Every Friday morning between 8-9:30 a.m. you can find a group of prisoners hammering out policy, working stories and in general trying to set guidelines in which to operate the Journalism Guild of San Quentin (JGSQ), a new activity group under the Education Department that has the support of Warden Wong. The group’s objective is to train writers and reporters and help provide stories for the San Quentin News.
The Journalism Guild is the result of the efforts by Kenny Brydon, former editor of the SQ News, and Ted Roberts, education principal, for more inmates to participate in the writing of stories for submission and publishing in the SQ News.
The Guild, sponsored by bridging teacher Don Pino, has been meeting each week since February and has recently elected its executive officers: Jeff Brooks (chairman), Arnulfo Garcia (secretary), Michael R. Harris (treasurer), and Troy Williams (sgt-at-arms) to represent the Guild’s members.
The Guild’s mission statement in part states: “The Journalism Guild of San Quentin’s mission is to provide an honest, professional and balanced account of the events and issues that occur both within penal institutions and the communities they serve.”
The Guild doors are open to anyone who wishes to join. The Guild has a limited amount of space so membership is limited to 20 student journalists.
If you are interested in joining, contact one of the members: Kenneth Brydon, Randy Countryman, Juan Haines, Darrell Hartly, Ronin Holmes, David Marsh, JulianGlenn Padgett, Kamal Sefeldeen, Aly Tamboura, Daniel Treviono, Doug Wynn, Mai Van or send a request for interview to the SQ Education Department.
