San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

California approves 6.4 million for tattoo removal

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California is spending $6.4 million to expand its pre-release tattoo removal program from two locations to 21 prisons and facilities across the state. The effort will take place over the next four years.

The program began in 2018 at the Folsom Women’s Facility and the Custody to Community Transitional Reentry Program in Sacramento under a contract with the California Prison Industry Authority. The large demand for tattoo removal led to the dramatic increase in funding and programs, which will now be under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

“Highly visible tattoos unfortunately present a significant obstacle to employment, and their removal can also signify a new chapter in someone’s life. We treated about 140 women at CCTRP and FWF, with more requesting services beyond what the current contract is able to provide. Hence, the expansion,” says Krissi Khokhobashvili, chief, Office of Externa Affairs, CDCR.

The program will take place at 21 prisons and facilities.

The new sites were chosen based on location – to make sure services are spread throughout the state and be available to all genders and security levels.

CDCR has proposed that those eligible for the procedure have highly visible tattoos. They must also be nearing release to the community or have completed gang debriefing (a formal, multi-step gang disassociation process). Based on the number of members of these two groups, the CDCR estimates that as many as 3,032 people could receive treatment each fiscal year.

While tattoo removal at the two existing programs is done by a mobile tattoo removal unit, the CDCR has not yet determined how the procedures will be carried out in the additional facilities. A decision will be made once the vendors are selected.

The competitive bidding process begins this month. The procedure is an invitation for bid rather than a request for proposal. In an RFP, which is usually for new services and programs, bidders propose how they will deliver their services and the price they will charge. An IFB, on the other hand, gives information on the tattoo removal services and how they will be delivered. It then asks bidders to submit what it would cost them to provide those services.

Those who are interested can find out more information and submit a bid through the Cale Procure website. They can also contact the CDCR’s External Affairs Chief Khokhobashvili, at <Kristina.Khokhobashvili@cdcr.ca.gov> or 916-324-6508. The actual tattoo removal services will begin in January 2020.

CDCR will evaluate the program during year three of the four-year contract to determine its effectiveness. At that point, the department may request additional funding to continue the program and expand tattoo removal services to California’s remaining adult institutions.

Individuals who start their tattoo removal process on the inside but still require

additional treatments for completion once released may be able to find a free or low-cost tattoo removal program by checking out Jails to Jobs’ national directory of these programs.

Jails to Jobs is happy to offer a complimentary copy of our how-to guide for establishing such a program to any organization that plans to create a free or low-cost community-based tattoo removal program. Those interested can contact us to request a copy.

The locations where tattoo removal procedures will soon take place: Avenal State Prison, Central California Women’s Facility (Chowchilla), California Health Care Facility (Stockton), California Men’s Colony (San Luis Obispo), California State Prison-Corcoran, Deuel Vocational Institution (Tracy), Folsom State Prison (men’s), Kern Valley State Prison (Delano), Mule Creek State Prison (Ione), North Kern State Prison (Delano), Pleasant Valley State Prison (Coalinga), California State Prison-Sacramento, Substance Abuse Treatment Facility (Corcoran), Sierra Conservation Center (Jamestown), California State Prison-Solano, San Quentin State Prison, Salinas Valley State Prison (Soledad), Valley State Prison (Chowchilla) and Wasco State Prison.

No housing for returning citizens in California

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California released a record numbers of prisoners without an appropriate place for them to go. Often, the formerly incarcerated are put in programs that offer no real help for the problems they face.

The parole board grants parole, but a prisoner must show that he or she has a place to stay upon release; 80% of those released are placed in state funded or philanthropically supported transitional housing, according to an article in Mother Jones.

People are placed in drug programs when they don’t have drug problems and wind up living in conditions that resemble those in prison, reported Marissa Endicott.

Terah Lawyer, after 15 years in prison needed to show the parole board she had a place to stay upon release. She had already secured a job working for the California Coalition of Women Prisoners.

Her reentry placement turned out to be a drug treatment facility with strict schedules and restrictions requiring her to attend treatment classes that she did not need. In fact, she had become a certified drug counselor while in prison.

She had to delay starting her new job for 90 days due to the program’s restrictions..

“The whole process of transitioning was hindered and stalled. It handicapped me in in certain areas because I didn’t have that immediate exposure I needed to see what life was like out there,” Lawyer told Endicott.

