San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

LA jails become costly mental health facilities

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Sixty percent of mentally ill inmates in county jails are eligible for diversion, but there are not enough facilities to provide supportive care, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Thousands of prisoners could be removed from the criminal justice system, ending the cycle of arrest, release, re-arrest, release and homelessness.

Sending such inmates to a diversion facility would save Los Angeles County thousands of dollars a day in incarceration costs. Individuals can be housed in a diversion facility for $70 a day versus $600 a day for incarceration, according to the article.

Thirty percent of the people in custody each day, about 6,000 prisoners, are either mentally ill or receiving psychotropic medication, according to a study by the non-profit research agency Rand Corp.

The Rand report confirmed an earlier study by the Office of Diversion and Reentry, (OODAR) which attempted to determine how much the county should scale up its community based mental health services.

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors created the Office of Diversion (OODAR) four years ago. Since then 4,400 prisoners convicted of felonies or ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial have been released, the L.A. Times reported.

According to retired Judge Peter Espinoza, who now directs OODAR, getting such inmates out of jail benefits both their clinical outcomes and the public’s safety.

“Often forgotten is that the vast majority of the people we’re talking about, they’re coming out of jail eventually –either to us or they’re going to be on their own,” Espinoza said.

“And we are satisfied that when they come to us, their outcomes are greatly improved and their recidivist behavior is greatly reduced,” he concluded.

“This makes sense. The outcomes for people will be so much better,” said County Supervisor Janice Hahn, while expressing frustration at how difficult it would be to win community approval for new locations of such facilities.

Other supervisors praised the diversion program but expressed concerns about scaling up to provide additional mental health facilities.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the board chair, still remains committed to building community clinics.

“It is all about access to outpatient care, until we do that, diversion is going to fail,” she said.

State to pay $1.5 million to family of prisoner who committed suicide

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California has agreed to pay $1.5 million to the family of Erika Rocha, whose prison suicide was deemed foresee- able and preventable, the Sacramento Bee reports.

“This is an acknowledgement that the system completely broke down when it came to providing the care that she needed,” said Lori Ritkin, an attorney on the federal court lawsuit.

Court records indicate that Rocha had eight suicide attempts between age 7 and 14, according to the Aug. 18 article.

“The entire leadership team of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) from the secretary all the way down to the warden of this particular prison had known for decades that her mental health especially at California Institute for Women (CIW) at Corona, Calif., was below standard, and they chose not to address it,” said Ritkin.

Erika’s troubled youth stemmed from her mother not being in the home, and her father was incarcerated. She lived with various family members and was moved into foster care due to sexual abuse by a family member.

At age 15 in 1996 she shot and wounded the woman that was running the group home where she lived.

She was sentenced to 19 years negotiated plea sentence for attempted murder. During her time in prison, she attempted suicide many times, the newspaper reported. Her suicide watch on March 31, 2016 lasted only one day, in lieu of the procedurally required five-day step-down, according to the Bee.

Prison mental health physicians diagnosed Rocha as hav- ing a number of mental health ailments including antisocial personality disorder, psychotic disorder, and major depressive disorder, according to the lawsuit.

Rocha’s behavior seemed to escalate as she was reported punching a locker. Erika also refused to take her prescribed medication and fought with her cellmate, according to the article.

“Mom on my way home when you pick me up, I want you to take me to a park, and I want you to push me in the swings and roll me in the grass”

In the opinion of Erika’s mother, she didn’t seem suicidal and was looking forward to coming home.

“When I saw Erika at one point and she was talking about coming home,” said Linda Reza, her mother. “She told me, ‘Mom on my way home when you pick me up,

I don’t care where, but just somewhere along the way I want you to take me to a park, and I want you to push me in the swings and roll me in the grass,’” said Reza.

“By doing the settlement so early in the case, before we even went through discovery and for this much money, they know they failed my sister,” said a sister, Geraldine Rocha. “It wasn’t really about the $1.5 million; that really doesn’t do anything for us mentally or emotionally.”

