Staff Profile

Dr. Tootell’s legacy at San Quentin

January 20, 2019 by Marcus Henderson

For the last 11 years Dr. Elena Tootell has been overseeing San Quentin’s strained medical care, a system she described as occasionally “chaotic.” Now the physician is moving north to Pelican Bay State Prison.

Dr. Tootell has become more than just another prison physician. She has become a part of the San Quentin community.

“I had breast cancer a few years ago, and just the support I got from the inmates was a huge sign that I was doing something good,” she said. “I was invited to the prison Breast Cancer Walk.”

Dr. Tootell speaking at the Avon Breast Cancer walk in 2012

Dr. Tootell came to work as San Quentin’s chief medical executive in 2008, just before the prison went into federal medical receivership.

She established a diabetes class and collaborated with the Mental Health Department to create an inmate cancer support group. She has also overseen an inmate-patient tracking system.

“When I first came here, it was a lot of mistrust of the medical system,” said Tootell. “I remember the Health Fair happened, but medical was not invited to participate.

(San Quentin has an annual Heath Fair established by the inmate support group T.R.US.T.)

“That to me was a sign that they were inviting doctors from the outside to get a second opinion. So I felt there was reason for the mistrust. They weren’t getting the medical treatment, and we had to acknowledge that,” added Tootell.

“Before the receivership there wasn’t a system in place,” said Tootell. “The patients didn’t know who their doctors were. They didn’t know how they were going to get their medication.”

“Sometimes the inmate-patients didn’t show up for their appointments.” She describe this time period as chaotic.

“It was rare to have the patient, the patient’s chart and their lab work at the same time,” said Tootell. “We wanted to implement a preventive health care system instead of having this urgent reaction to their health care.”

Dr. Tootell and the medical staff then set out to let the prison population know that they were there to change things.

“What I wanted was to provide an approachable face,” she said.

With that small gesture, Dr. Tootell’s people-to-people approach built a system of doctor-patient trust that won the inmate population’s respect.

“Now we are invited to the Health Fair to participate, and I think that’s meaningful that we are considered to help provide health care advice to this community,” she added.

“I think that’s one of the dreams of a doctor — is that they are going to take care of a patient population, but also to have a community that will take care of them too,” she said.

Dr. Tootell created health care that went beyond the prison hospital doors. She started programs to help inmates take responsibility for their own health.

“That’s why I wanted to do groups. There are so many health care conditions that the patients can actually control themselves. Diabetes, I think, is the biggest one,” she said.

“And there is just not a lot of time in a doctor or nurse visit with the patients to really go through and talk about the physiology of diabetes, the medication, the diet,” she added.

Dr. Elena Tootell giving a speech at the diabetic graduation in 2016

The diabetes class was created and has since graduated multiple inmates. The program has expanded to Death Row. It has provided the participants /patients the knowledge of their disease and how to take control of their lifestyle.

Dr. Tootell is ready to take her skills to another prison, one that has the reputation as one of the toughest penitentiaries in the state.

“I don’t think Pelican Bay will be all that different. They have a good heath care team, and they are moving more to a level-two population now,” said Tootell. “So I expect that they will be growing around that.

“I know they still have the max group (maximum security) there, and I think it will be like here when we have to deal with condemned row,” she added.

Dr. Tootell expects that not a lot of programs there, but still hopes to do programs and work with the patients.

“Being here was a wonderful place to actually practice medicine,” she said. “I had really lovely patients I dealt with. They were really engaged in their health care.

“It was great to partner with the institutional side, the rest of the health care community and the prison population,” she added. “I feel like this: There is a group of people who really want good things for themselves. The whole basis is hope, and medicine can be a part of that hope.”

CALPIA GM Chuck Pattillo retires

January 10, 2019 by Juan Haines

The longest serving general manager in the history of the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA), Charles L. “Chuck” Pattillo is stepping down from that post, but will still assist incarcerated people prepare for good jobs, once released.

Pattillo’s effort continue to save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in incarceration cost, yearly.

