On any given day 200,000 people are locked up in solitary confinement. 80% of these individuals are people of color and 60% are mentally ill.
At California’s Pelican Bay prison over 1100 of the 3400 inmates are currently in held solitary confinement in the section of the prion know as the Security Housing Units (SHUs). Over 500 of these individuals have served 10 or more years in the SHU, and 78 have been in the SHU for 20 or more years.
Each SHU is a small, eight foot by eight foot cement prison cell with no windows. Everything is gray and concrete – the bed, the walls, the the unmovable stool - except the “combination” stainless-steel sink and toilet.
Each SHU cell is one of eight in a long hallway. From inside, you can’t see anyone or any of the other cells. This is where the inmate eats, sleeps and exists for 22 1/2 hours a day. He spends the other 1 1/2 hours alone in a small concrete yard.
Pelican Bay is not the only prison in California that institutes this kind of punishment. In fact the state is now holding more inmates in solitary confinement than ever before. Today, approximately 3,238 people are detained in these units across the state. In 1995, a US court held that conditions in the Pelican Bay SHU “may press the outer bounds of what humans may psychologically tolerate”.
Hunger Strike
Protests over SHU conditions started with a three-week hunger strike at Pelican Bay in July . The protesters have called themselves “the buried class”. In the past couple of weeks nearly 12,000 prisoners at other penal institutions have joined the hunger strike, according to prison officials. Among them were prisoners from Californians incarcerated out of state in Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma who joined the strike in a powerful act of solidarity.
There’s a notion with many people that the worst of the worst are put in Pelican Bay,” says Manuel La Fontaine, an organizer with All of Us or None, “but I’ve got news for people: the worst of the worst is Pelican Bay.”
Harvard psychiatrist Stuart Grassian, an expert on the effects of solitary confinement, state in a 60-minute interview that isolation is state-sanctioned torture. “In some ways,’ said Grassian, “it feels to me ludicrous that we have these debates about capital punishment when what happens in Pelican Bay is a form of punishment that’s far more egregious.”
Striking inmates are pressing a list of five demands — an end to group punishments; an end to a “debriefing” policy that requires an inmate to identify fellow gang members in exchange for getting out of solitary confinement; an end to long-term solitary confinement; adequate and nutritious food; and greater privileges for prisoners confined to isolation indefinitely.
Pelican Bay is hundreds of miles from home for most people inside the prison, further isolating them from their families, friends and communities. That the authorities deny inmates the right to make a phone call home or send a photo of themselves to their loved ones once a year is indicative of a system that damages not just the person inside prison, but their communities as well.
Despite the worsening medical condition of the hunger strikers, Governor Jerry Brown and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are refusing to meet their demands. Prisoners in the general population who support the strike have been transferred to solitary confinement and family visits have been cancelled.
In the face of retaliation, hunger strikers seem determined to continue on. The authorities are now responding to the strike by threatening to use forced feeding. This involves the use of mechanical restraints, shoving a the nasal gastric feeding tube up the nose, and then putting the hunger strikers in a holding cell to ensure digestion. The brutality of this policy, and knowing that it will be done repeatedly, however, has not stopped stirkers. They know they are up against it. They know that they must make changes here and now – or never.
San Quentin is the oldest, and as the press likes to say, most notorious prison in California. It is also one of the most progressive prisons thanks to the over 70 volunteer programs currently operating at the facility. These programs are organized and funded by private citizens, and provide inmates the opportunity to earn a college degree, receive counseling and spiritual support, and obtain job skills.
Recently a new program called The Last Mile was started at San Quentin to help prepare inmates to start their own business after release. While other entrepreneur programs, such as the Prison Entrepreneurship Project, have similar goals, the Last Mile program is unique in that it focuses on business opportunities within the Silicon Valley technology sector.
Given the severe job discrimination faced by ex-offenders and the current state of the economy, many experts in the reentry field beleive the best change for prisoners to make it on the outside is to start a business. Entrepreneurship is not without risk, but the Last Mile helps increase the chance of success by providing program participants in-depth technical training not available to most prisoners. With the burgeoning number of start-ups now launch on the web, such training is invaluable.
Most inmates are already entrepreneurs, because most of them are in jail for selling drugs. They have the entrepreneurial spirit already. What they need is guidance to put these skills into something positive. That’s where programs like the Last Mile fit in. There goal is to find and train those inmates who are going to get out and want to be productive citizens.
