Dante Callegari has announced his retirement after training hundreds of San Quentin inmates in modern construction technology (MCT).
The announcement came Aug. 28 at the graduation for the first class of the job-readiness program called RISE.
“We do a lot here at San Quentin to teach job skills,” Warden Ron Davis said at the event. “There’s Dante’s program, coding and the machine shop. There’s a lot we do here to give you guys the skills to get a job and stay out.”
RISE aims to prepare incarcerated people how to interview for vocational jobs. However, it’s instructors like Callegari who give the men the training they need to be job-ready.
Last March, Chris Deragon walked out of San Quentin to a job at Community Housing Partnership with former San Quentin residents Dave Basile and Duane Holt. All three completed Callegari’s course.
“Every day we tell ourselves we don’t want to be in prison anymore,” Deragon said. “So we do our best to stay out. It’s the work that I did inside that’s prepared me for what I’m doing right now.”
Deragon said that Callegari’s presence was “like a father,” adding, “The opportunity to learn from him has fundamentally changed my life.” Deragon spent 22 years incarcerated.
Holt paroled from San Quentin about two years ago after spending more than two decades behind bars.
“When I was in Dante’s class, I learned work ethics,” Holt said. “Now I work with an at-risk population, like the homeless. I use the tools I learned in here every day out there to make myself successful.”
Claudius Winfrey, another successful Callegari student, accompanied Holt and Deragon.
Sean Luigs, owner of ELITE Supply Co., came to San Quentin about five years ago and met Callegari to “bridge the gap from inside here to outside there.”
Luigs and his business partner, Jon Schultz, created Ready Individuals for Successful Employment (RISE.)
Darrel Smith, 57, is a RISE graduate. He’s currently enrolled in Titans of CNC Academy, a Computer Numerical Control vocational machine shop.
“I learned how to refine my interview skills,” Smith said. “The biggest thing I learned is how to be prepared and have confidence,” he said.
After completing RISE, Andrew Wadsworth said, “I learned to speak from the heart. I don’t care what words you use, if it’s not from the heart, then it’s not real. The program is about you being yourself — about being human. This curriculum is so special.”
Schultz says the most valuable thing inmates learn is a good attitude, which makes the programs worth the money invested in them “Most of the folks are average normal guys, who I’d have beer with on the weekend,” he added.
Referring to the vocational job skills the men learned, Schultz said, “It’s not what would you expect. They go from not knowing anything to practicing and using their skills.”
Chris Martini of Central Sanitary Supply in Modesto learned about the RISE program and wanted to participate.
“I keep saying that I feel like I’m learning more than I’m helping,” Martini said. “The environment is fantastic. The program is very relevant to success and transitioning. Ultimately, the people I’ve met and everyone who wants to be in the program is so eager to learn. “I would absolutely, hire some of these men.”
“Interviewing for a job and making a resume are skills just as important as the skills in the programs,” Warden Davis said.
Deragon told the inmates, “Every day I get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and work till 6 p.m. It’s hard and frustrating, but I ask myself. Would I like to be frustrated out there or in here?”
Referring to Deragon, Warden Davis said, “Keep doing good, guys and you can be sitting right here with this cat.”
The RISE graduates were Darrel Smith, Kevin Sample, Andrew Wadsworth, Marco Villa, Juan Gonzalez, Ricky Gaines, Thang Tran and Tare Beltranchuc.
Common visits SQ music program
David Jassy playing music for Common and guests Hip-hop artist Rashid “Common” Lynn heard about the positive music being produced from prison by David Jassy, a Grammy-nominated Swedish rapper and producer, and came into San Quentin to meet about a collaborative project.
“He has a genuine interest in prison reform,” Jassy said. “They heard about the YOP mixtape and they have ideas they want to discuss.”
The YOP mixtape, produced by Jassy, showcases the raw voices of young incarcerated rappers rhyming about their truths, without glorifying violence or cursing.
“Their raps feel real to me,” Common said. “Their struggle resonates.”
Jassy and Common plan to produce a new project working with Now #Cut50, an organization dedicated to reducing the prison population, and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC).
“We want the voices from in here to be heard outside — through artwork, music and storytelling,” Common said. “When we get the word out, people will see humanity and our truth.”
Common, a Chicago native, is a hip-hop icon, actor and activist. He’s won two Grammys (2003 Best R&B Song, 2007 Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group) plus a 2015 Golden Globe award for Best Original song (“Glory”). He’s also done several movies: “Aces,” with Alicia Keys, and “American Gangster,” with Denzel Washington, among many others.
Now he works with Scott Budnick, the “Hangover” movie producer, on a project called Imagine Justice.
Budnick, founder of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), brought Common into several California prisons including Calipatria, Ironwood and Lancaster. He also performed at Folsom.
“When people see the humanity in our brothers and sisters locked up, they get to see human beings who made mistakes,” he said. “I think that’s important for our society.”
On Aug. 2, for the first time, Common visited San Quentin with Budnick and Jessica Sloan (Cut50), among others, to meet with Jassy.
“It was a productive meeting. I’m excited to see what it leads to,” Jassy said.
Sloan added, “We have a shared goal of elevating the voices of people inside and showing the incredible talent behind bars.”
