San Quentin News

Written By Inmates - Advancing Social Justice

Remembering a friend, veteran and devout church goer

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Tony Burch with the US Marines at a veterans event in 2016

Tony Burch was a Navy veteran; however, it was his smile and singing that made him popular in San Quentin State Prison. He passed away on Nov. 6. He was 67 years old.

Burch’s memorial began on Nov. 18 with a Color Guard of incarcerated veterans, with Garvin Robinson, Ernie Soltero, Carl Raybon and Brian Corder carrying the American and POW flags inside the prison’s Protestant Chapel.

After the flags were set in front of the chapel’s stage, Taps sounded and more than 100 of Burch’s fellow men-in-blue stood in his honor and saluted the flags or held their hands over their hearts.

Tony Burch with James “Shorty” Dunbaraluting on 2017 Veterans Day

Church elder Darryl Hill sang one of Burch’s favorite songs, Why Don’t You Pray For Me?

“It is an encouragement that even though we are incarcerated, we can celebrate Tony’s life,” Carl Solerdo said. “The brother showed his love and always had a smile.”

Trent Capell and Patrick Bayliss read passages from The New Testament.

Chaplain Mardi Ralph Jackson took the stage and talked about Burch as a God fearing man.

“This is a peaceful occasion. We honor this faithful man to this ministry. He was always respectful and conducted himself as a man of God,” Jackson said. “I can thank God for Brother Tony Burch. He never said anything derogatory but was always glorifying God when he talked to me.”

Several men-in-blue followed Jackson to tell stories about Burch.

“God allowed me the pleasure to meet Brother Tony,” Hill said. “We played cards, Scrabble, cooked and ate together. What I remember most, during the card games, he wasn’t that great, so he’d make excuses and say, ‘I think you’re pencil whipping me,’” Hill said, which brought laughter. He added, “I have a lot of fond memories of him. He taught me how to listen and to be respectful. He’d bring me to scripture to correct me. He was always claiming and living Christ.”

Larry Histon talked about having a conversation about Burch with an incarcerated hospital worker. Burch was on his way to the outside hospital. The hospital worker told Burch, “I’ll see you when you get back.” Burch replied, ‘I’ll see you on the other side.’”

David Rodriguez sang a song in Burch’s honor.

Here’s what others said:

“I played Scrabble with Tony. He’d put down a word that you were sure was not in the dictionary, but when you challenged it and looked it up, there it would be. Then the next time he’d put down a word that you didn’t know, you’d be scared to challenge it. Later on, you’d look up the word and it’s not in there.”

“Tony, I know you’re up there in Heaven,” one person said before singing a heart-felt rendition of “Amazing Grace.”

“He was always talking about what God had done for him.”

Incarcerated veterans added:

“I knew Tony in the U.S. Seabees.”

“He was good company. He was consistently Tony.”

“He used to like to have fun and wouldn’t want anyone to be sad.”

“I learned that he sang with the Chi-Lites and that was one of my favorite groups. As a singer myself, I am grateful that I met him.”

“He used to tell me that it made him happy to see me dancing round and round as we were singing to the Lord. He slipped away from me, but I’m going to catch him.”

One person read a poem that ended with the poet singing Anchors Away.

Before he passed, Burch said to a friend, “I hope I come back a better man.”

The Color Guard ended the memorial with Taps being played one more time.

SQ Veterans Day brings chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts

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Veteran’s Day brought the chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, Mary Anne Carter, inside San Quentin to mingle with artists and incarcerated veterans. Joining Carter was Alma Robinson, executive director of California Lawyers for the Arts (CLA).

“From the moment I walked in this room I was blown away by the visit and beautiful art,” Carter said after she walked into the prison’s art studio. “I look around at these images and I know that could be in any gallery in the world.”

SQ resident Scott Mckinstry has been involved with Arts in Corrections (AIC), sponsored by the William James Association since 2001.

Mckinstry said that he’s known people involved with AIC who later earned parole.

“Their involvement in the arts program helped them communicate better,” McKinstry said. “I got interested in arts for my rehabilitation. I read a study that that showed how the skills learned from art are not like the traditional kinds of learning. The learning from art is used right after you’ve learned them.”

When statewide budget cuts were imposed in the mid-2000s, Arts in Corrections (AIC) funds were also reduced. Some volunteer artists, however, continued devoting time to the prisoners and still taught inside. From that experience, Robinson said that she learned how much the cuts affected incarcerated artists.