“The exact amount of the settlement is $1,501,500, which includes $1,500 the family wanted to pay for a swing set to be built in Las Flores Park in La Verne,” said her stepmother, Linda Reza.

They would like a message engraved on a plaque at the swing that states, “In loving honor of Erika Rocha, Nov. 7, 1980, to April 14, 2016,” ac- cording to the article.

Study: mental health diagnoses result in high rates of prisoner isolation

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New Mexico has one of the smallest prison populations in the country at 7,300 but is fourth in the nation when it comes to confining prisoners to solitary, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

On any given day one out of 10 prisoners is being held in isolation, just because they have been diagnosed with mental illness, accord- ing to the article.

According to the ACLU, the state has routinely underreported its use of solitary confinement over the past decade, in part because it has no clear definition of “solitary” and instead uses “multiple and constantly changing terms” to refer to the practice.

Researchers from the University of New Mexico along with the ACLU found that 90% of the prisoners surveyed said they had been diagnosed with mental health problems and had been enrolled in the Preda- tory Behavioral Management Program and spent eight months in solitary confinement, according to the article.

Criminal defense attorney Matthew Coyte said that solitary confinement is an issue that poses cost and safety problems for the public.

Coyte, who worked with the ACLU, says that segregation only worsens a prisoner’s mental state instead of providing rehabilitation, said the article.

“We have been manu- facturing mental illness for years with this form of incar- ceration,” he said. “You don’t want people who are incar- cerated to come out worse.”

Prisoners in isolation com- plained about a lack of recreation time, losing track of time, experiencing violent thoughts, fits of rage, and hearing voices. Some had thoughts of suicide, the article said.

The Corrections department and the governor are trying to come up with some solutions, but they are having a hard time hiring and retaining officers. At the release of this story in March, they were still look- ing for a Secretary of Corrections, according to the article.

Several Democrats are sponsoring a bill that would stop the isolation of juveniles and pregnant women and confine those diagnosed with mental issues to no more than 48 hours in lockup.

The governor wants to take a look at New Mexico’s Department of Corrections policies on solitary confinement and suicides in the prisons, said the article. She said that solitary confinement “should be used in only the most extreme and narrow circumstances.”

Josh Anderson, a union representative for prison officers, said that the group is open to looking at how to improve living conditions and is reviewing policies for managing the state’s prisons, according to the article.

Nevada man commits suicide after his pleas for execution are denied

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A Nevada man who pleaded for his execution killed himself when his wish was denied.

Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, was found hanged in his cell on Jan. 5 at Nevada’s maximum security prison in Ely, prison officials told the New York Times.

“I’ve been very clear about my desire to be executed… even if suffering is inevitable,” Dozier said in a handwritten note to a state court judge. The judge postponed Dozier’s execution in 2017 over concerns that the “untried” combination of drugs could “leave him suffocating, conscious and able to move,” according to The Associated Press.

Dozier was convicted in 2002 for killing a man in Las Vegas. At first, he appealed his death sentence. But after two years, he changed his approach and instead pushed for his execution date.

Dozier had insisted the state set a date, even if it meant a painful death from a cocktail of lethal-injection drugs. The cocktail contained a mix of drugs including fentanyl, which led manufactures to intervene, saying that they would suffer “grave reputational harm if its products were used in the execution against its wishes,” according to the Times.

The complexity of Dozier’s case has placed Nevada at the top of the national death penalty debate, shedding light on the practices of some states attempting to use drugs that pharmaceutical companies do not want used for executions, the AP reported.

Dozier had abandoned his appeals for the death sentence he received in 2007 for the separate murders of two drug associates in 2002 in Phoenix and Las Vegas, the AP reported.

“Just get it done, just do it effectively and stop fighting about it,” Dozier told the AP in a telephone interview last August.