Currently, there are 7 men enrolled in the initial launch of the Last Mile program. All of them are enrolled in or have graduated from the Prison University Project, an accredited college program at San Quentin that offers an associate degree. Their stories, posted on the Last Mile blog, provide some grime details of their past and illustrate the amazing strides they are making to turn their lives around, against tough odds.
The Start-up Model
The Last Mile has developed a unique model for training inmates to become entrepreneurs in the technology field. This model is built around the following five topics:
Understanding the Evolving Digital Marketplace: Provide participants with extensive background on how technology has changed over the last 10 years and how to utilize technology for personal and professional development.
Building a Business Knowledge Base: Provide participants with a solid background in business, personal growth, and business inspiration.
Practical Technology Training: Provide participants with basic computer training in the critical software tools that are utilized in today’s business sector.
Interaction with Outside Experts: Participants meet with invited experts in the technology field to gain further insights on how to make a living in tthis sector.
Building the Dream: Business Participants learn how to transform an idea into a business plan and present that plan to potential investors.
Ultimately, the training is designed to give inmates the opportunity to learn important technical skills, formulate a business idea and prepare a presentation to effectively communicate their idea to a prospective business partner. The final session of the course includes business presentations by the participants to an invited guest of outside experts.
The Last Mile program is another example of a volunteer program created by private citizens who are willing to share their technical skills to help prisoners successfully return to society. As states continue to slash budgets for rehabilitation programs, it is the goodwill of volunteers such as these that may one day help reduce California’s high recidivism rate and help bring an end to the era of mass incarceration.
Organic gardening programs are “sprouting” up in prisons around the country to help teach prisoners how to grow and harvest their own food. These programs are having a surprising effect on helping participants re-connect with themselves and develop a larger understanding of their connection to the world around them.
The Insight Garden Program at San Quentin is one such organization that is really making a difference in inmates lives. IGP provides inmates with practical gardening and landscaping skills on a 1,200-square foot organic garden located within the prison walls. Up close the gardens are truly inspirational. Compared to the crumbling prison structure that houses the 5,500 inmates at San Quentin, the IGP gardens are a bit of heaven on earth.
By working with skilled horticulturist, the inmates are taught interpersonal qualities of responsibility, discipline, mindfulness, and respect for the earth and one another. The idea is to combined organic gardening and life skills training to help participants gain self respect and pride in their work – important qualities for breaking the cycle of incarceration.
So far it appears the results of the program has been extremely positive. Participants I’ve meet claim the work is transformative and gives them greater respect for the natural world. They seem to be truly proud of the garden’s impact on the physical environment and social climate of the prison yard. Ultimately, IGP hopes this program will translate to successful reentry for ex-offenders and thus help reduce recidivism.
Gardening Projects Expand Outside the Walls
In San Francisco, the Gardening Project is carrying out a similar mission, while expanding their work to include programs for ex-offenders outside the prison walls.
The Garden Project began as a horticulture program for prisoners at the San Francisco County Jail in 1982, training prisoners in organic farming and landscaping while growing food to be donated to local communities. Today, the Project pools the resources and needs of local businesses and government agencies to impact local physical environment in the communities, all while paying participants a living wage.
Former prisoners are employed at theProject’s 12-acre organic farm, and involves them in a number of environmental maintenance and urban beautification projects. In addition to its thorough job training and counseling programs, they also help their employees attain their GED (graduate from high school) and attend courses at local community colleges. Food grown at the farm is donated to local food banks, helping seniors and families in the impoverished neighborhoods from which the participants come.
Community Impacts
One of the greatest successes of the Garden Project is the reduction of crime and reduced recidivism rates in San Francisco. Participants in the post-release program are 25% less likely to return to jail than those that do not participate. Because of their success, the Garden Project has been hailed as “one of the most innovative and successful community-based crime prevention programs in the country” by the US Department of Agriculture.
The Garden Project has two major post-release programs for ex-offenders:
The Market Garden Program trains individuals in landscaping and gardening at two sites located on Carroll Street in Hunter’s Point and at The San Francisco County Jail. Participants are paid to work a 32-hour workweek during which they learn to cultivate and harvest a variety of organic vegetables and herbs. Part of each harvest is sold at the weekend Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, to Bay Area restaurants, and to local specialty supermarkets. Much of the produce is also donated to local senior centers, family centers, and homeless shelters.
