San Quentin News

Written By Inmates - Advancing Social Justice

Lawrence Bartley leads new Marshall Project endeavor

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Lawrence Bartley

The Marshall Project publishes stories about the experiences of those impacted by the penal system. It does so in the one place most incarcerated people don’t have access to: online.

That changed when Lawrence Bartley returned to society after serving 27 years in prison. He’s now the producer of Inside News Magazine, which shares stories, published on The Marshall Project website, in print form for people in prison.

Bartley hopes incarcerated people engage with the articles he’s compiled– about legal developments, prison programs, hope, social science and life inside– and build off them as he eventually did.

Bartley on stage preparing a pitch

Sentenced to life when he was 17, the Jamaica Queens, NY, native started out blaming others for his predicament. Eventually he learned to take accountability and sought an education at Sing Sing, a prison just outside of New York City. Due to the fact that private funding has taken over where the Pell grants ended, Bartley managed to earn a master’s degree in professional studies.

In college at Sing Sing, he learned a valuable lesson: to always have a pitch ready.

Jim Ziolkowski, CEO of BuildOn, an international non-profit, visited Bartley’s class at Sing Sing. Ziolkowski had a great discussion with the class and left. Bartley said afterward, the professor “cursed the class out.”

“I brought this dude in here who’s been all around the world and none of y’all had a pitch ready,” Bartley quoted his professor as saying.

Bartley took the lesson to heart.

While at Sing Sing, Bartley also helped put together a TEDx Talk and, along with a small group of others, he invited legislators into the prison to discuss laws.

Lawrence Bartley speaking with NBC’s Lestor Holt

“The rate of parole releases doubled since our Senatorial meeting in 2011,” Bartley said. “I’d like to think we made some moves toward making that happen.”

Because of the positive moves Bartley made, the administration at Sing Sing called on him and his group of about five men whenever a VIP guest visited, which included Warren and Doris Buffett, ??? Usher, Harry Belafonte, Ice T, the department of probation and the chief of police.

Despite the success gained for incarcerated people, other residents called them a “secret society.”

“We made moves to put people down with it, and they weren’t ready to do the work,” Bartley said. “We never ostracized anyone though; we kept giving them chances.”

It was Bartley’s struggle to make parole that helped get him a job with The Marshall Project. Denied five times by the board, he wrote about his experience and sent the story to The Marshall Project, which published it in its “Life Inside” section. After he made parole on the next try in 2018, he walked through the doors of The Marshall Project’s offices to talk about his experiences and landed himself a job.

The lesson he learned in prison about pitching led to the creation of Inside News. Bartley prepared a pitch with help from colleagues Andrew Epstein and Alex Tatusian to get The Marshall Project into dozens of prisons.

“I lined up all my ducks on how we gonna do it, how much it was gonna cost, what pilot facility I was gonna use and laid out my pitch,” Bartley said.

The pitch Bartley gave was accepted, and he has rapidly expanded Inside News from one pilot prison to 38 and counting.

Just 14 months after coming home on parole, he bought a house in Connecticut for the wife who stuck with him through his incarceration and their kids.

However, 90 days later, New York parole hadn’t approved his transfer, so he had to stay in New York.

“I was used to not being around my family in prison, but it’s totally different when you’re around them everyday,” Bartley said. “The system is supposed to be there to help you when you’re doing good.”

Bartley has to wait to rejoin his family, but in the meantime, he is happy that they will get a good education in the upper middle class Connecticut neighborhood.

“I’m most proud of my children’s education,” Bartley said.

Norways approach to incarceration sets new standard

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Norway is taking the lead in Europe when in it comes to prison reform and rehabilitation, according to Emma Jane Kirby of the BBC.

The country has moved away from just locking people up and throwing away the key, to an approach of cutting the prison population and finding ways to stop the reoffending rates.

“In Norway, the punishment is just to take away someone’s liberty. The rights stay. Prisoners can vote; they have access to school, to health care; they have the same rights as any Norwegian citizen because inmates are human beings. They’ve done wrong; they must be punished, but they are still human beings,” said Are Hoidal, the prison governor of Norway’s Haiden Prison.

Part of the process of Haiden’s rehabilitation program is daily exercise. Prisoners work out alongside staff, who participate in the same exercises. It is therapeutic for staff and prisoners alike, according to the article.

