Letters, letters, and more letters! First and foremost, I want to thank you for your interest in San Quentin News. I want you to know your voices are being heard.
The volume of letters we receive is large, and growing. I try to read as many as I can. Yet, due to the number of letters with thoughts and ideas of interest to SQN, we are not able to respond to each one individually. I feel badly about not being able to write back to each of you personally.
You diligently bring our attention to your concerns, thoughts, ideas and needs. We at San Quentin News, appreciate your input, and I personally thank you. To address the needs of our readers, we are thinking of new ways to respond—especially to those letters on issues such as medical care, prison programs, cell status, or custody matters. We don’t have the resources to be a legal commentator. However, we regularly have writers researching and covering legal issues. We hope to address and give attention to your thoughts.
While our staff is growing, we are constantly working on the next issue, new stories, new ideas, and trying to manage the great volume of mail. I hope you understand.
We have readers scattered in prisons across the United States and some overseas. Additionally, we have some readers in all 33 other California prisons. Though our objective is to provide each California prisoner a copy of the newspaper, we are a long way from that goal. Many of you have individually subscribed because you are unable to secure the paper at your prison. We thank you.
Despite the difficulties, we wish to grow the paper to meet the needs of our growing audience. Although the state says the prison population is decreasing, “our” readership is increasing.
So, I want you to know that your letters are not just sitting in some corner gathering dust. We do read them, but our space to print them is limited. For myself, I remember sitting in another prison that had no programs, wishing that someone could respond to my needs. Here, we are striving to do better, so please bear with us. We will do our best to address your concerns.
Recently we received an e-mail telling us that our little paper had won the prestigious James Madison Freedom Of Information Award for excellence in journalism given by the Society of Professional Journalists. We are very honored and proud to be recipients of this award. This achievement motivates us to continue this work for our community. You are our community. We are striving to be there for you.
The department of corrections does not fund the printing and distribution of the newspaper, therefore San Quentin News depends on donations to operate. Tell your family and friends they can subscribe at our web site as listed in the paper.
For those of you who are requesting yearly subscriptions, the new price is going to be $25 for prisoners and $40 for outside subscribers.
In closing, I would like to remind you that our mail goes through the same inmate mail system that you deal with. Like all prison mailrooms, the process can take weeks at times, and there is no getting around it. We hope to create an expedited process in the future, but for now, just be aware that it may be several weeks before we actually read your letters.
Finally, again, I would like to thank you for communicating your thoughts. Keep the letters coming.
