo ngại về mặt giá cả leo thang, chi phí đắt đỏ, và các vấn đề riêng tư liên quan đến cách sử dụng công nghệ EM.

Nhà hoạt động Rebecca Brown, là người điều hành của tổ chức Reentry Solutions Group phát biểu với In These Times rằng, “Thay vì bổ sung cho hệ thống hình sự thêm tính công bình và hửu hiệu, sức vĩ đại của thiết bị theo dõi điện tử và sự kém kiểm soát của chúng biến nhiều cộng đồng thành những nhà tù không vách ngăn, điều này cố tình đoạt đi sựtựdovàriêngtưcủamột tầng lớp xã hội cho dẫu nó có hiệu quả đến mức nào đi chăng nửa thì cũng có tính cưỡng bách và thiếu thích hợp.”

Phương thức thông thường nhất của EM được sử dụng bởi chính quyền địa phương là án quản thúc tại gia. Tuy nhiên vì công nghệ giám sát cải tiến quá nhanh chóng nên nó mang lại nhiều sự kiểm soát khác nhau. một người có thể bị giam giử ở một khu xóm, một góc phố hay một căn hộ đều hoàn toàn phụ thuộc vào sự định đoạt về mức độ nguy hiểm của từng cá nhân, nghiên cứu mới đây của Trường Đại Học California ở Berkeley thuộc tổ chức Samuelson Law Clinic và East Bay Community Law Center cho biết như vậy.

Với những cá nhân phạm tội dâm dục hoặc có tiền án băng đảng, vòng đeo chân giám sát của họ đã được tải vào những khu vực cấm đến. Dựa theo Prison Legal News, ở New York City, có một số người bị tình nghi dính líu tới băng đảng phải đeo vòng giám sát trong khi họ chưa hề bị án lệnh quản thúc tại gia bao giờ. Những khu vực cấm đến đã được đăng tải vào vòng thiết bị này để cấm họ đi lại trong thành phố ở môt khoảng thời gian cố đinh nào đó trong ngày.

Nghiên cứu của Trường Đại Học Berkeley cho biết, ở Cali- fornia, quận hạt San Barbara sử dụng thiết bị định vị để cho phép hoặc ngăn cấm khu vực đi lại. Nhưng có ít nhất 12 quận hạt khác tham khảo lại lối sử dụng này trong văn bản, điều kiện, và tài liệu về quy sách của họ.

Có nhiều quan ngại đáng chú ý về sức ảnh hưởng của chương trình EM trên những hộ gia đình có lợi tức thấp. nhiều quận hạt bắt người dân phải chi trả để được tham gia trong chương trình EM bằng cách yêu cầu họ trả tiền hằng ngày, hằng tuần hoặc hằng tháng. Nhiều quận hạt cũng yêu cầu thanh thiếu niên chi trả cho những thiết bị đã bị mất hoặc bị hư hõng, điều này có thể mang lại gánh nặng cho nhiều gia đình vì phí tổn lên đến cả hàng ngàn đồng, nghiên cứu của Đại Học Berkeley cho biết như vậy.

Nhiều nhà bênh vực khuyên rằng, “Hãy biết quyền lợi của bạn.”

Nếu những người có lợi tức thấp tham gia chương trình EM chứng minh được họ không có đủ khả năng để trả, họ sẽ được miễn phí ở hầu hết tất cả các chương trình EM.

Nhiều người lo ngại rằng áp dụng công nghệ này sẽ xúc phạm đến quyền riêng tư. Electronic Frontier Foundation, một cơ sở dẫn đầu về việc chống lại sự xâm lấn của điện tử, cảnh giác trên trang mạng của họ rằng, “Rất nhiều lần, quy cách mới về việc sử dụng thiết bị theo dõi…từ từ — nhưng chắc chắn — được nới rộng… Chúng tôi đã thấy điều này xảy ra với việc thu thập chứng cứ DNA. Và bây giờ chúng tôi lại bắt đầu thấy ở việc sử dụng thiết bị định vị để làm giám sát.”

Tòa Tối Cao Pháp Viện Mỹ nhấn mạnh rằng trong nhiều năm ngần đây sự nới rộng về thiết bị giám sát gây nên nhiều quan ngại mới liên quan đến sự riêng tư, trích dẫn từ vụ tranh tụng United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400, 416 (2012) [Quan tòa Sotomayor, J., đồng thuận] rằng “thiết bị định vị dùng trong việc theo dõi… có thể thay đổi quang hệ giữa người dân và chính quyền theo một đường lối tương phản với xã hội dân chủ.”

—Tác giả Wayne Boatwright —Dịch Giả Danny Nha Hồ

Growth in electronic monitoring doubles

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The use of electronic monitoring (EM) devices in the United States has more than doubled in the past decade, with more than 125,000 wearing such tracking devices in 2016, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts report.

Local governments use EM in a variety of contexts, including as a condition of pretrial release or probation and for youth offenders.

At least 51 of 58 California counties have EM programs, according to a recent study by the Samuelson Law Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley and East Bay Community Law Center (Berkeley Study).

For-profit companies are the main providers of EM devices and monitoring technology. Securus is one of the largest. Through its subsidiary, Satellite Tracking of People (STOP), Securus electronically monitors more than 6,000 people for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), according to In These Times.

For many local governments, EM offers a lower-cost alternative to incarceration. A 2013 study of California high-risk offenders found that parolees fitted with a GPS device had a 38 percent lower recidivism rate than those without the devices, according to the U.S. Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice.

Criminal justice advocates and the courts, on the other hand, have serious concerns about the shifting of costs, expansive use and privacy related to use of EM technology.

“Rather than advancing a more equitable and effective criminal justice system, electronic monitoring’s enormous and unchecked capacities transform entire communities into open-air jails, intentionally depriving a whole class of people of liberty and privacy even as its efficacy, necessity and appropriateness go entirely unchallenged,” said activist Rebecca Brown, the director of Reentry Solutions Group, reported In These Times.

The most common form of EM deployed by local government is house arrest. However, the rapid evolution of tracking technology allows for varying levels of control. A person may be confined to a neighborhood, a block or a house, depending on the “risk assessment” of that individual.

This is already happening with exclusion zones programmed into the ankle monitors of some individuals with sex offense or gang histories. In New York City, some alleged gang members have a GPS monitor without house arrest, according to Prison Legal News. The device is programmed to keep them out of certain parts of the city at certain times of the day.

In California, Santa Barbara County uses GPS to create inclusion/exclusion zones. At least 12 other counties reference the use of inclusion or exclusion zones in their terms and conditions or policy documents, according to the Berkeley Study.

There are significant concerns about the impact of these EM programs on low-income families. Many counties require families to pay to participate in an EM program, often requiring they pay a daily, weekly or monthly fee. Many counties also require that youth pay for any lost or damaged equipment, potentially burdening the family with thousands of dollars in costs, according to the Berkeley Study.

“Know your rights,” say ad- vocates as many of these EM programs have a mechanism to opt out of charges where the participant can demonstrate their inability to pay for their participation in an electronic monitoring program.

Privacy risks from deploying this technology are a concern by many interested parties. “All too often, new police surveillance tools…slowly – but surely – (are) expanded…We’ve seen it with DNA collection. And now we’re starting to see it with GPS tracking,” warned the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading advocate of electronic privacy.

The Supreme Court has emphasized in recent years the extent to which electronic tracking devices raise new and unique privacy concerns. “GPS monitoring…may alter the relationship between citizen and government in a way that is inimical to democratic society,” the court concluded in United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400, 416 (2012) (Sotomayor, J., concurring).

Boatwright

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