San Quentin Rehabilitation Center is about to begin a new cultural transition. One of the big changes at the facility will target the way in which language is used.
Correctional officers are being directed to use words like incarcerated person or resident, rather than the word “inmate” for those under their custody and care.
Jesse Milo, who is incarcerated at the prison, said a language change is long overdue.
“The stigma attached to these labels gives people the perception that I’m an alien and that I don’t matter,” Milo said.
Growing up in Riverside in Southern California, Milo remembers being called many things – a delinquent, a gang member, thug, hoodlum, urban terrorist and even a super-predator. But what he doesn’t remember being called is a human being.
Today he sits in San Quentin with 174 years plus six life sentences under California’s three strikes law. After more than two decades inside, Milo said he sees labels like the word “inmate” as devices used to justify dehumanizing treatment.
“Labeling people as less than human justifies mistreatment, abuse and trauma and the denial of access to healing,” said Milo.
In 2022, New York had several state laws amended to remove the word “inmate” and replace it with “incarcerated person.”
“The word has a dehumanizing effect,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. “It can feel degrading being referred to as an inmate, especially in front of their families during in-person visits. If we are going to focus on rehabilitation in this state, language matters.”
Republican Assemblymember Chris Tague disagreed with Hochul, arguing that she and other Democrats are coddling criminals.
“Parading around a bill that removes the word ‘inmate’ from legal materials at a time when crime in New York continues to spike at an alarming rate shows you a lot about how misguided the Democrats’ agenda is,” Tague said.
But language matters, as researcher Caroline Warren points out.
“Individuals who cannot overcome the barriers associated with the criminal label almost always recidivate and return to incarceration,” wrote Warren in a study of the impact of labels at Bridgewater College.
According to a 2019 study on the impact of a felony conviction, published by the website Science Direct, “ex-offender labels were associated with negative stereotypes such as perceived dangerousness and incompetence. Participants in this study expressed more social distance toward ex-offenders compared to a worker with a mental illness.”
Stigmatizing labels have long proven to be counterproductive when it comes to formerly incarcerated people being able to get jobs, places to live and ultimately when it comes to lowering recidivism rates. This is a problem that those preparing for release fear most.
Raul Higgins has spent a quarter of a century in prison. He is now 65 years old and hopes to be released by the Board of Parole Hearings later this year.
“Because of my rehabilitative change I’d like to be called resident,” said Higgins.
“There’s this saying, ‘once an inmate, always an inmate,’” he said. “But resident, that recognizes my rehabilitation and normalizes me back into society.”
Over the last few years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has been transitioning away from use of the word “inmate”, choosing instead the term “incarcerated person.”
According to a 2023 memorandum from CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber, the organization is moving forward with a new California model. Four pillars will define this new model: dynamic security, normalization, peer mentorship and trauma-informed care. Healing will be a key feature of CDCR reform.
“The California model is a phrase used to describe a once in a lifetime reform effort in California prisons that draws on international best practices to change culture within CDCR,” according to their website. “The department is committed to improving working and living conditions for all who live in, work in, or visit state prisons.”
Macomber plans to align the new model with CDCR’s mission to enhance public safety and promote the successful reintegration of people back to their communities. He sees professional, positive and respectful communication between incarcerated individuals and prison staff as important to dynamic security.
Even telecommunications companies are getting in on this language change.
For almost 30 years, Global Tel Link (now ViaPath Technologies) referred to people in prison as inmates when delivering pre-recorded messages. As of June 16, ViaPath has changed its pre-recorded message from “You have a call from an inmate in a California correctional facility,” to “You have a call from an incarcerated individual,” aligning itself with Macomber’s California model.
Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, also successfully pushed legislation to eliminate punishment as a practice in CDCR prisons. Bonta authored Assembly Bill 1104, which became effective Jan. 1, 2024, to clarify that incarceration itself is the punishment.
“My bill calls for incarcerated individuals being afforded enhanced opportunities for restorative justice, trauma healing, education, and participation in community-based programming designed to assist in successful reintegration after release,” Bonta said in a press release.
Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, formerly incarcerated people have found little success in finding employment, according to a 2022 report by the Prison Policy Initiative think tank.
“Formerly incarcerated people face alarming rates of joblessness,” the report concludes. The idea of punishment ending at the prison gate is still a ways off.
But AB 1104’s clarification that incarceration satisfies the punishment purpose of sentencing, leaves many hopeful that the stigmatizing effects of incarceration and re-entry will change for the better.
For example, ViaPath is now advertising jobs to formerly incarcerated individuals. CEO Deb Alderson has a family member who experienced incarceration. Under her leadership, ViaPath launched an expanded reentry service program focused on providing second chances to returning citizens.
Urban Alchemy is a nonprofit organization that is also at the forefront of providing jobs to the formerly incarcerated to help them find a sense of dignity and purpose and to help lower recidivism rates.
CEO Lena Miller said she prefers hiring the formerly incarcerated.
“Rehabilitation is important but there also has to be empathy and compassion,” said Milo. “Stigmatizing labels prevent second chances.”
At the time he was speaking, an officer announced on the prison yard’s loudspeaker, “Incarcerated resident Rodriquez please report back to your housing unit.”
“Did he just say what I thought he did?” Milo asked, smiling.