Pattillo supervised all 27 CALPIA activities for 14 years. It employs 8,000 offenders throughout California’s 36 prisons.

Chuck Pattillo walking with Mark Zuckerberg in San Quentin’s Code 7370

Last November, Inside CDCR interviewed Pattillo.

“Under Chuck’s leadership, PIA ventured into areas not traditionally considered for employment of inmates — such as computer coding and computer aided design — but high in demand for the society to which they would be released,” said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Acting Secretary of Corrections Ralph Diaz. “But Chuck’s passion went much farther than that. He recognized the potential of each individual and afforded them an opportunity to realize that potential. This attitude was on display each time I toured a program with Chuck; he knew the inmates by name and the accomplishments they had achieved, an attitude mirrored by his staff. His leadership will be greatly missed.”

Pattillo says that he’s proud of CALPIA’s workplace development branch, Career Technical Education (CTE) and called it “the model rehabilitation program in the world.”

CTE training includes deep-sea diving, pre-apprenticeship training, computer coding and computer assisted design.

“A lot of our programs have been replicated in other states and countries,” Pattillo said. “Hopefully, in the next couple years, we’ll have deep-sea diving and computer coding in Mexico.

“Unfortunately we have about 2,500 vacancies,” Pattillo said referring to CTE training slots.

Pattillo says the training goes beyond teaching job skills.

“Until you start feeling better about yourself, you won’t do better,” Pattillo said. “The training is important, but it’s also the work ethic.”

Pattillo says that getting men and women to work in a cohesive environment improves their interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence and makes reentry into the community smoother.

Pattillo continued, “We have a pretty strong transition program on the outside.”

While employed by CALPIA, men and women have the opportunity to learn about companies that hire ex-felons. In addition, they receive access to transitional housing as well as assistance receiving copies of their birth certificate, driver’s license and social security card.

Inmates who are employed by CALPIA and return to the community record recidivism rates 26 to 32 percent lower than the state’s general population return-to-prison rates. Those who participate in the CTE program have a recidivism rate as low as 7 percent.

“7370 has a zero — that’s unheard of,” Pattillo said referring to the computer coding program.

Pattillo was asked if he were in charge of California’s prisons, where would he make reforms.

“There’s not much you can do as secretary except follow what is in existing law. However, if I were Governor, I wouldn’t need a wand to do the following:

“First, transfer firefighting authority from CDCR inmates to the California Conservation Corp (CCC) Members and bring those CDCR inmates in fire camps back to fill the 2,500 vacancies in CALPIA which has a lower recidivism rate than camps because we are teaching skills like coding and computer assisted design and construction that can actually get jobs. There are 50,000 at risk kids in California 18-25 that can be in the CCC, trained as firefighters and actually get those jobs. Millions would be also saved because you don’t have to pay inmate guarding costs. It’s nearly $50k cheaper per firefighter to use conservation corps members. Those excess correctional officers in camp can be used to fill institutional officer vacancies.

“Second, segregate mental health treatment in CDCR from the custody mission and use those savings to expand the department of State Hospitals Mental Health Forensic (Criminal) Mission. Too many people are coming to prison because of existing underlying mental health conditions that are just exacerbated in custody. We need to expand funding in mental health diversion courts.

“Finally, commute the sentence of those on death row to life without the possibility of parole. That is far worse punishment than death. There would be significant savings to CDCR and the Courts by dismantling Condemned Row. The possibility that we could ever execute someone who might be innocent is a risk too great.

Chuck Pattillo speaking with former Gov. Jerry Brown

Pattillo, a self-described “family first” man, said he wants to “hang out with my kids (and) go to less meetings” before getting back to connecting offenders to innovative job skills they could take to the streets.

