From the age of seven, I sometimes heard stories from family members about their job as correctional officers. I learned about the ways they dealt with people day-in and day-out. Situations were discussed as part gossip and part news reporting. Regardless, I recognized incarcerated individuals as more than a crime committed. Years later, I came to understand that popular representation of incarcerated individuals does not detach the person from the crime.
The difference between what really happens and popular perception means that change happens slowly in the criminal justice and prison system. This realization and stumbling upon your wonderful newspaper led to my thesis. A year ago, I wrote a thesis on the "San Quentin News," the newspaper of San Quentin State Prison. It meant a million things for me—the longest paper I have ever written, the most dedicated I had ever been to a subject, the most memorable experience of my college career- given to me by the staff of the newspaper. And so, I thank you.
Thank you to not only the "San Quentin News," but San Quentin itself, for all the amazing things you’re doing and the example your setting for prisons around the nation and the world.
After two years of researching prison newspapers and the "San Quentin News" in particular, I would like to give a personal thank you to the "San Quentin News" writers and staff. I am in constant admiration of the newspaper and the deliberate moves made to transform the conversation around prison and incarcerated individuals. From how the articles are structured throughout to the purposeful criticisms of the American prison system, your writing and forming of the paper is so intentionally crafted, creating a newspaper that explodes with meaning.
From the eyes of a student of writing, I believe the "San Quentin News" has transformed the traditional newspaper to one that doesn’t just report news, but creates an identity for its writers and the community the writers belong to.
Thank you for doing the work that you do in bringing to light issues, concerns, and accomplishments of the incarcerated men in San Quentin and around the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But, more personally - and I’m not sure “thank you” fully expresses how I feel—I’m forever grateful to your newspaper for introducing me to a field that I can spend hours and hours reading, learning, listening, talking about and never grow bored.
Prison education has become something that I’m incredibly eager to pursue and I have you, the men of San Quentin, to thank for that. Two or so years ago, I stumbled on something that literally changed my life and gave me the purpose I was searching for. If this is how I—someone who has not been incarcerated - feel about the newspaper, I can't imagine how the lives of those that are incarcerated within the CDCR are changed by these efforts.
My immense congratulations to a great and expanding newspaper that is consistently bringing forth “a voice for the voiceless.”