Filmmaker Edgar Barens, who was working on producing a documentary on families affected by the death penalty, told the Times that “the prospect of eking out his existence on Death Row for the rest of his life was unfathomable to him.”

Dozier’s mental health had deteriorated after several delays and after being frequently kept in isolation or on suicide watch, attorney Tom Ericsson told the Times. “He was just so beat down by the prison system and ready to call it a day,” Ericsson said.

Attorneys argued that Dozier’s deterioration was attributed to unconstitutional treatment of their client, the AP reported.

More than 4,000 mentally ill prisoners held in isolation

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More than 4,000 prisoners diagnosed with mental illness throughout the country are being held in solitary lock-up, according to The Guardian.

Confinement intensifies their illness. Despite U.S. prisons having this knowledge, this practice continues, the article said.

“This is tragic,” said Judith Resnik, a professor of law at Yale University. She is the director of the Arthur Liman Center. “Solitary confinement is a disabling setting that is harmful for human health and safety. It can do harm for people who are mentally OK and inflict terrible damage on people who are already mentally ill.”

Yale researchers, along with the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA), revealed that this terrifying experience among prisoners is very prevalent, according to the article.

The ASCA and Yale researchers stated that the mentally impaired are kept in isolation at least 22 hours a day for more than two weeks.

These researchers found that out of the 33 states who responded to their survey, only one state, Texas, said that they have no mental health patients in solitary.

More than a third of the states that replied stated that 10 percent of male prisoners with mental illness are locked-down. Missouri had the highest number, 703 men, while New Mexico had the highest proportion at 64 percent.

Colorado is one of the success stories. The state has new rules in play. When prisoners are diagnosed with mental illnesses they are treated for their illness instead of being confined.

Recently U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an opinion in a case the court declined to hear. She said she was “deeply troubled” by the ongoing practice. She wrote that “solitary confinement imprints on those that it clutches a wide range of psychological scars.”

The amount of time spent in isolation remains high. Spending 22 hours a day in a cell measured 6 feet by 9 feet takes its toll, said the article.

The survey said that the number of mentally ill in lock-up is declining and that since 2014 the segregated population has fallen from 100,000 to 61,000 as of last year.

Progress remains mixed, however, as numbers in 11 states have increased.

Mental health bomb-shell report on care inside state prisons

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The chief psychiatrist of California’s prison system is accusing state officials of misleading both a federal court and lawyers for prison inmates fighting to improve mental health care inside state prisons, according to court documents.

Dr. Michael Golding sent the 160-page report to the court-appointed federal receiver overseeing reforms inside California prisons. Golding filed the report without his superior’s knowledge.

Dr. Golding’s “lengthy, detailed report” contains “serious allegations” that data reported to the federal court overseeing the medical and mental health care of California prisons “is inaccurate and has been presented in a materially misleading way,” reports The Sacramento Bee.

For example, the Golding report refutes the state’s claim that its psychiatrists have seen patients at an on-time-rate of 96 percent in some cases, where the actual frequency is allegedly only 20 to 30 percent, according to Michael Bien, the lead attorney for the inmates.

The Golding report prevented the signing of a stipulation in which inmates’ attorneys were to agree to reduce the state’s 405 psychiatrist positions by 79 to a total of 326.

“We almost signed it,” Bien told The Bee reporter. Now, that stipulation is “off the table and a hearing is expected in coming weeks on the allegations.”

Corrections officials of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) declined to address Golding’s accusations.

INMATE MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS

About one-third of CDCR inmates participate in an in-prison mental health program, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) report on the 2018-19 California Budget.

California expects to spend around $690 million on various inmate mental health programs in 2018-19 as required under court-approved guidelines, according to the LAO Report. The care given to one-third of the CDCR inmates (more than 40,000) in prison mental health programs is subject to the oversight of a Special Master appointed as part of the Coleman v. Brown case (In 1995, a federal court ruled in the Coleman case that CDCR was not providing constitutionally adequate mental health care.) For example, Enhanced Outpatient Program (EOP) inmates are about 6 percent of the inmate population (approximately 7,500 inmates at current occupancy levels). EOP inmates are those diagnosed with serious mental disorders but do not require inpatient treatment.