Jon Spurlock BIO

September 11, 2018 by Jon Spurlock

Jon first met the San Quentin News team as part of a social sector-focused experiential learning course during his Berkeley-Haas MBA program. He led the team of fellow students that developed a business plan to ensure the long-term sustainability of the newspaper and to achieve the SQ News staff’s big hairy audacious goal of providing free access to every prisoner in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Jon completed his MBA in May 2015, including coursework in effective non-profit board governance. He stayed on as a business advisor to the SQ News and has remained active and committed since the end of that first engagement with them. In early 2016, Jon founded and became Director of the Friends of San Quentin News, an independent project under the 501c3 fiscal sponsorship of Social Good Fund. The Friends of San Quentin News is now the affiliated non-profit fundraising and business facilitation entity for SQ News and supports its circulation and social impact growth plan.
Jon holds an engineering degree from MIT and spent 11 years in the US Navy, serving the last 6 in Washington DC for the headquarters of the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. He has lived in 13 states across the country and currently resides in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two sons, where he works as a business and innovation manager for a high-tech company. Jon commutes to San Quentin periodically to work, catch up, and laugh with the SQ News team.
https://sanquentinnews.com/the-100th-edition-san-quentin-news/

Prison’s newspaper celebrates 100th edition

Linda Xiques BIO

September 11, 2018 by Wayne Boatwright

Linda Xiques became a San Quentin News adviser in the spring of 2013. Six years earlier, she had retired from a 30-year career in journalism thinking she had put deadlines behind her for good. But from the moment she walked into the office of San Quentin News —the computers clicking, reporters talking, joking, the vibe full of energy and movement—she was glad to be back in a busy newsroom again.
Like the men she now helps to mentor, Xiques learned her journalism skills while on-the-job. A newspaper reader since childhood, she also loved writing, was co-editor of her high school newspaper and worked on college publications. Her academic career was sporadic: Cameron College in Oklahoma, Merritt College in Oakland, College of Marin in Kentfield, with an end-goal of San Francisco State University. But life—marriage, children, the rambunctious Sixties—kept getting in the way. Feeling the years slipping by, Xiques decided to see what she could accomplish without a degree.
She began freelancing for various publications in the Bay Area, learned research techniques by volunteering, was hired as a part-time, then full-time reporter, and in 1982 was promoted to Managing Editor of the Pacific Sun, a well-respected alternative newspaper in Marin County. As a reporter, she received two San Francisco Press Club awards for her writing. A year after becoming an editor, Xiques won an award for Lifestyle Editing in the national Penney-Missouri Journalism Competition of 1983; two years later, she received a second award in the 1985 competition. In 1984, the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) honored the Pacific Sun with a First Place Award for General Excellence, as well as awards for in-depth reporting and feature writing.
In Xiques’ 24-year tenure as Managing Editor and later Executive Editor of the newspaper, Pacific Sun reporters collected a total of 55 writing awards from press organizations such as the San Francisco Press Club, the CNPA, the Association of Alternative Newspapers, the Peninsula Press Club, the Lincoln Steffens Awards for Investigative Journalism, as well as others.
This recognition received by the writers Xiques worked with and mentored remains a source of great pride for her.
https://sanquentinnews.com/the-100th-edition-san-quentin-news/

San Quentin News Advisers Jan Perry, Linda Xiques,
Steve McNamara Bottom: Joan Lisetor and Nikki Meredith

Top: Richard “Bonaru” Richardson, Krissi Khokhobashvili, Juan Haines, Terry Thornton, the late Arnulfo Garcia, Jeffrey Callison, Steve McNamara,
Kevin D. Sawyer, Watani Stiner, Ricky “Malik” Harris. Bottom: Linda Xiques, Joan Lisetor and John Eagan

San Quentin News Advisers Jan Perry, Linda Xiques,
Steve McNamara Bottom: Joan Lisetor and Nikki

Top: JulianGlenn Padgett, Boston Woodard, Rahsaan Thomas, Arnulfo T. Garcia, Juan Haines, Phoeun You, Richard Richardson, Jorge Heredia, Aaron Taylor, Charles D. Henry, Malik Harris, Kevin D. Sawyer. Bottom: Steve McNamara, Linda Xiques,
Joan Lisetor, Watani Stiner, Kris Himmelberger and Ted Swain.

