San Quentin News

Written By Inmates - Advancing Social Justice

Executive forms organization to help officials curb recidivism

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A top Google executive has formed a non-profit organization to help prison officials understand which programs work and don’t work to curb recidivism.

“In the criminal justice system today–an incredibly large and important and impactful system–we have none of those same abilities. It’s millions of lives, billions of dollars, and we don’t have a good sense of what’s working or a good way to set goals and hit them,” said Clementine Jacoby, who left her job as product manager for Google in June to work on criminal justice reform.

Jacoby cofounded Recidiviz in order to use data analytics to solve problems in the criminal justice arena.

“At Google, we had experimentation frameworks to determine which versions of a change would have the greatest impact, and when we rolled out a change, we could predict what it should do and monitor if it actually hit that goal,” said Jacoby in the Fast Company story.

A Bureau of Justice Statistics report in 2019 revealed that America had 2.2 million people in either jail or prison at the end of 2017, the article stated.

This number has been in decline over the last decade, but America still has more people incarcerated than any other country in the world does.

Recidiviz is now working with five states. “The people who are actually running criminal justice systems are already motivated to decarcerate for a whole variety of reasons-either their system may be over-crowded and they don’t know exactly what the best strategies are to get a handle on that, or they’re getting legislative pressure and advocacy pressure to downsize.”

Some tech companies already work in this space, making money without reducing the prison population. That is why Recidiviz decided to go non-profit, Jacoby said.

Recidiviz is the only non-profit at the tech accelerator Y Combinator and has plans to expand to more states, sharing the technology.

“Everything that we build is open-source. And so part of the theory of change is, can we get this technology out there, so that domain experts in the space can use this infrastructure to support states in doing data-driven decision making?” noted Fast Company.

The Fast Company article said that the data analysis also looks at how specific populations are helped by each program, so that programs can be better tailored. Ultimately, Jacoby said she hopes that reduced incarceration rates will allow money saved to go to- ward successful rehabilitation programs instead.

“You can actually start to shift the system from punitive to rehabilitative,” Jacoby said.

Attorneys' preparedness for parole hearings under review

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Changes are underway to correct attorney preparedness and performance at parole board hearings for men and women serving life sentences in California, according to a survey by Life Support Alliance (LSA).

“We don’t represent this as a conclusive survey, an empirical study of great depth or precise scientific analysis,” LSA stated in its newsletter, Lifer-Line, “but it is interesting and definitely shows some trends and areas of concern.”

LSA reported that more than half of the prisoners who responded to the survey said they “didn’t feel the attorney was prepared to represent them” at their parole board hearing. The reason given was largely because of “the lack of time spent with the client” and reviewing the client’s file.

“Prisoners report that attorneys often meet with them only once prior to the day of the hearing, sometimes only a few days before the hearing, rarely more than the requisite 45 days,” LSA reported. “And those meetings are usually less than 20 minutes, often as brief as 10 minutes.”

During a public comment period at the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) executive board meeting in September, the conclusion of the survey was reported to the BPH at its executive board.

The informal survey presented issues of concern to prisoners serving life sentences. For example, “73% of those responding to the survey were denied parole at their hearing,” LSA reported. It also reported 26% of hearings resulted in findings of parole suitability, and that 1% of the hearings were stipulations to unsuitability, waivers or continuances.

“A prisoner may request to voluntarily waive his or her life parole consideration hearing for any reason, the California Code of Regulations, Title 15, Div. 2, § 2253. “Requests shall be made in writing to the board and shall state the reason for the request.”

According to the LSA survey, a lot of the state appointed attorneys who represent prisoners at Board hearings are unprepared and arrive at hearings without required forms and documents mailed to them by their clients. Some attorneys even admit they did not have time to properly prepare or are overburdened with other cases. There are also attorneys “unfamiliar with some of the finer points of parole hearings.” According to LSA, one attorney told a client “I dropped the ball.”

“About a third of the time inmates reported their attorneys, always appointed, recommended they stipulate to unsuitability,” LSA reported, adding that it was troubled by what appears to be an “upswing in this trend,” and that some attorneys advised clients to stipulate “after meeting alone with commissioners.”