The second post-release project is the Tree Corps. Members of this group plant and maintain street trees in San Francisco neighborhoods such as the Mission, Western Addition, and Hunter’s Point. Tree Corps participants receive training from Department of Public Works employees in tree planting and maintenance, and are paid to work 32-hour weeks.
Expanding Gardening Programs for Prisoners
The Garden Project is the best known and most comprehensive prison garden program in North America. But it is not alone. A number of other prison garden programs have sprouted across the country, including a massive collaboration across 28 state institutions in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin prison gardens have yielded as much as 75,000 pounds of produce per year, donating a quarter of that to local food banks.
Since 2008, the Garden Project has also assisted local gardening programs in rural India by coordinating seed donations.
The video below documents another of the many gardening programs in America, this one located at Cook County Jail in Illinois. The program began in 1993 and since its inception more than 500 inmates have participated and over 63 tons of food has been harvested. The garden is operated at no cost to taxpayers, as the jail’s Department of Community Supervision and Intervention utilizes inmate welfare funds – profits generated off jail commissary sales – to begin each year’s crop and for construction of the greenhouse. As the Cook County Jail’s gardening program continues to grow, the goal is to eventually make it completely self-sustaining.
The San Quentin college program fall semester begins August 31st and I am looking forward to co-teaching statistics again at the prison. I have been completely impressed by the quality of students who have taken my course in the past. Their desire to better themselves under extremely difficult circumstances is an inspiration.
What is amazing about San Quentin’s college program, which is run by the Prison University Project (PUP), is that it relies solely on volunteers to teach over 20 courses per semester. Most volunteers are graduate students or faculty from the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, and other local colleges and universities, so the teaching quality is impressive.
One of the core commitments of PUP is to provide a high-quality level education, not just a diploma mill. Teachers do not customize their classes to make it easier for inmates. Incarcerated students are held to the same academic standards as conventional undergraduates at any community college. This approach is obviously working because the waiting list to enroll in classes is about 100 inmates.
The program at San Quentin is a rare bright spot in a dismal era for California’s overcrowded prisons, which consume more than $8 billion annually. As a member of the volunteer teaching core, I feel I’m part of a larger effort to help create opportunities for prisoners to earn a college degree and hopefully have a better chance of making it on the outside.
College Prison Programs in the USA
The actual number of college prison programs around the country is essential unknown.
Most programs started by individual faculty members at colleges and universities who visited prisons and became convinced that this is where higher education is most needed. Somehow, they had persuaded their institution to sponsor, to different extents and in different ways, a prison college program.
During the conference, two themes emerged. First, surprise that prisoners are not only a pleasure to teach compared to college students on the outside, but also talented and often brilliant.This has certainly been my experience at PUP.
The second theme was more ominous: To do the work of educating prisoners in the United States, it is necessary to “fly under the radar.” Just one misstep or piece of bad luck—one legislator publicly complaining about college education wasted on criminals, one guards’ union rep griping that criminals are running the prison system, just one individual who commits a horrific crime—can put a highly successful prison program out of business overnight.
Yet in spite of these odds college prison programs appear to be growing. It’s a tribute to the number of inmates that are trying to change their lives and leaders like Jody Lewen who has run the San Quentin college program for over a decade,
Thousands of men and women left prison with college degrees and a chance at a better life. And in those days, even though crime rates were higher than they are today, people generally believed that men and women who served a prison sentence had paid their “debt to society” and earned a second chance.
But life in today’s prisoner is very different in America. Pell Grants for prisoners, once the backbone of prison college programs, are long gone—banned by Congress in 1994, even though grants to prisoners made up only 0.5 percent of Pell Grants.
State legislators generally felt that the feds hadn’t gone far enough in removing the “perks” of imprisonment, and so most states outlawed the use of tax dollars on higher education for prisoners.
The end of the prison college system is just another casualty of three decades of tough-on-crime legislation.
The truth is that taxpayers were repaid many times over by those who earned college degrees in prison, since only 12 to 33 percent of them reoffended compared to a national recidivism rate of nearly 70 percent.