“It taught them time management and discipline,” Robinson said of the incarcerated artists.

Robinson said that after telling prison officials about the resilience of the incarcerated artists, the state restored funding for arts in corrections. She added that the “positive message” incentivized art funding in five other states, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Louisiana and New York.

When the visitors left the art studio they headed to a small bungalow on the prison’s Lower Yard to meet with participants in a veteran’s program and an artistic ensemble program.

Once inside the building, they were seated in a semi-circle.

The programs, Veterans Healing Veterans From the Inside Out (VHV) and the Marin Shakespeare Company have formed a connection for storytelling and healing.

The veterans write scripts based on their military backgrounds.

The plays address Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other kinds of trauma that the veterans have experienced. Facilitators of VHV has discovered that incarcerated veterans’ inner reflective work through the VHV curriculum curtailed the suicide rates for incarcerated vets.

Chris Marshall and Juan Carlos Meza, who both performed in Shakespeare at SQ plays, gave the veterans acting training to help them tell their stories and deal with trauma and PTSD.

“In the beginning of the class, there was one participant who could not do a “trust fall,” but by the end even he was able to do it,” Meza said. “Sometimes, acting out the feeling is better than dealing with it from any other method.”

Marshall added, “By acting it out or seeing others act it out, there is sympathy, empathy to see it in third person allows forgiveness for self and others. The release is a physical sensation.”

Marshall explained that participants co-write the performances to get a full arc of stories.

“It takes about four months to figure out how to share the story,” Marshall said. “Last year there were seven drafts before we got one that worked.”

Meza demonstrated how to create a story by asking four people from the audience to the center of the circle to face each other.

He asked the four to be a rock. Then he called two other people from the audience and asked them to be “fire” by kneeling with hands up imitating flames—fingers wagging.

Meza then asked the audience if they remembered campfire stories.

“Weren’t those the good days?” Meza asked. “It was done to tell stories, when you see fires, you see comfort. But we don’t have that today. Everyone wants to be heard, number one is feelings, everyone wants to be felt and know what you’re not alone, but the essential one is love—the things that keeps the fire going is our stories.”

At the end of her visit, Carter said, “What has stuck with me the most is talking to the individual artists—the hope they see. Moreover, the arts have become their release for understanding how to change their life and in some cases why their life has to be changed.”

San Quentin’s Boot Hill to exhume veterans for proper burials

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Complying with a 1935 law, Marin County has agreed to exhume San Quentin’s Boot Hill veterans and give them each proper burials in a national cemetery with full military honors.

San Quentin opened its doors for business as California’s only prison in 1852. It was meant to house over 3,000 of the most notorious, most hardened, most deadly and condemned criminals in the state. Unfortunately, not everyone made it out alive from what was then the State’s maximum security prison.

Many such unlucky souls were buried in the prison’s own cemetery which opened in the early 1920s. Dr. Charles Bacon Boudwin, a military veteran, is buried in the cemetery. Boudwin died in 1944 after having served less than one year of his two to five year term for performing an abortion. Boudwin served in both World War I and World War II.

Boot Hill, as the grave site is called, now holds the remains of nearly 700 former inmates that have died since the grave site opened and before its closing in 1952.

A current San Quentin prisoner and U.S. Navy veteran (1978-82), Anthony Taylor, said, “This was a violent prison back then.

That’s a lot of people, more than 23 deaths per year.”

Like Dr. Boudwin, many of Boot Hill’s residents are also veterans of America’s military service, according to an article published in the Marin Independent Journal March 03, 2019.

“They had been Honorably Discharged and should be buried with other vets”

Marcus Blevins, a San Quentin prisoner and a veteran of the U.S. Army (1975-78), questioned why these people weren’t claimed by their loved ones. Then he realized that some of the inmates were from families who may have wanted to claim the decedents but couldn’t afford the cost of a funeral.

Boot Hill was likely built by prison labor about 100 years ago and is now showing its age. Constructed entirely of cement, Boot Hill’s ornate arches, thick fencing and decorative stone-like filigrees were built to preserve the dignity and respect of those departed. All of it now sits decaying and blackened with Bay Area algae after having been assaulted by local weather, time and seabirds leaving their white marks of disrespect.

Photos show simple but decaying headstones bearing only a number to identify who’s buried below.

San Quentin is not unique in its having interred indigent peoples and forgetting them. The Marin Independent Journal also reported that more than 287 decedents are buried near the Marin County Juvenile Hall near where the county once operated an indigents’ hospital and farm for poor folks from 1880 to 1963. It is likely some of the people buried there are also veterans, said the newspaper.

