Forty-one years ago, a young reporter’s story about the living conditions at San Quentin caused its warden to defend his treatment of prisoners.
Joan Lisetor’s 1970 interview of San Rafael attorney Salle Seaman Soladay caused then Warden L.S. Nelson to respond to the attorney’s assertion, “Leading a safe, everyday life you don’t know the horrors of prison. When you have been into a prison, it is a moral obligation not to walk out without attempting to change the conditions…the public must be made aware…society has no idea what happens inside prison. Wardens are careful not to let out information, and no one will listen to a con. The public assumes what happens is what is supposed to happen.”
Nelson refuted these claims in an editorial entitled, Warden Attacks Lawyer’s Report: “I do not normally reply to irresponsible statements made by people seeking publicity for some cause best known to them. However, the statements made in an article on the subject, ‘Prison Conditions,’ in the Dec. 11 issue of the Independent Journal are so far removed from facts that in fairness to the staff and men of San Quentin, a reply must be made.” Nelson then countered each “Statement” made by Soladay with what he described as “Fact.”
Lisetor continued to work as a reporter for the IJ until 1979. She then moved on to teach journalism at the College of Marin, and was a member of the Marin County Board of Education, which facilitated the educational programs in San Quentin.
She came into the prison sometime in 1981 to watch a graduation. She was introduced to the managing editor of San Quentin News, Joe Morse, who convinced her to assist the paper as a publication adviser. Lisetor said Morse was a “great guy” who was instrumental in producing a newspaper every two weeks. However, Lisetor commented, “The paper was shut down around 1984 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prison newspapers could not be censored.” Nevertheless, Lisetor has never been discouraged about her mission – to teach journalism techniques to prisoners in all the state’s prisons.
After 24 years of being out of print, then Warden Robert Ayers Jr. allowed John Eagan to reactivate the paper in 2008. A short time later, Steve McNamara and Lisetor joined Eagan as advisers.
Lisetor is running for the 2011 Marin Community College District Board of Trustees.
