A photograph taken seven years ago inside a shuttered youth facility has reunited a former incarcerated person with a trophy he won in 1987.
Photographer David Reeve has long been fascinated by the Hemen G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino. His grandfather worked at the facility in the 1960s.
After the facility closed, Reeve requested permission to photograph the rooms and buildings. Beginning in 2017, CDCR and the Division of Juvenile Justice granted permission. He published a series of photo essays, sharing photos, archival information, and first-person stories from former wards, officers, teachers, and staff.
“I make no money doing this,” he said.
Seven years passed when Tony Espinosa happened to come across the photo essays and spotted something on a couch in the lobby of one of the buildings. Espinosa, as a youth, was sentenced to the facility in 1983, convicted of first-degree burglary.
Already an amateur boxer in Oxnard, he quickly joined the institution’s boxing team and became the team captain.
According to Reeve, the California Athletic Commission sanctioned a boxing match inside the facility in 1987. The commission invited an undefeated San Francisco amateur fighter to go three rounds with Espinosa.
Superintendent Otis B. Brantley approved the plan, allowing Espinosa’s family to attend the fight and have a special dinner afterward.
The fight took place in the youth training school’s gymnasium. Espinosa won and was awarded the trophy. For safety reasons, the trophy was not allowed to be in the housing unit so was kept in the lobby of the administration building. Espinosa was released six months later.
The institution’s lobby is where the trophy remained for 37 years. After seeing the photo, Espinosa contacted Reeve, hoping to retrieve the trophy.
Photo sparks hunt for trophy
“After he contacted me, and we began a six-month mission to locate the trophy inside (facility) and return it to Tony,” Reeve said. “Through former staff members and help from CDCR staff, we were able to track down the trophy as it had been moved to various locations over the years.”
Then, they found it in June. A few months later, Espinosa, his family, and Reeve returned to the facility where they met Arthur Hatfield, with CDCR’s Facilities Planning, Contruction and Management. Hatfield, a construction supervisor II, presented Espinosa with his long-lost trophy.
“We went inside and escorted Tony to the boxing gym to take some additional photos,” Reeve said. “It’s a heart-warming story and Tony was thrilled CDCR would be so supportive.”
Revisiting where the boxing match happened
For Espinosa, this was an important trip.
“We came to this day, 37 years after the fight, and with David’s hard work and our hope, I’m sitting here holding the trophy right now,” he said. “My family, including many who were attending the fight, joined me in August 2024 to go back inside the boxing gym and get the trophy. It’s just absolutely unreal. It’s unbelievable. I can’t even feel myself right now. I feel like I’m sitting on a cloud.”
For Reeve, his hobby is becoming something of a mission.
“For staff, officers and wards, what they share in common is they were all locked inside these facilities together, coexisting under difficult circumstances,” he said. “These facilities hold powerful memories for everyone involved. As (some prisons and facilities) are closed, there is an opportunity to preserve what is held inside. It might have special meaning to someone who spent time there. I hope this project is only the beginning and I can continue to help them reclaim what is held inside.”
Photos by David Reeve. Story by Reeve and Don Chaddock, Inside CDCR editor.
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