As well, the cremated remains of untold numbers of civilians and veterans are resting peacefully on the shelves of several Marin mortuaries, the Journal reported.

Edward Leon, owner of Monte’s Chapel of the Hills, where Marin County currently sends its unclaimed bodies, said he couldn’t say offhand how many urns he has in storage. Jack Thornton, manager of Mount Tamalpais Mortuary and Cemetery in San Rafael, which used to provide final services to the county, said they have more than 45 urns filled with unclaimed remains. It is unknown how many of these unclaimed remains are U.S. military veterans.

And in Oregon, 3,500 urns with ashes of human remains were discovered on the shelves of Oregon State Hospital. The newspaper said an estimated 1,000 of them may be veterans also needing proper military placements.

Marin County is acting in response to an obscure and loosely enforced law passed in 1935 directing where Honorably Discharged military veterans are not to be interred. The county is finally taking action to move the veterans to properly designated graves provided by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

Carl Raybon, veteran of the U.S. Marines (1982-86) and current President of the Veteran’s Group of San Quentin (VGSQ), said “Marin County footing the bill (for the move) is a great way to honor the men who went into battle and then died here.”

Sean Stephens, director of the Marin County Veteran’s Service Office, said “Once the remains are delivered to a national cemetery, all costs are covered by the Veterans Administration. The piece of land, the headstone, the niche—it’s all free. There is an Honor Guard and flag. It’s an awesome tradition.”

Raybon said, “What Marin County is doing is a super thing, seeing to it that the remains of veterans are properly disposed.”

Gary Cooper, also a former Marine (1966-68) and past-president of the VGSQ, agrees, “They had been Honorably Discharged and should be buried with other vets.”

However, exhuming and relocating the former inmate veterans does not sit well with everyone. Ken Wilkerson, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corp commented, “I consider the effort (by Marin County) to be a complete waste of time. Those inmate veterans screwed up, got sent to prison. So what of their remains?”

James Cook, a veteran who served during Vietnam, joined up with the Missing in America Project and is taking on the job of rounding up the remains of veterans to see that they get transported to a national cemetery.

Cook said, “It never occurred to me that there would be this problem.” Cook participated in the moving of four veteran remains to the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, California, where they were greeted “by hundreds of people gathered to commemorate the arrival of the remains of 124 veterans,” reported the Journal. “I was just so moved,” said Cook.

The newspaper also reported that in 2010 the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 1644, streamlining the process for moving unclaimed American veterans from mortuaries to national cemeteries.

Incarcerated female veterans may face higher degrees of trauma

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CIW’s staff and incarcerated Honor Guards together to honor those who had fell on 9/11, September 2018

What happens when former U.S. service men or women find themselves behind bars, trying to process hidden traumas after serving in the military?

For incarcerated female veterans, the traumas they face may be doubled due to suffering from abuse prior to serving and while on duty in the military, according to a National Resource Center on Justice Involved Women report titled Responding to the Needs of Women Veterans Involved in the Criminal Justice System.

The criminal justice system and other human service agencies that fail to identify women under their care as veterans can create barriers for women seeking necessary help and services, said the report.

“Remember, veterans have learned not to be weak or to dis- play weakness. They have been trained as warriors and do not want to be seen as victims,” said the report.

Women veterans who return home from active duty have very little or no time to readjust to civilian life, the report said.

“Military women with children are less likely to have the same support networks as military men,” said the report. “Single mothers and women veterans whose husbands are still serving on active duty must immediately begin caring for their children.”

These same women can suffer from the same combat related trauma as their male counterparts, such as being fired upon by enemy forces, rockets, sniper fire, and seeing others killed or wounded.

Women veterans have a higher rate of unemployment compared to male veterans, according to the report. Single mothers or women veterans who have experienced military sexual trauma (MST) experience homelessness at a higher rate than civilian women.

One in five female veterans has experienced military sex- ual trauma compared to one in 100 male veterans, according to a study by the Veteran’s Health Administration. MST is defined as experiences of sexual assault or harassment while on active military duty.

In a sample of U.S. Navy recruits, 15% of new male and female recruits reported traumatic histories. The women recruits reported higher percentages of past childhood traumas of physical or sexual abuse, the report revealed.

In the U.S. Army, 22% of women stated that they used alcohol as a way to cope with stress in their lives, reported the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

CIW Honor Guard walks at the AVON 39th Walk to End Breast Cancer in 2018

This substance abuse can lead to anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD. With- out proper treatment these women can spiral down into unemployment, homeless- ness, or the criminal justice system.