“Dear prison, you’ve been stealing my time for too long …”
After the meeting, he had a prison tour by Public Information Officer Lt. Sam Robinson, who came to work in the middle of his vacation. He saw a cellblock, the inside of a cell, a chow hall, the exercise yard and the media center.
As he walked through the Lower Yard on his way to the media center, incarcerated fans greeted him. He took time to acknowledge each person.
He signed autographs and posed for pictures taken by an incarcerated journalist, with the permission of the prison officials.
As Common walked past the basketball court, he was challenged to a game of one-on-one and he accepted. Displaying the dribbling skills of an NBA point guard, he took San Quentin’s former Warrior Blade Kittrell-Leaks to the hole, but missed the shot.
Kittrell-Leaks, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound North Richmond native, kept his body on Common, playing tough defense. Common responded in kind. It took several shot attempts before he nailed a short-range shot for the win. The home crowd cheered for him.
Inside the media center, he was treated to a performance of “Break the Mold,” written and performed by Eric “Maserati E” Abercrombie. On the spot, Common added a freestyle verse.
“We can break the mold, don’t let the prison take control, God has the goal …,” Common rapped.
“That was dope,” Jassy said. “That was real freestyle, off the dome. Common is a true MC.”
Next San Quentin’s Gregg Sayers performed a soulful R&B song: “Dear prison, you’ve been stealing my time for too long …”
Sayers talked about his motivation for song-writing. “If you have a way of getting someone to listen, what do you have to say?”
Common talked about how he started visiting prisons. Budnick came to his concerts for seven years trying to get Common to come inside a prison, but Common resisted. The socially conscious rapper said he focused on trying to stop gun violence on the streets of Chicago. But Budnick remained persistent. When it clicked that everything is tied to the prison system, he decided to join him.
In order fix the system, Common said, you have to involve the people in the struggle because they know best how to solve issues that affect them the most.
“It has to be defined by the people from there,” Common said.
“I grew up listening to Common. ‘I Used to Love Her’ was one of my favorite songs,” Jassy said.
Common has an album out with Robert Glasper called “August Greene” and he’s working on a film called “The Hate You Give,” based on a poem by Tupac.
The YOP mixtape is awaiting clearance from the prison administration for its release.
https://sanquentinnews.com/21st-century-programs-graduate-apprentices/
29 years in prison is enough for Mike Webb
Mike Webb at Kid CAT banquet
After six parole hearings and 29 years in prison, Mike Webb, a beloved Kid CAT member, was found suitable for parole.
“Mike Webb is one of the most compassionate and committed persons that I know,” said Charlie Spence, Kid CAT Chairman. “We will all miss him very much, because he has been such a positive impact in our group and in this community.”
The youngest of three children, Webb was born and raised in Los Angeles by his single mother.
“Growing up without a father was tough,” he says. “I didn’t have anyone I could turn to, to learn how to be a man.”
At the age of 5, Webb’s father left his family to be with another woman and her kids, which left him with deep insecurities and resentments.
“My life began to spiral out of control when my father left,” Webb says. “When he left, I felt rejected and that I wasn’t worthy of his love.”
From the ages of 5 to 10, his grandfather tried to fill the role of a father.
“The only thing that kept me going was my grandfather,” he says. “But when he got murdered, I just gave up on life and sunk into depression and became numb.”
The absence of a paternal figure led to behavioral problems and expulsion from 10 different schools.
“I became very destructive and took my anger out on other kids at school,” he says.
When Webb got into his teens, he turned to the streets.
“I wanted things that my mother couldn’t provide for me, so I started robbing individuals in the neighborhood,” he says. “Robbing people gave me a sense of power and control that I didn’t have in my own life and I became addicted to that power.”
His addiction to robbery would result in a murder during a botched carjacking.
“Four days after committing my crime, I was arrested for first-degree murder-robbery,” he says.
After being convicted, Webb was sentenced to 25 years-to-life at the age of 19.
“I didn’t know what 25 years-to-life meant,” he says. “When it finally sank in, I didn’t think I was ever going to get out.”
In prison, Webb continued the same behavior.
“When I came to prison, my mentality was that I wasn’t going to be no punk or victim, so I victimized others,” he says. “I would run into people’s cell and take their properties, clothes, canteen and jewelry.”
In 1997, Webb was sent to solitary confinement for extorting people.
Over the course of his incarceration, Webb accumulated seven write-ups ranging from disobeying staff to inmate battery.
In 2002, Webb had an intervention at the behest of his building officer.
“The C.O.s asked my cellmate to talk to me, because I was out of control,” Webb says. “So my cellie sat me down and talked to me like he was my father and told me that if I ever wanted to get out of prison, I needed to change, and that he would help me.
“That’s when I started to change my behavior and started attending Alcoholics Anonymous, which I still continue till this day.”
But the change for Webb didn’t come easy; his past would repeatedly come back to haunt him.
“From my first board appearance in 2004 to the next four hearings in 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016, my extortion charges in 1997 played a role in me being denied parole,” Webb says.
Taking the lessons he had learned, he would often share his testimony with the youths he interacts with.
“I mentor at-risk youths through a program here called Real Choices, and I also write for The Beat Within, a youth publication,” Webb says.