LSA did not say, however, that all Board appointed attorneys were ineffective. In fact, “…one state appointed (attorney) got 80% thumbs up rating, spending an average of 90 minutes with her clients,” it was reported.

At least one attorney “told his client to just say what the panel wanted to hear, regardless of whether or not it was the truth,” according to LSA. “We believe the phrase for that behavior is suborning perjury.”

The survey said some private attorneys were no better: for example some of these attorneys who were not prepared or effective were simply not informed. These were attorneys that LSA said were apparently new to parole hearings.Those attorneys probably came from prisoners’ families hiring a “friendly attorney.”

In response to the poor representation, BPH Executive Director Jennifer Shafer, has drafted a new program for state appointed attorneys to better serve their clients. LSA outlined some of the goals of the new program:

• Strengthen the attorney client relationship

• Modifying time frames

• Increasing compensation (pay) to attorneys

For example, under the new program, once an attorney is “hired” by the BPH, he or she will be required to meet with the client within 30 days. A second meeting is required about two weeks before the board hearing.

Compensation will increase from $400 to $750 per client. “And there is a real selection process in the works,” LSA reported, “…not just apply and be lucky at the lottery selection used in past years.”

According to LSA, the BPH will also be working with the Parole and Justice Education Project at Southern California’s Post Conviction Justice Project (PJEP) which “will provide legal training, review and reporting and create what has been termed ‘reasonable expectations of representation.’”

“It bears noting that we do not believe any particular attorney can achieve a grant of suitability for an unprepared inmate, no matter how good the attorney,” LSA stated in its newsletter. “Nor can an inept attorney sink the chances of a well-prepared inmate.”

Ice cream company allies with criminal justice reform

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By Alfred King, Journalism Guild Writer

Ben & Jerry’s has announced a new ice cream flavor in support of criminal justice reform, “Justice Remix’d.”

B&J, well known for its social activism, launched a new flavor chocolate ice cream coupled with gobs of cinnamon bun dough and spicy fudge brownie to “spotlight structural racism in a broken criminal justice system,” reported The Independent article.

“Our approach to creating social change is to raise up the work nonprofits are doing on the ground,” said co-founder Ben Cohen. “We bring every resource we have to support them — our business voice, our connection with fans, our Scoop Shop community and, of course, ice cream. Somehow, it’s easier to talk about difficult issues over a scoop or two.”

B&J has partnered with the Advancement Project to bring forth changes in the criminal justice arena, now working to close The Workhouse jail in St. Louis, the Sept. 4 story said.

Blacks make up 90% of the people held in jail but make up less than 50% of the population in St. Louis, a HuffPost story reported. Many cannot afford bail.

“Our country needs to invest in services that build up communities rather than those that tear them down,” Executive Director Judith Browne Dianis of the Advancement Project told The Independent.

“That means ending a wealth-based pretrial detention system that locks people up because they are poor, Black or Brown. It means dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, divesting from criminalizing students and investing in the creation of high quality education and services. It’s time to reimagine safety and justice.” commented Mike Pomranz in a Food&Wine article.

In October 2018 B&J released “Pecan Resist” in protest of Pres. Donald Trump, reported The Independent.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the new flavor will go to support the Advancement Project work in criminal justice reform, noted the HuffPost article.

Ice cream lovers can purchase pints of Justice Remix’d at Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops, many grocery stores, and Scoop Trucks deployed to various cities. Free scoops have been passed out in St. Louis and Miami, according to Pomranz.

The Homecoming Project

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Where returning citizens find a warm welcome in the homes of local residents

People with room for a boarder are helping provide housing for some former California prisoners.

The Homecoming program was launched in 2018 in Alameda County to provide formerly incarcerated people places to live — with plans to expand across the United States.

“For people getting out of prison, the penalty hasn’t ended and reentry is its own obstacle course that everybody has to navigate; and housing is essential to being able to get through that obstacle course,” said Alex Busansky, a former prosecutor and president of Impact Justice told NPR.

“If you don’t have a place to sleep, to shower, to keep your things, it’s very difficult to think about doing anything else,”

The project provided housing for 12 ex-prisoners since August 2018, according to November/December article in Mother Jones.