These dynamics should be considered when working with female veterans in the justice system, noted the report. If the women had a negative experience with the military, it can cause them to refrain from seeking help from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA).

“Some women in the military may have been ostracized, isolated or punished or reporting abuse,” said the report. “Since these women were assaulted while serving in the military, it is unlikely that they were able to elicit support from their loved ones.”

The full effects of these past traumas, prior to entering the military or being re-traumatized while in the military, are still being researched.

“We need to understand that the issues facing women veterans in the justice system may be complex as a result of untreated trauma, mental illness, and substance abuse, and their unique military experiences,” acknowledged the researchers.

Even though women veterans make up a small population in state and federal prison, they do have high rates of cooccurring disorders among women veterans in general. While incarcerated, more may attempt suicide or engage in self-harm than other women in the general population, according to the report.

By screening and identifying the military status of the women who enter prison, the criminal justice system can provide the necessary resources for women recovering from these traumatic experiences or suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.

Currently, the California Institution for Women (CIW), a state prison, has the Veterans in Prison (VIP Post 1) program for the vets who live there.

“Women veterans may have strengths that can be mobilized to mitigate risk for future criminal behavior,” concluded the report. “Women in the military often have achieved higher education levels and have a steady job history when compared to other justice-involved women.”

SQ veterans lose innovative facilitator Rebecca Haskell

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Rebecca Haskell, an outside facilitator working with Veterans Healing Veterans (VHV), has impacted San Quentin’s incarcerated veteran community like few have before her.

Haskell’s exuberant and immersive style of leadership training enabled SQ’s dedicated core of veteran facilitators to reach new levels of interactive communication— an essential skill to promote genuine healing.

“Rebecca helped create a healthy environment where we could build a tremendous bond within our group,” said Reginald Cooper, a VHV facilitator who trained with Haskell for over two years. “Because of her, we were all able to better help our vets open up and speak about traumas that earlier had caused them to shut down.

“A major factor has been lost to VHV.”

Haskell chose to step away for personal reasons—internal VHV issues she’d rather not comment on—but she highly values her time within SQ and is set on volunteering at the prison in some other capacity.

“I’m really excited to explore other opportunities to get involved in the San Quentin community,” she said. “I could write a novel about what I’ve learned since I first started coming in here.

“Being around these guys validated and reinforced my own personal philosophy that anyone can be a great leader or facilitator if given the support and opportunity.

“And that the amount of heart and soul people put into their work is a direct payoff—it directly then impacts the people they’re working with.”

Haskell used her extensive educational background and outside community connections to bring in guests who could offer SQ veterans specific insight into specialized fields—such as the neurobiology of trauma, public speaking, music therapy, movement therapy, meditation, moral injury and, especially, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Former Marine Brian Corder arrived at SQ in 2018, and experienced the benefits of Haskell’s VHV work right away. “Rebecca has one of those personalities that im- mediately promotes positive interactions and cooperative involvement,” said Corder. “She knows what she’s doing—and you could really see that with the quality of professionals she brought in to help us.”

Haskell brands herself as a Social Justice and Education Consultant. “My client base tends to be centered around prison programming and education,” she said. “VHV had their own curriculum put together, and they had questions on how to make it better—make it more user friendly for their participants to navigate.

“I tried to establish a safe place where we could learn new facilitation techniques, new ways of trauma healing, new ways of presenting yourself as a leader in the group.”

Veterans Group of San Quentin Chairman Carl Raybon, USMC, made great personal progress in working through his own trauma and he gives Haskell props for all the improvements she’s contributed to VHV.

“Rebecca’s a person of extremely impeccable character, just a wonderful person altogether,” said Raybon. “She’s always receptive to whatever another person has to share, and she uses her skill set to personalize every conversation—which made me feel like I’ve known her forever.

“She’s a taskmaster, a real energizer bunny. She makes things go as planned. No matter what obstacles came up, Rebecca stayed on task and got the job done.”

Corder recently drafted a proposal for state senate consideration which aims to implement prison reforms for incarcerated vets. Through Haskell’s tenacious contact efforts, Corder’s proposal made it into the hands of advocates who can move it further along the legislative process.

“Rebecca helped point me in the right direction. She has this gift for getting people together in a way that benefits all parties involved, where everyone wins,” said Corder. “It’s very unfortunate—the way she was removed from the program. It’s not due to anything she’s done on her end.