Through his job assignment in Receiving and Release, Webb shares his experience with newly arrived young prisoners.
“I try to help them understand the consequences of their decisions that they make here in prison and the impact it can have on their families because of those choices,” he says.
“Today, I realize that I not only harmed my family, but the choices I made have also caused irreparable harm to my victims and community.”
On March 8 Webb was found suitable for parole.
Parole Date Cancellations By Governor Devastate Prisoners and Families
High Desert Prison warden sets the record straight
SQN Associate Editor Kevin Sawyer interviews Spearman in the SQ Media Center
By some accounts, High Desert State Prison is one of California’s most notorious penitentiaries. Warden Marion E. Spearman wants to clear up that impression. He argues that the prison, its staff and inmates have undergone change. It’s no longer a prison that just houses young men with youth management problems.
“There’s a new vision and mission for High Desert State Prison,” Spearman said. “The staff lives up to that (challenge).”
According to Spearman, High Desert is now about rehabilitation, a safe environment, healthcare, teaching skill sets, reintegration into communities, and reducing recidivism.
“SNY [Sensitive Needs Yard] …comprises roughly half the California prison system,” according to Lody Lewn in the Prison University Project Spring 2018 Newsletter Volume 13, No.1
Spearman said he’s proud of the work his staff has been doing to eradicate the culture of violence at the Susanville prison, located in the Sierras.
“The old High Desert is eroding away,” Spearman said.
Spearman said inmate-on-inmate stabbings and use of force incidences involving correctional officers have been on the decline.
“That’s going away,” he said.
The year before Spearman arrived, there were three inmate-on-inmate homicides. The following year there were four. In 2017 there were none.
Spearman said over the last year, High Desert has launched rehabilitative programs in its different facilities. Because of that, he said some inmates have “tapped out” of involvement with criminal behavior in the prison.
“When a man has hope, he tends to carefully evaluate his decisions in prison,” Spearman said. “These (inmates) do want to avail themselves to whatever they can do to be a good person.”
“We want more productive programs,” Spearman added. “I’m appealing to anyone who would like to give back or help those incarcerated—any entrepreneurs in California or the United States.”
He also said he wants people on the outside to help him facilitate the rehabilitation of maximum security inmates.
“I’m looking for that,” Spearman said. “Call me at 530-251-5100, extension 5050 or send me an email at marion.spearman@cdcr.ca.gov.”
In December 2015, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a 120-page report on the prison. The report described claims of misconduct by staff, such as overt racism and excessive use of force on inmates.
The California Senate Committee on Rules ordered the OIG report after numerous complaints were filed by inmates.
“I don’t think anyone expected it (the report) to be as scathing as it was,” Hans Hemann, chief of staff for Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, told the Los Angeles Times.
The OIG concluded that the misconduct by staff was traced to a small percentage of active participants, many of whom were currently under investigation.
Spearman didn’t dispute the OIG report, but added that 90 percent of the inmates at High Desert want to do their time and go home. He said it’s the other 10 percent who continue to engage in criminal activity, weapons and contraband.
When the OIG released its report, then-California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary Jeffrey Beard said in a written statement, “We do not tolerate staff misconduct of any kind and will take appropriate action to hold all employees accountable.”
“I’m appealing to anyone who would like to give back or help those incarcerated—any entrepreneurs”
The Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) also looked at High Desert. Its findings were later submitted to CDCR as a 115-page report in September 2016.
“It is widely believed among High Desert staff that the warden (Spearman) was sent to High Desert to fire people,” the report said. “That belief was reinforced when he terminated several employees shortly after he arrived.”
Spearman, however, was “carrying out decisions that had been made well before he came on the scene,” the ASCA report said.
“High Desert has had 15 wardens in the 21 years of its operation,” the ASCA report said. “This turnover at the top has left the staff without a clear sense of direction, and in particular unaware of the change toward rehabilitation in the Department’s mission.”
“A leader can have a vision, but if staff doesn’t embrace it, it won’t work,” Spearman said. “Staff have made it work. They’ve embraced the rehabilitation concept.”
He said they’re no longer focused on “just housing youth with management problems.”
According to the ASCA report, “Several senior staff commented that they like the Warden’s style much more than that of his predecessors.”
However, the ASCA report noted that some staff felt “betrayed because (CDCR) headquarters did not respond more defensively to the OIG report.” Some example of comments in that report were:
“Shame on HQ for not defending us.”
“We do our best to maintain the line between order and anarchy and are criticized for it.”
“We’re seen as evil and are being attacked and our leaders aren’t defending us.”
“I took the OIG report personally both as a community member and an HDSP officer, and I’m really pissed that there was no public response from HQ.”
“It really hurt and upset staff bad,” Spearman said of the OIG report.
“In March of 2016, CDCR Secretary Scott Kernan requested ASCA to conduct its independent assessment of High Desert,” the report said. “The request was based in part on conflicting reports Secretary Kernan had received from his agency and stakeholder groups.”
After the ASCA report was published, San Quentin News erroneously reported that the negative findings about High Desert came from the ASCA report when, in fact, some of those findings were made by the OIG report. The following month, San Quentin News published a correction.
SQN Editor in Chief Richard Richardson with Spearman at the Garden Chapelpractices.
