San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Wall City Volume 2: If you want it all – look here!

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Everyone who donates $40 or more to San Quentin News this year will get a free gift – a full color 32-page Wall City magazine Volume 2– written and created by inmates.

This is the second volume of Wall City – the San Quentin News publication focused on keeping you informed on criminal justice and rehabilitation issues.

The all-new spring 2019 magazine gift is in addition to our gift of twelve months of the San Quentin News newspaper delivered to you.

Generous contributions from readers like you are vital in fulfilling our mission to increase public safety and advance social justice through prison journalism.

Look at what we’ve accomplished with the support of our donors recently:

  • Published Wall City magazine Volume 2
  • Acquired video equipment to expand our video journalism projects
  • Printed new Journalism Guild books for every student
  • Established the Spanish Journalism Guild – La Raza Voices
  • Printed 30,000 newspapers and distributed them to prisoners in all California prisons monthly

Click on the blue DONATE button below or here to contribute.

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Thank you for your continued encouragement and support!

The San Quentin News staff

Wall City Volume 2: The Fall and Rise of the San Quentin News

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It is a well-known fact amongst the San Quentin News staff that Warden Clinton T. Duffy wanted people to voice their opinions about whatever subjects they felt comfortable addressing in prison. That was the seed of opportunity that we were given at the time to increase public safety and achieve social justice.

However, conflict arose between San Quentin News staff and the administration that took a legal turn for the worst. Eventually the newspaper went out of existence.

In 2008, Warden Robert Ayers Jr. didn’t agree with having the newspaper sidelined and reinvigorated the San Quentin News, which started our mission to change the prison culture.

While the mainstream media underlines the latest violent incidents that occur at Folsom, Soledad or Corcoran State Prisons, San Quentin News covers stories about the 73-year-old woman or man who has earned a GED, maybe even a college education.

The more success stories San Quentin News highlighted, the more people wanted to be a part of that change and positive growth. We hope this change led to a safer society once these people return home.

Michael Harris said it best, “The human beings that are encapsulated inside these prison walls have the power to change themselves, as well as influence others in positive ways. Some of us will never get out and others will. What has become the obvious is that we can learn from our mistakes, and so can others, if we, as a community, are brave enough to share in this undertaking.”

Harris knew then that we as a community can influence positive growth, but recently the term influence has been given a negative connotation, nonetheless, that’s exactly what we wanted to do. In order for us to change the prison culture we must influence those people who believe that they cannot change for the better to do so.

In 2010, former Governor Arnold Swartzenegger enacted sweeping budget cuts across California that closed down many prison vocational programs and educational classes.

Being that San Quentin News was printed and distributed through the vocational print shop, our mission ended when the print shop shut down at the end of 2009.

But Michael Harris and Arnulfo Garcia did not want to give up on San Quentin News and the fact that information can change a prison culture with stories of rehabilitation. In a meeting with Acting Warden R.K. Wong, Lt. R. Luna and Principal Ted Roberts, they made a deal to keep the newspaper up and running. However, the deal provided that if they could provide the content and layout of the paper on one computer they could continue to produce the San Quentin News. They would also have to print the paper in the print shop without the shop being fully up and running.

Trying hard to keep that positive voice of inmates alive, Harris and Garcia were running around San Quentin struggling to keep the San Quentin News afloat. Just when it looked like A.W. Wong was about to pull the plug, San Quentin News produced its first edition of 2010.

However, the threat of shutting the paper down wasn’t over. While printing the January-April edition, we were told that we could no longer utilize the abandoned print shop to print, and we lacked the resources and funds to print the newspaper elsewhere.

Once again, Harris came to the rescue. Agreeing to pay for the newspaper out of his own pocket, Harris talked with San Quentin News Adviser Steve McNamara to facilitate a deal for printing the newspaper off-site.

The San Quentin News was back up and running with no threats ahead, Harris made sure that stories of rehabilitation flooded each issue.

Eighteen months later, Harris thought he had earned his release from bondage. After spending more than 23 years behind bars, the parole board agreed that Harris was rehabilitated and found him suitable to be released back into society. However, on October 11, 2011, federal agents picked Harris up and transported him to a federal prison.