“That’s what sucks—it’s something out of our control, but it directly affects this current cycle of vets.”

“It’s not going to be the same without her,” agreed Cooper. “As a facilitator, she helped me build skills to be better able to listen and empathize—to notice the different emotional changes we go through.

“It was a real blessing to have her volunteer her time to VHV. Anything she contributes to San Quentin is a blessing. We need more people like her.”

Haskell pointed to everyday lessons in humility and kindness as her biggest takeaways from being inside SQ.

“We all need to do a better job of listening to each other and asking questions—giving people the benefit of the doubt,” she said. “We are all carrying around our entire lives with us all of the time, but if only we can try to remember to be more generous toward each other.”

She continues to hold strong opinions about prison reform and social justice advocacy.

“Every person in the United States—just like jury duty—should be encouraged to volunteer inside a prison,” offered Haskell. “I’ve spoken on this so much that it’s like a broken record for me.

“But if each person spent one day in prison a year, maybe we’d treat people differently.

“Prisons are designed to be out of sight—out of mind. But when you ‘otherize’ people, you forget about their humanity.”

James Dunbar, incarcerated clerk for the Veterans Information Project, has been serving his fellow vets at SQ since 2015. He’s seen his share of outside volunteers come and go.

“I know Rebecca more through her reputation amongst the other vets than through personally working with her myself,” said Dun- bar. “But when I heard she was discontinuing her role within VHV, I felt for our guys. It’s a great loss.”

Raybon expressed his optimism at seeing Haskell back at SQ soon. “She’s some- one you can really trust and that’ll make you go the extra mile to relate to what she’s saying, what she’s trying to teach you,” he said. “Hopefully, VHV’s loss will be- come a huge gain for other programs here.”

Veterans find healing through sharing their experiences

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Veterans Healing Veterans members and volunteers celebrate their graduation
Veterans Healing Veterans members and volunteers celebrate their graduation

San Quentin’s Catholic Chapel provided space on June 27 for a small group of Bay Area volunteers to meet with incarcerated veterans who’d just completed a rigorous year-long therapy program designed to help them overcome past traumas, including PTSD.

The program, Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out (VHV), began in 2012 by then-incarcerated Ron Self. Self believes giving military veterans the chance to write about their lives is therapeutic, which is why he says Narrative Therapy opens the door to healing. Self has since paroled but continues to work with VHV.

Several outside volunteers, including Sarah Alexander, spoke to seven of the nine graduates as they received certificates of completion.

“I hope that you can take in your hearts what you’ve given me,” Alexander said. “Our VHV groups are all about connection. You touch people outside in ways that you might not imagine. Each of us has the opportunity to share our stories and be listened to—that’s the reciprocal nature of narrative therapy.

“The theme of today’s stage is the cost of pent-up and repeated traumas with no healthy release.”

Referring to Ron Self, VHV program director Rebecca Haskell said, “This is his heart and this is his life. He is so proud of you. Embracing this program is allowing you to embrace aspects of yourself that you weren’t aware of and didn’t understand. The healing is within you, but VHV allows you to express it.”

Mary Donovan of Cal Vets, who formerly worked with VHV, said, “When we make un-judgmental space for a person tell his story, in their own time, they move to healing. We do this by listening. Listening is the essential act. Listening draws out the story.”

Graduate David Anderson served in the Navy and was honorably discharged twice.

“Probably the most important thing that narration does is allow you to express your emotions and feelings in words,” Anderson said. “There is something very healing in being able to put our experiences, thoughts, emotions and feelings into words.”

Tom Ucko, one of the VHV community volunteers, talked of being nervous the first time coming inside San Quentin and walking around unescorted.

“Sitting in my first group, I was stunned,” Ucko said, after hearing about an extreme- ly violent crime.

Ucko said his judgment faded as he began to learn that the men were no longer the men who committed their crimes—that there was regret and shame exhibited from each story.

“Hearing about childhood trauma was especially challenging to listen to—tears were shed,” Ucko said. “In the safety of the circle, I was able to share my traumas and tell my truths. I felt nourished and loved.”

Carlos Smith talked about how VHV helped him with PTSD, the moral injuries he suffered and how his actions have consequences.

“This program has given me a reason to open my heart and mind and make a positive change deep within my inner beauty,” Smith said. “VHV has shown me that there’s a better solution to solve problems and deal with my de- mons, rather than acting out in anger and violence.”

“Amazing Grace” was sung by Rick Harrell.

