San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Damaging effects on female prisoners’ care and critical services

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Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is plagued by staff shortages that are having damaging effects on female prisoners’ care and critical services, re- ported Jeff Mordock of The Washington Times.
The BOP is experiencing a shortfall of trained staff nationwide. This shortage has prompted the Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz to call for an increase in trained prison employees because it has been restricting the access of female prisoners to necessary care and services.
“The lack of sufficient staff is most noticeable at larger female institutions,” according to a report written by Horowitz.
For example, it is BOP’s policy that female prison- ers may only be searched by female correctional officers,
but the shortage does not allow this policy to be enforced because female correctional officers cannot be at each post where searches are conducted.
“Staff shortages are more complicated with women prisoners because it’s compound- ed when you have male correctional officers in positions where women are required to do the strip searches,” said Kara Gotsch, director of Strategic Initiatives at the Sentencing Project.
Horowitz’s report stated that 90 percent of the female population would benefit from trauma treatment, but the insufficiency of staff makes such treatment virtually impossible.
Staff shortages combined with overcrowding has result- ed in the use of cooks, teachers and civilian employees to perform guard duties.
There are an estimated 7,100 open positions at federal prisons across the country. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has 37,237 civil positions and 19, 073 correctional officers. However, these numbers could be reduced by the Trump administration’s 2019 proposal.
“The BOP will determine the appropriate level of staff- ing that should be allocated to the women and Special Populations Branch, based on an analysis of its broad mis- sion and responsibility,” said Hugh Hurwitz, acting director for the Federal Bureau of Prisons
According to Gotsch, however, the best solution to this problem is sentencing reform for women with low-level offenses.
“There is never enough money in the federal budget to adequately care for prisoners if we have significant overcrowding and maintain this high-level of incarceration,” Gotsch said.

Incarcerated women bringing #MeToo movement to prisons

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Women on the outside are doing their work to bring incarcerated women into the #MeToo movement. According to a piece from The Fire Inside, the newsletter for the California Coalition of Women Prisoners (CCWP), more than 80 percent of incarcerated women are survivors of sexual abuse or violence.
The piece asserts that the threat of sexual abuse increases when women are behind bars and usually these women don’t have anyone to whom to report their trauma. Now, a national movement around sexual violence is reaching them.
“Fear and shame kept me quiet when I was abused,” Rita Marie Lewis said in the news- letter article titled, “Incarcerated Women Say #MeToo.”
The #MeToo movement represents a moment of exploding social awareness around sexual harassment and violence by people in positions of power. According to the article, women who fight against this violence can wind up incarcerated.
“I understand why people keep quiet about the abuse they suffer,” Lewis said.
She explained that there is a fear of becoming labeled a whistleblower or a liar by what she refers to as the ‘good old boys’ network. “Most women do not lie about abuse.”
In a poem written for the newsletter, Alisha Coleman, Program Assistant for the CCWP, opens up about her experiences being abused as a free, and later incarcerated, woman.
“I was just a kid when he did what he did,” Coleman writes. “I was a baby who had a baby and ended up in prison to be abused again by my alleged protectors. ‘Protect and serve’ is such a joke!”
CCWP is a grassroots campaign, led by loved ones and advocates who seek to educate and mobilize the public to demand an end to abusive and discriminatory behavior be- hind prison walls. Their legal team is continuing to collect stories from other prisoners about incidents of sexual abuse