Thousands of parolees are released each year, with stable housing being critical to their future success. Problems occur when home owners are reluctant to rent to them or allow placement of transitional housing in their neighborhood.

Few appropriate reentry options exist for those who have served long sentences, increasing the chance of former prisoners soon becoming homeless.

California is ground zero for this problem due to its lack of affordable housing. In the midst of criminal justice reform, California’s prison population has dropped by 25%. New reform laws implemented are putting more people back on the streets.

Between 2017 and 2018 there was a 7% increase in the number of lifers released, 25% increase in 3-strikes releases, a 48% increase in releases for people who were serving life without the possibility of parole, and 50% increase in releases for those who were once sentenced to death, according to Mother Jones.

It is a crisis within a crisis: the special housing needs of people released from prison while an affordable housing crisis spreads across the state. Crystal Wheeler, served 22 years, struggling with trauma issues from the years spent in prison and the mental and physical abuse by her husband.

With no family, her parole conditions mandated she stay in a re-entry housing program, a six-month program in Claremont Calif., which specialized in drug and alcohol treatment.

Despite her never having a drug or alcohol problem, Wheeler was forced to attend daily AA meetings at 6 a.m. “That time could have been better used for teaching us things that our husbands never let us do,” she said.

The department of corrections acknowledges shortcomings in re-entry housing and has a policy to reduce the number of people without drug problems ending up in drug treatment centers.

In 2016 the state allocated $10 million for re-entry services for people who had served long sentences, starting a six-month transitional housing program the following year.

By 2018, CDCR’s long term transitional housing had produced 257 facility beds. But, the demand continues to grow. According to Mother Jones, 902 people were paroled in 2014 and an estimated 20,500 long term incarcerated people will be up for a parole hearing in the next 10 years.

Facebook and CDCR join to stop criminal activity

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CA-DOCR Badge Patch

Facebook has policies in place to thwart inmates who use their system to harass, threaten or make unwanted sexual advances.

“Access to social media allows inmates to circumvent our monitoring process and continue to engage in criminal activity,” said former Secretary of Corrections Matthew Cate. “This new cooperation between law enforcement and Facebook will help protect the community and potentially avoid future victims.”

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), said that previously it was made aware that a convicted child molester had sent mail to his 17-year-old victim. This mail included current sketches of the girl although the offender had been in prison for seven years, according to an article by CNET News.

“Details of the victim, such as how she wore her hair and the brand of clothes she wore were accurate,” said CDCR.

CDCR’s investigation found that the inmate had a cell phone that he had used view the girl on Myspace and Facebook web pages. The offender then used this access to draw his pictures

As a result of this crime, Facebook’s security team is working with CDCR to prevent inmates from using their “user accounts” to threaten or harrass.

An inmate can have or

possess an account that was created prior to their incarceration. However, Facebook user policy prohibits users from sharing their password so that others can create posts on that account.

“If a state has decided that prisoners have forfeited their right to use the Internet, the most effective way to prevent access is to ensure prisons have the resources to keep smart phones and other devices out,” said Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes. “We will disable accounts reported to us that are violating relevant U.S. laws or regulations or inmate accounts that are updated by someone on the outside. We will also take appropriate actions against anyone who misuses Facebook to threaten or harass.”

SQN Johnson earns first Master’s Degree in 10 years

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Michael Johnson
Michael Johnson

Striving for a good education has its challenges for anyone, but for incarcerated students those trials and tribulations are greater. However, one incarcerated man has persevered and has become the first student to earn a Master’s of Business and Administration (MBA) degree at San Quentin State Prison in almost a decade.

Michael Johnson, 37, earned his MBA with an emphasis in “Leadership” from Adams State University of Colorado, where the motto is “Great stories start here!”

“He is the first guy to receive that level of a degree since I started overseeing the education department in 2013,” said Michael Wheeless, the principal of San Quentin’s education department. Wheeless is in charge of handling educational tasks and the overall education responsibilities, plus keeping track of who receives AA degrees and BA degrees.

There are other outside correspondence colleges active at San Quentin, as well as the Prison University Project that offers face-to-face classes and awards Associate Degrees upon graduation.