“It’s a real privilege to be here with you guys,” Harrell said. “I’m not here to sing to you, but to lead you in singing.”

Haskell acknowledged graduates who’d transferred to other prisons—John Robb and David “Solo” Bennett.

“Everyone in this room is an ambassador for VHV,” Haskell said. “If you feel like this program has impacted you in a meaningful way, scream it as loud as you can.”

The new VHV graduates are: David Anderson, Ian Brown, James Dunbar, Darrell Gautt, Andrew Gazzeny, Jerome Hermosa, Emery Milligan, Carlos Smith, and Paul Stauffer.

Veterans’ toy drive is “all about the kids”

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Toys collected for the Veterans’ Toy Drive in the SQ visiting room

It was toys and smiles all around as dozens of children came to visit their dads in San Quentin State Prison at Christmas-time.

“It’s all about the kids,” said Tony Burch, vice chair of the veterans group that sponsored the Toys for Tots event in its thirtieth year.

“I just love to see the expressions on the faces of the kids,” said Army veteran Garvin Robinson, long-time secretary and treasurer of the Veterans Group at San Quentin.

Robinson admitted that sometimes he has as much fun as the kids playing with the toys. 

“I can see they got the spirit in them — the joy on their faces shines as bright as on Christmas Day. It reminds me of me when I was a kid,” said Army Vietnam veteran Adam Sinegal. 

Hundreds of toys and smiles of joy greeted the children as they entered the festively decorated San Quentin visiting rooms to visit their inmate family members and friends. 

The toy event is scheduled for the weekends before Christmas and on Christmas Day each year. 

San Quentin Veterans Tony Burch, Adam Sinegal, Stanley Baer, Garvin Robinson and Gary Cooper

Robinson, who has been incarcerated for 33 years and has three sons of his own, said about the toy giveaway, “It fixes me – I can put a smile on a kid’s face. This is the best thing I’ve done in my life.” 

“We treat all kids equally,” said Marine Corps veteran Stanley Baer. “It ain’t the kid’s fault,” he said about the children visiting their incarcerated loved ones. He explained that many of the children come to visit inmates who have been convicted of serious crimes with lengthy, life or even death sentences. “They’re the most grateful because it’s so unexpected.” 

Baer helped a young girl pick out the doll she wanted. After consulting with her mom, the girl embraced the doll with both arms and a beaming smile. Baer commented, “That moment right there – that one genuine moment – made the whole day worthwhile.” 

“Some of these kids are like family to us” 

“Some of these kids are like family to us,” Marine veteran Gary Cooper said, “We’ve seen them grow up over the years.” Cooper said it reminds him of the joy he and his own kids shared when shopping and opening presents during holidays past. 

On their way to the main visiting room, visitors walked by the children’s playroom. Looking in, they were surprised to see tables stacked with hundreds of toys for the visiting children, 

Reactions included: “Oh, look at that, Michael. Wow! Yay! I want that!” 

Each child entered to choose the toy they wanted to take home, but with so many options, which one? The choices included a wide range – from the Millennium Falcon, Kylo Ren’s Tie Silencer, BB-8 and R2-D2, to dolls, play walkers and play mats for toddlers and infants. From basketballs, soccer and footballs to high-tech electronics like the Vtech Alphabet Apple and the Leap Frog learning tablet. 

“I wanna take that!” said one young girl. With parent’s approval, she was given her toy, and with a huge smile said “My Num Noms – Yum!” She then began dancing joyously, repeating, “I got Num Noms!” 

One inmate with his child said, “I used to get so excited,” remembering Christmases from his own childhood. Another said about the game “Operation,” “That game’s been around since when I was a kid.” Other games that have been favorites for generations included Sorry, Monopoly, Connect 4 and Trouble. 

The veterans group’s staff sponsor, Rachael Murray, a CDCR employee, worked with the SQ veterans group to put the event together. “Rachael was instrumental,” said veteran Baer. She drove a van to the Toys for Tots warehouse where it was filled – front to back, floor to ceiling – with the toys she then brought to the prison. 

Murray said she enjoys working with the veterans because they are all team players. She said the toy giveaway “always has been and always will be about being able to bring some joy to the kids … making sure they have something to smile about.” 

VGSQ members Earl Orr and Samuel Gaskins gave out the toys in the other visiting room in San Quentin’s H-Unit. 

The veterans group also does food sale events inside San Quentin to raise funds to donate to the Toys for Tots program — usually several thousand dollars each year, according to VGSQ member Fred Cole. 

