San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Pennsylvania Governor grants clemency to eight prisoners

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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has granted clemency to eight prisoners serving life terms—more than any governor in the past 25 years, the Philadelphia Enquirer reports.

Granting commutations started to diminish when Gov. Richard Thornburgh took office in 1979. It all but ceased in 1994, after lifer Reginald McFadden was released and went on a killing spree, the newspaper reported.

Today commutations have to be recommended unanimously by the state Board of Pardons before the governor can consider them.

One clemency went to George Trudel Jr., imprisoned for 30 years without the possibility of parole.

He told the newspaper, “I went away as a juvenile. I went away from my mother’s house, from being taken care of, to prison, where the state took care of me, I never paid a bill,

I didn’t know what it was to have that sort of responsibility. “It wasn’t until I got that job and started working, and I was able to go to the store and purchase things with my own money, that I truly felt like a man. I felt, for the first in a long time, that I was able to hold my head high. And that’s when I really started to believe that I belonged out here.” There are now more than 5,000 people serving life without the possibility of parole in Pennsylvania, according to the story.

California’s dark secret: prisoners sentenced under prior guidelines have little hope of ever being released

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Some men serving life sentences in California say they’re “political prisoners.” While there’s technically no legal definition for the term, some facts and evidence suggest they may be right.

At San Quentin State Prison, there are men who have served 40-plus years, continuously. These men are survivors of carceral Darwinism, having lived through changes in state politics, parole laws, parole boards, restructured prisoner classifications, a prosperous prison guards’ union, crime victims’ influence on laws, changes to the death penalty, and the most violent period in California prison history.

They’re called “7 Ups” in prison vernacular, a slang term for those sentenced to life and eligible for parole after serving seven years. That was be- fore 1977, when Senate Bill 42 passed and was signed into law by former Gov. Jerry Brown, the first time he held office from 1975-’82.

Seven-ups are serving life sentences under California’s old Indeterminate Sentencing Law, where judges imposed indefinite time. Under this law, different prisoners convicted of the same crimes spend fluctuating lengths of time in prison. Today, some 7 Ups have no idea when, if ever, their sentence will end.

Changes in California politics and the policies of all governors since Brown have politicized parole deci- sions. “They use this against all life prisoners,” said Johnny “Zakiy” Arafiles, 66. He’s been incarcerated since age 25.

Arafiles was sentenced to a 7-Up term for murder and was found suitable for release by the parole board in 1991. But Gov. Pete Wilson reversed the decision beyond the time allowed to do so. California’s Court of Appeals upheld that decision.

“This is bad law,” said Arafiles. He’s appeared be- fore 16 different parole boards while his sentence lengthens and his chance for freedom diminishes. “There are so many in here being illegally detained because they don’t know the law, and they’re (parole board) taking advantage of it.”

From 2000 to 2008, the parole board denied 98% of cases. The remaining 2% of cases that the parole board granted release during that time were overturned 60 % of the time by Gov. Gray Davis and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, accord- ing to author Keramet Reiter’s book 23/7.

“It has been clear to me that there is a general conspiracy to prevent life prisoners from paroling, especially those whose offenses include murder,” wrote Albert M. Leddy in a July 2000 declaration. He’s the former district attorney of Kern County, Calif., and for- mer Board of Prison Terms chairman.“I am in formed that Gov. Gray Davis has expressed his policy that no murderer offender will be paroled on his watch.”

Parole boards have become more punitive over the years, many 7 Ups say. When some of them were sent to prison, parole was granted by the Adult Authority. It later changed to the Community Release Board, then to the Board of Prison Terms (BPT). Today it’s the Board of Parole Hearings.

Allen “Squirrel” Ware, 64, was arrested in 1974 and sub- sequently convicted on a first- degree murder charge. He was the lookout on a burglary, not the actual killer. Still, he was given a 7-Up sentence under the rescinded felony murder law, changed last year by Sen- ate Bill 1437.

“Today we find you credible,” the transcript from Ware’s 21st Board hearing reads. He said the parole board apologized for not believing him sooner.

Ware was incarcerated at the peak of California’s prison violence, when between 1970 and 1974 there were 82 murders, 11 prison guards and 71 prisoners, according to Reiter.

