On May 1, San Quentin Rehabilitation Center honored 19 incarcerated individuals for completing the voluntary 150-hour Transformative Mediation program.
The curriculum focuses on effective communication, active listening, and healing. Residents learn tools for mediating and resolving conflict among residents in the prison community, and some have used the tools they learned to rebuild family relationships.
Rochelle Edwards, executive director at the Transformative Justice Institute, has worked in prisons more than two decades. She said she wanted to develop a program to assist incarcerated residents with conflict resolution both inside and outside of prison walls.
“This group began because I saw—over my 25 years—a lot of conflicts between groups, and most of the guys were already addressing the conflict,” Edwards said. Edwards, for accepting and supporting the program, acknowledged San Quentin’s Warden C. Andes and Chief Deputy Warden (A) E. Patao.
“You set the tone for what is possible here, and I really want to acknowledge you,” said Edwards.
The Veterans Group of San Quentin initiated the celebration by presenting the color guard and performing the national anthem.
The graduates followed behind, marching in unison holding large walking sticks that represented the strength of connectivity, rooted within the group.
The song This Little Light of Mine rang throughout Chapel A as the graduates stomped their feet and pounded walking sticks in a marching formation.
“With each beat, we become stronger, more rooted, and connected to each other,” said three-time Grammy Award winner Melody Gamore who facilitated the procession. “That rhythm is a conduit of freedom.”
Family, friends, administrative staff, and other residents were waiting in the pews to see the graduates wearing smiles as bright as their red caps and gowns.
Resident alumni, Michael Callahan and Jareal Nelson, discussed restorative justice, nonviolence, and effective communication as the components of the program, touting a success rate of 75-80% among the mediations held in San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
Graduate Hamisi Spears said being a part of Transformative Mediation program has not only helped him resolve conflicts in prison, but it has allowed him to revive his relationship with his estranged daughter. He said that when his daughter was five years old she said she hated him. The graduation was his second time seeing her since that day.
Many family members gave remarks about the transformation they have seen in their incarcerated loved ones.
Graduate Michael Walker’s wife talked about how different her telephone conversations have been with him.
“I am very proud of my husband, Michael Walker, because I hear him on the phone all the time saying, ‘yes I’m here and I’m listening,’” Walker’s wife said.
