Welcome to all our readers in this, our last edition of the year. How quickly the year has passed. During 2013, San Quentin News diligently applied our mission to be the pulse of San Quentin, while also providing voice to the voiceless—the incarcerated.
With several years under our belt, one might think putting out the news would be routine. Although there has been much progress, we have also been busy working on ways to enhance our capabilities to give incarcerated men and women a bigger voice.
Even though San Quentin News has made great strides forward, the typical convoluted operations of publishing a newspaper from inside a prison continue to stretch our deadlines. As the only fully prisoner produced newspaper in America, San Quentin News staff would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and understanding. From all of the newsroom staff: thank you for your support. You are helping us do our part in our pursuit of truth and justice for everyone, including prisoners.
Our staff has grown from eight to 15. We are developing a Spanish section. We hope to expand to 24 pages with 12 pages of color. But, we cannot do this without your continued support and tolerance of our shortcomings.
In our fifth year we have continued expansion to other California prisons. At this writing, San Quentin News maintains limited circulation into 16 other prisons.
Last January, for the first time in San Quentin history, the newspaper was printed in color. We have created a Journalism Guild with a set curriculum. Our staff and our writers are lobbying to become members of the Society of Professional Journalists. Principal to our mission is continued professionalism and pursuit of excellence in journalism.
We are in the process of looking for more space and hope to have it soon. The additional space is an important part of our growth. That growth is commensurate with our intention to provide a copy of San Quentin News to every prisoner in the state and many outside California.
Expansion of San Quentin News includes scaling the paper’s distribution to reach all of California’s prisoners. It also includes enhancing our capacity to provide comprehensive transparency in criminal justice. All this involves a high level of discipline, planning, and execution on the part of the staff.
Currently San Quentin News receives about 150 letters per week from our readers. We get letters, requests, and writing contributions from other prisons and other states. We get online requests, comments, and e-mails from across the country and around the world. Despite all this, we are still only a voice for but a few.
Although we have enjoyed a degree of success, San Quentin News will continue to report on all aspects of criminal justice. San Quentin News staff considers it our mandate to be objective, seek transparency in implementation of policy, and reveal the effect of such policies on all prisoners. With that in mind, students in the University California at Berkeley’s graduate school of business, Haas Business School, are proving to be an important asset upon which we can rely.
The business school team has aided us in development of a roadmap and phasing plan to accomplish our goals. Among the objectives is growth of our subscriber base. As most readers know, the newspaper is supported with gifts and donations from friends, family and others interested in criminal justice transparency.
The San Quentin News team, its advisors, staff and readers are very thankful for the continuing support and effort of those partners who have facilitated our past and present operations. We are especially thankful to the Marin Sun, which is a critical and trusted partner. With the expected growth, we will need more friends, advisors, staff and partners like the Marin Sun.
In the coming year we need to remain focused on building a substantial subscriber base. One of our critical partners is the Columbia Foundation. Columbia, whose funding has greatly facilitated our possibilities, is to be applauded for its contribution to criminal justice education through our paper. We would like to thank them very much for aiding the San Quentin News. While we are thankful to Columbia, as are many prisoners who have been aided through Columbia’s gifts, we still need to ask others to assist us as well.
We thank all who have made the paper possible during the past year and in prior years.
It would be disingenuous for me not to thank Kevin Chappell, Warden of San Quentin. His vision coupled with accommodations of public information officer, Lt. Sam Robinson, have facilitated the new San Quentin News.
San Quentin News maintains core values which we seek to propagate throughout. It is honest, accurate, and timely. San Quentin News is objective and does not take sides. We report activities of criminal justice, whether good, bad, or indifferent.
San Quentin News values stories on prosocial activities that show criminals changing into socially responsible citizens because these stories demonstrate the importance of education and rehabilitation – a central component of criminal justice policy.
The dedicated team in our newsroom is committed to achieving the goal of giving voice to prisoners everywhere. We have a very, very long road ahead. Nevertheless, while we are not there yet, we have our top men (and volunteer women), working on it.
The next time you are sitting at a table, walking the yard, yelling down the tier or in a day room be the one to stir up the conversation about what the San Quentin News is doing to make a difference for you-and send us your suggestions
I want to wish all of you a Happy Holiday, and I pray that the New Year will bring you much joy in your endeavors. Take the time and share a story with us. Tell us what will help you to make the transition to a positive way of life whether inside or out. We want to see you get back home to your families and live a productive life giving back to your communities.