Since then, Spearman has been on a mission to set the record straight, not only to defend his staff but the institution, the prisoners who want to program, and the Susanville community.
Spearman became Warden of CTF Soledad in 2012. On January 18, 2016, he accepted a lateral transfer to High Desert. Spearman holds a BA and MA in criminology from California State University Fresno.
Spearman said he has requested the OIG to do a follow-up review on the prison and welcomes the outcome, because things have changed during his time as Warden at High Desert State Prison.
http://sanquentinnews.com/the-100th-edition-san-quentin-news/
http://sanquentinnews.com/100th-edition-celebration-recognizes-san-quentin-news-community/
Blues musician Maxx Cabello rocks the yard
Maxx Cabello performing on the Lower 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 people to change,” Cabello said. “I wanted to share my story and hear other people’s stories. Ultimately, I hope I’ve put smiles on people’s faces.”
Cabello started his one-hour set with the song “House of the Rising Sun,” accompanied by his brother Alex Cabello on bass and drummer Steward Burr. San Quentin’s own Lee Jaspar and Wilbur “Rico” Rogers joined the band and showcased why they are some of the prison’s premier musicians.
Steward Burr on the drums
Jaspar’s guitar playing went string-for-string with Maxx’s skills. Rogers added a spacey sound as he worked the keyboard.
“That’s where you get your best music,” San Quentin music program member Terry Slaughter said. “They did a good job. That was all impromptu. They didn’t even rehearse together.”
Maxx moved from blues to rock with ease as he performed the song “Rock and Roll.” His fingers danced round the guitar frets, creating piercing computer-type sounds. The crowd cheered, stomped their feet and bobbed their heads to the music.
One inmate danced uncontrollably to Burr’s drum solo. Maxx and Jasper traded guitar licks and riffs back-and-forth, reminiscent of the movie “Crossroads” where the star battles the devil for his soul.
“We grew up playing music,” Alex said. “Both our parents are musicians. Coming here was all positive. I have family that been through the system. I believe everybody deserves a second or third chance.”
Maxx had the audience singing along to his song “Keep on Pushing.” The record touches on life struggles and the warnings of his mother.
“Sometimes life might get you down, but you got to keep on pushing,” Maxx sang. “Mama said there will be days like this. Keep on pushing to the sky, keep on pushing till the day I die.”
Maxx slowed the music down and performed “Tattoos and Blues,” a song about a failed relationship.
“Baby, please don’t treat me like you do,” he crooned. “All you left me with is these tattoos and blues.”
Maxx then pointed to his numerous examples of body art to the cheers from the crowd. He masterfully ran his fingers up and down the body of the guitar with speed and care. He played the instrument over his head, drawing more applause.
“I grew up on Brentwood and Jimmy Hendrix,”Maxx said. “Music helps you connect with people; there’s no color in music.”
Cabello signing autographs after the show
Maxx changed the tempo to a reggae baseline for “Baby Let’s Run Away.” He performed “Johnny B. Goode,” the Chuck Berry classic. Then he closed the show with an instrumental rendition of “Amazing Grace,” reminiscent of Jimmy Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner.”
Maxx sat down on a stool and played the tune with the guitar in his lap. The melody had a New Orleans blues vibe mixed with heavy metal riffs. The crowd swayed back and forth, connecting with each beautiful sound.
“Take them to church,” one spectator yelled.
Maxx added, “Always give thanks to the man above. Thank you, Jesus.”
Maxx shook hands and signed autographs before leaving. As the group drove away with San Quentin’s music program sponsor Raphaele Casale, the audience could sense the sadness and the joy — that the day had been more than a yard show. It was an experience.
For more photos see below.
Former inmate develops “prison instagram”
Marcus Bullock in prison
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 cell phone 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. “When I was in prison, I understood that getting mail was like winning the lottery.”
With the help of prison reform advocate John Legend and his partnership with Unlocked Futures, Flikshop now reaches inmates throughout all 50 states, with 40 percent of its revenue coming from California.
“John Legend is an avid Flikshop user and investor,” Bullock explained. “Sitting down with him, you have the opportunity to hear his experience with the criminal justice system.
“He (Legend) is very adamant about people coming out of these cells having the same opportunities as those who come out of college.”
“It’s been proven that inmates that are in constant contact with their families and friends are far more likely to successfully re-enter their communities upon release,” Flikshop states on its website. “These inmates feel the support during their incarceration, which also promotes a greater sense of accountability to loved ones.”
Flikshop exceeded its initial goal of providing quick and easy social interaction between family members and inmates. According to Forbes magazine, the app’s convenient efficiency gives nonprofit organizations—ones geared toward transitional reentry and rehabilitation services—a direct route to offer inmates information and assistance.
The Campaign for Youth Justice (CYJ), an organization Bullock got involved with upon his release from prison, became one of Flikshop’s first subscribers when it launched in 2012. CYJ continues to use the service to reach out to incarcerated youth offenders across the nation.
“Flikshop provides incarcerated individuals an important communication pathway with loved ones at home,” said Rob Brown, chairperson of the JUST Capital Research Advisory Council. “This critical connection is a straightforward reminder that a full life awaits outside prison, and a motivation to seek self-improvement inside prison.