“…there is a saturation point in practically every man’s servitude beyond which every additional hour is wasted and destructive punishment”

Tough-on-crime posturing, 7 Ups said, placed them in the cross hairs of political intrigue. In Leddy’s declaration, he wrote, “After Governor Wilson’s election in 1990, he substantially intervened to reduce parole grants; in actual effect his policy practically eliminated paroles. He accomplished this, first, by appointing and re- appointing BPT Commissioners known to disfavor parole or to favor a ‘no-parole’ policy.”

“Convicted murderers don’t deserve any more breaks,” Wilson said in his 1992 State of the State speech. In his 1994 speech, he said, “We can’t let killers walk out of prison early just because they’ve done a good job folding shirts in the prison laundry.”

“The most you would do is 11 to 12 years,” Arafiles said about the 7-Up sentence. “If you did 13, you were messing up.”

Terry “Duck” Alexander, 73, has been incarcerated nearly 43 years after his conviction for a 1977 murder in San Jose, Calif. He received a 7-Up sentence and has appeared before different parole boards at least 13 times.

“There’s no set guideline for what it takes to be rehabilitated in California,” said Alexander. “When you go to the Board and they read about you, they’re looking at past tense. They like to dwell on the past.”

Under the Indeterminate Sentencing Law, a prisoner’s individual conduct and rehabilitation was what the parole board considered to deter- mine who was released. But rehabilitation was expunged from the state’s Penal Code by Governor Brown in 1976, replaced with the Determinate Sentencing Law, which stated, in part: “The Legislature finds and declares that the purpose of imprisonment for crime is punishment.”

“Although the reluctance to grant parole began in the early ‘80s under Governor Wilson’s regime, BPT panels denied parole in over 99% of cases by employing procedures that violate the parole statutes and regulations,” Leddy wrote.

Some 7 Ups say for the state to release them now would be to admit its past wrong, which was to deny them parole for so long, because they’re intricately tied to past underground political decisions.

More than 30 years after many 7 Ups arrived in prison, Governor Schwarzenegger added the word “Rehabilitation” to California Department of Corrections. 7 ups say nothing has changed.

As former San Quentin warden Clinton Duffy wrote in 1952, “…there is a saturation point in practically every man’s servitude beyond which every additional hour is wasted and destructive punishment.”

Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs checks out San Quentin Enneagram program

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Enneagram class on lower yard with Micheal Tubbs & wife Anna Tubbs
Enneagram class on lower yard with Micheal Tubbs & wife Anna Tubbs

Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs and his wife, Anna, came to San Quentin to join a class aimed at helping prisoners gain self-respect and overcome childhood trauma.

Anna Tubbs said they came to the prison because they’re “both social justice concerned. It’s important to meet people directly impacted by policy choices—to be seen personally—to understand the needs of the people.”

Michael Tubbs & wife Anna with Enneagram class & Sponsors
Michael Tubbs & wife Anna with Enneagram class & Sponsors

The incarcerated men par- take in a program led by Susan Olesek. It is called The Enneagram Prison Project (EPP): Freeing the Incarcerated from the Prisons of Our Own Making. The program takes participants on a 20- week journey aimed at get- ting a better sense of self. rd, Prior to class on June 3 Micheal Tubbs sat down for an interview. He compared the city of Stockton and its “significant amount of re- sources” with coming inside a prison to see programs such as EPP, computer coding, and college programs. His reaction: “Why did I have to come inside a prison to see this? Why don’t we have these programs on the outside?”

Once the class started, Raiveon “Ray Ray” Wooden read a poem, “Temptation Within Myself.”

He then told a story about childhood abuse and how it traumatized him. Trauma turned to shame, he said, which turned to doubt that warped his thinking about himself.

Wooden said coming to prison gave him the chance to rethink his life from “being one of distant loneliness to finding support and love.”

“It’s hard to share these things and not worry about my pride,” Wooden said as he cited a stanza from his poem: “How to love yourself— how to find yourself”

“I came to prison to be safe,” Wooden said.

Olesek told the class that Wooden’s story is “one of a hero’s journey, on how to reclaim his life; to say it out loud to people makes them look at you in a good way.”

She commented on how adults don’t recognize painful lives in their children. Looking at Wooden she added, “Where did he get the idea that he had no worth? Who wasn’t there?”

Olesek turned to the class and said, “Don’t put yourself down by only focusing on what you did to get in prison without putting your life in the context of the circumstances.”

