San Quentin News
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San Quentin News WRITTEN BY PRISONERS – ADVANCING SOCIAL JUSTICE VOL. 2018 NO. 3 March 2018 Edition 102 SAN QUENTIN, CALIFORNIA 94964 www.sanquentinnews.com POPULATION 3,746 United States leads world in locking up women Photo courtesy of CALPIAi Mireya Flores showing off a tasty dish Women complete File Photo A woman sitting in one of the United States’ many jail cells around the country By Marcus Henderson nearly 30 percent of the world’s im- ican states,” said the researchers. culinary program Journalism Guild Chairman prisoned women, cites the report, Approximately 206,000 women titled The States of Women’s Incar- are currently confined in U.S. By William Earl Tolbert adjunct professor and executive Individual states of the U.S., ceration: The Global Context , by prisons and jails. The United States Journalism Guild Writer chef, started the program in along with the federal government, Aleks Kajstura and Russ Immari- jails women at twice the percentage 2017 and taught their students lead the world in putting women geon of the Prison Policy Initiative. rate of China and four times that of Eleven inmates graduated everything from serving to behind bars, according to a 2017 “Across the globe, the 25 juris- Russia. from the first Culinary Arts cooking, as well as restaurant report by the Prison Policy Initia- dictions with the highest rates of Management program at Folsom management, reported The Folsom tive (PPI). incarcerating women are all Amer- See United States on page 4 Women’s Facility. Telegraph. Women in the U.S. represent Vincent Moralez, supervisor of only 5 percent of the world’s fe- the program, and Jason Doolittle, See Culinary page 6 male population, but account for Code.7370 host Lance Armstrong A prison chapel served as a the- ater to dance, sing, rap and use spoken-word for an inmate per- formance, called Site Unseen. The audience of free people and men-in-blue walked across a makeshift stage and sat side by side to enjoy San Quentin’s Ar- tistic Ensemble. Page 10 Photo by Adnan Khan Kevin Neang (center) with his mom and sister ROOTS graduates learn inter-generational trauma By Rahsaan Thomas tator Roger “The Professor” Chung Staff Writer said. ROOTS is an Asian Pacific Is- Photo by Eddie Herena - SQ News The audience cried and laughed lander culture awareness group that Lance Armstrong and Chris Redlitz walking across San Quentin’s Lower Yard with recent graduates of the Re- focuses on teaching intergenera- storing Our Original True Selves tional trauma, domestic violence, By Juan Haines top cyclist, Lance Armstrong. (ROOTS) program as they told sto- LGBT tolerance and transformative When the San Quentin News Senior Editor “I’ve never been in jail. But I ries of healing generations of inter- justice. was revived nearly 10 years ago, know what it’s like to run afoul generational trauma and jokes. On Jan. 21, ROOTS held a gradu- a staff of five put together a four- In a small classroom with popu- of the system,” Armstrong said, “For a lot of groups coming from ation ceremony at San Quentin refugee and war-torn situations that page issue and distributed it to lar catch phrases like Think Differ- on Jan. 11, to inmates enrolled in State Prison hosted by incarcer- ent and Believe in the Process on its a highly touted computer coding have strong disconnections with the ated facilitators Phoeun You and 5,000 inmates inside the prison walls, about two dozen San Quen- program. generations before them, intergen- Anouthinh “Choy” Pangthong. tin prisoners waited for a surprise eration trauma is definitely one of Page 20 guest—the world-renowned, once See Code.7370 on page 8 the keys to healing,” ROOTS Facili- See R.O.O.T.S on page 15 Page 2 SAN QUENTIN NEWS www.sanquentinnews.com March 2018 San Quentin News is written and produced by prisoners. We are supported solely by grants and donations from the outside community. To make a donation, visit our website at: sanquentinnews.com or send a tax-deductible check or money order payable to: Social Good Fund "Friends of San Quentin News" P.O. Box 494 San Quentin, CA 94964 In the check memo section, please write “Friends of San Quentin News.” Golden State Warriors GM, Bob Myers Thank you for your support! UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Graduate School of Journalism San Quentin News Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Valentine visit By Juan Haines San Quentin News Reports on Rehabilitative Efforts to the program gave them the Increase Public Safety and Achieve Social Justice Senior Editor confidence to continue their education, once returned to San Quentin News Staff Staff Administrative Review About a year and half ago, the community, and taught Aly Tamboura returned home them how to think indepen- Arnulfo T. Garcia, Editor (2011-2017) Lt. S. Robinson, Warden’s Office after serving almost 14 years Richard Richardson, Editor-in-Chief Sgt. R. Gardea , Warden’s Office dently. Jesse Vasquez, Managing Editor Krissi Khokhobashvili, CDCR behind bars. He came back to However, even with pro- Juan Haines, Senior