Most EOP inmates are housed by CDCR in Intermediate Care Facilities (ICF), where interaction with other inmates is substantially restricted according to the LAO report.

While San Quentin has an EOP dorm of approximately 100 inmates in its H-Unit dormitory yard with another 100 expected in early 2019, the LAO Report did not reference the conversion of these dorms.

Boatwright

Paroled prisoner involved in Transitions Clinic Network

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Recently paroled prisoners face enormous medical and mental problems upon release, but one program is working to fix that, reported Patricia Leigh Brown of the New York Times.

In the article, Brown detailed the story of 54-year-old Ronald Sanders, a former prisoner who was incarcerated during his early adulthood for drug dealing. Upon release, Sanders turned his life around and got involved as a community health worker for the Transitions Clinic Network.

“People coming home have many health needs,” said Dr. Shira Shavit, the network’s executive director. “They need food, a place to stay, a job, and many face discrimination in housing and employment. They may have lost connections with family, so it is important to address the big picture.”

The network operates in conjunction with more than 20 health centers in nearly a dozen states to ensure newly released prisoners can access care to treat common medical, psychiatric and substance abuse disorders.

While prisons and jails are “constitutionally mandated” to provide inmates with health care, it often ends suddenly upon their release, making the first few weeks “particularly perilous,” Brown reported.

A 2007 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that former prisoners are 12 times more liable to die than other state residents in the two weeks following their release, particularly from fatal overdoses.

In addition, if the former inmate has a chronic illness that remains untreated, prisoners often find themselves back in prison.

“These streets can tear you up worse than prison,” Sanders said.

Sanders works to prevent this by providing former inmates with much-needed counsel. Many of them share similar background stories to his. He has helped his patients connect with therapists, receive treatment for drug ad- diction, and find housing. He also frequently checks up on them.

“If it weren’t for Ron, I’d be dead or in prison,” a former inmate once said about Sanders. “He may not be a religious guy, but he does all the things the Scripture says do.”

And Sanders is not alone in his efforts: By the end of this year, Los Angeles County is slated to hire 220 such counselors to help facilitate the reintegration process, Brown reports.

But while there is no concrete evidence that supports the notion that the program helps prevent former inmates from re-offending, there is evidence that suggests it helps keep them away from hospitals.

Brown cited a study from the American Journal of Public Health: Of 200 chronically ill former prisoners, half were enrolled in a primary care program and the other half in a transitions clinic. The study revealed that the patients in the transitions clinic used emergency rooms 50 percent less than the others.

Given its success in this arena, the network has doubled in size over the past five years and has treated close to 5,000 patients since 2006, Brown reported.

Message of Hope for Mental Wellness Week at SQ

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Photo by Harold Meeks

SQ staff and volunteers who helped in the mental wellness week


A drum call to gather the population on San Quentin’s Lower Yard was made on Sept. 9 for the “Hope” themed opening of Mental Wellness Week.
Incarcerated men answered the drum call of L. Williams, who works in SQ’s mental health department, visitor Serigne Sowto and sat down in a drum circle. They learned to play traditional West African rhythms like the Sente, Danza, and Dun Dun Ba Ba by hand on a congos bass.
“Drumming is recreation- al therapy, and it helps the men in the community, so I thought it could help men in here and wanted to bring it here,” L. Williams said.
Optimistic about the week, suicide prevention coordinator Rosa Thomas gave two- tone turquoise and purple ribbon stickers to the participants. Outside volunteers in solidarity wore black T-shirts with the suicide prevention ribbon design as a symbol of hope.
Remarks about changes in the mental health service in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) were made by mental health administrative personnel. Many of them had positive things to say about life, philosophy and mental health perspectives.
Photo by Harold Meeks

Jennifer Schaffer on stage


Chief of mental health at San Quentin, Dr. Sharon MCarver, said to all those gathered, “I live so that you can live.”