Steve McNamara BIO

September 11, 2018 by Wayne Boatwright

Steve McNamara was one of the three initial advisers of the San Quentin News when Warden Bob Ayers revived it in the spring of 2008. Steve devised the paper’s design and typography, moving it toward its appearance as a real newspaper. When San Quentin’s print shop was closed in 2011, he became the paper’s acting publisher, setting up and running the non-profit structure that pays for the paper’s printing and distribution to other prisons and to donors and interested individuals. He also created the paper’s first website whereby inmates’ family members and others could access issues of the paper on the Internet.
Steve brought 53 years of newspaper experience to the News. He had been a reporter and editor for daily, weekly and monthly publications in North Carolina, Miami, Europe and San Francisco. He was owner/editor/publisher of the Pacific Sun in Marin County from 1966 through 2004 when he and his wife, Kay, sold the paper. He was president of the California Society of Newspaper Editors (dailies and weeklies), a director of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and founding president of both the National Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and California Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Also, he taught journalism at San Francisco State University and was a member of the Innovation and Planning Commission of the California Department of Education.
Steve’s involvement took a significant turn in 2012 when his daughter Marisa Rodriguez, a San Francisco Assistant District Attorney, asked why he spent so much time at San Quentin. He said she would visit the newspaper office. She was so impressed with the men she met that she convinced her boss, San Francisco D.A. George Gascón, to join her on a visit. Thus began the San Quentin News Forum, an ongoing program where judges, district attorneys and others in the criminal justice system sit with selected inmates and exchange frank views. It has proved an eye-opener for many who previously gave little thought to the people they sent to prison.
When Steve was owner/editor/publisher of the Pacific Sun, the paper’s reporters were strongly involved in San Quentin and criminal justice generally. However, Steve had little personal interest in those areas. That all changed when he accepted Warden Ayers’s offer to help revive the paper. He became closely involved with the paper’s staff and other inmates, establishing friendships that have continued after their paroles. He says that the men he has met are among the smartest and most motivated persons he has ever known, and he now has a deep interest in fixing our criminal justice system.
https://sanquentinnews.com/the-100th-edition-san-quentin-news/
https://sanquentinnews.com/san-quentin-celebrates-the-life-and-achievements-of-arnulfo-garcia/

Steve and Kay McNamara’s family at the event

Top: John Eagan, William Drummond, Arnulfo Garcia, Richard “Bonaru” Richardson,
Steve McNamara. Bottom: Brittany Johnson, Felecia Gaston, Paul Cobb and Trinise Ferreira

San Quentin News Advisers Jan Perry, Linda Xiques,
Steve McNamara Bottom: Joan Lisetor and Nikki Meredith