She told the class that “trauma is when you keep re- living the past.”

Then, she asked how many participants suffered from a childhood trauma. All hands went up, including Michael and Anna.

“How do we organize our society so that we value families?” Michael asked. His concern is to provide a safe and healthy environment for growing families.

“How can you protect your child?” Anna asked. “ You can’t control everything, but you can be there 100 percent as a parent who decides to bring a child into the world.”

Anna talked about working with students who felt like they couldn’t tell their own stories.

“But when these kids do get the opportunity to share their stories, they find out that they are not alone and share similar experiences—the sharing gives them the chance to connect,” Anna said.

Some people are locked up emotionally, the mayor implied. “You don’t have to be in San Quentin to be in prison,” he said.

Governor Gavin Newsom appoints new players in three key CDCR positions

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Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in late March three key appointments for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). All three appointments require Senate confirmation. His appointments include a Republican, a Democrat and a person without political affiliation.

Secretary of CDCR Ralph Diaz

Ralph Diaz has been appointed Secretary of the CDCR. He began his corrections career as a CO at Wasco State Prison in 1991. He worked multiple jobs as counselor supervisor, captain, chief deputy administrator and warden of the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison at Corcoran. He then served as associate director of high security institutions for the CDCR, and later as the deputy director of facility operations. He was undersecretary for operations and then acting secretary prior to his appointment to secretary of CDCR. The secretary’s compensation is $265,920 per year. Politically Diaz is without party affiliation.

Undersecretary of operations of CDCR Kathleen Allison

Kathleen Allison has been appointed undersecretary of operations for the CDCR. Her career began with the CDCR as a medical technical assistant at North Kern State Prison in 1993. She is a licensed registered nurse. While working at Avenal State Prison she worked as community resources man- ager, senior medical technical assistant and medical technical assistant. While at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison at Corcoran, she served as warden, chief deputy warden, associate warden and correctional health services administrator. She was the director of the CDCR’s Division of Adult Institutions from 2016 to 2018, and she has served as Acting Undersecretary of Operations since 2018. Her yearly compensation is $189,456. Allison is Republican.

Connie Gipson was appointed director of adult institutions for the CDCR. She began her corrections career at the California Institution for Women in 1988 . She then worked at Wasco State Prison as captain, business manager and health program director. While at California State Prison at Corcoran she served as warden, acting warden and chief deputy warden. She then worked as the CDCR’s associate director of general population male offenders and as deputy director of facility operations. She has been the acting director of adult institutions since 2018. Her yearly compensation is $174,344. Gipson is a Democrat.

Judges overwhelmed with immigration case backlogs makes it difficult for them to work

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The Trump administration’s controversial strategy to reduce the growing back- log of immigration cases has failed, according to a university study. The average wait for an immigration hearing is now more than two years, The San Diego Union Tribune reported.

The plan to reduce the backlog of immigration cases by forcing judges to take more cases was implemented in October 2017. Since then, the number of pending cases has grown from 655,932 to 830,000, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Access Records Clearinghouse, which tracks data from immigration courts.

The backlog is likely worse than figures provided by Syracuse University due makes it difficult for them to work to the 35 day-government shutdown in December and January, the Feb. 21 story said. That resulted in the cancellation of roughly 60,000 hearings because around 400 immigration judges were absent or furloughed. Thousands of cases were rescheduled, thus extending the already long wait times.

The plan was described as a “comprehensive strategy for significantly reducing the caseload by 2020.” It was intended to reverse the growth of the caseload and reduce it, according to the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), which administers immigration courts

The plan “has not only failed to reduce the backlog, but has eroded the court’s ability to ensure due process,” according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a group made up of more than 15,000 lawyers and professors.

The group said the administration has failed by pressuring judges to rule “at a breakneck pace” on whether an immigrant should be deported.

In defense, the Trump administration stated, “Policy changes in recent years have slowed down the adjudication of existing cases and incentivized further illegal immigration that led to new cases.”

Trump administration officials said illegal border crossing were encouraged by former President Barack Obama’s attempt to deport immigrants with serious criminal records and defend immigrants known as Dreamers who were brought to the U.S. as children.

Another argument regarding the aggravated situation was brought up by Stephen Legomsky, Homeland Security’s chief counsel for immigration.