Bonding and forming a partnership between staff and inmate helps tone down violence, and let the prisoner get used to doing things that he or she did not do while living a criminal lifestyle, explained Hoidal.

The maximum security prison at Halden was built to ease and minimize prisoners’ fears and stress and to put them in natural surroundings. At a cost of 138 million Euros to build, prisoners can enjoy the blueberry woods, silver birch and pine trees surrounding them.

The two-story buildings were built to look more like a college environment than a prison, according to the article.

There are no bars on the windows. Every prisoner has his own cell, which comes with a flat screen TV, a desk, kitchenette with refrigerator and a shower stall and commode.

The prison has state of the art vocational programs, and one can take college exams in math and physics, and some have received diplomas. Inmate Fredrik is working towards his master’s in graphic design while serving a 15-year sentence for murder.

“If you don’t have opportunities, and you are just locked in a cage, you don’t become a good citizen.” Fredrik told reporter Kirby, as he adjusted the colors on one of the photos on his screen. “Here there are good opportunities; you can have a diploma, and when you come out, you can maybe get a stable job, and that’s important.”

Another aspect of prison life in Norway that differs from the U.K., is that it takes correctional officers two years to complete their training. In the U.K., it only takes three months. The Norwegian candidates train at a university college specifically for correctional service. Only 175 trainees out of 1,200 become prison officers, according to Hans-Jorgen Brucker who oversees their training.

“We want to stop reoffending, which means officers need to be well educated,” said Brucker. “My students will study law, ethics, criminology, English, reintegration and social work. Then they will have a year training in a prison, and then they will come back to take final exams.”

The country moved away from the punitive approach more than 20 years ago. There are no life sentences, and the recidivism rate has dropped dramatically over the years, according to the article.

The prison has “daddy” days for those who pass a safeguard test, and then the prisoners can spend a couple of days with their family in a small cottage on prison grounds.

Hoidal said he can’t remember the last time they experienced violence in Haiden Prison.

“In Norway, all will be released—there are no life sentences,” Hoidal reminded the reporter.

“So we are releasing your neighbor. If we treat inmates like animals in prison, then we will release animals on your street.”

Feds consider releasing prisoners

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The Justice Department and Attorney General William Barr are working together to release non-violent criminals following decades in prison, according to Michael Balsamo of The Associated Press.

The Trump administration signed a new bi-partisan law last year called the First Step Act. The Act allows federal courts to release prisoners who are serving time for non-violent felonies.

Mr. Barr recently visited a medium custody facility in North Carolina, where he met with the facility’s staff and prisoners while inspecting the premises. He liked what he saw.

“I’m impressed with how it’s going,” Barr said of the First Step Act’s implementation. “While there are a few things I probably would have done differently, I generally support the thrust of the First Step Act.”

Barr’s tough-on-crime policies seem to be loosening-up. Like many politicians and people throughout the country, Barr feels that prisoners who served maximum time for non-violent crimes should be considered for release.

One such prisoner, Leroy Nolan, was arrested for drugs in the 1990’s. Now 67-years-old, he has served more than 20 years of his sentence and meets the criteria for parole.

Nolan works in a prison factory making T-shirts, backpacks and other goods for government agencies or non-profits.

“I made the mistake of getting into drugs,” Nolan told Barr and Senators Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, who accompanied him on the tour. “You all are good role models.”

One of the major stumbling blocks for First Step’s success is providing enough vocational, educational, technology programs to help prisoners find work upon release. Early release advocates are pushing the Trump Administration to allocate more funding to them.

Inimai Chettiar of the Justice Action Network worries that Congress could stall early release funding and put proper implementation on hold.

Chettiar’s concerns are valid. When Barr toured he noticed that prisoners completed their work on old computers, and prisoners mentored and facilitated groups rather than outside instructors.

As more prisoners become eligible for parole, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the money to sustain viable programs and help prisoners gain their freedom to work or engage in a trade. Ultimately, the Justice Department and Barr have to be more than “all-in.” They also need to push for necessary funding.

Alameda County top prosecutor in favor of rehabilitation

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Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley

One of California’s top prosecutors says it’s important to keep deserving persons out of prison and to help deserving incarcerated people build a successful life upon release.