Former female prisoners fighting for the ones they left behind

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The voices of formerly incarcerated women are rising as they mobilize around the nation to change prison conditions for the women prisoners they left behind.
“Twenty States by 2020” is a campaign to help pass the “Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act” across the nation. The campaign is being led by the #Cut50 organization and its campaign director, Topeka Sam, who was formerly incarcerated. Sam served time in federal facilities on the East Coast. The campaign has been successful in passing the legislation in seven states, including California, Sam said.
“God placed it on my heart to go in to spaces that necessitate the changes that we seek for the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women,” Sam told the San Quentin News. “We have to work with other organizations and bipartisan state legislatures to get these bills passed.”
The bills challenge a state’s practice of shackling pregnant women during childbirth. They request the provision of rehabilitative programs and adequate access to sanitary items.
“Women have to prove they had used the sanitary pads that they were issued before they can receive new ones,” Sam said. “This is so degrading — you have women taking bags of used sanitary napkins to a guard for verification.”
These are the types of experiences Sam and other women advocates recently recounted to the Trump administration at the White House Prison Reform Summit. Sam believes it’s important to put the faces and voices of women in prison before the public.
“The choice of buying toothpaste or tampons shouldn’t have to be a choice,” Sam said. “And the women lack supportive rehabilitative programs. I see men’s visiting rooms packed and that’s not the case for the women.”
The campaign asks states to mandate that correctional officers receive trauma identification training. The majority of women in prison are sexual assault survivors, but in many states male guards can strip search women and supervise them in showers and bathrooms, according to the campaign pamphlet.
“We want male officers to announce themselves in areas where women are unclothed,” said Sam. “We prefer them not to be there, period.”
Sam partnered with the California coalition that included Amika Mota from the Young Women’s Freedom Center and Miana McKnight, Cirese LaBerge, Norma and Shonique from the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) to get the legislation passed in the state.
“We support the organizations around the country that are already doing the work,” Sam said. “We provide them with resources like grant funds, media support and training.
“We have an ambassador in every state to draft bills, because each state has different needs,” she added.

Sam has become a globe trekker. She has visited prisons in Ghana, Africa, and Trinidad, where she helped place a prison reform bill.
She entered San Quentin’s newsroom jet-lagged after just arriving from New York, but her spirits ran high for the work she is doing.
“In Trinidad some women sit in prison 10 to 15 years without being convicted,” Sam said. “There are three women to a cell and there is no bathroom, just a bucket in the corner. There are also no phones.”
Sam also tackles women’s reentry needs. She founded HOPE HOUSE NYC and The Ladies of Hope Ministries to provide safe housing for women and girls recently released from prison. She has expanded HOPE HOUSE to Trinidad.

“After our (Trinidad prison) visit, a family offered to build us a reentry home with a resource center. We now have three homes there,” Sam said. “Our goal is to have a safe place for transformation in every state in America.
“We ask the women what they want to do with their life and we help them with that. It’s very rewarding to know you are impacting someone’s life.”

She hosts a radio program called “Last Mile Second Chances” on Sirius XM’s Urban View Channel 126 every Sunday.
Sam noted there are still 13 states to go to reach the “20 States by 2020” to bring a sense of dignity to the mothers, sisters and daughters that languish behind bars.
“We have to not only address systemic issues to incarceration, such as poverty, but the mental state where the women dare to dream again,” Sam said. “I’m proud to be a part of #Cut50 and work with Van Jones and Jessica Jackson- Sloan. We share the same ‘by any means necessary’ approach.”

NC introduces bill prohibiting shackling during childbirth

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North Carolina’s Democratic legislators have introduced a bill that would prohibit the shackling of incarcerated women while they give birth.
After a story came out about two women who gave birth at a Triangle region hospital with their hands and feet shackled, advocates complained to prison officials about the practice, according to a North Carolina Health News article.
“When someone is handcuffed to a bed, they can’t roll over, can’t get up and walk freely,” Sarah Gillooly, with North Carolina’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told the North Carolina Health News. “And medical staff doesn’t have quick convenient access to patient.”
Prison staff changed the policy and resolved to stop shackling women while they’re giving birth. This shift was not enough for Sen. Erica Smith (D-Jackson), however. She now wants to make this practice a statewide law. Her new bill would prohibit shackling inmates during pregnancy, labor, delivery and the postpartum period.
“We have ordinances in North Carolina cities that will not even allow you to tie up a dog,” Smith told the North Carolina Health News. “At the end of the day, simply put, people don’t follow policies. People follow laws.”
Twenty states across the United States have already passed laws that deal with shackling pregnant and postpartum women.
According to North Carolina Health News, the bill is supported by Democratic women in the House and Senate but has yet to receive bipartisan support. However, these issues seem to be on the radar of state Republicans.
“Given that restraining pregnant women presents huge health and safety risks to both mother and child, it is certainly valuable to contemplate changes to these policies,” Tarrah Callahan, executive director of Conservatives for Criminal Justice Reform, told the North Carolina Health News.