“Immediately upon taking office, President Trump essentially advised Border Patrol agents and ICE officers that they were to begin removal proceedings against anyone they encounter that they suspected of being undocumented, without sufficiently increasing resources for immigration judges,” Legomsky said.

Another aspect of the immigration equation is the need for autonomy of the immigration judges. Immigration judges are not independent, in contrast to the regular court judges. The immigration judges are part of the Justice Department, which means that the attorney general is both the chief prosecutor in immigration cases and the boss of the judges, who are classified as government attorneys, The Union-Tribune reported.

The National Association of Immigration Judges has called for Congress to end the built-in conflict of interest and to create an immigration court apart from the Justice Department.

“As long as we continue to allow the court to be used as a law enforcement tool, you are going to get these kinds of backlogs and inefficiencies,” said Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

The Trump administration increased the number of immigration judges by 74 percent to 414 by the end of 2018. House Democrats requested an investigation by the Justice Department Inspector General’s office based on the suspicion that hiring was politically motivated.

The Immigration Lawyers Association wrote, “The current administration has taken advantage of the court structural laws by introducing numerous policies… that dramatically reshape federal immigration law and undermine due process in immigration court proceedings.”

America struggles with racial identity 50 years after Malcolm X

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Malcolm X adressing the crowd
Malcolm X adressing the crowd

When an icon dies in a hail of bullets for his ideas, beliefs and works, the community forever mourns the loss of potential progress. More than 50 years after the death of Malcolm X [El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz] America is still struggling with the rise of White nationalism, Black on Black crime and police brutality.

In the 1960s, Malcolm X represented the hope of Black manhood. His intelligence and uncompromising speeches made him a people’s champion, plus he was formerly incarcerated.

“White folks do not need anybody to remind them that they are men. We do!,” said actor Ossie Davis, who gave Malcolm’s eulogy, recorded in The Autobiography of Malcolm X. “This was his one incontrovertible benefit to his people.

“Protocol and common sense require the Negroes to stand back and let the White men speak up for us, defend us, and lead us from behind the scene in our fight. This is the essence of Negro politics.

“But Malcolm said, ‘to hell with that! Get up off your knees and fight your own battles. That’s the way to win back your self-respect.’”

Malcolm was a hustler, a pimp, drug dealer and a robber, all the negative trappings of Black youth street life. He earned the nickname “Detroit Red.” Then Malcolm transformed his life.

He became a Minster in the Nation of Islam, a respected orthodox Muslim leader, a fierce debater and a revolutionary thinker about change and reform.

Malcolm connected with the people because he understood the plight of Black youth.

“What makes the ghetto hustler yet more dangerous is his ‘glamor’ image to the school dropout in the ghetto,” said Malcolm. “The ghetto teenagers see the hell caught by their par- ents struggling to get somewhere, or see that they have given up struggling in the prejudiced, intolerant White man’s world.

“The ghetto teenagers make up their own minds; they would rather be like the hustlers whom they see dressed ‘sharp’ and flashing money and displaying no re- spect for anybody and any- thing,” Malcolm added.

It’s because of the lack of Black businesses that the Black man can’t employ his people and stabilize their community, Malcolm said. Malcolm was called “the angriest Black in America” for comments such as “Chickens coming home to roost” when speaking of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and for his infamous “By Any Means Necessary” comment.

But Malcolm felt that the White media wanted to make him the scapegoat for the country’s failures to address the issues in the Black community.

“It takes no one to stir up the sociological dynamite that stems from the unemployment, bad housing, and inferior education already in the ghettoes,” said Malcolm. “The explosively criminal condition has existed for so long, it needs no fuse; it fuses itself; it spontaneously combusts from within itself.”

As Malcolm grew spiritually in his Islamic faith, he believed it would take everyone to correct America’s human problems; even if it meant working separately, there would be collective action.

“Where else but in a prison could I attack my ignorance by being able to study intensely, sometimes as much as 15 hours a day?”

“Let sincere Whites go and teach non-violence to White people. We will completely respect our White co-workers. They would deserve every credit,” said Malcolm. “In our mutual sincerity we might be able show a road to the salvation of America’s very soul. It can only be salvaged if human rights and dignity, in full, are extended to the Black man.

“Only such real, meaningful actions as those … can get at the basic causes that produce the racial explosion in America today,” Malcolm added.