Progress toward rehabilitation and strengthening reentry programs for “justice involved” people was discussed at San Quentin by Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley on Oct. 13.

O’Malley visited the state prison to converse with incarcerated men about some of the programs she supports on the outside. One of those programs is Developing Impacted Lives (DIL).

“A lot of young people who would otherwise go to jail would go to the (DIL) program,” said O’Malley. “Part of what we do with DIL—we meet every month. This is for peer support.”

O’Malley said her office is also trying to help stop people from becoming involved in the criminal justice system. To help reduce crime and recidivism, she also recruits organizations to hire justice involved individuals whose lives are impacted by a criminal conviction.

“By year three, more than 50 percent of those put on felony probation are committing new crimes,” said O’Malley. “We had to own the failure.” In the post tough-on- crime era, programs like DIL have become an important component for prosecutors like O’Malley who are trying to increase public safety. “I’m very happy to be lifting it up” and supporting the program, she said. O’Malley acknowledged that just because someone gets out of jail or prison, it does not mean things will be different. She said, however, DIL is not always the starting point.

Someone without structure may not enter the program immediately, O’Malley said. “It’s not to tell them what to do with their life, but to get them to figure it out for them- selves.” She said the Family Justice Center allocates resources with justice-involved individuals to help them.

One example is Doug Butler, a former Oakland police officer who was convicted of murder and served 20 years in prison. He works with O’Malley’s office and other organizations to help others whose lives have been impacted by the criminal justice system.

“It’s a very intense program,” said O’Malley. “Mr. Butler interviews (justice-involved people), but what we really want to know is if they’re ready for the program.

“I do believe there are a lot of programs that understand the value of those who have lived experience,” said O’Malley. She said people like Butler can identify legitimate groups that work for those who are turning their lives around.

“Prepare yourself to be paroled,” Butler told the audience of about a half-dozen men. “We’ll provide you with the training.”

What O’Malley’s office does differently is direct inter- action by aligning individuals with programs like DIL. “In Alameda County, if they get known to us, they’re going to get linked in,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where they come from.”

The meeting included O’Malley, some of her staff, SQ News staff, and about a half-dozen students from the University of California at Berkeley along with their professor, William Drummond. They discussed other social issues such as the impact language has on those who are justice-involved.

“How do you build in a program that deals with addiction?” asked Drummond.

“We work with the community,” said O’Malley. “We try to identify the issues they may be having.” At that point, programs like DIL can pair individuals with those who have the same “lived experience” and are “justice involved.”

O’Malley did, however, caution that she has a primary duty beyond helping those who have been convicted of crimes. “I have to be very aware because we also have victims,” she said.

“The governor has put a lot of money into ‘Realignment’ (Assembly Bill 109) and reentry funds,” said O’Malley. She said grant money and Realignment money can be used to support programs like DIL.

“We can put together what it takes,” said O’Malley. “Hopefulness is a lot of what we’re trying to do. The more I talk about this the more I see the wider opportunity.

“I’m happy to do all this stuff,” O’Malley said about her willingness to collaborate with those who are incarcerated. Her reason: to put an end to “Death by hopelessness.”

Around the nation, there are organizations that advocate to stop using what some believe to be belittling language that describes people with criminal records. “Justice involved” are those who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated, but the term can sometimes be interpreted to mean people who work within the criminal justice system.

At no time during the discussion did O’Malley use the words inmate, prisoner, offender, felon, parolee, formerly incarcerated or any of what some call disparaging words used to describe those who have been convicted of a crime.

O’Malley joined the district attorney’s office in 1984. She has been the chief law enforcement officer in Alameda County since her appointment by the Board of Supervisors in September 2009, according to the county’s website. She was elected to the position in November 2010, 2014 and 2018.

The District Attorney’s Office jurisdiction covers more than 800 square miles and operates out of nine offices, according to the DA’s website. Its mission is to “review and prosecute criminal violations of the laws, to protect consumers and the environment and to support and protect victims of crime within the County on behalf of the people of the State of California.” It has a staff of more than 150 attorneys.

Recent decline in most US state prisons still insufficient

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By The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Most states have downsized their prison populations in recent years, but the pace of decarceration is insufficient to undo nearly four decades of unrelenting growth.

