Victim advocacy representatives came into San Quentin, accompanied by Marin County District Attorney Edward Berberian, to receive the last victim compensation checks from Joint Venture company Labcon.
“This is the last check presentation for us. We stopped working up here about eight to nine months ago because the company moved from San Rafael to Petaluma,” Labcon president Jim Happ said at the Oct. 19 ceremony.
For 23 years Labcon was a successful Joint Venture program in San Quentin. Joint Venture legislation—passed in 1990 under Proposition 139—provides incarcerated Americans the opportunity to learn job skills, earn comparable wages, give back to the community and prepare for reentry, according to California Prison Industry Authority Administrator Rusty Bechtold.
“Our number one product is offenders who don’t come back. That’s why I do what I do,” Bechtold added.
Joint Ventures participants’ paychecks are divided into five slices, including federal, state, and local taxes, 20 percent room and board, 20 percent Inmate Trust Account, 20 percent Mandatory Savings and 20 percent Victims Compensation.
“It’s not just about the money we raise for the victims,” said Happ. “For a guy to get out with $8-10 thousand in the bank, that’s a big difference from $200 bucks.”
Representatives from three victims’ advocacy organizations attended the small ceremony and received $3,700.76 each from the mandatory victim compensation deductions. The funds must be spent on services for the victims of crime.
Warden Ron Davis said, “I selected them because they met our criteria and requirements.”
“Our program will use these funds to continue bringing program services to the children,” Dr. Michael Grogan, executive director of Jeannette Prandi Children’s Center.
Berberian said, “It is so important to get to these kids and help them. Money such as this will go to services to support them in that therapy context.”
The Children’s Center is a child-abuse-intervention program located in San Rafael. Grogan works with Beberian and the police to guide where cases go.
Co-chair volunteers Natasha Singh and Kim Tsuchimoto represented the Center for Domestic Peace.
“This really gives us tremendous hope because we can’t end violence unless we do it together. This check will buy women and children months of safety, and it buys something more profound—hope,” Singh said.
“The money would help stop Marin County’s number one crime, domestic violence,” Tsuchimoto said.
“People aren’t born violent. You learn it. You can unlearn it,” said Singh about the aim of their Mankind and Womankind therapy program.
The third agency, Marin Advocates for Children, follows minors through the court system and makes recommendations to the judges, according to Cyndy Doherty, the executive director.
“We want to stop child abuse now. This donation is going to help us get [kids] in safe homes,” Doherty said to those in attendance.
There are plans to start up two new Joint Venture programs next year.
The Big Dawg Company will pay $9 to $12 an hour for light manufacturing assembly. Turn to You, Inc., wants to bring coding jobs back from overseas and utilize incarcerated Americans. Wages will be in the range of $15 an hour.
The Employment Development Department sets the pay rate in the lower 10th percentile of wages earned in that field and gives workers raises after every 2,080 hours worked, said Bechtold.
“Our goal is to have both projects operating in the first quarter of next year,” said Bechtold.
According to PIA acting manager Gary Lardeo, “the requirements for participation in the Joint Venture programs haven’t been nailed down yet.”
-Charles David Henry contributed to this story
