Almost as soon as Romania “Mana” Jaundoo came to work at San Quentin, she was asked to become a sponsor for a youth-diversion workshop. She said she really likes working with the inmate mentors who volunteer for the program because they do so much good.
“They really pour their heart into helping young men,” Jaundoo said. “It’s a real team feeling working with these men. They’re so dedicated.”
Jaundoo co-sponsors SQUIRES with Raphaele Casale.
“The point of SQUIRES is to communicate with the young men who come to the workshops,” Jaundoo said. “I feel lucky to be part of that process.
“The SQUIRES mentors have such resolve. It isn’t often you see a grown man cry. The mentors and the kids keep it real in these workshops.”
Referring to how Jaundoo works with the kids, mentor Rasheed Lockheart, 36, said she “gives them a real sense of accountability, but she does it with compassion.”
Officially, Jaundoo is a correctional case records analyst for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
Prior to CDCR, Jaundoo was a cosmetologist. However, she said that since 18 years of age she wanted to be involved in law enforcement.
“I was doing some volunteer work over a weekend, and ran into a lady I knew,” Jaundoo said. The friend told her that CDCR was hiring.
“All my family is in law enforcement, and I have always seen it as a good thing,” she said. “It seemed like it was meant to be. It all happened so quickly.”
She submitted an application and was hired a couple of months later, she said.
“I was excited to take the job,” Jaundoo said. “I thought I would be scared but I was totally up to the challenge. It’s everything I thought it would be.”
She said that when she began working in the prison system, there were several things that surprised her — particularly the degree of segregation between the races.
“That was really a shock,” she said. “We’ve come a long way on the streets, but in prison it’s really bad.”
Jaundoo says working at San Quentin has lived up to all her expectations regarding her level of responsibilities. Her work involves calculating facts and figures and there’s a lot of training through headquarters.
She is married to a San Quentin Officer and they make a “Husband and wife team,” she said.
Although her job and the SQUIRES program bring her in contact with many inmates, she said she’s never concerned for her safety and sometimes feels safer in San Quentin than she does in the free world.
“I’m very comfortable in here. On the outside, I am always alert to my surroundings. On the streets, I always have my guard up,” she said.
Jaundoo said that she wouldn’t have made the many accomplishments with SQUIRES without the grooming and foresight of Correctional Officer E. Pulliam and Correctional Counselor II, M. Rodesillas. “They had faith in me,” she said. “They recognized that this was a calling for me before I knew it.”
–By Ted Swain
