Movie producer Scott Budnick urges politicians, lawyers, lawmakers, criminal justice advocates, and prison officials to support sound laws to “prevent our youth from being thrown away and forgotten.”
Focusing on young men and women who have been tried and sentenced as adults, Budnick says they should be given an opportunity to educate themselves and positively transform their lives. “They deserve a second chance and should be able to earn parole,” he said. “We must all come together as a society. We can no longer fail them.”
Budnick is founder of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) and current board member of the California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC).
ARC is an advocacy group that “seeks to reduce crime, decrease the use of incarceration, improve the outcomes of the formerly incarcerated, and increase investment in the people and communities most impacted by crime and incarceration,” its program overview reads.
The BSCC’s mission includes improving “public safety through cost-effective, promising, and evidence-based strategies to manage statewide criminal and juvenile justice populations,” its quarterly progress report reads.
Budnick recently came to a symposium at San Quentin State Prison and met with inmates who began their sentences at a young age.
He listened to inmates talk about the impact of recent legislation that prevents prison officials from sending the youngest inmates to the most violent prisons. They also discussed other legislation that gives inmates who began their sentences as juveniles a chance to have their sentences reviewed after serving between 15 and 25 years.
“This is a unique opportunity for the men to open up about their lives to people involved in making policy choices,” said Elizabeth Calvin, senior advocate, Children’s Rights Division, at Human Rights Watch.
Inmate Miguel Quezada, 33, incarcerated since the age of 16, originally had a parole hearing in the year 2040 but now is set for a new hearing in 2023.
“Here I was 18 in a Level 4 (prison) with 40 years in front of me; hope was hard to come by,” Quezada said. “The doubt was always there in the back of my mind, ‘Why try? I am never getting out.’ I refused to give in to that thought. I made a decision to educate myself and become a better person no matter what the future held. But changing my life required doing the personal work and support. I still must earn my place in society.”
Recounting his personal experience of being transferred to a Level 4 maximum security at the age of 19, Tommy Winfrey emphasized the potential of rehabilitating offenders and increasing public safety.
“I went to the most violent prison in the state. There were no programs — only constant violence and lockdowns. My first day on the yard, someone was stabbed. I was surrounded by killers, men who wanted me to become one too.”
The legislation that prevents younger offenders from being sent to the most violent prisons will take effect in July. The legislation, AB 1276, acknowledges that offenders under the age of 22 have a great capacity to rehabilitate, provided the availability of programs and a safe environment.
“You would think that if you sit in a cell 23 hours a day you would think about your crime, but that is not the way it works. San Quentin is different because of its programs. Giving a young inmate the opportunity to come to a place like this would be ideal. Their environment heavily influences them. Thanks to AB 1276, that will change,” Winfrey concluded.
The symposium broke into small groups, focusing on what the inmates remembered about being sent to the adult correctional system and how the decision was made to send them there.
The decision whether to try a juvenile as an adult is made in a “fitness hearing.”
Prior to 2000, Juvenile Courts had complete discretion to make the decision. However, after 2000, local district attorneys made the decision whether to try a juvenile as an adult.
Former juvenile lifer Frankie Guzman talked about his hearing:
“Fitness trials ask, ‘Are you fit to remain in the Juvenile Court?’ So the burden is on the child to prove that they are suitable to be considered children. The lion’s share of prosecutions as adults are via direct file, meaning that a district attorney has 48 hours to decide whether to prosecute the child as an adult. A DA is someone who has no experience in child development and no weigh-in from experts. That is the problem: a broken system that doesn’t acknowledge the experiences of a child.”
The symposium closed with dialogue about the future of the movement to reform juvenile sentencing laws.
“When it comes to sentencing reform, there must be a general consensus from society and legislators that a certain law and policy is not only not viable but not in accordance with the principles of our nation’s laws and Constitution,” said Michael Romano, director and co-founder of the Three Strikes Project.
“We are hoping to have a bill to allow judges to adopt the same criteria (for eligibility to be tried as an adult) that the Supreme Court uses,” Calvin said.
–Karin Drucker contributed to this article
