To the delight of many, on the first of January the eagerly awaited San Quentin calendar was once again proudly displayed on walls all around the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). It’s regarded as a prized acquisition by many of the department’s employees.
The calendar had been produced by San Quentin’s vocational print shop for many years, but in 2009 the print shop was indefinitely closed due to budget cuts. Since then, former print shop instructor John Wilkerson, with the support of successive wardens, continued the long-standing tradition.
Many of Wilkerson’s former students hope the print shop will one day reopen, although there is no current plan for that to happen. Richard “Bonaru” Richardson, a former print shop student, calls Wilkerson a “master printer.” Richardson commented, “I actually got a trade from Mr. Wilkerson. He’s the best instructor I ever had.”
The print shop’s closure has not deterred the efforts of Wilkerson to produce the coveted calendar. Annually, in November, Wilkerson, and a crew of volunteers from the San Quentin News labor among the dusty printing presses of the closed print shop to prepare them for production of the following year’s calendar.
This year Wilkerson, Larry Snyder of San Quentin Television, and a crew of inmate volunteers produced 10,000 calendars for San Quentin to distribute throughout each of CDCR’s 33 prisons.
The calendar was designed by Aly Tamboura of San Quentin News and incorporated a picture of one of the historic wall murals found in South Dining Hall. Alfredos Santos, who was a San Quentin prisoner during that time, painted the murals between 1953 and 1955.