Marcus Bullock after prison
“Once released, the individual is more likely to be in a frame of mind to stay on a responsible course from the moment of release from prison.”
Bullock encourages the hiring of returning citizens to help diminish recidivism. Flikshop employs a current staff of 18 people, most of whom are formerly incarcerated individuals.
“As I think about others in those cells, if each one of them got a Flikshop every day—what would they do with that?” Bullock said. “It would add a tremendous amount of value to their time there and preparing them for release.”
Bullock is quite impassioned about not being fearful of failure.
He explained that he started his first company while in prison. “It prepared me to think like an entrepreneur; it forced me to read books about it. When it was time, I knew how to run a business.
“Dream big,” he advised, “and take the dreams that you have in those cells. Start now. Start today.
“One of the mantras I have learned is to fail fast, as quickly as you can. Each one of your failures will help you with success.
“I’ll run to the failure, to the cliff and jump over it” he proclaimed. “If you are brave enough to do that then you are an entrepreneur, and you will build your parachute on the way down.”
http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/
California’s early release programs ACP
San Quentin’s old receiving and release building where initial inmate screening took place
California has several little-known programs that have allowed hundreds of prison inmates to go home up to a year early.
Prisoners must apply to participate. More than a thousand people have been able to serve the last 12 months of their sentence in their communities.
The main program is called the Alternative Custody Program (ACP). It places inmates in a residential home, residential drug-treatment program, or transitional care facility.
“64% of California’s jail population is awaiting trial or sentencing as of December 2016.” Most remain in pretrial custody because they cannot afford bail. Jail Profile Survey, http://www.bscc.ca.gov/
“For all the excitement about commutations, the ACP provides a mechanism for early release available to a significant number of the prison population,” according to a corrections counselor. The counselor asked not to be identified by name.
ACP is a voluntary program developed for non-violent, non-serious and non-registerable sex offense inmates.
Interested prisoners submit an Application for Voluntary Agreement (CDCR Form 2234). The form requires a listing of at least two places were the person would like to live.
San Quentin News Black Cap
Factors that play into approval include:
The applicant must have private medical insurance or be in the process of applying for government medical insurance.
The applicant must have no more than 12 months and no less than 45 days left on their sentence.
The applicant must not be a validated gang member (STG II) or have a gang association.
The applicant must not have a conviction for child abuse.
ACP participants remain under California prison jurisdiction and are supervised by its parole division.
“The process can be long,” the correction counselor warned. If the prisoner is eligible, “prison staff are supposed to take no more than 30 calendar days to prepare an Individualized Treatment and Rehabilitation Plan (ITRP).” That would be followed by referral to an Institutional Classification Committee. The committee would then decide whether or not to recommend ACP placement (15 CCR Section 2078.4.), according to the Prison Law Office.
ACP started on Jan. 1, 2011, only for female prisoners under Penal Code (PC) Section 1170.05. In September 2015, male prisoners qualified when a federal court found that excluding them violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. (Sassman v. Brown 99 F.Supp.3d 1233.)
As of April, there have been 316 male and 676 female completions as part of this program.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has other programs beyond ACP for short-timers seeking an early return to their community. These programs include:
Custody to Community Transitional Re-entry Program (CCTRP). Over 800 female inmates have participated in this program, according to Krissi Khokhobashvili, CDCR’s Public Information Officer II (Supervisor).
Male Community Reentry Program (MCRP). “As of Feb. 14, 2018, 628 inmates are housed in reentry facilities,” according to JST Document 2012-2 Filed 02-15-18.
Community Prisoner Mother Program (CPMP). Some 91 female inmates have participated in this program since its launch in 2012.
Inmates who think they may be eligible for any of these programs should contact their corrections counselor.
http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/
Boatwright
The 100th Edition of San Quentin News
Warden Clinton Duffy
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.
1930 Wall City News
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 prison paper.” He implemented a plan and “The first edition of San Quentin News, hand-set and printed on gaudy green paper, was published Dec. 10, 1940.”
According to a 2012 article in The Nation magazine, “New laws and policies ballooned prison populations, strained budgets and led to an increasingly hostile attitude by the public toward prisoners. Journalism behind bars nosedived. From a high of 250 in 1959, prison newspapers and magazines today number less than a dozen.”
Top is the SQ News team from the printshop, including cameraman, Press Room Leadman, Composing Room Leadman, typesetter. Far right is Bill Little, one of the Voc Print instructors. At the top is “Little Joe” or “Crazy Joe” Morse
At different periods throughout its history, the News has been suspended or shut down for different reasons, once after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled prisoner-run newspapers could not be censored by prison administrations. In the mid 1980s, the paper shut down and that interruption lasted more than 20 years. It was the last California prison newspaper.
Top: Richard “Bonaru” Richardson, Krissi Khokhobashvili, Juan Haines, Terry Thornton, the late Arnulfo Garcia, Jeffrey Callison, Steve McNamara, Kevin D. Sawyer, Watani Stiner, Ricky “Malik” Harris. Bottom: Linda Xiques, Joan Lisetor and John Eagan
As decades passed, San Quentin News was all but forgotten until Warden Robert Ayers Jr. decided in April 2008 to revive the out-of-use publication. He started by recruiting adviser John C. Eagan, who was later joined by Joan Lisetor, who had worked with the newspaper in the 1980s, and Steve McNamara. They’re retired journalists, editors and publishers. They were tasked with the responsibility to work with inmates who knew nothing about journalism.