People recently released from long-term custody were connected with homeowners willing to rent them a room for up to six months. Hosts are paid $25 a day, with no cost to former inmates.

Hosts and potential tenants undergo a rigorous screening process. The goal is to create a positive living environment.

Sabina Crocette is now host to her second participant.

Her first, DeLora, 32, served eight years for conspiracy to distribute heroin.

“I just saw her as a dynamic young woman who could come back into the community and be a great resource to others,” Crocette told KPIX.” You have to recognize people’s humanity. People are not the thing they have done. That is not who they are.”

Crocette, a civil rights attorney working with prisoner rights organizations, met her second tenant, London Croudy, before she moved into her townhouse.

Croudy served eight years of a 13-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute heroin. She was released to a half-way house in Oakland operated by GEO Group, a for-profit organization.

There she had to share a room with several other people, the food and the beds were the same as when she was in prison, with an hour for recreation.

“Just pretty much a step over incarceration,” she said. “Still walking around with fear.”

Everything changed when she moved in with Crocette. Thinking she might be sleeping on the floor, she saw her own bedroom with a queen-size bed and a dresser dotted with fake candles. “This peace just came over me,” Croudy said.

The Bay Area is a hard place for people returning from custody to find a place to live with its absurdly overpriced housing, Mother Jones noted.

Terah Lawyer, a Homecoming Project program manager, said applicants have told her that they’d be happy to sleep in a box in someone’s backyard. “They will settle for less because they think that they deserve less.”

She knows the challenges first hand. After serving 15 years in prison, she was placed in a residential treatment facility in San Francisco where she had to attend substance abuse classes weekly even though she did not have a substance abuse problem.

In fact, at the time she was a certified drug and alcohol counselor able to facilitate the groups she had to attend.

Lawyer used this experience to shape the programs at the Homecoming Project to encourage independence while offering support.

Sholly Kehinee, 30, scheduled for parole from San Quentin in five months, said “I had no place of residency. But I got word of the Homecoming Project and because of them, it’s gonna be possible after seven years.” He hopes it will aid his reunion with his son.

—By Alfred King

Report finds high rates of recidivism in prisoners released from SF County jail

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By Alfred King, Journalism Guild Writer

Approximately 43% of people released from the San Francisco County Jail were rearrested within a three-year period, a new report reveals.

The data collected by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office tracked the recidivism rates of 9,407 people in the county jail, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Offenders who committed violent crimes, burglaries and other property crimes were even more likely to be rearrested, the data showed.

“Of the 965 people convicted of burglaries, 72% were rearrested and 45% were reconvicted. For the 882 people convicted of assault, 49% were arrested again and 21% were reconvicted. And convicted felony drug pushers were rearrested at a rate of 54%, with 20% of them convicted on a new charge,” the Chronicle reported Sept. 17.

Data collected followed adults convicted and sentenced for crimes in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Only 6% of 2,320 drunken drivers were rearrested within the same three-year period.

The goal is transparency, but it’s also a tool for policymakers to make better decisions and measure effectiveness, District Attorney George Gascon told the Chronicle.

Gascon said the data offers insight into law enforcement, community supervision and clinical strategies helping the justice system officials to use court and custody resources more efficiently.

“Other than public health, public safety is the biggest chunk of any local budget and we spend it without often knowing whether it will work or not, this could be the beginning of a different conversation.” said Gascon.

This data does not include offenders who are sentenced to California prison and was collected in concert with the Sheriff’s Department, the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley and the McArthur Foundation.

San Francisco sends the least number of people to California prisons, with less than 20% of felony convictions resulting in state prison.

“This innovative tool is a model for how cities and counties can use data to inform efforts to safely reduce the jail population and address racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system,” said Laurie Garduque, director of criminal justice at the McArthur Foundation.

San Francisco the first county in the state to collect data on recidivism rates.

This initiative “raises the bar for criminal justice transparency and we hope other jurisdictions follow suit,” said Evan White, executive director of the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley.

Ex-felon joins judicial commission

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Wrongfully convicted Hakim Crampton recalls his generation was told while growing up that “We were going to be dead or in prison. And we believed it,” he said to reporter Ashley Graham of WLNS in Jackson Michigan.