The recent pace of decline would take 72 years to cut the US prison population by 50%, according to a new analysis by The Sentencing Project’s Senior Research Analyst Nazgol Ghandnoosh.

US Prison Population Trends: Massive Buildup and Modest Decline finds that 39 states and the federal government had downsized their prisons as of 2017.

Five states—Alaska, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut and New York—led the nation in reducing their prison populations by more than 30% since reaching their peak levels.

Some Southern states, which have exceptionally high rates of incarceration, also achieved double-digit percentage reductions in their prison populations since reaching their peak levels, including Alabama (25%), South Carolina (17%), Louisiana (16%), and Mississippi (15%).

Fourteen states downsized their prisons by less than 5%.

Eleven states, led by Arkansas, had their highest ever prison populations in 2017. Additionally, Alaska—one of the current leaders in state decarceration—repealed several aspects of its major criminal justice reform initiatives in 2019.

While some critics have charged that decarceration would lead to rising crime, states with the most substantial reductions in their prison populations have often outpaced the nationwide crime drop.

Clearly, waiting seven decades to substantively alter a system that is out of step with the world and is racially biased is unacceptable. Expediting the end of mass incarceration will require accelerating the end of the Drug War and scaling back sentences for all crimes, including violent offenses for which half of people in prison are serving time.

Governor Gavin Newsom signs new justice bills into law

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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 25 bills on Oct. 8 aimed at setting a path to reform California’s criminal justice system, he reported in a news release.

The bills include support for those reentering the community after serving their sentences, including creating a system to automatically expunge records of individuals previously convicted of low-level offenses, as well as reform unfair sentencing practices, and enhance support for victims of crime.

“I am signing more than two dozen bills that give hope to those that have earned a second chance in our communities, and also support victims of crime,” said Gov. Newsom. “These bills show a new path to ensure our state moves closer toward a more equitable criminal justice system.”

One of the bills signed is AB 1076 by Assembly member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, which will create an automated record clearance system for qualifying low-level offenses, so an individual’s records can be sealed in a more efficient manner, as is their right pursuant to California law.

Under AB 1076, the California Department of Justice will establish the automated record clearance system for individuals arrested or convicted after Jan. 1, 2021, and will replace the current one,

in which individuals must petition directly to the court. The new system will exclude registered sex offenders and those with any pending criminal charges.

“People shouldn’t have to pay for their mistakes for the rest of their lives. A fresh start improves an individual’s chances of succeeding and reduces the likelihood of recidivism. Automating the record clearance process will enable former offenders to get back on their feet and lead

productive lives,” said Assembly member Ting. “Our economy and society pay the price when job-seeking workers are shut out.”

“Many Californians living with past criminal records have completed their sentences and paid their debts, yet still face thousands of legal prohibitions preventing eligibility for jobs, housing and many other keys to family stability and economic mobility,”said Lenore Anderson, president of Californians for Safety and Justice. “It’s time for meaningful rehabilitation. By signing this bill, Gov. Newsom is giving people living with old records long overdue relief and a real path to stability—and that is better for public safety and the economy. With this new law, California is emerging as a national leader in reintegration for families and strengthening communities.”

For other criminal justice- related bills signed Oct.8 (see boxes below)

SENTENciNg

• SB 136 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, removes the one-year sentence enhancement that is applied to current sentences for each prior felony jail or prison term served.

• AB 484 by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, removes a mandatory minimum sentence for certain drug crimes, allowing for judicial discretion in imposing any period of confinement.

• SB 36 by Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, improves transparency for pretrial risk assessments by requiring regular validation of assessment tools and requiring the Judicial Council to publish a yearly report on its website with data related to outcomes and potential biases.

• AB 1618 by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, prohibits plea bargains that require a defendant to generally waive unknown future potential benefits of changes in the law that may occur after the date of the plea.

RElEASE ANd REENTRy

• AB 278 by Assembly member Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, allows the California Conservation Corps to accept applicants who are on parole.

• AB 1261 by Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, eliminates the requirement for individuals convicted of a certain drug offense to register with local law enforcement.

• SB 310 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, permits a person with a felony conviction to serve on a jury, unless they are on any form of supervision for a felony conviction, or are a registered sex offender.