SQN Adviser Steve McNamara

Arnulfo with Marisa Rodriguez, George Gascón and Advisor Steve McNarmara

SQN Adviser Steve McNamara, Marisa Rodriguez and Wade Chow

Steve McNamara, Joan Lisetor and John Eagan

Wes Stevens at home

John C. Eagan BIO

September 11, 2018 by Wayne Boatwright

My name is John C. Eagan and I am a retired journalist with more than 30 years in the news business. Born and raised in Florida, I served three years in the U.S. Army in South Carolina and Germany. I graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism.
I was a reporter-photographer for the Ft. Lauderdale News and sports editor of the companion newspaper, the Sun Sentinel, before moving to California where I was a reporter- photographer for the Arcadia Tribune and Napa Register, managing editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier and editor of the Novato Advance. I also was publisher of Marinscope Community Newspapers, a group of weekly newspapers in Marin County.
For 12 years I was with The Associated Press as reporter, editor and executive in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Chicago.
I founded and headed the Computer Training Center in San Rafael, California, for 12 years.
Community activities have included San Rafael and Ignacio Rotary, Petaluma Kiwanis and Napa Optimist clubs, and Temple City Junior Chamber of Commerce. I am a member Tiburon Baptist Church, where I have been a member of its choir for many years and I’ve served two terms as an elected church deacon.
I served two one-year terms as elected president of the Novato Chamber of Commerce. I have also served on the Marin County Civil Grand Jury.
For more than 20 years I have come periodically with members of my church to Saturday evening services in the San Quentin Protestant Chapel.
Since 2008, I have been an adviser and mentor to the inmates who produce the San Quentin News, which had been shut down for about 18 years.
In April 2008, then-Warden Robert Ayres Jr. asked me to help reactivate the newspaper, which I agreed to do as a volunteer.
Several other volunteer advisers have joined the newspaper since then.
I agreed to work with the inmates and administration because I believed the newspaper could make a difference – a difference in the lives of the inmates, and a difference in the public’s understanding of the prison system.
I am impressed with the inmates who have learned to become skilled journalists. The San Quentin News has become an outstanding, high-quality, award-winning publication that does a remarkable job of reporting what is good and what is bad about the criminal justice system – and what needs to be improved or changed.
See more Photos below.
https://sanquentinnews.com/the-100th-edition-san-quentin-news/

Remembering Arnulfo T. Garcia

File Photo
File Photo
File Photo
San Quentin News staff
SQ News Researcher Richard Lindsey, SQ News Advisers John Eagan and Joan Lisetor

Top: John Wilkerson, Michael Harris, D. Hartley, John Eagan David Marsh
Bottom: Aly Tamboura and Kenny Brydon

San Quentin News Adviser
John Eagan

John Eagan, Susan Shannon, George Gascón and Joan Lisetor

San Quentin News Advisers William Drummond and
Joan Lisetor, Independent Researcher Richard Lindsey and San Quentin News Adviser John Eagan

Steve McNamara, Joan Lisetor and John Eagan

Jill Brown reflects on her time as warden

January 19, 2018 by Kevin Sawyer

Jill-Brown

Former San Quentin Warden Jill Brown’s career allowed her to reinvent herself many times. In the process, she helped to improve the lives of inmates through rehabilitation.

Brown started her career working at a state hospital. She later found her way to what was then the California Department of Corrections in San Francisco as a regional parole officer. She became a sergeant at San Quentin for a few years in the 1980s but didn’t wear a uniform.

Brown holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with an emphasis in human resource management from San Francisco State University.

“I pretty much started my career in business services,” said Brown. “It was very early in business services so the position wasn’t established.”

Brown rose to rank of associate warden in Soledad, where she worked on two different occasions, one of which involved solving labor, personnel and contract matters. From there she was promoted to correctional administrator and chief deputy warden.

Brown said she was fortunate working in a male-dominated culture, where the potential for discrimination and prejudice sometimes creates a hostile work environment for women.

“There were a lot of strong women who blazed that trail for me,” said Brown. “I never experienced any harassment.” She did, however, admit there were attitudes. “I think it depends on what prison you’re at.” She said remote prisons take a little longer to change opinions about women and other minorities, but it’s not widespread, “and definitely not condoned by the administration.”

Some men, not all of them, she said held to their biases. By the time she was in place, many of those issues that some male staff had toward women working in corrections had disappeared.

According to Brown, there was a time when women weren’t allowed to walk the yard unescorted at San Quentin. “It was more reflective of society as a whole,” she said. “As society evolves, we tend to see the same things happening” with corrections.

“They didn’t have to figure out how to work with me,” said Brown. It was how they acted that she says made it clear they wanted her there.

Reflecting on her time at San Quentin, Brown said as an institution it’s able to get a lot done because of its many programs offered to inmates. While working at Soledad, she said inmates begged for transfer to San Quentin.

“At Soledad we didn’t even know how to spell the word ‘program,’” said Brown. She explained that at the time there were few rehabilitative opportunities beyond Alcoholics Anonymous, religion and substance abuse treatment so that made it hard for prisoners.

“I retired at the end of 2007,” said Brown. She now works on different projects like reentry hubs, changes to inmate classification and the inmate credit-earning program. “It’s like a labor of love for me.”

