How do we measure the value of a program designed to help inmates? Which programs are effective and produce results that can be quantified? Which programs should be kept and which should be discarded? These are valid questions that have taken on more significance in the wake of the ongoing and escalating violence in Oakland.
An understandable and emotional response to the slaying of four Oakland police officers has been a demand for a revision of the parole system to make it harder for inmates to be paroled and for even tougher sentencing of felons. This reaction urges that we throw away those who have committed crimes forever.
Van Jones, President Obama’s advisor on green technology wrote in his book, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems“…the green economy must do more than reclaim thrown-away stuff. It must also reclaim thrown-away lives and thrown-away places. And it must reclaim the thrown –away values that insist we are all members of one human family, with sacred obligations to each other.”
Self-help programs and groups at S.Q. are reclaiming thrown away lives and people. This is a sacred duty and the essence of the green movement. Those of us who have been broken and restored to wholeness through the efforts of volunteers and the training and teaching of programs constitute a vital force whose value is recognized by Jones and others. Jones said to us in his talk at S.Q., “San Quentin can take healing and recovery to a different level.”
“Sometimes a breakdown is what is required before you can have a breakthrough. The country is going through a breakdown, it can lead to a breakthrough,” Jones said.
Jones argued that it is useful to “talk to people who have walked through the process of recovery. Sometimes it’s not easy, not always a straight line.”
Ancient teachers of Kabbalah also recognized the value of brokenness. They recognized that the depth of failure was also a path to reach our inner core of strength and holiness.
One such teacher said, “There is nothing more whole than a broken heart.”
A Hebrew poet wrote, “Forget your perfect offering, there is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
Before we throw away any program we need to consider the value of a person it may have helped. It is true that some programs duplicate areas covered in other programs. But each program has its own tone and character and may be more effective in communicating to certain individuals than others.
Different classes may provide the moment a person needs to have that breakthrough moment. S.Q. is characterized by a remarkably low incidence of violence. This may be due in part to the availability of self-help programs and the positive outlets they provide for inmates to share feelings and experiences, vent and receive feedback.
Self-help programs have a positive effect on maintaining a peaceful environment on this mainline. These same programs may also reduce violence in our communities.
Inmates in reception center housing who will return to Oakland and other Bay Area communities torn by violence need access to self-help programs. Programs need to be expanded and made available to more of the population. Lives may be saved if a young man is given a future and hope through a group or program.
Self-help programs are not like American car companies, businesses with products that not enough people want to buy. Many programs have to limit participation because there are more inmates who want to participate than they can accommodate.
We urge that before any program is discarded or a human being is thrown away, the value of the life it may restore to wholeness be part of the calculation. The lives it may save by preventing violence are of inestimable worth.
