San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Spanish Facilitator Impacts Lives

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Lucia De La Fuente impacted the lives of 10 Spanish-speaking San Quentin prisoners with her skills as a counselor and teacher.
“She taught me how to deal with my traumas. I can own up to my crime and hold myself accountable for it,” said Manuel Murillo, one of her students.
De La Fuente is one of three volunteers that recently launched Victim-Offender Education Group (VOEG) for Spanish-speaking prisoners.
“It’s the other Spanish facilitators like her that are essential and important to help me express my feelings and emotions. It’s not only a change for me; it’s a change for everyone in the group. Now I have more confidence,” Murillo added.
VOEG is a self-help program inside San Quentin that adopts restorative justice practices to find healing for both offenders and survivors.
“This program is about forgiveness and accountability. They go together,” said De La Fuente. “It’s about being accountable for the harm and forgiveness and it is about being accountable for the good they’ve done. Everyone has a different process for forgiveness.”
In 2012, De La Fuente, a Mexican student, entered the United States on a visa to research Restorative Justice to earn a Ph.D. Her journey with VOEG began in a restorative justice facilitator training with IPP (Insight Prison Project), where she met former VOEG Program Coordinator Sonya Shah and VOEG facilitator Lesli Pastora Reyes.
Reyes recognized De La Fuente’s potential and invited her to co-facilitate the first Spanish VOEG with Steve Granville.
After the third phase of training, which was held inside San Quentin, her belief in restorative justice was confirmed. De La Fuente witnessed a group of inmate facilitators model exercises from the curriculum. “That’s when I decided to go nowhere and stay here,” said De La Fuente.
As a Mexican citizen, De La Fuente understands the importance of serving the underserved community. “There was a cultural component that was missing (from VOEG). Everyone grew up in a different place. There’s something about having the same heritage. You don’t need to explain yourself all the time, because everyone gets you,” said De La Fuente.
When the class began, De La Fuente, a soft-spoken petite young woman, was uncertain of her role as a facilitator. “The day that I met the group, I was afraid to say the wrong things and hurt them,” she said.
Two years later, on Jan. 16, 10 Mexican men completed the first Spanish VOEG class. In class, the men shared what they took from the program and expressed how De La Fuente helped change their lives.
 

|“This program is going to help me

to fully understand the impact of my criminal

behaviors and keep me from living a criminal lifestyle”|

 
“She was there every step of the way when I had a hard time understanding the assignments. She was willing to stop and break each step down so I could understand it,” said Jose Segura, who was recently found suitable for parole after serving 20 years. He aims to continue using what he learns out in the community. “This is going to help my kids because I can open up and better communicate with them. I can now be an example of their positive change.”
Eduardo Gonzalez said, “She helped me understand the process of my crime — who I was then and who I am now. I use to have a difficult time expressing my feelings and emotions. This program is going to help me to fully understand the impact of my criminal behaviors and keep me from living a criminal lifestyle.”
Reyes said of De La Fuente: “She was really timid — not sure if she was ready to facilitate. Now she is so confident in her abilities. (The participants) call her ‘The General.’ She is not shy. When she sees something, she’ll call it for what it is. I’m more flowery.”

Screen-Shot-2016-01-20-at-6

Lucia de la Fuente


 
“Working with (De La Fuente) helps us see the best in men,” said Reyes. “It’s helped her confront some things that she wasn’t ready to. It’s healed us both.”
After discussing the impact of the program, inside facilitators Arnulfo T. Garcia and Jorge Heredia presented certificates of appreciation to De La Fuente and Reyes on behalf of the participants. Both accepted the certificates with tears.
The students “have taught me that it’s okay to be in a vulnerable place,” De La Fuente said. “I didn’t know how to say no to people. I wanted to please everyone even though I didn’t want to. Now I can say no, because if I’m not OK, I can’t be OK for someone else.”
Despite the success of her experience, De La Fuente admits it is difficult being away from her country. “Life was hard in America trying to adjust to western culture.” Aside from receiving a national scholarship, she struggles to find income.
De La Fuente plans to continue with VOEG and wants to expand restorative justice abroad. “I want to keep doing this with the youth and women,” said De La Fuente.
Re-energized and clear with a vision, De La Fuente hopes to one day implement programs like VOEG in Mexico and different locations in Latin America. What drives her to continue her restorative justice endeavors is remembering the injustices that exist in her native land.
In two years, De La Fuente is scheduled to receive her doctorate in social change, focused on restorative justice, from California Institute of Integral Studies.