This year’s donation was under $2,000 because of a statewide suspension of food sales in prisons, said Cole. He added that VGSQ hopes the sales will be reinstated. 

Dozens of children receive toys each day during the event. One of them was 5-year-old Troy Jackson. He happily picked out a toy with his grandfather, Kenji Jackson, whom he came to visit. 

Ten-year-old Riley and 5-year-old Kai, visiting their “Uncle Nick,” chose Num Noms and slime to take home with them. “I wanted the slime,” said Riley, as Kai described how he would stretch the slime and make noises with it: “You can do this.” 

Kai Kane, Nicola “Uncle Nick” Bucci, Riley Kane and Frank Jernigan picking out toys in the visiting room

Thirteen-year-old Jayla Watts, daughter of Jerome Watts, was happy to get a toy but said that the best thing about Christmas is “spending time with my family.” She continued, “Even though this is a prison, I still enjoy spending this time with my dad and my family in here – it feels like it’s not a prison.” Jayla’s dad, Jerome, said that the visit is the highlight of his holiday season. 

Jerome Watts with daughter Jayla

The grandmother of another visiting child said that she was excited to see all the toys given away because it was completely unexpected. She said in 13 years of visiting her son, “in so many prisons – this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. It’s a real blessing.” 

Kenji Jackson with grandson Troy Jackson

Veterans Healing Veterans organizes Shakespeare plays

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A group of San Quentin veterans joined with Shakespearean actors on Nov. 29 to portray the experience of service and sacrifice.

Veterans Healing Veterans actors and the audience warming up before the play

A banner greeted the audience VETERANS HEALING VETERANS FROM THE INSIDE OUT (VHV-FTIO), a group with a mission to represent the imprint each generation of veterans leaves on the next. Lesley Currier directed the performance, a joint enterprise between VHV and the Marin Shakespeare Company (MSC).

“Taking that leap of faith with us and try something new,” said Currier to the expectant audience.

The theme of “Patriotism and Politics” had the mixed cast performing emotional scenes of injury to taking of life with choreography to demonstrate loyalty, liberty, service and sacrifice.

Shakespeare Actress Janice and actor Chris Marshall
Actor David Bennet

VHV seeks to provide vets the opportunities to practice self-expression. In combination with MSC, these men wrote their own autobiographical skits.

Often the skits required veterans to recreate the most traumatic moments in their lives.

There was no lighting apart from the standard florescent tubes overhead, the only stage props were extra chairs, a podium, and the water fountain used to serve as a drum.

The plain environment matched the stark monologues used to reveal the truths experienced by veterans seeking to heal veterans in the present.

Veterans reenacting a battle

The veterans shared their stories with re-enactments of the full military life from recruitment, training, deployment, combat, return and retirement.

“Forged in the crucible of training,” said the narrator to set up various skits dealing with overcoming fears to move toward the sounds of chaos. He referred to honest fears of every-day skills like swimming, teamwork, discipline and gunfire.

Marin actress and Paul Stauffer reenacting a war scene

Marines, Navy, Army and Air force was honored with the common call of WE HAVE EACH OTHERS BACKS.”

The contradictions of what recruiters promise the experiences of military life were shared with skits over generations of military service.

Promises don’t live up to the PR…

When I joined the military…

WE ALL GOT different things than we expected….

Yet, always friendship, maturity, honor.

Bruce Bowman speaking

The dramatic monologues included exploring the complex emotions and experiences of fear, guilt and racism.

The audience listened intently as they took in the raw manifestation of both patriotism and pain of a skit of a woman’s experience of rape and the failure of the service, both female and male officers to investigate or punish the rapist.

Music too conveyed the experience of “promises promises promises”–interspaced with the reality of wounds, physical and psychic.

Who will hear me….

The whole cast provided the chance to hear real experience of rape and a shared commitment by the whole cast to “protect honor and respect all women always.”

Letters, poetry and prose brought to life service and sacrifices from the Civil War through World War II and express that physical are not the worst wounds.

Concepts that weave throughout the generations, racism, abuse of authority, fear, bravery, patriotism, loyalty, service and sacrifice.

Personal experiences from Rhodesia, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq expressed the full range of difficult to process emotions from personal fear to the guilt of taking of lives. 

George Orwell was quoted “in time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

The cast shared truths for the living and the dead. A common emotion was hatred for those that profited from war from corporations to illegal drugs. Another was the importance of ritual a to respect the dead.

Of the living, the themes of mental health and racism were faced by the cast. 