“For an incarcerated person to achieve any accomplishment in education is remarkable,” Wheeless said.

“Since Proposition 57 was implemented in November of 2016, there have been plenty of instances when inmates have earned time off their sentences for achieving AA and BA degrees, but this is the first time under the San Quentin rules of Prop.57 that I’ve seen a Master’s earned.”

Smiling while leaning back in his chair and beaming proudly, Wheeless continued,

“I’m impressed with Mr. Johnson’s educational achievement, at having earned an MBA degree while incarcerated. It means even more to have earned it while in prison rather than being on the streets.”

However, Johnson is modest about earning the MBA during his prison stay. Although he received his bachelor’s degree while at another prison, the challenges there were much greater to overcome.

“I treated my prison time as if I was away at college,” Johnson said, “I did my time and did not allow the time to do me.”

Johnson took such courses as Managerial Accounting and Business Management along with a laundry list of other business classes– and emerged triumphant.

He maintained a 3.86 grade point average, earning “A’s” and “B’s,” grades that he could not imagine earning back in Woodland, California where he was born.

“When I was in the fourth grade I could not even read; I was like in what they call, “slow learning classes,” said Johnson. He was a late starter and said that he actually started learning after he got to high school.

“I was determined to learn, though,” said Johnson.

Other SQ residents stopped by to congratulate Johnson even during this interview, but he modestly accepts compliments on his achievements from his peers. His wish is that he can encourage other guys in prison to pursue their dreams like he did.

Johnson understands the challenges an incarcerated person can face while in prison. During his humbling six year prison experience, Johnson was not always on the right path to education. It was a life-altering experience with a family member that sparked his desire of higher learning.

“My first year in prison my grandmother passed away,” Johnson recalls, “Her name was Mary Rita Moncrif. She was my inspiration to do better. She raised me and when she passed, it pained me that I could not be there for the funeral.”

He somberly sank back in his seat at the memory. So, in honor of her memory, Johnson wanted to do something that would make his grandmother proud of him. For Johnson, education was the best way to show his appreciation to his grandmother for raising him.

Throughout his life, Johnson has been familiar with loss in many other situations. Due to alcoholism he lost his wife and other assets. “Now I know how to appreciate the things that really matter in life, like family and loved ones, not the material things, the superficial things.”

He credits his Aunt Elizabeth for supporting him financially and helping him achieve his education goals.

“Feels good to be the first one to achieve this milestone at San Quentin,” Johnson said.. “I encourage other guys to go ahead and do it, too.

“If the government would focus more on education instead of just locking people up, I believe that would help communities out there a lot better.”

Ruling makes more prisoners eligible for parole hearings under Proposition 57

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A new court ruling makes more prisoners eligible for parole hearings, according to the Second Appellate District’s recent decision.

The ruling makes persons with violent convictions eligible for parole consideration under Prop. 57—if their crimes include a non-violent offense.

Previously, inmates with violent offenses were not given parole consideration even if they had a nonviolent offense that they were also serving time for. CDCR Title 15, subsection 3490(a) describes a “determinately-sentenced non-violent offender” through a system of exclusion. Six case factors are listed, which make an inmate ineligible for non- violent parole consideration. Factor #5 excludes an inmate from Prop. 57 eligibility if he or she is “currently serving a term of incarceration for a ‘violent felony.’”

The court’s ruling now al- lows violent offenders parole consideration if they were also convicted of a non-violent felony offense and had served the full term of their primary offense.

Mohammad Mohammad was convicted of nine counts of second degree robbery, which are violent felonies under PC 667.5©. He was also convicted of six counts of receiving stolen property, which are non-violent felonies. He was deemed ineligible for pa- role eligibility due to his violent felony convictions.

Mohammad filed an unsuccessful administrative appeal to grieve his lack of eligibility. He then filed a writ of habeas corpus with the superior court. It was denied. He then petitioned the court of appeals with a writ of habeas corpus arguing that he should be eligible for Prop. 57 parole due to his base term being a receiving stolen property conviction. His petition was granted.

Section 32(a)(1) of the California Constitution makes early parole hearings available to “any person convicted of a non-violent felony offense”

upon completion of “the full term of his or her primary offense.”

