CDCR recruiters and Native American spiritual leaders were on hand to answer questions and take part in the 57th annual Native American Day at the Capitol.
Community Resources Manager Martina Virrey, with CDCR’s Office of Policy Standardization, pitched in to help the Specialized Recruitment Unit at CDCR’s booth.
“We’ve had good turnout,” said Monique Jones. “We’re trying to let people know we have a lot of career opportunities in various fields. Food services? Construction? Pest control? CDCR does that. Each individual prison is essentially a city offering a wide range of career options.”
Learn more about CDCR careers on the website.
Passing culture on to younger people
At the Cultural Heritage Pavilion, retired CDCR Native American Spiritual Leader Eugene Albitre is still passing on knowledge to the next generation.
He is old-school when it comes to leather working and crafting. One of his pieces is a seven-gallon buffalo-hide pot used for cooking.
“You would get your meat, water, and other items in the pot, then pull hot stones out of the fire and drop them in. Three stones will get it to around 60 degrees while six stones will get it up to about 170 degrees. It’s the traditional Native American way of cooking and is something we’ve lost. You get a line of the buffalo-hide pots going, and soon you have enough to feed many people,” he explained.
As he’s gotten older, he said he wants to pass along the traditional leather-making methods he’s acquired over a lifetime.
“People come to me and ask about doing this with cow leather or something else but cows were introduced to North America. They are not native to this continent and don’t work well for these types of uses. I’m also a butcher so I’m with the animal from the beginning to the end-use,” Albitre said. “I really want to teach people how to do this the right way.”
CDCR Native American spiritual leaders are in demand
Native American Spiritual Leader Ted “Bear” Jackson has been with CDCR since 2007. Before joining the California prison system, he worked at a maximum-security prison in Ely, Nevada, as a correctional counselor II.
He said there are roughly a dozen prisons across California without Native American spiritual leaders and it’s something he hopes to change. He currently serves as the spiritual leader at California State Prison, Sacramento, and Folsom State Prison.
“I run the sweat lodges,” he said. “I build them, get them set up, make sure they are stocked with rocks and wood, doing all the little things to get them ready.”
He said some of the other chaplains, which is the job classification of the Native American spiritual leader, don’t understand the unique needs of those he helps.
What is a Native American spiritual leader?
CDCR currently employs approximately 125 chaplains from five different faith group classifications: Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Native American, and Protestant.
“Chaplains in these classifications attend to the various religious and spiritual need of (the population), oversee the religious programming and scheduling of all religious services, as well as provide crisis counseling and death notifications. The chaplain is also required to fulfill various administrative duties including processing of donations, interviewing (incarcerated individuals) for religious diets, attending meetings, and coordinating volunteers,” according to the CDCR website. “Religious services take place in facility chapels, Native American Sweat Lodge grounds, and on outside religious grounds.”
Jackson said his personal journey took years before he felt qualified to be a Native American spiritual leader.
“In order to pour sweat, it took about four years with the sun dance and vision quest,” he explained. “That’s how I do it but not everyone follows the same path.”
His advice for those seeking a state career as a spiritual leader is to know sweat-lodge protocol, relax, and be respectful of others.
“You don’t have to be buddies with the population but be honest with them,” Jackson said. “If you’re lying, they’ll know it. Do what you say you’re going to do and always follow-up with them.”
Story and photos by Don Chaddock, Inside CDCR editor
Interested Correctional Officer applicants can apply online at JoinCDCR.com.
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