By Tommy Lee Wickered
My name is Tommy Lee Wickered. I’m 58 years old. I’m incarcerated for voluntary manslaughter. I took a 57-year deal for my sentence, so my Earliest Possible Release Date) is 2045. I’m on my 23rd year of my fifth prison term. Add all my terms up and I’ve spent 35 years of my 58 years on earth as an incarcerated person.
It was not until the California Department of Corrections implemented the R, which represents Rehabilitation, but there were some officers who did not want rehabilitation on their patches and some incarcerated people looked at that word as disrespectful.
Here we are two decades later. Without the PPF Progressive Programming Facility yard in Lancaster and the programs in San Quentin, I would not be here writing this letter for KidCAT and helping implement this California model. Rehabilitation was all I needed to become my authentic self.
KidCAT was one of the first groups that caught my attention, however I was not a youth offender. I was also working on accomplishing my first two goals in the San Quentin GED and running my first 26.2 Marathon.
As I continued with my programming, the founder, leader, and facilitators of KidCAT who were also involved in those groups started to take interest in me. San Quentin was the first prison I paroled from in 1990, when I had just turned 23 years old.
And the OGs were not asking me if I have an education, need to work on my childhood trauma, sobriety of anger! It was the complete opposite. They taught me everything I need to be the best outlaw I could be. My walk is 100% positive now. Youngsters are smart; if you’re full of crap, no youngster will respect anything you say. I did not want these youngsters going through that level 4 lifestyle I was blessed to live through.
KidCAT was a group of youth offenders that worked hard to get bills passed, like AB 1276 to help youth offenders avoid level 4 maximum security and override to a lower level.
I’ve been blessed to mentor several youngsters and watch them become their authentic selves and, better yet, amazing returning citizens and assets to their communities. It’s an honor to say this to you all. KidCAT has so many programs within itself.
One day I was looking for a space to teach American Sign Language, and the Chairman at the time Kenny said I can teach 10 guys in the back corner of KidCAT. So that is what I did.
I wanted to work with at-risk Deaf youth in Lancaster Prison. I have an older brother who is deaf and I used to smoke weed and drink alcohol with him. I never thought in a million years they would ship 11 incarcerated Deaf to San Quentin and I would be their interpreter, or that I would start my own ASL class. Including my new deaf friends in the San Quentin community was my new goal.
Several incarcerated Deaf have completed the Juvenile Lifer Support Group, focused on Board Prep and contributing and causative factors of their crime, as well as our First Step program that focused on childhood trauma. KidCAT is supporting people that are often excluded from other communities , preyed on and even brutally murdered.
Some of these incarcerated were YOP and never got what the hearing community did through KidCAT, and the help of all the amazing facilitators of KidCAT.
I am so happy and grateful to say several of the Deaf short time offenders have paroled sooner due to their positive programming and the want to change. KidCAT has included three deaf lifers in JLSG and First Step.
One of my Deaf friends, who I have grown with and see as my little brother, has been found suitable to go home soon. Two others are going to the parole board and, with the knowledge they need for board and the grace of God, they will both be out in more than two years.
Seven years of KidCAT and I keep watching it get better and better. YOPs, Youth Offender Program and now the Deaf community. Let’s go KidCAT. Two thums up!