SQ's Inmate Radio Crew Honored With Award

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Stories of hope, recovery and rehabilitation are hitting the airwaves thanks to an inmate-run radio program at San Quentin.

Education teacher Mr. Tom Bolema and Phill E. Phillips

Education teacher Mr. Tom Bolema and Phill E. Phillips


Now in its third year, the hardworking San Quentin Prison Report (SQPR) radio crew can now say they are an award-winning radio station. The inmates, staff and volunteers who create the program were honored with a Society of Professional Journalists Northern California 2014 Excellence in Journalism Award for Community Journalism.
“To me, what makes it exceptionally special is that it’s not just for one person, it’s for a group working together,” said Nigel Poor, the lead volunteer at SQPR. “It’s so wonderful to be able to feel proud about a group of people and have it not just be about one person. Sharing that news with the guys was one of the highlights of my life.”
Those guys make up a creative, efficient, well-trained team of journalists who spend countless hours creating the show, from pitching story ideas to interviewing subjects, transcribing and editing audio – the end result being a professional-quality show.
Volunteer Nigel Poor discusses the radio program’s production process while Shadeed Wallace-Stepster looks on.
The program is aired not only on closed circuit to SQSP inmates, but also to the public via the Bay Area’s KALW, the program’s community partner and fellow recipient of the award. In addition to providing a public forum for the show, KALW has also provided training to the inmates on how to produce a radio show.
While KALW does training and provides suggested edits, the entire show is produced by the inmates – right down to the music, which is composed and recorded by inmate David Jassy, a lifelong musician.
“One thing we wanted when we got the training is we wanted to make that we were put in the position to tell our stories and not have somebody else tell our stories,” said inmate Troy Williams.
“We’d watch all these shows about prison, and they always talk about prison from somebody else’s perspective. They always talk about it from the bad side; they never talk about redemption, they never talk about transformation, they never talk about the struggles that a person goes through trying to change in this type of environment.”
Williams, inmate facilitator of the San Quentin Prison Report, paroled in October after 18 years in prison, thanks in large part to his participation in numerous rehabilitative programs. He paroled just days after learning about the SPJ award.
In addition to working on SQPR, Williams has been an inmate facilitator of numerous rehabilitation programs, including Victim Offender Education Group, Restorative Justice, Project Choice and San Quentin T.R.U.S.T. (Teaching Responsibility by Utilizing Sociological Training), which assists inmates in positive restoration of themselves, their families and, ultimately, the community.
Williams said being involved in rehabilitative programs was key to being approved for parole.
“Going through the programs allows you to gain the insight and the empathy to relate to your victims and what you did,” he said.
Williams plans to re-enter the film and radio industry, this time from the outside, continuing SQPR’s storytelling. He said he’ll seek out community stories to share, creating a “partnership between the inside and the outside, so we’re covering those issues that are affecting our community.”
Williams said for him, the SPJ award shows the hard work inmates, staff and volunteers put into making the program happen has paid off. He said he’ll proudly attend the Nov. 12 ceremony in San Francisco to accept the award on behalf of all involved.
David Jassy composes and records music for the San Quentin Prison Report.
“It was worth it, because now the community is really hearing our voices,” he said. “They’re really listening to us, and what we have to say has value. That goes a long way, especially when you’ve spent most of your life not feeling that your words have value.”
SQPR program members learn not only about reporting and storytelling, but also develop technical skills that will serve them well on the outside.
All of the equipment and software is donated, often by journalists and multimedia experts who share their knowledge through workshops at SQPR.
The inmates use Pro Tools, the industry standard for editing, which was donated by Mark Jeffery, one of the original engineers of the software. Jeffery also taught the crew how to use it.
It’s these partnerships which make SQPR work, from prison officials supporting the program to outside volunteers giving their time to teach. SQPR members emphasized the work of KALW’s Holly Kernan, named in the award, for her many hours of time volunteering at the prison.
SQPR also produces film projects, under the guidance of TV Specialist Larry Schneider. It was Schneider who convinced Williams to branch out from film to radio, and who was a strong promoter of starting the radio program. San Quentin State Prison Television Specialist Larry Schneider was a driving force behind getting the radio program started at the prison.
“Maybe it sounds like a cliché, but ‘each one, teach one,’” Schneider said. “When I first came to this prison I had a crew of five guys. I taught them, and at that point they started teaching each other, and we became a room full of teachers teaching each other.”
When asked what the most powerful stories they’ve shared are, the inmates ticked off a list of topics, from a man meeting his son for the first time in prison to the story on an immigrant coming to terms with incarceration.
Williams once shared a story about being denied parole, and Greg Eskridge produced a story about getting out of gangs. But every story, they said, is powerful.
“We have a personal approach to a lot of the stories we tell, because we’re all incarcerated,” Eskridge said. “We know that side, and so to be able to tell an accurate story of somebody else’s life story, we take that really personal.”
Greg Eskridge said in addition to the valuable technical skills he’s learning, being part of the San Quentin Prison Report allows him to share positive stories with his family.
Eskridge added that another benefit of being in the program is having a way to share with loved ones the journey of rehabilitation the crew is on.
“For me, it’s really a proud thing to be able to call home and tell my family, ‘Go on this website and hear my story.’ When I left the streets 20 years ago, the only image my family had of me was in a negative way doing negative things out there in the streets,” Eskridge said. “Now, 20 years later, they get to hear me doing something positive.”
The San Quentin Prison Report airs on KALW, and is archived at http://kalw.org/term/sanquentin-prison-report.
Did you know?
San Quentin also features an inmate-produced newspaper. Read more about it at http://www.insidecdcr.ca.gov/2014/06/extra-extra-san-quentins-inmate-journalists-share-theirtalents/
San Quentin State Prison is California’s oldest correctional institution. Construction began in 1852 on the site known as Point San Quentin, Marin County, on 20 acres of land. San Quentin was initially established to replace a prison ship known as the Waban. There are no historical proof of facts, but according to folklore, on July 14, 1852, (Bastille Day) the Waban arrived off shore with 40 to 50 convicts. San Quentin State Prison has been known as “Bastille by the Bay.” Read more at http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Facilities Locator/SQ-Special Notes.html
See the photo gallery: http://www.insidecdcr.ca.gov/2014/11/san-quentin-inmate-radio-show-winsjournalism- award-tells-stories-of-redemption-rehabilitation/