• AB 1668 by Assembly member Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, establishes the Education and Employment Reentry Program within the California Conservation Corps and authorizes the director to enroll formerly incarcerated individuals.

SuppoRTiNg VicTimS

• AB 917 by Assembly member Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-Grand Terrace, further expedites the victim certification process for immigrants, including when the victim is in removal proceedings, for the purposes of obtaining T-Visas or U-Visas.

• SB 22 by Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, requires law enforcement agencies to submit rape kits to a crime lab or other rapid-turnaround DNA program within 20 days.

• SB 375 by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, extends the deadline for victims of violent crimes to file an application for compensation from three years to seven years.

• AB 433 by Assembly member James Ramos, D-Highland, requires a hearing in open court before early termination of probation, and for crime victims and their attorneys to be made aware of early termination of probation.

• AB 415 by Assembly member Brian Maienschein, D-San Diego, authorizes the California Victim Compensation Board to compensate a crime victim for the costs of temporary housing for a pet and for any pet deposit that may be required for relocation.

• AB 629 by Assembly member Christy Smith, D-Santa Clarita, authorizes the California Victim Compensation Board to provide compensation equal to loss of income or support to victims of human trafficking.

youTh offENdERS

• AB 1394 by Assembly member Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, eliminates the imposition of any fee charged by a Superior Court or probation department to an applicant who files a petition to seal Juvenile Court records.

• SB 394 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, authorizes a court, in consultation with the prosecuting entity and the public defender, to create a pretrial diversion program for defendants who are primary caregivers of a child under 18 years of age.

• AB 965 by Assembly member Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, authorizes the secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to allow persons eligible for youthful offender parole to obtain an earlier youth offender parole hearing by earning certain educational merit credits, subject to CDCR regulations.

• AB 1423 by Assembly member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, establishes a process for juvenile offenders to request to return their case to Juvenile Court.

• AB 1454 by Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, increases the award amounts available through the Youth Reinvestment Grant Program and allows nonprofit organizations to apply for grants through the program.

By The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Most states have down- sized their prison populations in recent years, but the pace of decarceration is insufficient to undo nearly four decades of unrelenting growth.

The recent pace of decline would take 72 years to cut the US prison population by 50%, according to a new analysis by The Sentencing Project’s Senior Research Analyst Nazgol Ghandnoosh.

US Prison Population Trends: Massive Buildup and Modest Decline finds that 39 states and the federal government had downsized their prisons as of 2017.

Five states—Alaska, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut and New York—led the nation in reducing their prison populations by more than 30% since reaching their peak levels.

Some Southern states, which have exceptionally high rates of incarceration, also achieved double-digit percent- age reductions in their prison populations since reaching their peak levels, including Alabama (25%), South Carolina (17%), Louisiana (16%), and Mississippi (15%).

Fourteen states downsized their prisons by less than 5%.

Eleven states, led by Arkansas, had their highest ever prison populations in 2017. Additionally, Alaska—one of the current leaders in state decarceration—repealed several aspects of its major criminal justice reform initiatives in 2019.

While some critics have charged that decarceration would lead to rising crime, states with the most substantial reductions in their prison populations have often outpaced the nationwide crime drop.

Clearly, waiting seven decades to substantively alter a system that is out of step with the world and is racially biased is unacceptable. Expediting the end of mass incarceration will require accelerating the end of the Drug War and scaling back sentences for all crimes, including violent offenses for which half of people in prison are serving time.

“Going forward, what was once called a convicted felon or an offender released from jail will be a ‘formerly incar- cerated person,’ or a ‘justice-

involved’ person or simply a ‘returning resident.’”

The city’s Board of Super- visors passed a non-binding resolution encouraging the change by police and courts. The newspaper said the dis- trict attorney “is already on board.”

Supervisor Matt Haney joined nine other supervisors in voting for the resolution.

“We want them ultimately to become contributing citi- zens, and referring to them as felons is like a scarlet letter that they can never get away from,” Haney explained.

“We don’t want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done.”

The non-binding resolution was passed in July.

Mayor London Breed did not endorse the resolution because it is non-binding, ac- cording to the mayor’s spokes- person, Jeff Cretan. However, “she is always happy to work with the board on issues around equity and criminal justice reform,” Cretan said.