Many of the San Quentin News staff and advisers were confused, disappointed and were in disbelief. With all the rehabilitative efforts, groups and programs Harris had either started or been a part of we couldn’t believe he was not being released.

Garcia said that Harris “was committed, compassionate and a great leader.” He strongly advocated “not to define a person by his past, but by the person’s desire to change his past anti-social behavior and to develop pro-social habits.”

Many of us wanted Harris to go home with the skills he had learned in prison and become instrumental in communities throughout California and further. But knowing that so much positive energy is sitting behind prison bars really proves that the criminal justice system is still broken and needs to be fixed.

San Quentin News will continue to advocate for those people without a voice, what works in the criminal justice system, what doesn’t and how we can join together to fix it.

Wall City Volume 2: Prison Journalism

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What Prisoners Get Out of Working for a Prison Newspaper

Are prison-written newspapers a good idea? Well, it depends.

More than 20 years ago dozens of prison newspapers dotted the map all across the United States. There were so many that they formed their own news association. Then, one by one, almost all of them disappeared, including the San Quentin News, which went dark for around 20 years.

They fell victim to the violence and racial turmoil of the 1980s. Wardens and superintendents across the land had their hands full simply maintaining order. And the prison publications at the time often engaged in exposing lapses in the prison administration. This was no way to befriend the warden’s office. Meanwhile, the courts held that wardens were constitutionally prevented from censoring the publications. So, the easy solution was to shut them down. And that’s what happened.

Looking back on the history of San Quentin News through the decades, since its founding by Warden Clinton Duffy, it’s clear that prison journalism needs the support and confidence of the administration. Both sides need to be on the same page. Otherwise, it won’t work. Since former Warden Robert Ayers revived the newspaper in 2008 after a shutdown of nearly 20 years, the San Quentin administration and the prisoner staffers now have an effective working relationship.

What have been the benefits? From the administration’s point of view the newspaper helped the prison win recognition throughout the country for its rehabilitation efforts. The warden gained bragging rights. Although SQ is still referred to in news reports as “notorious,” San Quentin nowadays most often appears in the news for its forward-looking training programs, such as Guiding Rage Into Power and The Last Mile, which pioneered the training of prisoners in computer coding. In addition, the newspaper played an important role getting the message out to California prisoners that important, effective programs were in place at SQ. Instead of being known as Johnny Cash’s worst nightmare, SQ became known as a prime place to do time. Mainstream media from across the country picked up on these themes, creating a positive, hopeful echo effect.

It has not always been a bed of roses. The 45-day suspension in 2014 is an example. The warden at the time punished the newspaper for publishing an “unauthorized” photograph from a Shakespeare production. The newspaper rebounded, and today the editors and staff communicate frequently and candidly with Public Information Officer Lt. Sam Robinson. And as a result of the 2014 suspension, more safeguards are in place. Nowadays, before publication, all of the copy goes to Sacramento for a complete vetting before it goes to the printer.

The more significant part of the question is, what do the prisoner journalists get out of working on a prison newspaper? Does it play a role in making them better men?

Yes, it does, and I don’t think it has much to do with writing. Here’s why:

1.Prisoners feel ‘validated.’ They feel they are part of a worthy cause and get support from authority figures on the outside for what they are doing.

2. Seeing their name in a byline is a big ego boost. They gain status on the prison yard.

3. They interact with intelligent, stimulating people from the outside. At San Quentin, I’ve been bringing UC Berkeley students since 2012 to help edit the newspaper. The visits give prison journalists a window on the outside world.

4. The act of reporting summons the man outside his own head and his immediate surroundings. Gaining facts through interviews is an ongoing challenge. Actively engaged in research, the prison journalist gains confidence.

5. The San Quentin News has a good reputation with the parole system. It’s a persuasive item in a prisoner’s campaign to get out of prison. And prisoners have sought support letters from contacts they’ve made via the newspaper.

6. The late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1974 made the strongest case for prisoner journalism in his opinion written in the landmark California case Procunier v. Martinez: “When the prison gates slam behind a prisoner, he does not lose his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded.”

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