A group of 26 at-risk boys who turned their lives around, thanks to counselors and San Quentin inmates, graduated in June from a program called R.E.A.L. (Reaching Expanding Adolescent Lives) Choices.
The Oakland youngsters, aged 13 to 17, were “making a difference, one choice at a time,” according to Vernell Crittendon Jr., a retired San Quentin Lieutenant and former Public Information Officer for the prison.
“We believe in education…education is really going to open up your dreams to becoming a reality,” Crittendon added.
R.E.A.L. Choices began in 2001. The concept was adopted by convicts at San Quentin State Prison with a desire to serve the local community’s problem of rising youth violence.
The program provides workshops on effective communication, sexually transmitted diseases, drug awareness/prevention and gang awareness.
Laura Moran, chief service officer at Oakland Unified School District, attended the graduation. Moran’s association with R.E.A.L. Choices began last year with a desire to find innovative methods in the development of community leadership, and youth-orientated programs that avert the policy of criminalization of youthful behavior.
Vincent Cullen, San Quentin Acting Warden, told the graduates, “If you do come to state prison, you’re not guaranteed to come to San Quentin. There are 31 other prisons out there and they don’t necessarily think and program the way we do here.”
Lt. Sam Robinson, San Quentin’s Public Information Officer and a graduate of Haven’s Court Junior High School, praised the graduating students. He told the graduates, “I see a group of young men here who through difficulties and the challenges of the neighborhoods and the environment that you’re in, that you guys are transcending that.”
R.E.A.L Choices has the support of volunteer Steve Fajardo, a Lieutenant for Oakland School District Police. Fajardo said, “I can see that the [convicts and youth] are learning from each other. I know that the students are bring back the knowledge to the schools and the streets of Oakland.”
Luis, a 15-year-old, found out about R.E.A.L. Choices at his school, but had to apply twice before he was accepted. When he made the commitment to change his life path, R.E.A.L. Choices administrators recognized his seriousness and made space for him in the program.
Tito, 17 years old and a two-year veteran and graduate of R.E.A.L. Choices, remarked, “Gang life and drugs are not the way, [you] can’t live your life like that. My life was changed by the men I met here.”
