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As part of a 1961 class project, a Stanfrd student named Ted Koppel, age 21, went inside San Quentin to study the U.S. criminal justice system. And 57 years later, he came back, this time as a correspondent with CBS Sunday Morning. “It’s that we incarcerate more people than any other nation,” Koppel said referring to the high incarceration rate in the United States (700 prisoners per 100,000 population). He added, “That seems to be contradictory to who we are as a nation. The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population. However, 25 percent … [Read more...] about CBS’ Ted Koppel visits Ear Hustle

The audience cried and laughed with recent graduates of the Restoring Our Original True Selves (ROOTS) program as they told stories of healing generations of intergenerational trauma and jokes. “For a lot of groups coming from refugee and war-torn situations that have strong disconnections with the generations before them, intergeneration trauma is definitely one of the keys to healing,” ROOTS Facilitator Roger “The Professor” Chung said. ROOTS is an Asian Pacific Islander culture awareness group that focuses on teaching intergenerational … [Read more...] about ROOTS graduates learn inter-generational trauma

Eleven inmates graduated from the first Culinary Arts Management program at Folsom Women’s Facility. Vincent Moralez, supervisor of the program, and Jason Doolittle, adjunct professor and executive chef, started the program in 2017 and taught their students everything from serving to cooking, as well as restaurant management, reported The Folsom Telegraph. “It feels amazing and gratifying to finish the program because it makes me feel like I can accomplish anything,” said Cherish Velez, class participant.    The women are taught by … [Read more...] about Women complete culinary program

Individual states of the U.S., along with the federal government, lead the world in putting women behind bars, according to a 2017 report by the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI). Women in the U.S. represent only 5 percent of the world’s female population, but account for nearly 30 percent of the world’s imprisoned women, cites the report, titled The States of Women’s Incarceration: The Global Context , by Aleks Kajstura and Russ Immarigeon of the Prison Policy Initiative. “Across the globe, the 25 jurisdictions with the highest rates of … [Read more...] about United States leads world in locking up women

In a small classroom with popular catch phrases like Think Different and Believe in the Process on its walls, about two dozen San Quentin prisoners waited for a surprise guest—the world-renowned, once top cyclist, Lance Armstrong. “I’ve never been in jail. But I know what it’s like to run afoul of the system,” Armstrong said, on Jan. 11, to inmates enrolled in a highly touted computer coding program. Venture capitalists Beverly Parenti and Chris Redlitz created Code.7370 in conjunction with the California Department of Corrections and … [Read more...] about Code.7370 host Lance Armstrong

The holiday spirit enriched the Main Visiting Room for five days in December. For two consecutive weekends, the fully decorated seven-foot Christmas tree was the busiest place at San Quentin. Inmates and their families took pictures in front of it. For the 29th consecutive year, Marines from the San Bruno Recruitment Station donated toys for children of inmates at the prison. This year, the veterans at San Quentin put out over 500 toys for the kids, the biggest donation received in the last six years, said Gary Cooper, president of the San … [Read more...] about Veterans’ 29th annual Toys-for-Tots giveaway