Dr. McCarver is at an age where she now uses a cane to walk. When she looked at the men she aims to help, deep concern showed across her face.

“I believe hope means a number of different things,” McCarver said, “When a child falls in a park and the parent of the child doesn’t run to help, but all the parents run to help that one child, this is hope.

“Or when you’re in the grocery store and you see someone short $10, and in- stead of them having to put some things back, you give them the money so they can have all the groceries their order.
“Hope is healing, staying inspired, and encouraged through trying times,” she added, before walking away with pep in her step.”
The next day in the Garden Chapel a Time of Remembrance was held for those lost by suicide. Their names were read out loud. After the reading of the names, several prisoners who knew some- one stood and shared memories.
One name read was Thomas “Charlie” Henderson, who commit- ted suicide in 2014. A guy stood up and said, ‘I knew Charlie. He was always smiling and brightening the day with that smile. Then he just stop coming out. We was wondering what was up with him, and then he hung himself.”’
Photo by Harold Meeks

Kelly Tebrock

Andress Yancee, the master of ceremonies, shared a time he noticed a guy who was housed on a lower tier, but he was standing on the fifth tier in West Block. It was out of the ordinary to Yancee, who saw this guy looking over the rail at the ground.
Yancee said he felt eerie.
“Hey man you look like you can use some coffee,” he offered.
The guy was startled by the friendly gesture of Yancee, who just wanted to help. He took the coffee. Later the guy was transfer- ring to another prison and approached Yancee.
“Thank you for saying something to me that day. I was about to jump,” the guy said.
Yancee prevented the guy from committing suicide.

Richard Evans, 65, is serving 30 years to life for a series of burglaries, his third strike. He introduced himself as a man of faith.
“We have a small circle of friends, a circle around that small circle of people, and an extended circle of people we are responsible for… have empathy.” He said.
Dr. Thomas said, “We’re a community. Yes, this is a prison, but it has its little neighborhoods and its little villages.”
Photo by Harold Meeks

L. Williams playing the drums


An example of a little village at San Quentin is the Prison Yoga Project, led by a woman short in height, eloquent in speech, and fluid in motion, named Chonda Williams.
Yoga instructor Williams gave a presentation on day three to explain how the body knows hope.
Half way through the week guest speaker Jennifer Shaffer, Executive Director of the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH), visited San Quentin to share how hope prospers in relationships with mental health clinicians.
“I think things have changed greatly in our society, and we are more aware how mental health impacts our life.” Shaffer said.

“To do this job, we even have to go talk to clinicians and see psychiatrists about our mental health, so don’t think you are the only ones,” she assured listeners.
“Mental health week is about being mindful of the fact our mental health is as equally important as our physical health.
“The reason we go is for treatment for some type of injury, to move us in a place to be optimal in our individual lives.” Shaffer said.
Shaffer addressed other concerns lifers with the possibility of parole had about their psychological assessment reports for the board. She said at the basic level the BPH commissioners are trying to figure out who you are. She encouraged the men to simply be authentic.
As the weeklong events dwindled toward the end, there was music performed by incarcerated musicians. The drum circles congregated on the Lower Yard on Sept. 15 and ended the gathering playing to more African beats.

*There were no suicides as of Nov. 1st in the year 2018
*Update of recent deaths will be published in the next edition