Crampton was in prison for 15 years until he was granted parole after proving his innocence.

Like the biblical man Joseph, who rebuked false accusations and wound up working for the authorities, Crampton is now closely aligned with the same judicial system that wrongfully convicted him.

Ten years after his release, Crampton, 46, now sits on Michigan’s Indigent Defense Commission becoming the first formerly incarcerated person to sit on a judicial branch commission.

During those 10 years, Crampton worked with schools in his hometown of Jackson and throughout the state of Michigan to establish a program called SLAM, which helped children improve work habits through poetry and lyrics.

Initiating SLAM helped Crampton rebuild his reputation. While earning praise at the state’s educational level, he never quit advocating for others who struggled to get out of and remain out of the prison cycle.

As he helped others adjust to free lives, people noticed and now he has a new role that may help free a lot more.

“By having a seat at the table, it gives a voice to that critical experience, that directly impacted experience that can help shape and reshape the criminal system,” Crampton told Graham.

The newest member of the Indigent Defense Commission will tackle similar topics he has faced during his own experience in the criminal justice system. These goals include addressing the parole system and ending the school-to-prison pipeline.

He considers this “a time in which everyone pretty much, both bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans, realize that our system is failing so many people.”

California legislators want to streamline re-entry

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New “one-stop” program would acknowledge many hurdles for returning citizens

Congresswoman Karen Bass

Congresswoman Karen Bass is spearheading legislation to create a one-stop reentry program, as well as criminal justice reform, according to the Los Angeles Sentinel.

“There should be a place where you can get your ID, sign up for benefits, get connected to medical services, get transportation — a place where people can get their lives on track quickly,” Bass said at a July 13 legislative hearing in Los Angeles on criminal justice changes.

Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, has concentrated on criminal justice reform most of her political career, according to the Sentinel. She said she is currently working on reform legislation.

“Many of our criminal justice policies are good; they protect our loved ones and communities,” said Bass. “At the same time, far too many of our laws are ineffective or do more harm than good. I am committed to reforming criminal justice so that it is sensible, effective and consistent with our notions of equality and fairness.

“In addition, we need to ensure that those who have paid their debt to society have reentry services and opportunities to live productive lives.”

Among those attending the hearing were Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life.

“I’m really thankful to Karen Bass for holding this hearing, so that we can dis- cuss women and their need (upon reentry to society),” Burton told reporter Jennifer Bihm. “I know what it could mean to leave prison and not have safety.”

Burton’s reentry program is geared towards helping women function after prison.

“I’ve visited 40 states and 36 prisons. When we talked about what women need when they are leaving; overwhelmingly, I saw women who were desperately trying to maintain their parental rights,” said Burton. “I saw women who wanted a job but were worried about how they would be employed.”

The topic of jobs, housing and reunification were topics that Bass mentioned.

Witness John Harriel of reentry program 2nd Call said, “I did not know that I had low self-esteem grow- ing up. I had no idea that I wanted to commit suicide. I didn’t want to do it by my own hands. I wanted some- one else to do it. When I think back, there were no men leading the way, putting on their boots and going to work every day. I envisioned going to prison as a young man because in my community going to prison was rewarded.”

Harriel said he pulled his life back from the edge with the help of two support members. He has successfully gained a union job and is now a homeowner and a mentor to the youth, accord- ing to the article.

Another witness, Stanley Bailey, said he is a former drug addict who spent 36 years in prison. He said people with mental health issues make up a large part of the prison population and don’t receive the help they need.

Bass commented, “I believe we could drastically reduce prison overcrowding by repealing harsh mandatory minimums and reserving the toughest sentences for serious criminals who threaten public safety. We should invest in community-oriented crime prevention and intervention efforts for struggling neighborhoods and at-risk youth.”


Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Spring 2018, Population Projections.

A profile of success: Antwan "Banks" Williams

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Ear Hustle cofounder has lasting impact on his community – both inside and out of prison

Antwan “Banks” Williams

Antwan “Banks” Williams, 31, one of the co-founders of the celebrated podcast Ear Hustle, paroled from San Quentin in October. Imprisoned at the dawn of adulthood, he had to mature behind bars.