“The phrase ‘a’ nonviolent felony offense takes the singular form, which indicates it applies to an inmate so long as he or she commits ‘a’ single nonviolent felony offense-even if that offense is not his or her only offense,” the court of appeals stated in their Nov. 26 publication.

The court relied heavily upon the text of Prop. 57. The plain meaning of the law’s words compelled their decision.

New regulations are on the way. The Mohammed decision may set a precedent for cases throughout the state.

However, it’s important to note that just because a per- son is eligible for a parole hearing under this new interpretation of the law does not mean he will be paroled. The parole board will take into account that person’s full criminal history when determining whether he poses a risk to public safety.

Prison and Jail phones monitored by AI

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A new artificial intelligence (AI) system targets key words and phrases during monitored phone calls from inside prisons and jails, according to an ABC News article.

Sheriffs’ and wardens’ nationwide use AI technology to aid in unsolved crimes such as drug smuggling, attempted suicides and violence in real time.

Legally mandated warnings precede every phone call to inform the patrons their call is being recorded. A vast amount of inmates still reveals incriminating information, according to data given to ABC news by the technology company.

“If I got to stay longer than November…I’m killing all of them when I get out…and I mean it,” said one person during a phone call, according to the article.

Corrections officials in Alabama intercepted a phone call in which a prisoner instructed his wife on how to smuggle Suboxone, an opioid withdrawal aid, into the prison. He told her to first dilute it in water, then use a makeup brush to paint it on postcards to be mailed into the prison. This is just one of many situations in which inmates have made incriminating statements via a previously warned recorded call.

The AI systems in these cases utilized speech-recognition technology, semantic analytics and machine learning software. The system then builds an expanding database of searchable words, part of a global revolution in neural networks, the article stated.

The prison phone system is a $1.2 billion a year industry, according to data by the Prison Policy Initiative. It was also once used to track the locations of people called by the inmates until the U.S. Supreme court ruled that practice illegal.

“One of the biggest operational issues has been the lack of staffing to monitor every single call,”

LEO Technologies is the leader in this innovative technology and has its own investigation division outside of the prison system. This division feeds the databases with keywords, phrases and prison slang based on the region and area of the prison. LEO Technologies then promptly notifies its law enforcement partners if the system picks up phrasing or suspicious language. The technology is near real time and offers rapid response. The company states that it has thwarted dozens of attempted suicides the past two years over several states.

GTL and Securus, the nation’s two largest providers of phone service to prisons and jails, are developing their own call analytics technologies. LEO, which contracts with GTL, is operating in five U.S. states, according to company officials.

Prison pressing priorities are (1) controlling prison contraband, (2) inmate attacks on infrastructure security systems, and (3) unmonitored inmate communication. This data was provided by a National Institute of Justice study of our nation’s nearly 7,000 correctional institutions. The data was published this year by the RAND Corporation, according to the article.

“One of the biggest operational issues that has plagued this industry of automated inmate telephone recording has been the lack of staffing to monitor every single call,” said John Shaffer, a corrections technology expert. “And frankly, most inmate calls are innocuous.”

“There (have) been different approaches over the years,” he said. “I remember Walla Walla penitentiary out in the state of Washington used to have officers sitting there in the towers at night listening to inmate calls for hours and hours – and that was their solution. And it never really worked as an operational opportunity.”

LEO Technologies’ system can range in price, generally between $500,000 and $600,000 a year per 1,000 inmates monitored in the facility in which is installed.

Jails and prisons “are looking at this very seriously, and several are using it – trying to figure out the right balance and mix of human and technology,” said Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriff’s Association.

State to pay $1.5 million to family of prisoner who committed suicide

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California has agreed to pay $1.5 million to the family of Erika Rocha, whose prison suicide was deemed foresee- able and preventable, the Sacramento Bee reports.

“This is an acknowledgement that the system completely broke down when it came to providing the care that she needed,” said Lori Ritkin, an attorney on the federal court lawsuit.

Court records indicate that Rocha had eight suicide attempts between age 7 and 14, according to the Aug. 18 article.

“The entire leadership team of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) from the secretary all the way down to the warden of this particular prison had known for decades that her mental health especially at California Institute for Women (CIW) at Corona, Calif., was below standard, and they chose not to address it,” said Ritkin.