Moving Forward
As the beginning of the college semester approaches, I am again reminded of how lucky I am to have the opportunity to teach at San Quentin. I’m particularly thankful to Jody Lewen and the staff at PUP. Their dedication to building a quality educational institution at San Quentin has given many volunteers the chance to be part of something special.
But I am also reminded that there is not a single college program at any of the other 32 state prisons in California. Many of these prisons are in remote locations where the resources for building a volunteer program are lacking. Why the government continues to take such a hands off approach to furthering the education of incarcerated men is a mystery, given the strong correlation between education level and successful reentry.
One way to help provide greater opportunities for inmate would be to reinstate the Pell Grants for prison program. Any program that has the potential to cut the recidivism rate in half will not only more than pay for itself, but also free up an immense amount of capital to fund the education of our children.
The Safe Return Project, a research and action initiative led by a group of formerly incarcerated Richmond residents, has just published a survey on the major problems ex-offenders in their community face reintegrating into society. Not surprising, the barriers to reentry are stark. While the focus of the report is on Richmond, the results most likely representative the realities of most urban communities in California.
The report ends by making 4 key recommendations for improving reintegration after incarceration. These recommendations may help provide a road map for other urban centers who must deal with the increased influx of ex-offenders schedule to be paroled as a result of the recent Supreme Court ruling on prison overcrowding.
Lack of rehabilitation programs in prisons
The Safe Return Project (SRP) survey found that more than half of all ex-offenders they interviewed had not benefited from a single training or support program while they were incarcerated. Twenty-nine percent had participated in a substance abuse program, and less 22% received any kind of educational, employment or life skills training.
The lack of rehabilitation programs in California’s prisons is disturbing given that 95% of all prisoners will eventually be released. The State of California has dramatically slashed their prison rehabilitation budget over the past 4 years to the point that almost all rehab programs are run purely by volunteers. In places where there are many volunteers, like San Quentin, there are a range of programs, but in most prisons there is little help available. In rural areas like Tehachapi, or in prisons that do not have a thriving volunteer base, counseling, education, and reentry services are simply not available.
The level of preparation that prisoners receive while incarcerated greatly affects their chances of succeeding on the outside. Right now, most prisoners coming home are simply provided a bus ticket and often return in the slippers and clothes the prison issued them. That is the extent of the help they get from a system that is willing to spend up to $50,000 to keep them locked up. If they are coming from state prison, they get $200 to cover transportation home and a few nights lodging. County and federal facilities provide even less money and often no resources for transition.
Housing
Like many urban areas, there are no affordable housing programs in Richmond for people transitioning from prison. After release, if an ex-offender cannot rely on family and friends and does not have a job, their only option for housing is a homeless shelter. In Richmond, there is not enough room in shelters to house its current homeless population, so new paroles often end up on the streets or have to go to another city to find shelter.
The SRP found that after almost 70% of ex-offenders they interviewed were essentially homeless, even after they had been out of prison for up to 18 months. The primary reason for the high homelessness rate, as you might expect, was financial in nature with 86% claiming they could not come up with enough money for a deposit and rent. However, almost half of those who were unable to find housing said discrimination had been major factor barrier, while slightly less said they were not eligible for affordable housing programs.
Employment
Employment is widely recognized as critical to becoming a fully contributing member of the community, yet unemployment among formerly incarcerated people is extremely high. While the unemployment numbers in Richmond for ex-offenders are especially dismal, there is no reason to believe they are any worse in other urban communities in California.
The SRP found that 78% of ex-offenders in their survey were unemployed. This is more than four times the unemployment rate in Richmond and six times the state rate. Of those who were employment, about half had a job in the first two months after release. For those who are unemployed, they typically rely on family, friends, and programs to meet their needs or are going without.
For people with a record, barriers to gaining employment go far beyond the heightened competition of the current economic climate. Some of these barriers are inevitable, such time away from the workforce, however discrimination by employers plays a far larger role in limiting employment opportunities.
National studies have found widespread employer discrimination against ex-offenders, with 60% of employers indicating they would definitely not or probably not hire someone with a record. A national study this year found blanket “need not apply” policies, with some of the largest employers in the country telling applicants with a past conviction or arrest they should not even apply.
Recommendations
The results listed above are just a few of the statistics outlined in the SRP report. Other areas of concern include lack of services to provide food, acquire a valid ID, obtain medical assistance, assist with transportation, and provide child support services.