Williams said he “can’t fathom” what it’s like to be outside prison. “The sad reality is there are people in here that I may never see outside these walls.” He said he’s leaving with a heavy heart.

“A big part of who I am stems from the people in here,” said Williams. “All of you have shaped who I am. You guys have been my family.”

“I grew up in prison,” he added, “ and I don’t know what my life is going to look like without it.”

Antwan “Banks” Williams, Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods

Most of the men at San Quentin know Williams by the moniker “Banks,” a name given to him in the Los Angeles county jail by other prisoners who thought he was arrested for robbing “banks” because his bail was set at $7.3 million.

“I couldn’t bail out,” said Williams, convicted of one count of robbery, but with a gun enhancement.

Williams told a gather- ing of admirers in the San Quentin Media Center the day before he walked out: “I’ve been in this place longer than I’ve lived in any place my entire life.”

Tears flowed and emotions ran high as the men, volunteers and staff shared their stories of how they came to know Williams and their working relation- ship, friendships and bonds formed over the years.

Brian Asey first met Williams in 2011 when he transferred to San Quentin from Old Folsom. “I watched (Williams) grow from the hot-headed, emotional, hard person that he was to the mature and thoughtful man that he is today,” said Asey.

“I grew up in prison and I don’t know what my life is going to look like without it”

“It’s been amazing, and when I think about him leaving, I think about all we’ve gone through to put the pod-cast together,” said Sacramento State Professor Nigel Poor, a volunteer, co-host and co-creator of Ear Hustle. She said Williams was part of the creative influence and now that he has paroled, “I don’t know who’s going to be that creative person.”

Williams, like the other men who work in the media center, started out as a volunteer when there was little opportunity. “You have to gently fight your way into the media center and make it work, but there’s a camaraderie,” said Poor. “It’s going to be interesting to see how the media lab will be changing as more and more people get out.”

“I hope that (Williams) works with young people,” said Poor. He can inspire them, she said, adding, “I feel like that’s his calling.”

“When my specific tal- ents weren’t needed, people kept telling me I need to be there” (in the media center), said Williams, so he stuck it out by providing artwork and music, while keeping the workplace positive with his easy-going personality.

“He made this prison a better place and now he’s going to make this world a better place,” said Rahsaan (New York) Thomas, co-host of Ear Hustle. He described Williams as “talented and humble.”

“Banks (Williams) is like the talented little brother that I never had,” said Greg Eskridge, an inmate who volunteers at SQ Radio. “We all started this radio program together in this little room.”

Williams was sentenced to 15 years. He served 13 years, eight of which were at San Quentin, where he arrived on November 8, 2011. He left Old Folsom for San Quentin as a result of Assembly Bill 109, California’s plan to reduce its prison population. A number of San Quentin inmates had been moved to county jails. After his arrival, Williams met Earlonne Woods, the other Ear Hustle co-founder, who paroled last year.

Prior to his arrival at San Quentin, Williams served time at Kern Valley State Prison, California State Prison Corcoran, and Folsom State Prison.

Before his last day in prison, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) public information officers Alexandra Powell and Ike Dodson arrived to videotape Williams. They planned to video him parol- ing the following morning as well.

“A big part of who I am stems from the people in here. All of you have shaped who I am. You guys have been my family”

“We’re here to capture Antwan’s (Williams’) experience as he prepares to leave prison,” said Powell. “We’ve been trying to tell stories of both those in prison and the people that make programs work.”

Powell said the CDCR is very interested in what pro- grams work inside of prison to influence successful reentry back to society.

Williams said it’s not the groups, programs or self- help groups that make San Quentin though. He said it’s the men that make it a “community.”

Dodson said he got to know Williams the first time the CDCR’s Office of Public and Employee Communications came to San Quentin to cover a story about Ear Hustle.

“I thought it would be cool to share that story,” said Dodson. “When you get to know people inside, you build a relationship. This is a very important moment for Antwan.”

“Anybody would miss where they’ve grown up,” said Poor, who teaches art at the Sacramento campus, in reference to Williams spending so much of his adult life in prison. “I hope (paroling) will be everything that he dreams it to be. It’s going to feel empty when I come to work tomorrow.”

Formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs successful in business

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Entrepreneurship does not define where you have been, but where you are going. Formerly incarcerated Teresa Hodge, Marcus Bullock, and David Figueroa have all launched successful businesses despite all having a troubled past that led them to prison, reported the ABA Journal.

“It was as if prison provided a moment of clarity—a place to plan and figure out life and to determine how to start over—and yet somehow there was this huge disconnect from that vision and desire to actually being successful,” Teresa Hodge told the ABA Journal on how her vision started in prison.

Teresa Hodge launched R3 Score, which is an algorithm based score and report that uses your education level, along with arrest record, facts from your life and volunteer work to create a score. The score is much like a credit score with 300 being the lowest and 850 the ceiling. These scores could be used for bank financing, commercial contracting, and occupational licensing or other opportunities.

“I kept seeing that over and over in prison: the spark in someone’s eye saying. ‘I’m going to make it,’” said Teresa Hodge. “And then the return of someone whose light had been dimmed by reality.”

After his release from prison, Bullock filled out over 141 job applications for various positions.

“The question on the application was ‘have you been convicted of a felony within the last seven years?’ said Bullock. “I want to create my own destiny instead of relying on someone else. I’m naturally an entrepreneur, I sold candy in school.”

Bullock created Flikshop, an app that allows family and friends to take a photo and add a message that is print- ed on a postcard and sent to a correctional facility for a cost of 99 cents. He received a grant to help him launch the business by Unlocked Features, which is affiliated with John Legend, a recording artist and criminal justice advocate.

According to the article, Bullock goes into prisons frequently to teach inmates basic entrepreneurship skills to launch their own business.

“I’m never going to tell them it’s going to be easy, but this is the first step,” he said. “Now, entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. But for those who want it, let’s give them an opportunity to provide for their families.”

“They can leverage up and learn about business and marketing,” Bullock said. “If we do this right, we’re changing the world, we’re changing the narrative.”

David Figueroa took his dreams and has built a crew of three, a foreman and two men, recently released from prison. His company is called Second Chance Renovations. His goal is to hire ex-cons and give them the opportunity he never had.

“Every time that I checked the box that asked whether you were a convicted felon, I never got a call back.”

He feels that ending the cycle of mass incarceration starts with each potential employer.

“People think they’re thugs, scum. But they still have kids,” said Figueroa. “They still have bills. I think the system is rigged to keep a certain amount of people in prison.”

According to the ABA Journal, Figueroa has accomplished his goals since his release from prison 14 years ago. He had his gang tattoos lasered off, found a lovely woman he married, has a career, a job he loves.

“I used to be really heartless. I had no emotions, said Figueroa. “Once I had my children, it completely changed me.”

The ABA Criminal Justice Section has been working for over a decade to remove the barriers that most ex-cons find when released from prison.

“There can be lifelong consequences for not only a felony conviction, but also for a misdemeanor conviction,” said Lucian Dervan, chair of ABA Criminal Justice Section and associate professor of law at Belmont University College of Law.

Yet many former inmates don’t attempt to have their prison records sealed or expunged even when they are eligible because they don’t know how to do it or lack the legal help they will need.

A study by the Harvard Law Review found that only 6.5 percent of legally eligible ex-convicts that could ex- punge their record in Michigan had actually done so within five years.

“Affording these individuals a way to expunge or seal their nonviolent convictions recognizes both the accomplishments of the individual in building a life free from further contact with the criminal justice system and the need to reduce the collateral consequences of a conviction,” stated Resolution 109B, which was passed this January by the ABA House of Delegates.

TRUST facilitators go home but find new blood to lead

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TRUST participants, members and facilitators share one last photo before leaving prison

Great companies and organizations are the ones that can stand the test of time and San Quentin’s T.R.U.S.T rehabilitative group is one of those programs.

The transformative group hosted its 14th Annual San Quentin T.R.U.S.T Graduation Ceremony and banquet. The October 10 event honored more than 60 people graduating from three different programs: The Health and Wellness Group, Project L.A., and T.R.U.S.T. (Teach- ing Responsibility Utilizing Sociological Training) classes. The Spanish Anger Management group was also in attendance.