The San Francisco Police Department has taken note of the board’s action and has “made our members aware of the resolution and are researching possible impacts on operations and communications,” said police spokesperson David Stevenson.

Study advances alternative form of criminal justice

AddiTioNAl lEgiSlATioN

• AB 1331 by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, addresses data gaps and improves access to criminal justice data by establishing reporting requirements across the system and clarifying existing law regarding access.

• AB 45 by Assemblymember Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, prohibits CDCR and city and county jails from charging inmates a co-pay for medical visits.

• SB 399 by Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, requires the appointment of two members of the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training who are not peace officers and have expertise in implicit and explicit biases, cultural competency, mental health and policing or work with vulnerable populations.

• AB 1215 by Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, prohibits law enforcement from installing, activating, or using a facial recognition system in connection with a law enforcement agency’s body-worn camera.

• AB 1600 by Assembly member Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, shortens the notice requirement in criminal cases when a defendant files a motion to discover police officer misconduct from 16 days to 10 days.

• Other criminal justice items the governor undertook this year included an Executive Order halting executions in California, which he announced in March.

• He also announced earlier this year that the CDCR’s Division of JuvenileJustice would shift to the Health and Human Services Agency beginning July 1, 2020.

Ad agency ConCreates embraces incarcerated employees

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ConCreates is an advertising agency started by a former prison inmate and staffed by 436 incarcerated men and women—plus 319 ex-cons successfully working on the outside, reports fastcompany.com

“Our mission is to challenge the stigma of how society views people with criminal history, as well as how people with criminal history view themselves,” said Vincent Bragg, a cofounder of the firm.

“If we’re able to show them they’re not just a bank robber, or not just a drug dealer, that they have creative potential, then we can show them an opportunity to take a new career path,” Bragg continued.

Bragg served five years in federal prison for a drug conviction and during that time he read more than 400 books.

He was released in 2016 and enrolled in the entrepreneurial program at Defy Ventures, an organization that helps formerly incarcerated people create legal business ventures and develop careers.

Bragg started ConCreates while in prison, after meeting Joe Nickson, now a contributor to ConCreates. Nickson was working at the time as a consultant on an ad campaign for Jonathan Shokrian of MeUndies.

“We were able to give (Shokrian) some ideas that took his company from doing $50,000 in sales a month to $934,000 with only two campaigns. That was the birth of ConCreates,” said Bragg.

“We built a creative network based on certain individual skill sets. Where most might see a bank robber, we see a strategist,” said Bragg.

ConCreates’ co-founder Janeya Griffin said, “We want to help rehumanize them. When you go into prison, you’re dehumanized. Rehumanizing comes from them using their skills in a positive way.”

Assistance in setting up the new agency came from Tim Jones, executive director of 72andSunny, a New York agency that works with brands Samsung, Facebook and Smirnoff.

“The new agency is looking to work directly with clients and other partners including creative agencies, PR and research firms, and production companies,” fastcompany.com reported.

Jones said the real light bulb for him was, “That criminality is often just creativity without opportunity. We don’t think one mistake should define a human lifetime. We think there is this raw creative force that resides in prison today.”

Contributing individuals are paid for every idea they contribute, with increases as the idea progresses. Ten percent of the company is owned by the network, Bragg said. “We have profit-sharing, so there is a sense of pride in ownership.”

Jurists look to San Quentin

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Alameda Public Defenders seek input during forum

Prisoners seeking to understand the role of public defenders invited Alameda County Public Defender Brandon Woods to San Quentin to talk about his vision for public defense. He said he is working to make significant changes to improve defense outcomes.

The purpose of the Sept. 6 forum was to “promote public safety by building a bridge between public defenders and the incarcerated in order to develop strategies that address the social, environmental and economic conditions that foster criminal thinking and behavior,” the event brochure read.

The forum began with 30 prisoners and about 30 lawyers from the public defender’s office meeting in a large circle.

The participants broke into six small circles to discuss the prisoners’ experience with their public defenders and ways they could be better advocates.

When the groups rejoined the large circle, they talked about what they learned from each other.

The prisoners said they realized the difficulties that criminal defense attorneys undergo in performing their jobs and also the lawyers’ passion for defense work.

