More than 60 years after opening its doors in 1852, the California prison system was quickly becoming a breeding ground for incorrigible and hardened convicts. From each corner of the state these men had been cut off and sectioned apart because they had become a threat to the common welfare of the state.
Former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger proposed: “We must accept the reality that to confine offenders behind walls without trying to change them is an expensive folly with short-term benefits — winning battles while losing the war.”
In 1912, as a “new man,” Warden James A. Johnston took charge of his wards with urgency and no time wasted. In his book, Prison Life Is Different, he writes, “Already I had come to the conclusion that crime couldn’t be punished out of individuals, but that probably individuals could be educated out of crime.” Johnston’s objective here was not to be soft on crime, but instead to be smart when dealing with criminals. In 1915, at his behest the office of Educational Director was introduced.
He said, “It gave the Educational Department a definite place in receiving and therefore training inmates to go out better than when they came in.”
Under Johnston’s reign, it could be said that when a man entered through the doors of San Quentin and Folsom he was in effect walking through a gateway to freedom. In recent times the precious benefits of education were voiced by an unknown inmate: “My involvement with college has opened my eyes to all of the things that were wrong in my life. Now I have a sense of priority, a sense of accountability, and have made a legitimate promise to myself on which to build. My needs are still important, but not at someone else’s expense.”
After retirement in 1925, Johnston worked as chairman of the California Crime Commission and as director of the Department of Penology. Close to 50 years later, San Quentin continued the work of reaching, teaching and changing the men with a slew of independent study and academic programs, with over 65 percent enrollment.
In parting, the warden quipped, “ Personally, I don’t think we are suffering from any lack of laws; we have enough and to spare. I believe that our greatest difficulties and our greatest opportunities are in the field of prevention, in a better use of social, economic and educational agencies.”
The term for a “new man” who decides to take a stand and act independent of his group is called a maverick. It was true for Johnston in the early years of a 20th century prison boom. His vision for the department was connection in corrections, and it turned many convicts into productive men.
Johnston was consciously conscientious in the quest for reforming and correcting the men who happened to be walking through the steel doors at San Quentin and Folsom. His ideals of bibliotherapy live on.