San Quentin podcast wins international contest

Kathleen Jackson’s Journey to S.Q.

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Rehabilitation programs and job training are the key to solving California’s revolving prison doors, says Kathleen Jackson, a retired San Anselmo schoolteacher who’s been working with San Quentin prisoners for seven years.
Jackson was a teacher and administrator at Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera for 24 years, and taught 12th grade English at an inner city Oakland public school for three years.
Now, at least four days a week, she volunteers at San Quentin, teaching convicted criminals how to change the way they think about themselves and their community, by facilitating programs like VOEG. VOEG is a program that connects victims with offenders in hopes of revealing how unaddressed past traumas contribute to deviant behavior. After that trauma is addressed, offenders can meet with a panel of victims of crime in order to heal the community.
“When San Quentin prisoners go through self-help and educational programs and work at various jobs that increase their skills, they do receive many benefits,” said Jackson.
In 2008, Jackson became executive director of T.R.U.S.T. (Teaching Responsibility Utilizing Sociological Techniques). T.R.U.S.T. utilizes a series of lessons built upon a simple, clear belief: thinking controls actions. This program has been lauded by prison administrators as a positive training tool, giving offenders insight into criminal behavior and allowing prisoners a chance to understand themselves.
Jackson helped set up a new program called The Last Mile, with the assistance of venture capitalist Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti. It is an entrepreneurial-orientated program and had its first group of participants demonstrate their business ideas this month.
On Friday evenings, she helps teach the Christian creative writing in the Protestant Chapel.
Jackson got her beginning in 2005. She wanted to find a way to do community service, so she sat in on a San Quentin college class. “I felt extremely at home there: it was a place where I really wanted to be,” Jackson said in a 2010 interview with Marin Magazine.
Jackson is always looking to improve the program’s ability to assist offenders. In April, she went to Los Angeles to get a tour of Homeboy Industries, which provides jobs as alternatives to gangs.
“What Homeboy Industries provides is a composite of each client’s needs,” says Jackson. The visit reaffirmed her strategy of employing the same approach with T.R.U.S.T. “Wouldn’t it be the best to have case management for every prisoner, so that the door to the free world would open only to the outside with no need to swing inward?”

PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide.

