WALL CITY

San Quentin inmate turns Wall Street guru They call me “Wall Street.” I’ve been featured in the Wall Street Journal alongside Warren Buffet, “CNN Money,” “Market Watch,” CBS and NPR. “The Kitchen Sisters” turned my story into a TED Talk. I recently met Mark Zuckerberg and we chatted about the importance of financial literacy. This is all a bit weird to me.  At 17, I was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to 54 years to life in prison. Now here I sit. I’ve been incarcerated 21 years. Before I came to … [Read more...] about WALL CITY VOLUME 1: Dollars and sense for the incarcerated

In Stockholm’s Blue Hill neighborhood, hip-hop cleared a path away from violence. Imagine if Mozart was born in a ghetto poverty-stricken, filled with drugs and violence. Then envision that young Mozart couldn’t afford instruments. Would anyone have noticed his musical genius, or would he have been kicked out of school for bad behavior? Would he have slipped into the school-to-prison pipeline? Perhaps he’d be sitting in a cell with no access to education and few chances for a successful return to society. The world would have missed his … [Read more...] about WALL CITY VOLUME 1: Channeling emotions into music

Program aims to improve SQ and develop skills for future jobs. The Green Life’s Angela Sevin at work in her garden As rainfall pelted the dusty grounds of San Quentin last fall, several dozen incarcerated and free people gathered in the prison’s Protestant Chapel. They were not seeking a heavenly salvation. They wanted to preserve mankind’s future on this rapidly heating planet. To them, it began with connection. “If you think solar and wind power are the answers to our problems, you’re wrong,” said the incarcerated Sam Hearnes, … [Read more...] about WALL CITY VOLUME 1: Growing more than just green

by FranCisco Vargas When you walk thru the city of concrete and steel Never turn your back to the snakes, For you know their will. They are slick and they are sly! They will take your life Without a blink of their eye! Trust not whom you talk, Beware of the ones, where you walk. Within the heavy crowd in the yard is a rumble, A shot is fired! A man has stumbled But his fall was not from the bullet, This man was stuck! And he is out of luck, Cause in this prison yard of madness. There is no time … [Read more...] about WALL CITY VOLUME 1: “The City of No Pity”

Don’t put on a façade, says Glen Holden. Someone’s going to check you on it. Prisoner Re-entry Network, an Oakland non-profit, interviews lifers after their release. This article is based on conversations between PRN Executive Director Jared Rudolph and Glen Holden, who left Valley State Prison in January 2015 after serving 45 years. Holden was interviewed about six weeks after his release and again 14 months later. I went to prison when I was 19 and never thought I would get out. I was denied parole maybe 20 times. Finally, I decided … [Read more...] about WALL CITY VOLUME 1: Emotions: Best when allowed out

Inmates participating in a Spanish GRIP session A few days after his daughter’s birthday, Javier Perez Trujillo and his family were celebrating at his in-law’s house, Sebastian Rios. There, Javier’s mind began turning over and over again, thinking of his sister, Norma and the mistreatment by her husband, Enrique Castrejon. He hated hearing about the abuse.  As he downed beer after beer, his happiness shifted to sadness and then anger. Javier was drunk when rage took control.  “I’m going to fuck him up,” he told his brother, … [Read more...] about WALL CITY VOLUME 1: THE MEN OF GRIP