Malcolm’s time in prison is where he learned about himself, his people and world affairs. He credits the rehabilitative culture at Norfolk Prison Colony for his enlightenment. He joined group discussions and the debate team with instructors from Harvard, Boston University and other educational institutions that taught the rehabilitative programs.

“Many who hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I’ve said will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade,” said Malcolm. “This impression is entirely due to my prison studies.

“Where else but in a prison could I attack my ignorance by being able to study intensely, sometimes as much as 15 hours a day?”

Malcolm was both loved and hated by Blacks and Whites alike. But his pas- sion to speak truth to power could not be questioned.

“Sometimes I dare to dream to myself that one day, history may even say that my voice – which disturbed the White man’s smugness and his arrogance and his complacency – that my voice helped to save America from a grave, possibly even a fatal, catastrophe,” said Malcolm.

Ossie Davis summed up Malcolm’s life at his funeral. “But in explaining Malcolm, let us take care not explain him away. He had been a criminal, an addict, a pimp and a prisoner, a racist, a hater; he had really believed the White man was the devil. But all this had changed. Two days before his death …he said ‘That was a mad scene. The sickness and madness of those days! I’m glad to be free of them.” And Malcolm did become free.

Guards union seeks better relationship with Gov. Newsom

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California’s Governor Gavin Newson
California’s Governor Gavin Newson

California’s prison guards union is taking steps to foster good relations with new Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The union withdrew a $2 million contribution to a ballot initiative opposed by Newsom, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Feb 17.

The $2 million check was in support of the Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act of 2020. It was made by then-President Chuck Alexander of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) just before his term ended on Dec. 31. It was pulled back by the new union president, Kurt Stoetzl, according to the Chronicle.

“The smart move right now is to work together with the governor on the issues that matter most: wages, benefits and working conditions,” said former Newsom media aide

Nathan Ballard, who is now advising the union. “The CCPOA’s leaders would rather work collaboratively with the governor than pick a fight at the ballot box.”

The CCPOA was the only law enforcement group to endorse Newsom for governor. It donated $1 million to an independent committee to support his campaign.

The union begins negotiations for a new contract with Newsom in July.

Californians divided over results from criminal justice reforms

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A debate is growing on the impact of criminal justice reforms in California. Widely differing views are surfacing on reforms approved by California voters in recent years.

That includes Proposition 47 in 2014, that reduced some crimes from felonies to misdemeanors; Proposition 57, which passed in 2016 and allowed prison officials to decide which nonviolent felonies could be reduced to misdemeanors (under Proposition 47), and a 2018 measure allowed many defendants to be released without bail pending trial.

Opponents of reform argue that California’s new laws are to blame for increases in certain categories of crime or short-term fluctuations in rates of violent crime. The opponents include state police unions, court employees, some district attorneys and politicians. They blame early release initiatives for violent episodes of recidivism, according to the Jan. 21 New York Times.

Ironically, overall crime rates have reached lows not seen since the 1960s, the newspaper reported.

“Proposition 47 has nothing to do with violent crime,” said Charis E. Kubrin of UC Irvine. She is one of the researchers in a study that found no link between Proposition 47 and violent crime.

The study uncovered increases in larceny and auto thefts, but Kubrin and her co- author, Bradley J. Bartos, did not conclude that Proposition 47 was the cause.
The Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys criticized the study, adding that Proposition 47 had “arguably failed,” due to increases in crime.

“important to understand that we are in a historic decline… we are safer than almost at any time in history”

Last year, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned of a “staggering increase in homicides.” Violent crime did rise in 2015 and 2016, yet, when FBI figures were released, they showed violent crime had decreased in 2017. This is why some researchers and activists say that criminal justice policies should not rely on annual fluctuations, the newspaper reported.

“Year-to-year fluctuations don’t really tell you much,” said Rob Smith, executive director of the Justice Collaborative. He also told the newspaper that it’s “important to understand that we are in a historic decline…The reality is across California and across the country, we are safer than almost at any time in history.”

In California, law enforcement unions, bail bond companies and other groups are pushing measures to define new crimes as felonies and repeal the state’s recent cash bail reform.

California legislators consider voting rights for parolees

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Right To Vote

This year, California legislators will decide whether a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to people on parole can be on the ballot for the 2020 elections.