http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/

S.Q. News Editor Harry O Departs

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After 23½ years in federal and state prisons, Michael R. Harris was released from San Quentin State Prison on Oct. 11, 2011. He has been active in numerous self-help organizations and was a leader in resurrecting the San Quentin News 3 ½ years ago.
Without going into the details of your case, can you tell me what happened?
I became accustomed to surviving on the hard streets of Los Angeles at a young age. I made a lot of money in the drug business. When I opened my eyes to all of the lives I had helped to destroy, it was too late. To this day, I’m still haunted about some of the things I’ve done. I started creating businesses in the community with the intent to help people, hoping this would remove some of the dirt I had done. When I became a so-called “legit businessman” I learned how to carry myself accordingly – ultimately I gained a sense of purpose. Then one day I found myself in handcuffs because I failed at processing a situation correctly.
Did you say that when you were first arrested you reverted back to the street hustler mentality of the past?
Yes, my attitude and demeanor was largely due to the mindset I had adopted while being housed in the notorious Los Angeles County Jail. It was easy for me to revert back into that street mentality.
Harris, once known as Harry O. on the streets of Los Angeles and in the music world, received 25 years to life for attempted murder and drug-related charges.
How would you describe your mindset when you started your 25-to-life sentence?
My ego was so strong that it wouldn’t allow me to see the reality. When I arrived at San Quentin for the first time back in 1988, I was still a beast.
When I arrived at Quentin, at that time it was a Level-IV. The atmosphere was intense and violent. I was still an ego-driven person due to all of the unfinished business that I left on the streets. My physical body was behind walls, but my mind was still in society. I was constantly thinking beyond prison. When San Quentin changed to a Level-II two years later, I was transferred to the newly opened Pelican Bay Level-IV prison, where I did 18 months. After that I was transferred to various other state institutions: Tehachapi, Lancaster and Soledad, than back to San Quentin in 2005.
Harris, who was once the puppeteer of a vast empire, found himself reduced to working as a porter at San Quentin. Harris was later assigned to clean the showers, a position he could have opted out of, but on his own chose to retain for over two years – an experience that he says, helped humble him.
What happened to help you see change?
It was natural for me to see that being locked up in a cage was unnatural. It took 15 years into my life sentence for me to really start seeing life from a different perspective. When you’re looking at things differently, they start to look different. And, I also learned how to respond differently as well.
I sold drugs because it was an easy way out. In retrospect, it took eight years of soul searching to realize that the choices I made were actually weak choices. I was conditioned to think the way I did. I started re-conditioning my brain by reading books about people, some whom came from like circumstances and made a positive contribution to humanity. After reading these types of books and experiencing their lives vicariously, I became ashamed of the person that I had once been. Today I believe that real power comes from patience, perseverance and finding true meaning in your life.
Was that really you? I’m referring to that beast.
That’s a good question. The best way to explain it is to say I had a split personality. One personality protected the other. I was conditioned to act a certain way when exposed to certain environments or situations in the past. With a lot of hard work, I was able to liberate myself from the negative conditioning and allow the true me to emerge. I am no longer that beast, thank God.
How have you grown spiritually?
In 1996 a food poisoning incident caused me to suffer a serious form of paralysis. While recovering in a prison hospital and unable to move, I had a spiritual awaking that caused me to have a conversation with my Creator. I have always been a spiritual person. In this conversation, I said, “If you allow me to live, I will change my life completely.”