TRUST’s Lanie Melnitzer, Christina Eckstrand, Anna Shoop, graduate Michael O’Neal, with Project LA’s Catherine Lonazo and Saun Hough

Robb Rogers, Project L.A. chairman, and Philip Senegal, T.R.U.S.T vice chairman, both received warm goodbyes and congratulations for be- ing found suitable at the pa- role board. The two longtime members expect to be released at the end of the year.

The men who “do programs” at San Quentin get out, said Steve Emrick, SQ’s recently retired Community Resources Manager. “The parole board and the outside community recognize the work that is being done in these programs. I hope all of you who take part in the programs walk away with the things you learned and become productive re- turning citizens.”

Susanne Siciliano, Melnitzer, Eckstrand, Shoop and Quilley Powers cheer as Diana Kronstadt speaks

The large crowd of volunteers and graduates recognized Rogers for his humble and direct personality that helped shape the Project L.A. program.

“After 38 years, I look for- ward of being home. This program provides all the necessary tools to survive upon release,” said Rogers. “I’m going to get involved with the Jericho organization once released. I look forward to helping the people coming after me.”

Project L.A. is a goal-set- ting and pre/post release program that assists people from Southern California with their re-entry needs. The Jericho organization, based in Los Angeles, works closely with the program.

Graduate Sergio Alvarez

“When people from our community are housed this far away they need this type of program,” said Saun Hough, executive director of Jericho, who also was formerly incarcerated. “We let the men know that they have a team when they come home. I once walked this road (incarcerated and reentry). I’m honored to be a part of some- one else’s team. We are on the ground, we provide real-time support and help those returning navigate the resources.”

Graduate Matthew Medina

Hough served more than 20 years in prison and has been free for eight, but every so often he reflects on his life journey.

“I was sitting in Dunkin’ Donuts the other day and I start thinking about my freedom. I began texting my daughter, then my wife and I just said, ‘I’m home—I’m home!’”

Hough said he prays to keep having that feeling.

Senegal is waiting for his second chance at freedom. He is one of the last founding members of T.R.U.S.T., established in 2003.

“I shall not do harm to myself, my family or my community; that is the golden rule of T.R.U.S.T,” said Senegal. “I’m no longer the cancer that did harm to my community. Now, I’m that healing agent.”

What motivated the founding of the group was when former Gov. Jerry Brown, who was the Mayor of Oakland at the time, stated on a news program that the core problem and the rise of crime in the community and the surrounding area of Alameda County was due to the influx of incarcerated people coming from San Quentin, said Senegal.

“This program provides all the necessary tools to survive upon release”

Graduate Anthony Waldrip

“We took offense to that statement and wanted to change that perspective. So with the help of the prison administration, they brought the curriculum inside and we developed the program,” he said. “If you don’t invest in yourself, change can never come about.”

Since the start of the program it has graduated hundreds of men within the prison. It also hosts the SQ Health Fair, the largest medical event, probably in the country, for a prison.

TRUST participants, members and facilitators share one last photo before leaving prison leadership but we welcome the new blood coming in,” said Diana Kronstadt, one of T.R.U.S.T’s sponsors. “Phillip bought us the history of the program with him. Robb is such a talented guy. I think they will do good things on the out- side—their presence will be missed.”

Graduate Robert Rush

Kronstadt expressed confidence about the continued longevity of the program while the new graduates smiled as they walked across the chapel stage to receive their certificates of completion.

“I feel selfish because we learn so much more than we give to these programs,” said Christina Laird, program volunteer. “These guys are masters of de-escalation. I learned how to use the ‘I statement’ from them. I had a chance to use these techniques at my job and I just own that space.

“These guys are preparing themselves for society,” Laird added.

Graduate Jess Puentes

Louis “Louie” Light, T.R.U.S.T member and MC of the event, kept the mood festive and on schedule with his humor, plus seriousness. He made sure everyone had their time to speak and get their picture taken.

The SQ Jazz band provided soul-soothing instrumentals as the participants enjoyed their meals and their accomplishments.

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