Woods told the nearly 30 prisoners that he takes his job very seriously.

“When we think about Oakland, home of the Black Panthers. But it wasn’t un- til 2012 that there has been a Black public defender,” Woods said.

As to why he became a public defender, Woods said, “I was born into a lower income home that was impacted by the system. I want to advocate for people so that they are not negatively impacted by the system.”

The three-hour forum included a PowerPoint presentation by Woods to explain a “Holistic Defense.” Slide-by-slide, he explained the duties of a civil attorney, the Clean Slate Program, the need for social workers and family defense attorneys as well as immigration attorneys, parent advocates, investigators and policy and community organizers.

“There are actors in the system that don’t want to see change,” Woods said regard- ing the difficulty in getting these programs running.

As an example, he pointed to changing the Public Defenders Mission Statement.

The old mission statement read, “The mission of the Public Defender is to provide a fully competent, effective and ethical defense for each cli- ent whose representation has been entrusted to the office; to conduct that representation in a manner that promotes fairness in the administration of justice; and to provide all mandated legal services in a cost effective and efficient manner.”

After reading the mission statement, Woods looked to the audience and said, “To provide all mandated legal services in a cost effective and efficient manner. What does that mean?”

He then read the new mission statement, “To zealously protect and defend the rights of our clients through compassionate and inspired legal representation of the highest quality, in pursuit of a fair and unbiased system of justice for all.”

He discussed Clean Slate, which is a program designed to assist people in obtaining or improving employment opportunities as well as improving access to housing and other services.

Of the 2,854 motions filed in 2018 for Clean Slate, 2,746 were granted. Woods said Clean Slate has a 96% success rate.

He also brought up the Social Worker Program (SWP).

To date, SWP served over 1,155 people. The courts accepted 85% of treatment plans instead of incarceration and 88% of clients who received treatment did not recidivate.

Woods is the first African American to be appointed Chief Public Defender in Alameda County and is the only Black Chief Public Defender in California.

To put the challenges that Woods faces in context, other Alameda County department budgets are:

• Sheriff – $299.5 million

• Probation – $114.3 million

• District Attorney – $69.2 million

• Public Defender – $40.7 million

The Alameda County Public Defender office is comprised of 105 attorneys, 18 investigators and 38 support staff to manage 3,300 new cases monthly.

Oklahoma initiates new parole reforms

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Oklahoma recently began a new way to parole inmates in its prison system.

In 2018, the Legislature approved House Bill 2286 among a host of criminal justice reform measures, reported the Oklahoma Watch.

They established it as what they called administrative parole, rather than the traditional way of paroling, according to the article.

“If you meet the five statutory requirements, we skip that part,” said Justin Wolfe, general counsel for the Pardon and Parole Board. Wolfe is referring to the process where inmates have had to appear in front of the board and then undergo a pre-review investigation before the board members approve them. The new “truncated” parole process cuts out those two parts, said the article.

Eligible inmates must have served one-quarter to one- third of their sentences, and they must be “substantially compliant” with Department of Corrections case plans, the Oklahoma Watch said.

Oklahoma has standard requirements that are similar to those implemented by California’s Proposition 57 in 2017. Proposition 57, which was passed by California voters in 2016, allows California inmates to earn good time credits that will shorten their prison or jail time by significant margins. Both nonviolent and violent offenders capitalize on the bills.

Oklahoma’s bill took effect on Nov. 1, 2018, and a list of eligible inmates was recommended to the board the following month. The initial list of 138 was eventually reduced to 74.

The board approved one- third of nonviolent offenders in Oklahoma in 2018, an increase from the 27% approved two years prior.

The new approach is draw- ing skepticism from criminal justice policy analysts on whether it will work or not. Damion Shade, an analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute, is taking a “wait- and-see” approach, said the article.

“I think the biggest issue with the administrative pa- role part of the process is that it began in November of last year…Those individuals who came into the system before November 1 don’t have ac- cess to the remedy of administrative parole,” Shade said.

Wolfe disagrees. Unlike California’s Prop. 57, the administrative parole of Oklahoma is retroactive. This means that the time inmates served before the law went into effect would count toward eligibility, he said.

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.

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