San Quentin Radio

Eric "Maserati E" Abercrombie is a 25-year-old guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He's been in prison for eight years. In August, he’s due to get out.

A lockdown happens when correctional officers decide there is a threat to the safety and security of a prison. That might be a fight, an assault, or a race riot. So what's it like in a lockdown? 

Some inmates say food in a prison's chow hall is tasteless and bland. But that's not the case when John Parratt — also known as Yah-Yah — is in the kitchen.

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Chanthon Bun is one of the incarcerated men at San Quentin who escaped the regime of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia as a child. He shares his story with one of the reporters at San Quentin Radio.

From San Quentin Radio:

Cleo Cloman has spent over two decades behind bars for murder. He grew up in a two parent household and had dreams of playing professional baseball.  After a rocky relationship with his father, he lost his passion for the sport and found a new pursuit: the streets.

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Close to 4,000 inmates are incarcerated at San Quentin. They live in cells that are 48 square feet, and a little less than eight feet tall — most of them with a cellmate. From San Quentin Radio, here’s the story of a pair of cellmates who made the choice to live together, despite a mountain of obstacles.

From San Quentin Radio:

Back in the 90s, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR was trying to manage escalating violence behind prison walls. One way they decided to address that issue was by establishing something called Sensitive Needs Yards, or SNY, in order to separate out people who might need protective custody from the general prison population.

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In prisons across the United States, incarcerated people often separate themselves by race or ethnicity. Blacks hang with blacks, whites with whites, and so forth. But at San Quentin, people of all races participate in playing in a role-playing game called Dungeons and Dragons. They defy prison politics to share in a fun activity and also escape from the stress of the prison system.

From San Quentin Radio:

When people are sentenced to prison time in California, they’ll either serve a finite period, like, seven years, or an indefinite period. If they can demonstrate ‘good behavior’ in prison, incarcerated people can be eligible for a parole hearing to decide whether they might be released, with certain conditions. But, being approved for parole doesn’t mean someone gets to go straight home — there’s a catch.

From San Quentin Radio:

ROOTS — or Restoring Our Original True Selves — is a restorative justice program that helps Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders at San Quentin Prison address that intergenerational trauma. One incarcerated man shares his family’s story, and how the program helped him learn more about himself.

With San Quentin has dozens of self-help programs for inmates. But one man foregoes them all, creating his own form of therapy through feeding birds.

Getting a haircut can make a person feel good. For the men in San Quentin, it's no different. Some of the barbers are paid to cut hair. Others volunteer to do so. It can be a complex process, but it's important in the prison environment.

Autism is extremely hard to diagnose, because it can’t be tested for blood or genes. It’s a behavioral disorder. Often a parent or teacher has to notice the signs and request that a child is tested. Many people are living their lives without realizing they have autism. This includes people in prison.

Our friends in the San Quentin Media center — where San Quentin Radio, Ear Hustle, and other programs are produced — shared with us some songs of the holidays recorded at San Quentin State Prison. We thought you might like to take a listen.

Holidays can bring about complicated feelings for many inmates. There's no work or school at that time, so the men are given leisure time to relax, maybe watch TV, and some receive visits from family on Christmas day. But for others it's a painful reminder that they’re not able to spend time with those they love most.

Reporter Louis A. Scott talked with several members of San Quentin Media to see how they celebrated or avoided Christmas.

More than two-thirds of the inmates in California's state prisons are Latino or African American, according to the most recent census. More than 1,000 military veterans are admitted annually.

Throughout the prison system men are dying from incurable diseases. Sometimes these inmates are granted freedom through a program called Compassionate Release.

San Quentin, the historic prison on the edge of San Francisco Bay, confines about 3,800 inmates.

Ten years ago, a race riot shook San Quentin State Prison: civilians were evacuated, and prisoners put on lockdown. When the dust settled, a group of prisoners decided to make a change. They formed the Day of Peace Committee. Through open dialogue and the Annual Day of Peace Celebration, the group offers peace as an alternative to violence.

Today we have a rare opportunity to hear from the men in the San Quentin Wednesday Night Creative Writing Class, in a live storytelling event inside the prison's education center.

For people who are incarcerated, it can be hard to find a space to grieve a loved one's death. There's no funeral, and no family or friends by your side to help ease the pain.  Reporter Greg Eskridge interviews fellow inmates about ways that they've learned to grieve behind bars.

For the past six years, inmates and staff at San Quentin State Prison have raised $40,000 for the Avon Breast Cancer Foundation by holding walkathons inside the prison gates. SQPR reporter Earlonne Woods tells us why they walk.

Deaths by suicide in prison are rare, but when they happen they create shockwaves. Inmates need support with handling trauma, and in 2005, Dennis Pratt co-founded Brother’s Keepers, a support group that works with inmates to prevent suicide and help each other through crises.

Four thousand inmates are housed at San Quentin, a men’s prison in Marin County. Only a small handful of them identify as transgender.  Reporter Louis A. Scott has the story of how one of them learned to stand her ground.

The STEP Project (Sex Trafficking Exploitation Prevention Project) was started by Kathleen Jackson− a long time San Quentin volunteer − and me, Louis A. Scott.

ACT (Acting With Compassion And Truth) is a program designed to educate the San Quentin general population about the prison's LGBTQ community.

What do San Quentin and Silicon Valley have in common? Geographically they’re pretty close. But otherwise…they can seem pretty far apart.

When we're children we believe in magic but as you get older skepticism takes over. But it's a different story for people who run into The Cardman at San Quentin State Prison.

Mandi Hauwert is a correctional officer at San Quentin State Prison.  She's not the average correctional officer.  Hauwert is transgender.  She started working as a male officer inside the walls of San Quentin seven years ago.  Making such a transition is not easy even out in society. She tells us what it's like to transition while working inside a men's prison.