As California’s Governor invests in men’s mental health, San Quentin residents speak their truth at a crisis intervention graduation.

Light Keepers, a SQ crisis intervention program formerly known as Brother’s Keepers started in 2005, as a result of SQ resident Robert Dunbar committing suicide. One of Dunbar’s friends put in a request to receive crisis intervention training to assist the community.

Struggles with suicide, are parts of life that people often deem too ugly to look at or too difficult to address, according to LK graduate Roberto Antonio de Trinidad.

“These areas are often left hidden in dark corners where they can easily be ignored and forgotten,” said de Trinidad. “However, left behind, they fall into decay & fester, until they become the very cancer that come back from that void and bite us.”

LK mentor Carrington Russelle said, when you are assisting a person that’s going through depression, this program teaches you to be patient and listen to them. Adding that the program wants to create a bridge where people can reach out and do not have to live in silence.

Residents and program mentors Mark Cadiz and Gregory Coates led the attendees with a grounding exercise as Coates played his Flute. Coates said that with this song he honors the Native people of this homeland.

Cadiz said together we breathe the same air that we all share in this community; “I share the same air as all the people in this room,” Cadiz said.

LK mentor Michael Keeyes has been a member since 2017, he said in 2023 the title of the program was changed from Brother’s Keepers to Light Keepers as a form of inclusivity.

“Light Keepers is community care, I’ve known people that has been depressed. Some of the residents have been in prison a long time, and I want to be supportive, a source of encouragement,” Keeyes said.

He added that his account of a suicidal event encouraged him to join the program.

He had a cellmate that got into a verbal confrontation with a correctional officer, because chow was being delayed. As a result their cell was searched, and his cellmates personal belongings was left in shambles as a result. 

“I gave him some space to straighten up his things,” said Keeyes. “When I returned he had slit his own throat, but he survived.”

Resident and current LK member Sergio Alvarez said that he reached out to God, and then to others, and that there is universal truth to comfort those with the comfort they have been given. 

“I hurt a lot of people in my life; I found myself in a place of hurt. I was in a dark place. I was suffering, now I want to listen to you.” Alvarez told the audience. “I am hear for you which has set me free, giving me the courage to hold space for someone else.”

Resident participant Bert Gauthier completed the crisis intervention program, but he reflected on the mental struggles of others, feeling he could have been of assistance.

Prior to Gauthier joining the LK program there were two suicides in SQ’s South Block, he wondered did he pass them on the yard, could he have intervened and talk but mostly listened to them.

SQ LK graduate Amos Carter competed the crisis intervention training, he spoke about why he became a Light Keeper.

He wants to be the one that bears the light of hope, and to teach others how to do the same. As a dedication to the graduates Carter performed a solo titled “You got a Friend,” as he played the electric piano. 

“When you need some loving and care, and nothing is going right. Just close your eyes and think of me, I’ll be there,” he sang.

Former SQ resident Borey Peejay Ai addressed the crowd concerning his own experiences during time he spent in immigration detention. 

He said that people do not know how hard it is to talk to people who are at a vulnerable place in their life. Adding that when he paroled Immigration Customs Enforcement picked him up; being in federal detention a person doesn’t know when they’re going home.

Ai added that in dealing with hardships such as being in Federal Detention, a person could make a decision that will impact the rest of their life.

He said, with community support he was released and began the work on the outside as a Light Keeper, Ai now works at a clinic in Oakland California with the elders in his community.

“This group is the most powerful part of this community. I am very grateful for the group members patience,” said SQ’s Suicide Prevention Coordinator Dr. E. Anderson. “You have grown in a way that makes me proud of you. I believe in you and I am honored to have known you all.”