In the past three years, Brown has worked managing CDCR’s Innovative Grants Program. She said the department gives grants to volunteer organizations that go inside prisons to work with inmates’ rehabilitation.

The Last Mile program is funded to operate at Ironwood State Prison, Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, California Institution for Women and Folsom Women’s Facility. Veterans groups and GRIP (Guiding Rage Into Power) are some of the other programs that will receive grant funding. “This gives them seed money,” said Brown.

There are 40 to 43 programs funded at 17 prisons around the state, said Brown. Soon there will be 106 programs at 29 prisons. Grants will provide inmates around the state with better opportunity for rehabilitation and shorten the “have and have not disparity” between prisons with “embarrassing amounts of riches” and those with little, she said.

Brown said CDCR has to carry out court sentences and provide every person with a way not to come back to prison. “If even half could figure out how not to come back, it would be positive.”

“San Quentin to me is a wonderful place,” said Brown. “If you have to be in prison, San Quentin is the place. It helps when you start off with support for programs.”

“From where I sit, (Warden Ron Davis) is really supportive of programs,” said Brown. “Some things will work at a level-two (prison) that’ll never work at a level-four.” San Quentin is a level-two prison.

Brown also works with Soroptimist, a nonprofit organization operating in Marin County. “It’s a coined word meaning the best for women and girls,” said Brown. “We do scholarships for young women going to college.” The organization also provides services to victims of domestic violence and sex trafficking.

“I keep dropping by San Quentin,” said Brown. “Seeing graduations take place inside the prison is a good feeling. It’s one thing to read about it, but it’s another thing being there seeing it. I feel fortunate. San Quentin will always have a special place in my heart and in my life.”

PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html

Prison reform could free 30,000 inmates says CSJ

http://sanquentinnews.com/folsoms-insight-garden-project-helps-women-connect-back-nature/

Native American women breaking cycles

Looking back on 42 years of service at San Quentin

March 26, 2017 by Charles David Henry

In June 1975, Donald Graham left the California Department of Corrections’ training academy after two weeks and took his first job assignment at San Quentin State Prison.

An Air Force veteran with college degrees in computer science and mathematics from California State University at Sonoma, Graham came to work for the department with a proactive perspective for problem solving.

His stance toward the incarcerated population was unique. As a new recruit, fresh out of the academy, he acknowledged that many problems with the correctional staff and the general population could be generally resolved without conflict.

“It takes a little time to gain an inmate’s trust, but after that, problems are easily solved,” he said.

Throughout his long career, Graham had the good fortune of spending all 42 years at San Quentin. During the ’70s, new recruits out of the academy worked the graveyard. He spent six months walking the gun rail in West Block.

The ’70s were also turbulent. Prisoners were frustrated and restless. On occasion, cultural tensions soared among the races. Graham was later assigned to work the West Block’s upper yard. There he had opportunities to intermingle and speak with inmates. Even though he spent two weeks at the academy, he knew his on-the-job training would come from working with these men.

How to combine safety and security with compassion toward the inmate population was then and is today a set of contradictory ideas and terms for staff to understand and implement. For Graham, this dexterity was simple.

“I’m paid to work as a correctional officer. These men should be treated with respect when deserving,” he said.

From late 1975 through 1976, he worked H Unit’s kitchen area. Relationships with Blacks, Hispanics and Whites were fragile. Being an enthusiastic new recruit with problem-solving skills, “I often found myself caught in the middle,” Graham said. But he managed to find a simple solution for many complex racial problems. Often “a little patience and understanding” was needed.

After a year, he started working other units. Alpine, Donner and West Block general populations continued to grow. The Adjustment Center, Badger and East Block became the overflow, which gave him broader exposure to the prison.

Working in different units added to his all-embracing perspective of how to enforce the rules of safety and security without being offensive.

During this time, East and North Blocks became the maximum security units. “North Seg” was the only unit that housed condemned and Death Row inmates in the late ’70s and early ’80s. He had to approach these inmates with a different mindset. However, despite their attitude and disposition toward staff and problems with their prison living conditions, interacting with these men taught him their problems, too, were easily resolved. “Take the time and listen to them,” was his mantra.