According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 6 (ACA 6), also known as the Free the Vote Act, was introduced by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty.

ACA 6 will pave the way for a 2020 ballot measure that would restore the voting rights of about 50,000 parolees.

Under Article II, section 4 of California’s Constitution “The Legislature shall prohibit improper practices that affect elections and shall provide for the disqualification of electors while mentally incompetent or imprisoned or on parole for the conviction of a felony.”

“ACA 6 will eliminate an arbitrary barrier to voting, reduce recidivism and give formerly incarcerated people an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to become productive, contributing members of our society,” McCarty said, according to a witness- la.com article.

In an interview with San Quentin News, Eric Henderson of Initiate Justice said that the idea for ACA 6 stemmed from conversations between Taina Vargas-Edmond, Executive Director of Initiate Justice, and incarcerated people.

According to a Common Cause report titled “Democracy Behind Bars: How money in politics, felony disenfranchisement and prison gerrymandering fuel mass incarceration and undermine democracy,” the practice of felony disenfranchisement was brought over by the original colonists as the British practice of “civil death,” which included the loss of property, voting, and other civil rights.

Common Cause also noted the racial legacy when felony disenfranchisement was used to bar free black men from voting after the Civil War.

In November of last year, Floridians passed Constitutional Amendment 4, which was supposed to restore the voting rights of more than half a million convicted felons, according to an article in Politico.

However, Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature is maneuvering a bill through the legislative process that would limit the voting rights gained by the 64% voter-approved Amendment 4.

“This is exactly what we were worried about from the beginning—legislative at- tempts to undermine the will of the people who voted for second chances and to rid Florida of the last vestiges of its Jim Crow-era past,” said Kirk Bailey, political director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, according to Politico.

An article in the Washington Post, “What gets ex-prisoners politically and civically involved?, Credited Florida’s Amendment 4 with re-enfranchising “more than one-fifth of the state’s African American population.”
The Republicans’ pro- posed bill includes a list of crimes that would disqualify someone from being allowed to vote and also requires the formerly incarcerated to pay court costs, fines, and fees as part of completing their sentence before they can vote.

“When partisan politics gets involved, the people lose,” said Neil Volz, political director with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition in Politico.

Under Amendment 4, people convicted of murder or felony sexual assault still are barred from voting.

According to the witnessla. com article, in the last two decades there have been nationwide voting reforms that have reinstated 1.4 million Americans on either the local or state level. However, there are another 6 million are still barred from voting because of their criminal past.

“Civic participation is foundational to a sense of community—and it can play a major role in reducing recidivism,” said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who supports the new ACA 6 bill.

If ACA 6 passes through the Legislature, the 2020 ballot proposal would restore the voting rights of people on parole, leaving disenfranchised the mentally incompetent and the incarcerated.

Senate Bill 3435 Beyond the box for higher education

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About two-thirds of post-secondary institutions ask applicants to submit criminal history, according to The Crime Report.

The Center for Community Alternatives found that 25 percent of these schools bar applicants with criminal history from attending. This prevents individuals who have already paid their debt to society from finding success going forward.

There are an estimated 70 million American citizens with criminal records, according to The Crime Report. Colleges and universities can help remove barriers to higher education for these people. Higher education can be an essential tool to finding successful employment, especially for former prisoners re-entering society after their sentence ends.

Help may be on the way. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) has introduced a bill (Senate Bill 3435, the Beyond the Box for Higher Education Act of 2018) that would provide resources and recommendations for colleges and universities that want to remove criminal and juvenile record questions from their applications.

On average, those with post-secondary education make 74 percent more than people with a high school diploma or less. People with doctoral and professional degrees earn three times as much as those with less than a high school diploma, accord- ing to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These trends contribute to a positive cycle, as children are more likely to attend college if their parents did.

There are still opponents to the efforts to remove criminal record questions from college applications. Opponents fear increased crime on campus if these questions are removed. However, screening applicants for prior convictions has not proven to reduce campus safety. In fact, to date, people with no criminal record have commit- ted some of the most serious crimes reported on campuses, according to The Crime Report.

There is significant evidence that education provides an essential pathway to success. Among other things, employers increasingly seek cognitive skills (like communication and analytics), rather than physical skills, from their applicants. Now, colleges and universities have the opportunity to end one barrier to higher education entry for the 70 million Americans with criminal records.

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