Erika’s troubled youth stemmed from her mother not being in the home, and her father was incarcerated. She lived with various family members and was moved into foster care due to sexual abuse by a family member.

At age 15 in 1996 she shot and wounded the woman that was running the group home where she lived.

She was sentenced to 19 years negotiated plea sentence for attempted murder. During her time in prison, she attempted suicide many times, the newspaper reported. Her suicide watch on March 31, 2016 lasted only one day, in lieu of the procedurally required five-day step-down, according to the Bee.

Prison mental health physicians diagnosed Rocha as hav- ing a number of mental health ailments including antisocial personality disorder, psychotic disorder, and major depressive disorder, according to the lawsuit.

Rocha’s behavior seemed to escalate as she was reported punching a locker. Erika also refused to take her prescribed medication and fought with her cellmate, according to the article.

“Mom on my way home when you pick me up, I want you to take me to a park, and I want you to push me in the swings and roll me in the grass”

In the opinion of Erika’s mother, she didn’t seem suicidal and was looking forward to coming home.

“When I saw Erika at one point and she was talking about coming home,” said Linda Reza, her mother. “She told me, ‘Mom on my way home when you pick me up,

I don’t care where, but just somewhere along the way I want you to take me to a park, and I want you to push me in the swings and roll me in the grass,’” said Reza.

“By doing the settlement so early in the case, before we even went through discovery and for this much money, they know they failed my sister,” said a sister, Geraldine Rocha. “It wasn’t really about the $1.5 million; that really doesn’t do anything for us mentally or emotionally.”

“The exact amount of the settlement is $1,501,500, which includes $1,500 the family wanted to pay for a swing set to be built in Las Flores Park in La Verne,” said her stepmother, Linda Reza.

They would like a message engraved on a plaque at the swing that states, “In loving honor of Erika Rocha, Nov. 7, 1980, to April 14, 2016,” ac- cording to the article.

Advocates launch #MeTooBehindBars for those incarcerated

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Crowd of participants bringing awareness to #MeTooBehindBars

Sexual violence and transphobia in prisons are still taboo topics of discussion, even in the midst of some prison reform efforts nationwide.

But a group of victims/survivors and advocates launched the #MeTooBehindBars campaign that aims to influence the #MeToo movement and to include the voices of those incarcerated who have or are suffering from sexual harassment or sexual abuse.

This new campaign has found its way to the steps of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) office in Sacramento. An Oct. 30 protest was held to raise the awareness of transgender, gender nonconforming (GNC) and queer people’s plight within the state prison system, according to the Young Women’s Freedom Center and California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) advocacy groups.

Nghia from Survived & Punished speaking at the event

Advocates arrived in front of the building in vans. The participants arranged themselves in a circle and laid out the words “Me Too” on the ground and lined them with flowers. Many of the speakers shared their stories of being sexually assaulted behind bars, as each spoke from the building steps.

“There is so much violence against trans women inside. The culture is to blame women for the violence,” said Attorney Jen Orthwein, who represents transgender women in California’s men prisons, to SQ News.

“Many of the women I’ve worked with are gone. There was Allie, who was sliced in her neck and placed in solitary confinement. Her cellmate was constantly harassing her, and she begged to be moved.

Sister Warriors advocate letting her voice be heard

“Another one of my clients was beaten by cellmates and correctional officers, then…a noose was left in her cell. She was denied surgery and committed suicide the next day,” added Orthwein.

In a call and response cry of “Me Too,” “behind bars” activists walked in a circle chanting and holding protest signs.

“I was harassed and sexually harassed because I was GNC,” said Stacy Rojas, who is formerly incarcerated and spoke at the rally. “People thought they could make me want to be a woman or show me that I am.

Participant holding up sign to free Kinzie Noordman

“From the very beginning of me stepping foot in jail and having them telling me to put on a dress—it’s all in the way they say it, the way they tell me to turn around and spread it. [They would] laugh at me. They would tell me that they would make me like it.

“There was so much sexual violence because of me being masculine presenting and being GNC,” Rojas added.

Rojas understands the importance of speaking out and bringing awareness to the #MeTooBehindBars movement.

“It’s not just my story, believe me. I have friends who would not speak out at first. They’re embarrassed and ashamed,” said Rojas. “Now they’re standing up next to me screaming it out. It’s not that we’re happy, but we’re not going to…keep secret(s) anymore. I want them [people in authority] to understand that sexual assault happens, period.

