Gary Kosta and Marty Walters are the most unlikely characters to facilitate life-changing opportunities for inmates serving life sentences.
Kosta, 59, has been in and out of prison his whole adult life. His last conviction for a 1996 robbery got him 50 years to life under California’s Three Strikes law. Walters, 58, is serving a life sentence for a murder in 1996.
But despite their own life sentences, Kosta and Walter co-chair San Quentin State Prison’s self-help group called Hope for Lifers.
They didn’t know each other prior to coming to prison. However, once incarcerated, they learned they had both lived in the same house at different times in their hometown of San Diego.
Kosta said the coincidence began a friendship that has lasted throughout their respective journeys from prison to prison, and continued now that they are both housed at San Quentin.
“Alcohol and gambling played a big part in my self-image,” Kosta said. “I had the Las Vegas type of personality; it’s about fast money and always looking for the easy way out.”
Kosta said once he got to San Quentin, all of the self-help programs available had an effect on him.
“It got to the point where I had to take a good look at myself,” Kosta said. “I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror and I wanted to change.”
Both must appear before the California parole board. In order to earn their freedom, they must be able to demonstrate they are no longer a danger to public safety.
“When I got here, the consensus was that strikers were different lifers (than murderers),” Walter said in reference to what inmates must demonstrate to the parole board in order to earn a release date. “But when Jennifer Shaffer (executive officer of the parole board) came, we learned that the board was going to treat everyone the same. Strikers would have to address their issue, just the same.”
Kosta and Walters structured Hope for Lifers so that participants sat in circles and worked on a curriculum designed to address causes for criminal behavior as well as parole plans that include housing and employment opportunities.
“The guys acknowledged their vulnerabilities and places where they need help,” Kosta said about the Hope for Lifers participants. “This isn’t easy for guys who have been down for a long time.”
Kosta recognized that many of the men are learning how to articulate themselves “from their hearts about the changes they’ve made in their lives.”
“Seeing this kind of work gave me an awakening, like I’m doing something good for our community,” Kosta said. “I’m tired of hurting people; I want to start helping people. I still have my relapses, but now I know I can do so much good.”
“You can’t just show up and say to the board I go to Hope for Lifers and get out,” he said. “That’s not true. We all have to do the work.”
With more than 3,000 members of the Bay Area regularly coming inside San Quentin to teach pro-social ways to live, Kosta and Walter are taking advantage of the opportunity.
Paige Mackenzie and Jared Rudolph are two Bay Area community members who support Hope for Lifers. Rudolph, executive director of Prisoner Reentry Network, specializes in housing, health care, job placement, credit reports and budgeting. Most of the logistical aspects of the program, such as curriculum building, are managed by Mackenzie.
“We run the program, but Paige and Jared are the engines,” Kosta said. “The peer-to-peer model works because it gives me the opportunity to learn. Every time I read the work that the men do, I learn something new.”