Those Lost to Suicide within San Quentin

1980 David Moore, Richard Chase

1983 Ronald Hawkins
1984 George Carpenter

1988 Moses Willis

1989 Anola Fuller

1992 Donrell Thomas

1994 Christopher Day

1995 Roberto Danielson

1996 Jeffery Wash

1997 Thomas Walt

2005 Alto Bell, Frank Martinez, Robert Doug

2006 Harry Hoff, James Pot

2007 Tony Lee Reynolds

2008 Edward Bridges, Terrence C. Page

2009 Patrick Knowles, Larry Grand

2010 Jake Ward, Anario Patonelio, George P. Smith

2011 Christopher Martinez, Brandon Wilson

2012 Lavelt Lavern, James Lee Kronz, Kenneth Wright

2013 Justin Howser, Tim Russell, Joseph Staples

2014 Thomas Henderson, Victor Velazquez

2015 Jesse Hernandez, William Estomba, Michael Jones

2017 Kenneth Steward, Nicolas Rodriguez

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Dr. Downey overcomes hurdles

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Dr. Downey, a staff psy­chologist at San Quentin, is no stranger to overcoming obstacles in life.
“I fell behind in grade school because no one knew I was deaf,” Downey said. “It wasn’t till middle school that I got the resources that helped me adjust.”
Her hearing disability be­came something that gave her a distinct perspective.
“I like the silence because you can be with yourself, but there is a need for the chaos that is in the world,” she said. “Coping with the strug­gles is what helps mold us.”
There were times when Downey felt like no one un­derstood her, which moti­vates her work now.
“I grew up struggling be­cause I was deaf and no one knew what to do with me,” she said. “I want to help people understand that there is hope and resources to help them through whatever they’re struggling with.”
She learned sign language, started speech-therapy class­es and got her left-ear hear­ing aid after graduating high school.
“I’m rewarded when my patients come back with a success story about how they were able to use the coping skills that we discovered through therapy”
Downey decided to be­come a psychologist because her disability barred her from joining the family lineage of civil and public servants such as law enforcement and mili­tary.
During college, she relied on sign language tutors and visual aids to help her stay on track with the classes.
“I had one professor that said he didn’t know how I would make it as a psycholo­gist,” Downey said. “I was discouraged at first, but then I used that as a motivator.”

Two weeks into graduate studies, Downey got Ava, her first service dog and compan­ion.
Ava is trained to alert Downey to environmental hazards and situational dan­gers that Downey would oth­erwise be unaware of.
“Ava went to school and ev­erywhere with me,” Downey said. “When I graduated, she walked the stage with me.”

Downey later discovered a school that offers resources and support for deaf people, the California School of the Deaf , in Fremont, California.

There is a community of deaf people with a rich cul­ture of theater, performing arts, and support groups.
“Obviously not everyone is affected in the same degree: some were born deaf, others went deaf, some can talk, and others have trouble com­municating,” Downey said. “I went through seven years of speech therapy, and I still struggle daily because it’s a lot of work paying attention.”
“Most of the depictions of deaf people in the movies are just a narrow interpreta­tion of reality,” Downey said. “No deaf person is as helpless as Hollywood makes them seem. I wanted to challenge that stereotype.”
Downey has been working at San Quentin since 2012.
She facilitates group ther­apy and conducts individual sessions to help as many peo­ple as possible.
Unlike social psychologists of the 1990s who promoted “positive illusions” as the means to maintaining mental health, Downey emphasizes the need for personal respon­sibility and the development of proper coping skills.
“I’m rewarded when my patients come back with a success story about how they were able to use the cop­ing skills that we discovered through therapy,” Downey said. “Mental health is about personal growth and adapt­ing to life’s challenges.”
Downey’s patients first learn to adjust to Ava’s pres­ence.
“I didn’t know how people would respond to Ava when we first came in,” she said. “Some guys thought that she was a narc dog when they first saw her in the prison.”
Ava just celebrated a mile­stone, her 13th birthday.
“She’s retired now but still very active in my life,” Downey said. “She has ar­thritis in her left hip and her right leg is overcompensat­ing, so our walks aren’t as long.”
Downey is expecting to retrieve her new service dog, Cinder, this autumn from a prison training program in another state.
“I’ve adjusted to life with­out my hearing because I’ve learned how to utilize the resources that are available,” she said. “I want to help my patients realize that there are resources and help for them as well.”
If you think you could ben­efit from Mental Health ser­vices, please fill out a medical slip requesting assistance or contact a community mental health clinic.