“[It] runs so deep—trans women are looked at in a f@#ked up way,” reflects Rojas. “Toxic patriarchal men look at them and are upset that they believe in their heads that they are men and can’t believe that they want to be a woman.

“They can’t understand what trans is at all,” said Rojas.

Young Women Freedom Center’s Amita Mota and Stacy Rojas at the event

Victims of sexual assault in prisons are encouraged to report incidents to their state’s correctional internal affairs department—this includes if someone has been threatened with sexual assault or has experienced retaliation for reporting an incident, according to PREA posters within U.S. prisons.

In 2003, the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was signed into law. The goal was to create a zero tolerance policy around rape in prison. To date, San Quentin, along with most state or federal prisons in the nation, has PREA posters on the walls in all areas of the institution.

The “Shine the Light on Sexual Abuse” posters provide telephone numbers and addresses for reporting incidents. The phone numbers accept collect calls from incarcerated people.

SQ News has received mixed responses about PREA’s effectiveness. Some people reported that it worked and others said they experienced some form of retaliation or no action was taken for their claims.

There have been various lawsuits filed against correctional departments nationwide, including CDCR. Also there are ongoing investigations into abuse claims by correctional departments, according to some court filing records.

Changing a culture of violence toward the LGBTQ community within prisons is one of the main priorities of the protestors.

YWFC member speaking

“When you hear about sexual assault in the workplace, everyone is freaking out about it and saying that this has to stop. People are appalled while they are watching [it on] the news,” said Rojas. “But there’s thousands of people who can’t complain at all.

“You’re stuck in a place where nobody worries about you. There are thousands of people going through this and it’s kept a secret.”

Madeleine Gregory, a student at UC Berkeley, contributed to this article.

SB 136 goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020

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Oct. 8, the Repeal Ineffective Sentence Enhancements (RISE) Coalition celebrated Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature on SB 136: The RISE Act. The legislation, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), dismantles a sentence enhancement that adds an extra year to an individual’s base sentence for each prior prison or felony jail term they already served.

“Our coalition has been doing work to reduce the state’s budget on Corrections for the last 15 years. Draconian sentencing policies, like enhancements for prior convictions, have been key in filling the 33 prisons we have in California, wasting resources and tearing families apart,” said Amber-Rose Howard, Statewide Coordinator at Californians United for a Responsible Budget.

Consistent with disparities at every other stage of the criminal legal system, individuals, communities and families of color are disproportionately burdened by the one-year enhancement, proponents of SB 136 state.

“This is about moving toward more justice for incarcerated people and their families and righting the wrongs from California’s draconian sentencing laws that disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities,” said Emily Harris, Policy Manager of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. “We know that this one-year sentence enhancement does not make our communities safer or deter crime, but tears families apart. Reining in this enhancement will help ease the emotional and economic toll that this has taken on incarcerated Californians and their loved ones.”

According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), there were more than 15,000 counts of the one-year sentence enhancement added to incarcerated individuals’ base sentences as of December 2018. This is a conservative estimate, as the CDCR’s assessment does not consider felony jail terms served at local county jails. California currently spends more than $80,000 each year to imprison an individual.

“Every year a parent spends incarcerated causes significant trauma to their child. Children with incarcerated parents are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, poor academic performance, school absenteeism/drop out, poverty, homelessness and physical health problems. We are proud to have the support of Governor Newsom on SB 136, it’s divestment from punishment,” said Romarilyn Ralston, Policy Director with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. “The majority of incarcerated women have children under the age of 18. Every year a mother spends away from a child has layers of collateral consequences. I am proud to be part of this historic effort and know our incarcerated mothers will be returned to their children sooner rather than later, said Ralston.”

The one-year enhancement addressed by SB 136 is but one among a myriad of enhancements available under California law. The new law will not alter an individual’s base sentence for their current felony charge or change any of the longer enhancements designed to further punish people.

SB 136 goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

# # #

SB 136 is sponsored by the RISE Coalition, which is comprised of the ACLU of California, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Californians United for a Responsible Budget, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Friends Committee on Legislation of California, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Pillars of the Community, and Tides Advocacy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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