Racism 

– No medals of honor to blacks in WWII, until Pres. Bill Clinton in 1997. As with most such medals, of the seven given, six were posthumously awarded.

Mental Health 

– Vets are 16 percent of the homeless in the U.S.

– half of Vets with PTSD are currently getting treatment (often because of the stigma of mental health)

– Vets are incarcerated at twice the national average

– Vets commit suicide at twice the average

While acknowledging the ideals of our great nation “life liberty and pursuit of happiness,” still America “CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT.”

“I am so grateful to these men for giving of themselves and their hearts. Often the performance expresses events the participants may not wish to remember or re-live,” said Currier as she opened the floor to questions from the audience.

Veterans performing a healing ceremony

Audience Q & A

Q – What was the most difficult regarding the creative process?

A – Being able to share my story, without losing control – more we worked, the easier it became to live it without living it…

A – Very difficult to tell my story, even the ugly things, it was a new way to be courageous to perform.

A – We went through seven versions to prepare these powerful and true stories. It was a grinder. For us men doing time, we have to take this type of dedication to take these skills out to the world.

A – Military service kind of the opposite from the ‘creative processes of performing.

Q – How can others in prison see this performance?

A – MSC had a full filming crew and will post it on the Marin Shakespeare company website. 

A – When we can talk about it, we stop being victims or victimizing others.

Q –Do you encourage joining or avoiding military?

A – Despite what we’ve been through, we all still love our country.

A – Every citizen has to serve, therefore have a stake. This brings us together as a people. Military not perfect, it’s full of people and we bring our flaws with us. Good outweighs the bad.

VHV-FTIO will have groups in the ARC building on the Main Yard.

Servicemen sentences overturned

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Two servicemen on military Death Row had their sentences overturned this summer, reports the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). U.S. Air Force veteran Andrew Witt and Vietnam War veteran Robert Fisher both had attorneys who failed to present mitigating evidence of mental health issues and trauma in their initial trials.
Witt was sentenced in 2005 for murdering an airman and his wife. After a three-week capital resentencing trial, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces imposed a life sentence, according to DPIC, which cited the La Crosse Tribune.
Fisher, who had received a Purple Heart from President Lyndon B. Johnson, was convicted of the 1980 murder of his girlfriend. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania overturned his death sentence and granted a new trial.
In both cases, attorneys failed to present evidence that their clients suffered from head trauma or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD can cause serious psychological after-affects for years after a soldier returns from combat, according to DPIC.
In Witt’s case, the attorney failed to present mitigating evidence that he had suffered a traumatic brain injury just four months before the murders. Witt’s death sentence was the first one handed out to an airman since 1992.
In Fisher’s first trial, his attorney failed to present the mitigating evidence of trauma and other mental health issues Fisher experienced due to his service in Vietnam.
Twelve veterans have had their death sentences reduced to life in prison, while four veterans in military prisons are still on the U.S. military death row.

Dr. Downey overcomes hurdles

Approximately 10 Counties Responsible For a Quarter of U.S. Executions

More inmates taking meds for mental health issues


 

"The Fence of Time"

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If time was created to magically fly.

Would it take me soaring into the blue sky?

Beyond to a place I can never see,

Somewhere conscious and free, outside of me.

My being desires to fly, to be un-hid,

Resuming life as the innocent Kid.

Instead, there’s a steel Fence holding reality hidden,

Where true emotions are lost or forbidden.

The vicissitude in life began due to a forlorn War.

Causing only the mind to transcend past the steel door.

With Time, I linger thru the effects of my life,

Trying to survive the imposed strife.

While being impeached by thoughts not so surreal,

I should have sought a different path enabling me to feel.

Sadly, Time and I will never take flight,

War and Fence the only life, Time has in sight.

Noise from Inside is created by: John B. Tidwell

                                USMC Vietnam Veteran

“if y’all think I did it…just give me a lawyer, dawg, ‘cause this is not what’s up.”Warren Demesme said during police questioning.The Louisiana Supreme Court held that this reference was too ambiguous to count as a request for counsel.REASON Magazine, January 2018

73 percent of Alabama is within a drug-free zone, defined as extending three miles from schools, colleges and housing complexes and resulting in a five- year enhancement.  REASON Magazine, January 2018

Vets Pay Tribute to the Fallen on Memorial Day


https://sanquentinnews.com/veterans-and-shakespeare-converge-to-tell-war-stories/
https://sanquentinnews.com/stings-entangle-sex-workers-victims-perpetrators/

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