CA leads nation in women on Death Row

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Courtesy of CDCR

A female inmate sitting on the Death Row yard


California leads the nation with 23 women on Death Row, but the condemned women are largely invisible and forgotten behind bars, and their stories rarely see the light of day.
California has more than three times the number of condemned women in Texas (six on condemn) and in Alabama (five on condemn), according a Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) report.
The women on California’s Death Row are housed in Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla. Until 1933, they were housed in San Quentin in the Women’s Ward. They were relocated to California Institution for Women at Tehachapi, which opened that same year.
“There is far less conflict be- tween the women on Death Row than with men,” Linda Fox, a paralegal who recently retired from the California Appellate Project, told San Quentin News. “They look out for each other— they have a different sort of experience. They interact in a different way; it’s a different community.”
Fox worked with attorneys on death row cases and had the opportunity to visit the women.

“I think they are less iso- lated than the men, but they are isolated from the rest of the women population. It’s a prison within a prison,” Fox said. “I know men do a lot of bonding in prison; they make friends they would not make otherwise, but for the women, it’s like a family.”
According to a sergeant at CCWF, women on condemned row have access to hobby crafts, religious programs and to Adult Basic Education and the Voluntary Education Program (VEP). They can also take college courses via the mail.
Most women on Death Row are there because they killed a husband or hired someone to do it, or because they killed their children, Fox noted.
Catherine Thompson, whom Fox said she worked with, has been on Death Row since 1993.
“Cathy is probably 60 now.
Courtesy of CDCR

Housing unit for Death Row inmates


She’s African American; she has a son who is pretty successful; she’s a very articulate woman. She is college educated,” Fox said.
Thompson was convicted as the mastermind of her husband’s murder. But there was no direct evidence presented by prosecutors that proved her involvement, according to “Women on Death Row in California,” an article in ThoughtCo.com. But the jury found her guilty, and she was sentenced to death.
All her accomplices received lesser sentences, including the shooter, who was found guilty and received a life sentence.
“There’s a great sadness in your heart knowing you’re going to die and going to leave the people you love,” Maureen McDermott, the first woman in California to be sentenced to the death penalty since capital punishment was reinstated in 1978, told the Los Angeles Times back in 1992. “But I’m not afraid to die. If they want to murder me, let them murder me. My life is ruined anyway.”
At the age of 44, McDermott became the first woman condemned to death in California since its reinstitution in 1978. She is in now her seventies.
The last woman executed in California was Elizabeth Ann “Ma” Duncan, 58, on Aug. 8, 1962. She was convicted of hiring two people to murder her pregnant daughter-in-law. There have only been four women executed in California since 1893.
The Chowchilla prison, which was opened in 1990, converted a housing unit to hold 10 women on a top floor, and the bottom floor became a common area and an exercise area.
Since the increase in the number of women on California’s Death Row, the bottom floor now houses more women, and they have their own exercise yard.
“What kind of life is this?
Waking up every morning to a cement wall is an unbearable future,” said McDermott in the L.A. Times article. “I sometimes think the gas chamber is better than staring at these walls for the rest of my life.”
As of 2018, there were 55 women on death row in America. There have been 16 women executed since 1976 — two by electrocution, the rest by lethal injection, the DPIC report said.
Emma LeDoux holds the distinction of being the first woman ever sentenced to death in California in 1906. In 1907 she complained about her notoriety:
“It seems that it is not enough for people to crowd and block the streets to stare at me, as if I were some sort of a Fourth of July horrible. Now they must start these rumors,” LeDoux said. “In justice to myself, I’m glad you came.” But she avoided the hangman when she was granted a retrial after appealing her case. She was eventually released to parole in 1920 but wound up back in prison in 1931, where she died in 1941.

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Formerly incarcerated author, Donna Hylton

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Donna Hylton, who was abused as a child, spent 27 years in prison and wrote a book about how she turned her life around. She said her mission today is to be “a voice for the silenced” women still in prison.
At age 20, Hylton was sentenced to 25 years to life for her role as a nonviolent accessory to kidnapping and second-degree murder. She is finally freed.