When I got off the bus at San Quentin (the second time) I told myself I was going to go home from here. I immediately started looking for groups and programs to involve myself in. The first program I signed up for was T.R.U.S.T., which stands for Teaching Responsible Utilizing Sociological Training. For the last 15 years, I have been making choices that would move me closer to becoming a better person.
How do you believe the groups helped you in regards to dealing with the Parole Board?
The groups helped me to be honest. Before I stepped into the boardroom, groups like T.R.U.S.T., Keeping It Real, and V.O.E.G. (Victims Offenders Educational Group) helped me to be able to connect with the real reason why I was in prison – realizing that prison had become my reality. Looking at the part I played in the crime, I embraced the fact that it was me who put me in prison. I accepted the fact that the world I knew was no more.
The groups also helped me relate to how learned conditioning was implemented into my lifestyle. Groups enabled me to be in front of a crowd of individuals and say I am not a big shot. I am now able to listen to feedback objectively. I went through groups because they were a good tool to get what I wanted, not to mention they were a requirement for lifers. Yet by going through them, I got more than what I expected; I found my authentic self.
Is there any one person who has had an impact on your growth and development within the last 23 years of incarceration?
No. I believe my growth has been impacted or influenced if you will by a number of people and situations in many ways. I have also learned a great deal from negative things. Some people only look at the positive things for growth but I have learned from the negative things as well. One is learning how not to repeat those negative mistakes from the totality of the experience and examination that one goes through, if you do the work looking at all sides.
What are you planning on doing upon your release?
Plans are plans but what I’m passionate about doing is connecting with like-minded people, specifically young people who are poised to ultimately make some of the same mistakes that I have made in the past; by presenting myself as an example of why that’s not such a great idea. Just as important is connecting with people who are in the solutionary business as opposed to just focusing on the problems at hand and not actually elevating to the solutions that are needed, throughout this nation’s disenfranchised communities.
Is there any book in the making?
There are a few. One is called The Hearing, which is being designed in a memoir-type style. It utilizes the parole board as a vehicle to revisit my life experiences before and throughout my incarceration. Lessons and skills learned coupled with my rehabilitation efforts with a lens towards the entire California phenomenon for the last three decades. In terms of how urban neighborhoods cope with crime, lack of education, lack of opportunities due to poor economic training and access; coupled with how our present justice systems dispenses punishment. The other book is titled Mentorship by Like- Minded People, (about) individuals who have come from the same mind-set and or backgrounds, who have done the work on themselves and now use their past experiences to connect the dots for others. Motherland 2035 is a short story that I introduced recently in the Brothers in Pen series. The group’s new release, Six Cubic Feet, explores the past, present, and a bright future for Africa that I plan to develop into a complete novel. The third is called The Music Masters and my last one is called Doing Your Time.
Are there closing remarks you would like to leave with us?
If you don’t know how to process, it will affect the decisions you make. Two thoughts I would like to put out there: One of the keys, in my opinion, is to become your “best you,” not some one else’s version of what your best you should be. Learn to be OK with your best you; period. And the other thing would be to learn the difference between “Love & Respect,” which means different things to different people, but for me, I have found sometimes it’s pretty easy to love somebody today and not love them tomorrow. But one would be hard pressed to respect a person one day and not the next, so I prefer respect.
 
Tuesday morning about seven o’clock, Oct 11, 2011, Michael Harris departed San Quentin and was met at the gate by two federal marshals.

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