In 1983, Graham was promoted to sergeant and then went back to West Block. During these times, the general population was in a state of flux. The unit was converted to a reception center. Overcrowded county jails in the Bay Area sent their excess to San Quentin. There was very little stability in the housing unit because inmates were constantly arriving and departing the prison. Violence erupted regularly among the ranks.

It became difficult to maintain respect with his proactive attitude. Many daily activities resulted in serious rule violations. In many instances, he applied common sense to fix problems, but often he had no choice but to follow the rules and procedures. “I tried to be fair in my assessment of the problems and applied the best solution to the situation.”

“I’m paid to work as a correctional officer. These men should be treated with respect when deserving”

In 1996, a young correctional officer from East Oakland came to work on Death Row with Graham, who was then a lieutenant. Like most officers fresh out of the academy, Sam Robinson wanted very little contact with his immediate supervisor, let alone a lieutenant. But it was different with Graham. “He was always approachable and easy to get along with,” Robinson said. Death Row inmates require special handling, but he and Graham worked well together.

Late in 2006, Lt. Graham became San Quentin’s Inmate Assignment supervisor. This new job operated under a completely different set of challenges, procedures, requirements, rules and problems.

Over the next 10 years, the department’s interest in incarceration, rehabilitation and re-entry metamorphosed as a result of federal court orders, and the demand for change became more urgent. Lt. Graham’s days were filled with an onslaught of rapid decisions that had to be made.

His wit and proactive perspective for problem- solving was needed to handle the Prison Industry Authority operations, vocational training programs, joint ventures, assigning inmates to GED classes, to yard and kitchen job positions.

In mid-2015, San Quentin Prison implemented the Strategic Offender Management System (SOMS), a computer system used statewide to monitor inmate programming status. All self-help activities, daily dentist, medical and mental health ducats are processed through Lt. Graham’s office.

When asked why he never promoted to captain, Graham simply said, “I came to the department to be a correctional officer. I make a good living by working with the general population. I’m committed to them. The political part of being an administrator is of no real interest to me.”

Though not yet retiring, Graham was nonetheless asked about his legacy. He answered, “I want to be remembered for my accountability and commitment.”