Donna Hylton


Hylton’s childhood was a living hell. She was abandoned by her mother in Jamaica, N.Y., at age 8, according to the article by The Glow Up. At that time, she was subjected to physical and sexual assaults by her adoptive father and multiple offenders. These factors culminated in her role in her crime, according to the article.
In prison, Hylton was inspired to write a memoir called A Little Piece of Light: A Memoir of Hope, Prison and Life Unbound. It’s a recounting of her life’s events and changes she made.
Her spiritual awakening came twofold. One, from earning her master’s degree and, two, learning her talent for writing. She developed self-worth, which has enabled her to re-shape her life.
“There’s this culture of silencing women; it’s like saying, ‘Well, this is what happens. You get what you deserve,” Hylton told The Glow Up.
Hylton left behind her 4-year-old daughter when she was sentenced to life. That left her daughter, Adrienne, to suffer a similar fate, according to the article. Adrienne felt abandoned and became a victim of sexual assault. Adrienne was raped when she was in her early teens.
Six years after Hylton’s release from prison, she is still trying to forge a relationship with her daughter. “We love each other deeply [but it remains] a work in progress,” Hylton said.
The collateral damage effects were highlighted by New York City first lady Chirlane McCray. “[A] woman’s imprisonment has a profound effect on their families and communities. It’s not just the woman that’s impacted, but the entire family,” McCray told The Glow Up.
Hylton noted that during her 27 years in prison she discovered a commonality among the stories of the women in prison.
“This way of being, this way of characterizing women and silencing women has been going on for so long that we’ve become comfortable in believing that that’s the way it should be,” she said. “ “
In 2017 Hylton was a featured speaker in the Women’s March on Washington. She has become a prominent voice in the movement to end mass incarceration.
There are talks of making her life story a movie. According to Dealine.com, Rosario Dawson, an activist and actress, has agreed to play Hylton’s role.
Hylton seeks America to recognize the humanity of incarcerated women. She said women are often forgotten in prison-reform discussions, according to the article.
While in prison, she formed friendships with the infamous Pamela Smart, and the Long Island Lolita, Amy Fisher, according to The Glow Up.
 

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Arizona provides inmates feminine-hygiene products

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The Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) is changing its policy concerning the supply of free feminine-hygiene products for woman prisoners, after overwhelming support from formerly incarcerated women and the outside community, reports The Republic.

“I want to thank all of the women and men from all around Arizona and all over the world who spoke up, who bravely testified and shared their stories, and those who contacted lawmakers directly,” said Rep. Athena Salman (D-Tempe.) “Your voices made the difference.”

The change in policy will affect the close to 4,000 women at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville, the only state prison for women.

“64% of California’s jail population is awaiting trial or sentencing as of December 2016.” Most remain in pretrial custody because they cannot afford bail.  Jail Profile Survey, http://www.bscc.ca.gov/

ADC said it would change its policy from supplying the women prisoners 12 pads per month to 36. The policy update prompted Rep. T.J. Shope (R-Coolidge) to remove a bill that would have made such changes a law.

“When I first became aware of this issue, I reached out to ADC and urged them to explore changing the policy, as an administrative change can be implemented much quicker than a change in statute. I thank ADC for their responsiveness.”

After his bill was withdrawn, Shope started to receive tampons and pads in the mail. Women posted photos of their mail on social media with the hashtag #LetItFlow. The protest was meant to urge Shope to call a second hearing on the bill, according to The Republic.

Former Perryville prisoners testified that they had to wear multiple pads to prevent bleeding, because the quality of the pads was so poor. One woman said she made “makeshift” tampons by taking them apart and using them to be more comfortable at her yard crew job.

The women prisoners had to asked an officer if they need more than the 12 generic-brand pads allotted, a request the officer could deny. The women were allowed to possess up to two dozen free pads at a time. If they prefer tampons, the women must purchase them.

At the prison store, a 20-count box of Playtex tampons costs $3.99. Since the prisoners’ pay starts at only 15 cents per hour, they would have to work 27 hours to buy one box.

Salman had introduced House Bill 2222 to authorize the ADC to provide an unlimited number of menstrual products to female inmates free of charge.

Salman would like to expand the policy to include tampons. She said she has “a commitment from the governor’s office” to explore the idea.

The ADC said in a statement that it appreciated and values the comments and feedback it has received regarding the sanitary napkin products issue. 