In June 2008, Editor-in-Chief Kenny Brydon and several staff writers produced the first edition of the monthly San Quentin News inside the prison’s print shop in more than two decades. Five-thousand copies of a four-page, black ink on goldenrod paper were distributed inside San Quentin.
To increase capacity and depth of stories, the News created a journalism guild to teach other inmates how to write using the Associated Press journalistic writing style.
Top: John Wilkerson, Michael Harris, D. Hartley, John Eagan David Marsh
Bottom: Aly Tamboura and Kenny Brydon
By 2010, a new editor-in-chief, Michael Harris, co-founder of Death Row Records, was at the helm. That same year, the print shop closed due to budget cuts and nearly sealed the newspaper’s fate. But adviser McNamara arranged for the printing to be done at Marin Sun Printing, a company he once owned.
To print 5,000 newspapers each month wasn’t free, so Harris paid for it out of his own pocket. But soon after Harris left San Quentin, his money went with him. Because of that, McNamara created the Prison Media Project and applied for a grant from Marin Community Foundation to help fund the paper as a nonprofit using a fiscal sponsor. Donations and grants from the Annenberg Foundation and Columbia Foundation became the tipping point.
In 2011, then Editor-in-Chief Arnulfo T. Garcia and the staff had a vision to expand San Quentin News’ reach to inmates in all California state prisons. By 2013, with the guidance of the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, a plan was developed for expansion of the newspaper to make it accessible to inmates throughout the state.
San Quentin News San Quentin News was making progress. But early in 2014, the administration suspended the paper for 45 days for what was officially deemed “circumventing the editorial process.” During the suspension, however, the paper won The James Madison Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Top: John Eagan, William Drummond, Arnulfo Garcia, Richard “Bonaru” Richardson, Steve McNamara. Bottom: Brittany Johnson, Felecia Gaston, Paul Cobb and Trinise Ferreira
Those events gave the newspaper national media exposure in publications such as The New York Times, The Nation, The Daily Californian, Marin Independent Journal, San Jose Mercury News, and the Columbia Journalism Review. The attention didn’t go unnoticed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Cal State East Bay, The Pioneer student reporters and staff, Christina Galanakis, Kali Persall, Gary Moskowitz, Marina Swanson, SQ News, Kevin Sawyer, Dr. Katherine Bell, Tam Duong, Jr.
The CDCR sent three staff members from its press office to meet with the News staff and its advisers. At the time, some staff thought the paper was going to be shut down. But the CDCR’s objective was far from closing or controlling the newspaper. In their words, they wanted to “make it better.”
With a dedicated team of advisers—who work behind the scenes meeting with staff, editing, proofing, emailing, and making negotiations outside — the newspaper continued to expand. Today, it is a 20-page, color publication. It has a staff of 15 men who write, edit, photograph, design and layout the paper, and create content for the website, www.sanquentinnews.com.
With recent grants from The Logan Foundation, the News now prints 30,000 copies. With the help of Warden Ron Davis the newspaper is now distributed to all 35 California state prisons as well as individuals in 43 other states, and several hundred donors.
News advisers John C. Eagan and Yukari Kane are primarily responsible for strengthening the Guild’s writers with weekly lessons and sitting with the men to provide one-on-one instruction. In the last four years, San Quentin News’ Journalism Guild writers have contributed more than 600 bylines to the newspaper.
After all the writing, editing and proofing is done, CDCR Public Information Officer II Krissi Khokhobashvili reviews every article, holding her office to its word to make the paper better. Then San Quentin Public Information Officer Lt. Sam Robinson reviews the completed paper before the newspaper goes to press and is released on the internet.
San Quentin News serves as a bridge between incarcerated citizens and the outside community. Its mission statement states: “San Quentin News reports on rehabilitative efforts to increase public safety and achieve social justice.” This has been done by hosting forums with district attorneys, lawyers, judges, teachers, and a congresswoman to present a different viewpoint on incarceration, rehabilitation and reentry.
Since its comeback, nearly a decade ago, San Quentin News has resumed its status as an award-winning newspaper with award-winning journalists.
By the early 1980s, San Quentin News had won the Penal Press Awards multiple times as the best publication in its category, according to The Nation.
In 2014, the prestigious Society of Professional Journalists awarded the newspaper The James Madison Freedom of Information Award for outstanding reporting under exceptionally difficult circumstances.
In 2016, Associate Editor Kevin D. Sawyer received The James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. Then, in 2017, the Society of Professional Journalists presented Senior Editor Juan Haines with the Silver Heart Award for being a voice for the voiceless.
Newspaper adviser Professor William J. Drummond went to the White House to receive The 2015 John W. Gardner Legacy of Leadership Award. In his acceptance speech, he credited San Quentin News for reviving his faith in journalism.
In 2015, with the assistance of volunteer Nancy Mullane, host and executive producer of The Life of the Law, members of the News became the first inmates in the United States to establish a satellite chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists inside a prison. The initial membership fees to join SPJ were paid by Paul Cobb, publisher of Post News Group.
