Sharing stories and videos from media and community partners that highlight the transformational work being done in California prisons and communities.
January 2024
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in California is testing a new model aimed at rehabilitation in hopes to lower violence behind bars and cut down the rate of reoffending. NBC’s Steve Patterson visited a Valley State Prison.
ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language channel, filmed a friendly soccer match between staff and incarcerated people at the Correctional Training Facility. The event is expected to be included in an upcoming documentary.
Roy is an English Professor at California State University, Los Angeles, who has been so moved by incarcerated people’s stories that he has made it his mission to offer them the spaces and services they need to get back into the world.
Newsom announced plans in March to convert the 171-year-old North Bay prison from a maximum-security lockup to a rehabilitation and education center that would focus on preparing incarcerated people for their return to civilian life.
Converting a state prison into a rehabilitative center, as the Newsom administration seeks to do with San Quentin, means changing how officers do their jobs. An advisory panel is overseeing the conversion of San Quentin.
December 2023
Is change possible for a person whose emotional landscape is dominated by hurting others and being hurt themselves? How, locked up with thousands of people who have bounced between being victim and victimizer, do you even begin?
Incarcerated people across the US have launched newspapers. Writers behind bars have earned mainstream placements, including the New York Times, New Yorker and Washington Post. One San Quentin podcast was a finalist for a Pulitzer.
Professors from the College of Health and Human Services weekly met in a circle of approximately 17 prisoners incarcerated for various violent crimes to help them “make amends for the harm they caused and desist from further harmful behaviors.
San Francisco 49ers players visited San Quentin Rehabilitation Center to engage with the incarcerated community and hold valuable discussions about social justice.
Folsom State Prison hosted its first ever Program Fair at the institution according to CDCR. The event aimed to provide incarcerated individuals with valuable information about opportunities available within the prison community.
Insight Garden Program is dedicated to offering healing gardening spaces, environmental education, landscape training, and reentry stabilization services within California state prisons.
This is the first time I’ve ever had a laptop. I’m currently enrolled in one of the first bachelor’s degree programs inside California prisons. The program is offered by California State University, Los Angeles, and the laptop is one of its perks.
November 2023
Take a look at race segregation inside prison, recidivism and whether education is the key to reform. Hear from men who served decades in prison – and how San Quentin became a place of redemption for them. Plus, we’ll take a look at Governor Newsom’s plan to transform San Quentin from a prison to a rehabilitation center.
Graduates from one of the most unusual community colleges in the country will soon receive guaranteed admission if they choose to transfer to the California State University system. The nation’s largest public university system is developing a new college transfer program with Mount Tamalpais College at San Quentin.
Steve Durham was one of about a dozen members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., or CCPOA, who let me tag along with them to Norway recently. They were there to see firsthand what all the hype is when it comes to the so-called Scandinavian model of incarceration, which California hopes to import in coming months.
Luke Scott is one of 33 students enrolled in what the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR, has called a “groundbreaking” two-year master’s program in humanities, a collaboration with Cal State Dominguez Hills that launched in September.
For the first time at San Quentin, the correctional officers played the prisoners in a game of basketball. The game was titled “Bridge the Gap.” It’s part of a larger change coming to San Quentin. It was once a full maximum security prison but will be transformed into more of a rehab facility. The goal is to promote positive interactions between the residents and staff.
Christine Yoo’s documentary “26.2 to Life” shares the story of a group of San Quentin incarcerated people — all of them serving long sentences — who find camaraderie, solace and hope for the future through a simple, yet thoroughly character-building, activity — running.
October 2023
The CDCR Executive Leadership Institute (ELI), developed in 2017, prepares state corrections executives to be decisive, effective, visionary leaders, and champions of change. ELI is a four-week program taught over four months. Participants are nominated by their supervisors to attend the professional development program.
I’m a weekly volunteer teacher at San Quentin, helping prisoners learn literacy and reading comprehension in preparation to get a GED. Approximately 68% of the 3,787 people incarcerated at San Quentin do not have a high school education. It’s not a hard stretch to imagine the role that plays in the high recidivism rate once prisoners get released. Who can possibly get a job with a prison record and little to no education?
California State Prison Solano, California Medical Facility and Folsom State Prison are part of a “farm to corrections” project, Harvest of the Month, which aims to serve seasonal, locally grown produce to people who are incarcerated in California, while opening new opportunities for California farmers.
| The Observer
In naming his San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council, Gov. Gavin Newsom chose individuals with experience and unique perspectives. The 21-member council is charged with “reimagining” the state’s oldest prison into one better focused on rehabilitation. It will provide recommendations and a plan to “bring transformational programmatic, cultural and physical change that can serve as a symbol of hope and change.”
Almost every Saturday, Angela Ramirez, also known as “Spiñorita,” goes to California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in the Inland Empire to lead a DJing class. She’s a teaching artist with the nonprofit Give A Beat in Laguna Beach. Their mission: Use music to heal people impacted by the criminal justice system. Spiñorita talks about her journey with KCRW’s Janaya Williams on All Things Considered.
Earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom announced an ambitious goal to transform San Quentin State Prison into the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. The hope is for this to be a first step towards a bigger change throughout the prison system in California. We’re kicking off the third season of Uncuffed with a story about one unlikely step toward this change — it involves nets, sweatbands, and paddles.
As part of the Restorative Justice Program, which began in 2016, Southwestern College faculty provide face-to-face instruction to incarcerated students. Since its inception, Southwestern College has served more than 1,500 students at the Donovan Correctional Facility.
Sacramento State professor Dr. Ernest Uwazie teaches criminal justice and serves as director of the university’s Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution. He’s also leading a transformative restorative justice training program. The program trains people to facilitate meetings between victims and their offenders and prepares both for face-to-face interaction.
Hoping to transform the lives of San Quentin prisoners through the healing power of music, longtime San Francisco vocal coach Essence Goldman has embarked on a new mission. Through her nonprofit organization, Believe Music Heals, Goldman plans to introduce a program of musical training and performance within the prison walls of California’s oldest penitentiary.
More than 20 students taking classes through Southwestern College will graduate Wednesday with associate’s degrees in sociology and liberal arts, but they won’t be on campus to receive their diplomas. That’s because they are incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
September 2023
UC ANR’s Nutrition Policy Institute has partnered with Impact Justice, ChangeLab Solutions, and CDCR to launch “Harvest of the Month,” a program which brings fresh, specialty produce into carceral institutions around California to improve the diets of incarcerated people, as well as improve their overall health and well-being.