A seat at the table

When Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would be transforming San Quentin State Prison into a rehabilitative haven, he envisioned renowned experts flying in from across the world to help develop his plan. What the governor got is a group of incarcerated people living inside San Quentin who weren’t provided a seat at the table.

The People In Blue (TPIB) is a group of incarcerated stakeholders largely responsible for the recommendations laid out in a 156-page report released by the San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council. 

The People in Blue group of 12 — of which I am a member — represents a contingent of incarcerated people who want our voices to be part of the governor’s plan to transform San Quentin. If the governor and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation formally adopt the San Quentin transformation plan, it will be the first time in California history that incarcerated people actively participated in creating a viable and actionable plan for prison reform. 

On Jan. 8, advisory council co-chairs Ron Broomfield, director of CDCR’s Division of Adult Institutions, and Dr. Brie Williams from University of California, San Francisco visited San Quentin with three other council members – Doug Bond of Amity Foundation, Jesse Vasquez of Pollen Initiative and Scott Budnick of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition.

The council members came to celebrate the successful contributions of staff, TPIB and others. Bond also paid for salad, sandwiches and drinks from Panera for both prison staff and the incarcerated population to enjoy.

“This wouldn’t be happening if people working and living here were not dedicated to how we are going to move forward,” said Bond.

Bond along with co-chairs Broomfield and Williams took to the Protestant chapel stage and presented the 10 main ideas from their report to a mixed crowd of staff and the incarcerated.

“Thank you all so much,” said Williams. “This was not a consensus report. We decided we wanted to bring in a lot more ideas from staff, incarcerated people, various prisons and anyone else who wanted to talk to us.”

“This report is your ideas brought to fruition,” she said.

TPIB’s formal communication with the advisory council began on June 9. A dozen San Quentin residents dressed in blue CDCR clothing formed a circle in San Quentin’s Protestant chapel. 

The group discussed what is needed to transform San Quentin into a Norwegian-style prison model that prioritizes the health and wellness of prison staff and incarcerated people. 

Present at the initial meeting were Broomfield (then the warden of San Quentin), the prison’s chief executive officer Rhonda Litt, chief medical executive Dr. Alison Pachynski and Vasquez, who is one of a few formerly incarcerated people on the governor’s council. 

The ensuing conversation lasted two hours. TPIB and advisory council members discussed plans for San Quentin’s transformation and then had a town hall for the greater prison population.

TPIB is a name intended to symbolize all incarcerated stakeholders who wish to have a voice in the transformation, for not only Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQRC), but also the proposed California Model, which is intended to bring a touch of Scandinavia to all California prisons. 

The purpose of TPIB is to make its best effort to examine and compile the concerns of the many incarcerated in California’s prison system, and then to present and advocate for those concerns with one collective voice. Together, the diverse group of 12 has over 200 years of lived carceral experience. Many are lifers, who stand to gain or lose the most from a San Quentin and system-wide transformation.

“Our plan is to work with all stakeholders at San Quentin and the administration to ensure that all segments of the population have a voice in this process,” said Arthur Jackson, president of TPIB. “For us, this is about making something right out of the wrongs of our own past  crimes and about  increasing public safety.”

At the meeting, the TPIB members laid out 10 recommendations about what change is possible right now for San Quentin as well as the entire California prison system. We discussed the need to reduce the population, provide single-celled housing, cleaner living conditions, better nutrition, making rehabilitation mandatory and providing greater rehabilitative program access, among other ideas. 

One of TPIB’s most pressing concerns is the fate of the indeterminately sentenced  (“lifer”) population with respect to SQRC. 

Many lifers have served 25, 30 and some more than 40 years. It is they who have been most impacted by the toxic prison culture Gov. Newsom spoke about at his press conference on March 17, 2023. Lifers are also the foundation of San Quentin’s rehabilitative success.

Although many lifers are “violent offenders,” it is this group that has the lowest recidivism rate in California, according to CDCRs 2017 Outcome Evaluation Report. It is they who often return to society, and who are able to live productive lives.

“A ‘lifer’ is called upon to manage and balance the entire prison ecosystem to make everyone’s life better, at the expense of her own quality of life,” said Tomiekia Johnson of the Central California’s Women’s Facility, who wrote a letter to TPIB.

The San Quentin advisory council’s report said, “Lifers are a stabilizing force in the prison setting, as they are among those most invested in the prison community’s long term wellbeing. Lifers also provide crucial mentorship for the rest of the population.”

Lifers are the ones who create many of the effective rehabilitative programs the governor mentioned during his historic March 17 announcement. These programs include San Quentin’s media center, the San Quentin News, Ear Hustle, The Light Keepers program and Mount Tamalpais College. Much of the success of each of these programs is attributable to the efforts of the lifer population. 

It is one of the great ironies of prison reform history in California that the group with the lowest rate of recidivism is the group consistently barred from participating in the benefits of reforms. Lifers are under the greatest threat of being removed from the envisioned  rehabilitation center because legislators and prison officials traditionally define lifers as “high risks” to public safety.

Violent offenders have been carved out of every reform effort since CDCR decided to re-house lower-level offenders in county jails, a move also known as “realignment,” in 2011. Likewise, violent offenders have been carved out of every reform effort meant to reduce the massive prison population in California. These reforms have favored younger, lower-level offenders with higher rates of recidivism. 

TPIB has advocated for lifers to remain at San Quentin since the governor’s announcement. Right now the population of lifers hovers around 36 percent, according to the advisory council report. While we recommend 40 to 50 percent of the population, the council has recommended 25 to 35 percent.

As SQRC is yet undefined, it’s unclear what the numbers will be, but The People In Blue are encouraged by the recommendations set forth to at least have some foundation of lifers remain at the facility. We hope the governor and CDCR will follow this recommendation.

TPIB believes it will be beneficial to not only keep lifers in the facility for foundational purposes, but also because many have aged out of crime and have been rehabilitated.

 They are now pillars in the prison community and can take those same skills back to the communities that need them most.

“CCWF lifers see themselves as valuable commodities on a plantation rather than as human beings,” said Johnson. “Slave wages and ridiculously long sentences suggest our skill set is being exploited to our disadvantage.” 

In this moment of racial reckoning it is also imperative for the voices of the mostly Black and brown people, steadily aging in California’s cages, to have their voices heard at last. Even victims rights groups, like the Alliance for Safety and Justice, support this new transformation plan. Gov. Newsom and CDCR must consider incarcerated voices in order to achieve real reform. It’s time for the incarcerated population to be given a seat at the table.

“We want to extend a special thanks to The People In Blue. Keep up the good work,” said Broomfield, closing out the town hall.