Society of Professional Journalists members in the San Quentin newsroom
Other volunteers contributed more than 1,800 hours to help San Quentin News in 2016 and over 2,000 hours in 2017. Counting its nine advisers, the News has more than 40 volunteers who come into the prison to help with the newspaper.
For example, Drummond created a journalism class in the prison’s newsroom, where dozens of students from University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism have assisted inmate writers. The first UC Berkeley students began volunteering in 2013 after Drummond taught a journalism class at the prison in 2012.
In 2016, reporters from the California State University East Bay’s student newspaper, The Pioneer, visited the prison newsroom. They now periodically reprint stories from San Quentin News in their student-run newspaper.
After hiring development manager Lisa Adams through its fiscal sponsor Social Good Fund in 2017, the newspaper staff is now able to focus attention on news content and increasing its donor base. This is because the state doesn’t pay for the paper’s printing, distribution or website management.
Since its emergence nine and a half years ago, San Quentin News has documented the impact of mass incarceration in California and around the nation. The newspaper is the single source of information on prison policy, rehabilitation and reentry for thousands of inmates to learn about what’s happening with the Three Judge Panel, Realignment, healthcare reform, Propositions 36, 47, 57, the death penalty, and more.
SQ News Advisers Joan Lisetor with Don Pino, and early SQ News Staff and the first Journalism Guild students
Locally, the paper has covered events inside the prison. Where the mainstream corporate media has to rely on press releases from the prison administration to report, the News staff are literally boots-on-the-ground reporters. It has become the instrument for the United States to see what rehabilitation looks like inside prison.
For example, by covering the Prison University Project graduations, GED and vocational graduations, The Last Mile entrepreneurship program, Code.7370 computer program, Get on the Bus, the annual Health Fair, Day of Peace, and visits by the Golden State Warriors, the News provides the outside community a different perspective on what can and does take place in a prison.
Moving forward, the News plans to publish a quarterly magazine, Wall City, which commemorates the publication that predates San Quentin News. It is also entering the realm of digital publishing to reach the global community.
San Quentin News staff
Two wardens with a vision, several advisers, dozens of volunteers and inmates determined to write real news on what takes place in the evolving penal system are shifting opinions about incarceration with the intent to leave their world a safer place for everyone to live.
SQ News staff Jesse Vasquez, Marcus Henderson and Rahsaan Thomas
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 of the world’s incarcerated people are locked away in American prisons and jails.
When Koppel returned to Stanford last December,
, a CBS Sunday Morning producer, knew Koppel was interested in doing a story about California.
“I’ve listened to almost all of the Ear Hustle podcasts,” Stephens said, referring to the San Quentin audio project featuring Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor. Koppel, who won acclaim as the anchor of the ABC News program Nightline, thought they would make good subjects
Woods and Poor, now in their second season of podcasting, talk about commonplace topics in incarceration, such as the consequences of gang life, dying in prison and selecting a cellmate.
“I suggested doing the story and Ted liked it,” Stephens said. “What makes this news is that it’s a podcast coming from a prison, coupled with it (becoming) a success in the podcasting world.
“I don’t think most Americans are aware that there is a newsroom, podcasting, radio, and TV coming from a prison. It is our job to take America to places that they can’t go, while their money is going into them.”
Koppel is no stranger to going inside prisons. In 1998, spent the night in solitary confinement in a high security prison near, Huntsville, Tex. “There was a lot of screaming and yelling that night, and I saw a lot of ‘fishing,’” Koppel said
The newsman was referring to the practice of toss-sliding a weighted string from under a cell door to land, many yards away, under another inmate’s cell door. If missed, the string is drawn back and shot out again. Once the connection is made, supplies such as food, coffee, or reading material can be shared between inmates. Correctional officers sometimes ignore fishing.
“As reporters we never become as knowledgeable as the people we cover,” he said. “But sometimes spending a few hours in the same circumstances, we can develop some insights we might not have had before,” Koppel told the New York Daily News about that night.
On the day of his visit to San Quentin, the veteran reporter, 78, who anchored more than 1,000 Nightline shows, walked around the prison yard and the cellblocks interviewing inmates about their experiences. He heard accounts of what it’s like to spend nearly two decades in the Security Housing Unit (SHU), what it’s like to be incarcerated more than 40 years or to face a 209-year sentence. Inmates told him about race relations, respect, and the unwritten code of the yard
“There are not are a lot of prison stories in mainstream media. But, when they are covered, they’re usually negative. It’s more complicated than that,” Stephens said. “Ted has a long history of covering criminal justice policies.”
Koppel dropped in on prisoners rehearsing Shakespeare’s King Lear.
“I don’t think most of America is aware that there is a newspaper, podcasting, radio, and filming coming from a prison”
The actors asked Koppel if he’d like to read a line.
Smiling, he accepted.
In the scene, one of the inmates ordered Koppel to deliver a message. Koppel took the order and read, “I’ll do it, my Lord.”
Afterward, Koppel took a bow that was met with applause. He sat among the inmates and watched a demonstration of the principles found in drama therapy, as director Leslie Currier asked the men questions about the play, themselves, and the characters they portrayed.
Producer Louis A. Scott, a prisoner, interviewed Koppel for San Quentin Radio.