Based on their findings, the Safe Return team developed the following recommendations for improving reintegration after incarceration.
Establish medium-term housing program and connection services for residents recently released from incarceration. An example of such a program is the MOMS program in Oakland for recently returned mothers.
Ban the Box: Dozens of other cities, counties, and states have removed the question about criminal history from job applications. Asking this question should only be permitted after the employer has determined that the applicant is otherwise qualified.
Create a one-stop referral service for ex-offenders where individuals can go to get accurate up to date information on existing reentry services, medical and counseling assistance, job placement training, and contact information on employers hiring ex-offenders.
Facilitate regular community meetings of formerly incarcerated people to provide mutual support for developing and implementing a personal plan for success. People who have been through the process of re-entry have critical insight into what it takes to help their peers succeed in reintegrating back into society.
The recommendations made by the SRP are not only sensible, but perhaps necessary if urban areas are to coop with the mandated oncoming influx of released prisoners. Otherwise, these individuals will simply end up on the streets, out of work and likely back behind bars. This is an outcome that neither the communities where they are paroled nor the state can afford.
Richmond’s Paroles’ up against it
The following video is a rather sensationalized media portrayal of life in Richmond, but shows the kind of conditions paroles must overcome to make it on the outside. The ever-growing population of ex-offenders continues to be an onerous burden on the state’s sagging financial condition and why funding for the type of organizations recommended by the Safe Return Project and other reentry groups are so vital.
It’s hard for anyone to find a job these days, and if you’ve spent time behind bars, it’s even more difficult.
Today, there are more than 13 million ex-prisoners living in the United States who struggle to find work because of their criminal past. Research shows the best way to keep them from landing behind bars again, at a cost of untold billions to taxpayers, is to hire them.
Without employers who are willing to give them job opportunities, however, the chances of ex-offenders staying out of jail are slim.
Unfortunately, most business owners are reluctant to give them a shot because of concerns about thief and lawsuits over negligent hiring.
There are exceptions to this rule and a number of companies are even finding it can makes good business sense to hire an ex-offender.
Felony Franks and Electronic Recyclers International are examples of businesses that are helping to make a difference in the lives of previously incarcerated persons. They are a part of a growing number of entrepreneurs who see the upside of giving former prisoners a second chance.
Felony Franks
Chicago paper company owner Jim Andrews has hired dozens of ex-offenders in his 14 years in the business. He encourages other employers not to make a snap judgment based on the fact that someone served jail time.
As Andrews stated in a BusinessNewsDaily,
“There are a lot of good people that are coming out of prison. Let’s not brand these people and make it harder for them. The ones that want to stay out of jail and make a better life for themselves just work harder. They don’t want to go back and sit in prison.”
Impressed by the ex-offenders he hired, Andrews opted to build an entire business around them. He launched Felony Franks in Chicago in 2009. The hot dog stand has a menu featuring items like the “Misdemeanor Weiner” and “Pardon Polish.”
At the grand opening, Congressman Danny Davis was there to cut the “police line” ribbon and ordered the first hot dog. While there was originally some controversy over the name, it has long died down and the restaurant has gone on to become a rousing success.
In fact it has been so successful that Andrews is attempting to expand around the country, creating jobs for more ex-offenders.
Electronic Recyclers International
CEO John Shegerian has been providing jobs to ex-offenders for nearly 20 years, and, like Andrews, sees it as a good investment.
His company, Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) is the largest electronics recycler in North America and currently employs about 60 ex-offenders. ERI specializes in the environmentally safe and socially responsible dismantling of electronic waste.
Shegerian believes that hiring workers who know they can’t afford to slip up usually pays off for his business.
1. Their work ethic is bar none and provides a great example to all employees of how hard they should be working.
2. They have great transferable skills. If you take the skills that got them into trouble in the first place, and use them for a legitimate business venture, everyone wins.
3. They have lower turnover rates than the general population, because they know this may be their last chance.
4. It is the right thing to do for local communities.
5. It gives small business owners the chance to do something great and impactful in the world.
Companies like Felony Franks and and ERI show that big and small businesses can play a positive role in helping ex-offenders integrate back into society.
Imagine what would happen to our recidivism rates, gang participation rates, crime rates and drug abuse rates if every business in the US opened their doors and their hearts to hire just one ex offender.
They would change our communities for the better forever.
