GO HERE TO SEE SAN QUENTIN NEWS & WALL CITY MERCHANDISE! Buy a mug, t-shirt, tote bag or sticker and support the San Quentin News and Wall City magazine. Inmates at San Quentin strive to report on rehabilitative efforts to increase public safety and achieve social justice. Net proceeds of merchandise sales go to Friends of San Quentin News via the Social Good Fund and support the inmate journalism programs. Merchandise purchases are not tax deductible. To make a tax deductible donation, click here to give directly to Friends of … [Read more...] about San Quentin News & Wall City Merchandise
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A’s shipwreck Sacramento Pirates seniors, 8-4
Strong pitching by the San Quentin A’s easily knocked off the visiting Sacramento Pirates 8-4 in a late July contest. The game marks the first visit for the Pirates, who are part of the Sacramento Senior Men’s League for those 35 and over. “I’ve never been to or visited a prison before,” said Dan Martinez, Pirates head coach. “But it was a great opportunity to come to San Quentin to play ball. It was surreal. I didn’t know everybody was going to be so open.” The A’s ace pitcher J. “Duey” Dumont dismantled the Pirates’ batting core with … [Read more...] about A’s shipwreck Sacramento Pirates seniors, 8-4
Blues musician Maxx Cabello rocks the yard
Maxx Cabello Jr.’s guitar wizardry entertained San Quentin’s Lower Yard June 23, as the visiting blues musician and singer debuted his new “Tattoos and Blues” album. The performer has traveled the world and opened for musical legends like B.B. King and Earth, Wind and Fire. Cabello’s magnetic notes cut through San Quentin’s hyperactive weekend activities ― the usual outdoor workouts and basketball games. The energetic music drew small groups of prisoners to Cabello on the stage, as though he were the Pied Piper. “I hope I have inspired … [Read more...] about Blues musician Maxx Cabello rocks the yard
Former inmate develops “prison instagram”
Marcus Bullock discovered a wealth of entrepreneurial insights during his time behind bars. His prison experiences inspired him to create Flikshop—an innovative app that helps incarcerated people remain close to their loved ones. Flikshop takes any image sent from a cellphone and turns it into a postcard that the inmate will receive through regular mail. “We are called the Instagram of prison,” Bullock recently told San Quentin News. “We keep families connected.” “We want to ensure a person in every cell receives mail every day,” he said. … [Read more...] about Former inmate develops “prison instagram”
The 100th Edition of San Quentin News
As San Quentin News celebrates its 100th published edition since the newspaper was revived in 2008, the paper’s history is not well known to most of its readers. The News has a predecessor. It’s Wall City News, a publication started at San Quentin in the 1920s. It ran until the mid-1930s before it ceased operation. Several years later, Warden Clinton T. Duffy had an idea. In his book, The San Quentin Story, he wrote, “The grapevine throbbed with weird gossip ... I decided that the obvious answer, if we could swing it, would be a regular … [Read more...] about The 100th Edition of San Quentin News
CBS’ Ted Koppel visits Ear Hustle
As part of a 1961 class project, a Stanford 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 impact on children of incarcerated parents
An audience of fathers at San Quentin State Prison cried as they watched the screening of a film that showed the impact on children when their parents go to prison. “I almost broke down three times,” San Quentin News staffer De'jon Joy said. “My boys are tattooed on my hand; I’ve been in the visiting room with my sons and on the other side of GTL (Global Tel Link, the prison collect-call phone system company). I feel like you were telling my life story. The film was perfect.” The movie is called Tre Maison Dasan: A Story of Boyhood Marked … [Read more...] about The impact on children of incarcerated parents
Grammy award winning Zuill Bailey performs in SQ
A Grammy Award-winning cellist, Zuill Bailey, performed an hour-long concert at San Quentin State Prison’s Protestant Chapel. Bailey is considered one of the premier cellists in the world, and yet he decided to play before an audience of prisoners, staff and volunteers in a place where few artists have ever set foot. After achieving so much renown, Bailey visited the prison on April 27 to share his music with men who rarely partake of the fine arts. “It’s very special to be here,” said Bailey. “I’m looking forward to sharing this kind of … [Read more...] about Grammy award winning Zuill Bailey performs in SQ
ROOTS Solidarity Run helps spirits of the community
While community volunteers ran in the Oakland Run Festival to raise money for an ethnic studies program at San Quentin State Prison, 33 incarcerated men ran in solidarity with them. The Asian Prisoner’s Support Community (APSC) ran to raise funds for the Restoring Our Original True Selves (ROOTS) program on March 24 and 25. “Our community and volunteers, in their free time, ran to raise money for us,” Kevin “K” Neang, the ROOTS incarcerated chairman, said. “Let us show solidarity and run with them.” The 33 incarcerated participants completed … [Read more...] about ROOTS Solidarity Run helps spirits of the community
Queeny King performs at SQ
At age 8, singer-song writer Queeny King sang in a Soviet Union prison. In March, she performed at San Quentin State Prison. Dressed in black bell-bottom pants with buttons along the side and wearing a black blazer with a shiny brown blouse, King put on a look that, on its face, could have been interpreted as belonging to rock, goth, punk or the pop genre of music. It became obvious none of that was her once the music played and she started singing. King’s song Run for the Hills opened the early evening performance with DJ Kraig (Frank Tyler) … [Read more...] about Queeny King performs at SQ