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Inmates win ethics bowl against college students

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The California Correctional Institution (CCI) Mental Health Department sponsored an unusual event once again on Aug. 3. Last year, this group won an ethics bowl against California State University, Bakersfield. This year they focused their talent and energy on prison reform. Rarely are prisoners asked their opinions on what might work in their rehabilitation process, but CCI asked, and the inmates responded by creating a research-based presentation to answer this question. In attendance were Warden Joe Sullivan, Health Care CEO Rhonda Litt-Stoner, Chief of Mental Health Dr. William Walsh as well as other institution staff.
The original question posed to this group of inmates was, “If you were given the position of warden and told to create an effective prison for change, what would you do?”
At first, the concept perplexed some of the inmates, as they had difficulty wrapping their heads around such a broad topic, but then they started considering why they have changed and what has helped some inmates change while others do not change. They eventually divided into several groups of three or four to address different topics. A few of the topics researched were: increasing the mental health programs to include every inmate, addressing addiction more aggressively, changing the sterile environment of our prisons, increasing funds for transition into life after prison as well as more opportunities for correctional officers to train and be a larger part of the rehabilitation program. The inmates spent six months gathering data from the library, getting input from their families as well as from the group leader, Dian Grier, LCSW. They studied foreign prison systems as well as other prison systems within the United States in order to determine what works and what doesn’t.

The presentations were well received by staff. According to Litt-Stoner, “CCI’s Mental Health Department has done it again. It never ceases to amaze me, the raw talent possessed by the inmates and the staff’s ability to draw it out through unconventional methods.  It was obvious that the gentlemen put a lot of research and hard work into their projects, all bringing a different perspective on prison reform. It will take these types of innovative approaches to continue to invoke their innate abilities and to teach them conversation techniques to use when addressing conflicts without resorting to violent means. Kudos to Dian Grier and the entire Debate Team.”
Innovative programs such as this debate team are an integral part of a pilot program at CCI that is being run through the Mental Health Department. These types of unusual groups pique the inmates’ interest and some continue to conduct research for many more years after being a part of these groups. According to Grier, the creator of these programs, when inmates are given a chance to participate in groups that interest them, the benefits are immense. The inmates learn social skills, gain confidence and learn to work with others in a meaningful way. Often issues of race and other types of judgments fall to the wayside as they learn to respect one another and communicate in a way that creates true connection to others
The speech regarding correctional officers was cited as being outstanding. One audience member, Jennifer Peters, commented that this speech, along with others presented, showed how being a part of Grier’s groups and the debate team have helped them learn valuable traits associated with prison reform, such as how to better empathize with others. Peters added, “The hard work put into these speeches was unmistakably a job well done.”
The speeches that touched on reform included ways to keep staff and inmates safer as well as how to increase communication and understanding for both inmates and correctional officers. According to Ryan Metier, author and speaker on “Correctional Officers and Inmate Reform,” his first attempt at his speech consisted of pointing out flaws rather than learning to understand and empathize with the difficult challenges correctional officers face. As he continued to work on the speech, his thinking and his view on correctional officers shifted into finding solutions and common ground—a far more effective approach than engaging in the “blame game” or looking at the problem from one perspective.
Metier states, “Through the guidance of Ms. Grier and insight from other inmates and other correctional officers, I have learned to fully listen to both sides of any issue and can set aside any judgments I may have had. This way I have learned to be truly empathic. Because don’t we all just want to be empathetic and accepted? That’s why I’m so passionate about this topic, because I’m passionate about human kindness”
Mental health group sessions currently include Debate and Speech, Drama and Creative Writing and Speaking. The plan is to continue these group sessions at CCI and continue to be innovative in the approach developed to assist inmates in their rehabilitation and help them develop a path to successful re-entry into society upon release.
By Dian Grier
Contributing Writer
PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide.

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