About 150 men gathered at San Quentin’s Protestant Chapel to praise dozens of graduates of a prosocial program designed to teach empathy, self-control, and humility.
Incarcerated Men Putting Away Childish Things (IMPACT) acknowledged the efforts of these inmates for completing the Fatherhood Enrichment and Male Accountability module of its curriculum.
“Men were incarcerated in their mind before they ever came to prison,” said the program’s sponsor, Albert Featherstone. “This program creates a culture that changes the dynamic of men’s lives.”
Featherstone, who was paroled from prison in 1987, became IMPACT chief sponsor in 2011. He has been assisting the program for the last 23 years. “I facilitate some parts of the 16-week program, but the men here teach most of it,” he said.
“IMPACT stresses that a man’s body can be used as an analogy for how to build a man,” said John “Yahya” Parratt. “The feet are a man’s foundation, while his head the center of his control.”
One of the key principles of IMPACT is the acronym AIR—Accountability Integrity Responsibility, said one of the graduates, Travis Banks.
“It’s about being in control of the situation, being able to de-escalate the situation by stopping, observing, and processing what’s happening,” he said. “You learn body signals.”
Banks has been attending IMPACT classes for four years. “I have one more module to complete, and then I’ll have all of them,” he said.
Each man had the opportunity to say how the program’s way of thinking has helped him.
James Jenkins talked about a potential violent confrontation with his cellmate.
“A friend of mine pulled me away,” he said. “Later God put on my heart to apologize to him. Even though I believe he provoked the situation.” Jenkins said he concluded he had to take ownership of his part of the situation. “The entire episode taught me that patience is something important. The experience taught me that I am in control of myself, and that’s what IMPACT is all about.”
Marlon Beason, 33, said he has completed two of the five modules. “I’m not a lifer, but lifers look up to me because I’m involved with the program. It teaches me how important my family and my community are,” Beason said. “IMPACT helps me articulate reason in the presence of conflict. This program humbled me by seeing guys who’ve been in prison for decades that changed the way they think about what it means to be a man.”
“It has reaffirmed my path of integrity, responsibility, and being a peacemaker in our community,” said Miguel Quezada, 32. “In the future, I will use what I learned in IMPACT to model what it means to be a responsible man—as an example for my peers and other men in my family and young men.”
“I learned to resolve conflict resolution by taking a time out, said John Ham, 27. “I’m carrying this message to other guys that are suffering from violent impulses.”
Although Cleo Cloman’s story is common for some young men who go through the maturation process in a prison atmosphere, there are many who do not have access to prosocial programs like IMPACT.
“I came to prison a young knucklehead. However, I’ve grown out of being that,” Cloman said. “Several years after being incarcerated, I came across a friend who knew me as that previous knuckle head. I talked to him about the self-help programs available at San Quentin and the ones I’ve been involved in. He told me he was amazed in my change in attitude. The experience gave me a firsthand experience in witnessing the change within myself. What warmed me was to be able to tell my friend about my change, and to demonstrate to him that I am truly a changed man.”
Cloman concluded by asking: “What will stop us from throwing our lives away? What will it take for us to change?”
Another graduate, Sean Scales, said he’s excited about learning new tools on how to deal with conflict.
“Violence is never the right way to go,” said Scales. “IMPACT teaches us humility, and with humility we’re able to knock down the pride which prevents us from doing the right thing.” He said IMPACT taught him how to have confidence in his ability to better articulate himself.
“You can control the choice, but you can’t change the consequence,” said Darnell Hill.