Koppel’s career began at 23 when he was asked to cover the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
As to why he chose to become a journalist, he cites the memory of himself as a three-year-old listening to World War II broadcasts of Edward R. Morrow, the legendary CBS correspondent who covered the war from London. 
Koppel’s career includes marching with Martin Luther King, Jr., spending a year as a war correspondent in Vietnam, and covering the Watts riots in 1965.
Koppel said he recalls standing next to the “mule driven carriage,” that carried the coffin of Dr. King, murdered in Memphis in 1968. Later Koppel saw a photo with about 300 people surrounding the carriage. His was the only white face in the crowd.
San Quentin Radio producer Scott said, “What impressed me the most about Ted is the fact that he marched from Selma to Montgomery with MLK. He marched because he believes in equality and still shares those same views of equality today.”
—Juan Haines
https://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/
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 by the Criminal Justice System. It is told completely from the perspective of three kids from Rhode Island—Tre Janson, 13, Maison Teixeira, 11, and Dasan Lopes, 6.
“As adults, we don’t listen to kids a lot.” Denali Tiller, director of the film, said. “We think we know what they need. I haven’t seen a lot of kids allowed to have their own truths. It became important to me to make a film directly from their perspective, meeting them where they are and allowing them the space that they need.”
The director used her resources and the help of producer Rebecca Stern to make the film possible.
“It’s not my place to be a helper or to be a savior; it’s just that I had the resources,” Tiller said. “This is their film; this is really them…I just used my White privilege to support the kids as best as possible.”
Each boy had a different dynamic.
Janson’s anger and resentment over his father’s incarceration are shown through his outburst and weed smoking. Teixeira, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, is sweet and self-aware. Lopes, the youngest of the bunch, is naïve, believing his mother was at school and his father was in a place he calls Trinidad.
“Trinidad is a place where dads live that can’t find a place to live,” Lopes said in the film.
The documentary showed the kids’ daily lives, such as answering the phone when their parents call collect and seeing their parents on prison visiting days. Also, the film displayed the pain of finding out that their mother or father, whom they looked up to, was guilty of committing a violent crime.
“I have two grown sons, and I saw in the film what I thought might have been the pain and suffering that might have happened in my sons’ lives because of the decision I made that caused me to come to prison,” said Dwight Krizman, 63, who is serving a life sentence.
The film also revealed that kids love their parents in spite of the crimes they committed.
Tiller hopes the film will help children impacted by incarceration get the resources they need. Her strategy is to take the film on a tour of communities of children, incarcerated parents, schools, prosecutors and judges.
“One in 14 kids is impacted by having a parent in prison,” Tiller said. “That’s at least one kid in every classroom, and teachers don’t even know it’s an issue that affects students in their classroom. I want to help stakeholders in their lives have access to resources to help the kids.”
The film’s website, tremaisondasan.com, links people to resources like Joyce Dixson-Haskett’s curriculum that helps kids through the grief and trauma of having a parent in prison. It’s called Levels of Responses to Traumatic Events (LORTE).
According to Tiller, Dixson-Haskett was trafficked, and she shot and killed her perp. Sentenced to natural life, she got out after 17 years.
When Dixson-Haskett went to prison her kids were 6 and 8—they were 23 and 25 when she came home. Her work became providing and building support systems for children with incarcerated parents.
Tiller, now 25, heard that Dixson-Haskett created the curriculum.
Tiller, then a film student at the Rhode Island School of Design, sought out Dixson-Haskett, who paroled in 1994. Intrigued, Tiller started going to visiting days for children and parents at a prison in Rhode Island.
As she got involved with the kids, she became attached.
“They have become part of my life,” Tiller said. “Through them, I saw a world that I was not exposed to, that was invisible to my privilege of being White.”
The movie started as a trailer and school project and developed into a full documentary with the help of crowd funding sources like Kickstarter.
While working at Picture Motion, Stern saw the trailer on Kickstarter and was blown away. She donated $75.
“We raised $20,000,” Tiller said. “I started the feature film when I graduated.”
“64% of California’s jail population is awaiting trial or sentencing as of December 2016.” Most remain in pretrial custody because they cannot afford bail. Jail Profile Survey, http://www.bscc.ca.gov/
Later down the line, Stern reached out to Tiller and ended up becoming the producer. Stern’s prior background includes being a production coordinator on Cartel Land and co-producer on Netizens as well as the The Bomb on Netflix.
“Tre Maison Dasan is the first film where I was the main producer,” Stern said. “I wanted to make something that was important to me.”
Neither Tiller nor Stern planned to visit San Quentin on April 12. They came to the Bay Area to show the film at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
When Dr. Hollander, who oversees mental health care at San Quentin, saw the film, she called Public Information Officer Lt. Sam Robinson. With only 48 hours’ notice, Lt. Robinson arranged for Tre Maison Dasan to be screened in the chapel.
“I saw the film and thought it would be pretty impactful,” Dr. Hollander said.
With flyers announcing the showing of the film taped to the wall at the last minute, turnout to see the film was low—about 10 people. However, Tiller plans to come back to San Quentin and show the film again. Also, she plans to have it played on the San Quentin institutional channel.
“It’s a must-see for everyone in prison, especially those who have children,” Krizman said.
—Rahsaan Thomas
http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/