As San Quentin Rehabilitation Center culture slowly transitions toward promoting rehabilitation, several programs have made great efforts to connect the inside community with the outside.
Intrigued by the work of individuals in San Quentin, Jason Tondro, a senior game designer for the games Starfinder and Pathfinder, attended a recent gaming event. Tondro said he worked as a senior designer on the Dungeons and Dragons team.
“D & D and other games like it create empathy and everybody wins,” he said.
He said he came into the prison to learn, listen, and play D & D, wanting to see how games inside differ from the outside. After working with the residents, he said he envisioned an adventure game tailored to gameplay in prison.
“I am deeply grateful for all the students present today,” he said. “I have enormous respect for what everyone is doing here.”
Skunkworks hosted the event. The nonprofit organization has met weekly to combine the insights and ideas of incarcerated individuals and professionals outside. Through this collaborative initiative, the team has collected evidence-based research for the administration with policy recommendations and hosted several events in an effort to transform prison gaming culture.
“Our stakeholders are invested in criminal justice reform,” said Skunkworks Executive Director Kai Bannon. “It is about connecting community inside and out.”
Nearly two-thirds of the attendees at the event had never participated in roleplay games. Besides D & D, the group offered Starfinder, Pathfinder, and Star Munchkin.
“I usually sign up to do something different,” resident Jose Gutierrez said. “I am a creative guy and gaming allows me to use a different aspect of my mind. I get into the imaginary stories.”
Resident Freddy Lopez, a first time gamer, said the ability to interact and have a good time with a diverse crowd drew him to gaming.
“I am able to get out of my comfort zone and do something different,” Lopez said. “No matter the background, and different walk of life.”
After 17 years of staring down the same walls of incarceration, resident Robert Davis said the imagination-aspect intrigued him. “I appreciate getting out of this place into a new world and realm,” he said.
He said gaming helped him to envision himself as a better person, a healer, a cleric, or someone living in medieval times.
Notable guest Piper Kerman, author of the book “Orange is the New Black,” attended the event by invitation of a friend.
“Often we think too much,” Kerman said. “We should take advantage of opportunities for creative and imaginative thinking.”
Kerman, released from prison in 2005, said incarceration did not encourage creativity, but she believed in a million ways to turn creativity into something productive, like writing a book.
She believed her motivation to write about her experiences in prison, which educated the public on the transformation of people in prisons, helped change hearts and minds.
“Doing narrative work is essential and if you have done the work then you can reframe your identity,” Kerman said.