After a department review of current policy, an inmate now may request and, without charge, receive additional pads, if necessary. Additional product options will continue to be available through the inmate store.

“We believe this change addresses and resolves, in an appropriate and timely fashion, the concerns raised,” said ADC statement.

Advocates for the women still believe more can be done.

“It’s unfortunate that the department is so unresponsive to the needs of people in its prisons that a nationwide conversation was required in order to get the department to take action on this,” said Will Gaona, policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. “Certainly this is an improvement on the department’s previous policy, but not a perfect one.”

Female parolees’ hard road to successful re-entry

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Women locked up behind bars in a United States jail

Women locked up behind bars in a United States jail

Following her parole, Davina, 50, got a temporary job on a website contract, but her parole officer insisted that she find full-time work because, he said, contract work is “too non-traditional,” reported Alejandra Molina in the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Another woman was called “lazy” by her parole officer for attending a trade school and not finding full-time work three months after her release.

“I’m trying to figure out my education so I can have a good job,” said the woman, identified only as Shonda. “I want to get my education right so I can have a career, not just get any old thing like cleaning toilets at a Jack-in-the-Box.”

Meanwhile, several other women who braided hair from home to supplement income said they were pressured to find “real” employment, because their parole or probation officers claimed braiding hair was not dependable work.

Sociologist Susila Gurusami listened to these women’s complaints and says their plight is part of a disturbing trend: Women leaving prison struggle to convince their parole officers that their employment choices are legitimate. Gurusami gave the details in a new report from the University of California at Riverside.

In particular, Black women leaving prison are facing stricter parole employment requirements in addition to a harsher labor market, the 2017 report said.

“There is a consistent underlying logic that seeks to devalue Black women, particularly through the labor market,” Gurusami wrote.

What constitutes real gainful employment is a subjective matter that state agents can interpret differently. A fast food job may resonate more strongly with a parole officer as “rehabilitation labor” than the pursuit of an education that could lead to reliable employment down the road, the sociologist wrote.

“For whatever reasons, it’s a lot more difficult for African-American women even accessing re-entry services,” Vonya Quarles, co-founder of Starting Over, a transitional housing program, told the Press Enterprise.

“It’s a lot more difficult for African-American women even accessing re-entry services”

There are not enough Black people in hiring positions working in service industries to extend opportunities to Black women, said Quarles.

Another woman in her 30s shared how her criminal record was a barrier to finding reliable work. After months of not working and bills stacking up, she started working at a strip club. Once her probation officer learned about her job, she was told she was not supposed to frequent places that encourage “immoral” behavior, or she would “find herself thrown back into a cell,” said the report.

The constant threat of re-incarceration by parole officers for not securing full-time work and the lack of employment opportunities cause some of the women to suffer from anxiety.

Approximately 9,000 people nationwide are re-incarcerated every day for violating parole and probation employment orders, according to the report. Black people represented 40 percent of the over-all post-release violations, but accounted for 70 percent for unemployment violations.

Gurusami’s report also highlighted a woman who was vaguely threatened with “consequences” from her parole officer if she was not home for daily check-ins with him. This order would prevent her from going to a temporary job. So the woman chose to go to work, citing her family needed the money.

Many of the women have turned to advocating for other incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people while they searched for full-time employment with little success, said Gurusami.

“It was close to being very difficult for me to find employment,” said Ingrid Archie, formerly incarcerated, now working as an advocate for A New Way of Life. “I didn’t find employment outside of the organization,” she told the Press-Enterprise.

A New Way of Life is a nonprofit organization helping formerly incarcerated women.

“Most women reported that parole or probation agents either had a neutral impact on them or presented an additional barrier in adjusting to life after incarceration,” the report noted.

Gurusami, 29, who is of South Asian heritage, spent close to 18 months with 35 formerly incarcerated women, 24 of them Black, at a South L.A. re-entry program. Most of the women were convicted for drug-related offenses or prostitution. Two of the women were convicted of homicide, but said they acted in self-defense.

As part of her research, Gurusami attended court hearings with the women, helped them with job applications, and drove the women to medical appointments then back home.

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http://sanquentinnews.com/training-workshop-gives-ex-cons-chance-succeed-2/

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