Editor Information Officer II (Supervisor) San Quentin on Valentine’s grams at San Quentin, such as Kevin D. Sawyer, Associate Editor Linda Xiques, Adviser Day with several of his co- ones designed to address vic- Marcus Henderson, Journalism William Drummond, Adviser workers at the Chan Zuck- tim awareness and impulse Guild Chairman Jan Perry, Adviser erberg Initiative (CZI) for a Rahsaan Thomas, Staff Writer Yukari Kane, Adviser control, Tamboura pointed to Wesley Eisiminger, Staff Writer Joan Lisetor, Adviser tour of the highly touted re- waiting lists of three to five David Lê, Staff Writer Steve McNamara, Adviser habilitative prison. years for enrollment as well Curtis Roberts, Staff Writer John C. Eagan, Adviser CZI advocates for social as the prisoners’ huge tech- Wayne Boatwright, Staff Writer Jon Spurlock, Adviser justice and criminal justice nology gap. Eddie Herena, Photographer Nikki Meredith, Adviser reform. They seek to provide Jonathan Chiu, Layout Designer Lucia de la Fuente, Editora Khan brought up the extra Richard Lindsey, Researcher Lisa Adams, Development Manager affordable housing in the challenge of having youth of- Bay Area. The organization fenders intermixed with an Current and past stories of the San Quentin News are posted online at: has social media operations older population—sometimes (www.sanquentinnews.com) aimed at changing the crimi- the interactions add tension (www.facebook.com) nal justice narrative, specifi- Photo by Lt. S. Robinson to the prison’s rehabilitative Permission is granted to reprint articles appearing in the San Quentin cally how prisons operate. Anthony Ammons talking to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative group routine. News provided credit is given to the author and this publication, Tamboura is a manager for The purpose of keeping except for articles reprinted herein from other publications. technology and program de- security prison. He brought ways, from reducing recidi- the youngsters at San Quen- livery. He is currently work- up some of the obstacles to vism to reuniting families. tin is two-fold—prevent their We Want To Hear From You! ing on a housing program. rehabilitation in violent and She said one of PUP’s goals is exposure to the violent and The San Quentin News encourages inmates, free CZI got a look at the pris- disruptive prisons, such as to change how the public per- oppressive nature of maxi- staff, custody staff, volunteers and others outside on’s mental health services, lockdowns and violence. The ceives incarcerated people. mum-security prisons and the institution to submit articles. All submissions the cellblocks and prison yard traumatic experiences, he Several PUP students give them an opportunity to become property of the San Quentin News. and had a conversation with said, transformed him into chimed in on their experience partake in the rehabilitative Please use the following criteria when submitting: inmates enrolled in college. only wanting to survive rac- of attending college while in- services at San Quentin. • Limit your articles to no more than 350 words. “Why do we have pris- ism was rampant. carcerated. However, they must sign • Know that articles will be edited for content and length. ons?” Adnan Khan asked the Once Khan transferred “I dropped out of school contracts, stating that they • The newspaper is not a medium to file grievances. CZI employees prior to the to San Quentin, its 70-plus around the sixth grade,” said will remain discipline-free. If (For that, use the prison appeals process.) We encourage tour. rehabilitative programs sur- PUP clerk Corey McNeil. they break the contract, they submitting articles that are newsworthy and encompass Their answers varied: “re- prised him. He said hearing “While in prison, I got my transfer to a higher-level pris- issues that will have an impact on the prison populace. form people,” “punishment” collegiate-level conversations GED but was stuck as far as on, which happens a lot. • Please do not use offensive language in your submissions. and “rehabilitation.” Khan seemed foreign. going further in my educa- With 90 percent of the • Poems and artwork (cartoons and drawings) are welcomed. told the group a tourist once Jody Lewen, executive tion. I needed more hands- incarcerated getting out of • Letters to the editor should be short and to the point. said, “That’s where we hide director of the Prison Uni- on teaching, and I got that at prison, Khan asked CZI, “So, the bad people.” versity Project (PUP), said PUP.” He added, “PUP didn’t how would you like them to Send Submissions to: Khan gave a short lec- giving incarcerated people save me. It fostered the stuff get out? Going through one San Quentin News ture about the challenges of a first-rate education helps that was naturally in me.” of these kinds of programs or 1 Main Street serving time in a maximum- the public in immeasurable Other PUP students said not?” San Quentin, CA 94964 For inmates that want to receive a copy of the San Quentin News in the mail, send $1.61 worth of stamps for postage Actor Danny Trejo escaped the death penalty to the above address.