Photographer Nigel Poor Conveys the Stories of SQ Inmates

June 1, 2016 by Rahsaan Thomas

Nigel Poor with the Jefferson Award

Ten years ago the post office delivered a letter from San Quentin State Prison to the wrong address. Professor of Photography Nigel Poor received the letter, wondering why. The correct address was nowhere near hers. She redirected the epistle to the correct person, thinking that would be the end of it. But it happened twice more, sparking her interest in San Quentin prison and how people inside communicate.
“What people inside have to say is amazing,” said Poor. “They are a huge under utilized resource. If more people heard the stories of men behind bars, they would make better decisions about mass incarceration.”
“I photographed humble things. If you investigate something you realize there is a lot more there. Most people think prisoners are nothing. Throw them away. But if you investigate…”
Poor, a professor at California State University, Sacramento, first got interested in prison from hearing on a radio show that Kresty Detention Center in Russia charges admission to tourists.
“Hearing they do zoo tours to make money freaked me out,” said Poor. “I wanted to go to Russia to see what a country is like that thinks that is a thing to do.”
In 2000, she found herself in St. Petersburg, but people wouldn’t help her find the prison. She ran across it while leaving – it was right next to the train station.
“I walked into the prison (on a tour). You could touch the walls. I found cones on the ground everywhere,” said Nigel. “I like things that you can’t really answer; it’s a mystery you can ponder.”
Cones are notes rolled up and placed like long stems with chewed up bread for weight.
“That’s how they sent messages out of that horrible violent place,” said Poor. “The cones were thrown out, but you don’t know if somebody will get it. I picked one up.”
Poor didn’t know that Russian police watch to see who picks up the cones. Sometimes the cones are messages to criminals.
“I didn’t know if it was a romantic gesture or a criminal act,” said Poor. “To me it was a call to connect.”
In 2011, Poor heard about an opportunity to teach photography inside San Quentin as part of the Prison University Project (PUP). She took the chance.
“Photos are a common ground, a form of communication, and teaching photography allowed me to connect in interesting ways,” said Poor. “I got sucked in by all the humanity.”
There Poor met student Troy Williams, who headed the San Quentin Prison Report (SQPR), San Quentin’s TV and radio program. The two planned to do a film about the prison, but it got too complicated, and they ended up doing radio pieces that are sometimes played on 91.7 FM, KALW’s Crosscurrents show on Monday nights at 5 p.m.
“I think that inside and outside people can work as colleagues,” said Poor.
In 2012, after three semesters with PUP, Nigel switched over to SQPR.
“The radio thing is fantastic,” said Poor. “We can do all different types of stories. I feel like I’m part of something that is incredibly innovative, something important. We are going down a route that has not been fully investigated, and all of us are constantly learning. Human nature is constantly being revealed here.”
In 2015, Poor expanded her role inside of San Quentin. She helped facilitate a live story telling event called Live Law.
“I think the live shows are interesting because it’s really surprising for guests to see outside and inside people doing something inspiring, and I hope it inspires them to get involved. That was one of the peak experiences of my life.”
After the Live Law event, San Quentin Media, which Poor sponsors in addition to SQPR, was born.
SQ Media’s next event, called Prison Renaissance, will focus on stories about how art transforms incarcerated people.
“There are so many people with talents and skills that are languishing inside when they could be productive. I think humans need to be productive or there’s atrophy. Working with SQ Media is interesting, a challenge and important, and it feels good to be part of that.”
Additionally, Poor is working on a podcast called Ear Hustle with SQPR’s Earlonne Woods and Antwan “Banks” Williams.
“Taking the chance at volunteering, you just never know what will happen,” said Poor. “Taking the opportunity to go someplace new can completely change your life.”

San Quentin Nurse Heals One Inmate at a Time

May 1, 2016 by Tommy Bryant

By Tommy Bryant
Journalism Guild Writer
Diabetes is a serious problem at San Quentin and Elina Appleton has made it her mission to help those affected.
“Most inmates have no idea what the disease is or how it affects them until they start losing toes, feet, legs, kidneys, go blind, have heart attacks and/or strokes,” said Appleton a licensed vocational nurse best known as “Red.”
The legendary H-Unit nurse filters a hundred questions and symptoms a week. Often the answers indicate diabetes. About 20 San Quentin inmates in H-Unit are on regular insulin treatment.
“Inmates with borderline A1C blood levels approaching 6.9 are the most likely candidates for Type II diabetes,” adds Appleton. Avoiding painful amputation and expensive medical care is clearly a win-win for inmates and taxpayers, she says.
She teaches a 10-week class that covers diabetes issues including using the glucose meter for healthcare management. “Once inmates observe their glucose levels most begin to watch what they eat and exercise after meals,” states Appleton.
“This class helped me to see people cared more about my life than I did, so I’m grateful,” said Morlin Dorgan, an inmate at H-Unit. He added, “Some of my peers have gotten parts cut off.”
“I now have the power to take control of my diabetes,” said another student inmate.
Inmate Dennis Bagwell, a diabetic for 30 years, said, “I have…lost sight in one eye due to diabetic complications. It is up to individuals to take control of diabetes before diabetes takes control of them.”
“The tough part is keeping sugar levels down with limited diet options,” inmate Demetrius Verdun said. Inmate Robert Craig suggested, “Everyone on the planet should be taking a program like this, whether you are diabetic or not.”
Philip Budweiser said he used to ignore diabetes because “I was depressed…I used food and sweets as a crutch. I would like to thank all of the San Quentin medical staff for the help and continuous support they have afforded me.”
Appleton said she entered a 100-Mile bike ride sponsored by Tour de Cure American Diabetes Association, which raised $1 million for research on diabetes.
She said diabetes affects more than 24 million people in the United States.